which is the real actual threat facing this country and with that said let's go break the set. a little bit more of the future ever seen anything like that. the national conference for media reform kicked off this past weekend in denver colorado the largest annual gathering address in the media's role in democracy the conference hosted a variety of workshops discussion panels in the lectures made by a plethora of journalists and media activists all hoping to find answers to one question how can the media be fixed one organization represented at the conference was project censored a student based a research organization that has been on the cutting edge of journalism for over thirty years their most notable for publishing the top twenty five censored stories from the corporate press every year an annual book and now their work is being recognized in an upcoming documentary check it out. really fall in the united

states back into a mccarthyite sensibility a cointelpro kind of sensibility where we see enemies everywhere and we've been cracking down on the very things that should be the bedrock foundations of our free society and money traders because it shows as they do in the middle since the only little solution to this is the money and she builds them for want of civil liberties for the people probably the biggest thing it would still. be that there will go to go there are particular. so to talk about the failure of the fourth the state the work of project censored and whether or not this media reform conference is doing enough i'm joined now by peter phillips fessor of sociology at sonoma state university and president of the media freedom foundation peter thanks so much for coming on. thanks for having me on abbey so peter you guys have been attending this conference for years and what was the main takeaway from this year's event. well the event yes it was still

exceptional in that there's a lot of really great activists they're. communicating about media and what the need for media change in anime in a major way but it's kind of losing the edge. of grassroots activism we look back at the media reform conference in minneapolis four years ago there were three thousand five hundred people there. years later the boston conference had twenty five hundred and then this weekend there were about fifteen hundred and for the first time it was actually a protest outside the conference center by the occupy denver folks who are saying the media reform is really more of a lobby group now the great crash of a million dollar lobby group and not really engaged in grassroots activists. wow appear i was just going to say is there more of a sense of urgency this year considering how we see the build up of the syria iran

war push with the corporate media beating the war drums on that similar to how they were doing in iraq but as you just said it's kind of losing steam i mean why do you think this is. well certainly the free press as dow up or million dollar operation that's funded by the rockefeller foundation look or foundation how wallace woodcock foundation park foundation so it's you know its staff and its salaries are there engaging in it lobbying in washington they continue. to put on the conferences but the real mind in terms of social change. or media it's us from the bottom up and they seem to wast contact with the bottom up idea that we're in the media folks who aren't there a lot of young people the congress has gotten expensive we're we're not participating so we think it's very important to keep a radical edge to the movement to be talking about what's going on in the you know

in the war the war in the middle east the ground war with north korea and by our mother wasn't even environmental journalism workshop sarabande builder magazine how to create one at the last minute so we're seeing the pretty crass as an important piece so media change in the country certainly in a washington. but not the cutting edge of where grassroots activism is happening. peter mickey have their current director products center wrote an article in response to two years ago the media from conference in which you guys attended where he said this he said we the people should go straight to the root of our problems with media which means taking a radical approach and dealing with the current problems that are supposed to free press for starters we should move be well beyond reformist calls this has not worked what is the radical approach to dealing with the problem of media failure

especially is that in light of this conference kind of being just an extension of the lobbying effort to the establishment and what is project center doing differently in the media landscape right now. well certainly our gene networks of campuses and we keep adding more all the time students that read the new independent media progress but i look at news stories from all over the world and there's thousands of outlets of independent news the problem is most people just get all of their news from n.b.c. and c.b.s. them at some b.c. and and corporate media where asked and. i don't know where else to go so one of the things a project censored primarily does is what use universities and students to validate independent news sources and news stories we publish those online and we have our annual book that recognizes the most important one of the top twenty five this is a bit an ongoing process for thirty six years that is now expanding around the globe and we think that universities have

a major role to play and validating news and letting the public know what's really truthful and accurate well certainly especially since college campuses provide for people who are really getting involved in active are looking for alternative networks of news to get information from peter surprisingly project censored has come under scrutiny for some for simply reporting on stories censored by even the alternative press i mean what are some of these stories that have been censored by the independent media outlets and why are the independent media outlets continuing to censored stories that are too controversial puter. on national security status very successfully label any investigations into election rod nine eleven. national security state kinds of investigations as conspiracy theories and this label is sort of paints and scares a lot of people on the left were really addressing and looking at these very

important issues the nine eleven truth organization from the san francisco bay area tried to have a booth at the denver conference the free press conference and they were denied so i mean in a sense whatever you think about those kinds of investigations surely having the opportunity to look at the perhaps address the issues i mean even talk about the issues is vital and important but there are certainly some within the left progressive media that don't want that censor ourselves censor these kinds of topic media media reform is very important to be fully truthful about all aspects and have conversations about every issue that's on the table we think that's a big reason that the numbers of folks art and the same number of people are to tend to well of course and when people look at the reform movement it's in that censoring these very broad issues that a lot of people do agree with peter of course were labelled friends from the corporate media but then of course in an independent media outlets kind of label as

fringe as well first certainly having questions about these things and wanting them investigated it does stifle growth and it curbs the dialogue peter so how do we move forward from here i mean do you think it's important to have a media reform movement working within the system in concert with this radical faction working outside the system and how can we converge the two and get kind of a cohesive opposition to the media take over. ultimate for a change real change in society is going to come from the bottom up it's going to come from occupy type social movements that engage in change and have people behavior. turning off corporate media news or at least recognizing that it's simply entertainment is a vital part of that and then finding sources of news on a daily basis that help feed our understandings sharing that with each other recognizing that the the global one percent and the global one thousandth of one percent that really dominate the central banks of the world that the u.s. military empire in conjunction with nato is now the police force for this

capitalist class worldwide. you know peter amy goodman said something at the conference that was very poignant she said this is no longer a mainstream media it's an extreme media beating the drums for war those who are not concerned about the planet those who are concerned about the planet scuse me are not a fringe minority not even a silent majority but as silenced majority silence by the corporate media which is why we have to take it back and we can and speaks of the silent majority which is a majority of people who share commonalities and in the war recent restoration of civil liberties yet i think their views are fringe because they're simply not represented across the corporate media spectrum peter how damaging is the sense of isolation to just progressing dialogue progress in general to move this country forward. well there's always a prostration when people recognize the great i mean qualities that are occurring in the decline of the working class us the breakup of unions the labor struggles people become oh what can we do and i kind of want to throw their hands up but we

can certainly do a lot and many people can and continue to be engaged in resistance on a variety of ways not just here in the united states but worldwide and what we're dealing with is a global empire our top down one percent dominated and something that has to be addressed in a very democratic open transparent process with media people and activists engaged not only in the streets but writing at the university young people telling each other making films doing radio using the internet to exchange ideas and information that's a vital part of the democratic process in the world and the tools are at our fingertips peter with the technological advancements and the revolutionary media tools that we have online and with each other we really do have the means to revolutionize the media and this world thank you so much peter philips the project center documentaries coming out this week and everyone check it out president of media

freedom foundation says the professor at sonoma state university thanks. backstabbing. so far check it out on hulu dot com it's like breaking the said there you can watch the latest episode of breaking the set like right a show which featured over genocide in burma it also scroll through and watch about every shows and some of the suburbs so come out of the blue fever us and call on how we're doing on blue dot com breaking the set i took a break from my preaching for now but stay tuned to hear from the army veteran who has a direct link to the quadrille murder video next. the

international airport in the very heart of moscow.

last week a very disturbing provision was slipped in the latest senate budget bill the small and conspicuous provision was coined a month santa protection act essentially it deregulated genetically modified foods even more further solidifying monsanto's power of the food supply in their total immunity from prosecution the most disturbing part is that no one had a clue as to who actually wrote the provision until now apparently senator roy blunt is a proud lackey for big ag business you see he just boasted to politico that he was the one who wrote this additional piece of legislation and one just has to look at he and his families and sexual relationship with monsanto to understand why public records show monsanto's been back in mr blunt's congressional career since two thousand and eight he's taken in well over one hundred thousand dollars in campaign

contribute. from the corporation over the last five years but that's not all during his two thousand and ten senate run alone he took in over two hundred forty three thousand dollars from agribusiness across the board yep this guy might be the most g.m.o. friendly politician on the hill but this dirty political scheming is nothing new for mr blunt back in two thousand and two while serving in the house he tried to sneak in a provision into a homeland security bill and the same way he did it the month santa protection act only then it was a measure that would benefit the tobacco giant philip morris so what's blunt interest with big tobacco well his wife abigail blunt was a lobbyist for philip morris at the time and it seems like his wife is still strong arming the senator because she's since moved on to head the government relations for kraft foods one of the biggest processed food corporations in the country you know the same kraft foods that shelled out two million dollars against prop thirty seven g.m.o.

labeling effort in california but wait there's more this man's entire family is one living conflict of interest blunt's son a lobbyist for the auto industry was honored by months santa for his excellence in leadership while he served as governor of missouri the state where monsanto conveniently has its headquarters not only is roy blunt the worst example of washington's revolving door he's also current her poor poor excuse for representative he doesn't represent the people he represents his pocketbook and nothing more and that's why you roy blunt are my villain of the day which brings me to today's hero a woman named diana reed's the founder of g.m.o. free usa she formed the organization after state of connecticut caved into the threats of a lawsuit from one santo didn't pass a labeling law that the population of her state overwhelmingly supported and since then her group has been frequently organizing national boycotts of companies and

pressuring for. manufacturers for more transparency the most recent initiative is to boycott kellogg's food products is he for over a century kellogg's has branded itself as a wholesome family company yet the company's products are stocked full of untested in the face genetically modified ingredients kellogg's is also responsible for an eight hundred thousand dollars smear campaign that helped defeat california's prop thirty seven but there are many other groups carrying on the agenda of g.m.o. free to usa just today dozens of people held and eat in demonstration outside the f.d.a. headquarters to protest the government's willingness to put months santo's corporate interests ahead of public health over the years the government's close relationship with monsanto as cleared the ag giant of accountability and added to a growing public frustration so for being a leader in a movement that calls for consumers to take back control of the food supply diana reeves you're my hero today.

three years ago wiki leaks published a thirty nine minute video that sent shock waves around the world and became one of the most damning revelations regarding the u.s. military occupation of iraq the now infamous footage dubbed collateral murder shows two u.s. apache helicopter pilots taking pleasure in gunning down and killing a group of people on the ground including an unarmed civilians and two journalists take a look. the images are dramatic and powerful and at the time they helped shift public opinion about the war u.s. army veteran ethan mccord was

a soldier on the ground who witnessed this horrific murders display with his own eyes our very own archie correspondent went to wichita kansas to interview ethan about his experience to discuss his story more in depth in the larger problems veterans face i'm joined now by our correspondent megan lopez thanks for having me thank you megan so megan you sat down with ethan sure is a very emotional experience the stories quite tragic tell us a little bit more about what that was like it was honestly the most heartbreaking interview i've ever sat through to have this veteran who you assume is going to be a really tough guy who has a very tough exterior to come and to agree to spill it's heart out and talk about his role as a soldier his role as a father and also kind of the experiences that he had afterward he's suffering from a number of physical and mental effects as a result of his as a result of his service and also he actually attempted suicide unfortunately twice luckily neither was successful and i know that at the time when this happened to

him when he was on the ground and saving children during the collateral murder video he tried to speak out and get help and i want to play a clip of what he said happened to him when he tried to do this let's let's hear that. i knew i was going to get made. but i didn't expect or i mean just the outright lie. my way. he laughed at me and. said i'll tell you what if you go to mental health you're going to get charged with. and malaria. so i'm not trying to i'm not trying to get out of my job i just need to go and you go talk to somebody. and. somebody call you what your wife. you can be charged with to get the sand that you. so if you're on.

of course telling someone kind of dismissing them saying go talk to your wife you know put your vagina away telling someone just a little what do you think this mentality of bullying and neglect does to people who are seeking help well i can speak from ethan standpoint he said that actually intimidate him from actually seeking help until he returned back to what's the talk and instead of going through the proper chain of command which would be to inform your staff sergeant that you want to go and seek mental health that he actually snuck down to the mental health facility and his commanders were informed as a result of it but once again they sat him down. and they once again kind of punished him for for wanting to seek those help and now this is despite the fact that they have posters hanging on the wall saying if you need help seek it out you know so he said that there was kind of a dichotomy with kind of the messages they're promoting in terms of mental health and also the reality and the culture of being in the military and specifically he

said the army he said the navy is more run like a corporation but the army is run like a high school click is his example and of course i mean you know this mentality of course contributes to the sixty one veterans suicide being committed every sixty five minutes now i mean the number of veterans suicides have now outnumbered the deaths in combat on the ground a shocking completely under-reported statistic and let's talk about the help that he did get what did they supply you can with when he finally was given the help and was it enough for him ok he was the client with thirteen different perceptions they range from antidepressants to be controllers and a whole slew of things in between he said that he felt like a zombie he said he couldn't focus he couldn't do anything that he wanted to do and despite all of these prescriptions he he ended up having these thoughts of killing his own children of killing his wife and he described his children as the most important things in the world for his so for him to say that that he wants to kill his children and that was the turning point. so he said that the only way that he

could get things back into control was to take his own life so in fact he took all of the pills and his wife actually found him now as a result of him taking all the pills and trying to commit suicide that first time his staff sergeant was actually called and brought down there and once again they had to babysit him and they made fun of him and again you know he just wasn't saying he said he wasn't receiving the kind of help that he wanted the kind of direction that he wanted and furthermore another point that he made was that you know when you're in the military and you have all these comrades that go through these kind of really hard experiences with you when you're out of the military you really don't have that you don't have that kind of crime moderate your your loss to your own devices and you know a prescription pills aren't aren't the solution all the time in fact they make the void even more vast to make and i want to play a clip also from when ethan elaborate on what he realize that their iraqi resistance resistance is actually warranted in his eyes it's here from about. where

the tears we were the tears we went over there to out terrorize the terrorists in fact that's what we do you know the only way that we can maintain our area of operations was to ensure that the community feared us more than they fear the terrorists you know were to an extent but if i kick in your door in the middle of the night and i shoot your five year old son in the face are you going to think before you're going to say thanks for my freedom thanks for your democracy or are you going to try to kill me until you're dead or every person who looks like me will yeah i would pick up a weapon you're damn right i get you i'd kill you i'd kill every single mother and you. she's. speaking very raw there about his experience and how that kind of shaped his perspective to change. he obviously had a lot of emotions when he first heard the military he joined the navy it was back

after september eleventh and what he told me was that he wanted to kick in doors and shoot people you know and he wanted to be the person to help extract that revenge on the people that cost so many thousands of people their lives and then he went into iraq and things started changing and he realized that that's not what that's not what was going on so it was actually the night of the collateral murder video when he couldn't stop crying and he realized that it something's going on and he started to speak out against it when he actually came back and really started helping other people he said that there was actually a conspiracy against him from his from his fellow soldiers they actually tried to discredit him he said that there was a plot to murder him and he also worked under and it's interesting to note the xo pat tillman was a man who was killed the young football player now another important thing to point out is that he said that he actually compared the situation in iraq to the red dawn movie he said that he described the people as the wolverines and himself and his

fellow soldiers as the cuban and he said that it was really hard for him to realize and accept the role you know can imagine and we have about thirty seconds left but what do you feel when he saw this video being released i mean was he conflicted all about bradley manning's role really seen in the first he was he was upset but then he realized that he was a hero bradley meant he called him a hero he says that he wants him to released and that nothing should stop that he said that yes he was bad the other soldiers in the video were bad now bear in mind he was the one that actually saved those children he got reprimanded for the fact that he saved those children by his commanders or so he sets and then the video came. and everyone the whole world got to see what it was like so no absolutely does call brother man and most heroic person and all of those military chain of command they do so much for coming on trying to motional story the mccord make him up as shit that's our show for today guys thanks for coming on breaking the set

with me and we'll see you right back here tomorrow. on. the. moon. sigrid laboratory to mccurdy was able to build

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