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In January 2008, a Truth Emergency Movement held its first summit to devise ways to promote and distribute truths to a population starved for them and defeat the military-industrial-media complex's dominance. They quoted famed journalist George Seldes (1890 - 1995) saying that "Journalism's job is not impartial 'balanced' reporting. Journalism's job is to tell the people what is really going on."
It's for committed alternative sources to counteract corporate media propaganda, and for a popular super-majority to rely on them for real news, information, and analysis to stay informed. Otherwise, a free and open society is impossible.
Pentagon Propaganda, Spin, and Lies about America's Imperial Wars
They come from dominant domestic and international media sources; so-called National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting, and the BBC; state propaganda services like Voice of America; many figures in academia and the clergy; and ideologically driven conservative and extremist organizations that control most vital information given the public. Without them, imperial wars aren't possible because enough popular opposition could be marshaled against them. Most Americans today distrust the popular media. It's time they directed that sentiment for real change.
Fear & Favor: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)
FAIR's Peter Hart writes about how the global economic crisis has impacted corporate newsrooms and the media overall as "owners who gambled on debt-financed expansions" have been hammered by shrinking advertising and subscriber revenues, with no light at the end of the tunnel in sight.
Surveys show that large majorities of broadcast and print journalists say financial pressures have increased, and about one-fourth cite considerable owner and advertiser influence in their newsrooms.
Consider Fox News, for example. A summer 2001 Seth Ackerman FAIR article cited its "extraordinary right-wing tilt (as) The Most Biased Name in News." Its founder and president, Roger Ailes, was described by former GHW Bush aide Lee Atwater as operating on "two speeds - attack and destroy." Reputedly, he only hires on-air staff who assure him they're Republicans, yet Fox insists its reporting is "fair and balanced."
The UK-Based Index on Censorship
Currently, defamation is casting a chill on free speech as a recurring theme. In the past year, UK libel law favored claimants by being hostile to free expression. In addition, "libel tourism," letting overseas plaintiffs sue in British courts, has turned the country into a virtual "international tribunal for defamation," but not without countermeasures from other countries, including in America where New York, Illinois, and Florida passed laws protecting their residents from English libel suits. Congress is also considering a law to make them unconstitutional.
The Index on Censorship magazine devoted an entire issue to the state of defamation around the world, and found that while the spirit for reform is strong, scant change followed.
The Hyperreality of a Failing Corporate Media System
Andrew Hobbs and Peter Phillips explain that "Hyperreality is the inability to distinguish between what is real and what is not," typical of how the corporate media operate, especially Fox News. Since most people rely on television for information, they're "embedded in a state of excited delirium and knowinglessness," the same sentiment expressed by an old TV sitcom law professor complaining about new students "com(ing) in(to his classroom) with a head full of mush...."
In the corporate media, model democrats like Hugo Chavez are called strongmen, autocrats and dictators. Figures like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck become folk heros for the extreme right. Others as bad get prime time exposure while real journalists are nowhere in sight.
Is PC a Left-Leaning, Conspiracy-Oriented Organization?
Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff would agree about a conspiracy for truth over propaganda, lies, disinformation, and junk news. Each year, "over 200 faculty and students from multiple disciplines and political orientations work with PC," and since 1976 "Over 1,500 students have been trained in media research techniques," ones that produce real journalism, not the fake, deceptive corporate-controlled kind that delivers everything but what people need to know.
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