Do you trust Americans Elect to not have a hidden agenda?

I was very suspicious when I heard his proposal. Sounds too much like a method to split the Democrats while the Republicans remain dedicated. Ackerman appears to be the type of person I could admire and support. But as long as the Republicans remain a block, it's too risky to split the Democrats.

BBB

Peter Ackerman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Ackerman (born November 6, 1946) is the founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict [1] and the managing director of Rockport Capital Incorporated. He chaired the board of trustees of Freedom House from September 2005 until January 2009.[2][3] He is a member of the Board of the Council on Foreign Relations.[1]

He was born in New York City, New York. As an undergraduate he attended Colgate University. After he graduated from Colgate, he attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where in he earned a Ph.D. in 1976 in International Relations, studying under Gene Sharp and Robert Pfaltzgraff.[4] Dr. Ackerman's thesis, Strategic Aspects of Nonviolent Resistance Movements, examined the nonviolent strategy and tactics used by people who are living under oppression and have no viable military option to free themselves.

From 1978 to 1990, Ackerman was Director of International Capital Markets at investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert.[5]

In 1990 Dr. Ackerman moved to London where he was a visiting scholar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. During this time he co-authored with Christopher Kruegler the book Strategic Nonviolent Conflict.[6] Dr. Ackerman was also a content advisor in the television version of Steve York's 1999 film A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict and co-authored with Jack DuVall a book of the same title. In 2002 Dr. Ackerman also helped produce the documentary Bringing Down A Dictator, the sequel to A Force More Powerful, which chronicled the fall of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic by nonviolent means. In 2005 he became a director of the Institute for Strategic Studies' IISS-US office.[7]

If Kahil Byrd is good enough for Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, he's good enough for me. ---BBB

Kahlil Byrd
International Affairs Fellow, 2005-2006

Kahlil Byrd is the founder of Sung Media Ventures, an advisory firm that helps launch and nurture sustainable international media organizations. For the past several years, Mr. Byrd has also worked in politics: with Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, acting as communications director for his winning campaign and as the first Director of Appointments in the new administration; currently he is communications director for a US senate campaign in Massachusetts. Mr. Byrd is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and in 2006-2007, was an international affairs fellow. On his fellowship he served as a strategic advisor to The Foundation for International Understanding, an NGO that will fund media co-productions between US and international producers and broadcasters. He is also co-founder and a director of the African Public Broadcasting Foundation, an organization that is helping to privatize and strengthen public service television throughout sub-Sahara Africa. After an early career in finance, Mr. Byrd spent eight years in public broadcasting as a producer and reporter with the BBC, National Public Radio, and WGBH in Boston. Mr. Byrd earned his BA in political science from Morehouse College and his MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

You're maybe right BBB. I just might have one of my cynical genes firing irrationally off in my brain and I just can't turn it off to get an unflinchingly unbiased chance.

Can we trust a journalist?

He's no longer a journalist. Journalists observe and report not directly intervene and try to openly change the process.

The question is whether the group's motives on the side of fair elections or swaying the election to favor certain groups or political views not consistent with what they're claiming their efforts are supposed to bring about.

Without reading the article, no I don't trust them to not have a hidden agenda. Why not, since I feel that way about everyone, or at least those in politics. Some people get very good at misleading people, and often do it with a direct lie.

I think their are very few journalists who dont have an agenda of some kind. Most present the facts so that they influence ones opinions. Think fox news.

I agree that most journalists have some kind of agenda (that's the very nature of being human and the nature of human bias) but they're not actively writing policy, law, or pushing and campaigning for certain candidates. That said, I have never heard of anyone who ever claimed that those who work as anchors or talk show hosts for Fox News are journalists. Journalists don't or try not to present their own opinions as proven facts.

No.