breaking news out of london the man who has become the face of wiki leaks mayo found an escape from extradition to sweden reports are coming out saying julian assad will be granted political asylum in ecuador the details are still fuzzy about we'll tell you what we do go straight ahead. and the so called the worldwide leader in news hasn't been doing much leading these days and fact the network is third in cable ratings and declining quickly but could reality t.v. hold the key to getting c.n.n. viewership back up is this what journalism is coming to some answers ahead and speaking of reality shows. the celebrity part of their. work. with the people. and

bases newest primetime brainchild is hitting the airwaves putting a pretty face on the ugly realities of war but not of several nobel peace prize winners have anything to say about it we'll speak to one of them coming up. plus it looks like not all of congress is set on turning the u.s. into a surveillance state from the eyes in the skies to the ears on the ground we'll tell you about two bills out to regulate drones and monitoring cell phones and why you should pay attention to that. it's tuesday august fourteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v. we begin with breaking news there are reports that ecuador will graham's political asylum to wiki leaks founder julian a sauna has been held up in the ecuadorian embassy and. and since june nineteenth

he's in fighting extradition to sweden to face sex charges to talk more about this breaking story i'm joined now by r t correspondent christine for that christine welcome so ecuador has reportedly granted asylum just sila what is the significance of this well let's back up first of all because we've been waiting ever since ecuador ever since it came out of quito that they would make their announcement on whether or not to grant julian assange and asylum asked for the olympics so last night we were here pretty late here at r.t. following the president president rafael correa as appearance on state run t.v. there were he was asked by a reporter there on a program whether or not he would decide he said he would have meetings this wednesday and would make a decision by the end of the week well here we are it's only tuesday and this announcement has come out but we want to say a few things the guardian is reporting this a few other publications are reporting this however we did call the spokesperson for wiki leaks he hadn't heard it he called julian

a son and personally who also hadn't heard it yet it doesn't mean it's not true doesn't mean it's not going to happen but there's some conflicting reports right now that we do want to say but from what we do understand an official in ecuador has announced that julian assange will be granted asylum in ecuador so as you know just to backtrack for our viewers a little bit he's been living in the embassy the ecuadorian embassy in london for the last two months where he's been awaiting this decision there's a lot of talk that there's been some sort of a deal in the works for quite a long time now since some u.s. embassy cables were leaked to ecuador more than a year ago perhaps that's when some sort of deal was struck we know that the show that was aired here on r.t. the julian assange show called the world tomorrow he interviewed president korea and they had a very few no kind of fun nice report together so this is a decision that we've been awaiting i can tell you three countries that most likely will not be happy about this sweden that wanted to extradite him for questioning.

about the claimed sexual assault by two women there great britain where he's been and of course the united states there's some talk and julian assange himself believe he could be sent here to the united states after being extradited to sweden he feared that he would be tried on espionage charges so if this does go through this is a really really big deal is that he could call the ecuador home and you know assad has said that his greatest fear is to be extradited to the united states could that if this asylum is granted how could that prevent that from happening well as he would get to stay in the country of ecuador and short of you know some sort of kidnapping i can't imagine he'd come here on his own accord and he would stay in ecuador and not have to face these charges which by the way haven't been haven't come out yet but he is worried that he could be tried under the u.s. and. there's some reports that have come out and really was on himself says that he

worries he could face the death penalty for you know what wiki leaks did which is expose a whole lot of classified documents mostly from the state department that many officials have said put this country in danger though as we've been watching the bradley manning trial unfold bradley manning of course the young military man accused of leaking a lot of those documents on the collateral murder video to wiki leaks they've been unable to prove in sort of the pretrial hearings there that you know any danger or any harm has come to the u.s. as a result of that but of course that is what you know officials would try to prove all right and you know he has been held up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for quite some time now and it has some people asking what is taking so long well you know as president correa said he wanted to to wait until after the olympics the olympics of course you know a competition among the countries but also in many ways a unifying force you know all the countries getting together so i think he wanted.

tension to be to be on that and that is one of the things that's taking so long it's been about two months i think. june nineteenth i believe is when he did go into that embassy in the first place he's had a bracelet on he's been on house arrest in london for much of the last two years and still is in london a big question though liz is whether or not british authorities will give him a permission to leave the country even though he's been granted asylum in this other country the question is the question of a whole lot of people's minds is how is he going to get out of london because as soon as he steps foot outside of there yes as soon as you step foot outside the embassy he faces arrest so you know of course everyone's imaginations are running wild some sort of interesting plot to get him out of that embassy undetected right where we are following this story very closely and christine thank you for staying on top of it that was our t. correspondent christine friends out. well here's a question for you where do you turn to when the news hits the fan you might say

fox or amazon b c but fewer people are turning in to c.n.n. a problem the network is facing as its ratings plummet take a look at this c.n.n.'s ratings from last year compared to this year twenty percent down and total daytime viewers from july two thousand and eleven twenty three percent down in prime time viewership twenty one percent down and erin burnett outfront total viewers as compared to john king usa which was in the same time slot last year eighteen percent down in total the orders for piers morgan tonight and thirty four percent down for anderson cooper three sixty well you may wonder why fewer people are tuning in well first of all there's this justices have just got it all the centerpiece provisions of the obama health care law if you know it's exact that's the final word on the individual mandate they could be a little bit more complicated as they say there's going to be some kids use it as

there are conflicting reports coming in from inside this supreme court so let's let's i'm drawing any final conclusions i was reading through this again we are reading now that the entire law has been held and that is not all. their opinion is apparently hungry for chicken and controversy it's about a dialogue that's broader than the sick community it's about how we look at these issues as a country together well said are interesting thank you so much for joining us by the way appreciate it it's a. little thing going on the back story that is billy joel only be good die young. i guess

they can't all be heads i suppose so what is the rating starved channel to do start covering news from a fresh angle not quite after hire hire and travel host and cook anthony bourdain c.n.n. is looking to beef up its reality t.v. programming this according to the new york post we can see it now who wants to be a prime time anchor the amazing primetime race or atlanta show or now c.n.n. tonight is that it's going into reality t.v. instead it says it's quote continuing to explore other nonfiction original series for the weekend but what's the difference between the two. just questioning more. well another reality television show starring outrage critics say n.b.c.'s new military things show stars and stripes glorifies war it's a bit last night and has a cast of people you can loosely defined as stars they're paired with former members of the armed forces and go through military training and missions similar

to what real life soldiers go through here's a look at the trailer. these are americans on the ground maybe seal the delta force a group or a feel of the celebrity try to deal. with the. there's no going back no prayer. this is. being sold as a way to honor our troops but many don't see it that way including group of nine nobel peace prize winners that say the show is trying to portray war as amusing and entertaining they go as far as to call it war propaganda and they wrote a letter to the chairman of n.b.c. calling for the show's cancellation here's a quote from that letter states quote as people who have seen too many faces of

armed conflict and violence and who have worked for decades to try to stop the seemingly unending march toward the increased military as ation of societies and the decency of the sensitization of people to the realities and consequences of war we add our voices and our support to those protesting stars earn stripes we to call upon n.b.c. stop airing this program that pays homage to no one and is a massive disservice to those who live and die in armed conflict and suffer its consequences long after the guns of war fall silent to help us discuss this and more we are joined now by longtime peace activists and civil liberties advocates and one nine hundred ninety seven noble peace prize winner jody williams jodi willett jodi thank you so much for coming on the show tell us why you find this new reality show so disturbing. i was watching the olympics and it kept playing over and over and over the trailer. and every time i saw it i got

increasingly angry and i decided that. i was sick of doing nothing to protest the mere each between hollywood and the pentagon when you know weapons paid for by tax dollars are offered to hollywood movies for example in order to make it more realistic i just see it as propagandizing i see it as an attempt to desensitize people as we said in the letter and i decided i organized by friends nobel laureates and by the way we're now up to ten mohammed bulis just joined on today organized them didn't sign a letter to protest that we were going to call for the cancellation and we're going to ban you i guess mention watching the commercials for this shall you know playing out throughout the olympics what is the significance of that playing at during the

olympics that's why they watched international events well even if you go to their website they like in what they are doing to competition like sports and so it's had such a huge audience obviously they were trying to get as many people to think about the show to think about so called here with some of the military i think it's also. used as a recruiting tool as well as propaganda for war now n.b.c. touts the show as quote paying homage to the men and women that serve in the u.s. armed forces and our first responder is jody how do you feel about that description i think it's a lie. if you go and watch the show i forced myself to watch one hour of the two hours last night because i felt like if i was going to be talking against it i should at least see it i really think that the producers and directors should

hang their heads in shame i think that these celebrities if that's what they are. who decided to be in this show really look at what they're doing should hang their heads in shame general wesley clark who ran for president of united states and knows what real war is is actually hosting this joe the the most exciting if you will if you like war and violence moments are the trailer if you go into the show itself it's profoundly boring it takes forever they keep doing it over and over four teams of you know there's the soldiers coupled with the many celebrities and they go through the same routine for guidance in the show and there's no risk to their life whatsoever it's a joke and they certainly as searching outrage in our team actually spoke to some protestors outside of the n.b.c. studio in new york city wanted to take

a listen now to what some of them had to say. we think it's it's an insult to the american people and especially to veterans and i happen to be and maybe veterans to trivialize war feel it's it's a horrible phenomena but it's part of the american culture of war and militarism so it's understandable but can you imagine when kids see this show and they see it is people using live bullets they don't see the blood they don't see the bodies blown apart and you had touched upon this earlier jodi and kind of want to elaborate on what those protesters were saying there that this program i mean a seems to glorify war but doesn't portray the whole picture and war of course is deadly and horrific and not all glory that's true if. for example the teams are supposed to attack

a watchtower if they were attacking watchtower in enemy territory there would be an enemy sniper or machine gun in the watchtower firing at them there's nothing there it's a prop so they blow the prop up and then they crawl under bird wire but no one shooting at them they just crawling under barbed wire it goes on like that over and over again and there was one of the celebrities if you will who said that they were in the line of mission that's a total lie there's something wife about that mission it's a it's a fake mission and how they can pretend that that is honoring soldiers who actually do die soldiers who come home without limbs soldiers who come home so psychologically shattered that they commit suicide is beyond me to understand i think n.b.c. should be ashamed. and can you talk a little bit more about the danger as you had mentioned earlier that this seems to

be a trend and the blurring of the war in reality the reality of war with entertainment what are the dangers of turning war and entertainment well i think we've been doing it for an awful long time i mean hollywood supported world war two for example look at the films of nazi germany to you know raise up patriotism when they started attacking the countries western europe and the soviet and russia at that time it's not a new trend and i think the problem for me now is the insidiousness of it in the united states it's so in some ways so subtle and in other ways so blatant that you can't escape it every time i see like jets flying over a sporting event and i ask myself what is the place of u.s.

military flying over the super bowl or whatever that's taxpayer money first of all those jets are not i mean why are they what do they have to do with sports it's. over and over and increasingly they find ways to make you know military and patriotism a bigger part of the us because they have a borderless war with their war on terror they take it wherever they want and they need us citizens to be willing to support that so you have to glorify war jodi i know that you as a nobel peace prize winner have been fighting to reclaim the meaning of peace can you elaborate on i am sure peace is not cool but you know my lord peace is not a dump flying over rainbow it's hard work every single day the absence of our conflict is merely you know the the bare minimum one needs to be able to build the possibility of sustainable peace which is the basic needs of the majority of

humanity being met like just a decent house. possibility of employment so the family can support themselves it's basic education for the kids it's the access to health care i just keep thinking and i believe this in my total soul that if the basic needs of most people were met there would be a hell of a lot less live in the world because we would be fighting for resources and that for all right jodi thank you so much for coming on the show really appreciate it that was jody williams longtime peace activist civil liberties advocate and nineteen ninety seven noble peace prize winner thank you. well still ahead on our tape fighting surveillance with surveillance two bills are trying to keep law enforcement officials in check by monitoring at the agency and setting up strict regulations up next and end up look at the bills and what they

mean and for your privacy.

well there's been a lot of chatter on capitol hill as of late regarding privacy from cyber security a concern the concerns are many from wireless wire and why are warrantless excuse me wiretapping to domestic drones it seems everywhere you turn someone or something is keeping a watchful eye but there are at least a few in congress i want to take action to defend privacy congressman ed markey of massachusetts has drafted to build a one stop routine cell phone tracking by the government the other would require the federal aviation administration to end state privacy protections for licensing licenses to operate drones to discuss this and more death i'm joined now by stephen to policy analyst and telecommunications expert at the reason foundation steven welcome so can you tell us more about this legislation. well we've got

several things going we've got the legislation concerning drones and we've got other station concerning. wireless wireless phones and the government's ability to get records from arms on the wireless phone companies. the domestic market all the servers of the wireless. well essentially require what would what would be normal fourth amendment protections when the police or law enforcement the f.b.i. goes out to get information regarding geo location it requires the government. to provide information about. the. you know the number of requests they do it requires them to. especially if they cannot really do these what are called. self or grab

some power. duff's where they essentially asked for information about all the communications activity that has come out of one cell sector these are kind of fishing expeditions so bottom line what what speech getting here is at least congressional action to expand fourth amendment protections into the world of cyberspace into the world of information that's traveling the internet or stored outside someone's on someone's computer and a third party database now i don't see that you've expressed optimism about this legislation before what kind of a chance the i think it stands. it's tough to assess the chance of any legislation in congress right now. is the because we're approaching the end of the session reproaching the election. what's good is that it's being brought up

up to now i sadly i think it's being ignored as the government's power and law and or since. really aggressive moves into these areas have gone without any sort of response from congress. any sort of popular reaction. so i think the best thing the best thing out of this so far is getting the debate started whether anything happens in this session i think is very questionable but what discussion we need to get we need to have we need to be talking about exactly how much power the government has to just go in and look at personal information that may be stored outside your own home outside other computers or servers all right say it seem pretty skeptical that it will actually

go anywhere anytime soon but some of the things you described earlier you know in terms of protecting our privacy same pretty basic seem pretty sensible so why isn't there more of a push from congress on the issue is i mean they are supposed to protect the public and. it's. it's unfortunate you say it's something that's going under the radar right now i'm afraid to say i think there's still a big push to show. that. legislators are strong on security it's why we have even though everybody kind of. a knowledge is that the t.s.a. airport system isn't the greatest nobody wants to do anything about it because nobody wants to be soft on security. the same thing we have with drones and with other other aspects of the patriot act is that.

it's a way of showing it's a way of show they're strong on security and. it's. a little bit of i think it's a little bit of cowardice a little bit of reticence for them to stand up and say wait a minute we've got to look at what the constitution says about this. government is overreaching in a lot of these cases these things stephen that it could possibly be a problem of understanding that you know everything technology technology is advancing so rapidly that congress may be kind of stuck in the past they don't have fully grasped you know technology these days in part ironically i think i think more it's. it is it is a failure to grasp technology but it's also clear that the grass is really what the key bill these are and there's a lot of space being put in be effectiveness of video surveillance you see in

movies like the bourne identity twenty four where really that's kind of a romanticized and very. inaccurate picture of how about how these technologies work yes there are large surveillance systems there are facial recognition systems but they don't work they don't work that way in the real world they're prone to mistakes you can build you can't you can spot a suspect around the city from camera to camera but it looks like an easy fix right now even though i mean to cut you off for our kind of getting to the end of the show here but hopefully these two pieces of legislation provide some kind of glimmer glimmer of hope and thank you so much for coming out a child that was stephen teche policy analyst for the reason foundation and that's going to do it for this hour check out our you tube channel the you tube dot com

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you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. stop and look at the current a bit it's unemployment but national debt. ceiling governments ask yourself does it really matter who wins with billions created you can gamble with your money.