and as the stories are being used in a pretty to 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 jasmine. san antonio ways can try. to. keep the crowd. of. young. kids. on. our story begins during the great depression times were hard and broadcasting was brand new it seemed like a miracle. i'll see our friends get it into the queue

behind your radio guy who ever wherever you may be to radio brought entertainment and sports and news of the world right into our own home most of us broadcasting retained faith it was hope. in that spirit our government made policies to make sure the media protects the public and simply ways are considered public property the federal communications commission is charged with the responsibility of protecting the people the f.c.c. decided broadcasters needed to be licensed to 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 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 needed to stay cool which only six hours operated by n.b.c. . then came the war. 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 to our democracy our earth is edward morrow speaking from armor and we learned this new medium could be used against us each and every night at least they were released after a video proof of her yankee perth or. a rescuer are not. sure for sure 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 fairness doctrine the fairness doctrine required radio and t.v. stations to provide coverage to the fight only important controversy on issues and to provide a reasonable opportunity for the presentation of contrast to the 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 yours robert reich. and then a real media man came into power with that i will faithfully execute the office ronald reagan was the king and deregulation of his f.c.c. deregulated t.v. and radio active so one person could own dozens of broadcast ations nationwide and

send the free market would provide fairness and broadcasting so they got rid of the fair to start. 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 brown program them with conservative talk radio was. to sit at the bars. and looking at the five largest operators what we found was the one or ten to wanted fan which conservative talk show hosts self declared conservative hosts versus folks who declared themselves liberal or progressive. vantage 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. monday through friday commercial radio stations one hundred percent conservative talk no progressives no liberals represented the two thousand and seven study by free press in 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. 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 show has got over three million listeners progressive

talk we got it start in two thousand and four and it now seems to be having an effect many formerly red states that heard ed and air america were highly competitive voted blue in two thousand and eight while those that heard only conservative talk went read. as usual. but here's the scary part since the democrats made gains in the two thousand and six election corporate radio took big 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 there are things that 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 things got it strange to me that it. market that you're going to

have a problem and 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 is a lot of false would also good which david brock used to perpetrate author david brock uncovered evidence about anita hill but has been since or by liberals time pattern of crime sexual harassment or political radicalism most important or likely motivation for destroying the earth. then he learned been lied to 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 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. that 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 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 neutrally jane a creep 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 four months being secretly into our milk supply t.v. team ran this promotion for the investigation to cam sure nobody else in the

country covered this and then they get fired for trying to tell the story when b.t.h. manufacture monsanto threaten to sue fox news. 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 threaten to report the news distortion to the f.c.c. that's when you fire them they're very courageous they file a whistleblower suit you know they go to trial a korea turny john chambliss senator says the letters. this. all of the year 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 benefit monsanto these folks refused to do in this weather for steve wilson played his own case you know what that story cost. two careers. and i want to say. 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 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 a news report on b g eight wilson last but janie cre 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 there fox 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 that 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 false speculation of the four lost earning capacity 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 news distortion and you haven't found a stash. you haven't found a rule we haven't found a regulation what we're doing is importing into that's the news distortion and it

went to the second district court of appeals in florida and they bought the fox argument that yes it is a policy but it's not technically against any rule of regulation to destroy what they're saying is the new is really belongs in the corporation that that's 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. vice president joe biden. completely devastated by the rule and wilson ended up paying fox attorney fees. 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 a team of people to put months 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 that

costs very little anna nicole smith interview that means profits for shareholders and divert attention from. you know whatever happened to investigative reporting and i think part of what happened is corporatization of the media it's the bottom line 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 digging up the story and saying ok america here's the facts you decide maybe. it's the. media consolidation means fewer reporters and those who remain too often feel pressured. 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 a get to interview some real headline maker that everybody wants to get on their air and you want that person that's a valuable commodity you better play the game the top newsmakers in the bush administration were a great cat and they were all over the airwaves as they made their case for war in iraq where were the hard questions since it into. abysmal i think that the press dropped the ball i think that when they should have been the real watchdogs and should have. let the chips fall where they may they do paul to totally and they did this 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 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 was the first the first thing to scare everyone we don't want the smoking gun that could come in the form of the mushroom cloud no ties to al qaeda 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 they felt that they had big to be super patriots and support the government no matter what they gave up their one weapon which was skepticism on the news terms pitted the administration. i have a contract with. them iraqi border to time 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 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 city in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans saddam hussein was directly terrorist attacks and i don't think we are least i know i didn't say that there was a direct connection between september the eleventh and saddam assuming nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of september the eleventh were ordered by iraq 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 the group fairness and accuracy in reporting did a. study. two weeks around february fifth two thousand and three right before the invasion before major that in this case 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 interviews done around the 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 the mainstream media that's an extreme beating 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 it's a good. gesture. that is meeting with retired u.s. generals talking points. in iraq ruled by the message needs to be magine

iraq imagine iraq under control start talking point link iraq to iran i believe there ron 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 most of the t.v. and the radio military analysts have ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money on the war 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. quire nuclear weapons. that was based on absolutely nothing. 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 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. to trip pentagon trip since. that three years. the chill 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. 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. 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 for 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 and if that displeases the secretary of defense if it just loses the vice president so be it. 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 laughs. the story really begins with him bastard 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 he heard president george w. bush make this statement in the two thousand and three state of the union address to british government. from africa a year earlier the cia had sent wilson to investigate the uranium claim and he knew it wasn't true of corruption. 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 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 to 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 uncovered. in any 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 thinks his name is going to appear i'm sure that both. deputy defense secretary richard admitted he was the first to leak despise 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 sure in the president's own press secretary they had nothing to do with it and they're good individuals they're important 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 in any way both them told me unequivocally no but scott mcclellan now says that 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 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 lie because they had talked to karl rove about ellery plame and who she was good with were so eager to access to the white house they allowed themselves to be used for political gain using the reporters 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 tolerant 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 i always you know upsets valerie the us is a she wasn't covert 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 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 outing a covertly will be a operators are not a caller or c. 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.

wealthy british style. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mikes concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kaiser report.

this week's top stories here on our t.v. the american spring spreads across the country with the u.s. government up in arms against the protesters despite washington supported revolutions over see. the u.s. led war in afghanistan enters its second decade with a victory over the taliban on the pulled out of foreign troops scarcely in sight also. something that the background here we. need to help but that's. not all and the tensions really be biting police and demonstrators clash on the streets of athens after the i.m.f. so to make them to the country cut or collapse. how the woman who western media reported was being butchered by bashar al assad's regime in syria says she's alive and well raising concerns that fabricated stories of big news in a bid to topple the country's leadership.