join see who runs the a movie that's the case we have to the ground in period truly to tell you what's going to school until you can a listen it's no socialism good to see don't need to go and. read this and the colonel was toto as used to retreat. five thirty am in moscow these iraqi headlines three months on from the fukushima nuclear disaster in japan and public anger at the concealment of the true size of the disaster spills on to the streets as people demand action and the ongoing crisis in march a huge tsunami swept ashore leading tens of thousands dead and damaging the felician reactors a. powerful dangerous possibly illegal that's the view of activists protesting the secretive meeting of some of the world's most influential political and financial

leaders how to build a bird conference the group claims it offers a useful forum for people in positions of authority to discuss problems candidly outside the player of the media. r t looks of the large scale modernization of the russian city of sochi is undergoing to make the twenty fourteen paralympic games easily accessible for participants and spectators russia's paralympic team has long been near the top of the leaderboard at the vancouver two thousand and ten games i want to total of thirty eight medals twelve them gold up next a look behind the scenes of the u.s. broadcast industry stay with us here on r.t. . when just. the sand and the leader ways and try. to. keep the.

top heat. in. the box on. our story begins during the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like america. ausiello sensitive into the queue behind your radio dial. wherever you may be a radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right in torah own homes. broadcasting retained faith it was hope. in the spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public and simply a way to work and for the public record the federal communications commission live with the responsibility of protecting the people before 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 licenses and the f.c.c. could take them away. and the f.c.c. understood that radio and t.v. should be owned locally so they passed strict rules limiting the number of stations any one person could l.a. independent leadership we told me six hours to nothing like n.b.c. . then came for. and radio became a lifeline. for good and healthy and i think 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 network moral speaking from iraq and we learned this new media

could be used against us each and every night at least they are after p.d.f. looking through her yet to keep her or. her. her work for free for free 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 thousand nine hundred eighty nine and cooperated something called the fair to stop the fairness doctrine required radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage by only important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast to the point 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 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 king or deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio active so one person could own dozens of broadcast issues nationwide and said the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of their 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 peter. 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 honest and in many years not to know this was sold to

suit the bars. and looking at the five largest operators where we found was a nine to one or ten to wanted fan to each 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 ground but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking at monday through friday commercial radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressive no liberals represented the two thousand and seven study by free press and the center for american progress shows ninety two percent of conservative stations don't air even a single minute of the other side you want to hear a radio talk or vast 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 of talk it 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 nova m. 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 good bait 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 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 the air in the fall of zero five it was like a two point four frames get it strange to me that it. market it you can have and probably it isn't just ohio since two thousand and six dozen so well performing liberal programs have been taken off the air across the country fresno new haven san diego austin and many more i think it's political and i don't think there's any doubt you can look at the numbers this business is owned by conservatives it's managed by conservatives and it is programmed by conservatives the distorting effect of all that was causing a problem in our democracy was causing people to act based on false information

to make decisions about public policy to make decisions in the voting booth based on simply information that was wrong and that there had to be a corrective to that and so in may of two thousand and four i launched a media matters media matters is a research website which tracks conservative misinformation in the news it's a simple concept record with talk show hosts and news people say then check their facts turns out there's a lot of false would also it was david brock used to perpetrate author david brock uncovered evidence about anita hill that 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 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 that was the first a list lawsuit and that whole thing led to president clinton's impeachment. what i was doing more 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 the complaint is one of liberal bias i think and i've looked pretty carefully at the sun look 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 truly jane a tree and her husband steve will salute were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at w.t.v. t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then they uncovered a story about hormones being secretly into our milk supply t.v. team ran this promotion for the investigation just i am sure nobody else in the country covered this and then they get fired for trying to tell the story when b.t.h. manufacturer monsanto threatened to sue fox news 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 tonight so a korean wilson threatened to report the news distortion to the f.c.c.

that's when the fire them were 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 him through enough than ever is need to it's up to the son of the story to distort the story in a way that we will defeat monsanto these folks refused to do it in this wonderful 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 for they'd have to prove w. t.v. station management for had deliberately tried to distort a news proof of a violation requires that the plaintiffs establish that the via t.v. tease station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or

distort plainness proposed a news report on deviates wilson lost a genie 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 their ops thirteen representatives say the jury through its verdicts clearly stated that the station did not tell adrian 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 twenty five dollars that does not have to do with the story of the news it is not the do fall speculation of the us for last an incapacity one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars i think today is

a wonderful day for thirty four other damages two hundred fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars fox and killed the jury's decision which is that their attorneys argued there is no law against distortion you have found a staff. you haven't found a rule even for regulation what we're doing is importing into that seduce distortion polish and it went to the second district court of appeals in florida and they bought the fox argument that you all see the policy of the c.c. but it's not technically against any law or rule of regulation to distort what they're saying as the news really belongs to the corporation the putting it out and that it's not against the water 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 circuit court precedent. completely gutted by the rules 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 well they've largely been replaced with coverage like this the costs very little in the cold she slashed interview that means profits for shareholders who is and divert your attention real things 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 in maybe. it's the. media consolidation means fewer reporters and those who remain too often feel pressured to play nice with government it's a nasty little game called access that is one of the biggest media manipulations is you want our guy you want our woman well you better play the game you better play by our rules if you want that we call that in our field get interview some real headline maker that everybody wants to get on their air and you want that person that's a valuable commodity you're. deployed 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 where 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 didn't fall to totally and made good as they say in the run up to the war it was so clear for two years we were going to war and nobody asked why but we 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 first sale the first thing to scare everyone we don't want the smoking gun that could come in the form of the mushroom cloud note. we do have solid evidence of the presence in iraq. ok to 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 they

felt that they had been to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism on the news shows he did the administration. have a conflict between. the time and time and dangers saddam hussein put his biological weapons laboratories in trucks turned out to be true awesomely talk shows instead of providing clarity on the single most of the issue of our generation the press only created confusion it is smoking gun is a good for a state phrase six years after the attacks of the new york city. 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're ever sure i know i didn't say 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 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 in 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 p.b.s. news hour with jim my right there were three hundred ninety three interviews done around war only three were with antiwar leaders three or was four hundred when half the population was supposed to be invasion that is no longer in the mainstream media that's an extreme or 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 a simple. gesture is needed the. talking points imagine in iraq ruled kaiser cowley the message yet needs to be in iraq imagine iraq and the country talking point link iraq to iran i believe there is now the number one clinton maker in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts based on 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 convinced that saddam hussein will acquire 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 landi and more and began writing about forty 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 onto trips pentagon trip since. that three years. the chill was felt 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. the vice president did like that we wrote. there was no on the plane it's my belief that a lot of journalists did not ask hard questions of this administration's policies particularly in the run up to the 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 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 we called is going to get us out 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 worked there the cia even told no that not to publish that information but know that did what mr harlow told. me not to use your name. did not say she was a she was a pervert employee and i still don't believe she was in any covert activities former president bush was not amused human intelligence spies. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service uses names. i'm sure to post your initial a still deputy defense secretary richard tars 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 name to reporters at the same time for sharing the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it and they are 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 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 that 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 organization the knew that there was

a flat out lie because they had talked to karl rove about ellery plane in the ocean was. 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 column are meant official to carry out their political were. instead of clarifying the facts in this national security breach the media just had a free for all i think the one that always you know upsets valerie dawson she 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 possible 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 in creation and he told her to do

what he can you whether she was covert or not from day one and she isn't she's never been proven to be covert to endanger national security by outing a covertly i offered her as a lot of course she was not a cover it up for 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. twenty years ago j. its first president. in the midst of colossal change. setting a new direction for a new country. saluting the state on washington.