The Breakdown with Richard Eskow - April 28, 2012

Daniel Marans, Executive Producer of The Breakdown, offers a tribute to Levon Helm, the great American rock and roll musician, who passed away recently. The tribute includes songs from Helm's star career as drummer and vocalist for The Band, songs from his renaissance album Dirt Farmer in 2008, and running commentary from Marans.

In the second half of the show, Richard talks with Trudy Lieberman of the Columbia Journalism Review about the media's distorted coverage of Social Security. Richard also speaks with Zaid Jilani of the Republic Report, a running guest on The Breakdown, about the latest on money in politics. They discuss the exodus of companies from the "stealth" corporate lobbying group ALEC, the recently exposed Wal-Mart bribery scandal, and the mammoth pharmaceutical industry's lobbying to preserve a lucrative tax break.