it's nine thirty pm sunday night here in moscow this week's top stories here on r.t. the american spring spreads across the country with demonstrators demanding an end to social inequality and corporations abuse of power however the u.s. government is up in arms against the protests despite of course washington support of revolutions over see. this week the u.s. led war in afghanistan past its ten year mark with victory over the taliban and a pull out of foreign troops still a long way from reality. police and demonstrators clashed on the streets of athens after the i.m.f. sulpher made them to the country to make cuts or face collapse itself to greece

admitted failing to reduce its deficit in the agreed level despite a relentlessly stare if you drive. a woman who western media reported as being butchered by bashar al assad's regime in syria says she's alive and well raising concerns that fabricating stories are being used in a pretty topple the country's leadership. next part of a special report about americans trying to take control of the media they say is in the pocket of big business. when charles from. the san antonio ways and. probably her. cancer. colon cancer. easier.

to. get. 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 get it into the few cars behind your radio dial the ever wherever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into your own home most of. broadcasting retain faith it was hope. in the spirit our government made policies to make sure the media attacks the public and simply a way back of the book a proper big book or a communique from the comics of the struggle the responsibility of protecting the people of the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed to 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 own local league so they passed strict rules limiting the number of stations any one person can l.a. can defend the state we told the six hour hold up by n.b.c. . then came your. and radio became a lifeline. greater than a night 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 sister network morrow speaking from iraq and we learned this new media could be used against us in general not at least they are after media focus groups her young people for. her. for

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 of 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 for the fight only important one to pursue issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast eighteen points you asked to bring them on the path 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 so one person can own dozens of broadcast ations nationwide and said the free market would provide fairness in 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 and brown program them with conservative talk radio was not an unmanned spot to know this was only to set the bars. the 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 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 and downs but in places like houston texas for example. we fan looking at monday through friday can see commercial radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressive no liberals representative 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. don't see talkers magazine now is out the ed schultz shows 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 heard ed and noble 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 you could be me 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 exit while 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 me you did it. market it your camera proud of me 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 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 and serves 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 in news keep the same 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 sexual harassment or political radicalism and most important are likely motivation for destroying the career of. 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. 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 at the sun 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 will soon were an award winning investigative reporting

teams working at w.t.v. t.v. news in tampa bay florida first then the uncovered story what about hormones being secretly injected into our milk supply t.v. team ran this promotion for the investigation to cancer nobody else in the country covered this and then they get fired for trying to tell the story when b.t.h. manufacture 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 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 mr sosa learns. this. well off here and from there on him throughout an effort is made to talk to scientists or to distort the story in a way that we will look at monsanto these folks refused to do in this wonderful steve wilson played his own case you know what the story cost. two careers. mind. and muddy waters. and 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 had deliberately tried to distort the news proof of a violation requires that the plaintiffs establish that the via t.v. t.'s station or news management acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort plainness proposed news report on b.g.

eight wilson lost a janie 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 and 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 twenty five dollars let us not have to do with the store share the news it is not 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 but isn't it their

attorneys argued that there is no law against distortion if you haven't found a stand. you haven't found a rule we haven't found a regulation what we're doing is you can order you to that seduce 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 rule of regulation and there's 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 law to why do the public. it's an f.c.c. rule but it's not against the war where does that leave us as people who are served by the broadcast airwaves. vice president. completely devastated by the rule of a creator 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 do hold

government accountable like this in cost of a lot of money from the a team of people that looks 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 work out in a cold interview that means profits for shareholders calls and divert your attention to 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 view than actual reporters out there doing of the story and saying ok america here's the facts you just. did say.

this the press is. 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 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 great cancer rates and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq and were the hard questions. at this mall 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 defaulted totally

and made good as they say in the run up to the war with so clear 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 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 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 deception 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 on the news terms therapy 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 awesomely 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 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 are 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 the four 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 he was 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 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 than say them on the air no questions asked if. that is needed. talking points imagine an iraq ruled place or cali the message yet nice to meet yet in iraq unless you know you are going to start talking point link iraq to iran i believe it is now that everyone could make you into iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts to the t.v. and the radio. have ties to really carry contractors people could possibly be making money. 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 struggle began writing about forty intelligence about how there was no link between iraq and al qaeda about failed policies that series of stories. 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 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. 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 wife 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 we says the vice president so be it. still he's a bit out with we trusted as we knew we followed his job with m.m. to soften 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 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 what mr harlow told me he asked me not to use your name did not say she was a she was a cover employee and i still don't believe she was engaged in a covert activities former president bush was not a. human intelligence. is very important. it's pretty hard to get it. if somebody's working clandestine service he says name is going to appear and i'm sure they're both places deputy defense secretary richard retires admitted he was the first to leak despise 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 sharing the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it they are good individuals there are forty 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 scott mcclellan the white house spokesperson gets up and he says karl rove is absolutely not involved 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 that was a flat out alive because they had talked to karl rove about ellery play and who she was good with computers 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 our as 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 part of fraud 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 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 to endangering national security by allying a covertly i offered him as

a lot of course she was not a covert operative i.e. says that she was for the record gallery plame wilson was a covert agent the cia put it in writing. wealthy british style. writers. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

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