WEBVTT

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On my orders, coalition forces have
begun striking selected targets

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of military importance to undermine
Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war.

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These are opening stages of what will
be a broad and concerted campaign.

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[music]

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The allied bombing fleets began about
1 pm eastern, Friday 9 pm in Baghdad.

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The precision guided assault lit up the
sky striking Government buildings,

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heralding the US hopes, regime
change for the Iraqi people.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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The US mass media covered
the invasion of Iraq

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with excitement and enthusiasm.
Their war coverage

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was a spectacular show of explosions and
awesome weaponry. And their obvious support

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for the Bush administration was remarkable
to me. As a Norwegian filmmaker,

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I wanted to understand how they could present war this
way, and I started to search for real information.

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Through independent media
and their investigations

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I discovered the silenced stories.
This is what really happens

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when we drop bombs.

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[music]

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[music]

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Media sanitizes war. I
mean, in the case of Iraq,

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war is hell, war is bloody,

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war is ugly, and that’s what we should
have seen 24 hours a day on television.

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War is not primarily about defeat
or victory, it’s about death.

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And this is not dealt
with by any of the people

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who are leading us on, whether it be Mr. Blair,
who’s only experience of war is television,

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or whether it be Mr. Bush, who
declined to serve his country.

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We have lost touch with the essence of war
with what it is. War is at its core death,

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the celebration of our own
military prowess, what is that?

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It is Necrophilia. War is a poison.
America will seize every opportunity

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in pursuit of peace.

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In the end of the present regime in Iraq

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would create such an opportunity.

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War is about self aggrandizement, all these
abstract terms like patriotism and glory

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that uh… after 30 seconds of combat

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are rendered hollow and ridiculous.

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We live in a society where the mainstream media are
constantly involved in numbing in anesthetics,

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in preventing us from being in touch with
the human realities, just by distraction.

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The media politics of
changing the subject of,

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putting forward images that are disconnected
from human realities, the myth making.

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Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause
of most of the genocide of the 20th century.

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Flags are bits of colored
cloth that governments use

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first to shrink wrap people’s brains, and
then a ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.

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To go to war means, whether
it’s war against Iraq,

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War against Afghanistan,
go to a war anywhere means

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that you do not consider the lives of other people as
important as the lives of the people in your country.

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It means that you don’t consider
that the children of Iraq

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have an equal right to life as our children.
Before the invasion we saw these photographs

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of this target on Saddam Hussein’s forehead,
but it would be much more accurate

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to see that target on the forehead of a little
Iraqi girl, because that’s who dies in a war.

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The overwhelming number of people who
die in war are innocent civilians.

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I hear ambulance sirens, I think it’s a siren for
war and I go to my mom and ask her, what’s this?

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And once that happened, practice when we were in
school. You see everyone running from their classes.

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The teacher’s looking after the students and going
in one corridor, and even our school is not safe,

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because we have the president
farm next to our school.

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And like, sirens, practice around, all
Iraq, so it was scaring. If we believe

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that people have the same right to life, we couldn’t make war. If
we believe that the people in Africa and Asia and everywhere else

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have the same right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness at us,

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we would be taking these billions and billions of
dollars for war and we’d be using it for… for medicine

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and food, and we would no longer
be a military superpower,

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which is a disgusting thing to be really, and we
would become a humanitarian superpower in the world.

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As the war began,

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I was pregnant with my second child and horrified to
think of what was going to happen to the people in Iraq.

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I was part of what seemed to be the
biggest anti-war movement of our times,

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as millions of people around
the world took to the streets

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and said no to war.

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[music]

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[music]

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[music]

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[music]

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Despite the massive global demonstrations, Bush and the
corporate media ignored and minimized the protests.

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You know, size of protest, it’s like
deciding, well, I’m going to decide policy

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based upon a focus group.

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The silence dissent and free speech.

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There are still several thousand of these antiwar
protesters roaming around the streets of Manhattan,

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so anything could happen.

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And anti-war demonstrators tried to shut down San Francisco’s financial district
again this morning. What do you think he’s spraying CW? That’s pepper spray, Tracy.

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I’ll guarantee you they have… they have some big
cans of pepper sprays, you can see quite a stream.

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Once the war against Saddam begins, we expect
every American to support our military

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and if they can’t do that, to shut up. We
heard of course the usual antiwar slogans,

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the same rhetoric we’ve heard before, no solutions,
simply slogans being shouted by most of those protesters

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and those like Susan Sarandon.

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The corporate media took an active role in the push
for war, and Clear Channel, the Radio Conglomerate,

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and a major contributor to the Bush campaign, even
organized pro-war rallies and encouraged confrontations

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between the peace movement and the pro-war
demonstrators. They’d kicked their asses.

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I agree, USA. Get it done. Get it done.

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Take of your mask, show your color,
show you are nothing but a communist.

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The media were quick to portray the peace
movement as anti-troop and anti-American.

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Good evening, I’m Joe Donlon. And I’m Tracy Barry, thank
you for being with us tonight. Protesters burn Old Glory,

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hold up traffic and just simply
create chaos at rush hour.

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In contrast to the corporate coverage of the
protests, independent media were out in the streets

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and organized special broadcast
to give people a voice.

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Today’s program represents the largest ever collaboration of
progressive broadcast media, the march itself, just a part

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of what’s become the most massive diverse
global peace movement in history.

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Well, the corporate media in the US continues to build
the illusion that US citizens are united for war.

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It is very clear that more than a million people in New
York today joining millions of people around the world

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have completely destroyed that
myth and are saying yes to peace

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and no to Bush. But the corporate
media is eager to wage war.

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[music]

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Well, Fox on top the \"Troops At The Ready,\" welcome
everybody I am Neil Cavuto and this is your world,

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a world poised for war and we are all over it. General,
you think there will be a war by the end of the week?

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I do, I do. I just don’t see any way
we can stretch out the diplomacy

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given the attitudes we’ve heard abroad.
It certainly feels that way here as well.

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I expect we’ll be spending some
time together this week. Thank you.

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More than half the people were opposed to the invasion. They were for more diplomacy
and inspections. Yet, if you look at the two week period around Colin Powell

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giving his address at the United Nations,
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting did a study

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of the four major nightly newscasts
NBC, ABC, CBS, and the PBS News Hour.

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Of the 393 interviews done,
there were only three

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with antiwar representatives. That’s three of a… of
almost 400, that doesn’t represent mainstream America.

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I mean, I would say that the
antiwar movement cuts across

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the whole political spectrum.
And it’s not a fringe minority,

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it’s not a silent majority,
it’s the silenced majority,

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silenced by the corporate media.

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[music]

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Television news

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uh… follows routines of coverage
and it reproduces events

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in terms of familiar formats and structures. I want
to do a little bit more analysis now on the weaponry

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that was used in this missile attack. In
the United States over the last 20 years,

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there’s been a merger movement, big companies have merged, become
bigger. But there’s also been a merger of showbiz and news biz,

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that means that show biz
values, entertainment values,

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have infiltrated into news presentation.
High production values,

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fast paced, graphics, music,

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uh… all of, this is a way to try to focus
people’s attention by using techniques

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that are associated with entertainment. And now during
this war we had \"Militainment,\" military entertainment,

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a way in which the… the war was covered
as if it was a sporting event.

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If we jump in and take a quick look at what
the game plan would be, and this was our

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shock and awe game plan, you can see we’re
still coming from all three directions.

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The idea here is to get
squads, infantry squads,

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uh… group of ground pounders if you will
into a harm’s way safely if you will,

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that’s well armed it also has an offensive capability,
doesn’t it? It does have offensive capability

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weapons on some of the vehicle itself and also designed to protect
the troops as they go into battle and then deploy them out

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to take objectives. Yeah, yeah. Awesome fighting force.
All right. That was the way in which the war was sold,

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because political ways of understanding
conflict might lead to a debates.

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You want to deep politicize the presentation
and keep it on the tactical level,

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keep it on… These are our boys, they’re in danger.
Uh… Look what they did today, isn’t this wonderful?

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It was an incredible scene.

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We will not wait for them, we
will not tire, we will not falter

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and we will not fail. This is the
time when trust matters most

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and the world is watching CNN
the only cable news network

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with the experience to report
events as they happen.

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This is really undermining a political culture in the country and
it’s also leading to a tremendous amount of political polarization.

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So the media which is

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basically has a constitutional protection in
America, you know, what is? Bill of Rights

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for, First Amendment, Freedom of the Press, all that’s about
having the media play the role of a watchdog on power

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but the media has become a lapdog.

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You know, it’s become part of the system
that was symbolized during the war in Iraq,

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where the military commander Tommy Franks
in his plan referred to the media,

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not as the Fourth Estate, you know, a separate
autonomous sector outside of government

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but as the fourth front of the war.
The fourth front,

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you know, part of the war
integrated into it, embedded in it.

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The Army’s at seventh Cavalry Regiment has crossed the border
from Kuwait and is roaring across the desert toward Baghdad.

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The Shock and Awe, there’s
raining down of 3,000

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or so cruise missiles that is the
beginning of the massive battle plan.

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The sequence scene to use the military
term has not yet started and may not start

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for many hours to come… Journalists
thought they asked certain questions,

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who, what, where, when, how, and why?

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And why wasn’t ask the whole lot? Like why
are we doing this? Do we have to do this?

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Is there an alternative to doing this. George Bush
not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,

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expose more than the Bush administration.
It exposed a media

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that acted as a conveyor belt for the lies of the
administration. A former top Iraqi scientist says

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Baghdad is almost certainly making
chemical and biological weapons.

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The scientist claims Iraq has mobile labs that roam the
countryside… Media monopoly, militarism, they go together

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and that unholy relationship

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has to be challenged, has to be broken.

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To fully understand the motivation behind the corporate
news coverage, we have to examine who owns the media.

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Now, five corporations with interests in the entertainment industry
and in the military industrial complex control 80% of our media.

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They decide what information we get

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and their choices are driven by
profit and their political agenda.

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We have a system with only one side, the
corporate side, advertising agency side,

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the… the… the television network side, those
commercial forces are doing all the talking

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and the other side is almost zero.

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As entry becomes essentially impossible and the markets
become more under the control of major corporations.

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They can’t just give information,
they have to somehow get consumers.

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Keep it right here, locked on Fox, the network America
Trust for fair and balanced news, good night.

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Which means they have to convince
consumers to buy their product

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rather than some essentially identical product,
which means you have to have massive advertising.

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But one of the effects is that you
have and for the media is that you get

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it’s part of the general
corporate relation of America

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and most of the industrial world,
so you get huge mega corporations

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controlling what’s produced and that
tends to reinforce the pressures

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towards reflecting the interests
of the business world.

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And of course the interest of the state, which
is very closely related to the business world,

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in fact they are very hard to distinguish.

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Hey, Neil, did you hear that big sigh of relief on Wall
Street. Wall Street couldn’t have been more relieved

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that finally the uncertainty about
war was replaced by some action.

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The chart tells the story that the President would talk,
that bombs would likely drop on Baghdad within days.

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The markets pop some 100 point,

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the march to war, are march north for
stocks. So if there is pressure to…

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to conform to and impose
the doctrines and beliefs

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and attitudes of that are conducive
to state corporate power.

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Getting rid of Saddam Hussein will help spread peace and
democracy throughout the Middle East. The President promised

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that the US will see to it that Iraqis are
allowed to choose a new and better leader.

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And the US will also protect Iraq’s
oil from sabotage by Saddam Hussein.

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The role of news media in times
of war is all about propaganda,

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it’s couched in terms of
supporting our troops,

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paying attention to the commander in chief,
explaining to the public what is being won,

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how the bad people are being punished for their deeds.
And of course, that doesn’t come out of a vacuum

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because before war coverage’s, pre-work coverage,
this whole process of agenda building,

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what we could call laying
flagstones on the path to war,

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and that’s very methodical. When you go back and
you look at every war of the last several decades,

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there was the media build up to the war.
People in the Pentagon and the White House

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understand very well that as
much as any military technology,

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any bombers, any missiles, any
satellite guidance systems,

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you need the media to prepare the ground.

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We have taken these actions because intelligence reporting indicates that while
Al-Qaeda and those sympathetic to their cause are still a principle threat,

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the principle threat.

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Iraqi state agents, Iraqi surrogate groups,

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other regional extremist organizations, and
ad hoc groups or disgruntled individuals

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may use this time period to conduct
terrorist attacks against the United States

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in our interest either here or abroad.

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We were led from this entire war from the
beginning even until now with a series of lies,

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and it wasn’t of, just about what
brings the mass destruction.

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You know, it was about how long it would
take and how the Iraqi people would view it

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and whether it was working or not. And that the only
reason that there’s resistance is because we’re winning,

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and the light’s at the end of the tunnel
and on and on and on and frankly speaking,

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evidence on the ground is contrary to that.
But if the American people don’t know it,

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they can’t make an independent judgment.

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Americans in particular are the number one target audience
in the world for propaganda. It matters what Americans think

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because we can change the system here.
So it’s important

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that the media function as a weapon of mass
distraction to keep people’s attention

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away from what’s really going on. That’s the
problem with these corporate media types,

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you know, even when they’re educated
and… and have some degree of talent,

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they are unable to break through their own
sonic sound barrier of… of limitation.

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So it’s… it’s like they have
become masters of Newspeak,

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you know, the language in oil wells, (ph)
1984, newspeak was specifically designed

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by the party to diminish thought,

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to limit the possibility of your developing
any kind of a critical thinking.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
They are constantly repeating the message.
You hear that all the time, stay on message,

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
the war on terrorism, the evil doers, bring
them to justice. This is about moral clarity.

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
\"I said I’m not leaving.\" \"The bastards know where I
am.\" \"If it’s meant to be, it’s going to happen.\"

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
And so that creates this kind of war momentum,
which is designed to manufacture consent.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
Americans who are watching a very
different war from the rest of the world,

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
not only that, the viewpoints were uniform.
We were hearing the same experts,

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
the same points of view, across the
spectrum. There was very little debate,

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
very little uh… difference, which was really
justified as you’re either with us or against us.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
So the fact that the American people
rallied behind the president,

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
supported the war, is not surprising.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
The people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders, that’s
easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked,

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
and denounce the peacemakers for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger,

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
it works the same in any country. The official story
is essentially, you know, they the evil doers hate us,

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
why? Because we’re the beacon
of freedom and democracy,

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
and the story case closed, that’s all you need to know American citizens.
There’s no history, there’s no context, there’s no background.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
And it’s crucial to deny
that there’s any connection

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
between terrorism and US foreign policy
and economic policy and globalization.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
And you… you see the corporate
controlled media going nowhere

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
near those issues. The media can
be the most powerful force.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
Media are the most powerful
institutions on earth right now.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
Because uh… they are the way we come to understand
each other, if we don’t know each other personally.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
They are the way we come to understand the world and they
are the way the rest of the world comes to understand us

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
and that can be very dangerous when we
are projected through a corporate lens.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
In a world that changes by the
minute, turn to CNN Headline News.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
Keep an eye on the future with
updates on America’s new war.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
United States is beginning to show its military muscle. In
a media environment with the average sound bite is what?

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Eight or nine seconds. What can
you say in that amount of time?

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
You can say Saddam Hussein is like Hitler, and you’re
ready for prime time. Everyone knows what you mean.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
But if you have something else to say,
something, a little outside the box.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
Say, US officials are guilty of war crimes.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Well, that actually fits into the sound bite
but no one knows what you’re talking about.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
They think you’re crazy. They haven’t heard
that before, you need to explain yourself.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
What are war crimes? What
are the Geneva Conventions?

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
What are the Nuremberg principles? But that takes more
than eight seconds, and you don’t have time for that.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
Then they say it’s not a political edit, you
just don’t fit in to the mainstream format.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
Freedom and freedom of
communication were birth twins,

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
in the future United States, they grew up together, and
neither has faired very well in the others absence.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
Democracy cannot exist

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
without an informed public and these mega
media companies are not informing us.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
Your living room is the factory.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
The product being manufactured

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
is you.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
It’s a war of ideas, and… and
the people who will control

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
uh… the world in… in this 21st
century would be the people

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
who control the ideas. Bush could not have done it alone,
if he had a megaphone on the steps of the White House.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
Yes, some people would have believed there were weapons of
mass destruction, but he had something much more powerful.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
The Pentagon had something much more
powerful, more powerful than any bomb,

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:30.000
more powerful than any missile. The
Pentagon deployed the US media.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
The Media Brace For War,
actually in this segment

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
it’s the media go into training for war.
For the past several months

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
all four major branches of the US military have
offered boot camps of a sort for American journalists

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
to prepare them for what might lie ahead in Iran. Octagon is moving ahead
with plans to allow more than 500 news reporters and photographers

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
to accompany US troops as
they prepare to invade Iraq.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
By the end of the week more than 200 news
organizations have to notify the Pentagon,

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
whether they will accept invitations
to quote embed with US troops.

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
The Pentagon has all but admitted, its new attitude
towards the press as part of an aggressive strategy

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
to deploy the media as part of a PR
campaign. According to The Weekly Standard,

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
the military wants positive stories about
the grit and resolve of its troops.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
[music]

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
It is four in the morning in
Kuwait, 01 hours Zulu time,

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
but in a tent at camp
shoop deep in the desert,

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
Lieutenant Colonel Ricky Grabowski is already up,
his nine millimeter sidearm secured to his chest.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
The difference between independent
journalism and embedded journalism is,

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
for starters embedded journalism,
uh… if you’re going to do that

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
you have to go sign paperwork that
essentially says, I will follow all orders

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
of my superior officer. So
even from the very start

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
you allow yourself to be indoctrinated into
this unit, become one with these people.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
So any idea of objective journalism
is, would sign your name to…

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
to do the programming that’s out the window. Uh…
Once again, the concentration on special weaponry,

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
precise weaponry, so that
they will hit their targets

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
and the explosion will be more
of a contained manner versus

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
uh… a wider type of explosion with the risk of hurting
innocent civilians. We have like the Stockholm Syndrome,

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
when your life becomes dependent upon
these people, how can you possibly

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
not be heavily, heavily influenced by that in your writing.
And then of course we have the very, very real censorship

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
that is extremely intense in Iraq now. So any
journalism produced by an embedded journalist

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
even if it is attempting to
show both sides of the story

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
it’s going to be censored. A newspaper
for example catches tremendous heat

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
for simply showing flag draped coffins and then of
course the government takes it a step further that,

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
\"Oh, we don’t even want to call them
coffins, we’ll call them transfer tubes.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
So completely disassociating the reality
of war with what’s actually happening.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
I really wouldn’t have that much
trouble with the embedding approach

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
if there was also embedding of equal proportions,
not from where the missiles are fired

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
but from where they land. The notion of embedding
is a dramatic attack on freedom of the press.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
Now there were non-embedded reporters

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
but the media won’t touch them. I go out
and actually speak with Iraqi people

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
and when I inter… Whenever I have had interaction
with soldiers, it’s not while I’m embedded.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
So I can report what they say and no one’s
going to censor it. There were times

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
when I was the only American un-embedded
reporter there. Best case scenario now

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
as far as American independence, maximum there’s
like two or three of us there at one time

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:05.000
and usually one and sometimes none.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
Many journalists refused
to get embed with the army

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
and went to Iraq’s independent reporters, they
bring us the stories from the ground in Iraq

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
and show us the brutal reality of war,
in doing so, they risk their lives.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
The US strikes also killed a journalist
from the Arab TV network, Al Arabiya

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
the network broadcast harrowing footage
of its correspondent Mazen al-Tumeisi,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
reporting from the scene
when he was hit by shrapnel.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
Mazen doubles over and his blood
splatters on the camera lens

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
as he screams I’m a journalist. I’m dying.
I’m dying. Moments later,

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
he was pronounced dead.
He was 26 years old.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
It’s been very dangerous for reporters in Iraq.
In a 14 month period alone during the occupation,

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
more reporters were killed in Iraq
than during the entire Vietnam War

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
and most of them are independents.
It’s called \"Shooting the Messenger.\"

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
You have people un-embedded who risk their
lives to go to Iraq. People like Tareq Ayyoub.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
On April 8th, 2003 reporter for Al Jazeera

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
had just come over from Jordan and the U.S.
military strafed the area.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
He immediately died. His wife in Jordan

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
at the funeral said hate breeds hate.
Who is engaged in terrorism now?

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Al Jazeera had given the coordinates

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
of the office several
times to the Pentagon,

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
maybe that was their first mistake.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
Later, the same day a US tank shot at the Palestine Hotel
where around 100 international journalists were staying.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
The attack killed José Couso, a
camera man for the Spanish Telecinco

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
and Taras Protsyuk, a
veteran Reuters cameraman.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
[music]

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
I have a friend, a colleague
who was at the Palestine

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
when it was shot… when the Reuters
office was shot by the tank,

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
which the US military claimed that
uh… they… the tank had drawn fire.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
I’ve personally seen these tapes. They showed
the tank for several minutes before it fired.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
There was no gunfire anywhere. Everyone knows
that the Palestine is the journalists hotel,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
that whole compound is for journalists. The real
message through actions from the Pentagon is that

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
we will make your life more hazardous.
And it’s not just, you know,

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
independent journalists and people on the left who have
made this charge, we’ve had many mainstream organizations

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
like the Committee to Protect
Journalists expressing concern,

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
sending letters, having meetings
with Pentagon officials.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
And the real question is, why is the Pentagon
intimidating, harassing and shooting journalists?

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
Here in this country there is hardly been
a peep, dozens of journalists have died,

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
many of them on un-embedded. Internationally
top journalists talk about the concern

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
of targeting of the un-embedded.
Victoria Clarke who was the spokesperson

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
for the Pentagon who came from a big PR
firm, Helen Knowlton extremely effective

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
who held the embedding process
as a spectacular success,

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
said about the killings that day.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
Baghdad is an unsafe place.
They shouldn’t be there,

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
but that’s our rule as journalists to go
to where the silence is, to bare witness.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:50.000
[music]

00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:03.000
[sil.]

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
In all of this discussion that
goes on about oh, inspections

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
and weapons of mass destruction and the
violation of UN resolutions. In all of this

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
there’s very little discussion of who is going to die
in this war, who’s going to be wounded in this war,

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
how many people are going to be blinded, how
many children are going to lose their limbs?

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
There is no human vivid picture

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
of what the result of this war will be.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
They are firing, but on whom?

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
Ali, Ali my son Ali, oh,
my son Ali, his legs,

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
my son Ali. In war people die,
large numbers of people die,

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
but we don’t show you who dies. The war
is organized on American television,

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
the way under the principle of all
about us. It’s all about Americans.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
Tell about what happens to us, it’s all about
dangers to us, it’s all about what we need

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
and what our wants are and anybody else
doesn’t matter, Iraqi people, not important.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
So we don’t see a hundred
thousand Iraqi casualties,

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
Iraqi children, half the population of Iraq were
children, we never heard that we never knew that.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
Uh… Use of weapons that are
prohibited, cluster bombs,

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
depleted uranium uh… barely
covered in the American media.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
The images are getting out
because of independent media.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
We show them on Democracy Now,
we see them on European, Asian,

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
Arab television networks but not
in the United States very much.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
But I really do think that
independent media putting them out

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
ultimately has an effect. We
interviewed Aaron Brown of CNN

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
talking about it being a matter of taste.
Well, I think it’s war that’s tasteless,

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
it’s not our job to sanitize it.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
It’s our job to present it and then
people make their own decision.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
I just wanted to ask you to just to bring it into very
practical terms to give an example of some tough questioning

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
of one of the generals that you’ve had on the show. On the issue of
the killing of civilians, on the issue of the use of cluster bombs,

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
the issue of the use of depleted uranium munitions.
Just give us an example of some tough questioning

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
that you’ve done of a general that’s appeared on Newsnight
or on any of the shows that you’re involved with.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
As to, the questions of collateral
damage we’ve talked a lot

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
uh… actually umm… about overselling
the notion of precision.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
The precision is different than perfection.
And sometimes the tank

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
is a schoolhouse, it is a journalistic question,
it’s a question of taste, it’s a very…

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
very difficult decisions to make for me. Are
the civilians in this sort of an afterthought

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
on almost every… now, I think every major network
in America, the civilian toll is an afterthought

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
in all of this, it’s not something that
has been a primary focus. Well, I don’t…

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
You know, we did not see the footage of the… of the little
girl in the Basra hospital with half of her head blown off

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
and her brains oozing out. And quite frankly there’s
no such thing as a tasteful civilian casualty,

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
that that term shouldn’t even be in the realm
of journalism. No, it’s just a question of how,

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
what shot you choose to show to… What about the
accurate shot that shows this is what happens to people

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
when the US drops missiles on the… Look, that’s the
debate. Many people say that picture in Vietnam

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
of the little Vietnamese girl who is napalmed, helped
to turn the war around. There’s no question in my mind

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
that picture would be shown today,
there’s no question in my mind

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
that that picture would be shown today, none.
And yet we are seeing picture after picture

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
and broadcasting onto Democracy Now on our
show… I know. … of children like that

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
and we are not seeing them on CNN.
Well, but be careful here

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
about what you say you’re seeing at CNN and what
you’re not, because you’re not really right.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
Umm… We… we show in, you know,

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
there are some practical limitations. When
you go back to Vietnam there are pictures

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
that helped in the war, like
the picture of the naked girl

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
burning with napalm, running down the
street. I think if we saw for one week,

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
babies dead on the ground, women
with their legs blown off,

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
if we watch that for one week, I think
people in this country would say no to war,

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
people would say war is not an answer to conflict in the 21st
century. I think the coverage of the tsunami proves that.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
December 26th, this natural catastrophe,

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
some of the media raced over, and they
showed us the pictures of people suffering.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
What people cared about is seeing orphans,
is seeing women and men struggling,

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
and those that didn’t make it,
and they poured out their hearts

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
and their pocketbooks and
this unprecedented generosity

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
global generosity because the media
focused the spotlight where it mattered

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
and showed people suffering
that’s the role of the media.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
We can do something about that.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
Instead though the media doesn’t usually
do that and so people are cut off,

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
especially in the United States.
Come, come, your hand Hashim.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
Don’t be afraid, there is nothing here.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
Come here, drop the sack, hold him,
hold him, what is wrong with you?

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
[sil.]

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
This is an information war. So many people in America
believe what they believe because they simply

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
do not have the correct information.
I want to focus on Fallujah

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
because it encapsulates the whole occupation.
I went into Fallujah during a \"Siege Fire\"

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
uh… according to the military and according
to the USA ambassador Paul Bremer.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
And so that was one reason I felt,
okay, I’m taking the risk to go in.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
I went in and it was anything but a siege fire.
This is what I saw in the clinic in Fallujah,

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
these are the terrorists in Fallujah.
When I interviewed a doctor

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
in Fallujah he said, \"Not
less than 60% of the dead

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
were women and children. You can
go see the graves for yourself.\"

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
The doctor working in a temporary emergency clinic
during April siege posed a question on democracy now,

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
which he repeated. \"When you see a
child five years old with no head

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
what can you say. When you see a child
with no brain, just an open cavity

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
what can you say.\" Well,
that depends on who you are,

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
if you are the New York times, you say nothing, if you
are Paul Bremer you probably said vigilant resolve.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
I think it’s really important
to people see that this is war

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
and this is what it looks like
and this is what has been shown

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
in the past in… in the US media
when it was allowed to do it’s job,

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
chemical weapons, phosphorus
weapons were used, cluster bombs.

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:25.000
And of course we have the
families left behind.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
And then of course pictures like this are what
were shown and reported in main stream media.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
The media crack down there
is… is very, very intense.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
Any journalist not reporting the government line
on the siege of Fallujah would be detained.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
And this the climate, this is the free
speech and uh… democratic free Iraq.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
At this point in our history
given every thing is at stake,

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
given the billions we’ve invested, the lives we’ve
lost, the wars we fought, the weapons we’ve sent.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
Given the fact that since Vietnam in no place
in the world, have we spent more money,

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
sent more weapons, fought more wars,
lost more lives than in the Middle East.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
And… and this is the best we can do,

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:55.000
we’re creating the clashes civilizations that we
fear, that will if we’re not careful engulf us all.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
The media is supposed to be a
check in balance on government.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
We’re not supposed to be
closing up to those in power.

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
And yet the media beats the drums for war.
And they have to be challenged,

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Yeah, they’re private corporations
that they are releasing our airways.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
And they have a responsibility
to serve a democratic society.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
And that means providing a form for the full spectrum
of opinion. That’s why we need independent media,

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
we’ve to challenge them and we have
to build our on media infrastructure.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
And that’s what we’re doing
all over this country.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
Independent media are the first for democracy in the
country. I mean you don’t have a democratic society.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
If public opinion is out
of the political system,

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
not in the political arena and not
reflect in media. On Democracy Now

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
you can hear discussion of everything I have
just talked about. And in fact large majority

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
of the population basically agrees
with them, but never hear it

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
uh… and have no access to it. And their voice…
and have no participation in decisions about it.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
How do we compete effectively
with main stream perspectives?

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
We supplement them, we challenge them, we
question them, but we’re not in everybody’s home,

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
we are not on available in their living
room, we not uh… as easily accessible

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
and that’s one of the problems, so they fight
for access, they fight for distribution.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
Each of us compared to CBS uh… a small

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
uh… but to connect us all up and we
reach tens and millions of people

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
uh…so we don’t have to cover or to feel

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
that were emitted uh… in fact,
we have a lot of power.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
In order to create a different world,
it’s not just a goal at the end,

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
it’s doing it every hour of every day
how we get there, what the process is

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
and making sure that

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
everyone is included, that’s very, very
important, that’s what democratic media is.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
What I know to be real

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
is that we’re in for the
fight of our lives.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
Democracy and Journalism are deeply linked
in whatever chance we human beings have

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
to redress our grievances,

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
we knew our politics and
reclaim a revolutionary ideal.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
In the process of coming
to terms with what is now,

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
we need to challenge the usual
renditions of history which is silence.

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
Now from the grass roots, we can respond

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
presenting the voices of the
majority of people in this country,

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
and they’re mad, they are angry, they are
creative, they are extremely articulate

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
and they deserved to be heard,
they demand to be heard,

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
they will be heard. But the
dangerous other alternative is,

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
that we the people will loose control
and that the first global culture

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
in the history of humanity will actually
be a kind of a corperate culture

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
and that uh… that we will leave in a kind of a planet
ink scenario, so not planet earth but planet ink.

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
And to me this is the nightmare scenario.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
The only way you and the media are going to help us and
we need your help, because you have the access to power,

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
this crowd doesn’t get to go
into the Whitehouse pressroom.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
You do, you’re inside and you’re there,
you’re there because it’s a privilege,

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
it’s a public trust that we’ve
given you, to do the job

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
that needs to be done, do
your job, please do your job,

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
please do your job, do your job,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
do your job, do your job.
Not only are we alive,

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
but we’re well, kicking ass
and winning out there.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
Uh… and if more people know that and then that gives them
a sense of encouragement. One, that they are not alone

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
and two that they can actually take
our country back. Well, my hope

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
particularly being an Independent journalist is that it
would force the mainstream media to be more accountable

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
and force them to cover some of these stories
that we’re covering and that the are not…

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
and having affect much like it did in Vietnam
to bring the… really to bring the war home

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
to show people. This is really what’s happening, are you
sure you wanna keep doing this? Is it really worth it?

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:48.000
[music]

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
As the US mass media
removes human suffering

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
from their presentation of this war, over one
hundred thousand people have died in Iraq,

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
and over half of these are women and
children. Today, the violence continues,

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
and the true cause of
this war remains silent.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
Who will decide what we know?
Who will write the stories

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
that we pass on as our history to the
future? Will it be the corporations

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
or will be the people? I really
do think that communication

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
umm… is the hope

00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:00.000
and independent media is the forum
for that communication and hope.