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today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of kandahar. charcoal for each day. when charles from. san antonio ways can try. to. keep the crowd. of young lady. down to. get. our story begins during the great depression times were hard

and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like a miracle. i'll see i'll put it into the queue behind your radio. wherever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into your own home most of. broadcasting retained faith it was hope. in the spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public funds and clear ways are considered the property of the federal communications commission charged with the responsibility of protecting the people before the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed the 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.

it should be owned locally so they passed strict rules limiting the number of stations any one person can elevate in the current year to stay cuckold a six hour break n.b.c. . game came for. and radio became a lifeline. the president of. the information we were getting was vital he only that it's a date which will live. in infamy important to our national security important to our democracy our earth is that right moral speaking from iraq and we learned this new media could be used against itself cannot they are. made yes ok through her yet he her or. her. or her for her for what they did of course of those fascist regimes was just broadcast

over and over again the information and the perspective the point of view and the propaganda that they wanted people to digest absorb and so the federal communications commission back in one nine hundred forty nine incorporated something called the fairness doctrine the fairness doctrine the pirate radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage to fight only important controversy on issues and provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast in the points you ask 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 going to name through the administrations of truman eisenhower kennedy johnson nixon ford and carter more generally like. robert reich. and then a real media man came into power with that i will faithfully execute the office ronald reagan was the king of deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v.

and radio of some one person could own dozens of broadcast asians nationwide and said the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of the fair stock. anyway back then republicans and democrats passed a bill to reinstate the fairness doctrine and newt gingrich and trent lott were co-sponsors. but ronald reagan vetoed it. the one thousand nine hundred six telecommunications act suddenly allowed big companies like clear channel to own twelve hundred stations nationwide and brown program them with conservative talk radio was on top of. the slots only to sit at the bars. and looking at the five largest operators where we found was a nine to one or ten to wanted fan which of 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 grounds but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking at monday through friday concert commercial radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressive no liberals were presented the two thousand and seven study by free press and the center for american progress that 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 thought that 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. so let's see

talkers magazine now is out the ed schultz show has got over three million listers progress and talk we got it starts in two thousand and four and it now seems to be having an effect many formerly red states that hurt ed and no but m. and air america were highly competitive they were voted blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual good bait but here's the scary part since the democrats made gains in the two thousand and six election corporate radio took to get into every other progressive talker in the key swing state of ohio off the air first and. then columbus and replaced them with shows they get half their exit while 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 the air in the fall of zero five it was like a two point four brain scan is strange to me you did it. market it or can i have a problem 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 all over 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 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 which talk show hosts and news can say then check their facts turns out there's a lot of forethought also it was david brock used to perpetrate author david brock uncovered evidence about anita hill but has been since or by liberals the right time pattern of crime sexual harassment or political radicalism and most important are likely motivation for destroying the career of clarence thomas then he learned that he didn't lie 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 pollen 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. 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 damaging 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 cree and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at w.t.v. t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then we uncovered a story about hormones being secretly don't just get into our milk supply t.v.

team granted this promotion for the investigation just to cancer nobody else in the country covered this and then they get fired for trying to tell the story when d.t.h. manufacturer monsanto threatened to sue fox news w t v t 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 threatened to report the news distortion to the f.c.c. that's when deputy beatty fired them were very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial a korea tourney john chambliss the senator says the latest this. all of the year

and from there on him throughout an effort is made to talk to scientists or to distort the story in a way that we will do that monsanto these folks refused to do in this letter for steve wilson played his own case you know that story cost. two careers. and i want us. there was only one way or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg instructed the jury for they'd have to prove w t v t station management had deliberately tried to distort the news proof of a violation requires that the plaintiff the stabbers that there be a t.v. thiis station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plainest proposed news report on the g eight wilson lost the genie cre 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 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 g 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 let us not have to do with the store for the news that is not true false fixation of the us for lost i mean capacity one hundred and twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars i think today is a wonderful day for parts thirteen for other damages two hundred fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars fox appealed the jury's decision for disney and their attorneys argued there is no law against distortion if you haven't found a stash. you haven't found

a rule even for 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 the policy of the f.c.c. but it's not technically against any law or rule of regulation to distort and there's what they're saying is the news really belongs to the corporation that that's putting it out and that it's not a cancel water while the public. that'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 thirty five president. we're going to fight the ruling a korean wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees but the road to war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than a detour to the west african country of the sheer force which do hold government accountable like this can cost a lot of money from the team of people that looks 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 the cost very little in the polls this last interview put me in for her profits for shareholders cause and divert your attention from real and it's 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 to go out there and to get the story it's you know how can you get it 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 views than actual reporters out there digging up the story and saying ok america here's the facts you decide and maybe. that's. just the. media consolidation means you were 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 relations 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 get interview some real headline maker and everybody wants to get on their air you want that person that's a valuable commodity you're. the top newsmakers in the bush administration were complaining and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq where were the hard questions. i think the press dropped the ball. i think when they should have been the real watch and should have. let the chips fall where they may they defaulted totally made did they say in the run up to the war was so clear for two years we were going to war

and nobody asked why but we now know. 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 bomb suitable for nuclear weapons production there were no weapons of mass destruction with the person that the first same truth scare everyone we don't want the smoking gun that could come in the form of the mushroom cloud no ties to al qaeda and 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 it's a rat and al qaeda was a lot of obvious sepsis at a time when it was crucial for our country which was right after nine eleven they felt that they had to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism out of the news terms repeated the administration. have

a conflict. in iraq were to time timing pictures saddam hussein put his biological weapons laboratories in trucks little turned out to be true awesomely instead of providing clarity on the single most rainham 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's. early in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans thought saddam hussein was directly terrorist and i don't think we are assured that 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 group fairness and accuracy in reporting did a. study of two weeks around february fifth two thousand and three right before the invasion the four major nightly newscasts 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 war only three were that the world leaders three of almost four hundred when half the population was opposed to the invasion that is no longer mainstream media that's an extreme and in 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 and say them on the air no questions asked if a certain standard that is needed. talking point imagine in

iraq ruled by the knesset yabbies to be in iraq imagine iraq and a country talking point link iraq to iran i believe iran is now the number one credit maker in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts to the t.v. and the radio. ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money . 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. managers stood by the reporter jonathan landay covered speech in august two thousand and two the veterans of foreign wars many of us are. our nuclear weapons. 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 so randi 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 in or invited to a trip pentagon trip since. that three years. the chill by white house correspondent. he had been trying to get on the vice president's plane in early two thousand and four there were some things that. like that we wrote. there was no. 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 war in iraq because they were afraid of losing access and having happened to them what happened to me and has happened to others an example of why media ownership matters to democracy before reporting. sheds light on the reasons why they are being asked to go and risk wife and limb and health and family and everything else. then we're doing our job and if that displeases the circuitry of defense if it just polices the vice president so be it . out still receive it out with we trusted it as we knew it does count with the extra stuff and it's 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 laughs. the story really begins with them vassar joseph wilson wilson was the acting ambassador to iraq before the first gulf war

when saddam hussein took more than one hundred americans as 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 hero heard president george w. bush make this statement in the two thousand and three state of the union address the british government has learned that saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa a year earlier the cia had sent wilson to investigate the uranium claim that he knew it wasn't true their level of corruption. is demonstrated from the top down is staggering to the american people so he wrote about it in the new york times that touched off a firestorm at the white house coolness robert novak tried to discredit wilson by writing a story that wilson's wife valerie plame who worked at the cia sent him on the trip

trouble was she worked as a spy for the cia nobody was supposed to know she works there the cia even told no that not to publish that information but know that they had what mr harlow told me he asked me not to use your name did not say she was a she was uncovered. activities former president bush was not a. human intelligence spies. is very important. pretty hard to get it. of somebody working clandestine service. names to appear i'm sure that both. deputy defense secretary richard admitted he was the first to leak the spies name and he apologized for it. if you change your story but white house staffers karl rove in lewis libby also spraying the covert agents name to reporters at the same time assuring the president's own press secretary they had

nothing to do with it they're good individuals they're important members of our white house 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 and anyway 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 done vall well there were at least three probably four people if not in that room that watched it live and various news organizations the knew that that was a flat out lied because they had talked to karl rove about hillary played in who she was. were so eager for access to the white house they allowed themselves to be used for political gain using the reporters in effect 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 power of an 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 if that's the. this is this wasn't covert which is just ridiculous was she in fact a covert agent was never even proved there is no doubt that her relationship with the cia was profit if you give the identity of a classified person it doesn't mean diddly squat it has to be a covert agent and i still don't believe. 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 cia operatives are not a career c. was not occurred up her to 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. well think british. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cancer for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our keep. a telemarketer broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.

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