Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News? (FAIR Action Alert)

[swag]

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3318

Dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gathered in Silver Spring, Maryland last weekend for the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan hearings (3/13/08-3/16/08), where they offered harrowing testimony about atrocities they had witnessed or participated in directly. The BBC predicted that the event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, "could be dominating the headlines around the world this week" (3/7/08). The hearings were covered as far afield as the U.K. (Guardian, 3/17/08), Australia (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/14/08), Croatia (Javno, 3/16/08), and Iran (Press TV, 3/14/08). Yet there has been an almost complete media blackout on this historic news event in the U.S. corporate media.

Despite being noted in the New York Times' Paris-based International Herald Tribune (3/13/08), Winter Soldier has yet to be mentioned in the New York Times itself. No major U.S. newspaper has covered the hearings except as a story of local interest; the few stories major U.S. newspapers have published on the event have focused on the participation of local vets (Boston Globe, 3/16/08; Boston Herald, 3/16/08; Newsday, 3/16/08, Buffalo News, 3/16/08).

The Washington Post, too, published their account in the metro section (3/15/08). In contrast, the paper published an article about pro-war demonstrators protesting the Winter Soldier hearings in the A section (3/16/08), despite the fact that they were, according to the Post, "small in number."

None of the major broadcast TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) have mentioned the hearings in their newscasts. PBS has been silent as well.

But for a couple of exceptions (Time, 3/15/08; NPR, 3/16/08), the hearings have been virtually ignored by all but the independent media (Democracy Now!, 3/14/08; 3/17-18/08; In These Times, 3/17/08; Alternet, 3/14/08) and military publications (Stars and Stripes, 3/15/08 and the four Military Times newsweeklies, 3/15/08, 3/17/08), in a pattern reminiscent of the near complete corporate media blackout on the first Winter Soldier hearings. FAIR founder Jeff Cohen (Huffington Post, 3/16/08) traces the beginning of his career as a media critic back to his experience of watching as “one of the rare mainstream camera crews showed up at Winter Soldier... and then abruptly packed up to leave in the middle of particularly gripping testimony.”

While the testimony of soldiers who had served multiple tours of duty was broadcast on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now!, Free Speech TV, and the Real News network, the major broadcast networks and PBS instead devoted airtime to the pro-war assessments of Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, both of whom have only made brief visits to Iraq (NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, PBS NewsHour, all 3/17/08).

Given the common media rhetoric of "supporting the troops" (FAIR Action Alert, 3/26/03), to ignore these same troops when they speak out about the horrors of the war is unconscionable. On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, it is particularly important that the media reverse this silence, and include the voices of the vets who are speaking out about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan in national news coverage.

ACTION:
Contact the broadcast networks and ask them why they decided to ignore the Winter Soldiers hearings while carrying the less-informed observations on Iraq of John McCain and Dick Cheney.

CONTACT:

ABC World News
ABC World News contact web form
Phone: [phone]

CBS Evening News
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

NBC Nightly News
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

[jonnyblitz]

1. I have watched all the video available on this on the IVAW site.

It's quite intriguing. the IVAW site has been overwhelmed since this event occured so it is hard to get to the streaming video made available during normal hours. i finished watching it all at 4 this morning when the site wasn't overwhelmed.

The 1971 original Winter Soldier for Vietnam (available on dvd) is worth watching also.

[Fenris]

2. Didn't you hear? Some guy that Obama likes said something I don't agree with.

People shouldn't be encouraged to espouse opinions that might make me uncomfortable.

Also, Dick Cheney says things are less violent in Iraq, and he knows violence - he will shoot people he likes in the face.

Rachel Maddow had Adam Kokesh on her show last week talking about what they expected to get out of the Winter Soldier hearings. Quite insightful. But really, Media, Inc., isn't interested. Studies have apparently shown that hearing about war makes people "sad." Who knew?

[devilgrrl]

3. Isn't the feigned outrage just killing you?

What a pile of horse hockey.

[librechik]

4. media has its orders: say nothing about our glorious victory in iraq until Jan 23, 2009

Then, if new prez is a D, "WHY HAVEN'T YOU ALREADY GIVEN US OUR GLORIOUS VICTORY IN IRAQ AND BROUGHT HOME OUR BOYS LIKE YOU PROMISED!!!" Repeated at high volume hourly until 2012.

and if its McCain, "We'll say nothing whatsoever about the debacle-er-victory-- as it proceeds, St McCain, you can count on us!" Never mentioned again.

[1776Forever]

5. Bill Clinton & The Telecommunications Act of 1996, Murdoch & HRC connection ....

Bush associates still consolidating their hold on US media -

Diane Sweet
Published: Wednesday December 26, 2007

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Bush_associates_consolidate_hold_on_US_1226.html

Longtime associates of President George W. Bush are consolidating their hold on American media with a string of recent acquisitions.

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. earlier this month announced the sale of 8 of its US television stations to a private equity firm -- Oak Hill Partners -- for an estimated $1.1 billion dollars that is expected to close sometime in 2008.

The deal leaves Murdoch with another 27 television stations in major US cities such as Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles, as well as The New York Post, a controlling interest in British Sky Broadcasting, movie studio 20th Century Fox, and Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co Inc.

Oak Hill Partners lead investor Robert M. Bass, a longtime associate of President Bush, is also the founder of the Ft. Worth, Texas-based Bass Brothers Enterprises. Oak Hill issued a statement announcing the stations would be jointly managed by a broadcast holding company, Local TV, that was created by Oak Hill for the purpose of purchasing 9 other television stations from The New York Times previously this year.

Conservative ties for the Bass Brothers

Robert Bass, along with his brothers Lee, Ed, and Sid, from a wealthy Texas oil family, all attended Yale University where Ed was a classmate and friend of George W. Bush. The Bass family, through various political action committees, were heavy-hitting contributors to Bush's gubernatorial campaigns in Texas, according to the student watchdog group University of Texas Watch.

Robert Bass is also the founder and chairman of Aerion Corporation, which has been the recipient of several very lucrative DARPA contracts for the development of supersonic laminar flow wing studies, along with research and test flights.

News Corp. had originally intended to sell off nine of its US television stations; however Bass's subsidiary, Local TV, could not purchase WHBQ-TV in Memphis, Tennessee as it had previously purchased CBS affiliate WREG-TV: "Federal Communications Commission rules allow market duopolies but only one of the two stations under a single owner can be among the market's four top-rated stations there and there must be least eight unique station owners in the market once the duopoly is formed."

Local TV, LLC

From Local TV, LLC's homepage:

"The company will immediately focus on back office and administrative functions," adds Lawrence. "Then we will move to creating specialized knowledge teams for TV assets, addressing market-specific challenges and opportunities with special swat teams, developing vertical and homegrown content, and finding new ways to deploy capital. And that is just the beginning."

The site also lists among its holdings in a statement issued online prior to the News Corps purchase, 23 large and mid-size stations, as well as the nine small to mid-sized stations purchased from The New York Times.

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Bill Clinton’s Take On Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal

http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=547

Blake Fleetwood has a curious article at the Huffington Post that quotes Bill Clinton saying that…

“…the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News.”

That’s the not the curious part. The article continues with Clinton relating an incident wherein the business of a supporter of his was being dogged by the Journal’s editorial board. The supporter arranged a meeting with the board to present his case, but the board told him that they didn’t care to hear it. They told him that they were only going after him because he was a supporter of Clinton. Clinton told him to send a check to Bob Dole, which the supporter did, and the attacks from the Journal stopped.

That’s a story that is both shocking and predictable at the same time. Anybody who’s familiar with the Journal’s editorial bias wouldn’t be surprised by that sordid tale. But anybody who cares about journalistic ethics would still be appalled. The power that is wielded by influential media organs like the Journal is substantial, and that power is magnified in the broadcast media world. Clinton has something to say about that too…

“With regard to media consolidation, the rules were relaxed too much.”

That’s undeniably true. Unfortunately, Clinton doesn’t acknowledge that it was the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which he signed into law, that produced the relaxation of which he now complains. Common Cause documented the legislation, and its impact, in a 2005 study:

The Fallout From the Telecommunications Act of 1996 pdf -

http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7BFB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665%7D/FALLOUT_FROM_THE_TELECOMM_ACT_5-9-05.PDF

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/09/politics/main1600694.shtml

Rupert Murdoch Loves Hillary Clinton
Conservative Media Mogul To Host Fundraiser For Liberal N.Y. Senator

NEW YORK, May 9, 2006

(CBS) To call them a political odd couple would be a rash understatement.

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch will host a fundraiser for liberal New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Financial Times reports.

The mating ritual of the unlikely allies has been under way for months. Clinton set political tongues to wagging last month by attending a Washington party celebrating the 10th anniversary of Fox News, the cable news channel owned by Murdoch.




Lawsuit: Murdoch killed negative Clinton stories
Former New York Post staff member contends mogul interfered with news
Posted: May 21, 2007

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55803

© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch ordered his U.S. editors to kill any negative stories about President Clinton and his wife Hillary, according to claims in a lawsuit.

Murdoch, whose News Corp. of America owns the Fox News Channel and the New York Post, is being sued by former Post gossip writer Jared Paul Stern, who contends he was fired illegally, reports the UK's Press Gazette.

The Post dismissed Stern last year after he allegedly demanded $100,000 and a $10,000 monthly stipend from California businessman Ron Burkle to keep negative stories about him out of the paper.

Charges about how Murdoch controls his newspapers come in an affidavit by another fired Post staffer, Ian Spiegelman, who disputes Murdoch's claim of non-interference in daily operations.

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Follow the money! :argh: