From: Peter Nicholson (bournik_at_svn.net)
Date: 2003-04-01 02:03:20
here's a great way to take some positive action...
peace,
peter
Subject: MEDIA CHALLENGE ! A Call A Day...
Attachments:
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 ar
ms 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_at_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_at_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_at_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_at_cnn.com CNN SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR
NEWSROOM). 404.827.1500. cnnfutures_at_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_at_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 Hayward
524 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."
" The Mid-East financial dealings of the Bush family, Vice President Cheney
and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and the new no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq
being given to their business associates. Cheney flatly lied during the
election when he said he had no business dealings with Iraq.
The price we pay for war and the military buildup must also daily be moved
front and center. This includes major budget
cuts in poverty, health, housing, transportation and other programs. Civil
liberties and government spying must also be
headlined regularly.
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 Pr
esident 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.
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