this is once again flared up. these are the images being from the streets of canada. trying to operations room today. this is our team main stories we're covering for those three months since the deadly earthquake it's just kind of crippled the fukushima power plant there's still no end in sight to the country's radioactive crisis tests isn't tokyo one holding us demonstrations against the country's use of nuclear energy. activists try to draw media attention to a secret meeting of some of the world's most influential because they want the truth of the opened up to public scrutiny of gender this news gathering remains

unknown speculation announce that the international monetary fund at that place to save the euro on the table. in the next winter olympic games host russia city of sochi is getting a major facelift to make for infrastructure and sports facilities a fit parent and spectators participant says. the next step we take a look behind the scenes u.s. news industry. thank you. plucked. from san antonio please control. probably. the prong. collar. the only tongue keep your eye on it.

is a problem in. the case of the baltimore sun. our story begins during the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like a miracle to. ausiello sensitive child into the few cars behind your radio dial to ever live wherever you may be the radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into your own home most of it wasn't just broadcasting retained hate it was hope. in that spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public i'm simply away talking for the public record the federal communications commission charged with the responsibility of protecting the people that the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed to licenses for 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 ellerey independent beautiful state which only six hours hold an operator like n.b.c. . then came the war. and radio became a lifeline. for president so i could take the information we were getting was vital we all knew that it's a date which will live. in infamy important to our national security important to our democracy our mother heard that word moral speaking from a and we learned this new media could be used against the sixty's and am i didn't think they were a laughing lady after her young people her her. her

in the river. what they did of course of those fascist regimes was you 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 thousand forty nine incorporated something called the furthest up the fairness doctrine required radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage for the fight only important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast to the point you're after 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 to 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 what i will faithfully execute the ronald reagan was the keen deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio so one person could only dozens of broadcast nationwide and send the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of the stuff. 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 and the brown program them with conservative talk radio was handing millions bucks an ounce 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 of 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 amount but in places like houston texas for example. we fan looking at monday through friday commercial radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressive's no liberals represented the two thousand and seven study by free press and the center for american progress so as 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 bashed 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. so 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 on many formerly red states that hurt ed and nova and air america were highly competitive were voted blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual good base but here's the scary part since the democrats made gains in the two thousand and six election corporate radio took big daddy in 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 the bronx 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 frames got a strange to me. market if you're going to have a problem it isn't just ohio since two thousand and six doesn't the 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 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 newspeople say then check their facts turns out there's a lot of false would also it which david brock used to perpetrate author david brock uncovered evidence about a meal that has been censored by liberals the right time pattern of sexual harassment or political radicalism most important are likely motivation for destroying the career of clarence thomas then he learned. 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 and 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 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 neutral like jane

a creek and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams or sing at w.t.v. t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then they uncovered a story about hormones being secretly own internal milk supply w.t.v. team ran this promotion for the investigation to start cancer 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 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 untrue 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 t.v. keith fire them very courageous they file

a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial a korea tourney john chambliss most or some celebs. this. well of the year in from there on him throughout the effort is made to the senate distort to distort the story in a way that we will visit monsanto diesel for if you do it in a sweater for steve wilson played his own case you know what this story cost. two careers. in the office. there was only one way or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg instructed the jury but they'd have to prove w t v t station management for had deliberately tried to distort the news proof of a violation requires that the plaintiffs establish that the t.v. tease station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort plainness proposed news report on d.g.

eight wilson lost a genie won her case because she threatened to disclose to the federal communications commission under 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 green wilson to falsify and distort the news through their b.g. story but we are completely vindicated on the finding of this theory that we do not to stuart is for lost wages eighty thousand seven hundred twenty five dollars that does not have to do with the store for the news it is not the true false the case of the us for lost earnings capacity one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars i think today is a wonderful day for thirteen for other damages two hundred fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars bucks are killed the jury's decision is any and

their attorneys argued there is no law against distortion you have found a stash. you haven't found a rule even for regulation what we're doing is importing into that's the news distortion false 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 and if so what they're saying is the new is really belongs to the corporation but that's putting it out and that it's not a council water why do 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 hawksworth to force president michelle a lot of. pleasure thank you for your good hit by the really create and wilson ended up paying fox attorney things. the road to war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than

a detour to the west african country of these year reports which do hold government accountable like this can cost a lot of money from the team of people that looks into research and trial and production just to air one eight minute story to build a nuclear bomb explode they've largely been replaced with coverage like this it costs very little in a cold interview that means profits for shareholders who incentive virtue are essential for real 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 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 excess 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 get interview some real headline maker everybody wants to get on there you want that person that's a valuable commodity you. her point again the top newsmakers in the bush administration were great cats and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq and where were the hard questions and. i think the press got the ball i think when they should have been the real watchdogs and should have let the chips fall where they may be defaulted totally

made good as they say in the run up to the war was so clear for two years that 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 a more difficult for nuclear weapons production there were no weapons of mass destruction worth a 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 of al qaeda members there was a pattern the 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 that they had big to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they

gave up their one weapon which was skepticism of the news shows he did the administration. have a conflict between our. 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 issue of our generation the press only created confusion it is smoking gun is a good for state 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 scene 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 assuming nobody's ever suggested good 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 you know that the mainstream media in the media as we most of us experience. was truth telling group fairness and accuracy in reporting the. study. two weeks around february fifth two thousand and three right before the invasion before major that newscast m.t.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 with antiwar leaders three of almost four hundred when half the population was supposed to be invasion that is no longer in mainstream media that's an extreme and even 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. this. is needed. talking points imagine an iraq ruled pies or cowley the message needs to be oh yes in iraq imagine iraq and a. talking point linked iraq to iran i believe their run is now that everyone could make or in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts to the t.v. on the radio. kerry analysts have ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money 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.

saying 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 landi and more and began writing about faulty intelligence about how there was no link between iraq and al qaeda but failed policies that series of stories one station of people in the pentagon tried to shut me out of travel with the secretary of defense i was not allowed to have not been allowed in or invited onto trips pentagon trip since. that three years. to chill with my 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. the vice president did like that we wrote. there was no on

the plane it's my belief. 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. shows white 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 circuitry of defense if it just pleases the vice president so be it. still he's a bit out with we trusted as we knew it called his job with them to stop 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. this 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 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. 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 to know that did what mr harlow told me he asked me not to use your name did not say she was she was a coward and i still don't believe she was a covert activities former president bush was not a. use human intelligence spies. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service he says name is going to appear i'm sure that both places deputy defense secretary richard thompson admitted he was the first to leak the spies name and he apologized for it. but white house staffers

karl rove in lewis libby also sprayed the covert agents to reporters at the same time for sharing the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it they're good individuals they're important numbers 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 the 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. well there were at least three probably four people if not in that room that watched it live at various news organizations the knew that that was a flat out lie because they had talked to karl rove above hellery plane and who she was with 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 color 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 allow as you know upsets the. our innocence wasn't correct which is just ridiculous was she in fact a covert agent was never even through there is no doubt that the relationship with the cia was possible 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 endangering national security by outing a covertly i offered her as an audit 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. we'll. bring you the latest science and technology from the realm for. the future coverage. wealthy british scientists think it's time to. market. scandal find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines if you need to cause

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