it's five thirty pm in moscow and you're watching our t.v. and these are our top stories a russian nationalists icon has been shot dead in moscow investigators haven't ruled out the killing being an attempt to ignite ethnic tensions as the former army colonel have served a prison sentence for kidnapping and murdering a chechen girl. made a reported the acknowledges targeting the libyan leader meanwhile pressure mounts on syria with france and britain still pushing forward a resolution against the syrian president. and russia will resume imports of

events to pose a serious safety guarantees are provided business one of the outcomes of high level talks for nato is missile defense plans and moscow's possible w t o membership or also to stop its. next we take a look at what lies behind the news in the us. one just from. san antonio airways and try. to. keep the promise. i'm not. yelling at tom peters. but in.

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 dial. wherever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into our own home most. broadcasting retain. it was hope. in the spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public on simply airwaves are considered public proper big book of rule communication the goal of the struggle 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 the t.v. and radio owners had to serve the public if they did not the 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 can ellerey can defend the other two states we told the six hour hold up by n.b.c. . then came the war. and radio became a lifeline. rather than. 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 market forces at work tomorrow speaking from iraq and we learned this new media could be used against us cities are not an easy they are after media focus groups of her yankee prefer her for her. or her for. what they did of course of those fascist regimes was it 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 required radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage to fight only important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast eighteen 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 good evening through the administrations of truman eisenhower kennedy johnson nixon ford and carter more generally like. robert reich. and then a real media mary came into power with her i will faithfully execute the ronald reagan was the scene of deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v.

and radio it's the one person can own dozens of broadcast ations nationwide and said the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of the fair and stop. any way back then republicans and democrats passed a bill to reinstate the fairness doctrine newt gingrich and trent lott co-sponsors . but ronald reagan peter. the one thousand nine hundred six telecommunications act suddenly allowed big companies like clear channel to own twelve hundred stations nationwide hit them brown program them with conservative talk radio was artists and then millions bought to us was sold 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 conservative talk show hosts self

declared conservative hosts versus folks who declared 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 downloads but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking at monday through friday can commercialize stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressive no liberals represented in 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 mainstream talk 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. to let's see talkers magazine now is out the ed schultz show has got over three million listers 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 noble and air america were highly competitive who were voted blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual a good base 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 and off the air first and. then columbus and replaced them with shows they get half their products 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 brain scan a strange to make. market if you're going to have a problem it isn't just ohio since two thousand and six doesn't 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 exploded 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 back 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 with talk show hosts and news can say then check their facts turns out there's a lot of false would also it was david brock used to perpetrate author david brock and covers evidence about anita hill but has been since or by liberals the right time pattern of crime sexual harassment or political radicalism most important or likely motivation for destroying your career. then he learned he'd been lied to i came to be aware that the people around clarence thomas who had helped me write that account. didn't believe the account themselves seen 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. what i was doing more once i realized what it was even 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 look pretty carefully at the sun 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 critic and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at the t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then we uncovered

a story about four months being secretly into our milk supply t.v. team ran 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 t.v. 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 did you fire them very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial atreus attorney john chambliss mr

sosa lawyers. this. all of the year and from there on in through a mouth an effort is made to the senate distort to distort the story in a way that we will visit monsanto these folks refused to do in this weather for steve wilson played his own case you know the story cost. two careers. and i want it. there was only one way a creek or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg instructed the jury for they'd have to prove t.v. 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 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 moved report yes so a creep proved news distortion and you wouldn't know it from the spin on the t.v. tease their box thirteen representatives say the jury through its verdicts clearly stated at 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 twenty five dollars that does not have to do with distortion of the news it is not of the true false occasion of the us for lost an 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 it is indeed their attorneys argued that there is no law against distortion and you haven't found

a stash. you haven't found a rule even for regulation what we're doing is you forty two that's the news distortion fault and it went to the second district court of appeals in florida and they bought the fox argument that yes it is a policy of the f.c.c. but it's not technically against any and all rule of regulation to destroy the members what they're saying is the new is really belongs to the corporation that that's putting it out and that it's not against the water why do 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 hawksworth to force president. bush and the french completely separated by the ruling korean wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees . the world to the war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than a detour to the west african country of these reports which do hold government accountable like this can constitute a lot of money from the a team of people that put months 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 costs very little anna nicole smith's last interview that means greater profits for shareholders cause and divert your attention real because 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 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 doing of the story and saying ok america here's the facts you decide. to say. this is the. media consolidation means if 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 one on well you better play the game you better play by our rules if you want that we call that in our field get to interview some real headline maker that everybody wants to get on the air and you want that person that's a valuable commodity you. her point again the top newsmakers in the bush administration were a great dancer and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq and were the hard questions. i think 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 did paul totally and they did this they say in the run up to the war it was so clear for two years

and 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 a more difficult 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. and we do have solid evidence of the presence in iraq. will create a members there was a pattern relationship that went back at least a decade in 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 to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism on the news terms therapy did

the administration. have a conflict. on the record there were two times a time in pictures saddam hussein quit his biological weapons laboratories in trucks little it turned out to be true only 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's. early in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans saddam hussein was directly terrorist attacks and i don't think we ever should listen i know i didn't say that there was a direct connection between september the eleventh and saddam hussein nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of september the eleventh were ordered by iraq and 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 reporting did a. study. 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 b.b.'s news hour with jim lehrer there were three hundred ninety three interviews down around war only three were with actually world leaders three of almost four hundred when half the population was opposed to the invasion that is no longer in the mainstream media that's an extreme. 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. this.

is the. talking point imagine an iraq ruled by surprise i guess it yet needs to be read in iraq unless you know any country talking point link iraq to iran i believe iran is now the number one critically corrina iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts to the t.v. either we'll. terry battle us have ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money off. most would consider that a potential public debate which they did not even potential at the same time reporters who did ask hard questions were punished by the white house. managers to 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. saying wire 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. 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 sits for three years. the chill 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 life and limb and health and family and everything else. then we're doing our job and if that displeases the circuit area of difference of interest polices the vice president so be it. still is a bit we trusted him as we knew. his job with the m.m. goes up 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 last. the story really begins with ambassador 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 saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa a year earlier the cia had sent wilson to investigate the uranium claim and he knew it wasn't true their level of corruption that 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 columnist 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 to harlow told me he asked me not to use your name did not say she was a she was a covert employee and i still don't pull in she was a covert activities former president bush was not a. human intelligence. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service thinks his name is going to appear in time for the code place else deputy defense secretary richard admitted he was the first to leak the spies name and he apologized for it. and he changed his story but white house staffers karl rove in lewis libby also sprayed the covert agents name to reporters at the same time assuring the president's own press

secretary they had nothing to do with it and they're good individuals they're 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 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 stomach well 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 and various news organizations the knew that there was a flat out alive because they had talked to karl rove about ellery plain and who she was the reporters 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 accept. our innocence wasn't correct which is just ridiculous was she in fact a covert agent was never even proved there was no doubt that her relationship with the cia was part of if you give the identity of a classified person it doesn't mean diddly squat you to be a covert agent and i still don't believe she was engaged in any covert activities keamy 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 covertly cia operative was a lot of course she was not a cover it up for the i.r.s.

says that she was for the record valerie plame wilson was a covert agent the cia put it in writing. the close up team has been to build a grand reach thank you for the turning point of bringing more to. this time party goes to the region where half of the area is occupied by a nature preserve. where the young generation trends in their ancestors. where the mysterious city of a deadlock will come to the republic of north pacific russia hockey.

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