the move to the joint below chills the some of us the gateway to the ground in period truly the torch was pushed coromandel you can listen to chill closely to see don't need to go and. read this and the kindle was a child to retreat. this is our team moscow all top stories more of you in the week nato is heaviest for most punishing air strikes on the libyan capital. as the rebels complain the alliance is ignoring the real frontline this is a chorus of international condemnation of the syria gets a lot of. anger comes from boiling greece is the government moves to make deeper cuts in public spending in exchange for another bailout and germany those footing the bill say they getting tired of paying others debts. and the u.s.

guided missile warship sails into the black sea for naval exercises with ukraine but the move provoked small stones and get. controversial missile shield program. one thirty one am next we take a look behind the scenes of the u.s. news industry. when charles from. santa ana plays and. probably doesn't. keep the crowd. easier. to. get.

our story begins to rain the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like a miracle. i'll see our friends get into the queue behind your radio dial. wherever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into your own home. broadcasting retain faith it was hope. in the spirit our government made policies to make sure the media attacks the public lands and fairways arc of the book at poker face book club or a communications commission the struggle the responsibility of protecting the people of the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed by 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 people could challenge their prices 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 alledged in defense the other two states we told the six hour hold up like n.p.c. . then came the war. and radio became a lifeline. gregory of. the information we were getting was vital only that it's a date which will. in infamy important to our national security important to our democracy our model this is edward morrow speaking from iraq and we learned this new media could be used against us if you cannot at least they are afghan media focus group her a yankee for her her her. her

for 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 of vitally important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast and you 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 through the administrations of truman eisenhower kennedy johnson nixon ford and carter more generally like. robert reich. then a real media man came into power with what i will faithfully execute the ronald

reagan was the king of deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio of so one person can own dozens of broadcast issues nationwide and said the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of the fairness doctrine. anyway 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 not just an unmanned spot to its was told to sit at the bars. the working 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 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 downs but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking at monday through friday can commercialize ready of 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 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 is going 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 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 that could be me 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 ratings it will 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 is strange to me you did. mark it if your camera probably 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 back conservatives the distorting effect of all that was causing a problem in our democracy it 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 interest evidence about anita hill that has been since or by liberals my time pattern of crying sexual harassment or political radicalism and most important are 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 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 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 their complaint is one of liberal bias i think and i looked at it carefully the son looked at many of the studies that claim this at the end of the day the real goal is to this able journalism from being able to do its job independently and truly jane a career and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at w.t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then the uncovered story what about four months

being secretly into our milk supply w.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 the g.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. 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 t.v. to fire them they're very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial a korean tourney john chambliss musser sosa learns. this. split off here and from

there on him through a mouth an effort is made to slip the story to distort the story in a way that we will look at monsanto the sloth refused to do in this wonderful steve wilson played his own case you know what the story cost. two careers. mind. in the office. there was only one way or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg instructed the jury where they'd have to prove w t v t station management or had deliberately tried to distort the 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 news report on b.g. eight wilson lost but jane 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 t.v. tease their acts 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 that does not have to do with the store show the news it is not true falsification 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 and it isn't even their attorneys argued that there is no law against. you have found

a stash. you haven't found a rule we haven't found a regulation what we're doing is importing into this news distortion process 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 law or rule of regulation to destroy. what they're saying is the news 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 thirtieth vice president. completely devastated by the ruling a creep and wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees but the road to the war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than a detour into the west african country of the sheer brute force which you 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 a largely been replaced with coverage like this the costs very little work anna nicole smith interview that means greater profits for shareholders cause and divert your attention from 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 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. to say. this is the press this. 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 their 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 interview some real headline maker that everybody wants to get on their 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 cancer and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq and 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 have called totally and made good as they say in the run up to the war was so poor for two years and 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 an order to build a suitable for nuclear weapons production there were no weapons of mass destruction was the first the first thing to scare everyone and 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 to. kill qaeda members there was a pattern relationship that went back at least a decade for iraq and al qaeda was a lot of obvious separation at a time when it was crucial for our country which was right after nine eleven they felt that they had to be to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism out of the news shows

turkey did the administration. have a conflict between iraqi diplomats were to time and time again saddam hussein quit his biological weapons laboratories in trucks little turned out to be true constantly talk shows 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 thought saddam hussein was directly terrorist attacks and i don't think we're ever sure that i know i didn't say that there was a direct connection between september eleventh and saddam hussein and 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 before 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 and two of us down around war only three were with actually world leaders three of almost four hundred when half the population was supposed to be invasion that is no longer in the mainstream media that's an extremely good 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 simple. gesture is needed. talking points imagine an iraq ruled pies or cowboy i guess it's nice to be in combat in iraq and it's actually a talking point link iraq to iran i believe it is now that everyone could make you 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. have ties to really kerry contractors people who could possibly be making money off. 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 to buy 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 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 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 to trip pentagon 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. 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 theory of defensiveness wheezes the vice president so be it . top stories a bit out what we trusted as we knew we followed is going to. get us nothing is 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's laughs. 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 should shame 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 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 worked 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 a covert employee and i still don't believe she was engaged in any covert activities former president bush was not a. human intelligence spies. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service uses names to appear and i'm sure that both. deputy defense secretary richard admitted he was the first to leak 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

sharing the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it they were good individuals their version of our white house team and that's why i spoke with them so that i could come back she 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 in 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 vall 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 that was a flat out lied because they had talked to karl rove about ellery play and who she was good 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 parliament official to carry out their political work instead of clarifying the facts in this national security breach and media just had a free for all i think that while i always you know if that's the. 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 classified 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 know when she was in pain any covert a key 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 a operator is a lot of course he was not a covert operative i.e.

says that she was for the record valerie plame wilson was a covert agent the cia put it in writing. he didn't. eat.