“They’re what I call black holes in journalism. There are certain events and certain subjects that you…you may not cover.” That’s according to Kristina Borjesson, a former CBS News journalist who reportedly was terminated for attempting to probe an area that CBS News’ parent company and federal officials purportedly did not want investigated. “When they released the…information,” said Borjesson, “they only gave half of it.” “…there may be many things that citizens of a democratic society need to know about that private corporations may not be interested in telling them.” So said Janine Jackson, Program Director of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting in the full-length version of the Shadows of Liberty video posted below. “Stop militarism, stop the corruption, secrecy, and the cronyism, that was the function of the freedom of press.” So said Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, all three among the many insiders and experts spotlighted in the highly praised docudrama: “Shadows of Liberty.”
‘The Mother of All Scandals’
But among the stunning remarks is about “the mother of all scandals.” In the light of developments in the last few years, this video is arguably more groundbreaking than people across the left-right spectrum imagined or understood at the time.
Former FBI and CIA agents are among those in this powerhouse docudrama.
The corruption and coverups revealed are mindboggling.
The scandals in Shadows this full-length version of the documentary reveals begin with corporate and media issues, but then develop into the bigger, and perhaps more scandalous, revelations about the nexus of public officials, corporate, media, and big tech interests.
Courtesy of the Internet Archive, MHProNews is now able to present this highly acclaimed and full-length documentary drama that Bing AI, in exploring reviews of Shadows of Liberty said was “must see!” viewing.
Bullfrog Films says there are two versions of Shadows of Liberty. One is 93-minutes, and that is the version posted in this article below. On our MHLivingNews sister-site is the shorter 53-minute version of Shadows of Liberty, which was the more easily available version that was free.
To be clear, Shadows – while understandably applauded – is imperfect. It is almost entirely told from the perspective of the political left and left-leaning media personalities. It could have identified the voice of everyone speaking every time they spoke. That noted, MHProNews has painstakingly reviewed the video and related transcript below to make it more accurate, more accessible to researchers, the media, the broader public, and those in our profession too.
When considered in the light of other emerging facts and information, there are insights and lessons for virtually anyone who wants to understand the realities of our society.
Despite minor ‘flaws,’ the video is nevertheless arguably groundbreaking and important viewing for anyone who wants to better understand the modern media, the rise of the power of big corporate and big media which proceed the era of big tech, and how these forces are playing out in their relationship with public officials, particularly in the federal government.
Perhaps ironically, but perhaps as a testament to the enduring quality of the work, the case could be made that Shadows steps on certain toes from on both sides of the two major party aisle. For example. Shadows slams George W. Bush (R) with facts that are now routinely accepted as true. But the docudrama also hits episodes during the presidencies of Democrats like Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, William “Bill” Clinton, and Barack Obama too. Ronald Reagan’s (R) Administration takes a few licks in this video too.
Perhaps the best way to understand this video is to grasp the point recently made by a different award-winning journalist reported on the Masthead, ‘that it is no longer about the left vs. the right, it is now pro-Establishment vs. anti-Establishment.’
As a cautionary note, those interested in accuracy should keep in mind that the U.S. is a republic which has some democratic features. That is a legally and historically important point. As Aristotle is credited with saying, “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.” The founders discussed such issues and picked a republic over a democracy, monarchy, or other possible forms of government.
As Bing AI pointed out in response to a question on that point by MHProNews: “The word “democracy” is not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution,” citing USHistory.org as one of several sources. A belief can be common, and still be mistaken. As another reminder, the Pledge of Allegiance says in part: “and to the Republic for which it (the U.S. Flag) stands, one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” So, the use of the term “democracy” in the video is often technically mistaken. That said, it is what those interviewed said, and thus it is what it is. One more qualifier is worth mentioning. There are the obviously some data points that have shifted since the movie was made. But that would be true for any movie made at any time.
Bottom line, this movie is in many ways timeless. It reveals how mainstream media has been working well in advance of the term ‘fake news’ becoming popular.
Bing AI’s response here is edited but is useful as shown.
> “In a constitutional republic, is it fair to say that the rights of a minority are protected by law? It is also fair to say that the checks and balance of the U.S. Constitution were designed to keep both a minority or a majority from ruling over other citizens?”
The checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution were designed to keep both a minority or a majority from ruling over other citizens 1. The Constitution establishes three branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Each branch has its own unique powers and responsibilities, and each branch is designed to check the power of the other two branches 1. For example, the legislative branch can pass laws, but the executive branch can veto them, and the judicial branch can declare them unconstitutional 1. This system of checks and balances ensures that no single branch of government becomes too powerful, and that the rights of all citizens are protected 1.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Learn more
Part I – Shadows of Liberty Full Length Documentary
Part II – Annotated Transcript, Shadows of Liberty
The base transcript that follows – along with time markers shown between text – are per DocuSeek. Edits by MHProNews for apparent errors, omissions in the original transcript, and or clarifications in their transcript are shown in brackets. The transcript is considerably improved, but for those who want a perfect transcript of some specific part, it is recommended that you read what is provided below, and double check by listening to the time marker as shown on the video.
All bracketed annotations of who made what statements are added by MHProNews and are so disclosed in what follows.
Bing AI, on 12.28.2023 said that there are no annotated transcripts that it could find online. So, the following could be the first of its kind generally available online. It is thus an exclusive transcript.
Let’s note too that 4 of the page 1 search results (29 total results shown) for our specific search from Google about Shadows of Liberty and transcript were on MHLivingNews and/or MHProNews. No other manufactured housing connected sources were shown with respect to this search. Our publications have been promoting this video for some time, because it is worth the time for those who want evidence of what is occurring as provided by those involved in the news media and related professions.
More relevant insights and commentary will follow the transcript in Part III.
Our management believes that an informed reader/viewer can better understand the realities of both what has gone wrong with the longstanding affordable housing crisis and manufactured housing industry and the realities of what has been occurring the U.S. politically, economically and with media for decades.
Note, in the transcript that follows, where the speaker is not shown or not clear, there is no annotation added.
00:00:00.000 –> 00:00:05.000
[sil.]
00:00:10.000 –> 00:00:15.000 [MHProNews: montage of voices from various newscasts]
These are generally the upper degrees to
run the 60 degree market. They’ll be…
00:00:20.000 –> 00:00:28.000
…crash that was causing tie-up
from south bound 163 to the 15…
00:00:30.000 –> 00:00:35.000
…talked to the DEP’s deputy commissioner moments ago and
he said that this main broke simply because it’s old.
[MHProNews note: not all of the remarks heard on the video’s audio are shown in this DocuSeek transcript that is being edited as shown.]
00:00:40.000 –> 00:00:44.999
…the Brooklyns built the
Brooklyn bridge 125 years ago.
00:00:45.000 –> 00:00:49.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, speaking at about 0:47.]
In this country, the most powerful country on earth,
00:00:50.000 –> 00:00:54.999
it is so actually difficult to get information. Especially, outside our borders
00:00:55.000 –> 00:00:59.999
not to mention what’s going on inside this country.
[MHProNews: unidentified newscaster voice]
It started about 4 hours and 20 minutes ago
00:01:00.000 –> 00:01:04.999
at 9:42pm, eastern time that
would have put it into…
00:01:05.000 –> 00:01:09.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Janine Jackson, Program Director, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, at about 1:06.]
Public information, the news we rely on to learn about what’s happening in the world,
00:01:10.000 –> 00:01:14.999
to learn about one another is in the hands basically of commercial enterprises.
[MHProNews: unidentified newscaster voice]
Then the agreement on healthcare is closed. But support could…
00:01:15.000 –> 00:01:19.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Deepa Kumar, Associate Professor of Media Studies, at about 1:21.]
Giant media corporations like Time Warner
00:01:20.000 –> 00:01:24.999
and News Corporation, Disney and so forth, they get to decide what is news,
00:01:25.000 –> 00:01:29.999
what is newsworthy, and what is not newsworthy.
[MHProNews: unidentified voice at about 1:28.]
This is America. How many of you people want to pay to your neighbor’s [mortgage]…
00:01:30.000 –> 00:01:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, speaking at about 1:29.]
What the press is pushing is distortions, lies, lack of balance.
00:01:35.000 –> 00:01:40.000
[MHProNews: unidentified voices, second is an then NBC anchor, at about 1:44]
I have 900 channels on my TV. But 700 of them are…
00:01:45.000 –> 00:01:49.999
I think we have a lot of news to tell you about Anna Nicole Smith
00:01:50.000 –> 00:01:54.999
who died in Florida…
[MHProNews: Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, at about 1:53.]
We have a commercially-driven journalism
00:01:55.000 –> 00:01:59.999
that has no interest in poor people where they’re basically written out of the picture altogether. And we have a system that tells us what people in power
00:02:00.000 –> 00:02:04.999
are interested in and what they want to talk about.
[MHProNews: Glenn Beck – newscaster voice at about 2:01.]
When was the last time governor, that you were at [a Wendy’s and you had a Frosty…]
00:02:05.000 –> 00:02:09.999
[MHProNews: Danny Glover, Actor and Director, speaking at about 2:03.]
Make no mistake [about it]. This is to control people’s ideas.
00:02:10.000 –> 00:02:14.999
It’s to control their imagination.
[MHProNews: unidentified newscasters voices]
And also reminded him that the channel was part of the establishment.
00:02:15.000 –> 00:02:20.000
So we must conduct himself as…
00:02:25.000 –> 00:02:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Norman Solomon, Journalist, Institute for Public Accuracy Founder, at about 2:28.]
We [are in] a profound crisis of democracy.
00:02:30.000 –> 00:02:34.999
You can’t choke off this [dis]course and have a free society.
00:02:35.000 –> 00:02:39.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice speaking]
These are stories you will not be told on radio,
00:02:40.000 –> 00:02:44.999
in newspapers, or on television. A clash between two worlds.
00:02:45.000 –> 00:02:49.999
[Big] media corporations spinning [public] perception for profit
00:02:50.000 –> 00:02:54.999
versus the defenders of truth who stand for liberty
00:02:55.000 –> 00:03:00.000
and democracy.
[MHProNews: unidentified newscaster voice]
…and that’s our news…
[About 2:58; Text on screen is this quotation: “When Men Yield Up the Exclusive Privilege of Thinking, The Last Shadow of Liberty Quits the Horizon.” – Thomas Paine. That is followed by the documentary video title, “Shadows of Liberty.”]
[Text on Screen about 3:23 Human Billboards]
00:03:29.000 –> 00:03:39.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent, per video, from 1992-1997.]
I had often been asked if there was any pressure on me because of the kinds of stories that I do.
00:03:40.000 –> 00:03:44.999
I was always asked, are there are some stories that you can’t do?
00:03:45.000 –> 00:03:49.999
Are there some times that you are not allowed to report on certain things because of advertisers?
00:03:50.000 –> 00:03:54.999
And my answer was always absolutely not.
00:03:55.000 –> 00:04:03.000
[MHProNews: electronic sounds mixed with machine gun fire]
00:04:05.000 –> 00:04:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
A few decades after the end of the Vietnam war, the United States [lifted the] trade embargo against Vietnam.
00:04:10.000 –> 00:04:14.999
And CBS chief correspondent Roberta Baskin
00:04:15.000 –> 00:04:19.999
looked into one corporation search [for] cheaper labor markets.
00:04:20.000 –> 00:04:24.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
The premise for the story was the fact that Nike was subcontracting to these factories
00:04:25.000 –> 00:04:29.999
on the other side of the planet
00:04:30.000 –> 00:04:34.999
but they weren’t really taking responsibility for how the shoes were made.
00:04:35.000 –> 00:04:39.999
And I asked to follow the trail.
00:04:40.000 –> 00:04:44.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
In August of 1996, Baskin and the CBS news film crew flew to Vietnam
00:04:45.000 –> 00:04:49.999
to investigate the Nike factories.
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
We were able to kind of peek through the keyhole
00:04:50.000 –> 00:04:54.999
but we we’re not allowed inside.
00:04:55.000 –> 00:04:59.999
We were barred.
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
As Baskin waited outside the factory gates,
00:05:00.000 –> 00:05:04.999
what she heard from the workers would forever change her views on Nike.
00:05:05.000 –> 00:05:09.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
One of the things that really shocked me was to discover that the word \”Nike\”
00:05:10.000 –> 00:05:14.999
had become a verb. The word \”Nike\” meant to abuse your employees.
00:05:15.000 –> 00:05:19.999
There were incidences of physical abuse,
00:05:20.000 –> 00:05:24.999
women who had their mouths taped shut for talking on the line,
00:05:25.000 –> 00:05:29.999
15 women were systematically hit with the top part of a Nike shoe
00:05:30.000 –> 00:05:34.999
around the face and the neck.
00:05:35.000 –> 00:05:39.999
It was this disparity between seeing
00:05:40.000 –> 00:05:44.999
the corporate image that the company sells and the reality in these factories,
00:05:45.000 –> 00:05:49.999
\”Just do it, or else.\”
00:05:50.000 –> 00:05:54.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
Roberta Baskins’ news report about Nike abuses was broadcast
00:05:55.000 –> 00:05:59.999
on the CBS news television across the United States.
00:06:00.000 –> 00:06:04.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
CBS was very pleased submitting it for prestigious awards.
00:06:05.000 –> 00:06:09.999
For me what was really exciting about it was that the phones rang off the hook.
00:06:10.000 –> 00:06:14.999
It was picketing of
00:06:15.000 –> 00:06:19.999
Nike [towns?] across the country.
00:06:20.000 –> 00:06:24.999
There were boycotts that were being organized by students on campuses.
00:06:25.000 –> 00:06:29.999
I realized that it had touched some kind of a nerve.
00:06:30.000 –> 00:06:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
Nike’s labor abuses reached the media and the shoe giant
00:06:35.000 –> 00:06:39.999
came forward to limit the damages.
00:06:40.000 –> 00:06:44.999
[MHProNews: Phil Knight Chairman of Nike Inc.]
We don’t have uh… abusive labor conditions in our factories and really never [have].
00:[06:32.000] –> 00:06:49.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
With Nike in denial, CBS News commissioned Baskin
00:06:50.000 –> 00:06:54.999
to do a follow-up investigation working with a Vietnamese labor group.
00:[06:46.000] –> 00:06:59.999
[MHProNews: Thuyen Nguyen Vietnam Labor Watch Founder]
Roberta’s work was mainly about the corporate punishment.
00:07:00.000 –> 00:07:04.999
We help add another dimension to the problems
00:07:05.000 –> 00:07:09.999
that the wages and the excessive amount of overtime.
00:07:10.000 –> 00:07:18.000
[music]
00:07:20.000 –> 00:07:24.999
Nike’s not the good guys even though they’ve done a lot of commercials saying they are,
00:07:25.000 –> 00:07:29.999
but people at that moment realized that they are not part of the good team.
00:[07:12.000] –> 00:07:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
As Baskin was putting together the updated news report on Nike’s labor practices,
00:07:35.000 –> 00:07:39.999
she received unexpected news from inside CBS.
00:07:40.000 –> 00:07:44.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
I got a call from my executive producer who said
00:07:45.000 –> 00:07:49.999
the story is not gonna air. It’s been taken off schedule. There’s some sort of deal
00:07:50.000 –> 00:07:54.999
being made between Nike and CBS News for the upcoming winter Olympics.
00:[about 07:38.000] –> 00:07:59.999
The air went out of my soul.
00:08:00.000 –> 00:08:04.999
[MHProNews about 7:53 Brian Healy, former Producer, CBS News – per video screen text – 1972-2010]
CBS News was paying
00:08:05.000 –> 00:08:09.999
an enormous amount of money for the rights and so by definition they would be seeking out commercial sponsors
00:08:10.000 –> 00:08:14.999
who would pour lots of money into it so that they could recoup
00:08:15.000 –> 00:08:19.999
the millions that they were paying for the rights of the Olympics.
[MHProNews – unidentified voices says about 8.00]
The 18th Olympic winter games on CBS
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
The CBS revealed their coverage.
00:08:20.000 –> 00:08:24.999
The deal between Nike and CBS was plain to see.
00:08:25.000 –> 00:08:29.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
Correspondent after correspondent
00:08:30.000 –> 00:08:34.999
are wearing these Nike jackets on the air with a little CBS
00:[about 8:20] 08:35.000 –> 00:08:39.999
something or other, you really couldn’t read it and a big swoosh [i.e.: the Nike logo] on the shoulder.
00:08:40.000 –> 00:08:44.999
That was the deal. Nike had convinced
00:08:45.000 –> 00:08:49.999
CBS News to turn its correspondents into billboards.
00:08:50.000 –> 00:08:54.999
It was heart breaking.
[MHProNews about 7:53 Brian Healy, former Producer, CBS News]
The CBS news correspondents were furious.
00:08:55.000 –> 00:08:59.999
They had to wear the Nike (inaudible)
00:09:00.000 –> 00:09:04.999
whenever they appeared on air. Just not done.
00:09:05.000 –> 00:09:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
Baskin wrote a memo requesting CBS management
00:09:10.000 –> 00:09:14.999
to take the Nike logo off the correspondents.
00:[about 8.56] 09:15.000 –> 00:09:19.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
CBS had crossed this incredible line.
00:09:20.000 –> 00:09:24.999
How do you trust serious stories when you’re seeing the reporter
00:09:25.000 –> 00:09:29.999
wearing a bunch of logos?
00:09:30.000 –> 00:09:34.999
Immediately, the president of CBS News responded saying this was a breach of professional etiquette.
00:09:35.000 –> 00:09:39.999
It meant that, I should shut up. How dare I
00:09:40.000 –> 00:09:44.999
raise a question about the integrity of CBS News.
00:09:45.000 –> 00:09:49.999
[music]
00:[about 9:22] 09:50.000 –> 00:09:54.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
After questioning the deal with Nike, Baskin was removed from her position
00:09:55.000 –> 00:09:59.999
as the chief correspondent of CBS News.
[MHProNews about 7:53 Brian Healy, former Producer, CBS News]
It wasn’t an ordinary transfer, a change,
00:10:00.000 –> 00:10:04.999
it was a demotion. And it was a demotion that… it was…
00:10:05.000 –> 00:10:09.999
was to send a message.
00:10:10.000 –> 00:10:14.999
[music]
00:10:15.000 –> 00:10:19.999
[MHProNews: voice of Roberta Baskin, former CBS News Chief Correspondent.]
I ended up asking if I could get out of my contract.
00:10:20.000 –> 00:10:24.999
The president responded \”Great.\”
00:10:25.000 –> 00:10:29.999
They were, you know, happy to see me go.
00:10:30.000 –> 00:10:34.999
Hi, Mr. (inaudible). I’m reporter Baskin from CBS News.
00:10:35.000 –> 00:10:39.999
I wanted to talk to you about the problems that you’re having in the factory here.
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
To this day the CBS Network has buried both of Baskin’s reports
00:10:40.000 –> 00:10:44.999
on the Nike’s sweatshops.
[MHProNews: voice of Janine Jackson, per screen text, Program Director, ‘Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’]
These are the kind of
00:[about 10:29] 10:45.000 –> 00:10:49.999
fundamental conflicts of interest that result in censorship,
00:10:50.000 –> 00:10:54.999
that result in a narrow debate and they come directly from the fact that we’ve made these historical choices
00:10:55.000 –> 00:10:59.999
to allow corporations to own and control our media.
00:[about 10:41] 11:00.000 –> 00:11:04.999
[music]
00:11:05.000 –> 00:11:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice]
Media today is dominated
00:11:10.000 –> 00:11:14.999
by a handful of corporations. This is a far cry from the original ideals
00:11:15.000 –> 00:11:20.000
of the country.
00:11:25.000 –> 00:11:29.999
[about 10:55 Text on Screen – Birth of a Free Press]
As Americans fought for independence from imperial rule, the revolution found
00:11:30.000 –> 00:11:34.999
it’s inspiration in an unexpected place.
00:11:35.000 –> 00:11:43.000
[music]
00:11:50.000 –> 00:11:54.999 [Text with image on screen says “The Most Formidable Weapon Against Tyranny is Reason.” Thomas Paine].
[MHProNews: about 11:28 – John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’]
The United States was in many senses founded by a journalist, Tom Payne,
00:11:55.000 –> 00:11:59.999
who called Americans to revolution against a British empire that was thought to be
00:12:00.000 –> 00:12:04.999
completely unbeatable.
00:12:05.000 –> 00:12:09.999
This country was really founded on the concept that
00:12:10.000 –> 00:12:14.999
if you gave citizens the information they needed, they could govern themselves.
00:12:15.000 –> 00:12:19.999
[MHProNews: about 11:48 narrators voice]
The founders of the United States
00:12:20.000 –> 00:12:24.999
gave citizens the fundamental right to a free press.
[MHProNews: unidentified voice says]
A revolution
00:12:25.000 –> 00:12:29.999
for freedom of information.
00:12:30.000 –> 00:12:34.999
[MHProNews: about 12:04 – Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, per video text.]
One of the primary reasons
for freedom of the press
00:12:35.000 –> 00:12:39.999
was that it was the only way people outside of power could keep the government from becoming an empire. Stop militarism,
00:12:40.000 –> 00:12:44.999
stop the corruption, secrecy, and the cronyism, that was the function of the freedom of press.
00:12:45.000 –> 00:12:49.999
[MHProNews: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! Author and Journalist, per video screen text. About 12:23.]
There is a reason why our profession,
00:12:50.000 –> 00:12:54.999
Journalism, is the only one explicitly protected by the US Constitution.
00:12:55.000 –> 00:12:59.999
Because we’re supposed to be holding those in power accountable, asking the critical questions.
00:13:00.000 –> 00:13:04.999
[music]
00:13:05.000 –> 00:13:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 12:34]
One of the first stands of the [new] government
00:13:10.000 –> 00:13:14.999
was to encourage the distribution of independent [news] through subsidies.
00:13:15.000 –> 00:13:19.999
[sil.]
00:13:20.000 –> 00:13:24.999
[MHProNews: about 12:49 – Robert McChesneyy, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist]
This was actually America’s revolutionary contribution.
00:13:25.000 –> 00:13:29.999
The genius of the subsidy is that they did not discriminate against the content of the newspapers.
00:13:30.000 –> 00:13:34.999 ” [Illustration with quote says: “Knowledge Makes Man Unfit To Be A Slave.” Fredrick Douglas]
[MHProNews: John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’]
The Abolitionist Movement didn’t start in Congress.
00:13:35.000 –> 00:13:39.999 [MHProNews note: about 13:12 JSTOR and other sources indicate that a combination of factors exerted influence, including various religious groups, people influenced by the European Enlightenment, and printed tracts].
It started in those freely distributed weekly newspapers.
00:13:40.000 –> 00:13:44.999
And that was really where we began to address the most fundamental sins of the American experiment.
00:13:45.000 –> 00:13:49.999
[MHProNews: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!]
It’s simply information that is power.
00:13:50.000 –> 00:13:54.999
It’s information that frees us because when people get information, they then can decide
00:13:55.000 –> 00:13:59.999
what to do.
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 13:25]
Today,
00:14:00.000 –> 00:14:04.999
the founding vision of America’s journalistic independence has become deeply distorted.
00:14:05.000 –> 00:14:09.999
[MHProNews: Janine Jackson, Program Director, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, at about 13:43.]
Media is the conversation we have as a society.
00:14:10.000 –> 00:14:14.999
It’s the way we learn about the world. It’s the way we learn about one another.
00:14:15.000 –> 00:14:19.999
We see the range of public debate constrained
00:14:20.000 –> 00:14:24.999
because there may be many things that citizens of a democratic society need to know about
00:14:25.000 –> 00:14:29.999
that private corporations may not be interested in telling them.
00:14:30.000 –> 00:14:35.000
[sil.]
00:14:45.000 –> 00:14:49.999
[MHProNews: Text on Screen: at about 14:02- Don’t Go There.]
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer]
They’re what I call black holes in journalism.
00:14:50.000 –> 00:14:54.999
There are certain events
00:14:55.000 –> 00:14:59.999
and certain subjects that you…
00:15:00.000 –> 00:15:04.999
you may not cover.
00:15:05.000 –> 00:15:09.999
[sil.]
00:15:10.000 –> 00:15:14.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 14:35]
On the night of July 17th, 1996,
00:15:15.000 –> 00:15:19.999
flight TWA800 was on route from New York City to Paris carrying 230 passengers
00:15:20.000 –> 00:15:24.999
when disaster struck.
00:15:25.000 –> 00:15:33.000
[MHProNews: face and voice of unidentified CNN reporter at about 14:47]
Bringing you up today, the TWA flight at 7:47 aircraft has gone down.
[MHProNews: perhaps radio voice speaking about 14:54 about plane crash wreckage.]
00:15:35.000 –> 00:15:39.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer, 1994-1997, per screen text.]
That day I was at CBS and my executive producer
00:15:40.000 –> 00:15:44.999
called me down and told me to look into it and it completely changed my life,
00:15:45.000 –> 00:15:49.999
shifted my paradigm.
00:15:50.000 –> 00:15:54.999
[sil.]
00:15:55.000 –> 00:15:59.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 15:17]
As Borejesson investigated the crash for CBS News, many people reported something disturbing
00:16:00.000 –> 00:16:04.999
they’d seen in the night sky.
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 15:29.]
All these eyewitnesses
00:16:05.000 –> 00:16:09.999
said they had seen something go up then they followed it up to where the plane
00:16:10.000 –> 00:16:14.999
was and then all of a sudden the plane exploded.
00:16:15.000 –> 00:16:19.999
With different reports emerging about TWA800, the FBI declared
00:16:20.000 –> 00:16:24.999
the surrounding area a crime scene.
00:16:25.000 –> 00:16:29.999
[MHProNews: on screen and voice of James Kallstrom, FBI Director, New York Office.]
If it is a terrorist event, we then have the challenge to find out who the perpetrators were, or who the cowards were that did this.
00:16:30.000 –> 00:16:34.999
[music]
00:16:35.000 –> 00:16:39.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 15:57]
As Navy divers were called to recover the plane’s wreckage,
00:16:40.000 –> 00:16:44.999
rumors of friendly fire emerged.
00:16:45.000 –> 00:16:49.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 16:12.]
The first FBI press conference I went to,
00:16:50.000 –> 00:16:54.999
some guy raised his hand and he said, \”Why is the [N}avy involved
00:16:55.000 –> 00:16:59.999
in the recovery when they’re suspect?\”
00:17:00.000 –> 00:17:04.999
[MHProNews: on screen and voice of James Kallstrom, FBI Director, New York Office.]
Remove him, remove him.
[MHProNews: protestor with sign at FBI press conference saying…]
Navy is a suspect. The Navy is a suspect.
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 16:24.]
Kallstrom just pointed at him
00:17:05.000 –> 00:17:09.999
and he goes ‘Remove him’ and then everybody continued as if…
00:17:10.000 –> 00:17:14.999
as if this hadn’t happened and to my mind
00:17:15.000 –> 00:17:19.999
we should have all pressed on that question.
[MHProNews: on screen and voice of James Kallstrom, FBI Director, New York Office – this was during Bill Clinton’s term in office.]
United States military’s friendly fire
00:17:20.000 –> 00:17:24.999
was not involved in this incident and I use the strongest terms
00:17:25.000 –> 00:17:29.999
I could use. I said it was highly, highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely.
00:17:30.000 –> 00:17:34.999
[music]
00:17:35.000 –> 00:17:39.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 16:53]
Despite FBI denials, Borejesson’s research
00:17:40.000 –> 00:17:44.999
uncovered a different scenario based on the [N]avy’s activity on the night of the disaster.
00:17:45.000 –> 00:17:49.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 17:12.]
When they released the radar information,
00:17:50.000 –> 00:17:54.999
they only gave half of it. They cut it off right when
00:17:55.000 –> 00:17:59.999
you could see that there were all these military vessels in this exercise zone
00:18:00.000 –> 00:18:04.999
that was right there.
00:18:05.000 –> 00:18:09.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Kelly O’Meara, Congressional Aide, New York 1981-1997, per screen text. MHProNews Note: that on 12.22.2022 Airliners.net said that: “The problem is that there was a live fire exercise involving missiles in the time frame south of the TW800 flight path.]
Not only were their ships there but there actually was live fire exercise going on off the coast that night
00:18:10.000 –> 00:18:14.999
and that’s why they had closed down the flight corridor that is parallel
00:18:15.000 –> 00:18:19.999
to the commercial flight path.
00:18:20.000 –> 00:18:24.999
[sil.]
00:18:25.000 –> 00:18:29.999
[MHProNews: apparent radio voices, perhaps air traffic controllers]
TWA800 center. TWA800 at the (inaudible).
00:18:30.000 –> 00:18:34.999
TWA800 center.
00:18:35.000 –> 00:18:39.999
I think so.
00:18:40.000 –> 00:18:44.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Kelly O’Meara, Congressional Aide, New York 1981-1997.]
When there is a distress, you’re supposed to by [the] law
00:18:45.000 –> 00:18:49.999
of the sea go and try and help. These ships went in the absolute opposite direction
00:18:50.000 –> 00:18:54.999
away from the crash site and at 30 knots.
00:18:55.000 –> 00:18:59.999
[music]
00:19:00.000 –> 00:19:04.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 18:16]
The search for clear-cut evidence continued
00:19:05.000 –> 00:19:09.999
and Borjesson was offered a piece of seat fabric from the plane that had undergone preliminary testing.
00:19:10.000 –> 00:19:14.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Phillip Weiss, Journalist, New York Observer from 1996-2006, per screen text].
The test had revealed that there were heavy metals in it
00:19:15.000 –> 00:19:19.999
that were consistent with a missile strike that went through the plane at a certain point
00:19:20.000 –> 00:19:24.999
where this seat was very close to and Kristina received a sample
00:19:25.000 –> 00:19:29.999
to do independent verification.
00:19:30.000 –> 00:19:34.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 18:43.]
I mean, it was just amazing. How many times you get hard evidence from something?
00:19:35.000 –> 00:19:39.999
I had no idea there was going to be any problem whatsoever.
00:19:40.000 –> 00:19:44.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 18:53]
As CBS news gave Borjesson the go-ahead to accept the seat fabric,
00:19:45.000 –> 00:19:49.999
she was close to discovering whether a missile strike had brought down the plane.
00:19:50.000 –> 00:19:54.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 19:07.]
And I was looking around for a lab
00:19:55.000 –> 00:19:59.999
and that’s when the FBI called and said,
\”You have a piece of stolen evidence.\”
00:20:00.000 –> 00:20:04.999
To my great disappointment and dismay, CBS just gave it right back.
00:20:05.000 –> 00:20:09.999
[music]
00:20:10.000 –> 00:20:14.999
[MHProNews: unidentified voice, perhaps of a different CBS journalist on air saying the following.]
CBS has given the role investigators a peace of cloth reportedly from the downed TWA flight 800. The FBI wanted the fabric because…
00:20:15.000 –> 00:20:19.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Phillip Weiss, Journalist, New York Observer, about 19:34]
CBS folded
00:20:20.000 –> 00:20:24.999
like an ice cube in the sun, they just went. They decided this is not a story
00:20:25.000 –> 00:20:29.999
we are going to fight for. It’s a great moment of spinelessness on the corporate media’s part.
00:20:30.000 –> 00:20:34.999
[MHProNews: on screen and voice of James Kallstrom, FBI Director, New York Office, about 19:42]
No evidence has been found which would indicate that the criminal act was the cause
00:20:35.000 –> 00:20:39.999
of the tragedy of TWA flight 800.
00:20:40.000 –> 00:20:44.999
The law enforcement team has looked at every theory and has left no stone [unturned].
00:20:45.000 –> 00:20:49.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 19:59]
With eyewitness accounts
00:20:50.000 –> 00:20:54.999
of a possible missile strike still unexplained, the CIA produced
00:20:55.000 –> 00:20:59.999
an animation that was broadcast nationally.
[MHProNews: face and voice of Phillip Weiss, Journalist, New York Observer, about 20:13.]
When they showed that animation,
00:21:00.000 –> 00:21:04.999
it wasn’t like they then went out and talked to the fishing boat captain who had seen something completely different.
00:21:05.000 –> 00:21:09.999
[MHProNews: voice of perhaps a different male newscaster or the CIA’s animation voice saying…]
Flames visible to eye witness is more than 40 miles away.
00:21:10.000 –> 00:21:14.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Phillip Weiss, Journalist, New York Observer, about 20:20.]
I did and they said this is ridiculous. This does not describe what I saw.
[MHProNews: voice of perhaps a different male newscaster or the CIA’s animation voice saying…]
As the aircraft descended, it produced an increasingly visible fire…
00:21:15.000 –> 00:21:19.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 20:26.]
The video was shown
00:21:20.000 –> 00:21:24.999
on Network TV, it was shown nationally, it was shown over and over.
00:21:25.000 –> 00:21:29.999
[MHProNews: voice of perhaps a different male newscaster or the CIA’s animation voice saying…]
To think, there is no evidence that any eyewitness saw a missile shoot down TWA flight 800.
00:21:30.000 –> 00:21:34.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Phillip Weiss, Journalist, New York Observer, about 20:40.]
The press bought it. The press bought the government’s version of events.
00:21:35.000 –> 00:21:39.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 20:45]
At the time of the disaster, Westinghouse,
00:21:40.000 –> 00:21:44.999
a nuclear power company and major
defense contractor owned CBS News.
00:21:45.000 –> 00:21:49.999
[sil.]
00:21:50.000 –> 00:21:54.999
[MHProNews: face and voice of Kelly O’Meara, Congressional Aide, New York 1981-1997.]
Any logical person would go,
00:21:55.000 –> 00:21:59.999
well, where does the vast majority of their money come from? Government contracting.
00:22:00.000 –> 00:22:04.999
If Kristina were getting too close to the truth,
00:22:05.000 –> 00:22:09.999
would they shut down the investigation or would they lose their government contracts?
00:22:10.000 –> 00:22:14.999
I mean, these are logical questions that you have to wonder. What’s more important to CBS?
00:22:15.000 –> 00:22:19.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 21:29]
Ultimately, Borjesson’s pursuit
00:22:20.000 –> 00:22:24.999
of what happened that night challenged the priorities of corporate media.
00:22:25.000 –> 00:22:29.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 21:38.]
I walked into this meeting
00:22:30.000 –> 00:22:34.999
of news executives. I said, \”Why are we covering this?\” And one guy looks up at me and he goes,
00:22:35.000 –> 00:22:39.999
\”Oh, you think it’s a missile, don’t you?\” And I said,
00:22:40.000 –> 00:22:44.999
\”I don’t know what it is but I’ll tell you it’s not a straightforward thing,
00:22:45.000 –> 00:22:49.999
I mean, there is something going on here.\” And there was just this silence and I was just looking
00:22:50.000 –> 00:22:54.999
at this sea of white shirts and as I turned around and left,
00:22:55.000 –> 00:22:59.999
I was like, God, you know, my goose is cooked here and it was,
00:23:00.000 –> 00:23:04.999
you know, I was out a few weeks later.
00:23:05.000 –> 00:23:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 22:10]
The government’s official explanation of the disaster,
00:23:10.000 –> 00:23:14.999
mechanical failure, hasn’t been proven and questions still remain.
00:23:15.000 –> 00:23:19.999
[MHProNews: Kristina Borjesson, former CBS Reporter and Producer about 22:34.]
I can’t tell you
00:23:20.000 –> 00:23:24.999
with absolutely certainty what happened. When that many people die,
00:23:25.000 –> 00:23:29.999
you owe it to them and to the other people who were getting on those planes everyday
00:23:30.000 –> 00:23:34.999
to find out what really happened.
00:23:35.000 –> 00:23:43.000
[sil.]
00:23:45.000 –> 00:23:49.999
[MHProNews: Deepa Kumar, Associate Professor of Media Studies, about 23:00]
When you have corporations whose economic interests are very much tied
00:23:50.000 –> 00:23:54.999
into the agenda set by governments,
00:23:55.000 –> 00:23:59.999
it’s easier to let go of an individual journalist who is seen as a trouble maker that would shake up an entire system,
00:24:00.000 –> 00:24:05.000
which is based on the notion that official sources are never wrong.
00:24:15.000 –> 00:24:19.999
[MHProNews: text on screen says: “The Rise of Media Empires” about 23:09]
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 23:10]
Just as newspapers had been the driving force behind democracy, the great hope
00:24:20.000 –> 00:24:24.999
of the 20th century was the birth of mass media.
00:24:25.000 –> 00:24:29.999
[MHProNews: about 12:04 – Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, about 23:34.]
We think Google and Facebook is a big deal. Imagine what it must have been like in rural Kansas
00:24:30.000 –> 00:24:34.999
to suddenly be able to listen to a broadcast
00:24:35.000 –> 00:24:39.999
from New York City every night and how that collapsed the world
00:24:40.000 –> 00:24:44.999
in ways that is very difficult for us to conceive of today.
00:24:45.000 –> 00:24:53.000
[music and random voices]
00:24:55.000 –> 00:24:59.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 23:55]
In 1933, with the Great Depression and the nation in a state of panic,
00:25:00.000 –> 00:25:04.999
President Roosevelt took to the air waves.
[President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D), image and voice, about 24:05]
You people must have faith.
00:25:05.000 –> 00:25:09.999
You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses.
00:25:10.000 –> 00:25:14.999
Together, we cannot fail, and it is up to you to support
00:25:15.000 –> 00:25:19.999
and make it work.
[MHProNews: text on screen says “As many as 60 million people listened to President Roosevelt’s live radio broadcasts.” about 24:15.]
[MHProNews – cigarette ad voice about 24:27]
00:25:20.000 –> 00:25:25.000
[MHProNews: about 12:04 – Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, about 24:20.]
It was apparent to people at that time that the control over this medium was going to be a form of social control.
00:25:30.000 –> 00:25:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 24:28]
With advertising money pouring in, corporate networks pressured Congress to uphold [profit]
00:25:35.000 –> 00:25:39.999
as the basis for American [broadcasting].
00:25:40.000 –> 00:25:44.999
[MHProNews – cigarette ad voice about 24:38]
[MHProNews: about 12:04 – Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, about 24:49.]
This is of publicly owned property and lots of Americans protested
00:25:45.000 –> 00:25:49.999
that we would turn over this scarce resource, this extraordinary airwaves,
00:25:50.000 –> 00:25:54.999
to a handful of private commercial interests to make money by selling advertisement to us.
00:25:55.000 –> 00:25:59.999
Decided to tackle this job of telling on the air
00:26:00.000 –> 00:26:04.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 24:57]
In 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act sealing the future of America’s Broadcasting [MHProNews Note: per the FCC.gov website, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) signed the Communications Act of 1934).
00:26:05.000 –> 00:26:09.999
as a for-profit system.
[MHProNews: about 12:04 – Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, about 25:07.]
NBC, CBS, ABC,
00:26:10.000 –> 00:26:14.999
these huge empires were built upon the gift for free of monopoly rights
00:26:15.000 –> 00:26:19.999
to government property. It was an extraordinary corporate welfare
00:26:20.000 –> 00:26:24.999
that boggles the mind.
[MHProNews note: Shadows has on screen at about 25:19 the text: “Mass media makes of $236 billion a year in advertising revenue.” Per Statista on 11.3.2023: “In total, media ad revenue, excluding political, is expected to amount to 315 billion dollars that year [2022].” The point being made is that ad dollars can easily sway media toward a preferred narrative, or away from one that contrary to big corporate interests. Certain data points may have been accurate when this was produced, but have shifted since. That noted, the historic insights are still absolutely relevant.]
00:26:25.000 –> 00:26:29.999
[MHProNews note: Deepa Kumar, Media Studies Professor, about 25:33]
A recent study found that anywhere between
00:26:30.000 –> 00:26:34.999
40% and 70% of what is considered news is an idea
00:26:35.000 –> 00:26:39.999
that came out of a corporate PR dept. The media should
00:26:40.000 –> 00:26:44.999
have a social responsibility and unfortunately
00:26:45.000 –> 00:26:49.999
that does not happen in the current context.
00:26:50.000 –> 00:26:55.000
[music]
[MHProNews Note: on screen, the text says: “The New Media Monopoly.” It is worth mentioning that here “monopoly” is arguably meant in the sense of a state of limited competition, what is more precisely called an oligopoly.]
00:27:05.000 –> 00:27:09.999
[music]
00:27:10.000 –> 00:27:14.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 25:55. MHProNews also notes that Shadows has a subtheme that privately owned media may be part of the problem. That noted, what is the alternative? Government owned media? Nonprofit owned media? All of those can also obviously be influenced by private and/or governmental special interests. Perhaps a better point could have been made by focusing more than they already did (later herein) on not fostering more oligopoly style of monopolization. Stricter competition law enforcement that stops the problems of oligopoly type monopolization which they are documenting. Note too that the limited number of companies ‘given’ television broadcast rights in the early days of TV is in hindsight and obvious problem.]
With broadcasting set up as a commercial enterprise, government regulations were put into place
00:27:15.000 –> 00:27:19.999
to prevent monopolies.
00:27:20.000 –> 00:27:24.999
[MHProNews: John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’ about 26:20]
There was a cross party agreement that commercial activity would be regulated by the government.
00:27:25.000 –> 00:27:29.999
No individual should have
00:27:30.000 –> 00:27:34.999
such dominance of our media that they could effectively define a discourse.
00:27:35.000 –> 00:27:39.999
The great transition came in the election
00:27:40.000 –> 00:27:44.999
of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States.
00:27:45.000 –> 00:27:49.999
[MHProNews shows President Ronald Reagan speaking as he said about 26:40]
Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.
00:27:50.000 –> 00:27:54.999
[MHProNews: John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’ about 26:53. Note that while Nichols has a point, the problems – as was noted earlier – began in FDR days.]
Ronald Reagan believed
00:27:55.000 –> 00:27:59.999
the answer to any concern, any question, as regards
00:28:00.000 –> 00:28:04.999
how to create a good media system was to get government out of the way.
00:28:05.000 –> 00:28:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 27:01]
In order to restructure media ownership,
00:28:10.000 –> 00:28:14.999
Reagan removed regulations.
00:28:15.000 –> 00:28:19.999
[MHProNews shows President Ronald Reagan speaking as he said about 27:15]
Driving the bears back in the primitive hibernation, we’re going to turn the bolt loose.
00:28:20.000 –> 00:28:28.000
[sil.]
00:28:30.000 –> 00:28:34.999
[MHProNews note: Deepa Kumar, Media Studies Professor, about 27:26]
Their whole model was the idea that if you removed all controls and regulations
00:28:35.000 –> 00:28:40.000
and allowed the free market to rip then everything would be fine, everything would be wonderful.
[MHProNews note: text on screen reads “Advertising limits during children’s programming relaxed” “License renewal for broadcasters deregulated” “Raised limits on how many stations one company could own.” “Equal airtime to political candidates no longer required” around 27:35].
00:28:55.000 –> 00:28:59.999
[MHProNews note: Deepa Kumar, Media Studies Professor, about 27:50]
In reality, what it does is it allows a handful of giant corporations to come in and gobble up everything.
00:29:00.000 –> 00:29:04.999
And these conglomerates don’t see journalism as actually being central
00:29:05.000 –> 00:29:09.999
and essential to the functioning of a democracy. Their main interest is making profit.
00:29:10.000 –> 00:29:14.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 28:04]
One merger symbolized
00:29:15.000 –> 00:29:19.999
the takeover of mass media by conglomerates seeking ever higher profits.
00:29:20.000 –> 00:29:24.999
[MHProNews: Old TV video clip with announcer saying]
For General Electric, here is Ronald Reagan.
00:29:25.000 –> 00:29:29.999
[MHProNews: Vintage actor Ronald Reagan television clip about 28:12]
Good evening on this last Sunday before Christmas. The Christmas season is a time with the family and so…
00:29:30.000 –> 00:29:34.999
[MHProNews: John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’ about 28:25]
People should remember that Ronald Reagan was funded by large corporations
00:29:35.000 –> 00:29:39.999
and so suddenly we saw a radical transformation of the media system in the United States.
00:29:40.000 –> 00:29:44.999
[MHProNews: CBS News video clip featuring Dan Rather about 28:30]
General Electric and RCA, two of America’s biggest and best-known companies
00:29:45.000 –> 00:29:49.999
[in] a dramatic move last night. The two announced plans to merge.
00:29:50.000 –> 00:29:54.999
This high tech, multibillion dollar world’s (inaudible) complete with the major television network
00:29:55.000 –> 00:29:59.999
[MHProNews Jack Welch: GE CEO news announcement of merger clip, about 28:48]
We’ll now have the strongest network.
00:30:00.000 –> 00:30:04.999
We’ll have a stronger defense piece. This is gonna be one dynamite company.
00:30:05.000 –> 00:30:09.999
[MHProNews: Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor 1981-2005, per on screen text, speaking and on camera at about 28:57]
The concentration of mass media
00:30:10.000 –> 00:30:14.999
in the hands of a very few, very large international corporations
00:30:15.000 –> 00:30:19.999
who have a lot of different businesses,
00:30:20.000 –> 00:30:24.999
defense business, theme parks, and news became a smaller and smaller part
00:30:25.000 –> 00:30:29.999
of ever larger corporations.
00:30:30.000 –> 00:30:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 29:16]
The Reagan administration approved General Electric’s purchase of major media holdings
00:30:35.000 –> 00:30:39.999
despite ongoing violations of industry laws and practices.
00:30:40.000 –> 00:30:44.999
Meanwhile from General Electric, from my family and myself
00:30:45.000 –> 00:30:49.999
a merry, merry Christmas. Harry, don’t you wanna say merry Christmas.
00:30:50.000 –> 00:30:54.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of David Simon, Author and Journalist, Creator of “The Wire” at about 29:38.]
The original sin was going to Wall Street. The demands of Wall Street will require
00:30:55.000 –> 00:30:59.999
empty desks in your news room so why don’t you minimize your actual product
00:31:00.000 –> 00:31:04.999
and make more money? Capitalism is not
00:31:05.000 –> 00:31:09.999
the best judge of what’s good for society.
00:31:10.000 –> 00:31:14.999
I knew it was time to go, the last speech I got from CEO,
00:31:15.000 –> 00:31:19.999
he had been selling cereal, breakfast cereal
00:31:20.000 –> 00:31:24.999
before he was selling newspapers. He came into the boardroom where he gave a speech about product, he never once mentioned news.
00:31:25.000 –> 00:31:30.000
He never once mentioned the role of a newspaper.
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen is Norman Solomon, Journalist, “Institute for Public Accuracy’ Founder about 30:28].
00:31:40.000 –> 00:31:44.999
[Current] mission is to sell things. To delude and to deceive,
00:31:45.000 –> 00:31:49.999
to do damage control when unpleasant stories come up.
[MHProNews: Text on Screen – Killing the Messenger about 30:40]
00:31:50.000 –> 00:31:55.000
[music]
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 30:55]
00:32:10.000 –> 00:32:14.999
One of the biggest news stories of the 1980s
00:32:15.000 –> 00:32:20.760
was the explosion of crack cocaine in the United States. It is another night, another crack raid. Today, crack cocaine used here is an epidemic.
00:32:25.000 –> 00:32:29.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987]
Crack epidemic not only it destroyed lives in the sense
00:32:30.000 –> 00:32:34.999
that people we’re addicted to this powerful drug, but also it set off gang wars.
00:32:35.000 –> 00:32:39.999
[In certain] communities like the African-American communities were disproportionately hurt.
00:32:40.000 –> 00:32:44.999
Gary Webb, he began investigating that.
00:32:45.000 –> 00:32:49.999
[music]
00:32:50.000 –> 00:32:54.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Charles Bowden, Author and Journalist, about 31:37]
Gary Webb, he thought being a reporter was the best thing you could be.
00:32:55.000 –> 00:32:59.999
The only independent force in the society
00:33:00.000 –> 00:33:04.999
to establish truth.
00:33:05.000 –> 00:33:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 31:45]
What Gary Webb witnessed in the courthouse would lead him on a journey to uncover the origins
00:33:10.000 –> 00:33:14.999
of the crack epidemic in America.
00:33:15.000 –> 00:33:19.999
[MHProNews: voice on screen, Charles Bowden, Author and Journalist, about 31:55]
What first caught his eye, he’s got Nicaraguans.
00:33:20.000 –> 00:33:24.999
Obviously, dirty in a drug deal and they’re not going down,
00:33:25.000 –> 00:33:29.999
they’re getting a walk. As a reporter, you look into that.
00:33:30.000 –> 00:33:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 32:09]
As Webb looked at the suppliers of the crack trade in Los Angeles,
00:33:35.000 –> 00:33:39.999
the trail led back to a US-sponsored war a decade earlier in Central America.
00:33:40.000 –> 00:33:44.999
[MHProNews: voice and image on screen of Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst, National Security Archives – about 32:22]
The Reagan administration wanted to be proactive
00:33:45.000 –> 00:33:49.999
in sticking it to the communists around the world.
00:33:50.000 –> 00:33:54.999
President Ronald Reagan authorized the CIA to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building,
00:33:55.000 –> 00:33:59.999
supporting, directing the Contras against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
00:34:00.000 –> 00:34:04.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Ronald Reagan, about 32:39]
They’re the moral equal of our founding fathers,
00:34:05.000 –> 00:34:09.999
we cannot turn away from them.
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 32:46]
While the CIA
00:34:10.000 –> 00:34:14.999
attempted to topple [the democratically elected] government of Nicaragua,
00:34:15.000 –> 00:34:19.999
Webb discovered that Contras had ties to the crack explosion in Los Angeles.
00:34:20.000 –> 00:34:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image on screen of Peter Kornbluh, Senior Analyst, National Security Archives – about 33:04]
Sponsoring violence in a small Central American country
00:34:25.000 –> 00:34:29.999
was far more important than stopping drugs from flowing into our cities
00:34:30.000 –> 00:34:34.999
and our communities.
00:34:35.000 –> 00:34:39.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 33:13]
After a year-long investigation,
00:34:40.000 –> 00:34:44.999
Webb’s story was published on the front page of the St. Jose Mercury News.
00:34:45.000 –> 00:34:49.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Gary Webb, about 33:25.]
The central thing that we tried to show and it wasn’t particularly that the CIA knew about it.
00:34:50.000 –> 00:34:54.999
It was how crack came to be such a problem in America that it was connected
00:34:55.000 –> 00:34:59.999
to this Nicaraguan cocaine [pipeline].
00:35:00.000 –> 00:35:04.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 33:31]
Webb’s report broke new ground in becoming the first major news investigation published
00:35:05.000 –> 00:35:09.999
both in print and on the internet.
00:35:10.000 –> 00:35:14.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Susan F. Paterno, Senior Contributing Writer, American Journalism Review,’ about 33:48.]
As a consequence, even though the St. Jose Mercury News is considered a regional newspaper it was able to get national traction
00:35:15.000 –> 00:35:19.999
and even international traction on the story because it was now on the web.
00:35:20.000 –> 00:35:24.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Gary Webb, about 33:57.]
We’ve got all the DA under cover tapes, we’ve got the FBI reports,
00:35:25.000 –> 00:35:29.999
we’ve got the court records. They are all posted for people to see.
00:35:30.000 –> 00:35:34.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Dick Gregory, Comedian & Author, about 34:13.]
When you look at his research
00:35:35.000 –> 00:35:39.999
and what he was doing and tracing it,
00:35:40.000 –> 00:35:44.999
and he was hip enough to check it to know it was true.
00:35:45.000 –> 00:35:49.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 34:16]
By November 1997,
00:35:50.000 –> 00:35:54.999
the website was getting over a million hits a day and the story made the biggest impact in Los Angeles.
00:35:55.000 –> 00:35:59.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Representative Maxine Waters, about 34:27]
What is the word on the street now?
00:36:00.000 –> 00:36:04.999
Have you heard about the CIA. Well, you know what?
00:36:05.000 –> 00:36:09.999
We’ve heard. We’ve seen and now we’re moved to action.
00:36:10.000 –> 00:36:14.999
And we’re moved to action in ways that we haven’t been moved before.
00:36:15.000 –> 00:36:19.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 34:47]
With the CIA on the defensive and the public demanding answers,
00:36:20.000 –> 00:36:24.999
the major national newspapers [waded into the] controversy.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Susan F. Paterno, Senior Contributing Writer, American Journalism Review,’ about 34:56.]
The mainstream media
00:36:25.000 –> 00:36:29.999
first responded with pretty much a deafening nothing.
00:36:30.000 –> 00:36:34.999
But as the story got bigger and bigger, they started responding by blaming Gary Webb.
00:36:35.000 –> 00:36:39.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987, about 35:14]
We have the fact
00:36:40.000 –> 00:36:44.999
that as soon as the St. Jose Mercury News being in Silicon Valley was sort of challenging the gatekeeper function
00:36:45.000 –> 00:36:49.999
that the New York Times, the LA Times, The Washington Post, and other big papers had assumed was theirs.
00:36:50.000 –> 00:36:54.999
[MHProNews: voice on screen, Charles Bowden, Author and Journalist, about 35:27.]
The Washington Post weighs in
00:36:55.000 –> 00:36:59.999
and since Gary would have got it wrong and we can’t tell you exactly how he got it wrong because we [haven’t the first] goddamn idea.
00:37:00.000 –> 00:37:04.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987, about 35:40.]
It was accompanied by a piece that declared
00:37:05.000 –> 00:37:09.999
that the African-American Community was conspiracy prone so sort of set the tone
00:37:10.000 –> 00:37:14.999
that Webb story would be dismissed and [subjected to] ridicule.
00:37:15.000 –> 00:37:19.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen is Norman Solomon, Journalist, “Institute for Public Accuracy’ Founder about 35:53].
You had major media outlets
00:37:20.000 –> 00:37:24.999
going to the CIA and saying is this true and the CIA would say, \”Oh, no. This is not true\”
00:37:25.000 –> 00:37:29.999
and then the reportage was, \”Oh, [well that’s not true]\”
00:37:30.000 –> 00:37:34.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen is Duane Claridge, CIA Chief Officer, Central America 1981-84, about 36:04]
[This is nonsense.]
[Come on, come on], I’m here, listen, listen
00:37:35.000 –> 00:37:39.999
that has never been a conspiracy in this country.
00:37:40.000 –> 00:37:44.999
[MHProNews: unidentified male voice, about 36:21]
The fact is that the shoddy reporting on the story
00:37:45.000 –> 00:37:49.999
was not from Gary Webb. It was from
00:37:50.000 –> 00:37:54.999
his corporate-backed detractors.
00:37:55.000 –> 00:37:59.999
[MHProNews: voice on screen, Charles Bowden, Author and Journalist, about 36:36.]
Now I had a drink with a major figure of the LA Times
00:38:00.000 –> 00:38:04.999
and I asked him about the crack bag and he said, \”Look, they were meeting
00:38:05.000 –> 00:38:09.999
in the building but they weren’t going to let a guy from San Jose, California
00:38:10.000 –> 00:38:14.999
come into their turf and [win a Pulitzer Prize].
00:38:15.000 –> 00:38:19.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 36:39]
As the press attacked Gary Webb,
00:38:20.000 –> 00:38:24.999
the public protested.
[MHProNews: image and voice of Dick Gregory, Comedian & Author, about 36:54.]
I’ve got involved
00:38:25.000 –> 00:38:29.999
with the protests because Gary Webb, he had no hidden agenda.
00:38:30.000 –> 00:38:34.999
He is not a liar. And we’re going to put the CIA in this country on notice.
00:38:35.000 –> 00:38:39.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 37:01]
With the national media calling for retraction of the Webb story,
00:38:40.000 –> 00:38:44.999
his own newspaper took action.
00:38:45.000 –> 00:38:49.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Kurt Webb, Gary’s brother, about 37:16.]
The Mercury News was behind Gary 100% while he was writing it and then because of the backlash from the other media,
00:38:50.000 –> 00:38:54.999
they also back [pedaled] away from Gary.
00:38:55.000 –> 00:38:59.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Gary Webb follows that of an interviewer who asked: about 37:23.]
In the beginning, they were behind you.
00:39:00.000 –> 00:39:04.999
That’s right. And then they caught… then they caught, well, ruled the hell from the established media
00:39:05.000 –> 00:39:09.999
and now they’re not behind me anymore.
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987, about 37:35.]
The San Jose Mercury News
00:39:10.000 –> 00:39:14.999
essentially abandoned him.
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 37:41]
The pressure paid off.
00:39:15.000 –> 00:39:19.999
When the Mercury News took down the Dark Alliance website
00:39:20.000 –> 00:39:24.999
and reassigned Webb to a bureau 150 miles from his home.
00:39:25.000 –> 00:39:29.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Kurt Webb, Gary’s brother, about 38:00.]
And here this guy that had all these awards,
00:39:30.000 –> 00:39:34.999
this guy that broke a story that everyone wanted him not to break
00:39:35.000 –> 00:39:39.999
and all of a sudden you have a journalist that had been hailed was treated like a piece of crap.
00:39:40.000 –> 00:39:44.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 38:05]
A year later, the CIA released its internal report
00:39:45.000 –> 00:39:49.999
into the agency’s involvement with Contra drug traffickers.
00:39:50.000 –> 00:39:54.999
[MHProNews: Frederick P. Hitz, Inspector General, CIA, about 38:15.]
There are instances where CIA did not in an expeditious
00:39:55.000 –> 00:39:59.999
or consistent fashion cut off relationships with individuals supporting the Contra program
00:40:00.000 –> 00:40:04.999
who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity…
00:40:05.000 –> 00:40:09.999
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987, about 38:40.]
The contents of the report, [when you] go into the actual nitty-gritty of them
00:40:10.000 –> 00:40:14.999
what you find is that there was a serious problem that the US government knew about it
00:40:15.000 –> 00:40:19.999
and that the Contras were far more guilty of drug trafficking and the CIA was more guilty
00:40:20.000 –> 00:40:24.999
of looking the other way than even Gary Webb had suggested.
[MHProNews: perhaps the voice of Frederick P. Hitz, Inspector General, CIA, about 38:49.]
That report includes
00:40:25.000 –> 00:40:29.999
a great deal of information and quotes many documents…
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 38:51]
With the CIA’s report
00:40:30.000 –> 00:40:34.999
about its relationship with Contra drug traffickers, the media had a chance
00:40:35.000 –> 00:40:39.999
to vindicate Webb’s investigation.
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987, about 39:05.]
The New York Times, they do a story that’s
00:40:40.000 –> 00:40:44.999
half kind of mea culpa, we should have done more with this. It was worse than we thought
00:40:45.000 –> 00:40:49.999
and have, [but] Gary Webb’s still an idiot.
The Washington Post waits several weeks
00:40:50.000 –> 00:40:54.999
and does a rather dismissive article. The LA Times never reports
00:40:55.000 –> 00:40:59.999
on the CIA’s findings, so even though Webb was proven correct,
00:41:00.000 –> 00:41:04.999
he is still considered a flake, who got a story wrong.
00:41:05.000 –> 00:41:09.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Kurt Webb, Gary’s brother, about 39:31.]
Gary got betrayed by his own brethren if you will.
00:41:10.000 –> 00:41:14.999
In his mind, a journalist was supposed to expose the truth,
00:41:15.000 –> 00:41:19.999
not [do] the opposite, not (inaudible – perhaps “white wash it.”).
00:41:20.000 –> 00:41:24.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 39:41]
As the media buried the CIA’s report,
00:41:25.000 –> 00:41:29.999
Webb found his career at a dead end.
00:41:30.000 –> 00:41:34.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Kurt Webb, Gary’s brother, about 39:50.]
When he was interviewed for another job, they would say, “Aren’t you the guy who wrote Dark Alliance?”
00:41:35.000 –> 00:41:39.999
and that would [kill] the interview. He couldn’t make a living being the journalist any more
00:41:40.000 –> 00:41:44.999
and that… that [broke] his heart.
[MHProNews: image and voice on screen, Robert Parry, Journalist, “Consortium News,” “Associated Press” 1974-1987, about 40:02.]
He is despondent
00:41:45.000 –> 00:41:49.999
about his inability to find work. He got his father’s pistol,
00:41:50.000 –> 00:41:54.999
laid out a certificate for his cremation,
00:41:55.000 –> 00:41:59.999
and then he shot himself.
00:42:00.000 –> 00:42:04.999
[MHProNews: voice and still of Gary Webb, about 40:24]
Currently, you know, if I have to stand and take a beating for putting the issue of government complicity in drug trafficking
00:42:05.000 –> 00:42:09.999
on the national agenda, I’ll take that beating any day of the week. I mean, I was glad to do the story
00:42:10.000 –> 00:42:14.999
and I’m proud of what we did and I [would] do it again in a second.
00:42:15.000 –> 00:42:19.999
[MHProNews: voice on screen, Charles Bowden, Author and Journalist, about 40:37.]
We killed one of the few decent working reporters in the country.
00:42:20.000 –> 00:42:24.999
By that we, I mean, the business I’m in, media.
00:42:25.000 –> 00:42:29.999
[music]
00:42:30.000 –> 00:42:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Norman Solomon, Journalist, Institute for Public Accuracy Founder, about 40:53.]
We’re now at a stage where every journalist
00:42:35.000 –> 00:42:39.999
who isn’t asleep understands that corporate power has made it impossible for them
00:42:40.000 –> 00:42:44.999
to do the job as it needs to be done.
00:42:45.000 –> 00:42:50.000
[music]
[MHProNews: on screen text says Big Is Better about 41.07]
00:43:00.000 –> 00:43:04.999
With the new technological revolution, Congress began drafting new media legislation.
00:43:05.000 –> 00:43:09.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’ about 41:33]
The media conglomerates create the fantasy
00:43:10.000 –> 00:43:14.999
that if they were allowed to own dramatically more media,
00:43:15.000 –> 00:43:19.999
they could make dramatically better media. Big is better, effectively.
00:43:20.000 –> 00:43:24.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 41:37]
In order to sell their message,
00:43:25.000 –> 00:43:29.999
media conglomerates send their lobbyists to work the [halls of Congress].
00:43:30.000 –> 00:43:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, about 41:52.]
This was presented to the public as this is all about introducing free market reforms.
00:43:35.000 –> 00:43:39.999
We’re going to take these magical technologies,
deregulate, and open up the magic of the free market
00:43:40.000 –> 00:43:44.999
to work its wonders on communication.
It was a preposterous claim.
00:43:45.000 –> 00:43:49.999
[music]
00:43:50.000 –> 00:43:54.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Janine Jackson, Program Director, “Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting,” about 42:13]
Media corporations
00:43:55.000 –> 00:43:59.999
need that favorable policy that’s going to allow them to grow and make more and more money
00:44:00.000 –> 00:44:04.999
and politicians need that media to give them the air time that they couldn’t exist without.
00:44:05.000 –> 00:44:09.999
Who’s left out of that deal, of course, is the public.
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 42:26]
Fantasy became reality
00:44:10.000 –> 00:44:14.999
for the media conglomerates when President Bill Clinton signed the 1996
00:44:15.000 –> 00:44:19.999
Telecom Act into law.
[MHProNews notes: per Congress.gov, the vote was widely bipartisan]
| 02/01/1996 | Senate | Senate agreed to conference report by Yea-Nay Vote. 91-5. Record Vote No: 8. (consideration: CR S720) |
| 02/01/1996-4:24pm | House | On agreeing to the conference report Agreed to by recorded vote: 414 – 16 (Roll no. 25). (consideration: CR H1179) |
00:44:20.000 –> 00:44:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, about 42:45. Per WikiWand: FAIR means: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).]
Newt Gingrich was the Republican speaker of the House, President Clinton
00:44:25.000 –> 00:44:29.999
is the Democratic White House and they are both getting millions, literally millions of dollars.
00:44:30.000 –> 00:44:34.999
At that point, behind closed doors,
00:44:35.000 –> 00:44:39.999
these media conglomerates are asking for the rules to be loosened even more.
00:44:40.000 –> 00:44:44.999
[MHProNews: CBS News broadcast clip with anchor Dan Rather, at about 42:53.]
President Clinton used the stately Library of Congress for the backdrop today
00:44:45.000 –> 00:44:49.999
to sign the massive new telecommunications bill in the law.
00:44:50.000 –> 00:44:54.999
[MHProNews: President Bill Clinton (D) video clip, about 43:01].
This law is truly revolutionary legislation that would bring the future
00:44:55.000 –> 00:44:59.999
to our doorstep.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Janine Jackson, Program Director, “Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting,” about 43:11]
Telecom 96 really rang the dinner bell
00:45:00.000 –> 00:45:04.999
for media conglomerates to come and eat up every station that they wanted.
00:45:05.000 –> 00:45:09.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 43:25]
Following the Telecom Act,
00:45:10.000 –> 00:45:14.999
a wave of massive mergers swept through the media industry.
00:45:15.000 –> 00:45:19.999
[MHProNews: unidentified voice.]
A handful of entertainment stars using mega mergers
00:45:20.000 –> 00:45:24.999
are preparing to dominate TV and movie screens worldwide.
00:45:25.000 –> 00:45:29.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Michael Eisner, CEO Disney/ABC, about 43:37]
A combination of the two together gives us the opportunity to become the strongest creative
00:45:30.000 –> 00:45:34.999
company in the world.
[MHProNews: unidentified voice.]
The superlatives were flying as Viacom
00:45:35.000 –> 00:45:39.999
and CBS announce the biggest media merger ever.
00:45:40.000 –> 00:45:44.999
[MHProNews: CBS News broadcast clip of voice then image of anchor Dan Rather, at about 43:48.]
A new multimedia giant will soon control an enormous amount of the entertainments.
00:45:45.000 –> 00:45:49.999
Viacom is buying CBS, parent of CBS news…
00:45:50.000 –> 00:45:54.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Sumner Redstone, CEO announcing deal of Viacom/CBS.]
When you think about the new Viacom, you really only have to remember a single number.
00:45:55.000 –> 00:45:59.999
That’s number one.
00:46:00.000 –> 00:46:04.999
[MHProNews: various unidentified newscast voices.]
…have capitalized on the conversions of media, entertainment…
00:46:05.000 –> 00:46:13.000
…has American as apple pie. The world’s largest provider of internet access is merging with the world’s largest media and entertainment company.
00:46:15.000 –> 00:46:19.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Silvia Rivera, Managing Director, Vocalo, about 44:33]
When media consolidation began to happen,
00:46:20.000 –> 00:46:24.999
the local broadcasters weren’t able to compete. [And guess who] those local radio station owners were.
00:46:25.000 –> 00:46:29.999
It might have been a person of color or [it] might have been a woman.
00:46:30.000 –> 00:46:34.999
This really just knocked people out of the game.
00:46:35.000 –> 00:46:43.000
[music]
00:46:45.000 –> 00:46:49.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, about 44:56]
We’ve totally destroyed the local local listener of broadcasting purely to serve corporate interests.
00:46:50.000 –> 00:46:54.999
There’s nothing in market economics that justifies this pure crony capitalism at its worst.
00:46:55.000 –> 00:46:59.999
[music]
00:47:00.000 –> 00:47:04.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, about 45:14.]
In this high-tech digital age with high-definition television and digital radio
00:47:05.000 –> 00:47:09.999
all we ever get is static, a veil of distortion and lies
00:47:10.000 –> 00:47:15.000
and misrepresentations and half-truths that obscure reality.
00:47:25.000 –> 00:47:29.999
[MHProNews: text on screen says Perception is Reality, 45:21.]
[MHProNews: voice and image of Chris Hedges, Foreign Correspondent, New York Times, 1990-2005, about 45:43.]
In times of war, the press loses all critical distance.
00:47:30.000 –> 00:47:34.999
Journalists see themselves
00:47:35.000 –> 00:47:39.999
as first and foremost patriots. The result is essentially
00:47:40.000 –> 00:47:44.999
the dissemination of propaganda.
00:47:45.000 –> 00:47:49.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 45:51]
In the world’s media capital, on September 11, 2001,
00:47:50.000 –> 00:47:54.999
the unthinkable happened.
00:47:55.000 –> 00:48:03.000
[sil.]
00:48:05.000 –> 00:48:09.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of then-President George W. Bush, apparent news clip at ground zero where Twin Towers stood, about 46:08.]
The people who [knocked these buildings down] will hear all of it soon.
00:48:10.000 –> 00:48:14.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jonathan Landay, National Security Correspondent, Knight Ridder, about 46.24.]
The terrorist attack
00:48:15.000 –> 00:48:19.999
of September 11th, as tragic as it was, was almost like a Godsend
00:48:20.000 –> 00:48:24.999
to the Bush administration because it gave them the raise on death that they were looking for
00:48:25.000 –> 00:48:29.999
to invade Iraq.
00:48:30.000 –> 00:48:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 46:31]
To link Saddam Hussein to 9/11, the Bush administration turned
00:48:35.000 –> 00:48:39.999
to the intelligence community.
[MHProNews: Bob Baer, Middle East Field Officer, CIA, 1976-1997, about 46:51.]
You have to remember
00:48:40.000 –> 00:48:44.999
this is not an inductive process, it’s deductive. You decide to go to war
00:48:45.000 –> 00:48:49.999
and then you go find the justification and this is exactly what happened.
00:48:50.000 –> 00:48:54.999
Look, I ran the Iraqi operations, we didn’t have any information.
00:48:55.000 –> 00:48:59.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 46:58]
With no evidence of Saddam Hussein’s role in the attacks,
00:49:00.000 –> 00:49:04.999
defectors started emerging from Iraq with exclusives for US news outlets.
00:49:05.000 –> 00:49:09.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Pratap Chatterjee, Executive Director, CorpWatch, about 47:13.]
There was an Iraqi by the name of
00:49:10.000 –> 00:49:14.999
Adnan Issan Sayed Al-Hadeethi(ph) he claimed to have evidence of, you know,
00:49:15.000 –> 00:49:19.999
biological and nuclear and various kinds of weapons [of] mass destruction.
00:49:20.000 –> 00:49:24.999
[MHProNews: Jonathan Landay, National Security Correspondent, Knight Ridder, about 47:32.]
He also talked about various facilities being under Saddam’s main palace.
00:49:25.000 –> 00:49:29.999
He talked about nuclear facilities being disguised as water wells.
00:49:30.000 –> 00:49:34.999
I mean, he was their best corroboration that Saddam was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
00:49:35.000 –> 00:49:39.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 47:40]
While the defector appeared to provide the smoking [gun] against Saddam,
00:49:40.000 –> 00:49:44.999
the plan to topple the Iraqi dictator was hatched
00:49:45.000 –> 00:49:49.999
a decade earlier as part of a CIA covert operation.
00:49:50.000 –> 00:49:54.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of James Bamford, author and Journalist, about 48:02.]
During the 1990s the CIA went outside of the organization
00:49:55.000 –> 00:49:59.999
and it hired a private corporation called Rendon Group.
00:50:00.000 –> 00:50:04.999
What Rendon specializes in is not really espionage,
00:50:05.000 –> 00:50:09.999
it’s perception management. It’s changing your views, it’s creating an image that may or may not be truthful.
00:50:10.000 –> 00:50:14.999
[MHProNews: news clip, reporter asks John Rendon of the Rendon Group about the CIA, and Rendon replies as shown after the question.]
You can’t discuss your relationship you have with CIA?
00:50:15.000 –> 00:50:19.999
I wouldn’t discuss it even if I had to. No, it’s not appropriate for me to have any discussion about
00:50:20.000 –> 00:50:24.999
US criminal activity.
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 48:20]
For the propaganda campaign,
00:50:25.000 –> 00:50:29.999
the Rendon Group created an opposition party to Saddam, the Iraqi National Congress [i.e. and a.k.a: INC.]
00:50:30.000 –> 00:50:34.999
[MHProNews: Pratrap Chatterjee, Executive Director, CorpWatch, about 48:39.]
The Rendon Group provided tens of million of dollars
00:50:35.000 –> 00:50:39.999
to create this political party that was really kind of a
00:50:40.000 –> 00:50:44.999
figment of imagination in some ways. It had no real backing in Iraq.
00:50:45.000 –> 00:50:49.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 48:48]
In the wake of 9/11,
00:50:50.000 –> 00:50:54.999
with the Bush administration determined to make the case for war, they called on the INC.
00:50:55.000 –> 00:50:59.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Bob Baer, Middle East Field Officer, CIA, 1976-1997, about 48:59]
So what happened was the INC was asked
00:51:00.000 –> 00:51:04.999
to provide evidence about the weapons of mass destruction to tell the White House what it wanted to hear.
00:51:05.000 –> 00:51:09.999
It was a complete act of deceit from the beginning.
00:51:10.000 –> 00:51:14.999
[MHProNews: voice and image from news clip of Dick Cheney, Vice President for George W. Bush, 2001-2009, about 49:14.]
They suffered another major blow in Desert Storm and its aftermath but we now know
00:51:15.000 –> 00:51:19.999
that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
00:51:20.000 –> 00:51:24.999
Among other sources, we have gotten this from first-hand testimony from defectors.
00:51:25.000 –> 00:51:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image from news clip of Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, 2001-2006.]
We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit in Bagdad and… and east, west, south, and north somewhat.
00:51:30.000 –> 00:51:34.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 49:27]
The success of the propaganda campaign
00:51:35.000 –> 00:51:39.999
would depend on one news outlet.
00:51:40.000 –> 00:51:44.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Chris Hedges, Foreign Correspondent, New York Times, 1990-2005, about 49:51.]
It created a stage and brought journalists into the audience who dutifully took notes and reported it.
00:51:45.000 –> 00:51:49.999
I watched this from the inside,
00:51:50.000 –> 00:51:54.999
people like Judy Miller, Michael Gordon,
00:51:55.000 –> 00:51:59.999
Steve Engelberg who ran the investigation, they we’re true believers. They believed all
00:52:00.000 –> 00:52:04.999
the crap they were fed.
00:52:05.000 –> 00:52:09.999
[music]
00:52:10.000 –> 00:52:14.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Julian Assange, Editor in Chief, WikiLeaks, about 5o:04].
New York Times is the intellectual and political opinion leader
00:52:15.000 –> 00:52:19.999
in the United States [sucking] up to the government in the most outrageous ways,
00:52:20.000 –> 00:52:24.999
constantly trying to placate the military intelligence complex.
00:52:25.000 –> 00:52:30.000
[MHProNews: voice and image of Dick Cheney, VP of George W. Bush, on 9.8.2022, about 5o:16.]
There is a story in the New York Times this morning…
00:52:35.000 –> 00:52:39.999
[MHProNews: various clips Bush Administration officials, including then President Bush, saying ‘we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud,’ about 50:26]
The smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
00:52:40.000 –> 00:52:44.999
[music]
00:52:45.000 –> 00:52:49.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 50:45]
With the mainstream convinced of the necessity for a war, the administration took their case
00:52:50.000 –> 00:52:54.999
to the world stage.
00:52:55.000 –> 00:52:59.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of John R. MacArthur, President and Publisher, Harper’s Magazine, about 50:49.]
The coup de gras and the most brilliant propaganda maneuver of all was Collin Powell’s
00:53:00.000 –> 00:53:04.999
absolutely fraudulent presentation in front of the United Nations Security Council.
00:53:05.000 –> 00:53:09.999
[MHProNews: apparent news clip of Collin Powell speaking at the U.N. for the U.S. government and the Bush Administration, about 50:55]
Let me share with you what we know from eyewitness accounts
00:53:10.000 –> 00:53:14.999
we have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels
00:53:15.000 –> 00:53:19.999
and on rails and Saddam Hussein has not verifiably accounted
00:53:20.000 –> 00:53:24.999
for even one teaspoonful of this deadly material.
00:53:25.000 –> 00:53:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Chris Hedges, Foreign Correspondent, New York Times, 1990-2005, about 51:15.]
Much of the fabricated information
00:53:30.000 –> 00:53:34.999
that was passed on by the \”defectors\” formed the basis for Collin Powell’s accusations.
00:53:35.000 –> 00:53:39.999
[MHProNews: apparent news clip of Collin Powell speaking at the U.N. for the U.S. government and the Bush Administration, about 51:26]
Why should any of us give Iraq
00:53:40.000 –> 00:53:44.999
the benefit of the doubt?
[MHProNews: the apparent voice of Chris Hedges, Foreign Correspondent, New York Times, 1990-2005, about 51:33.]
You don’t have any
00:53:45.000 –> 00:53:49.999
hard evidence but you should have them. Press fall all over themselves
00:53:50.000 –> 00:53:54.999
as soon as it was done saying that this had been a definitive case for war.
00:53:55.000 –> 00:53:59.999
[MHProNews: the apparent voice of Sean Hannity, Fox News personality, about 51:45.]
This irrefutable, undeniable, incontrovertible evidence today,
00:54:00.000 –> 00:54:04.999
Collin Powell brilliantly delivered that smoking gun today.
[MHProNews: other network news clips, including CNN showing Henry Kissinger, speaking about Colin Powell’s presentation at the U.N. , about 51:55.]
00:54:05.000 –> 00:54:09.999
He just flooded the terrain with data. He has closed the deal.
00:54:10.000 –> 00:54:14.999
[MHProNews: Pratrap Chatterjee, Executive Director, CorpWatch, about 52:08.]
CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC,
00:54:15.000 –> 00:54:19.999
the giant echo chamber that creates public perception in the United States
00:54:20.000 –> 00:54:24.999
were giving out the administration lies.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Dan Rather, then CBS News anchor, during a newscast clip about 52:10.]
Scores of American reporters have now joined US Military units in Kuwait
00:54:25.000 –> 00:54:29.999
but the Pentagon calls it media friendly campaign.
[MHProNews: voice for MSNBC during a newscast clip about 52:16.]
Show down Iraq.
00:54:30.000 –> 00:54:34.999
If America goes to war.
Turn to MSNBC…
[MHProNews: the apparent voice of Chris Hedges, Foreign Correspondent, New York Times, 1990-2005, about 52:29.]
If you look
00:54:35.000 –> 00:54:39.999
to the television screens with these graphics and drum rolls and countdown to Bagdad was kind of start.
00:54:40.000 –> 00:54:44.999
It was a raw and open celebration of American power.
00:54:45.000 –> 00:54:49.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of then President George W. Bush, about 52:34]
This hour, American coalition forces
00:54:50.000 –> 00:54:54.999
[are in] the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people,
00:54:55.000 –> 00:54:59.999
and to defend the world from great danger.
00:55:00.000 –> 00:55:08.000
[sil.]
00:55:15.000 –> 00:55:19.999
[MHProNews: narrators voice – about 53:00]
After the fall of Saddam, [name of] the INC’s defector
00:55:20.000 –> 00:55:24.999
finally had the chance to show the world the justification for war.
00:55:25.000 –> 00:55:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jonathan Landay, National Security Correspondent, Knight Ridder, about 53:12]
Mr. Hydri(ph) couldn’t bring these guys to a single place
00:55:30.000 –> 00:55:34.999
that he claimed had housed the weapons of mass destruction programs.
00:55:35.000 –> 00:55:39.999
The media fell hook, line, and sinker for
00:55:40.000 –> 00:55:44.999
the administration’s case for war and, in fact,
00:55:45.000 –> 00:55:49.999
certain publications appears to have been deliberately used and openly receptive of
00:55:50.000 –> 00:55:54.999
information that the Bush administration produced that was wrong
00:55:55.000 –> 00:55:59.999
but that bolstered it’s case for war.
00:56:00.000 –> 00:56:04.999
[MHProNews: image of then President Bush marching toward podium during press conference, follows an announcer saying his title, about 53:40, Bush’s words start with uh…]
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States
uh… will be here in a minute. King, John King.
00:56:05.000 –> 00:56:09.999
[MHProNews: a narrator’s voice saying, about 53:57]
So it is scripted.
00:56:10.000 –> 00:56:14.999
You cannot go against the White House and survive. You’re finished.
00:56:15.000 –> 00:56:19.999
[MHProNews: cut back to Bush press conference.]
April, did you have a question or did I call upon [you cold]?
I have a question.
00:56:20.000 –> 00:56:24.999
Okay. I’m sure, you do [have a question].
00:56:25.000 –> 00:56:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Bob Baer, former Middle East Field Officer, CIA, 1976-1997, about 54:06.]
The whole idea in Washington is to marginalize people
00:56:30.000 –> 00:56:34.999
who go against the consensus and they do it very well. You don’t get invited to the party.
00:56:35.000 –> 00:56:39.999
[music]
00:56:40.000 –> 00:56:44.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of John R. MacArthur, President and Publisher, Harper’s Magazine, about 54:39]
For me to blame the reporters is to miss the point. They have to blame the owners
00:56:45.000 –> 00:56:49.999
of the media. You have to blame not just Rupert Murdoch but Arthur Sulzberger,
00:56:50.000 –> 00:56:54.999
the publisher of the New York Times, Donald Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post,
00:56:55.000 –> 00:56:59.999
the owners of Viacom, Sumner Redstone. These are the people who are responsible
00:57:00.000 –> 00:57:04.999
for the conduct of the people who work for them. They set the tone.
00:57:05.000 –> 00:57:13.000
[music]
00:57:15.000 –> 00:57:19.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, about 54:56]
It is my belief that wars really are started by the mainstream media.
00:57:20.000 –> 00:57:24.999
It is my belief that the press getting too close
00:57:25.000 –> 00:57:29.999
to be government. Actually we’re talking about sort of interbreeding or intermeshing
00:57:30.000 –> 00:57:34.999
between the structures of the mainstream media and the structure
00:57:35.000 –> 00:57:39.999
of the military-intelligence complex.
00:57:40.000 –> 00:57:44.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of FAIR, Author and Journalist, about 55:26]
The impact is that we’ve got all of these innocent people in Iraq
00:57:45.000 –> 00:57:49.999
that have died. We’ve got thousands of American soldiers
00:57:50.000 –> 00:57:54.999
and British soldiers that have died, they died for a lie that was so easily uncovered.
00:57:55.000 –> 00:57:59.999
But it wasn’t allowed in the biggest news outlets.
00:58:00.000 –> 00:58:04.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, about 56:00.]
These private corporations are making profit
00:58:05.000 –> 00:58:09.999
off the killing. They push for more war. It builds their audiences.
00:58:10.000 –> 00:58:14.999
They limit the discussion about whether war should continue.
00:58:15.000 –> 00:58:19.999
They bring you the general versus the colonel or the pro-war
00:58:20.000 –> 00:58:24.999
Republican versus the pro-war Democrat and they have these extremely limited debates,
00:58:25.000 –> 00:58:29.999
when most people are outside of that spectrum. Most people are against war.
00:58:30.000 –> 00:58:38.000
[sil.]
00:58:45.000 –> 00:58:53.000
[music]
[MHProNews: text on screen says, The Battle for the Public Interest].
00:59:00.000 –> 00:59:04.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of John Nichols, Author and Journalist, “The Nation Magazine,” about 56:47]
The rapid consolidation of media across broadcast, also into film, book publishing
00:59:05.000 –> 00:59:09.999
created a situation where instead of having the democratic media system
00:59:10.000 –> 00:59:14.999
that the founders anticipated with thousands of different owners
00:59:15.000 –> 00:59:20.000
of small weekly newspapers, you [no longer] had Tom Paine, you had Rupert Murdoch.
00:59:25.000 –> 00:59:29.999
[MHProNews: voice of someone with the World Economic Forum logo in the background, asking NewsCorp leader Rupert Murdock, about 57:08.]
Rupert is there any agenda that you want to shape? For example, take the war.
00:59:30.000 –> 00:59:34.999
You have a global media enterprise, and have you shaped that agenda
00:59:35.000 –> 00:59:39.999
at all in terms of how the war is viewed?
[MHProNews: voice of Rupert Murdock, also with World Economic Forum (WEF) logo in the background, replying to that question about 57:16.]
No, I don’t think so. I mean, we tried.
00:59:40.000 –> 00:59:44.999
[MHProNews: voice of someone with the World Economic Forum asking NewsCorp leader Rupert Murdock, about 57:16.]
Tried in what way?
00:59:45.000 –> 00:59:49.999
[MHProNews: voice of Rupert Murdock, also with World Economic Forum (WEF) logo in the background, replying to that question about 57:18.]
Well, we basically supported, you know, uh… papers and obviously
00:59:50.000 –> 00:59:54.999
I would say, supported the Bush policy.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, about 57:32]
00:59:55.000 –> 00:59:59.999
NewsCorp and others have eaten out
01:00:00.000 –> 01:00:04.999
nearly every single independently-managed newspaper within the United States.
01:00:05.000 –> 01:00:09.999
That’s something that is quite dangerous and putting its business interests
01:00:10.000 –> 01:00:14.999
and its political interests over the top of all that.
01:00:15.000 –> 01:00:19.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 57:48]
In order to prevent media [monopolies] the Federal Communications Commission
01:00:20.000 –> 01:00:24.999
is charged with regulating the media.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Janine Jackson, Program Director, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, about 58:01]
The most important job the FCC has
01:00:25.000 –> 01:00:29.999
is looking out for regular citizens and making sure that whatever media policy is made
01:00:30.000 –> 01:00:34.999
that it’s the best for the public and the best for democracy.
01:00:35.000 –> 01:00:39.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Michael Powell, FCC Chairman, 2001-2005, reported as son of Colin Powell, about 58:11.]
And how are you? Good, good to see you.
01:00:40.000 –> 01:00:44.999
I’m available for questions.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, at about 58:18.]
So Colin Powell leads the drumbeat for war
01:00:45.000 –> 01:00:49.999
and his son, Michael Powell was attempting to lead the war
01:00:50.000 –> 01:00:54.999
against diversity of voices at home.
01:00:55.000 –> 01:00:59.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 58:27]
Once in office, Powell waged war against the last remaining rules
01:01:00.000 –> 01:01:04.999
on media ownership.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, at about 58:40,]
Here’s this agency
01:01:05.000 –> 01:01:09.999
that very few people knew about and they were trying to push through regulations that said in a town
01:01:10.000 –> 01:01:14.999
the newspaper, radio, and television could be owned by one person,
01:01:15.000 –> 01:01:19.999
by a media mogul, someone like Rupert Murdoch.
01:01:20.000 –> 01:01:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of John Nichols, Author and Journalist, “The Nation Magazine,” about 58:58]
This is what people feared the most, that all the content for TV, radio,
01:01:25.000 –> 01:01:29.999
and the newspaper coming out of one shop. A one-size-fits-all
01:01:30.000 –> 01:01:34.999
one newsroom community.
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 59:03]
There was almost no public scrutiny
01:01:35.000 –> 01:01:39.999
until Michael Powell called network coverage of the Iraq war [\ “thrilling”\].
01:01:40.000 –> 01:01:44.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist,]
There were these millions of people and they hear that the FCC guy
01:01:45.000 –> 01:01:49.999
is calling the coverage “thrilling” while he is trying to obliterate the last remaining rules
01:01:50.000 –> 01:01:54.999
and it just tapped into this anger that people were feeling about the war.
01:01:55.000 –> 01:01:59.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 59:23]
Despite millions of people protesting against the FCC,
01:02:00.000 –> 01:02:04.999
Michael Powell didn’t get the message.
01:02:05.000 –> 01:02:09.999
[MHProNews: cut away to video of people protesting what Michael Powell was saying, about 59:34.]
Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.
01:02:10.000 –> 01:02:14.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Janine Jackson, Program Director, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, about 59:43]
Even when people did say, \”Hey, FCC,
01:02:15.000 –> 01:02:19.999
we’re the public. We don’t want you to do this,\” the FCC turned
around and did exactly what those mega corporations wanted
01:02:20.000 –> 01:02:24.999
it to do in the first place.
01:02:25.000 –> 01:02:29.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 59:52]
With victory at home, the media giants publicly expressed their gratitude.
01:02:30.000 –> 01:02:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, about 1:00:04.]
And it was pretty stunning. The head of Viacom is Sumner Redstone.
01:02:35.000 –> 01:02:39.999
He repeatedly said, \”Having a Republican in the White House is better for my company
01:02:40.000 –> 01:02:44.999
and I vote Viacom and for that reason I endorse Bush’s election.\”
01:02:45.000 –> 01:02:49.999
[music]
01:02:50.000 –> 01:02:54.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor, at about 1:00:17].
These large conglomerate companies, they contribute to political campaigns,
01:02:55.000 –> 01:02:59.999
they expect to get something for their money deciding on their own and for their own purposes
01:03:00.000 –> 01:03:05.000
the news we see [and] hear.
[MHProNews: there is a montage of overlapping news talk as the screen has the text: “The Big 5 Conglomerates Control the Majority of Media in the U.S.A. about 100:3o].
01:03:15.000 –> 01:03:19.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of James Murdoch, Chief Executive, News Corporation, at about 1:00:47].
The only reliable, durable,
01:03:20.000 –> 01:03:24.999
and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit.
01:03:25.000 –> 01:03:29.999
Thank you.
01:03:30.000 –> 01:03:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Danny Glover, Actor and Director, at about 1:00:58].
Every aspect of our lives, from what we buy,
01:03:35.000 –> 01:03:39.999
what is sold to us, who produces it, all those things are connected.
01:03:40.000 –> 01:03:44.999
It’s not only a monopoly of wealth, it’s a monopoly of information as well.
01:03:45.000 –> 01:03:53.000
[music]
01:04:05.000 –> 01:04:09.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Brad Friedman, Journalist, about 1:01:45.]
This is the
01:04:10.000 –> 01:04:14.999
mother of all scandals. International finance, nuclear weapons,
01:04:15.000 –> 01:04:19.999
spying, and yet New York Times, The Washington Post,
01:04:20.000 –> 01:04:24.999
AP, ABC, CNBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, all of them
01:04:25.000 –> 01:04:29.999
apparently couldn’t give a damn about the story.
01:04:30.000 –> 01:04:35.000
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:01:52.]
In the wake of 9/11, the media focused its attention on terrorism.
01:04:40.000 –> 01:04:44.999
[MHProNews: a montage of apparent news voices, about 1:02:10.]
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:02:17.]
The idea of the terrorist or criminal enterprise could come up with the nuclear weapon
01:04:45.000 –> 01:04:49.999
or even a dirty bomb.
This was about four or five days
01:04:50.000 –> 01:04:54.999
after the September 11th terrorist attack when the FBI was asking
01:04:55.000 –> 01:04:59.999
people with language abilities to join the Bureau.
01:05:00.000 –> 01:05:04.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Philip Giraldi, CIA Counter Terrorism Officer, 1976-1992, about 1:02:37].
Siebel Edmonds
01:05:05.000 –> 01:05:09.999
would have been listening to evidence of criminal activity, corruption issues.
01:05:10.000 –> 01:05:14.999
The FBI was also looking at
01:05:15.000 –> 01:05:19.999
proliferation of nuclear materials, weapons transfers,
01:05:20.000 –> 01:05:24.999
weapon sales that were illegal.
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:02:46.]
One of the investigations
01:05:25.000 –> 01:05:29.999
by the FBI led to a Turkish group[s?] involved in nuclear espionage.
01:05:30.000 –> 01:05:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:02:59.]
What I was reviewing was not only foreign language,
01:05:35.000 –> 01:05:39.999
a lot of them, in fact, were in English. It involved people from the State Department
01:05:40.000 –> 01:05:44.999
talking to the targets of these operations.
01:05:45.000 –> 01:05:49.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:03:05.]
What Edmonds allegedly heard were conversations about the exchange of US nuclear secrets
01:05:50.000 –> 01:05:54.999
between a Turkish group and Marc Grossman,
01:05:55.000 –> 01:05:59.999
a high-ranking State Department official.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Philip Giraldi, CIA Counter Terrorism Officer, 1976-1992, about 1:03:24]
Mark Grossman’s conversation
01:06:00.000 –> 01:06:04.999
with the Turks was very definitely against US interests.
01:06:05.000 –> 01:06:09.999
It also was a crime because there were other conversations
01:06:10.000 –> 01:06:14.999
indicating that he had taken money from the Turks, so that is a clear issue of corruption
01:06:15.000 –> 01:06:19.999
in the US government.
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:03:36.]
Edmonds discovered
01:06:20.000 –> 01:06:24.999
the alleged illegal sale of US nuclear secrets.
01:06:25.000 –> 01:06:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Brad Friedman, Journalist, about 1:03:51.]
She is talking about stolen secrets
01:06:30.000 –> 01:06:34.999
sold on the black market to frankly enemies of the US.
01:06:35.000 –> 01:06:39.999
Iran, Libya, North Korea, potentially even Al-Qaeda.
01:06:40.000 –> 01:06:44.999
This is happening in the highest level of the US government.
01:06:45.000 –> 01:06:49.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:04:09.]
When she [reported her discovery] it to
01:06:50.000 –> 01:06:54.999
the heads of the FBI their reaction was unexpected.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:04:17.]
01:06:55.000 –> 01:06:59.999
The assistant director of the FBI coming and boldly asking
01:07:00.000 –> 01:07:04.999
not to report this any further that this was explosive and um…
01:07:05.000 –> 01:07:09.999
just asking me to forget and move on.
01:07:10.000 –> 01:07:14.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:04:27.]
When she continued to raise questions at the FBI,
01:07:15.000 –> 01:07:19.999
Edmonds was fired with no explanation.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:04:34.]
So you’re firing me without providing me
01:07:20.000 –> 01:07:24.999
with any reasons and the response was \”No, we’re not firing you, we’re terminating you.\”
01:07:25.000 –> 01:07:29.999
There is a big difference.
01:07:30.000 –> 01:07:34.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:04:45.]
She took the FBI to court for wrongful termination and the administration
01:07:35.000 –> 01:07:39.999
responded by silencing her under law.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Brad Friedman, Journalist, about 1:04:58]
This absurd
01:07:40.000 –> 01:07:44.999
state’s secret privilege is absolute and it requires no evidence.
01:07:45.000 –> 01:07:49.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:05:00.]
At that point I thought there would be no judge
01:07:50.000 –> 01:07:54.999
who would agree with this. I mean, this is ludicrous,
01:07:55.000 –> 01:07:59.999
Instead, the judges asked that security
01:08:00.000 –> 01:08:04.999
to come and escort me and my attorneys outside the court
01:08:05.000 –> 01:08:09.999
and never, [um, I never] got to hear the argument.
Everything about this case
01:08:10.000 –> 01:08:14.999
is considered classified, highly sensitive, covered by the state’s secret privilege,
01:08:15.000 –> 01:08:19.999
me including my name. In a fact I became this classified woman.
01:08:20.000 –> 01:08:24.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:05:31.]
Edmonds turned to the media to report her exclusive story of alleged government corruption.
01:08:25.000 –> 01:08:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Brad Friedman, Journalist, about 1:05:41.]
Sibel Edmond’s [in a] heartbeat could have been scooped up, thrown in jail, and never heard from again.
01:08:30.000 –> 01:08:34.999
So, it took, you know, no small bit of courage for her to come forward
01:08:35.000 –> 01:08:39.999
to try to get her story out.
01:08:40.000 –> 01:08:44.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:05:50.]
I did not receive a single inquiry from the… [mainstream] Media here.
01:08:45.000 –> 01:08:49.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:06:00.]
While the mainstream media remained silent,
01:08:50.000 –> 01:08:54.999
she received support from Daniel Ellsberg.
Decades earlier
01:08:55.000 –> 01:08:59.999
the press had published classified information he had obtained revealing government corruption
01:09:00.000 –> 01:09:04.999
during the Vietnam war.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, former Rand Corporation employee, about 1:06:14]
Nixon’s fear that I had more information to give led him to take
01:09:05.000 –> 01:09:09.999
a number of criminal actions to shut me up.
01:09:10.000 –> 01:09:14.999
This country needs whistle blowers like Sibel Edmonds if we’re to hold these officials accountable.
01:09:15.000 –> 01:09:19.999
I put her in touch with a couple of people. In each case there was great excitement on what she had
01:09:20.000 –> 01:09:24.999
to say at the reporter level. They pursued it for a while she had great discussion with them
01:09:25.000 –> 01:09:29.999
and then suddenly there would be an abrupt cut-off.
01:09:30.000 –> 01:09:34.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:06:41.]
The story made headlines around the world but was not echoed in the mainstream press
01:09:35.000 –> 01:09:39.999
in the United States.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Normon Solomon, Journalist, Institute for Public Accuracy Founder, about 1:06:54.]
There are many examples where a story
01:09:40.000 –> 01:09:44.999
is huge all over the world except in the United States.
01:09:45.000 –> 01:09:49.999
Even if they’re reported, they don’t hit the media echo chamber
01:09:50.000 –> 01:09:54.999
and stories don’t have much impact unless they get into the echo chamber.
01:09:55.000 –> 01:09:59.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, former Rand Corporation employee, about 1:07:10]
What happens is that people call up some of the top newspapers,
01:10:00.000 –> 01:10:04.999
get them off the story and having done that the other papers
01:10:05.000 –> 01:10:09.999
follow the lead of silence.
01:10:10.000 –> 01:10:14.999
[music]
01:10:15.000 –> 01:10:19.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Sibel Edmonds, FBI Language Specialist, 2001-02, about 1:07:25.]
We are going to see less and less of whistle blowers because each example set like myself
01:10:20.000 –> 01:10:24.999
is a lesson learned for those
people who may be planning to come
01:10:25.000 –> 01:10:29.999
and do the right thing.
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:07:36.]
To this day no mainstream news organization
01:10:30.000 –> 01:10:34.999
in the United States has investigated Edmond’s claim of nuclear espionage
01:10:35.000 –> 01:10:39.999
by American officials.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Brad Friedman, Journalist, about 1:07:55]
Who’s actually doing the censoring?
01:10:40.000 –> 01:10:44.999
Is it the media themselves? Is it the government? I don’t
know but if it didn’t appear in the New York Times,
01:10:45.000 –> 01:10:49.999
The Washington Post, AP, it never happened.
01:10:50.000 –> 01:10:54.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of John Nichols, Author and Journalist, ‘The Nation Magazine.’ about 1:08:07.]
This country wasn’t set up
01:10:55.000 –> 01:10:59.999
to have a government of, by,
and for media conglomerates.
01:11:00.000 –> 01:11:04.999
Democracy needs those diverse competing voices.
01:11:05.000 –> 01:11:09.999
The consolidation of the media has robbed us
01:11:10.000 –> 01:11:14.999
of that diversity. In many cases we have no voices, whole areas of government
01:11:15.000 –> 01:11:19.999
and politics and power going dark.
01:11:20.000 –> 01:11:28.000
[music]
01:11:40.000 –> 01:11:44.999
[MHProNews: text on screen says The Public Voice at about 1:08:52.]
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:07:36.]
In 2007, with the FCC reviewing its media ownership rules,
01:11:45.000 –> 01:11:49.999
the public came forward.
01:11:50.000 –> 01:11:54.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, at about 1:08:52.]
Millions of people wrote to Congress wrote to the FCC,
01:11:55.000 –> 01:11:59.999
emailed, spoke out at forums, you’d have [a] forum of 1000 people, this was unheard of,
01:12:00.000 –> 01:12:04.999
saying no. One media mogul can’t own the radio, television,
01:12:05.000 –> 01:12:09.999
and newspaper in the city.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, at about 1:08:46.]
Here was an example where the public had intervened
01:12:10.000 –> 01:12:14.999
and gum[med] something up.
01:12:15.000 –> 01:12:19.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:097:19.]
Under new chairman, Kevin Martin, the FCC announced public hearings on media ownership
01:12:20.000 –> 01:12:24.999
in cities across the U.S.
01:12:25.000 –> 01:12:33.000
[MHProNews: clips of video from public comments at FCC hearings, about 1:09:34, some comments not captured in the below.]
We don’t have news anymore.
01:13:10.000 –> 01:13:14.999
It’s all entertainment. On every channel, you can switch from channel to channel and see the same thing.
01:13:15.000 –> 01:13:19.999
NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox,
01:13:20.000 –> 01:13:24.999
you got sort of the equal. That’s consolidated media.
01:13:25.000 –> 01:13:29.999
All you have is the same ten song playlist with your New York, Oklahoma…
01:13:30.000 –> 01:13:34.999
Certain channels spend more time on plastic surgery, than [the war in Iraq].
01:13:35.000 –> 01:13:39.999
So some Wizard of Oz tells us what is news.
01:13:40.000 –> 01:13:44.999
(inaudible) will [may as well] be called the United Corporations of [America].
01:13:45.000 –> 01:13:49.999
It’s very clear that this country has become profits [over] people.
01:13:50.000 –> 01:13:54.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:10:51.]
Despite overwhelming public opinion against more consolidation,
01:13:55.000 –> 01:13:59.999
Kevin Martin sided with the media conglomerates, and removed the cross-ownership.
01:14:00.000 –> 01:14:04.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Silvia Rivera, Managing Director, Vocalo, at about 1:11:06.]
The public hearings were more a dog
01:14:05.000 –> 01:14:09.999
and pony show than an actual opportunity to see
01:14:10.000 –> 01:14:14.999
if this was something that public wanted.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author, and Journalist, at about 1:11:25.]
What Kevin Martin did was demonstrate
01:14:15.000 –> 01:14:19.999
this absolute thorough going contempt for doing his job
01:14:20.000 –> 01:14:24.999
of serving public interest, embracing entirely
01:14:25.000 –> 01:14:30.000
the interest of wealthy corporate benefactors. Pure and simple.
01:15:00.000 –> 01:15:04.999
[music]
[MHProNews: screen text says: On July 7, 2011, a Federal Appeals Court overturned Kevin Martin’s cross-ownership rule that allowed one company to own the newspaper, radio, and television in one town. The Court said the FCC had breached the public interest. In spite of the court’s decision, News Corporation has held a waiver of the cross-ownership rule since 1993, and continues to monopolise [sp] media markets. About 1:11:27 to 1:11:44. ]
01:15:05.000 –> 01:15:09.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Dan Rather, for CBS News anchor, at about 1:12:02.]
The initial comments got bigger and bigger, the view began to prevail,
01:15:10.000 –> 01:15:14.999
what’s the big deal about news? [What’s all this talk] about public service? Baloney.
01:15:15.000 –> 01:15:19.999
We’re in the entertainment business.
01:15:20.000 –> 01:15:25.000
[music]
[MHProNews: text on screen say: “A Spectacle for Millions.” about 1:12:25.]
01:15:30.000 –> 01:15:34.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:12:27.]
As TV networks chase profits, NBC News
01:15:35.000 –> 01:15:39.999
sought to exploit the internet by blurring the line between news
01:15:40.000 –> 01:15:44.999
and entertainment.
[MHProNews: an unidentified voice, seemingly with MSNBC at about 1:12:40.]
Anyone watching the scene repeat itself over
01:15:45.000 –> 01:15:49.999
and over might be wondering what’s going on.
01:15:50.000 –> 01:15:54.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Douglas McCollam, Journalist, Columbia Journalism Review, about 1:12:46. NBC News Dateline shown on screen at one point.]
NBC’s (inaudible) was ostensibly a news program and when they saw that it was a (inaudible) they really began
01:15:55.000 –> 01:15:59.999
to push it and produce more and more and more of these shows that really blur the line between
01:16:00.000 –> 01:16:04.999
reality television and news department and it’s really sort of car wreck television.
[MHProNews: voice and image of unnamed NBC personality about 1:13:02 saying…],
01:16:05.000 –> 01:16:09.999
You ask if she can do Deep Throat, explain that to me.
01:16:10.000 –> 01:16:14.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:13:07.]
NBC launched To Catch A Predator,
01:16:15.000 –> 01:16:19.999
a news program featuring undercover sting operations
01:16:20.000 –> 01:16:24.999
that exposed men seeking sex with minors.
01:16:25.000 –> 01:16:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Walter Weiss, Detective, Murphy Police Department, 2002-2007, at about 1:13:22.]
The NBC came into the area, they selected a house and in that house
01:16:30.000 –> 01:16:34.999
they set up computers, they set up cameras, basically set up a stage
01:16:35.000 –> 01:16:39.999
in which they could lure a criminal to over [the] internet.
01:16:40.000 –> 01:16:44.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:13:34.]
In the autumn of 2006,
01:16:45.000 –> 01:16:49.999
with the help of local police, NBC News setup one of its undercover stings in a small town in Texas.
01:16:50.000 –> 01:16:54.999
[MHProNews: Douglas McCollam, Journalist, Columbia Journalism Review, at about 1:13:47.]
The kind of places they choose are smaller police departments
01:16:55.000 –> 01:16:59.999
who don’t have the resources to nail these kind of very ambitions sting operations.
01:17:00.000 –> 01:17:04.999
But for the fact [of]
01:17:05.000 –> 01:17:09.999
NBC News, the police wouldn’t be there. There wouldn’t be any arrests, there wouldn’t be any
01:17:10.000 –> 01:17:14.999
police officers taking down these suspects.
01:17:15.000 –> 01:17:19.999
[music]
01:17:20.000 –> 01:17:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Luke Dittrich, Contributing Editor, Esquire, at about 1:14:13.]
NBC had contracted an actor who was at that time either 21 or 22 years old
01:17:25.000 –> 01:17:29.999
but he looked much younger and his photo had been used as this guy
01:17:30.000 –> 01:17:34.999
who had presented himself as a 13-year-old boy.
[MHProNews: NBC audio clip, saying “with a new Dateline…” at about 1:14:23.]
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:14:26.]
01:17:35.000 –> 01:17:39.999
The program lured 20 men to the sting house
01:17:40.000 –> 01:17:44.999
but NBC News really only had one man in mind.
[MHProNews: voice and image of Luke Dittrich, Contributing Editor, Esquire, at about 1:14:33.]
When they discovered that they had
01:17:45.000 –> 01:17:49.999
an assistant district attorney on the hook, there was a real sense of… of excitement.
01:17:50.000 –> 01:17:54.999
This was going to be good for the show.
01:17:55.000 –> 01:17:59.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Rothwell B. Pool, Law Partner and Family Friend, at about 1:14:58.]
There was always the egg head in the firm that knew the answer to every question
01:18:00.000 –> 01:18:04.999
and Bill was scary [bright]. He loved his parents
01:18:05.000 –> 01:18:09.999
and loved his family and that and his law practice were the two [pinnacles?]
01:18:10.000 –> 01:18:14.999
of importance in his life.
01:18:15.000 –> 01:18:19.999
[MHProNews: Douglas McCollam, Journalist, Columbia Journalism Review, at about 1:15:09.]
They tried very aggressively to get him to come.
01:18:20.000 –> 01:18:24.999
They kept urging him to come. ‘Why aren’t you coming over’ and things like that.
01:18:25.000 –> 01:18:29.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:15:13.]
To the disappointment of NBC news, Conradt never showed up at the sting house.
01:18:30.000 –> 01:18:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Luke Dittrich, Contributing Editor, Esquire, at about 1:15:26.]
It’s the final day of shooting
01:18:35.000 –> 01:18:39.999
and Luke still hasn’t managed to get Bill Conradt to actually show up at the decoy house.
01:18:40.000 –> 01:18:44.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:15:31.]
With the NBC News deadline looming,
01:18:45.000 –> 01:18:49.999
the show did something it had never done before.
01:18:50.000 –> 01:18:54.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Luke Dittrich, Contributing Editor, Esquire, at about 1:15:42.]
Ultimately, in order to get to Bill Conradt, they decided to
01:18:55.000 –> 01:18:59.999
basically bring the show to him.
01:19:00.000 –> 01:19:04.999
[MHProNews: screen shot shows Chris Hanson, Correspondent, NBC Dateline at about 1:15:49, appearing to be instructing police officers.]
[MHProNews: voice and image of Walter Weiss, Detective, Murphy Police Department, 2002-2007, at about 1:15:53.]
Mr. Hanson appeared to be in-charge.
01:19:05.000 –> 01:19:09.999
He would ask for things and he was immediately accommodated.
01:19:10.000 –> 01:19:14.999
[music]
01:19:15.000 –> 01:19:19.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Luke Dittrich, Contributing Editor, Esquire, at about 1:16:04.]
It certainly looked like a case where the cops were doing what they were doing as agents
01:19:20.000 –> 01:19:24.999
of a, of… of [a] television company.
01:19:25.000 –> 01:19:29.999
[music]
01:19:30.000 –> 01:19:34.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:16:21.]
NBC News and the police waited in front of Conradt’s house for hours
01:19:35.000 –> 01:19:39.999
hoping to confront him on camera. He was at the office everyday like clockwork.
01:19:40.000 –> 01:19:44.999
[MHProNews: Douglas McCollam, Journalist, Columbia Journalism Review, at about 1:16:33.]
They could have just come, tapped him on the shoulder, and taken him in.
01:19:45.000 –> 01:19:49.999
This was all done as part of a need to get it on film for a television show.
01:19:50.000 –> 01:19:54.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:16:37.]
With Conradt staying put, police broke with procedure
01:19:55.000 –> 01:19:59.999
and called in a swat team with NBC news cameras rolling.
01:20:00.000 –> 01:20:04.999
[MHProNews: Douglas McCollam, Journalist, Columbia Journalism Review, at about 1:16:48.]
They forced their way into the house, they encountered Mr. Conradt in the hallway
01:20:05.000 –> 01:20:09.999
holding a handgun at which point he raised the gun
01:20:10.000 –> 01:20:14.999
and shot himself in the head and killed himself.
01:20:15.000 –> 01:20:19.999
[MHProNews: NBC News Dateline clip with Chris Hanson, Correspondent, saying at about 1:17:01 the following to an officer, and her response.]
What can you tell us about the scene?
It’s just a gunshot wound to the head.
01:20:20.000 –> 01:20:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Walter Weiss, Detective, Murphy Police Department, 2002-2007, at about 1:17:12.]
There is nothing wrong with the sting operation.
01:20:25.000 –> 01:20:29.999
There is nothing wrong with taking criminals off the street provided you’re doing it for the right reason.
01:20:30.000 –> 01:20:34.999
If you’re luring him there because you want a television show, well then, you’re wrong.
01:20:35.000 –> 01:20:39.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Rothwell B. Pool, Law Partner and Family Friend, at about 1:17:34.]
The way these folks
01:20:40.000 –> 01:20:44.999
pulled off their maneuver and shocked and startled Bill Conradt,
01:20:45.000 –> 01:20:49.999
they could have handled it with so much more dignity.
01:20:50.000 –> 01:20:54.999
You’ll never convince me
01:20:55.000 –> 01:20:59.999
that that was a service to our community.
01:21:00.000 –> 01:21:04.999
[music]
01:21:05.000 –> 01:21:09.999
[MHProNews: Douglas McCollam, Journalist, Columbia Journalism Review, at about 1:17:53.]
[When] I sat down and talked with Chris Hanson following Mr. Conradt’s suicide,
01:21:10.000 –> 01:21:14.999
he was not overly apologetic over what had happened,
in fact, he said, \”I sleep well at night.\”
01:21:15.000 –> 01:21:19.999
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:17:58.]
NBC News broadcast the program
01:21:20.000 –> 01:21:24.999
during primetime despite Conradt’s death.
01:21:25.000 –> 01:21:29.999
[music]
01:21:30.000 –> 01:21:34.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, at about 1:18:26.]
The American public knows far more information about sex, scandals,
01:21:35.000 –> 01:21:39.999
celebrities, Hollywood, than they know about economics and the environment.
01:21:40.000 –> 01:21:44.999
That’s by design. I think the people that own the media would be
01:21:45.000 –> 01:21:49.999
much happier if we were a nation of mindless consumers
01:21:50.000 –> 01:21:55.000
rather than a nation of informed active citizens.
01:22:00.000 –> 01:22:08.000
[music]
[MHProNews: text on screen says, the Last Shadow of Liberty at about 1:18:36.]
01:22:10.000 –> 01:22:14.999
[MHProNews: Voice of then President Barack Obama, at about 1:18:50.]
To seize this moment, we have to insure, free and full of [exchange]
01:22:15.000 –> 01:22:19.999
of information, that starts with [an] open internet. I will take [a] back seat
01:22:20.000 –> 01:22:24.999
to no one in my commitment to network neutrality. Because once providers start…
01:22:25.000 –> 01:22:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, at about 1:19:08.]
It’s simple, it’s net neutrality,
01:22:30.000 –> 01:22:34.999
it’s nondiscrimination, and it’s a basic principle
01:22:35.000 –> 01:22:39.999
that politicians pay lip service to it, that if the same players like AT&T, Comcast,
01:22:40.000 –> 01:22:44.999
and Time Warner are able to take over the internet to relax public policy
01:22:45.000 –> 01:22:49.999
that will lose even the internet.
[MHProNews: narrator’s voice, about 1:19:26.]
Despite his election promises,
01:22:50.000 –> 01:22:54.999
President Obama had brought in new internet pricing rules
01:22:55.000 –> 01:22:59.999
going against the principles of a free and open internet.
01:23:00.000 –> 01:23:04.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, about 1:19:38.]
It is by making publishing cheap that [permits]
01:23:05.000 –> 01:23:09.999
many more people to become publishers [and] that permits many more different voices,
01:23:10.000 –> 01:23:14.999
that’s where the internet [can really excel]. WikiLeaks has published a lot of information about war,
01:23:15.000 –> 01:23:19.999
about, you know, the treaties, how they behave, intelligence organizations
01:23:20.000 –> 01:23:24.999
and that information often comes as a surprise to the public. It’s because the public has been lied to.
[MHProNews: unidentified voice on a video clip at about 1:20:02.]
Come on, fire.
01:23:25.000 –> 01:23:29.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, about 1:20:05.]
We have
01:23:30.000 –> 01:23:34.999
moved the [envelope for] what is acceptable for [unclear] people.
01:23:35.000 –> 01:23:39.999
[MHProNews: unidentified voice on a video clip at about 1:20:13.]
Can the United States do something to stop [Mr. Assange].
01:23:40.000 –> 01:23:44.999
[MHProNews: new clip at about 1:20:16, with then Obama-VP Joe Biden saying what is in italics; a newsman’s voice for NBC Meet the Press replies.]
We’re looking at that right now.
Mr. Conradt [says that he] is the high tech terrorist, others say, this is [akin to the Pentagon Papers].
01:23:45.000 –> 01:23:49.999
[MHProNews: new clip of Obama-VP Joe Biden saying what is in italics; a newsman’s voice for NBC Meet the Press replies.]
I would argue that it’s close to being a high tech terrorist than [the Pentagon Papers].
01:23:50.000 –> 01:23:54.999
[music]
01:23:55.000 –> 01:23:59.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, about 1:20:3o.]
The greatest fight we have had in bringing the First Amendment
01:24:00.000 –> 01:24:04.999
to the world was in bringing the First Amendment to the United States.
[MHProNews: voice on newsclip, apparently speaking about Julian Assange, at about 1:2o:37]
This guy is a traitor, a [treasonist] and… and he’s broken every law in the United States, the guy…
01:24:05.000 –> 01:24:09.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, at about 1:2o:48.]
The question is
01:24:10.000 –> 01:24:14.999
what’s gonna happen now. Will the internet remain free or will few companies be able to control
01:24:15.000 –> 01:24:19.999
and monetize it? That’s the…that’s the debate of the era.
01:24:20.000 –> 01:24:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of John Nichols, Author & Journalist, The Nation Magazine, at about 1:21:01.]
If we are to address
01:24:25.000 –> 01:24:29.999
the most fundamental issues of the 21st century we have to stop,
01:24:30.000 –> 01:24:34.999
recognize that our media is in crisis and ask ourselves, \’What is the media
01:24:35.000 –> 01:24:39.999
that we want?’
[MHProNews: voice and image of Danny Glover, Actor and Director, at about 1:21:10.]
We want more information, access to more information.
01:24:40.000 –> 01:24:44.999
We have fewer people who control the information.
01:24:45.000 –> 01:24:49.999
[MHProNews: voice an image of Robert McChesney, Communications Professor, Author & Journalist, at about 1:21:20.]
[We] can’t allow this country to get I down for the count but some
guys from Wall Street can’t make money producing garbage news.
01:24:50.000 –> 01:24:54.999
[MHProNews: image and voice of Janine Jackson, Program Director, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, at about 1:21:23]
The media is that kind of issue where if we want it to be better
01:24:55.000 –> 01:24:59.999
we have to fight for it.
[MHProNews: voice and image of John Nichols, Author & Journalist, The Nation Magazine, at about 1:21:41.]
These are the critical battles
01:25:00.000 –> 01:25:04.999
we face right now in the United States and frankly
01:25:05.000 –> 01:25:09.999
in countries around the world. How we respond
01:25:10.000 –> 01:25:14.999
to this moment will be every bit as definitional
01:25:15.000 –> 01:25:19.999
as how the founders responded to their moment.
01:25:20.000 –> 01:25:24.999
[MHProNews: voice and image of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, at about 1:22:01.]
This is really about having a conversation about
01:25:25.000 –> 01:25:29.999
what kind of decisions we want made in our name.
01:25:30.000 –> 01:25:34.999
That’s really what will save us is when we really know what’s going on, not filtered through the lens
01:25:35.000 –> 01:25:39.999
or the microphone of the corporation.
01:25:40.000 –> 01:25:48.000
[music]
Part III – Additional Information with MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
There are so many potent and insightful pull quotes in this video. One of them was this one and the others which follow.
- “We’re now at a stage where every journalist who isn’t asleep understands that corporate power has made it impossible for them to do the job as it needs to be done.” — Norman Solomon, Journalist, Institute for Public Accuracy Founder.
- “In times of war, the press loses all critical distance. Journalists see themselves as first and foremost patriots. The result is essentially the dissemination of propaganda.” – Chris Hedges, Foreign Correspondent, New York Times, 1990-2005.
- “You have to remember this is not an inductive process, it’s deductive. You decide to go to war and then you go find the justification and this is exactly what happened. Look, I ran the Iraqi operations, we didn’t have any information.” – Bob Baer, Middle East Field Officer, CIA, 1976-1997, about 46:51].
- “The whole idea in Washington is to marginalize people who go against the consensus and they do it very well. You don’t get invited to the party.” – Bob Baer, former Middle East Field Officer, CIA, 1976-1997, about 54:06. Isn’t this what also happens now? Isn’t a version of this what is occurring at a smaller level in our profession, as MHI linked leaders apparently attempts to marginalize those who don’t go along with their echo chamber?
- “And it was pretty stunning. The head of Viacom is Sumner Redstone. He repeatedly said, \’Having a Republican in the White House is better for my company and I vote Viacom and for that reason I endorse Bush’s election.’\ “- Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, about 1:00:04. That ought to be understood as less about Bush and the Republican Party, as it is about ESTABLISHMENT Republicans, and ESTABLISHMENT Democrats. It is about the power of Big Corporations, working in concert with the power of Big Government. At this point in time, the Republican or Grand Old Party (GOP, a.k.a. Republicans) is less Establishment or ‘the Bush wing’ of the party and more MAGA or America First Republicans, who currently are more in favor of apparent anti-Establishment candidates like Donald J. Trump. To that point.
- ‘These large conglomerate companies, they contribute to political campaigns, they expect to get something for their money deciding on their own and for their own purposes the news we see and hear.” – Dan Rather, former CBS News Anchor.
- “It is my belief that wars really are started by the mainstream media. It is my belief that the press [are] getting too close to [the] government. Actually we’re talking about sort of interbreeding or intermeshing between the structures of the mainstream media and the structure of the military-intelligence complex.” – Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, about 54:56.
- “Every aspect of our lives, from what we buy, what is sold to us, who produces it, all those things are connected. It’s not only a monopoly of wealth, it’s a monopoly of information as well.” – Danny Glover, at about 1:00:58
Under FWIW, and perhaps to be explored at a later date, is the following per InfluenceWatch, is a possible Buffett Bucks links to this project. Per that source: “CorpWatch is a project of the Social Good Fund that provides resources and research towards advocating corporate accountability in areas including the environment, human rights, and the economy. From 1996 to 2018 they were a project of left-of-center nonprofit the Tides Center. 1”
The Tides has had as a major funder for years nonprofits tide to Warren Buffett donations and George Soros.
On this date, a visit to the website Rendon.com was one of the links from a Google search: is “Rendon Group” left or right leaning? Under Proven Client History on their home page are 10 federal logos. Note that The Rendon Group (TRG) has as its tagline: “Information as an Element of Power.” Their global headquarters is shown: as “1140 19th Street NW, Suite #550, Washington, D.C. 20036, USA,” while a second office is located at what is labeled as their “Boston HQ: 183 State Street Suite 4A Boston, MA 02109.”
The TRG’s Proven Client List on their home page on this date includes:
- The U.S. Department of Justice.
- The U.S. Department of Defense.
- U.S. Department of State.
- United States Souther Command.
- U.S. Justice Department Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
- United States Central Command.
- United States Special Operations Command.
- U.S. Strategic Command.
- Headquarters United States European Command.
- U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
Living In Something Akin to the Truman Show?
With such thoughts noted, tens of millions who might watch or read this could find themselves, understandably, questioning the ‘reality’ that they thought that they have been living. Which calls to mind the following, per Bing AI.
“The Truman Show” is a 1998 American psychological comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol.” …The movie has been analyzed as an exploration of simulated reality, existentialism, surveillance, religion, metaphilosophy, privacy, and reality television and described as a genre-blending that features elements of dystopian fiction, metafiction, psychological drama, romantic comedy, satire, and social science fiction 1. The plot of the movie revolves around Truman’s quest to discover the truth about his life and escape the artificial world created for him 2.”
That noted, pivot back to this pull quote from the documentary and transcript above.
“There are many examples where a story is huge all over the world except in the United States. Even if they’re reported, they don’t hit the media echo chamber and stories don’t have much impact unless they get into the echo chamber.” – Normon Solomon, Journalist, Institute for Public Accuracy Founder, about 1:06:54.
MHProNews has noted that in our niche of trade journalism, that an ‘echo chamber’ or ‘amen corner’ of sorts has been established by those corporate interests involved as the apparent insiders at MHI.
- “What happens is that people call up some of the top newspapers, get them off the story and having done that the other papers follow the lead of silence.” Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, former Rand Corporation employee, about 1:07:10.
That remark by Ellsberg is an echo of what former CNN journalist turned WMAL pundit (award winning in both jobs), Chris Plante has said about much of mainstream media in their ability to ignore stories or ‘cover up’ the news.
That noted, the takeaways for this video are extensive. It obviously goes to the notion that the recent ‘discoveries’ about Biden regime officials working in collusion with big tech, certain corporate interests, and big media to censor reports are hardly new. They are more an extension of what has been occurring in the U.S. for years. That’s not to say that everyone is ‘in on it.’ It is to say that there is apparent evidence of government contracts to corporate interest, like The Rendon Group (TRG), which have been used to shape public opinion on a range of issues.
“The American public knows far more information about sex, scandals, celebrities, Hollywood, than they know about economics and the environment. That’s by design. I think the people that own the media would be much happier if we were a nation of mindless consumers rather than a nation of informed active citizens.” – Jeff Cohen, Founder of F.A.I.R., Author and Journalist, at about 1:18:26.
Almost every remark in this video could be a pull quote useful in illustrating the tragic and arguably terrible twists, turns, and direction that have occurred due to the nexus between big corporate, big media, big tech, and big government interests. So. this one that follows, is just but one example of many.
Julian Assange with WikiLeaks, saying at about 1:2o:01: “It is by making publishing cheap that [permits] many more people to become publishers [and] that permits many more different voices, that’s where the internet [can real excel]. WikiLeaks has published a lot of information about war, about, you know, the treaties, how they behave, intelligence organizations and that information often comes as a surprise to the public. It’s because the public has been lied to.”
While that is often true, it is necessary to tone down some remarks that are arguably hyperbole to make a point. Not all news is static, lacking any truth or credibility, as Amy Goodman said at one point. Far more accurate to say that news is a mixture of truth, half-truths, spin, posturing, propaganda – of accurate information that may in some cases be paltering, true lies, deception and misdirection.
If it were all lies, it would be easier to sort out. But that is obviously not the case.
It is because of the mixture of information that ignores some realities while overblowing others that makes modern mass media and big tech dangerous to liberty. Yes, Shadows of Liberty often misuses the term democracy. But intelligent people can adjust for that point.
Yes, some of those speaking in Shadows of Liberty apparently wish – a not so subtle at times suggestion – that having a for profit business own media is the ‘sin.’ Far more accurate to say that the monopolization of the media in this oligopoly fashion is the sin.
“These are the critical battles we face right now in the United States and frankly in countries around the world. How we respond to this moment will be every bit as definitional as how the founders responded to their moment.” John Nichols, Author & Journalist, The Nation Magazine, at about 1:21:45.]
MHProNews and MHLivingNews has long used the shorter version of this next quotation by Danny Glover. But here it is in its complete context.
“Every aspect of our lives, from what we buy, what is sold to us, who produces it, all those things are connected. It’s not only a monopoly of wealth, it’s a monopoly of information as well.” – Danny Glover.
This gets near the heart of the issues. Monopoly power was denounced by Thomas Jefferson, who wanted a specific part of the Constitution to address the problem that monopolization causes in a society. As the Trump Administration’s antitrust Ast Attorney General Makan Delrahim pointed out during on address, Jefferson specifically noted that he wanted a “restriction against monopolies.”
As the comments made during Shadows of Liberty periodically reflected, it was consolidation – an oligopoly form of monopoly power – that were often near the heart of the problems being described. If there were more media sources, less centralized power in big tech, big media, colluding with public officials in obvious as well as more subtle ways, many of the issues raised in this sobering documentary would be solved. Breaking up monopoly power has been pledged and talked about by members of both major parties, past and present. Yet, the problem persists.
This isn’t a simple left vs. right issue. It is more complex and nuanced, but it certainly is an issue of what is right vs. what is wrong. A follow up to this report is planned. Stay tuned. ###
Again, our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, as well as our tipsters/sources, sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.’
