Action against US Media Bias

Comment by Larry Ross, January 3, 2004

Although the following article was published in April 2003, there is much that is relevant today including addresses of all US TV networks and executives. The section on lies about the Iraq war, told by the Bush Admin, and their neo-conservative origins and their validity today, although it is 8 months later it is very important. The US public is still not being told the truth by the mass media, who still faithfully report Administration lies. Thus the majority of the US public is still deceived and believe the Bush Administration.

People who are informed and concerned, can forward this article to friends in the US, who may then lobby the TV networks, as suggested and join a US peace group. There is so much that concerned Americans can do.
Its quite possible that to help Bush win the election in 2004, there will a terrorist incident and/or a new war as Bush has often warned. This would cause Americans to fear and to rally round the flag and to support a new war. It would be justified as Bush justified the Iraq war. The US embedded mass media will again faithfully report Administration lies which will be believed by enough of the people to give Bush the presidency for another term. However this can be avoided if enough people are told the truth, and the media can be persuaded to tell the truth. It all depends on whether the campaign is sufficiently widespread and concerned people get over their apathy.

MEDIA CHALLENGE ! Three Week Action Plan :

March 24, 2003 - April 11, 2003 One Call a Day to Democratize Media -
an action from Peace Coalitions

It is time to take on the television companies! PLEASE READ BELOW AND ACT AND ALSO EMAIL TO YOUR CONTACTS. Support for a war and for police state actions by tens of millions of Americans can be directly traced to the misinformation, lack of information and wildly unbalanced commentary they get from General Electric (NBC), News Corp. (Fox), Disney (ABC), AOL-Time Warner(CNN) and Viacom (CBS). PBS is little better. Fifty-eight percent of the public gets its information solely from these sources; 85% are influenced by them. No wonder we are at war. If democracy is to have any true meaning, it must be based on a well-informed public. These companies must be compelled to provide real journalism and commentary balance. Their roles as propaganda arms of the Administration must end.

We a coalition of peace groups encourage you to join the focused mass phone-in to the TV News bosses.
Every day for the next three weeks call the national news chiefs listed below (also separately call their national and local newsrooms). As war proceeds, ask for:

Balanced coverage including images, interviews and reports of civilian casualties and other war impacts.
Equal time for anti-war experts and worldwide leaders and coverage of the many events beyond the rallies, including, military families and members who oppose the war.
Prominent challenges to the Administration’s credibility. The broadcast media needs to hear that they have no credibility because they have not reported the false claims and lies already exposed by the print media. (Factual details below)

For the next three weeks we urge you to call one Network each day on the following schedule (addresses are further below): Call the news chief or, if you can't get through, call the switchboard and ask for the newsroom. Even better, call them both. Keep the calls pouring in to the newsrooms. Calls are greatly more effective than emails.

Monday: ABC NEWS CHIEF David Westin. 212.456.6200. fax: 212.456.4292.. ABC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.456.6813 NEWSROOM fax 212.456.2795

Tuesday: MSNBC AND NBC. MSNBC NEWS CHIEF Mark Effron. 201.583.510. fax: 201.583.5199 mark.effron@msnbc.com. MSNBC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 201.583.5000 fax: 201.583.5590

NBC NEWS CHIEF Neil Shapiro. 212.664.4773. fax: 212.664.2264[ neal.shapiro@nbc.com. NBC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.664.4444. fax: 201.583.5453

Wednesday: CBS NEWS CHIEF Andrew Hayward. 212.975.7825. fax: 212.975.7429. mg3@cbsnews.com CBS SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.975.4321 fax: 212.975.1893

Thursday: CNN NEWS CHIEF Walter Isaacson. 404.827.5111. fax: 404.827.4215. walter.isaacson@cnn.com CNN SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM). 404.827.1500. cnnfutures@cnn.com PBS FACTUAL PROGRAMMING CHIEF Sandy Heberer 703.739.5036. PBS SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.708.3000

Friday: FOX NEWS CHIEF: John Moody. 212.301.8560. fax: 212.398.8726. john.moody@foxnews.com FOX SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.575.4670. fax: 212.301.8274

Besides the daily calls, WHENEVER YOU SEE OR HEAR BIASED COVERAGE, CALL THE NEWS CHIEFS AND/OR NEWSROOMS AND INSIST ON RESPONSIBLE, IN-DEPTH JOURNALISM. There is plenty every day to call about. Calls are best because they must halt misinforming the public while they deal with you. If you cannot reach policy makers, then fax or e-mail.

On April 12, 2003, Media Challenge! will issue an enhanced action plan to ensure that TV provides the coverage Americans deserve!

MEDIA CHALLENGE! is co-sponsored by: Projects4Peace, ICUJP (Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace), Neighbors for Peace and Justice, Coalition for World Peace, Global Guardianship Initiative, Code Pink for Peace, Peace on the Beach, Peace Warriors, LA International A.N.S.W.E.R., Not in Our Name and Global Women’s Strike.

NETWORK NEWS EXECUTIVES ADDRESSES
ABC News President: David Westin 77 W. 6th Street New York, NY 10023
NBC News President: Neil Shapiro 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, NY 10112
MSNBC V.P. Live News Programming: Mark Effron One MSNBC Plaza Secaucus, NJ 07094
CBS News President: Andrew Hayward524 W. 57th Street New York, NY 10019
CNN News President: Walter Isaacson 1 CNN Center Atlanta, GA 30303
FOX News Channel Sr. V.P. News Editorial: John Moody 1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036
PBS FACTUAL PROGRAMMING CHIEF: Sandy Heberer 1320 Braddock Place Alexandria, VA 22314

The Case Against TV and Radio News -
What every peace supporter should know and tell the executives.

In speaking to news chiefs, insist that information refuting administration statements be mentioned every time the administration claim is mentioned. Prominent should be these facts:

When a newscaster reports US claims it is at war over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the report must also state the essential role of key neo-conservatives in pushing a three-decade old agenda that predates Iraqi chemical/biological weaponry and which sees the U.S. first taking Iraq, then moving into Iran and Syria in order to control the Mideast and its oil power. That policy was openly codified in the formation in 1997 of a new and highly activist right-wing organization, The Project for a New American Century, which counts as key members most of the administration's top national security figures. Americans need to be reminded of this hourly.
Evidence of Administration lying to the public must be prominently and repeatedly mentioned. The evidence should include the following:

*** Knowing use by the Administration of a forged document ? alleged evidence of Iraqi attempts to acquire nuclear materials from Niger -- to obtain Congressional authority to go to war. Senator Jay Rockefeller (W. Va) has now demanded an FBI investigation of this deceit and Rep. Henry Waxman (LA) has written the President demanding an explanation of "this breach of the highest order."

***Reports by the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times that intelligence analysts were under intense pressure by the Administration to "cook the books" on Iraq.

***The resignations of State Dept. diplomat John Kiesling protesting that "we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam."

***Newsweek’s disclosure that the Administration’s most oft-cited best source of intelligence about Iraq’s pre-1991 weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein’s late son-in-law, told UN inspectors and the CIA in 1995 that Iraq’s biological and chemical weapons had been destroyed after the war ? information not reported to the American public by Bush, Cheney or Powell in public statements referring to the son-in-law.

***The fact that virtually every statement Secretary of State Powell made to the UN in his famous "evidence" case against Iraq has now been refuted in the print media. British newspapers, for example, exposed that much of the information was not drawn from intelligence sources but from a years old doctoral study by a student who got most of his information from the Internet. The LA Times revealed that the alleged Al Qaeda base in Iraq was actually in territory not controlled by Iraq but overseen by US Kurdish allies and that the administration had refused to tell Congress why it had not "taken it out."

Currently, many stories crucial for the public to know are uncovered by independent and foreign journalists or by the print media and never see the light of day in TV newsrooms. This must change. For example, the networks have not informed the public in depth on the U.S. role in putting Saddam Hussein in power and on U.S. assistance in helping him acquire biological weapons and use chemical weapons. They avoid the President’s personal religious beliefs and close ties to fundamentalists seeking “apocalypse” in the Mideast - in other words, the very real question of whether the President is a closet religious fanatic.

They have kept from the public how the U.S. government misled Saudi Arabia in 1991 on the threat to its borders from Iraq and then lied about babies being slaughtered by Iraq. These are clearly stories that, if referred to as regularly as TV cites Saddam Hussein’s history, might shape public opinion in directions other than the war promoting in which TV engages.

Reforms are essential to reverse TV's abuse of its power with the public and its undermining of our democracy.