"striking consolidation of the media from hundreds of firms to an industry dominated by less than ten enormous transnational conglomerates. The largest ten media firms own all US TV networks, most TV stations, all major film studios, all major music companies, nearly all cable TV channels, much of the book and magazine publishing [industry], and much, much more. Expensive investigative journalism—especially that which goes after national security or powerful corporate interests—is discouraged. Largely irrelevant human interest/tragedy stories get extensive coverage…."
http://www.WantToKnow.info/008/080916_mass_media_manipulations
Leading Journalists Expose Manipulations in the Media
The riveting excerpts below are from the revealing accounts of 20
award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the
Buzzsaw. These courageous writers were prevented by corporate media
ownership from reporting major news stories. Some were even fired
or laid off. They have won numerous awards, including several Emmys
and a Pulitzer. Join in building a better world by helping to
spread this news across the land.
Jane Akre—Fox News. After our struggle to air an honest report [on
hormones in milk], Fox fired the general manager [of our station].
The new GM said that if we didn’t agree to changes that the lawyers
were insisting upon, we’d be fired for insubordination in 48 hours.
We pleaded with [him] to look at the facts we’d uncovered. His
reply: "We paid $3 billion dollars for these stations. We’ll tell
you what the news is. The news is what we say it is!" [After we
refused] Fox’s GM presented us an agreement that would give us a
full year of salary, and benefits worth close to $200,000, but with
strings attached: no mention of how Fox covered up the story and no
opportunity to ever expose the facts. [After declining] we were
fired. (click for more)
Dan Rather—CBS, Multiple Emmy Awards. What's going on is a belief
that you can manipulate communicable trust between the leadership
and the led. The way you do that is you don't let the press in
anywhere. Access to war is extremely limited. The fiercer the
combat, the more the access is limited, [including] access to
information. This is a direct contradiction of the stated policy of
maximum access to information consistent with national security.
There was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming
tires around people's necks if they dissented. In some ways the
fear [now in the U.S.] is that you will have a flaming tire of lack
of patriotism put around your neck. That fear keeps journalists
from asking the tough questions. I am humbled to say, I do not
except myself from this criticism. (click for more)
Monika Jensen-Stevenson—Emmy-winning producer for 60 minutes.
Robert R. Garwood—14 years a prisoner of the Vietnamese—was found
guilty in the longest court-martial in US history. At the end of
the court-martial, there seemed no question that Garwood was a
monstrous traitor. Several years later in 1985, Garwood was
speaking publicly about something that had never made the news
during his court-martial. He knew of other American prisoners in
Vietnam long after the war was over. He was supported by Vietnam
veterans whose war records were impeccable….My sources included
outstanding experts like former head of the Defense Intelligence
Agency General Tighe and returned POWs like Captain McDaniel, who
held the Navy’s top award for bravery. With such advocates, it was
hard not to consider the possibility that prisoners (some 3,500)
had in fact been kept by the Vietnamese as hostages to make sure
the US would pay the more than $3 billion in war reparations.
[After the war] American POWs had become worthless pawns. The US
had not paid the promised monies and had no intention of paying in
the future. (click for more)
Kristina Borjesson—CBS, Emmy award winner. Pierre Salinger
announced to the world on Nov. 8, 1996, that he’d received
documents proving that a US Navy missile had accidentally downed
[TWA flight 800]. That same day, FBI’s Jim Kallstrom called a press
conference. A man raised his hand and asked why the Navy was
involved in the recovery and investigation while a possible
suspect. "Remove him!" [Kallstrom] yelled. Two men leapt over to
the questioner and grabbed him by the arms. There was a momentary
chill in the air after the guy had been dragged out of the room.
Kallstrom and entourage acted as if nothing had happened.
[Kallstrom was later hired by CBS.] (click for more)
Greg Palast—BBC. In the months leading up to the November [2000]
balloting, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered elections supervisors to purge
58,000 voters on the grounds they were felons not entitled to vote.
As it turns out, only a handful of these voters were felons. This
extraordinary news ran on page one of the country’s leading paper.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong country: Britain. In the USA, it
was not covered. The office of the governor [also] illegally
ordered the removal of felons from voter rolls—real felons—but with
the right to vote under law. As a result, 50,000 of these voters
could not vote. The fact that 90% of these were Democrats should
have made it news as this alone more than accounted for Bush’s
victory. (click for more)
Michael Levine—25-year veteran of DEA, writer for New York Times,
Los Angeles Times, USA Today. The Chang Mai "factory" that the CIA
prevented me from destroying was the source of massive amounts of
heroin being smuggled into the US in the bodies and body bags of
GIs killed in Vietnam. Case after case was killed by CIA and State
Department intervention and there wasn’t a thing we could do about
it….In 1980, CIA-recruited mercenaries and drug traffickers
unseated Bolivia’s democratically elected president. Immediately
after the coup, cocaine production increased massively. Bolivia
[became] the source of virtually 100% of the cocaine entering the
US. This was the beginning of the crack "plague."…The CIA along
with State and Justice Departments had to protect their drug-
dealing assets by destroying a DEA investigation. How do I know? I
was the inside source….I sat down at my desk in the American
embassy and wrote evidence of my charges. I addressed it to
Newsweek. Three weeks later DEA’s internal security [called] to
notify me that I was under investigation….The highlight of the 60
Minutes piece is when the administrator of the DEA, Federal Judge
Robert Bonner, tells Mike Wallace, "There is no other way to put
it, Mike, [what the CIA did] is drug smuggling. It’s
illegal." (click for more)
Gary Webb—San Jose Mercury News, Pulitzer Prize winner. In 1996, I
wrote a series of stories that began this way: For the better part
of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips
and Bloods gangs of LA and funneled millions in drug profits to a
guerilla army run by the CIA. The cocaine that flooded in helped
spark a crack explosion in urban America….The story was developing
a momentum all of its own, despite a virtual news blackout from the
major media. Ultimately, it was public pressure that forced the
national newspapers into the fray. The Washington Post, the New
York Times, and the Los Angeles Times published stories, but spent
little time exploring the CIA’s activities. Instead, my reporting
and I became the focus of their scrutiny. It was remarkable
[Mercury News editor] Ceppos wrote, that the four Washington Post
reporters assigned to debunk the series "could not find a single
significant factual error." A few months later, the Mercury News
[due to intense CIA pressure] backed away from the story,
publishing a long column by Ceppos apologizing for "shortcomings."
The New York Times hailed Ceppos for "setting a brave new
standard," and splashed his apology on their front page, the first
time the series had ever been mentioned there. I quit the Mercury
News not long after that….Do we have a free press today? Sure. It’s
free to report all the sex scandals, all the stock market news,
[and] every new health fad that comes down the pike. But when it
comes to the real down and dirty stuff—such stories are not even
open for discussion. (click for more)
John Kelly—Author, ABC producer. ABC hired me to help produce a
story about an investment firm that was heavily involved with the
CIA. Part of the ABC report charged that the CIA had plotted to
assassinate an American, Ron Rewald, the president of [the
investment firm]. Scott Barnes said on camera that the CIA had
asked him to kill Rewald. After the show aired, CIA officials met
with ABC executive David Burke, [who] was sufficiently impressed
"by the vigor with which they made their case" to order an on-air
"clarification." But that was not enough. [CIA Director] Casey
called ABC Chairman Goldenson. [Thus] despite all the documented
evidence presented in the program, despite ABC standing by the
program in a second broadcast, Peter Jennings reported that ABC
could no longer substantiate the charges. That same day, the CIA
filed a formal complaint with the FCC charging that ABC had
"deliberately distorted" the news. In the complaint, Casey asked
that ABC be stripped of its TV and radio licenses….During this
time, Capital Cities Communications was maneuvering to buy ABC.
[CIA Director] Casey was one of the founders of Cap Cities. Cap
Cities bought ABC. Within months, the entire investigative unit was
dispersed. (click for more)
Robert McChesney—500 radio & TV appearances. [There has been a]
striking consolidation of the media from hundreds of firms to an
industry dominated by less than ten enormous transnational
conglomerates. The largest ten media firms own all US TV networks,
most TV stations, all major film studios, all major music
companies, nearly all cable TV channels, much of the book and
magazine publishing [industry], and much, much more. Expensive
investigative journalism—especially that which goes after national
security or powerful corporate interests—is discouraged. Largely
irrelevant human interest/tragedy stories get extensive coverage….A
few weeks after the war began in Afghanistan, CNN president
Isaacson authorized CNN to provide two different versions of the
war: a more critical one for the global audience and a sugarcoated
one for Americans….It is nearly impossible to conceive of a better
world without some changes in the media status quo. We have no time
to waste. (click for more)
For a powerful 10-page summary of this material:
http://www.blogger.com/www.WantToKnow.info/massmediaFor other reliable resources on the media cover-up: Media
Information Center'
