back your tonight eli from boston here's a look at our top stories that acts against the wall street brutal crackdown on supporters for social and financial justice sparks accusations that unless the modesty is just an illusion. athens prepares for the plunge as severest theory fails to save the greek economy with the government admitting it won't be able to meet the easy dictated deficit deadlines for this year. russia's orbit ambitions grow as another satellite for its global tracking system

launches into space to rival u.s. produced g.p.s. systems. as they have allies next we scrutinize the state of american broadcasting today special report is coming your way next. one jerk. in the san antonio ways in front. of her to. keep the crowd. young he. is not coming in. our story begins to ring the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like

a miracle. i'll see i'll get it into the few coils behind your radio dial. wherever you may be the radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into your own home most of us and just broadcasting retain faith it was hope. in the spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public lands and ways are considered public property look over all communication closely charged with the responsibility of protecting the people before the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed like the licenses were free of charge but there was a catch t.v. and radio owners had to serve the public if they did not people could challenge their prices and the f.c.c. could take them away. and the f.c.c. understood that radio and t.v. should be own hopefully so they passed strict rules and limiting the number of

stations any one person can elevate into here to stay cooped only six hours and operated by n.b.c. . then came your. and radio became a lifeline. the president of. the information we were getting was vital only that it's a date which will live. in infamy important to our national security important toward democracy our margaret this is edward morrow speaking from rome and we learned this new medium could be used against us he cannot heal they were. made after her yankee or. her are not. sure for. what they did of course for 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 in a few 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 man came into power with what i was basically execute the ronald reagan who was the king of deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio so one person could own dozens of broadcast ations nationwide and said

the free market would provide fairness in broadcasting so they got rid of their stock. 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 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 obvious and in. its was so to say that the bars. and looking at the five largest operators where we found was nine to one or ten to wanted fanpage 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 talents but in places like houston texas for example. we found looking at monday through friday comes commercial radio 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 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 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 were code blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual you could be great but here's the scary part since the democrats made gains in the two thousand and six election corporate radio took to get a 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 brain scan is strange to me you did it. or market it your camera probably 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 it's wonderful 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 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 good which david brock and used to perpetrate author david brock uncovers evidence about anita hill that has been simply by liberals the right time pattern of crime sexual harassment or political radicalism and most important are likely motivation for destroying the earth. then he learned he might soon subscribe i came to be aware that the people around clarence thomas who had helped me write that account. didn't believe the account themselves 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 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 then the. conservative movement also had a hidden media agenda well they claim that the complaint is one of liberal bias i think and i've looked at it carefully at the site 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 truly jane a critic and her husband steve wilson were an award winning investigative reporting teams working at w.t.v. t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then they uncovered a story about hormones being secretly into our milk supply 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 on true 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 the bt fired them were very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial a korea tourney john chambliss most or so celebs. this. all of the year and from there on him through a mouth an effort is made to talk to scientists or to distort the story in

a way that we will do if it nonsense to these folks refused to do it in this wonderful steves wilson played his own case you know what this story cost. two careers. in my watch. and there was only one way or wilson could win under judge roll steinberg instructed the jury for they'd have to prove w t v t station management had deliberately tried to discourage the news proof of a violation requires that the planners establish that the deity ricci's station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort plainness proposed a news report on deviates wilson lost to jane won her case because she threatened to disclose to the federal communications commission on your also the broadcast of a false distorted or slanted news report yes so

a creep proved news distortion and you wouldn't know it from the spin on the t.v. tease there thirteen representatives say the jury through its verdicts clearly stated that the station did not tell a korean wilson to falsify and distort the news through their b.t.h. story but we are completely vindicated on the finding of this theory that we do not the store is for lost wages eighty eight thousand seven hundred twenty five dollars that is not have to do with the store for the news it is not true false for cation of the us for lost adding capacity one hundred twenty thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars i think today is a wonderful day for parts or two for other damages two hundred fifteen thousand five hundred and twenty five dollars bucks and killed the jury's decision but isn't it their attorneys argued that there is no law against distortion if you haven't found a stash. you haven't found a rule even for regulation what we're doing is importing you into that for news

distortion paulson 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 rule of regulation to distort the news what they're saying is the news really belongs to the corporation the putting it out and that it's not against the water while 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 circuit vice president. of the socialists and completely funded by the roof and wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees. the world to war in iraq took some strange turn stranger than a detour to the west african country of the sheer brute force which do hold government accountable like this can constitute a lot of money from the team of people who put months into research and travel and production just to air one eight minute story to build

a nuclear bomb explain they've largely been replaced with coverage like this the costs very little anna nicole smith interview that means profits for shareholders and divert your attention real good 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 a 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 going at the story and saying ok america here's the facts you can see it maybe. it's the. media consolidation means he 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 a gets interview some real headline maker everybody wants to get on their ear you want that person that's a valuable commodity you better put it in the top newsmakers in the bush administration were great and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq and the hard questions have been is. abysmal i think they did the press dropped the ball i think that when they should have been . and should have. let the chips fall where they may they defaulted totally made did 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 in order to build a suitable 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 a mushroom cloud. and we do have solid evidence of the presence in iraq. will create a 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 and they felt that they had 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 through peter the administration. have a conflict and an iraqi were to time and time again saddam hussein quit his

biological weapons laboratories in trucks little turned out to be true only instead of providing clarity on the single most of an issue of our generation the press only created confusion in the smoking gun is an interesting phrase six years after the attacks on new york city in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans thought saddam hussein was directly involved in the 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 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 three views down 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. that's an extreme and didn't 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 the money or no questions asked if. jesse. that is needed the retired u.s. general talking points. in iraq ruled by the message needs to be met in

iraq imagine iraq other countries are talking point blank iraq to iran i believe iran is now the number one troublemaker in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts t.v. other ways of military analysts have ties to really carry 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 fairly soon 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 randy

and warren strobel began writing about fourteen tell untruths 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 trying to shut me out of travel with the secretary of defense i was not allowed to have not been allowed or invited to a trip 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 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 happen 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 heard of defensive interest wheezes the vice president so be it. out with we trusted him as we knew. his job with. the south and 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 for laughs. the story really begins with him vassar joseph wilson wilson was the acting ambassador to iraq before the first gulf war when saddam hussein took more than one hundred americans as hostages joe wilson

stared him down saddam hussein backed off and released the americans for that president george herbert walker bush proclaimed wilson a national hero. then that hero heard president george w. bush make this statement in the two thousand and three state of the union address the british government has learned 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. 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 said. 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 can publish that information but know that did what mr harlow told me was he asked me not to use your name did not say she was she was a covert employee and i still don't believe she was engaged in any covert activities former president bush was not abused human intelligence. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody working clandestine service . his name is going to appear i'm sure they're both. 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 spraying the covert agents name to reporters at the same time assuring the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it they are good

individuals they're putting 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 but said nothing in stomach well the white house spokesperson gets up and he says karl rove is absolutely vile well there were at least three probably four people if not in that room that watch still alive and various news organization the knew that that was a flat out lied because they had talked to karl rove about how replayed in the ocean was were so eager for access to the white house they allowed themselves to be used for political gain using the reporters to get enough. 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 current 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 oh well i always hear upsets ballerinas this wasn't correct 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 part of why 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 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 to endangering national security by outing a cold reality i offered it was a lot of cover or c. was not a cover it up where the i.a.e.a. says that she was for the record plame wilson was a covert agent the cia put it in writing.

feel. lucky looming. just six or six feet. if six. weeks. wealthy british scientists say sometimes six months.