Shadows of Liberty

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SHADOWS OF LIBERTY examines how the US media are controlled by a handful of corporations exercising extraordinary political, social, and economic power. Having always allowed broadcasting to be controlled by commercial interests, the loosening of media ownership regulations, that began under Reagan and continued under Clinton, has led to the current situation where five mega corporations control the vast majority of the media in the United States. These companies not only don't prioritize investigative journalism, but can and do clamp down on it when their interests are threatened.

The film begins with three journalists whose careers were destroyed because of the stories they broke: Roberta Baskin, whose scoop about Nike sweatshops didn't sit well with CBS when Nike became a co-sponsor of the Olympics; Kristina Borjesson, another CBS reporter, whose job lasted precisely one week after the network spiked her investigation into the TWA Flight 800 disaster in 1996; and Gary Webb, whose story linking US support for Nicaraguan Contras and the epidemic in crack cocaine was trashed by The New York Times and the Washington Post. (His story was true, but Webb lost his job and eventually killed himself.)

With the help of interviewees including Daniel Ellsburg, Dan Rather, Julian Assange, Chris Hedges, Dick Gregory, Robert McChesney, John Nichols and Amy Goodman, the film explores in depth the monopolies and vested interests that filter the dissemination of information thus damaging the democratic process. One notorious example, featured in the film, of the anti-democratic nexus between the military-industrial complex and the news media was the latter's unquestioning acceptance of the former's trumped up justification for the Iraq War.

With profits taking priority over the truth and the powerful being taken at their word rather than taken to task, the film asks whether the Internet can withstand corporate pressure and remain free, or will it too fall into the hands of monopolistic corporations.

Ultimately has our commercial world caused us to lose one of the most precious commodities of all--unbiased information?

'Shadows of Liberty offers a brilliant, riveting and deeply disturbing insight into corporate control of American media and American public opinion. It is a clarion call to citizens to take back the First Amendment before it is lost to them forever.' Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago, Author, Speaking Out! Reflections on Law, Liberty and Justice

'Shadows of Liberty offers a trenchant critique of our media system, effectively highlighting how and why corporate consolidation of media undermines democracy. Featuring the voices of our most wise and compelling media analysts, the film is a clarion call for media reform to create a media system that promotes citizenship and substantive journalism rather than corporate profits and infotainment.' William Hoynes, Professor of Sociology and Media Studies, Vassar College, Author, Public Television for Sale, Co-Author, The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest

'After watching this film, you might think the greatest threat to free speech today is the media itself. Shadows of Liberty takes a critical look at the modern media landscape. Jean-Philippe Tremblay dissects the media's coverage of some of the biggest events in recent history. He tells the stories behind the big stories and contributes to a meaningful discussion of important public issues and the role of the media in this discussion.' Roy S. Gutterman, Director, Tully Center for Free Speech, Associate Professor, Communications Law and Journalism, Syracuse University

'The stakes for the free flow of information have never been higher, so this documentary - which is likely to raise blood pressure and spark heated discussions - is recommended.' Video Librarian

'A sober look at today's very precarious situation...Highly recommended especially for public and school library collections.' The Midwest Book Review

'Were it not for films like Shadows of Liberty, the public would be oblivious to who actually controls the mass media...An impressive cast of media analysts and activists illuminate the dangers of media monopolies and their impact on the press...Highly recommended for all libraries, Shadows of Liberty is thought-provoking resource for business, journalism, and social science courses.' Margaret M. Reed, Ouachita Baptist University, Educational Media Reviews Online

'The timing couldn't be better for a theatrical documentary about a corporate media monopoly in American journalism.' Etan Vlessing, Hollywood Reporter

'An excellent expose of the corporatisation of the American media, and perhaps the very best of the [Leed's International] festival in toto. Frightening, enlightening, anger-inducing, thrilling, this debut from writer/director Jean-Philippe Tremblay ticks the boxes for what every great political doc should be...Stories of corporate greed winning out over media values are hand-over-mouth shocking, told with clarity and focus.' Brogan Morris, Neil Young's Film Lounge

'Deals with one of the most critical issues of today...A masterpiece of craftsmanship.' Jakub Patocka, Denik Referebdum

'A slick, masterful political essay on the degradation of contemporary journalism...Rises above its contemporary counterparts by concentrating on convincing and compelling evidence.' Ezra Winton, Art Threat

'A pull-no-punches kind of film.' Post City Magazine

'A documentary indictment of America's media echo chamber...Artistry, cinematic or otherwise, and clear-eyed political vision rarely come this close together. Shadows of Liberty as a film, and Jean Philippe Tremblay as auteur are both definitely newsworthy. Stay tuned.' Humberto DaSilva, Rabble.ca

'Meticulous and cutting...A tremendous cast of commentators illustrate the problem...Well made, beautifully filmed and fulfilled.' Adam Donaldson, Press Plus

'Scathing media takedown...Tremblay marshalls a wealth of evidence to demonstrate that government deregulation has paved the way for the perversion of the media's newsgathering function.' Julian Carrington, Torontoist

'Excellent...Provides a diverse selection of case studies to show just how deep the rabbit hole goes.' Left Lion

'Relevant stuff about the mass sell-off of journalistic integrity in our time.' Liz Braun, Toronto Sun

'Corporate Media - not the best thing on Earth...The film is extremely well made (great soundtrack), with seemingly unlimited resources to archival footage and impressive personalities.' The Panic Manuel

'Audiences have come to see it in droves...A well-told warning about the power of multinational media conglomerates.' Fraser Mills, Film Army

'All Americans should be concerned - if only the media would allow them to be...Shadows of Liberty seems destined to remain a film one must seek out. Those who do will be rewarded.' The Wig

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Main credits

Tremblay, Jean-Philippe (Director)
Tremblay, Jean-Philippe (Screenwriter)
Cantagallo, Dan (Producer)
Cantagallo, Dan (Screenwriter)
Robinson, William (Producer)
Shale, Kerry (Narrator)
Goodman, Amy (Interviewee)
Jackson, Janine (Interviewee)
Kumar, Deepa (Interviewee)
Assange, Julian (Interviewee)

Other credits

Film editor, Gregers Sall; composer, Tandis Jenhudson; director of photography, Arthur Jafa.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

cover-ups, censorship, mega corporations, US media, corporate control of news content, loosening media ownership regulations, Reagan, Clinton, investigative journalism, Roberta Baskin, sweat shops, Vietnam, CBS News, Olympics sponsorship, Kristina Borjesson, TWA Flight 800, Gary Webb, Nicaraguan Contras, crack cocaine epidemic, Los Angeles, New York Times, Washington Post, Daniel Ellsberg, Dan Rather, Julian Assange, Chris Hedges, David Simon, Robert McChesney, John Nichols, Amy Goodman, Danny Glover, Dick Gregory, Janine Jackson, Norman Solomon, Bob Baer, Jeff Cohen, John McArthur, filtering information, damaging democratic process, military-industrial complex, justification for Iraq War, net neutrality, unbiased information, government, free speech, broadcast news, media conglomerate,"Shadows of Liberty",Bullfrog Films

WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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These are generally the upper degrees to
run the 60 degree market. They’ll be…

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…crash that was causing tie-up
from south bound 163 to the 15…

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…talked to the DEP’s deputy commissioner moments ago and
he said that this main broke simply because it’s old.

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…the Brooklyns built the
Brooklyn bridge 125 years ago.

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In this country, the most
powerful country on earth,

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it is so actually difficult to get
information. Especially, outside our borders

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not to mention what’s going on inside this country.
It started about 4 hours and 20 minutes ago

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at 9:42pm, eastern time that
would have put it into…

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Public information, the news we rely on to
learn about what’s happening in the world,

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to learn about one another is in the hands basically of commercial
enterprises. Then the agreement on healthcare is closed. But support could…

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Giant media corporations like Time Warner

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and News Corporation, Disney and so
forth, they get to decide what is news,

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what is newsworthy, and what is not newsworthy. This is
America. How many of you people want to pay to your neighbors…

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What the press is pushing is
distortions, lies, lack of balance.

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I have 900 channels on my TV.

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I think we have a lot of news to
tell you about Anna Nicole Smith

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who died in Florida… We have a
commercially-driven journalism

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that has no interest in poor people where they’re basically written out of the
picture altogether. And we have a system that tells us what people in power

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are interested in and what they want to talk about. When was
the last time governor, that you were at the (inaudible).

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Make no mistake of that. This
is to control people’s ideas.

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It’s to control their imagination. And also reminded
him that the channel was part of the establishment.

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So we must conduct himself as…

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We have a profound crisis of democracy.

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You can’t choke off this course
and have a free society.

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These are stories you will
not be told on radio,

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in newspapers, or on television.
The clash two worlds.

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Great media corporations spinning
over perception for profit

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versus the defenders of
truth who stand for liberty

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and democracy.

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I had often been asked if there was any pressure
on me because of the kinds of stories that I do.

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I was always asked, are there are
some stories that you can’t do?

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Are there some times that you are not allowed to
report on certain things because of advertisers?

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And my answer was always absolutely not.

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[sil.]

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A few decades after the end of the Vietnam war, the
United States issued a trade embargo against Vietnam.

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And CBS chief correspondent Roberta Baskin

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looked into one corporation
search, cheaper labor markets.

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The premise for the story was the fact that
Nike was subcontracting to these factories

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on the other side of the planet

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but they weren’t really taking
responsibility for how the shoes were made.

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And I asked to follow the trail.

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In August of 1996, Baskin and the
CBS news film crew flew to Vietnam

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to investigate the Nike factories. We were
able to kind of peek through the keyhole

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but we we’re not allowed inside.

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We were barred. As Baskin waited
outside the factory gates,

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what she heard from the workers would
forever change her views on Nike.

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One of the things that really shocked
me was to discover that the word \"Nike\"

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had become a verb. The word \"Nike\"
meant to abuse your employees.

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There were incidences of physical abuse,

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women who had their mouths taped
shut for talking on the line,

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15 women were systematically hit
with the top part of a Nike shoe

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around the face and the neck.

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It was this disparity between seeing

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the corporate image that the company sells
and the reality in these factories,

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\"Just do it, or else.\"

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Roberta Baskins’ news report
about Nike abuses was broadcast

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on the CBS news television
across the United States.

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CBS was very pleased submitting
it for prestigious awards.

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For me what was really exciting about it
was that the phones rang off the hook.

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It was picketing of

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Nike terms across the country.

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There were boycotts that were being
organized by students on campuses.

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I realized that it had touched
some kind of a nerve.

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Nike’s labor abuses reached
the media and the shoe giant

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came forward to limit the damages.

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We don’t have uh… abusive labor conditions
in our factories and really never had.

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With Nike in denial, CBS
News commissioned Baskin

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to do a follow-up investigation working
with a Vietnamese labor group.

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Roberta’s work was mainly about
the corporate punishment.

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We help add another
dimension to the problems

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that the wages and the
excessive amount of overtime.

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[music]

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Nike’s not the good guys even though they’ve
done a lot of commercials saying they are,

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but people at that moment realized that
they are not part of the good team.

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As Baskin was putting together the updated
news report on Nike’s labor practices,

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she received unexpected
news from inside CBS.

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I got a call from my
executive producer who said

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the story is not gonna air. It’s been taken
off schedule. There’s some sort of deal

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being made between Nike and CBS News
for the upcoming winter Olympics.

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The air went out of my soul.

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CBS News was paying

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an enormous amount of money for the rights and so by
definition they would be seeking out commercial sponsors

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who would pour lots of money into
it so that they could recoup

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the millions that they were paying for the rights of the Olympics. The
18th Olympic winter games on CBS The CBS revealed their coverage.

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The deal between Nike and
CBS was plain to see.

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Correspondent after correspondent

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are wearing these Nike jackets
on the air with a little CBS

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something or other, you really couldn’t
read it and a big swoosh on the shoulder.

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That was the deal. Nike had convinced

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CBS News to turn its
correspondents into billboards.

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It was heart breaking. The CBS
news correspondents were furious.

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They had to wear the Nike (inaudible)

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whenever they appeared on air.
Just not done.

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Baskin wrote a memo
requesting CBS management

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to take the Nike logo
off the correspondents.

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CBS had crossed this incredible line.

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How do you trust serious stories
when you’re seeing the reporter

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wearing a bunch of logos?

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Immediately, the president of CBS News responded
saying this was a breach of professional etiquette.

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It meant that, I should shut up. How dare I

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raise a question about the
integrity of CBS News.

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[music]

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After questioning the deal with Nike,
Baskin was removed from her position

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as the chief correspondent of CBS News.
It wasn’t an ordinary transfer, a change,

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it was a demotion. And it was
a demotion that… it was…

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was to send a message.

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[music]

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I ended up asking if I could
get out of my contract.

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The president responded \"Great.\"

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They were, you know, happy to see me go.

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Hi, Mr. (inaudible). I’m
reporter Baskin from CBS News.

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I wanted to talk to you about the problems that you’re having in the factory
here. To this day the CBS Network has buried both of Baskin’s reports

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
on the Nike’s sweatshops.
These are the kind of

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fundamental conflicts of interest
that result in censorship,

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that result in a narrow debate and they come directly
from the fact that we’ve made these historical choices

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to allow corporations to
own and control our media.

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[music]

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
Media today is dominated

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
by a handful of corporations. This is
a far cry from the original ideals

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of the country.

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As Americans fought for independence
from imperial rule, the revolution found

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
it’s inspiration in an unexpected place.

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:43.000
[music]

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The United States was in many senses
founded by a journalist, Tom Payne,

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who called Americans to revolution against
a British empire that was thought to be

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completely unbeatable.

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This country was really
founded on the concept that

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if you gave citizens the information they
needed, they could govern themselves.

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The founders of the United States

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gave citizens the fundamental right
to a free press. A revolution

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for freedom of information.

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One of the primary reasons
for freedom of the press

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was that it was the only way people outside of power could
keep the government from becoming an empire. Stop militarism,

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stop the corruption, secrecy, and the cronyism,
that was the function of the freedom of press.

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There is a reason why our profession,

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Journalism, is the only one explicitly
protected by the US Constitution.

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Because we’re supposed to be holding those in
power accountable, asking the critical questions.

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[music]

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One of the first stands of the government

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was to encourage the distribution of
independent views through subsidies.

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[sil.]

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This was actually America’s
revolutionary contribution.

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The genius of the subsidy is that they did not
discriminate against the content of the newspapers.

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The Abolitionist Movement
didn’t start in congress.

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It started in those freely
distributed weekly newspapers.

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And that was really where we began to address the
most fundamental sins of the American experiment.

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It’s simply information that is power.

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It’s information that frees us because when
people get information, they then can decide

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what to do. Today,

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the founding vision of America’s journalistic
independence has become deeply distorted.

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Media is the conversation
we have as a society.

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It’s the way we learn about the world.
It’s the way we learn about one another.

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We see the range of
public debate constrained

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because there may be many things that citizens
of a democratic society need to know about

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that private corporations may not
be interested in telling them.

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[sil.]

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They’re what I call black
holes in journalism.

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There are certain events

00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
and certain subjects that you…

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you may not cover.

00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
[sil.]

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On the night of July 17th, 1996,

00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
flight TWA800 was on route from New York
City to Paris carrying 230 passengers

00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
when disaster struck.

00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:33.000
Bringing you up today, the TWA flight
at 7:47 aircraft has gone down.

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That day I was at CBS and
my executive producer

00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
called me down and told me to look into
it and it completely changed my life,

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shifted my paradigm.

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[sil.]

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As Borejesson investigated the crash for CBS
News, many people reported something disturbing

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they’d seen in the night sky.
All these eyewitnesses

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said they had seen something go up then
they followed it up to where the plane

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was and then all of a
sudden the plane exploded.

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With different reports emerging
about TWA800, the FBI declared

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the surrounding area a crime scene.

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
If it is a terrorist event, we then have the challenge to find out
who the perpetrators were, or who the cowards were that did this.

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[music]

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As navy divers were called to
recover the plane’s wreckage,

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rumors of friendly fire emerged.

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The first FBI press conference I went to,

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some guy raised his hand and he
said, \"Why is the navy involved

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in the recovery when they’re suspect?\"

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Remove him, remove him. Navy is a suspect. The
Navy is a suspect. Kallstrom just pointed at him

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and he goes ‘Remove him’ and
then everybody continued as if…

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as if this hadn’t happened and to my mind

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we should have all pressed on that question.
United States military’s friendly fire

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was not involved in this incident
and I use the strongest terms

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I could use. I said it was highly,
highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely.

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[music]

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Despite FBI denials, Borejesson’s research

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
uncovered a different scenario based on the
navy’s activity on the night of the disaster.

00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
When they released the radar information,

00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
they only gave half of it.
They cut it off right when

00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
you could see that there were all these
military vessels in this exercise zone

00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
that was right there.

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
Not only were their ships there but there actually was
live fire exercise going on off the coast that night

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
and that’s why they had closed down
the flight corridor that is parallel

00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
to the commercial flight path.

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
[sil.]

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
TWA800 center. TWA800 at the (inaudible).

00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
TWA800 center.

00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
I think so.

00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
When there is a distress,
you’re supposed to by law

00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
of the sea go and try and help. These ships
went in the absolute opposite direction

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
away from the crash site and at 30 knots.

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
[music]

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
The search for clear-cut evidence continued

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
and Borejesson was offered a piece of seat fabric from
the plane that had undergone preliminary testing.

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
The test had revealed that
there were heavy metals in it

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
that were consistent with a missile strike
that went through the plane at a certain point

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
where this seat was very close to
and Kristina received a sample

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
to do independent verification.

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
I mean, it was just amazing. How many times
you get hard evidence from something?

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
I had no idea there was going
to be any problem whatsoever.

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
As CBS news gave Borejesson the
go-ahead to accept the seat fabric,

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
she was close to discovering whether a
missile strike had brought down the plane.

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
And I was looking around for a lab

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
and that’s when the FBI called and said,
\"You have a piece of stolen evidence.\"

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
To my great disappointment and
dismay, CBS just gave it right back.

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
[music]

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
CBS has given the role investigators a peace of cloth reportedly
from the downed TWA flight 800. The FBI wanted the fabric because…

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
CBS folded

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
like an ice cube in the sun, they just
went. They decided this is not a story

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
we are going to fight for. It’s a great moment
of spinelessness on the corporate media’s part.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
No evidence has been found which would
indicate that the criminal act was the cause

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
of the tragedy of TWA flight 800.

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
The law enforcement team has looked at every
theory and has left no stone on torrent.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
With eye witness accounts

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
of a possible missile strike still
unexplained, the CIA produced

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
an animation that was broadcast nationally.
When they showed that animation,

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
it wasn’t like they then went out and talked to the fishing
boat captain who had seen something completely different.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
Flames visible to eye witness
is more than 40 miles away.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
I did and they said this is ridiculous. This does not describe what I
saw. As the aircraft descended, it produced an increasingly visible fire…

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
The video was shown

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
on Network TV, it was shown nationally,
it was shown over and over.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
To think, there is no evidence that any eye
witness saw a missile flipped on TWA flight 800.

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
The press bought it. The press bought
the government’s version of events.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
At the time of the disaster, Westinghouse,

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
a nuclear power company and major
defense contractor owned CBS news.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
[sil.]

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
Any logical person would go,

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
well where does the vast majority of their
money come from? Government contracting.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
If Kristina were getting
too close to the truth,

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
would they shut down the investigation or
would they lose their government contracts?

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
I mean, these are logical questions that you
have to wonder. What’s more important to CBS.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
Ultimately, Borejesson’s pursuit

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
of what happened that night challenged
the priorities of corporate media.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
I walked into this meeting

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
of news executives. I said, \"Why are we covering
this?\" And one guy looks up at me and he goes,

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
\"Oh, you think it’s a missile,
don’t you?\" And I said,

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
\"I don’t know what it is but I’ll tell
you it’s not a straight forward thing,

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
I mean, there is something going on here.\" And
there was just this silence and I was just looking

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
at this sea of white shirts and
as I turned around and left,

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
I was like, God, you know, my
goose is cooked here and it was,

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
you know, I was out a few weeks later.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
The government’s official
explanation of the disaster,

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
mechanical failure, hasn’t been
proven and questions still remain.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
I can’t tell you

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
with absolutely certainty what happened.
When that many people die,

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
you owe it to them and to the other people
who were getting on those planes everyday

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
to find out what really happened.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:43.000
[sil.]

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
When you have corporations whose
economic interests are very much tied

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
into the agenda set by governments,

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
it’s easier to let go of an individual journalist who is seen
as a trouble maker that would shake up an entire system,

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:05.000
which is based on the notion that
official sources are never wrong.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
Just as newspapers had been the driving
force behind democracy, the great hope

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
of the 20th century was
the birth of mass media.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
We think Google and Facebook is a big deal. Imagine
what it must have been like in rural Kansas

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
to suddenly be able to
listen to a broadcast

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
from New York City every night
and how that collapsed the world

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
in ways that is very difficult
for us to conceive of today.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:53.000
[music]

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
In 1933, with the great depression
and the nation in a state of panic,

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
President Roosevelt took to the air waves.
You people must have faith.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
You must not be stampeded
by rumors or guesses.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
Together, we cannot fail and
it is up to you to support

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
and make it work.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:25.000
It was apparent to people at that time that the control
over this medium was going to be a form of social control.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
With advertising money pouring in, corporate
networks pressured congress to withhold profit

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
as the basis for American manifesto.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
This is of publicly owned property
and lots of Americans protested

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
that we would turn over this scarce
resource, this extraordinary airwaves,

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
to a handful of private commercial interests
to make money by selling advertisement to us.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
Decided to tackle this job
of telling on the air

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
In 1934, congress passed the Communications Act
sealing the future of America’s Broadcasting

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
as a for-profit system. NBC, CBS, ABC,

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
these huge empires were built upon
the gift for free of monopoly rights

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
to government property. It was an
extraordinary corporate welfare

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
that boggles the mind.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
A recent study found that anywhere between

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
40% and 70% of what is
considered news is an idea

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
that came out of a corporate PR dept.
The media should

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
have a social responsibility
and unfortunately

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
that does not happen in
the current context.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:55.000
[music]

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
[music]

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
With broadcasting set up as a commercial enterprise,
government regulations were put into place

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
to prevent monopolies.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
There was a cross party agreement that commercial
activity would be regulated by the government.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
No individual should have

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
such dominance of our media that they
could effectively define a discourse.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
The great transition came in the election

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
of Ronald Reagan as president
of the United States.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
Government is not the solution to our
problem. Government is the problem.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
Ronald Reagan believed

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
the answer to any concern,
any question, as regards

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
how to create a good media system was
to get government out of the way.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
In order to restructure media ownership,

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
Reagan removed regulations.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
Driving the bears back in the primitive
hibernation, we’re going to turn the bolt loose.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:28.000
[sil.]

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
Their whole model was the idea that if
you removed all controls and regulations

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:40.000
and allowed the free market to rip then everything
would be fine, everything would be wonderful.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
In reality, what it does is it allows a handful of giant
corporations to come in and gobble up everything.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
And these conglomerates don’t see
journalism as actually being central

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
and essential to the functioning of a democracy.
Their main interest is making profit.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
One merger symbolized

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
the takeover of mass media by conglomerates
seeking ever higher profits.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
For General Electric,
here is Ronald Reagan.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
Good evening on this last Sunday before Christmas. The
Christmas season is a time with the family and so…

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
People should remember that Ronald
Reagan was funded by large corporations

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
and so suddenly we saw a radical transformation
of the media system in the United States.

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
General Electric and RCA, two of America’s
biggest and best known companies

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
been a dramatic move last night.
The two announced plans to merge.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
This high tech, multibillion dollar world’s
(inaudible)complete with the major television network

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
We’ll now have the strongest network.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
We’ll have a stronger defence peace.
This is gonna be one dynamite company.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
The concentration of mass media

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
in the hands of a very few, very
large international corporations

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
who have a lot of different businesses,

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
defense business, theme parks, and
news became a smaller and smaller part

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
of ever larger corporations.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
The Reagan administration approved General
Electric’s purchase of major media holdings

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
despite ongoing violations of
industry laws and practices.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
Meanwhile from General Electric,
from my family and myself

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
a merry, merry Christmas. Harry,
don’t you wanna say merry Christmas.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
The original sin was going to Wall Street.
The demands of Wall Street will require

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
empty desks in your news room so why
don’t you minimize your actual product

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
and make more money? Capitalism is not

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
the best judge of what’s good for society.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
I knew it was time to go, the
last speech I got from CEO,

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
he had been selling
cereal, breakfast cereal

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
before he was selling newspapers. He came into the boardroom where
he gave a speech about product, he never once mentioned news.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:30.000
He never once mentioned
the role of a newspaper.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
Core mission is to sell things.
To delude and to deceive,

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
to do damage control when
unpleasant stories come up.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:55.000
[music]

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
One of the biggest news
stories of the 1980s

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:20.760
was the explosion of crack cocaine in the United States. It is another
night, another crack raid. Today, crack cocaine used here is an epidemic.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
Crack epidemic not only it
destroyed lives in the sense

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
that people we’re addicted to this powerful
drug, but also it started off gang wars.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Certain communities like the African-American
communities were disproportionately hurt.

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
Gary Webb, he began investigating that.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
[music]

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
Gary Webb, he thought being a reporter
was the best thing you could be.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
The only independent force in the society

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
to establish truth.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
What Gary Webb witnessed in the courthouse would
lead him on a journey to uncover the origins

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
of the crack epidemic in America.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
What first caught his eye,
he’s got Nicaraguans.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
Obviously, dirty in a drug deal
and they’re not going down,

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
they’re getting a walk. As a
reporter, you look into that.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
As Webb looked at the suppliers of
the crack trade in Los Angeles,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
the trail led back to a US-sponsored war
a decade earlier in Central America.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
The Reagan administration
wanted to be proactive

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
in sticking it to the
communists around the world.

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
President Ronald Reagan authorized the CIA to
spend hundreds of millions of dollars building,

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
supporting, directing the Contras
against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
They’re the moral equal
of our founding fathers,

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
we cannot turn away from them.
While the CIA

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
attempted to throw (inaudible)
government of Nicaragua,

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
Webb discovered that Contras had ties
to the crack explosion in Los Angeles.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
Sponsoring violence in a small
Central American country

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
was far more important than stopping
drugs from flowing into our cities

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
and our communities.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
After a year-long investigation,

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
Webb’s story was published on the front
page of the St. Jose Mercury News.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
The central thing that we tried to show and it
wasn’t particularly that the CIA knew about it.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
It was how crack came to be such a
problem in America that it was connected

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
to this Nicaraguan cocaine quite a while.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Webb’s report broke new ground in becoming
the first major news investigation published

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
both in print and on the internet.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
As a consequence, even though the St. Jose Mercury News is
considered a regional newspaper it was able to get national traction

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
and even international traction on the
story because it was now on the web.

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
We’ve got all the DA under cover
tapes, we’ve got the FBI reports,

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
we’ve got the court records. They
are all posted for people to see.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
When you look at his research

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
and what he was doing and tracing it,

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
and he was hip enough to check
it to know it was true.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
In November 1997,

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
the website was getting over a million hits a day and
the story made the biggest impact in Los Angeles.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
What is the word on the street now?

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
Have you heard about the CIA.
Well, you know what?

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
We’ve heard. We’ve seen and
now we’re moved to action.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
And we’re moved to action in ways
that we haven’t been moved before.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
With the CIA on the defensive and
the public demanding answers,

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
the major national newspapers awaited
another controversy. The mainstream media

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
first responded with pretty
much a deafening nothing

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
but as the story got bigger and bigger, they
started responding by blaming Gary Webb.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
We have the fact

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
that as soon as the St. Jose Mercury News being in Silicon
Valley was sort of challenging the gatekeeper function

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
that the New York Times, the LA Times, The Washington
Post, and other big papers had assumed was theirs.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
The Washington Post ways

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
and since Gary would have got it wrong and we can’t tell you exactly
how he got it wrong because we have the finest goddamn idea.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
It was accompanied by a piece that declared

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
that the African-American Community was
conspiracy prone so sort of set the tone

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
that Webb story would be dismissed
and to (inaudible) ridicule.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
You had major media outlets

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
going to the CIA and saying is this true and
the CIA would say, \"Oh, no. This is not true\"

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
and then the reportage was,
\"Oh, what’s not true?\"

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
Comon, comon, I’m here, listen, listen

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
that has never been a
conspiracy in this country.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
The fact is that the shoddy
reporting on the story

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
was not from Gary Webb. It was from

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
his corporate-backed detractors.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
Now I had a drink with a
major figure of the LA Times

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
and I asked him about the crack bag
and he said, \"Look, they were meeting

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
in the building but they weren’t going
to let a guy from San Jose, California

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
come into their turf and
wanna pull a surprise.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
As the press attacked Gary Webb,

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
the public protested. I’ve got involved

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
with the protests because Gary
Webb, he had no hidden agenda.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
He is not a liar. And we’re going to
put the CIA in this country on notice.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
With the national media calling
for retraction of the Webb story,

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
his own newspaper took action.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
The Mercury News was behind Gary 100% while he was writing
it and then because of the backlash from the other media,

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
they also back pedalled away from Gary.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
In the beginning, they were behind you.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
That’s right. And then they caught… then they caught,
well, ruled the hell from the established media

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
and now they’re not behind me anymore.
The San Jose Mercury News

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
essentially abandoned him.
The pressure paid off

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
when the Mercury News took
down the Dark Alliance website

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
and reassigned Webb to a bureau
150 miles from his home.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
And here this guy that
had all these awards,

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
this guy that broke a story that
everyone wanted him not to break

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
and all of a sudden you have a journalist that had
to be hailed was treated like a piece of crap.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
A year later, the CIA
released its internal report

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
into the agency’s involvement
with Contra drug traffickers.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
There are instances where CIA
did not in an expeditious

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
or consistent fashion cut off relationships
with individuals supporting the Contra program

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
who were alleged to have engaged
in drug trafficking activity…

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
The contents of the report go into
the actual nitty-gritty of them

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
what you find is that there was a serious
problem that the US government knew about it

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
and that the contras were far more guilty of
drug trafficking and the CIA was more guilty

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
of looking the other way than even Gary
Webb had suggested. That report includes

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
a great deal of information and quotes
many documents… With the CIA’s report

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
about its relationship with contra drug
traffickers, the media had a chance

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
to vindicate Webb’s investigation. The
New York Times, they do a story that’s

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
half kind of mea culpa, we should have done
more with this. It was worse than we thought

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
and have Gary Webb’s still an idiot. The
Washington Post waits several weeks

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
and does a rather dismissive article.
The LA Times never reports

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
on the CIA’s findings, so even
though Webb was proven correct,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
he is still considered a
flake, who got a story wrong.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
Gary got betrayed by his
own brethren if you will.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
In his mind, a journalist was
supposed to expose the truth,

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
not the opposite, not (inaudible).

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
As the media buried the CIA’s report,

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
Webb found his career at a dead end.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
When he was interviewed for another job, they would
say, “Aren’t you the guy who wrote Dark Alliance?”

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
and that would clear the interview. He couldn’t
make a living being the journalist any more

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
and that… that wept his heart out.
He is despondent

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
about his inability to find work.
He got his father’s pistol,

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
laid out a certificate for his cremation,

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
and then he shot himself.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
Currently, you know, if I have to stand and take a beating for
putting the issue of government complicity in drug trafficking

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
on the national agenda, I’ll take that beating any
day of the week. I mean, I was glad to do the story

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
and I’m proud of what we did and
I will do it again in a second.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
We killed one of the few decent
working reporters in the country.

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
By that we, I mean, the
business I’m in, media.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
[music]

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
We’re now at a stage where every journalist

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
who isn’t asleep understands that corporate
power has made it impossible for them

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
to do the job as it needs to be done.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:50.000
[music]

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
With the new technological revolution,
congress began drafting new media legislation.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
The media conglomerates create the fantasy

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
that if they were allowed to
own dramatically more media,

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
they could make dramatically better media.
Big is better, effectively.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
In order to sell their message,

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
media conglomerates send their lobbyists
to work the house of congress.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
This was presented to the public as this is
all about introducing free market reforms.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
We’re going to take these magical technologies,
deregulate, and open up the magic of the free market

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
to work its wonders on communication.
It was a preposterous claim.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
[music]

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
Media corporations

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
need that favorable policy that’s going to allow
them to grow and make more and more money

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
and politicians need that media to give them
the air time that they couldn’t exist without.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
Who’s left out of that deal, of course,
is the public. Fantasy became reality

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
for the media conglomerates when
President Bill Clinton signed the 1996

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Telecom Act into law.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
Newt Gingrich was the republican speaker
of the house, President Clinton

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
is the democratic White House and they are both
getting millions, literally millions of dollars.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
At that point, behind closed doors,

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
these media conglomerates are asking for
the rules to be loosened even more.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
President Clinton used the stately Library
of Congress for the backdrop today

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
to sign the massive new
telecommunications bill in the law.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
This law is truly revolutionary
legislation that would bring the future

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
to our doorstep. Telecom 96
really rang the dinner bell

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
for media conglomerates to come and eat
up every station that they wanted.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
Following the Telecom Act,

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
a wave of massive mergers swept
through the media industry.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
A handful of entertainment
stars using mega mergers

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
are preparing to dominate TV
and movie screens worldwide.

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
A combination of the two together gives us the
opportunity to become the strongest creative

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
company in the world. The
superlatives were flying as Viacom

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
and CBS announce the
biggest media merger ever.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
A new multimedia giant will soon control
an enormous amount of the entertainments.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
Viacom is buying CBS, parent of CBS news…

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
When you think about the new Viacom, you
really only have to remember a single number.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
That’s number one.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
…have capitalised on the conversions
of media, entertainment…

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:13.000
…has American as apple pie. The world’s largest provider of internet access
is merging with the world’s largest media and entertainment company.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
When media consolidation began to happen,

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
the local broadcasters weren’t able to compete. I
guess with those local radio station owners were.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
It might have been a person of
color or might have been a woman.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
This really just knocked
people out of the game.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:43.000
[music]

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
We’ve totally destroyed the local local listener of
broadcasting purely to serve corporate interests.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
There’s nothing in market economics that justifies
this pure crony capitalism at its worst.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
[music]

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
In this high-tech digital age with
high-definition television and digital radio

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
all we ever get is static, a
veil of distortion and lies

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:15.000
and misrepresentations and half
truths that obscure reality.

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
In times of war, the press
loses all critical distance.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
Journalists see themselves

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
as first and foremost patriots.
The result is essentially

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
the dissemination of propaganda.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
In the world’s media capital,
on September 11, 2001,

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
the unthinkable happened.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:48:03.000
[sil.]

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
The people who are not been
(inaudible) will hear all of it soon.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
The terrorist attack

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
of September 11th, as tragic as
it was, was almost like a godsend

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
to the Bush administration because it gave them
the raise on death that they were looking for

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
to invade Iraq.

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
To link Saddam Hussein to 9/11,
the Bush administration turned

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
to the intelligence community.
You have to remember

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
this is not an inductive process, it’s
deductive. You decide to go to war

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
and then you go find the justification
and this is exactly what happened.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
Look, I ran the Iraqi operations,
we didn’t have any information.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
With no evidence of Saddam
Hussein’s role in the attacks,

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
defectors started emerging from Iraq
with exclusives for US news outlets.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
There was an Iraqi by the name of

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
Adnan Issan Sayed Al-Hadeethi(ph) he
claimed to have evidence of, you know,

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
biological and nuclear and various
kinds of weapons in mass destruction.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
He also talked about various facilities
being under Saddam’s main palace.

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
He talked about nuclear facilities
being disguised as water wells.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
I mean, he was their best corroboration that Saddam
was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
While the defector appeared to
provide the smoking against Saddam,

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
the plan to topple the
Iraqi dictator was hatched

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
a decade earlier as part
of a CIA covert operation.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
During the 1990s the CIA went
outside of the organization

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
and it hired a private
corporation called Rendon Group.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
What Rendon specializes in
is not really espionage,

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
it’s perception management. It’s changing your views,
it’s creating an image that may or may not be truthful.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
You can’t discuss your
relationship you have with CIA.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
I wouldn’t discuss it even if I had to. No, it’s not
appropriate for me to have any discussion about

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
US criminal activity. For
the propaganda campaign,

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
the Rendon Group created an opposition party
to Saddam, the Iraqi National Congress.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
The Rendon Group provided
tens of million of dollars

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
to create this political party
that was really kind of a

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
figment of imagination in some ways.
It had no real backing in Iraq.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
In the wake of 9/11,

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
with the Bush administration determined to
make the case for war, they called on the INC.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
So what happened was the INC was asked

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
to provide evidence about the weapons of mass destruction
to tell the white house what it wanted to hear.

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
It was a complete act of
deceit from the beginning.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
They suffered another major blow in Desert
Storm and its aftermath but we now know

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
that Saddam has resumed his efforts
to acquire nuclear weapons.

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
Among other sources, we have gotten this
from first-hand testimony from defectors.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit
in Bagdad and… and east, west, south, and north somewhat.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
The success of the propaganda campaign

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
would depend on one news outlet.

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
It created a stage and brought journalists into the
audience who dutifully took notes and reported it.

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
I watched this from the inside,

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
people like Judy Miller, Michael Gordon,

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
Steve Engelberg who ran the investigation,
they we’re true believers. They believed all

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
the crap they were fed.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
[music]

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
New York Times is the intellectual
and political opinion leader

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
in the United States talking up to the
government in the most outrageous ways,

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
constantly trying to placate the
military intelligence complex.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:30.000
There is a story in the New
York Times this morning…

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
The smoking gun that could come
in the form of a mushroom cloud.

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
[music]

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
With the mainstream convinced of the necessity
for a war, the administration took their case

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
to the world stage.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
The coup de gras and the most brilliant
propaganda maneuver of all was Collin Powell’s

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
absolutely fraudulent presentation in front
of the United Nations Security Council.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
Let me share with you what we
know from eyewitness accounts

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
we have first-hand descriptions of
biological weapons factories on wheels

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
and on rails and Saddam Hussein
has not verifiably accounted

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
for even one teaspoonful
of this deadly material.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
Much of the fabricated information

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
that was passed on by the \"defectors\" formed
the basis for Collin Powell’s accusations.

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
Why should any of us give Iraq

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
the benefit of the doubt?
You don’t have any

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
hard evidence but you should have them.
Press fall all over themselves

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
as soon as it was done saying that this
had been a definitive case for war.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
This irrefutable, undeniable,
incontrovertible evidence today,

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
Collin Powell brilliantly
delivered that smoking gun today.

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
He just flooded the terrain with data.
He has closed the deal.

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC,

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
the giant echo chamber that creates
public perception in the United States

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
were giving out the administration lies. Scores of American
reporters have now joined US Military units in Kuwait

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
but the Pentagon calls it media
friendly campaign. Show down Iraq.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
If America goes to war.
Turn to MSNBC… If you look

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
to the television screens with these graphics and
drum rolls and countdown to Bagdad was kind of start.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
It was a raw and open
celebration of American power.

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
This hour, American coalition forces

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
ran the early stages of military operations
to disarm Iraq, to free its people

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
and to defend the world from great danger.

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:08.000
[sil.]

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
After the fall of Saddam,
after that the INC’s defector

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
finally had the chance to show the
world the justification for war.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
Mr. Hydri(ph) couldn’t bring
these guys to a single place

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
that he claimed had housed the weapons
of mass destruction programs.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
The media fell hook, line, and sinker for

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
the administration’s case
for war and, in fact,

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
certain publications appears to have been
deliberately used and openly receptive of

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
information that the Bush
administration produced that was wrong

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
but that bolstered it’s case for war.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United
States uh… will be here in a minute. King, John King.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
So it is scripted.

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
You cannot go against the White
House and survive. You’re finished.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
April, did you have a question or did I
call upon new code? I have a question.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
Okay. I’m sure, you do have a question.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
The whole idea in Washington
is to marginalize people

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
who go against the consensus and they do it
very well. You don’t get invited to the party.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
[music]

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
For me to blame the reporters is to miss
the point. They have to blame the owners

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
of the media. You have to blame not just
Rupert Murdoch but Arthur Sulzberger,

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
the publisher of the New York Times, Donald
Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post,

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
the owners of Viacom, Sumner Redstone.
These are the people who are responsible

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
for the conduct of the people who
work for them. They set the tone.

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:13.000
[music]

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
It is my belief that wars really are
started by the mainstream media.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
It is my belief that the
press getting too close

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
to be government. Actually we’re talking
about sort of interbreeding or intermeshing

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
between the structures of the
mainstream media and the structure

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
of the military-intelligence complex.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
The impact is that we’ve got all
of these innocent people in Iraq

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
that have died. We’ve got
thousands of American soldiers

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
and British soldiers that have died, they
died for a lie that was so easily uncovered

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
but it wasn’t allowed in
the biggest news outlets.

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
These private corporations
are making profit

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
off the killing. They push for more war.
It builds their audiences.

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
They limit the discussion about
whether war should continue.

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
They bring you the general versus
the colonel or the pro-war

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
republican versus the pro-war democrat and
they have these extremely limited debates

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
when most people are outside of that
spectrum. Most people are against war.

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:38.000
[sil.]

00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:53.000
[music]

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
The rapid consolidation of media across
broadcast, also into film, book publishing

00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
created a situation where instead of
having the democratic media system

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
that the founders anticipated with
thousands of different owners

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:20.000
of small weekly newspapers, you know, (inaudible)
had Tom Paine, you had Rupert Murdoch.

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
Rupert is there any agenda that you want
to shape? For example, take the war.

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:34.999
You have a global media enterprise,
and have you shaped that agenda

00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
at all in terms of how the war is viewed?
No, I don’t think so. I mean, we tried.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
Tried in what way.

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
Well, we basically supported, you
know, uh… papers and obviously

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
I would say, supported the Bush policy.

00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
NewsCorp and others have eaten out

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
nearly every single independently-managed
newspaper within the United States.

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
That’s something that is quite dangerous
and putting its business interests

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
and its political interests
over the top of all that.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
In order to prevent media (inaudible)
the Federal Communications Commission

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
is charged with regulating the media.
The most important job the FCC has

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
is looking out for regular citizens and making
sure that whatever media policy is made

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
that it’s the best for the public
and the best for democracy.

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
And how are you? Good, good to see you.

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
I’m available for questions. So Colin
Powell leads the drumbeat for war

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
and his son, Michael Powell was
attempting to lead the war

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
against diversity of voices at home.

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
Once in office, Powell waged war
against the last remaining rules

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
on media ownership. Here’s this agency

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
that very few people knew about and they were trying
to push through regulations that said in a town

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
the newspaper, radio, and television
could be owned by one person,

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
by a media mogul, someone
like Rupert Murdoch.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
This is what people feared the most,
that all the content for TV, radio,

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
and the newspaper coming out of one shop.
A one-size-fits-all

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
one news room community. There
was almost no public scrutiny

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
until Michael Powell called network
coverage of the Iraq war thrilling.

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
There were these millions of people
and they hear that the FCC guy

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
is calling the coverage thrilling while he is
trying to obliterate the last remaining rules

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
and it just tapped into this anger that
people were feeling about the war.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
Despite millions of people
protesting against the FCC,

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
Michael Powell didn’t get the message.

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
Thank you. This meeting is adjourned.

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
Even when people did say, \"Hey, FCC,

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
we’re the public. We don’t want you to do this,\" the FCC turned
around and did exactly what those mega corporations wanted

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
it to do in the first place.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
With victory at home, the media giants
publicly expressed their gratitude.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
And it was pretty stunning. The
head of Viacom is Sumner Redstone.

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
He repeatedly said, \"Having a republican in
the White House is better for my company

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
and I vote Viacom and for that
reason I endorse Bush’s election.\"

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
[music]

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
These large conglomerate companies,
they contribute to political campaigns,

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
they expect to get something for their money
deciding on their own and for their own purposes

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:05.000
the news we see in here.

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
The only reliable, durable,

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
and perpetual guarantor of
independence is profit.

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
Thank you.

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
Every aspect of our
lives, from what we buy,

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
what is sold to us, who produces it,
all those things are connected.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
It’s not only a monopoly of wealth,
it’s a monopoly of information as well.

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:53.000
[music]

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
This is the

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
mother of all scandals. International
finance, nuclear weapons,

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
spying, and yet New York
Times, The Washington Post,

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
AP, ABC, CNBC, CBS, Fox News,
MSNBC, CNN, all of them

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
apparently couldn’t give
a damn about the story.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:35.000
In the wake of 9/11, the media
focused its attention on terrorism.

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
The idea of the terrorist or criminal enterprise
could come up with the nuclear weapon

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
or even a dirty bomb. This
was about four or five days

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
after the September 11th terrorist
attack when the FBI was asking

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
people with language abilities
to join the bureau.

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
Siebel Edmonds

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
would have been listening to evidence of
criminal activity, corruption issues.

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
The FBI was also looking at

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
proliferation of nuclear
materials, weapons transfers,

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
weapon sales that were illegal.
One of the investigations

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
by the FBI led to a Turkish group
involved in nuclear espionage.

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
What I was reviewing was
not only foreign language,

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
a lot of them, in fact, were in English. It
involved people from the State Department

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
talking to the targets of these operations.

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
What Edmonds allegedly heard were conversations
about the exchange of US nuclear secrets

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
between a Turkish group and Marc Grossman,

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
a high-ranking State Department official.
Mark Grossman’s conversation

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
with the Turks was very
definitely against US interests.

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
It also was a crime because
there were other conversations

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
indicating that he had taken money from the
Turks, so that is a clear issue of corruption

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
in the US government. Edmonds discovered

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
the alleged illegal sale
of US nuclear secrets.

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
She is talking about stolen secrets

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
sold on the black market to
frankly enemies of the US.

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
Iran, Libya, North Korea,
potentially even Al-Qaeda.

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
This is happening in the highest
level of the US government.

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
When she reportedly discovered it to

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
the heads of the FBI their
reaction was unexpected.

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
The assistant director of the
FBI coming and boldly asking

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
not to report this any further
that this was explosive and um…

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
just asking me to forget and move on.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
When she continued to raise
questions at the FBI,

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
Edmonds was fired with no explanation.
So you’re firing me without providing me

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.999
with any reasons and the response was \"No,
we’re not firing you, we’re terminating you.\"

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:29.999
There is a big difference.

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:34.999
She took the FBI to court for wrongful
termination and the administration

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:39.999
responded by silencing her under law.
This absurd

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
state’s secret privilege is absolute
and it requires no evidence.

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
At that point I thought
there would be no judge

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
who would agree with this.
I mean, this is ludicrous,

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
instead, the judges asked that security

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
to come and escort me and my
attorneys outside the court

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
and never got to hear the argument.
Everything about this case

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
is considered classified, highly sensitive,
covered by the state’s secret privilege,

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
me including my name. In a fact
I became this classified woman.

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
Edmonds turned to the media to report her
exclusive story of alleged government corruption.

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
Sibel Edmond’s heartbeat could have been scooped
up, thrown in jail, and never heard from again,

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
so it took, you know, no small bit
of courage for her to come forward

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
to try to get her story out.

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:44.999
I did not receive a single inquiry
from the… ministry Media here.

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
While the mainstream media remained silent,

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
she received support from Daniel Ellsberg.
Decades earlier

01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:59.999
the press had published classified information
he had obtained revealing government corruption

01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
during the Vietnam war. Nixon’s fear that I
had more information to give led him to take

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
a number of criminal actions to shut me up.

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
This country needs whistle blowers like Sibel Edmonds
if we’re to hold these officials accountable.

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
I put her in touch with a couple of people. In each
case there was great excitement on what she had

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
to say at the reporter level. They pursued it
for a while she had great discussion with them

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
and then suddenly there
would be an abrupt cut-off.

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
The story made headlines around the world
but was not echoed in the mainstream press

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
in the United States. There are
many examples where a story

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
is huge all over the world
except in the United States.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
Even if they’re reported, they
don’t hit the media echo chamber

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
and stories don’t have much impact
unless they get into the echo chamber.

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
What happens is that people call
up some of the top newspapers,

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
get them off the story and having
done that the other papers

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
follow the lead of silence.

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
[music]

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
We are going to see less and less of whistle
blowers because each example set like myself

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
is a lesson learned for those
people who may be planning to come

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
and do the right thing. To this day
no mainstream news organization

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
in the United States has investigated
Edmond’s claim of nuclear espionage

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
by American officials. Who’s
actually doing the censoring?

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
Is it the media themselves? Is it the government? I don’t
know but if it didn’t appear in the New York Times,

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
The Washington Post, AP, it never happened.

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
This country wasn’t set up

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
to have a government of, by,
and for media conglomerates.

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
Democracy needs those
diverse competing voices.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
The consolidation of the
media has robbed us

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.999
of that diversity. In many cases we have
no voices, whole areas of government

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
and politics and power going dark.

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:28.000
[music]

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
In 2007, with the FCC reviewing
its media ownership rules,

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
the public came forward.

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
Millions of people wrote to
congress wrote to the FCC,

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
emailed, spoke out at forums, you’d have
forum of 1000 people, this was unheard of,

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
saying no. One media mogul can’t
own the radio, television,

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
and newspaper in the city. Here was an
example where the public had intervened

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
and gum something up.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
Under new chairman, Kevin Martin, the FCC
announced public hearings on media ownership

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
in cities across the US.

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:33.000
We don’t have news anymore.

01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
It’s all entertainment. On every channel, you can
switch from channel to channel and see the same thing.

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
NDC, CBI, ABC and Fox,

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
you got sort of the equal.
That’s consolidated media.

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
All you have is the same ten song
playlist with your New York, Oklahoma…

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
Certain channels spend more time on
plastic surgery, the (inaudible).

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:39.999
So some wizard of us tells us what is news.

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:44.999
(inaudible) will be called
the united corporations of…

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:49.999
It’s very clear that this country
has become profits of our people.

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
Despite overwhelming public opinion
against more consolidation,

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
Kevin Martin sided with the media
conglomerates, a move to cross-ownership.

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
The public hearings were more a dog

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
and pony show than an
actual opportunity to see

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
if this was something that public wanted.
What Kevin Martin did was demonstrate

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
this absolute thorough(ph) going
contempt for doing his job

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
of serving public interest,
embracing entirely

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:30.000
the interest of wealthy corporate
benefactors. Pure and simple.

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
[music]

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
The initial comments got bigger and
bigger, the view began to prevail,

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
what’s the big deal about news. (inaudible)
talk about public service, (inaudible),

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
we’re in the entertainment business.

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:25.000
[music]

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
As TV networks chase profits, NBC news

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
sought to exploit the internet by
blurring the line between news

01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:44.999
and entertainment. Anyone watching
the scene repeat itself over

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:49.999
and over might be wondering
what’s going on.

01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:54.999
NBC’s (inaudible) was ostensibly a news program and when
they saw that it was a (inaudible) they really began

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
to push it and produce more and more and more of
these shows that really blur the line between

01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
reality television and news department and
it’s really sort of car wreck television.

01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
You ask if she can do deep
throat explain that to me.

01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.999
NBC launched the Capture Predator,

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.999
a news program featuring
undercover sting operations

01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:24.999
that exposed men seeking sex with minors.

01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
The NBC came into the area, they
selected a house and in that house

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
they set up computers, they set up
cameras, basically set up a stage

01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
in which they could lure a
criminal to over via internet.

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
In the autumn of 2006,

01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
with the help of local police, NBC news setup one
of its undercover stings in a small town in Texas.

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
The kind of places they choose
are smaller police departments

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
who don’t have the resources to nail these
kind of very ambitions sting operations.

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
But for the fact (inaudible)

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
NBC news, the police wouldn’t be there. There
wouldn’t be any arrests, there wouldn’t be any

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
police officers taking down these suspects.

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
[music]

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
NBC had contracted an actor who was at
that time either 21 or 22 years old

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
but he looked much younger and his
photo had been used as this guy

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
who had presented himself
as a 13-year-old boy.

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
The program lured 20 men to the sting house

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
but NBC News really only had one man in
mind. When they discovered that they had

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
an assistant district attorney on the hook,
there was a real sense of… of excitement.

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
This was going to be good for the show.

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
There was always the egg head in the firm
that knew the answer to every question

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
and Bill was scary brave.
He loved his parents

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
and loved his family and that and his
law practice were the two pedicles

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
of importance in his life.

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
They tried very aggressively
to get him to come.

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
They kept urging him to come. Why aren’t
you coming over and things like that.

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
To the disappointment of NBC news, Conradt
never showed up at the sting house.

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
It’s the final day of shooting

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:39.999
and Luke still hasn’t managed to get Bill
Conradt to actually show up at the decoy house.

01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:44.999
With the NBC news deadline looming,

01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:49.999
the show did something it
had never done before.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:54.999
Ultimately, in order to get to
Bill Conradt, they decided to

01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:59.999
basically bring the show to him.

01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
Mr. Hanson appeared to be in-charge.

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
He would ask for things and he
was immediately accommodated.

01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:14.999
[music]

01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.999
It certainly looked like a case where the cops
were doing what they were doing as agents

01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:24.999
of a, of… of television company.

01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
[music]

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
NBC News and the police waited in
front of Conradt’s house for hours

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
hoping to confront him on camera. He was
at the office everyday like clockwork.

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
They could have just come, tapped him
on the shoulder, and taken him in.

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
This was all done as part of a need to
get it on film for a television show.

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
With Conradt staying put,
police broke with procedure

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
and called in a swat team with
NBC news cameras rolling.

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
They forced their way into the house, they
encountered Mr. Conradt in the hallway

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
holding a handgun at which
point he raised the gun

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
and shot himself in the
head and killed himself.

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
What can you tell us about the scene?
It’s just a gunshot wound to the head.

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
There is nothing wrong
with the sting operation.

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
There is nothing wrong with taking criminals off the
street provided you’re doing it for the right reason.

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
If you’re luring him there because you want
a television show, well then, you’re wrong.

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
The way these folks

01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
pulled off their maneuver and
shocked and startled Bill Conradt,

01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
they could have handled it
with so much more dignity.

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
You’ll never convince me

01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
that that was a service to our community.

01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
[music]

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
Well, I sat down and talked with Chris
Hanson following Mr. Conradt’s suicide,

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
he was not overly apologetic over what had happened,
in fact, he said, \"I sleep well at night.\"

01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
NBC News broadcast the program

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
during primetime despite Conradt’s death.

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
[music]

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
The American public knows far more
information about sex, scandals,

01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
celebrities, Hollywood, than they know
about economics and the environment.

01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
That’s by design. I think the
people that own the media would be

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
much happier if we were a
nation of mindless consumers

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:55.000
rather than a nation of
informed active citizens.

01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:08.000
[music]

01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:14.999
To seize this moment, we have been
sure, free and full of strange

01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:19.999
of information that starts with open
internet. I will take it back seat

01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:24.999
to no one in my commitment to network
neutrality. Because once providers start…

01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.999
It’s simple, it’s net neutrality,

01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:34.999
it’s nondiscrimination, and
it’s a basic principle

01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:39.999
that politicians pay lip service to it that
if the same players like AT&T, Comcast,

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
and Time Warner are able to take over
the internet to relax public policy

01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
that will lose even the internet.
Despite his election promises,

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:54.999
President Obama had brought
in new internet pricing rules

01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:59.999
going against the principles
of a free and open internet.

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
It is by making publishing cheap that makes

01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
many more people to become publishers
that permits many more different voices,

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
that’s where the internet is really itself. WikiLeaks
has published a lot of information about war,

01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
about, you know, the treaties, how they
behave, intelligence organizations

01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
and that information often comes as a surprise to the public
it’s because the public has been wired to. Comon, fire.

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
We have

01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
moved the intellect what is
acceptable for free people.

01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
The United States do something
to stop (inaudible).

01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
We’re looking at that right now. Mr. Conradt is the high
tech terrorist, others say, this is the (inaudible).

01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.999
I would argue that it’s close to billion
high tech terrorist than the (inaudible).

01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:54.999
[music]

01:23:55.000 --> 01:23:59.999
The greatest fight we have had
in bringing the first amendment

01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:04.999
was in bringing the first amendment to the United States. This guy is a trader,
a (inaudible) and… and he’s broken every law in the United States, the guy…

01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:09.999
The question is

01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:14.999
what’s gonna happen now. Will the internet remain
free or will few companies be able to control

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:19.999
and monetize it? That’s the…
that’s the debate of the era.

01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:24.999
If we are to address

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:29.999
the most fundamental issues of the
21st century we have to stop,

01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:34.999
recognize that our media is in crisis
and ask ourselves, \"What is the media

01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:39.999
that we want.\" We want more information,
access to more information.

01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:44.999
We have few people who
control the information.

01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:49.999
Can’t allow this country to get I down for the count but some
guys from Wall Street can’t make money producing garbage news.

01:24:50.000 --> 01:24:54.999
The media is that kind of issue
where if we want it to be better

01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:59.999
we have to fight for it. These
are the critical battles

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:04.999
we face right now in the
United States and frankly

01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.999
in countries around the world.
How we respond

01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:14.999
to this moment will be
every bit as definitional

01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:19.999
as how the founders
responded to their moment.

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:24.999
This is really about having
a conversation about

01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:29.999
what kind of decisions we
want made in our name.

01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:34.999
That’s really what will save us is when we really
know what’s going on, not filtered through the lens

01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:39.999
or the microphone of the corporation.

01:25:40.000 --> 01:25:48.000
[music]

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