Mississippi Attorney General Dares Reporters To Find Any Evidence Of Hollywood Funding... So We Did

Politics

from the oops dept

Fri, Dec 19th 2014 1:54pm — Mike Masnick

The saga of Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and his cozy ties to Hollywood continue to come out. He's been claiming that, sure, he met with Hollywood's top lawyer, Tom Perrelli, had him prep Hood for a meeting with Google, and even took a ~4,000 word angry letter that Perrelli wrote for him, signed it as his own and sent it to Google -- but he did all that without knowing that Perrelli worked for Hollywood's top lobbying arm, the MPAA. Uh huh.

And then in a press conference, he insisted that he was doing this out of his own interest in protecting the children -- but also admitted that his office didn't have any intellectual property experts and didn't have a million dollars to do an investigation (approximately the amount the MPAA's leaked emails show them discussing to fund this investigation) and that he needed to rely on such help from "victims" to make his case. It's fairly rare, though, that "victims" of a crime run the actual law enforcement investigation and fund it as well.

Still, in that last post, we also mentioned how Hood implied that anyone suggesting he was "paid off" might be defaming him, and apparently also stated that he wasn't getting any money from Hollywood, encouraging reporters to "check records."

Hood: Not getting any money from Hollywood as far as he knows. Encouraged us to check records.
— Therese Apel (@TRex21) December 18, 2014

Okay then. Let's... check the records. Here, for example, is the MPAA's Political Action Committee apparently giving $2,500 to an operation called "The Friends of Jim Hood."

And, you can also look at the public record of who donated to his campaign, which pretty clearly shows donations to his campaign from NBC Universal and 20th Century Fox.

Oh, and for good measure, the RIAA as well:

And then there are some that are not as direct, but are at least noteworthy. First up, we've got the "Mike Moore Law Firm." Now, this might not be that surprising. Moore is a long time friend of Hood and preceded him as Attorney General. Moore apparently helped Hood get into politics and the two are regularly seen together. So it's no surprise that Moore would donate to his campaign. But it's at least noteworthy because the NY Times revealed that a Hollywood front group, the Digital Consumer's Alliance, which is funded by the movie studios, hired Moore as a lobbyist. So, at the very least, this may count partially as money from Hollywood:

There were a few other interesting ones, but the other one I'll point to is from the Patrick Lynch Group. It's a "government affairs" operation focused on lobbying state attorneys general. But if you look at its page listing out when it's "in the news," a large number of them involve stories attacking Google. Here's an op-ed written by Patrick Lynch a few years ago attacking Google, which notes that he represents "FairSearch.org," which is a somewhat infamous Microsoft front group that has been behind a variety of attacks on Google throughout the years. So it may not be "Hollywood" money directly, but it's a top lobbyist for an effort to attack Google.

None of that, of course, means that Hood is, in any way, beholden to this kind of money. This is just the nature of politics. But Hood was the one who directly dared reporters to check the record and said he hadn't received money from such sources. That's wrong. He did. The least he can do is admit it.

Jim Hood (2013 Annual Report) Jan 31 2014 (PDF)Jim Hood (2013 Annual Report) Jan 31 2014 (Text)

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Filed Under: campaign contributions, funding, jim hood, mike moore, patrick lynch, tom perrelli
Companies: 20th century fox, comcast, fox, google, mpaa, nbc universal, riaa

48 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:12pm

God bless you Mike Masnick.
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MO'B (profile), 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:15pm

Encouraged us to check records
Jim "the" Hood, meet Mrs Streisand, Babs, this is Jimmy!

He's a colassal dumb-ass who doesn't know when to STFU and is trying to make a bigger dumbass of himself on the Internet, can you help???

Now we just need a demand letter sent to TechDirt full of vague threats and legal "thuggery" to make this story perfect!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:16pm

the MPAA's Political Action Committee apparently giving $2,500 to an operation called "The Friends of Jim Hood."
Well obviously he's right! The MPAA didn't give money to Hood, they gave it to his friends!

I must now insist that you owe Jim Hood an apology, as it's clear that the MPAA didn't give money to him!

/sarcasm
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:27pm

Mississippi Attorney General Dares Reporters To Find Any Evidence Of Integrity In His Behavior

Mississippi Attorney General Dares Reporters To A Chicken Eating Contest

Mississippi Attorney General Dares Reporters To Find Waldo In A Picture Of Elvis He Painted

Mississippi Attorney General Dares His Psychiatric Care Providers To Find His Slippers
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:37pm

None of that, of course, means that Hood is, in any way, beholden to this kind of money. This is just the nature of politics.

...umm?

That exactly suggests that Hood is beholden to that money, because that is the nature of politics, particularly in America, post-Citizens United.
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Beech, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:38pm

"and even took a ~4,000 angry letter that Perrelli wrote for him,"

I think you missed a word...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:39pm

at the least what should happen is that Hood and anyone else found or suspected to be in the clutches of the MPAA or any other of the entertainment industries, in fact, any industry at all, should be fired, then investigated and any action deemed necessary taken. anyone in government or Congress on the take too should be removed from office and investigated. this age in the USA of 'too big to fail' was proven to be bullshit with the banks. the same thing should be found of the entertainment industries, law enforcement and politicians! things are coming to light now, through the MPAAs own selfishness and impatience! the opportunity is there to expose so much of what has been going on for decades, i hope the chance isn't thrown away!! apart from anything else, the Internet needs something done to protect it from a greed-centered bunch of backward thinking ass holes who are so used to getting everything they ever wanted. i hope we dont fail it!!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:41pm

eh, it was only 5000 bucks total from everyone, which isn't exactly big money in politics. Not really surprised he didn't know about it.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:48pm

Re:
"any industry at all, should be fired, then investigated and any action deemed necessary taken. anyone in government or Congress on the take too should be removed from office and investigated."

Careful what you wish for:

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000022008

Google spent more PAC money than Goldman Sachs.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/googles-pac-spends-search-political-influence
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Applesauce, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:48pm

Money for Morons
If lobbyist are going to shovel money at "Public" officials, I'd prefer they give it to those too stupid to hide it.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:51pm

Re:
I think Mike was poking fun at him...
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J.R., 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:58pm

Hmmh
Looks like the AG goes for more than a streetwalker, but less than classy hooker. What can one say?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 2:59pm

Re:
Sure, but what would constitute big money anyways? Would over 5% of your total annual contributions be enough to get your attention?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 3:02pm

Re:
Economy in politics is relative to the office, the competition and the budgets of the candidates. 5000 bucks is not nothing for a small potato position like AG.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 3:07pm

Re:
It's $5000 that we're able to tie to MPAA/Anti-Google interests. He likely received contributions from individuals who, with more investigation, might be discovered to work for movie studios or the like.

But we've seen politicians influenced for less to act on behalf of particular lobbying interests.

And considering the career path of his predecessor upon leaving the position, this $5000 could be seen as a down payment on a future career in lobbying for the MPAA or an associated group once Hood is (hopefully) kicked or at least voted out of office due to the appearance (much less the possibility) of corruption.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 3:12pm

Re: Hmmh
Don't insult prostitutes and callgirls with such a comparison. They don't have someone else do their work for them and they only sell their bodies. Corrupt politicians let others write their words for them and they sell their souls (if they have any).
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 3:39pm

This whole thing with Hood is a huge masturbatorium of anti-Google zealots.
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Nic, 19 Dec 2014 @ 3:41pm

Great digging, keep up the good work.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 3:49pm

Typo
"and even took a ~4,000 angry letter that Perrelli wrote for him"

That letter must be really angry to be 4000 angry.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 4:49pm

but also admitted that his office didn't have any intellectual property experts

That's the whole point. They don't want an expert in IP; they want a big grumpy gorilla to thump his chest and repeat after the MPAA's talking points, then get that passed off as law somehow.
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TOPDOG1 (profile), 19 Dec 2014 @ 5:51pm

This is an Attorney General caught taking bribes from M.P.A..A, R.I.A.A. and others. Why is he not being prosecuted as the underhanded and corrupt villain he is?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2014 @ 7:12pm

Re:
Because the people in the positions to prosecute him are likely guilty of the same crime.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 12:08am

What would happen if it came out that someone connected to Google was part of the Sony hack?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 12:08am

Re:
Please say that it was 'bird'.
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David, 20 Dec 2014 @ 1:27am

Re: Re:
In the U.S.A., you can't tell the difference any more.

It was in the 70s that Tom Lehrer stated "political satire became redundant when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize".

Things have gone worse since then. Much of politics is really indistinguishable from satire these days.
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David, 20 Dec 2014 @ 1:33am

Re:
at the least what should happen is that Hood and anyone else found or suspected to be in the clutches of the MPAA or any other of the entertainment industries, in fact, any industry at all, should be fired,

Last one switches off the lights.

But seriously: try finding a single "representative" who is going to vote for that. All of them are either in somebody's pocket, or are in a position where they can afford to pocket others.
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David, 20 Dec 2014 @ 1:53am

Re:
It's a matter of "may he who is without sin cast the first stone" combined with a hierarchy of corruption: rising in the judicial hierarchy is aided by corruption, and the ones who would be able to prosecute you have risen even higher.

While the occasional good apple might at some time have risen above his level of corruption, he'll be cut off the branch if he starts actually dealing with corruption. And turning a blind eye on corruption for too long is an actionable form of corruption itself, so at some point of time the inert apple has his interests better served by aligning himself with the corruption around him.

You'd really have to release all of the Holder-poisoned Department of "Justice" and its trickle-down into private practice, throw out "plea bargains" and other perversions of the law, and replace the personnel with people fresh from university. One cannot reasonably hope to salvage those barrels of rotten apples from the inside.
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That One Guy (profile), 20 Dec 2014 @ 4:20am

Re:
That would be interesting, but really, really stupid on the part of Google.

Right now they've got several governments and a number of bought-and-paid-for politicians who would love to hit them with something major, and hacking another company? That would most certainly qualify.

And of course the bigger question would be: Why bother? Nothing that's been revealed to date is big enough to possibly justify that sort of action on their part, so the potential losses/potential gains would be very much not in their favor for something like that.

Sure having an incompetent/gullible or bought out AG harassing them is annoying, but if they had even the slightest connection to the hacking? That would make the problem exponentially worse, so they really would have nothing to gain by it.

However, even then, even in the extremely unlikely case that they were involved, it wouldn't really matter with regards to what's come out so far. The incriminating emails and other bits of evidence would still be valid. If Google was guilty of the hack, the *AA's, Sony, and various AG's would not suddenly be innocent in exchange.
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got_runs? (profile), 20 Dec 2014 @ 5:33am

>
Busted with his hand in the wallet.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 6:39am

Re:
Dream on. And for fuck's sake, pull up your pants! No one wants to see your Chris Dodd-boner.
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Namel3ss (profile), 20 Dec 2014 @ 7:18am

These are not the monies you're looking for.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 7:57am

Re: Re:
When money was ruled free speech America died completely.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 8:54am

What still amazes me is that although most of the public appreciates this type of whistleblowing, the media and Washington D.C. are still treating as if it were espionage or treason and completely ignoring the real impact.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 10:11am

Re: Re:
It's just interesting, because who has benefited the most from the Sony hack? And who is capable of disguising it as coming from the woefully un-techy North Korea?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 1:13pm

Re: Re:
Careful about what?

Unless you're pushing the "Techdirt is for Google shills angle"...
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That One Guy (profile), 20 Dec 2014 @ 1:45pm

Re:
Well of course they are, who do you imagine is more involved in the game of 'You provide the money, I'll provide the laws and fake outrage regarding your target' than politics?

Exposing such blatantly corrupt actions threatens to get people more interested in the process, which could affect the money politicians get from their 'friends', so of course they'll cast it in the worst possible light.

As for the media, well, the USG has had them tamed for a number of years now, so if DC get's outraged on something, so does the press. If DC says something is a 'serious threat', then so does the press. They do what they're told, like obedient little employees.
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That One Guy (profile), 20 Dec 2014 @ 1:54pm

Re: Re: Re:
The public I'd say, they've gotten to see the rotten underside of several companies and groups who like to pretend that they're oh-so-good and concerned about their customers.

More specifically, those in Hood's state have gotten to see just how corrupt or incompetent their AG is, and just who owns him.

Google has gotten, what? Maybe a little less heat from one AG? A little more proof that no-matter what they do it will never be enough for the *AA's, confirming that it was foolish to ever even try?

As for 'capable of disguising it', given how weak the evidence pointing to NK are, I'd say any number of groups could have managed that. 'They used similar programs that NK has been known to use'? 'The source of the attacks seemed to have come from an area pointing to NK'? Please, with that level of 'evidence' needed to assign blame, it would have been laughably easy for pretty much any tech savvy group to manage it.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2014 @ 3:49pm

Re: Re: Re:
This is exactly why "serious" news is nothing but the straight-man half of a comedy duo... and why people like John Oliver are true journalists. Satire of satire is a handy double negative.
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Vincent Giannell, 21 Dec 2014 @ 12:05am

Re:
He probably bribed any police officer to keep their mouths shut.
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Vincent Giannell, 21 Dec 2014 @ 12:13am

Re:
I doubt Hood's "friends" got paid by the MPAA. That's obviously a cover story for Hood himself to keep their money for himself.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2014 @ 9:22am

Moore, dodd..etc etc

So corporations have politicians in their pockets litterally, aswel as figuratively

And to those who say their not politicians anymore, im sorry, but when you leave the office, work for a company, and still work with the people in ANY capacity that still work in that job you left......YOU ARE working in the capacity of a politician, BUT, on behalf of a corporation and NOT the people......you corrupt sons of a beaches
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2014 @ 9:35am

So essentially, what this ALL means is that a law is being BOUGHT, and not INFACT based on whether that thing that "law" entails is is legal or not........which is a corporate law, not a humane law, one protects profit/money/greed/corruption/power the other, non intentionally complicated bad NON laws with intentions to manipulate for votes, you know, the obvious "thy shall not willfully or maliciously kill" laws variety, because their OBVIOUS

Im sick and tired of the one million pages plus infinity "law" book
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2014 @ 9:40am

"This is just the nature of politics"

Dont give corruption a cop-out, they need whats due
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Dec 2014 @ 12:06pm

now just to have hood tell everyone about the secret out-of-state bank account he holds with over $400,000 of hollywood money in it.....
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lorisavingjeff (profile), 21 Dec 2014 @ 5:40pm

You think this is bad?
I know this is off direct topic, but Jim Hood is WAY more despicable than this.

There is a man on death row in MS that Jim Hood wants very badly to have executed. The problem is, that the original prosecutor, Jimmy's very good friend, knew that a crime never occurred before he CHARGED Jeff Havard with Capital Murder (in 2002, Mike Moore's last year as Attorney General).

Jump forward to today; Jeff Havard is before the MS Supreme Court with newly discovered scientific exonerating evidence, (because the state has been hiding it for almost 13 years) but Hood and his band of cretins claim they didn't disclose it because it was not favorable to Havard. The fact that the medical examiner thought a crime never occurred is not favorable to Jeff Havard?

Six pro-bono world and nationally renowned experts agree that the evidence is in Havard's favor. That's not favorable, either according to the AG's office.

Havard must die, because he discovered the misconduct too late.

Hood tried to put a gag order on Jeff Havard's current appeal, something that is unheard of on a DP appeal. Because he has something to hide.

No luck there, thankfully.

Hood has also tried to set 4 execution dates in 2014 for people who had questionable death sentences.

Oh, I could tell you some hard truths about Jim Hood.

Well, what can you say? It is the most corrupt state in the nation. None of this surprises me, but I am so glad eyes are turned on him now.

Forgive the intrusion, all.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2014 @ 2:50am

Re: Re: Re:
Nah, Techdirt isn't a PR wing of Google. No way. Nobody anywhere thinks that.

snicker
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2014 @ 8:15pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
You're kidding yourself if you think the opinions of barnyard trolls count for anything.
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Karl (profile), 7 Jan 2015 @ 3:09pm

Digital Citizens Alliance
I know I'm late to the party, but I was doing some research about this, and I wanted to point this out.

the NY Times revealed that a Hollywood front group, the Digital Consumer's Alliance, which is funded by the movie studios, hired Moore as a lobbyist.

It's actually the Digital Citizens Alliance, not the Digital Consumer's Alliance. They are the same folks who released the ridiculously biased "studies," "Good Money Gone Bad" and "Behind The Cyberlocker Door."

Here's an interesting factoid about them: Ellen Seidler, the anti-Google filmmaker who runs popuppirates.com (and frequent Trichordist contributor), is on their advisory board:
http://www.digitalcitizensalliance.org/cac/alliance/advisoryboard.aspx
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