a few weeks of sadness. feeling sad there's a pill for that there's a pill for just about any illness you can self diagnose these days and that means big business but side effects may include dizziness from the amount of money you'll spend dependence on the drugs themselves and the big profits for big pharma turns out the truth can be hard to swallow. well it is friday january thirteenth at five pm in washington d.c. and christine you're watching our t.v. well start off with that video that's gone viral around the world which shows several marines urinating on the bodies of militants in afghanistan if you haven't seen it here it is again. now to be honest folks we thought we had said enough about this video that today we need to move on from the story but we discover there's actually an entirely other story out there it turns out there's

a massive level of support by americans for what's happening here not talking about supporting the troops i'm talking about the supporting of their actions of urinating on the bodies of these militants here well as you come no surprise then that pamela geller the woman who made a name for herself speaking out loudly and vehemently against the proposal to build an islamic center a few blocks away from world where the world trade center attacks took place is one of those people geller issued a statement and said quote let me be perfectly clear i do love those marines we're at war with an enemy that means to slaughter us and overthrow the united states of america i don't care that these marines we weed on murderous savages and you see that care spelled like that as a knock to the council of islamic council on islamic relations so you know we thought that maybe this is just a radical fringe opinion but it turns out in the coverage that we've done of this incident we've gotten hundreds of comments in favor of this and i want to read just

a few mr pound down twenty one right so why is this a big deal i piss on them if they took the lives of my fellow brother slash friend joker k.d.t. one writes everyone is whining about this did we forget these are the type of people who came and attacked us on our soil these are people who in the beginning of the war were cutting off the heads of civilians and others from our ally countries it's a little pissant they'll live not like the lives they took or helped take and another one seems a lot less offensive than cutting someone's head off the only mistake i see here is the video that part is dumb that was from dietrich sixty seven well in our nonscientific count about a third of the comments that came in sounded like this but i do think it's important to show we also had a few comments quite a few on the other side as well. t. state seven one seven two wrote quote as a vet who served two tours there and four in iraq all i have to say is grow up troops we were trained better for those who support that either didn't serve or did

a college tour in the service by which all of you are a joke i'm now into a disabled vet with over seventeen years in but i'd never condone that joanna with lots of sevens in front of her name just wrote shame on the usa this proves they are not civilized and quack eighteen rights and the americans wonder why people around the world hate them so some food for thought there and earlier i spoke to georgetown university journalism professor christopher chambers and when this story first broke officials were very quick to condemn the video but we realize not a lot of americans so i asked him if this is a litmus test for where we are as a society here's his take. yes and no i mean first of all i have many friends who are current and i'm proud to say current and former. officers the united states marine corps and to a person and these are people who have graduated top of their class at annapolis have condemned this not because they love the taliban but because you saw one of

the comments i was trained better than this i'm a professional my job is to go on call santals me to do do my job as a professional and then get out there attitude is that this demeans you know their mission this demeans their training because if somebody does this they're capable of anything i think it's a good point i think that it's something that not a lot of people and media outlets are talking about that this actually makes it more dangerous for their brothers and their friends and their comrades because the enemy this kind of stuff i mean like abu ghraib in the past will make the enemy hate them more. because this is that's their country basically i mean yes they are insurgents yes they are part of a of an organization that is out to overthrow the government of that country the karzai government but that's still their country but again my friends have said that's really got nothing to do with it this demeans our training as cracked professionals and as his officers you know and so it really says something to how

we don't drill down to the deep meaning of that you haven't seen a lot of pundits current and ex-military people on major media outlets basically saying that well i don't care i don't give a damn about the taliban what i care about is my training and my duty and what this type of nonsense how that demeans it so you know it but we lost that meaning i think it's also important to talk sort of about that the media aspect of this is it's very interesting because you know we have seen over the last few days on the mainstream media on the big networks a lot of people you know journalists and pundits expressing outrage but what about the fact. that this war has been going on for ten years there's no outrage there. this incident it was caught on video but the fact is a lot of stuff like this probably goes on a lot more often than anyone wants to talk about so i want to get your take on the fact that you know how this is treated as a scandal and that's why they're talking about it well it's in

a way it's not being treated as a scandal for some of the cable networks and the broadcast networks because all you have to do is look at c.n.n. and you know the tea party pundits have who know nothing about military policy security or you know even you know even this kind of thing basically saying you know i piss on them too great you know that's that's that's for the circus aspect these people are not again current or ex-military people you know you know think people academics experts in military policy they're just there to stir the pot well since you mentioned a crest of it or not you know we have this and this is another aspect of the story that i want to shed some light on as well among those in favor of the actions by the marines c.n.n. contributor dana loesch who said this on her radio show can someone explain to me if there's supposed to be a scandal that someone pees on the corpse of

a taliban fighter someone who was a part of an organization murdered over three thousand americans i drop trial and do it too that's me though. all right so dana has this radio show she's also one of the co-founders of the st louis branch of the tea party but she is also a paid contributor on the network that calls itself the most trusted name in news c.n.n. now our web team at r.t. got a little bit into a discussion with her earlier on twitter about this and i'll show you part of that conversation basically r.t. america tweeted that the audio of this that we just played and more that we posted of c.n.n. contributor dana loesch saluting marines for a year in aiding on that afghan so dana tweedy quote nice spin good to see you don't bother actually gathering info and only mine it from progressive ha well in response our web team asks didn't you say that words speak for themselves and we just played the words that she said he said quote i would drop trial also so. let's

talk about this i mean do you think that there's a little bit of a conflict of interest here by having a paid c.n.n. contributor say that said well it depends on you know your model of what the media is fifteen years ago when people were brought on who are academics or think tank people or experts in analysis yes now it's all a circus the whole point of bringing her on and if you get any c.n.n. producer behind closed doors again the couple cosmopolitans they will say the whole point of bringing someone like her on is to is to create that engaging circus atmosphere not real analysis the joke really is on them though because instead of on the surface they say well we're bringing diverse opinions people listen to her don't watch c.n.n. anyway they'll come on watch her analysis on some specific segment but does that mean they're going to tune in to soledad o'brien the next morning and pump a parade is no i mean it's all a rather sordid circus she's one of the clowns in the circus and i think it is

important we were curious what c.n.n. with think and since i didn't get a chance to put them in the room with cosmetology that we did they got the statement that they put out in. spawn's they said quote c.n.n. contributors are commentators who express a wide range of viewpoints on an office yet c.n.n. that often provokes strong agreement or disagreement their viewpoints on are their own so it seems to me c.n.n. here defending their paved and again you see you read between the lines it's not about analysis it's about creating this you know point counterpoint circus so it can generate eyeballs on the network generate clicks on the web site to come back so they can go back and you know bandy this about you know it's a crisis or a scandal only in the you know how they can stretch it out to get ratings it terms of going underneath i've seen very little real analysis and when it is it use usually by current and past military personnel who would get to

a man or woman say this is not what the united states marine corps is about we all love the taliban you know we're over by the i've heard guys say we're really kick their asses not peeing on them we're cracked professionals that's what we stand on and that's what you hear in the deep analysis not what she says i think it's certainly an interesting analysis of where we are as a society both as people and as you know journalists and media and that is a mirror on what we've become such a very good point as always starts one university and two hundred eleven professor chris chambers thanks. and coming up in just a few minutes we will be talking about the pharmaceutical industry and its power after this break. thank. you there still believe the repetition of.

what a protester nobody seems to know. but never a pepper sprayed the face but part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. welcome to the capital account i'm lauren lyster. put a picture of me when i was like nine years old on your shoulder true. confession

i am a total ghetto princess i love grabbing hip hop music and. it was kind of yesterday. i'm very proud of the world with its place. well from the government being in bed with the press to that special relationship it also has with big pharma it is yet another relationship that shapes both politics and policy in washington today more americans die from prescription drugs than car accidents shocking data coming from the national center for health statistics and as our teams were reported i reports it's feared pharmaceutical

firms are prioritizing profit over people's lives. america is regarded as a country with a ravenous appetite for consumption today a widespread fondness for pharmaceuticals has turned the u.s. into a nation of two popper's bipolar depression doesn't have to consume news here's me and here's my depression you know when you feel the weight of sadness you may feel exhausted hopeless and anxious according to the u.s. government anti-depressant use among americans has increased nearly four hundred percent in the past two decades published reports find that one in five adults take at least one drug for mental health disorders with over fourteen billion dollars in annual sales anti-psychotics remain america's top selling their reputed class of prescription drugs this is a medical journal dr harriet fraud believes big pharma has manufactured

a climate of insanity by manipulating and even creating illness for capital gains the advertising strategy is to have a big diagnoses and then find wiggle room so that they apply to everybody prescription nexium the u.s. is the only western country that allows direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs this ad for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder warns that untreated patients will likely end up divorced friend this commercial for and so long emmy award this is assuming you have to be alone but side effects may include dry mouth insomnia sexual side effects diarrhea nausea and sleepiness the critics also say big pharma uses its financial muscle to provide doctors with gives cash kickbacks and research funding in exchange for endorsing or prescribe big the latest and most lucrative drugs what you have is a whole network of doctors who are hustling these drugs if a patient comes in with

a name injury and says i'm so sad oh are you depressed hey write a prescription. they're given out like eminem last year prescription drug abuse became the number one cause of accidental death with more than thirty thousand americans overdosing can consume you sarah quell a bipolar medication generated four point four billion dollars in sales last year listing all its side effects requires forty nine seconds of air time blood sugar has been reported missing or highlights are in medicine cited and in extreme cases can lead to come down the number of children consuming anti-psychotic medication doubled in the past decade millions of american adolescents are taking drugs like adderall doled out by doctors to treat hyper activity all these drugs are very very similar to illicit room legal drugs are dangerous now one is

a little safer but kids have no choice i mean they're being forced on me. but doctors you know who are telling parents this is the best thing for them when often it's not and so you have a lot of angry resentful judge growing up in america here already happening because pfizer america's most profitable pharmaceutical company makes anti-depressants not only for people but also for adults in two thousand i the form a giant p two point three billion dollars to settle civil and criminal allegations over illegally marketing one of its drugs it was the largest health care fraud settlement and criminal fine to ever been paid by u.s. drug company that being said the money reportedly amounted to less than three weeks worth of pfizer drug sales the money is so huge that the fines are immaterial and they're not thinking about the social effects of what they're doing or thinking about the profits they are the pharmaceutical industry remains the most profitable

business in the u.s. more success and financial gain for the companies will always remain possible as long as more americans are encouraged to take drugs in a fortnight artsy. it's true it's crazy i mean they actually have these drugs for dogs as well as a dog owner i think it's totally crazy but marina makes a lot of good points here on just how big this power is that it's a story that warrants a deeper look this special relationship and relaxed rules for big pharma so is this becoming farmageddon are we smart enough as people to be able to diagnose ourselves because it sure seems that's what's going on and it's not just tens of thousands of deaths every year there are far reaching affects here so i want to bring in licensed clinical social worker dr darcy smith. let's start i want you to go into detail about some of the implications here dr darcy of living in a society where major marketing firms are paid millions to try to convince people

not only of their illness but of the prescription that will cure them as well well clearly the outcome is going to be that these these these prescriptions are written with much more. more frequency than than is necessary you're going to see so many more people medicated in society than what we currently have today. and with the the massive amounts of money going into these marketing firms i mean consumers really don't stand a chance against that sort of you know that sort of heavy handedness i think it's a really good point it's like an entire army facing off against single people here dr darcy marina mentioned in her report that even when pharmaceutical companies are forced to you know dole out the dollars in settlements and lawsuits whatever that these companies are so successful doesn't even really hurt that much like pocket change so what do you think is needed what could actually change to make some of these regulations a little stricter look i think the way we need to address this problem is to go to the source and the source really is within the medical profession profession it's

the physicians who are writing the scripts for these and and they really do need to be held accountable for the prescriptions that the writing and i think that there need to be audit some doctors and physicians and to confirm that that somebody is not coming in for a knee injury or an elbow injury and then walking away with you know and and a prescription for anti-depressants on top of that i mean of course there's going to be a decrease in mood and an increase in depressive symptoms when when an athlete or somebody who's athletic is injured in comes into a doctor and wants to be treated for for that injury but you know part of life is just going through that healing process and and and as that healing process occurs the person's moods going to elop. i mean i think as a society we need to learn how to tolerate just comfort and it's not something that we really teach people how to do but why would we ever just tolerate discomfort if

there's a pill that can cure as immediately i mean i'm joking a little bit i think you make a really good point and it is it's one thing to have p.r. firms in favor of this that's their job but doctors do seem ready and willing to write these prescriptions and i guess i'm just curious i mean don't these doctors take an oath aren't they supposed to help people isn't that their jobs and when they do this they have to know these are smart people who spend a lot of years in school don't they know that that they're not always helping people by doing what the pharmaceutical companies tell them to do but look i think that the doctors are also falling victim to this society that little we live in in which everybody is looking for an immediate solution to a problem that may be a little bit more complicated so they're looking i think it's coming i think in many cases it's coming from a place of integrity doctors really are wanting to put there to help their patients and help their patients feel better but they're not looking at the long term consequences of what writing new scripts is doing to society look it's

a lot easier to write a script than it is to facilitate meaningful therapy. what people really do need to do is refer to therapists when when when people are coming to their primary care physicians and doctors are are seen symptoms of anxiety or depression they need to make that referral to their to to to a therapist so that the person can have you know a useful intervention at that point i think that's a good point i think we should also mention here that there are plenty of drugs out there that you know doctors and people are very grateful for drugs that have been developed that actually do help people in so many ways so you know you can't discount that but something i want to talk to you about is some of the most vulnerable victims of this you know what's become in many ways as. kendall and that's children i mean so many kids marina mentioned in her report are taking adderall why is it that the number of kids taking adderall has tripled quadrupled

just in the last few years you know it's terrible i think part of the problem is that parents are never taught parenting skills and this is something that has been a problem for ever it's becoming more of a problem because now as we spoke about a second ago there is this short term solution called adderall or any other stimulant medication that can cause a child to become a super student very rapidly so i mean if you think about it we have dual income families it's a thing of the past it's a it's a quaint notion of the days in which you know one parent stayed home and the other parent worked so with both parents out of the home nobody's parenting the kids and families are in crisis families are legitimately looking for a solution to a child who really has behavioral issues and yes do i think that adderall and other stimulants can be effective absolutely but i do believe that that needs to be

a piece of the solution and not the entire the entire solution itself it needs to be coupled with behavioral modification and intervention that teaches a child how to overcompensate for anything that maybe may look like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder i know i think it's important to point out i mean kids often are hyper in the same way i mean i do i actually know people who have their dogs on you know anti-anxiety medication you know puppies get separation and anxiety from their owners it's part of the development process in the same way kids get are hyper because they're kids and when we continue to medicate them it just really really worries me is why i think this is so important to talk about what i thank you for joining us licensed clinical social worker dr darcy smith thank you. so here's now a private first class bradley manning the man accused of being the source of a major dump of classified documents to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks has been recommended to move forward to face the most serious military trial out there

general court martial his pretrial hearing is wrapping up an investigating officer colonel paul almanza says all twenty two charges against private manning have also been recommended to be part of that trial now this isn't really surprising the odds have been stacked against private manning to fence team from day one this includes just two of the near fifty defense witnesses being allowed by the military and by the way the prosecution was allowed an entire week of witnesses brought to the court the defense team witnesses testified for a single morning before the hearing ended now the court martial when given the green light will take place in the next three to four months but let's not forget bradley manning has already spent more than a year and a half in custody and much of that spent in solitary confinement confinement in some pretty harsh conditions hundreds of people and groups including the united nations by the way have characterized as torturous now if found guilty of the crimes with which he is charged private manning stands to spend the rest of his

life in prison so again i think is surprising and i should mention to bradley manning has plenty of support in this country i've been to plenty of protests and rallies where there's lots of people hundred sometimes supporting him and i want to show you a billboard just put up pretty recently here in washington d.c. this is a sign put up on new york avenue sort of bringing attention to the case free bradley manning this was paid for by people who want to see that happen who think that there's a lot wrong with this case and for people who haven't heard of him they want to make sure that anyone driving by this area in the nation's capital that they know who bradley manning is that they find out more about him well there's a lot of questions to answer so earlier i spoke to sack president tell he's pressley is on to the bradley manning support network here's what he had to say. well i have to say the video is certainly concerning and something that. makes me feel. wants me to take a step back as an american and say you know what is really going on here with this

war and i think when we take a step back and look at it we can say you know this is unfortunately part and parcel of the day to day realities of war and combat overseas when we look at what bradley manning is alleged to have revealed the day to day cover ups of atrocities and crimes and. you know it's oftentimes many of those things that we don't see that don't get caught on camera that he was able to bring to light. and we're showing the video again right here and i think it's an important point i think. for in a lot of ways it was unfortunate that this was caught on video i think this stuff kind of happens probably way more than the mainstream media would would like anyone to believe it is it's a stain on the reputation of the u.s. it's very sad but you're right private first class bradley manning revealed things

that were going on and for that he is facing serious punishment i mean let's talk about the specific factors in this trial i saw you nodding your head when i was sort of laying out some of the factors that the defense team has faced it seems to me that for those who serve this country at least in this case innocent till proven guilty doesn't seem to be a play here i mean for people familiar with this case and there are a lot of people familiar with this case around the entire world what does this story tell the story of the defense team being denied almost anything here why i think it's pretty clear that from day one the obama administration never intended to give bradley manning a fair shot here and as you said before we've seen when it comes to no matter what issue it is whether it's the witnesses that are being allowed the evidence. at every step of the way the the military has stacked the deck against bradley manning and we see again here today or yesterday with this set of charges they want to go

full force with this they want to make an example out of bradley this isn't about giving him a fair trial this is really more about how this is going to play out in the public eye and what sort of a message they want to send to other people who might want to blow the whistle on crimes or other illegal behavior. that was the press liaison for the bradley manning support network that has a vento and that will do it for now but be sure to stick around for the alona show there's been a lot of controversy over mitt romney's association with a in capital tonight a little ask author william black about what private equity firms actually do and for more on the stories we covered here on the news go to our two dot com slash usa also check out our you tube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america and you should definitely follow me on twitter i'm at christine friends out.