there's a report on our key. these are extraordinary times and we played in an ordinary challenge. and fifty years later john f. kennedy's words hold the same truth so why is it that the united states seemed to be having a harder time stepping up to those challenges now than it did back then. the defense budget is not the cause of the deficit and debt problem that we have as a country this coming from the secretary of defense who once called to slash that very same budget he now depends so as his last weeks in office come to an end robert gates makes his final stand. and it looks like it's us vs them

mainstream media that is the press criticizing our team for being too extreme as our war on r.t. well regardless today we're fighting back. good afternoon it's wednesday may twenty fifth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lister in your watching r.t. now fifty years ago this very day you could argue a speech changed everything or at least that the stages unify the country to take what was called a giant leap together for mankind but today where is that unity where is the tackling america's challenges we'll get to that but first let's look back a little history. the right that there are there. are. a mission accomplished for the united states that the

cast from a plan that began. eight years earlier i believe that this nation should commit. repeating the go for the good. of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the year of a call from a u.s. president they came fifty years ago to this very day a speech asking congress to invest in turning fantasy into reality it came in the wake of the cold war in reaction to the soviet union success sending a cosmic not into orbit it reminded the u.s. they could quite make it nineteen fifty seven of the stakes in the space race it inspired nasa and increasing u.s. spending on scientific research and education and a legacy channeled by leaders in modern day half a century ago when the soviets beat us into space with the launch of the satellite called sputnik. we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon and now the us is

faced with a new enemy of economic decline marked by rampant long term high unemployment in industries drying up are being shipped overseas the country is looking for a plan to make one giant leap forward this is our generation's sputnik moment but looking at the current debate in congress over cutting spending the bipartisan bickering over the budget leaders seem to have no agreement over how to get this country back on track and more defense spending is half of the nation's discretionary spending the country's defense and its wars do not rally the unity that they once did i've seen back on this date number. one the bombing of pearl harbor. according to then president franklin roosevelt a date that launched f.d.r.'s calls for production of hundreds of thousands each of planes tanks and guns over a few years to fight the war factories were converted and the nation got the job

done. and we have. a sight unseen in response to today's challenges i think that right now. the country is in a state of paralysis and we keep saying ok somebody else has got to step up and do it the people who are commie and to build things for the japanese or the germans over the decades the challenges may change but the country has always faced new ones the dark ordinary car and we create an extraordinary challenge the question fifty years after kennedy said those words is if a country can still rise to meet them. right lauren lyster r.t. washington d.c. . joining me now to talk about this is chris chambers he is a professor of journalism it's orange county university chris now first you son most of that. you know you've been alive. and

they're around the block what do you think has happened to the country's just you know ability to pervert really raise its sleeves rolled up its sleeves and get the job done well a lot of it has to do unfortunately with the media but let me let me just put all that in context we're going to have a roble wrote a book about the klein of american exceptionalism the stuff goes way before the world war two the man on the moon you know the first days of this republic people the government sat down and said we need to build canals turnpike roads railroads we need to open up the west we need to develop our ports build our cities the civil war some people say that slavery aside that was a war to drag the south kicking and screaming into the twenty twenty the nineteenth century at least our modern times. to continue that exceptionalism we have teddy roosevelt the panama canal i mean none of that stuff could get done today why because i think in the sixty's the media began to chip away at the consensus of of

this is what we can do and we can get the job done there is a very cynical time it minutely there were reasons for that but when those the consensus broke down and everything was looked on with sinister motives you know both on the right and the left the consensus for doing great things broke down now we come to today where the media has come back together again or what have they done rather than build consensus because of technology because of fragmented audiences and corporate media ownership now we pander to each little interest group that does not want to have a hand in building were doing no matter how bad the infrastructure is the economy you know exploring space exploring the oceans who cares we don't have the money for that because we're exceptional why are we exceptional we don't know. it's just a fantasy we have but we're etc but we don't want to roll across leaves and do anything because it might hurt our little interest group and the media panders to those fragmented old ways of thinking ok so let's back up looking back to when

kennedy gave this speech we're leaders able to say more be more controversy because there was nothing more to give press that was going to either slaughter than have pundits on to criticize it were there if you were voices out there too. much fear of all rise up against us yeah i mean the traditional media traditional newspapers magazines and network media back then there were fewer voices and you know even pundits with a few of them that just started were really i mean they were looked upon almost as gods people or james reston exert or a mean and they actually helped forge a coalition again you know we're going to back the man in the mood why we have a cold war to win i mean that's part of it we're going to back civil rights why would we like black people know but we just don't do this because we're americans is going to hurt us abroad and it hurts our chances of being continuing to be a great nation i know because it's a moral good and right those consensuses were no matter what you think of what's

underlying them were built up by traditional media and now it's fragmented and ironically that fragmentation i mean you look at fox i mean there's an article came out in new york magazine that said you know fox had turned the republican party into a circus and now they regret it well when you have a circus is just pandering to this kind of audience obviously nothing's going to get done and you cannot build a consensus to build anything so i mean it's about the panama canal right now we would never be able to pass that because people would just have an interest in tearing it down just for the sake of tearing it down oh ok well let me ask you this though you know you talk about thoughts on m.s.n. you see representations of kind of the left and the right here you see those different debates playing out any time that democrats or republicans come out with a proposal or trying to work together on anything but how much. do those really make an impact because we've seen an era where many people that we interview on these shows argued that money is what really talks lobbying private interest groups

liberations now they can funnel money interest to distance united so i mean how can we really blame the press when there are other forces that seem to be so much stronger than going with the media well i mean you know the citizens united case i mean that blew the doors of mostly for corporations and. the union in this kind of that's kind of a drop in the bucket when still there but they can bring that power to bear when they look at it in their best interests now you're starting to see that and i will admit that when you look at say republican governors who are vetoing infrastructure projects that are needed tunnels bridges right light rail fast rail systems like they have in japan and they're and they're pandering often to tea party interests but then you have some corporate interests coming in construction people etc etc you know doing maglev studies for these bullet trains they're bringing their lobbyists in so it's kind of war a war of of of the giants on this level but the people are sitting there wondering

what's going on and we tend to want the most simplest explanation and what was going to give that to us will back them so we're if we need a bullet train from say orlando to tampa but the governor vetoes it you know we're going to buy into whatever weird explanations that he and his millions have put on fox news rather than really say what i really think the sentiments are state for six hours to go sixty miles in really quickly we're almost out of time but you know just looking back you're arguing that essentially the war multitude of voices multitude of press has really defeated the ability for the country to use i but at the same time why is that such a bad thing that there is more multitude of voices because this is supposed to be a country that values freedom of speech freedom of the press so is it just kind of you know this is just what you get when those are the values you. well how does a country where we've always heard that we we value the good at some point you need to roll up your sleeve and say look we've got a problem and sometimes people just need to sit down to shut the hell up and get

behind something that's good you know what begins with a multitude of voices who knows what's good we're going to mean that is a good point who knows you know right there is no black and white right and i think that this whole thing just shows that everything is a little more gray that we don't know what causes but i thank you for helping to bear that out that was chris chambers a professor of journalism at georgetown university now meanwhile secretary of defense robert gates has just a few weeks left in office he's going to retire but the man once seen as talking about reining in the bloated defense budget is now actually warning against any more cuts he's making a final stand and artie's killing for looks into what's behind his change of heart from another trip as robert gates winds down his time as secretary of defense. is it as eager to wind down america's six hundred ninety billion dollars a year in military spending even as the u.s. bases a one point five trillion dollars deficit the defense budget is not because of the

deficit and debt problem that we have as a country. once the secretary who's announced new big contract in resentment military spending in the war on terror it's acts of september eleventh two thousand and one opened the gusher of defense spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade the gusher has been turned off and we'll stay on his last weeks in office to warn that too many cuts could spell danger for the united states it is important that we not repeat the mistakes of the past were tough economic times were the winding down of a military campaign needs to steep and wise reductions in the sense it's also warned against closing some of the us is more than one thousand military bases worldwide are record of predicting where we will use military force since vietnam is perfect. we have never once gotten it right. i mean there is there isn't a single instance in grenada panama the first gulf war.

the balkans haiti. mobile military spending increased by twenty point six billion in two thousand and ten and nineteen point six billion of that was the u.s. alone other countries are closing deficits by reducing your defense dollars the united kingdom for instance has started the process that started the process greece and turkey which had a long time rivalry have had discussions about mutual reduction. virtually all the countries in europe face this problem. at the pentagon thank you continues to grow. the outgoing secretary of defense also called for a continued u.s. presence in iraq even as president obama's timetable mandates a total withdrawal by the end of the year i hope to figure out a way to pass and i think the united states will be willing to say yes when the time comes for defense contractor michael o'brien says the gap is likely to be

filled by defense contractors who want to keep the number of soldiers low as possible because it's a political hot potato but nobody bats an eye when one hundred thousand contractors school over to the fear of operations. some analysts say america's military spending is too powerful for any defense secretary to control whether he heads into the private sector. was part of this revolving door acculturated we have or not and still i think feels protective toward its interests he also recognizes that. pentagon is big business in the united states as robert gates prepares to him the reins of the pentagon over to leon panetta at the end of june he says quote all of the low hanging fruit have not only been put they've been stopped and crushed but they think that's across the board many americans say they want to see the pentagon tighten its belt as well heel and ford are a key washington d.c. . and here now to talk about this is a military analyst and arteaga locker jake elevator taking so much for being with

us so first of all robert gates is someone we seen come out before and talk about reining in defense spending now all of a sudden he's going to be retiring in a few weeks and he's saying that cuts in spending to defense spending could be you know bad that this is not a good thing and he's kind of railing against that what is going on here what's behind the change of heart and clarification i'm not so sure that he said that cuts would be bad he talked about making appropriate cuts and he talked about practical ways we could make cuts were he swore he was saying the cuts would be bad is that if you want to continue the foreign footprint that's been prescribed by people above his crate paygrade including congress and obama and the national security apparatus you have to fund it so that's what he was talking about he's secretary gates yesterday made that made the point to try to find efficiency in spending and contracting while we maintain this foreign footprint abroad ok so if you're saying that he's not saying you know don't cut defense the right is saying you don't cut in the wrong places we've got to be efficient about this we've got to isn't that

the same thing as kind of coming out and really you know rallying for defense spending to continue to be what it is about a little bit of a change of tune for him well i mean let me clarify a secretary gates he had specific just a few weeks ago at west point and sort of i can january west point that any any secretary defense advise another president send a big army and do it africa asia etc should have his head examined secretary leavitt olivia secretary gates has been very critical of libya he said we should not under his watch we wouldn't be there secretary gates has been very critical of the afghanistan is also been very critical of the bush administration's decision to lead us into iraq and he has been in my opinion the best secretary of defense ever that we've had in position however there is a lot of serious concern here because there's nothing that secretary gates can do or say to stop what we have which is a a a pseudo postmodern empire. states is in my view encouraging i mean he said the too

many cuts danger that's right well i mean because the here's here's a situation with the current political system that we have it could there even ever be too many cuts in defense politically possible also in the window horsley i mean personally as i look at the numbers there's all sorts of ways you can say there's also where you can cut for instance we can get rid of the bases in germany and u.a.e. and japan and he secretary gates even said yesterday and the long term the united states would be better off not having a base in germany he said that but but the thing is that we face it we we face number of problems and it's the political will lector it to the house of representatives in the senate. is is bought out by the military industrial console is gates put out by the military industrial complex is he coming out now saying you know too many cuts spell danger because he's going to retire at the end of the month maybe he wants to consult for some of these defense contractors some of these firms that you know pay good salaries and a lot of you know former generals go in and do some work for well that's an interesting conspiracy theory i would have to see i don't think there is the there is a question well i don't know we'll have to see if he goes to work for lockheed martin

or something like that but it's my opinion secretary gates is very wise and very shrewd a lot of things and he certainly made appropriate criticisms of u.s. foreign policy abroad he's also been very cautious to say if we're going to end the wars in iraq and afghanistan we need to do it quickly and we also need to do it smartly we need to to reduce footprint we need to reduce spending all these sorts of things the problem is not gates no matter what gates says or does the problem is is the electorate the military industrial complex the lobbyist buying out the electorate the elected body that continue to keep us in these wars and then and they all of their problem is president obama doing in mike in my opinion liberal interventionism nation building mindless programs in libya and elsewhere so should we not listen to what secretary gates says because it doesn't sound like administration really does you know you mentioned a lot of his his remarks such as it but you know setting a land army to more countries or setting forces on your country. you know some of you need to have their head examined i mean while the administration just you know

gets involved in libya and right well i mean again gates is not the one that sends troops that obama just thinks that we not listen to him because it doesn't sound like the administration is are we looking at the wrong issue but i know i think i think secretary gates has a lot of wise things to say. oak or she's influential he's not even i mean but the problem that gates has run into as he's headed to mean one of the opening remarks he gave a speech yesterday he had said what i've come across in some sort of words he said the mindset of the pentagon the culture the organizational culture that these are the big problems these embedded even better problems of having a military industrial complex that's. proper catered by a corporatism and big corporate big government empire type apparatuses and gates has been critical of that but it's the people that have promoted that the elected body those that support it the the culture of of of a career is of that takes place in the military those are the things that we have a problem with and those things gates is adequately tried and in many ways he's

been the beast but granted he hasn't been perfect but he's done the best job of it we've had criticizing him and we should hope that the next guy coming in because an equally as good job should we hope that the next guy coming and lots pats lots more defense cuts will see who president obama the size is going to is going to go we don't we got heard some rumors of some ideas but i think i think that it's going to be very tough in the current political crisis to anybody be as good as secretary gates today and just what yes or no question were too many cuts dangerous for them it's necessary no no no we need significant cuts we need we need to cut our defense budget by in my opinion a third why is he out there calling for that by saying it's dangerous why is he the same as the other direction you were that those decisions are above his pay grade the decisions good decisions of what the budget should be setting the operational priority that's not that's the president's job and that's the cabinet and that's the elected body the president. basically oversees the objectives given to him

which is why he is a tricky role he made that point yesterday very clear but let me just say this we spend so much money on defensively year that you could leave plate the entire i was in our highway system the united states with twenty four carat gold right one point two trillion dollars is what we spend so there's a whole lot of waste that can be cut and a lot of credit could be made which is not the tune we heard robert gates saying singing this week when he made that speech i want to thank you for your analysis and for your defending of him that was military analysts and our team blogger can't deliver now imagine this you attend a film screening of a documentary or are and activists who've talked slogans for cars on the sidewalk or maybe you're involved in anti-war environmental or peace activism you know organize or go to some protests and then you find yourself being spied on by the f.b.i. or facing terrorism charges for your chalk drawings or having your house ransacked by the feds all part of their counterterrorism efforts well that's exactly what some activists in the u.s. allege is going on earlier i spoke to one of them carlos montez he is

a long time to kano activist is also co-founder of the brown berets the f.b.i. raided his home taking his computer and historical documents and made this month and he's also a member of the committee to stop the f.b.i. repression here's part of our conversation. those are different leo ryan is the president by the homeland security use and using the federal grand jury not only against peace activists that denounced the u.s. war in afghanistan and iraq but also against the palestinian arab american muslim community here in the united states they've been suffering this repression for many years and now the federal grand jury is being used to expand it to activists who stand in solidarity with the people in the middle east people in colombia who fight for freedom and peace. do you think that u.s. and department of homeland security that of course was created in the wake of nine eleven there's been

a lot of counterterrorism iraq earthy built in the post nine eleven united states you know apparatus why do you think they're being very targeted now do you think it to justify this kind of money being spent. just to justify this kind of money being spent but also to attack us as. being outspoken against u.s. policy of intervention and the u.s. policy of condemning people's movements throughout the world the protest movements are directly exposing and challenging the lies that the government the us government puts out the you know in the two thousand and six we had millions of people marching in the street demanding legalization and then took to the rates two thousand and seven we were attacked by the l.a.p.d. were repressed so even though we continue to protest may first of every year we continue to protest on the anniversary of the invasion of iraq we may not have

a million people marching in the street but still hundreds of thousands that continue to challenge that policy you know your activism spans a long time and this is something that used both a different time periods in your life but i'm curious if you see any difference where just very very. kind of obviously people activists like environmental activists animal rights activists people that attend a documentary or that used sidewalk chalk on the street an order to like right there slogans are now being targeted if there is if we're seeing a new low of what you call. washing the fence. no absolutely this new widespread attack against peace activist environmental activist us immigrant rights activists it's a new wave of attacks by the federal government using the grand juries and the f.b.i. to squash dissent it's a war against dissent and whether it's someone speaking at

a speech like government official or someone demonstrating an. anti-war rally or immigrant rights rally the immigrant rights movement has been repressed has been attacked physically and you know there's a rise in deportations of immigrants in this country so this is definitely an increased attack against people who are challenging u.s. policy and speaking out and exercising our right of freedom of speech in the right to protest the f.b.i. is trying to stop our movement but we're not letting them we national mobilization and we formed a committee can step in ira pressure. and we've had demonstrations so it's that they're trying to stop us but we're not going to let them do it that was careless nonsense co-founder of the ground arranged economy.

all right this is going to be fun it's time now to talk about the war on our t.v. if there is one we're wondering because now everyone has a right to their opinions we would never deprive anybody of that we would never decry that right but we are t. feel that it's time to address some of the criticism that's been directed against us directed at us to correct the misinformation that we feel has been put out there for example politico has called us a quote russian propaganda arm but that aside today i want to address criticism that centers around our guests our guest selections the frequent people there appear on the show our chief frequently quotes us extremists as authorities on world events or interviews them at length that's what the southern poverty law center had to say about us now in addition to that we have coming from the new york times if we could move to that next slide a ratings of britain and russia today as they've reported on controversial topics on the fringe of mainstream news

a report and this is the example they give of our you know french reporting featured an interview with the league zulu shabazz the national chairman of the new black panther party and moving on to some other criticism next slide please according to a former c.b.s. correspondent he said if the names of american guests on r.t.e. are unfamiliar to many americans there is a reason let's see it. guys their guests are people on the fringes of respectability and cranks now that was coming in a actually a report that some columbia university journalism school students did which then they were interviewed by n.p.r. and kind of continued to say things to that effect but back to the matter. yes you got it we're so friends we are so fringe but you're never going to see any of our guests faces anywhere else because mainstream respectable news stations would never be interested in any of our own respectable extreme guests you know what let's take

a look at some of these fringe and respectable extremists guess that we regularly have on the show all the state. to get immediate feedback. i think at this point we're all trying to scramble to part all the facts. yes we are did you notice that even those fringe respectable guests are everywhere all

over you can't escape him now our t. is not a mainstream channel we don't want to be we believe in bringing on a variety of points of view which you are not going to see on the mainstream stations that is kind of the point of our existence but come on nobel prize winners presidential hopefuls and whistleblowers i think are pretty qualified to speak as guest on a news program and you know we also i want to point out how many of those guests on right here on our t.v. long before the mainstream media shows any interest in them so you know maybe they're taking a page from our playbook who knows anyway you know for example ron paul we were doing interviews back with him in two thousand and eight long before every mainstream channel was inviting him on about his presidential run like we saw earlier this month when he made the announcement also you know the new york times blogs picked up on our first interview with julian assange because at that time not much president talked to him that was back in april two thousand and ten and jake ugur of the young turks he was coming on our t.v. long before m.s.m. he had snatched him up to fill a seat in their very own anchor chair so.