Kai Ryssdal on 'where all the money is coming from'
Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal teamed with Frontline as a special correspondent, to investigate campaign finance in tonight's episode "Big Sky, Big Money."
“The reason we’re seeing all this money is because of a case in the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago called Citizens United, which basically said companies and labor unions are free to spend as much money as they want on politics, independent of candidates and campaigns. So they can’t coordinate. But they can use union treasuries, they can use corporate treasuries, and they can spend as much as they want. So that’s where all the money is coming from.”
-- Kai Ryssdal on today's KPCC's Take Two show. Listen to the full interview here.
Just watched Frontline story on Big Money in politics. This is journalism at its best. Clear. Pointed. Provocative. Kai Ryssdal has a bit of Edward R. Morrow in his genes. It's a real pleasure to see that flame has not been extinguished by "instant journalism".
I hope this piece wakes up enough people as to the truly horrific consequences of the Citizens United decision and the poison it has injected -- and will continue to inject -- into our nation. Citizens United will surely rank up there (down there) with Plessy v. Furgeson as the textbook example of how a disturbingly politicized Supreme Court can get things so horribly wrong.
Keep up the good work.
