Top Journalists Prevented From Reporting Major News Stories

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Major News Stories

 

 

 

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Sunday, May 07, 2006 12:01 PM Top Journalists Prevented

From Reporting Major News Stories

 

 

 

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" The story was developing a momentum of its own, despite a virtual news

blackout from the major media. Ultimately, public pressure forced the

national newspapers into the fray. The Washington Post, the NY Times,

and the LA Times published stories, but spent little time exploring the CIA's

activities. Instead, my reporting became the focus. It was

remarkable [my editor] Ceppos wrote, that the four Post reporters

assigned to debunk the series " could not find a single significant

factual error. " A few months later, the Mercury News [due to

intense CIA pressure] backed away from the story, publishing a long

column by Ceppos apologizing for " shortcomings. " The NY Times

hailed Ceppos for " setting a brave new standard, " and splashed

his apology on their front page. " (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/yjyadaujavawsakajem/click.php> )

 

 

 

-- Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Webb, excerpted from landmark book

Into The Buzzsaw

 

Dear friends,

 

We all know that the U.S. and other developed countries have a

relatively free press. Yet we also know that corporate ownership of the

press at times influences what is published. After reading the

revealing summary below of Emmy Award winning reporter Kristina

Borjesson's book Into the Buzzsaw

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybsavaujatawsaiajem/click.php> , you may come to

agree with me that the media is much more controlled than most people

think. Please join in calling for a truly free press by spreading this

information to your friends and colleagues and insisting that the media cover

the most crucial stories mentioned here. Thanks for caring, and you have a

great day!

 

With best wishes,

Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info Team

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybuazaujafawsalajem/click.php>

Former language interpreter

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybearaujarawsadajem/click.php>

for Presidents Bush and Clinton

 

 

 

 

Below are concise excerpts from the revealing accounts of 20

award-winning journalists in the highly acclaimed book Into the Buzzsaw

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybsavaujatawsaiajem/click.php> . These courageous

writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting

major news stories. Some were even fired or laid off. They have won

numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer.

 

Jane Akre <http://t.ymlp.com/ybmaoaujadawsatajem/click.php> —Fox

News. After our struggle to air an honest report on hormones in milk,

Fox fired the general manager of our station. The new GM said that if

we didn't agree to changes that the lawyers were insisting upon,

we'd be fired for insubordination in 48 hours. We pleaded with him

to look at the facts we'd uncovered. His reply: " We paid $3

billion dollars for these stations. We'll tell you what the news

is. The news is what we say it is! " After we refused, Fox's GM

presented us an agreement that would give us a full year of salary, and

benefits worth close to $200,000, but with strings attached: no mention

of how Fox covered up the story and no opportunity to ever expose the

facts. After declining, we were fired. (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybjacaujakawsatajem/click.php> )

 

 

Dan Rather

—CBS, Multiple Emmy Awards. What's going

on is a belief that you can manipulate communicable trust between the

leadership and the led. The way you do that is you don't let the press

in anywhere. Access to war is extremely limited. The fiercer the

combat, the more the access is limited, including access to

information. This is a direct contradiction of the stated policy of

maximum access to information consistent with national security...There was a

time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people's necks

if they dissented. In some ways the fear now in the U.S. is that you will have a

flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. That fear keeps

journalists from asking the tough questions.

I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism. (click

for more <http://t.ymlp.com/ybhafaujarawsatajem/click.php> )

 

 

Monika Jensen-Stevenson

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybwakaujarawsazajem/click.php> —Emmy-winning

producer for 60 minutes. Robert R. Garwood—14 years a prisoner of

the Vietnamese—was found guilty in the longest court-martial in US

history. At the end of the court-martial, there seemed no question that

Garwood was a monstrous traitor. Several years later in 1985, Garwood

was speaking publicly about something that had never made the news

during his court-martial. He knew of other American prisoners in Vietnam long

after the war was over. He was supported by Vietnam veterans whose war records

were impeccable….My sources included outstanding experts like former head of the

Defense Intelligence Agency General Tighe and returned POWs like Captain

McDaniel, who held the Navy's top award for bravery. With such advocates, it was

hard not to consider

the possibility that prisoners (some 3,500) had in fact been kept by

the Vietnamese as hostages to make sure the US would pay the more than

$3 billion in war reparations. After the war, American POWs had become

worthless pawns. The US had not paid the promised monies and had no

intention of paying in the future. (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybqaxaujapawsaaajem/click.php> )

 

 

Kristina Borjesson <http://t.ymlp.com/ybsavaujatawsaiajem/click.php>

—CBS, Emmy award winner. Pierre Salinger announced to the world on

Nov. 8, 1996, that he'd received documents proving that a US Navy

missile had accidentally downed TWA flight 800. That same day,

FBI's Jim Kallstrom called a press conference. A man raised his

hand and asked why the Navy was involved in the recovery and

investigation while a possible suspect. " Remove him! " Kallstrom

yelled. Two men leapt over to the questioner and grabbed him by the

arms. There was a momentary chill in the air after the guy had been

dragged out of the room. Kallstrom and entourage acted as if nothing

had happened. [Kallstrom was later hired by CBS.] (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/ybyataujanawsapajem/click.php> )

 

 

Greg Palast <http://t.ymlp.com/yhsaiaujalawsadajem/click.php> —BBC.

In the months leading up to the November 2000 balloting, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered

elections supervisors to purge 58,000 voters on the grounds they were felons

not entitled to vote. As it turns out, only a handful of these voters were

felons. This extraordinary news ran on page one of the country's leading paper.

Unfortunately, it was the wrong country: Britain. In the USA, it was not

covered. The office of the governor also illegally ordered the removal of

felons from voter

rolls—real felons—but with the right to vote under law. As a

result, 50,000 of these voters could not vote. The fact that 90% of

these were Democrats should have made it news as this alone more than

accounted for Bush's victory. (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/yhuataujavawsanajem/click.php> )

 

 

Michael Levine <http://t.ymlp.com/yheaaaujanawsadajem/click.php>

—25-year veteran of DEA, writer for New York Times, Los Angeles

Times, USA Today. The Chang Mai " factory " that the CIA

prevented me from destroying was the source of massive amounts of heroin being

smuggled into the US in the bodies and body bags of GIs killed in Vietnam. Case

after case was killed by CIA and State Department intervention and there wasn't

a thing we could do about it….

 

In 1980, CIA-recruited mercenaries and drug traffickers unseated

Bolivia's democratically elected president. Immediately after the

coup, cocaine production increased massively. Bolivia became the source of

virtually 100% of the cocaine entering the US. This was the beginning of the

crack " plague. " …The CIA along with State and Justice

Departments had to protect their drug-dealing assets by destroying a

DEA investigation. How do I know? I was the inside source. I sat down

at my desk in the American embassy and wrote evidence of my charges. I

addressed it to Newsweek. Three weeks later DEA's internal security

called to notify me that I was under investigation….The highlight

of the 60 Minutes piece is when the administrator of the DEA, Federal

Judge Robert Bonner, tells Mike Wallace, " There is no other way to

put it, Mike, what the CIA did is drug smuggling. It's

illegal. " (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/yhmanaujacawsadajem/click.php> )

 

 

Gary Webb <http://t.ymlp.com/yhjapaujaxawsatajem/click.php> —San

Jose Mercury News, Pulitzer Prize winner. In 1996, I wrote a series of stories

that began this way: For the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold

tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods gangs of LA and funneled millions in

drug profits to a guerilla army run by the CIA. The cocaine that flooded in

helped spark a crack explosion in urban America….The story was developing a

momentum all of its own,

despite a virtual news blackout from the major media. Ultimately, it was public

pressure that forced the national newspapers into the fray.

 

The Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times

published stories, but spent little time exploring the CIA's

activities. Instead, my reporting and I became the focus of their

scrutiny. It was remarkable [Mercury News editor] Ceppos wrote, that

the four Washington Post reporters assigned to debunk the series

" could not find a single significant factual error. " A few

months later, the Mercury News [due to intense CIA pressure] backed

away from the story, publishing a long column by Ceppos apologizing for

" shortcomings. " The New York Times hailed Ceppos for

" setting a brave new standard, " and splashed his apology on

their front page, the first time the series had ever been mentioned

there. I quit the Mercury News not long after that….Do we have a

free press today? Sure. It's free to report all the sex scandals,

all the stock market news, and every new health fad that comes down the pike.

But when it comes to the real down and dirty stuff—such

stories are not even open for discussion. (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/yjyadaujavawsakajem/click.php> )

 

 

John Kelly <http://t.ymlp.com/yhbazaujafawsadajem/click.php>

—Author, ABC producer. ABC hired me to help produce a story about

an investment firm that was heavily involved with the CIA. Part of the ABC

report charged that the CIA had plotted to assassinate an American, Ron Rewald,

the president of the investment firm. Scott Barnes said on camera that the CIA

had asked him to kill Rewald. After the show aired, CIA officials met with ABC

executive David Burke, who was sufficiently impressed " by the vigor with which

they made their case " to order an on-air " clarification. " But that was not

enough. CIA Director Casey called ABC Chairman Goldenson. Thus, despite all the

documented evidence presented in the program, despite ABC standing by the

program in a second broadcast, Peter Jennings reported that ABC could no longer

substantiate the charges. That same day, the CIA filed a formal complaint with

the FCC charging that ABC had " deliberately distorted " the news. In the

complaint, Casey asked that ABC be stripped of its TV and radio

licenses….During this time, Capital Cities Communications was maneuvering to buy

ABC. CIA Director Casey was one of the founders of Cap Cities. Cap Cities bought

ABC. Within months, the entire investigative unit was dispersed. (click for

more

<http://t.ymlp.com/yhhapaujacawsarajem/click.php> )

 

 

Robert McChesney <http://t.ymlp.com/yhwalaujaaawsapajem/click.php>

—500 radio & TV appearances. There has been a striking

consolidation of the media from hundreds of firms to an industry

dominated by less than ten enormous transnational conglomerates. The

largest ten media firms own all US TV networks, most TV stations, all

major film studios, all major music companies, nearly all cable TV

channels, much of the book and magazine publishing industry, and much, much

more. Expensive investigative journalism—especially that which goes after

national security or powerful corporate interests—is

discouraged. Largely irrelevant human interest/tragedy stories get

extensive coverage….A few weeks after the war began in Afghanistan,

CNN president Isaacson authorized CNN to provide two different versions of the

war: a more critical one for the global audience and a sugarcoated one for

Americans….It is nearly impossible to conceive

of a better world without some changes in the media status quo. We have no time

to waste. (click for more

<http://t.ymlp.com/yhqadaujavawsatajem/click.php> )

 

 

 

For a powerful 10-page summary of this material:

www.WantToKnow.info/massmedia

<http://t.ymlp.com/yhyataujacawsaaajem/click.php>

For other reliable resources on the media cover-up: Media Information

Center <http://t.ymlp.com/ywsaraujatawsacajem/click.php>

 

 

Final Note: Remember that with your help

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http://www.WantToKnow.info/coverupnews#inspiration

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