two thirty am in the russian capital good to have you with us here on our t.v. you see your headlines work together with nato or face the possibility of a new arms race president dmitri medvedev gives a stark warning in his annual address to the federal assembly. perswade time for barack obama as he makes a last ditch appeal to the senate to ratify a new arms reduction treaty with russia. and the final whistle blows for bids to host the next two football world cups as competing countries await the decision from the sport's governing body. up next a special report explores claims of corruption within the u.s. media airwaves stay with us here on r.t. .

when jasmine. santa ana airways can try. to. keep the crown. on. our story begins during the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like a miracle. also you know trying to get it into the queue behind your radio dial. wherever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into our own homes. as broadcasting retained

fade it was hope. in that spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public i'm simply ways are considered public property the federal communications commission was charged with the responsibility of protecting the people before the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed to licenses were free of charge but there was a catch t.v. and radio owners had to serve the public if they did not people could challenge their sizes and the f.c.c. could take them away. and the f.c.c. understood that radio and t.v. should be owned locally so they passed strict rules limiting the number of stations any one person could l.a. independent theater to stay cool be told me six hours in operated by n.b.c. . then came the war.

and radio became a lifeline. for president of united states the information we were getting was vital only that a date which will live. in infamy important to our national security important to our democracy our earth is edward morrow speaking from armor and we learned this new medium could be used against us hegemony not anything they were saying that after a video you can prove her a yankee or. a rescuer are not. sure for sure what they did of course or those fascist regimes was it just broadcast over and over again the information and the perspective of the point of view and the propaganda that they wanted people to digest absorb and so the federal communications commission back in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine and cooperated something called the fairness doctrine the fairness doctrine required

radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage by only important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast in points you asked to bring them on you have to give people the opportunity to express an alternative point of view now it was a code that served us well good evening through the administrations of truman eisenhower kennedy johnson nixon ford and carter more generally like yours robert reich. and then a real media man came into power what i will faithfully execute the ronald reagan was the king of deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio active so one person could own dozens of broadcast ations nationwide and send the free market would provide fairness in broadcasting so they got rid of the fair to start. anyway back then republicans and democrats passed a bill to reinstate the fairness doctrine newt gingrich and trent lott were

co-sponsors. but ronald reagan vetoed it. the nine hundred ninety six telecommunications act suddenly allowed big companies like clear channel to own twelve hundred stations nationwide brown program them with conservative talk radio was. to sit at the bars. and looking at the five largest operators what we found was the one or ten to wanted fan which conservative talk show hosts self declared conservative hosts versus folks who declare themselves liberal or progressive. advantage of roughly twenty five hundred hours of conservative talk as opposed to two hundred fifty hours of liberal or progressive talk this is an extraordinary talent but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking monday through friday commercial

radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressive no liberals represented the two thousand and seven study by free press and the center for american progress shows ninety two percent of conservative stations don't air even a single minute of the other side you want to hear a radio talk or bash republicans good luck especially if you live in the midwest the mainstream. breaks the inside the beltway mystique but you might hear it schultz ed does his nationally syndicated show out of fargo north dakota and his ratings are good he's matching bill o'reilly's numbers. don't see talkers magazine now is out the ed schultz show has got over three million listeners progressive talk got its start in two thousand and four and it now seems to be having an effect many formerly red states that heard ed and air america were highly competitive

voted blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual maybe but here's the scary part since the democrats made gains in the two thousand and six election corporate radio took big get into every other progressive talker in the key swing state of ohio off the air first and. then columbus fall and replaced them with shows they get half there are things that they're out there greasing the skids right now in the winter of those seven with a zero point six number. when i was on there in the fall of zero five it was like a two point four the same status trains to make it. market that you're going to have a problem and it isn't just ohio since two thousand and six dozen so well performing liberal programs have been taken off the air across the country fresno new haven

san diego austin and many more i think it's political and i don't think there's any doubt you can look at the numbers this business is owned by conservatives it's managed by conservatives and it is programmed by conservatives the distorting effect of all that was causing a problem in our democracy it was causing people to act based on false information to make decisions about public policy to make decisions in the voting booth based on simply information that was wrong and that there had to be a corrective to that and so in may of two thousand and four i launched a media matters media matters is a research website which tracks conservative misinformation in the news it's a simple concept record with talk show hosts and news people say then check their facts turns out there's a lot of false would also good which david brock used to perpetrate author david

brock uncovered evidence about anita hill but has been since or by liberals time pattern of crime sexual harassment or political radicalism most important or likely motivation for destroying the career of clarence thomas then he learned to keep being lied to subscribe i came to be aware that the people around clarence thomas who had helped me write that account. didn't believe the account themselves same with rocks troopergate story that led to the paula jones lawsuit the judge dismissed that case because it had no merit. in other words it was a frivolous lawsuit and that whole thing led to president clinton's impeachment. i just couldn't do what i was doing anymore once i realized what it was he'd been working for a newspaper magnate richard mellon scaife who paid the american spectator magazine two million dollars to dig up dirt on the clintons the information didn't need to

be true just. the conservative movement also had a hidden media agenda well they claim that the complaint is one of liberal bias i think and i've looked pretty carefully at the sun i've looked at many of the studies that claim this at the end of the day the real goal is to disable journalism from being able to do its job independently and neutrally jane a creek and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at w.t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then they uncovered a story about stormont being secretly into our milk supply t.v. team ran this promotion for the investigation just i am sure nobody else in the country covered this and then they get fired for trying to tell the story when b.t.h. manufacturer monsanto threatened to sue fox news. pulled the report then tried to

get the investigators to change their story. but the reporters wouldn't back down they can ask you to put things on the air broadcast to the public over the public airwaves that are untrue that are unsubstantiated or flat out on true and that's also what they were asking us to do they crossed that line and that's an important distinction to make so a korean wilson threaten to report the news distortion to the f.c.c. that's when you fire them very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial a korea tourney john chambliss senator since the letters. this. all of the year and from there on him through it no one ever is made to sign up this story to distort the story in a way that we will believe that monsanto these folks refused to do in this weather for steve's wilson played his own case you know what this story cost. two careers.

and my wife's. there was only one way or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg constructed the jury for they'd have to prove w. t.v. station management had deliberately tried to distort the news proof of a violation requires that the planners establish that the via t.v. t.'s station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort plainness proposed a news report on b g eight wilson last but jane won her case because she threatened to disclose to the federal communications commission on your oath the broadcast of a false distorted or slanted news report yes so a creep proved news distortion and you wouldn't know it from the spin on the t.v. tease there fox thirteen representatives say the jury through its verdicts clearly stated that the station did not tell a korean wilson to falsify and distort the news through their b.t.h.

story but we are completely vindicated on the finding of this theory that we do not to stuart is for lost wages eighty eight thousand seven hundred and twenty five dollars that does not have to do with the store show the news it is not the default speculation of the us for lost on incapacity one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars i think today is a wonderful day for boxer two for other damages two hundred fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars fox appealed the jury's decision which is indeed their attorneys argued there is no law against distortion you haven't found a stash. you haven't found a rule we haven't found a regulation what we're doing is importing into that's the news distortion policy and it went to the second district court of appeals in florida and they bought the fox argument that yes. but it's not technically against any rule of regulation to distort what they're saying as the news really belongs to the corporation the

putting it out and that it's not against the water while the public it's an f.c.c. rule but it's not against the law where does that leave us as people who are served by the broadcast airwaves. farce president the general right if you're probably going. to defy the rules and wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees. the road to war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than a detour to the west african country of these your reports which do hold government accountable like this can cost a lot of money from a team of people to put lots into research and travel and production just to air one eight minute story to build a nuclear bomb explode they've largely been replaced with coverage like this that costs very little anna nicole smith's last interview that means profits for shareholders and divert attention from. you know whatever happened to investigative

reporting and i think part of what happened is corporatization of the media it's the bottom line so the first thing you do is you fire a quarter of the newsroom or half the newsroom so you don't even have the reporters that go out there and to get the story it's you know how can you get a quick and i can tell you it's a lot cheaper to have two people arguing on t.v. from you know you know polarized point of view than actual reporters out there digging up the story and saying ok america here's the facts you decide maybe. this is the. media consolidation means fewer reporters and those who remain too often feel pressured. to play nice with government it's a nasty little game called access that is one of the biggest media manipulations is you want our guy you want our woman well you better play the game you better play by our rules if you want that we call that in our field a get to interview some real headline maker that everybody wants to get on their

air and you want that person that's a valuable commodity you better play the game the top newsmakers in the bush administration were a great get and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq where were the hard questions is. abysmal i think that the press dropped the ball i think when they should have been the real watchdogs and should have. let the chips fall where they may they defaulted totally and they did this they say in the run up to the war it was so clear for two years we were going to war and nobody asked why but we know now. that saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons high quality aluminum tubes which is what you have to have in order to build a suitable for nuclear weapons production there were no weapons of mass destruction with the person that the first thing to scare everyone we don't want the smoking

gun that could come in the form of the mushroom cloud note. if we do have solid evidence of the presence in iraq. al qaeda members there was a pattern relationship that went back at least a decade between iraq and al qaeda was a lot of obvious deception at a time when it was crucial for our country which was right after nine eleven they felt that they had big to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism out of the news pete at the administration. i have a contract between an iraqi border to time time and dangers saddam hussein put his biological weapons laboratories in trucks little turned out to be true only talk shows instead of providing clarity on the single most of mine an issue of our generation the press only created confusion it is smoking gun is an interesting

phrase six years after the attacks on new york city in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans thought saddam hussein was directly terrorist attacks and i don't think we ever should i know i didn't say that there was a direct connection between september eleventh and saddam hussein nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of september the eleventh were ordered by iraq no wonder the news media has lost the public trust they want to make policy choices based on truth and what i heard is that people didn't really quite feel that the mainstream media in the media as we most of us experience. was truth telling the group fairness and accuracy reporting did a. study. two weeks around february fifth two thousand and three right before the invasion before major that in this case n.b.c. a.b.c. c.b.s. and the p.b.s.

news hour with jim lehrer there were three hundred ninety three interviews done around the war only three were with antiwar leaders who were almost four hundred when half the population was opposed to the invasion that is no longer in the mainstream media that's an extreme beating the drums for war a recent new york times report says the media got right in bed with the pentagon to promote the war former military officers would get talking points directly from the pentagon than say them on the air no questions asked if they certainly don't stand this gesture. that is nina the retired u.s. general talking point. in iraq ruled by the message yet needs to be a magine iraq imagine iraq under control zarko you're talking point link iraq to iran i believe that iran is now the number one troublemaker in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts most

of the t.v. and the weight of military analysts have ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money on day or most would consider that a potential conflict of interest maybe not even potential at the same time reporters who did ask hard questions were punished by the white house luckily their managers stood by them reporter jonathan landay covered the speech dick cheney gave in august two thousand and two to the veterans of foreign wars many of us are convinced that saddam hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon that was based on absolutely nothing it was as if it was pulled out of thin air there was absolutely no intelligence no evidence whatsoever for that assertion landi and more and struggle began writing about faulty intelligence about how there was no link between iraq and al qaeda about failed policies that series of stories one

station of people in the pentagon trying to shut me out of travel with the secretary of defense i was not allowed to have not been allowed or invited to trip a pentagon trip since. that three years. the chill by white house correspondent william douglas to he had been trying to get on the vice president's plane in early two thousand and four there were some things that. the vice president did like that we wrote. there was no on the plane it's my belief that a lot of journalists did not ask hard questions. of this administration's policies particularly in the run up to the. because they were afraid of losing and having happened to them what happened to me and has happened to others an example of why media ownership matters to democracy for reporting. on the reasons why. they are being asked to go and risk life and limb and health and

family and everything else. and if that displeases the secretary of defense if it just loses the vice president so be it. the biggest scandal of the bush administration is the story of reporters who protected their access to top officials first and put their responsibility to the public last. the story really begins with him bastard joseph. wilson was the acting ambassador to iraq before the first gulf war when saddam hussein took more than one hundred american hostages joe wilson stared him down saddam hussein backed off and released the americans for that president george herbert walker bush proclaimed wilson a national hero. then that he heard president george w.

bush make this statement in the two thousand and three. british. significant. from africa a year earlier the cia had sent wilson to investigate the uranium claim and he knew it wasn't true of corruption. in the new york times that touched off a firestorm at the white house. robert novak tried to discredit wilson by writing a story that wilson's wife valerie plame who worked at the cia said. on the trip trouble was she worked as a spy for the cia nobody was supposed to know she worked there the cia even told no that not to publish that information but no that did. told me he asked me not to use your name did not say she was she was uncovered. in any

activities former president bush was not amused human intelligence spies. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service . is going to appear i'm sure that both. deputy defense secretary richard admitted he was the first to leak despise name and he apologized for it. but white house staffers karl rove in lewis libby also sprayed the covert agents name to reporters at the same time for sure in the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it and there are good individuals there are important members of our white house team and that's why i spoke with them so that i could come back to you and say that they were not involved i went to both those individuals asked them point blank were you involved in the leaking of valerie plame identity in any way both them told me unequivocally no but scott

mcclellan now says in his new book rove and libby lied to him and it turns out a lot of reporters knew it but said nothing and scott mcclellan the white house spokesperson gets up and he says karl rove is absolutely vall well there were at least three probably four people if not in that room that watched it live at various news organization the knew that that was a flat out lie because they had talked to karl rove about ellery play and who she was good with were so eager for access to the white house they allowed themselves to be used for political gain using the reporters enough. to carry out their political mission and that's different from cultivating a source to get information that's of value to you as a journalist here you are being used by the tolerant official to carry out their political work instead of clarifying the facts in this national security breach the

media just had a free for all i think that while i always you know upset valerie and i said that she wasn't covert which is just ridiculous was she in fact a covert agent was never even proved there is no doubt that the relationship with the cia was classified if you give the identity of a classified person it doesn't mean diddly squat to be a covert agent and i still don't believe she was in any covert activities he knew whether she was covert or not from day one and she isn't she's never been proven to be covert to endangering national security by outing a cold mary will be a operators are not a career c. was not a covert operative the i.a.e.a. says that she was for the record valerie plame wilson was a covert agent the cia put it in writing.

they faced it this is not a provocation but a warning that. may force it and you should step before you shoot it's a pretty trace because they have no idea about the hardships to face. they wanted to says it all too nice and for any army the life of the usaf is the most precious thing in the world. is of self-sacrifice and heroism but those who understand it fully but you have to live a. real life stories from world war two. victory nineteen forty five dollars on t.v. dot com.

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