FIGHTING FAKE NEWS HERE

Mediachannel is supporting the Free Press campaign against Fake News: “On Sunday, the New York Times reported that at least 20 federal agencies have made and distributed pre-packaged, ready-to-serve television news segments to promote President Bush’s policies and initiatives.

“Congress’ Government Accountability Office determined that these ‘video news releases’ were illegal “covert propaganda” and told federal agencies to stop. But last Friday, the White House ordered all agencies to disregard Congress’ directive

“The Bush administration is using hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to manipulate public opinion. Here’s how to stop them:

1. Sign our petition and help us get 250,000 people to join our call to Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and local television stations. Tell Congress and the FCC to toughen and enforce laws against “covert propaganda” and demand that broadcasters come clean with viewers about using government-produced news.

2. Join others in your community to create ‘citizen agreements’ with your local TV stations to stop fake news broadcasts. These agreements are official documents filed at the FCC that — if broken — can be used to deny license renewals. Free Press will connect you with others in your area working to ensure local broadcasters identify the sources behind the ‘news.’

Unless we speak out now, the White House will continue to act with impunity — taking advantage of understaffed and incautious local news operations to manipulate public opinion. ”

http://www.freepress.net/action/fakenews

FAKE NEWS IN BRITAIN TOO

BBC broadcasts ‘fake’ news reports

David Miller writes: “A Spinwatch investigation has revealed that journalists working for the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) have been commissioned to provide news reports to the BBC. The BBC has been using these reports as if they were genuine news. In fact, the SSVC is entirely funded by the Ministry of Defence as a propaganda operation, which according to its own website makes a ‘considerable contribution’ to the ‘morale’ of the armed forces.

“In the US, Washington has been rocked by the scandal of fake journalists. The Bush administration has been paying actors to produce news, paying journalists to write propaganda, and paying Republican party members to pose as journalists. In the UK this has been reported with our customary shake of the head at the bizarre nature of US politics and media. Implicitly we are relieved that, however bad things are here, at least we are not as bad as they are.

“But Spinwatch can reveal that we have our very own fake journalists operating in the UK. The government pays for their wages and they provide news as if they were normal journalists rather than paid propagandists. Normally they work in a little known outfit with the acronym BFBS, which stands for British Forces Broadcasting Service. BFBS exists to ‘entertain and inform’ British armed forces around the world and is entirely funded by the British Ministry of Defence. BFBS is run by the SSVC. But on this occasion no mention of Ministry of defence funding was made. She was introduced simply as a reporter ‘from the British Forces Broadcasting Service’ who ‘has been embedded with the Scots Guards’. As one wag inside the BBC puts it, this suggests a process of ‘double embedding’, first working for the MoD and second embedding with a regiment.”

Read the full story: http://spinwatch.server101.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=342

DC SHUFFLE: FROM THE FCC TO CPB

Reed Business reports:

“Ken Ferree, former chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau, was named chief operating officer of the Corporation of Public
Broadcasting Monday.

“Ken brings to CPB a strong commitment to public service, significant management experience and broad knowledge of the factors affecting our industry. I cannot think of anyone more qualified to help public broadcasting leverage its assets,” CPB CEO Kathleen Cox said in a prepared
statement.

“Ferree joined the FCC in 2001, taking charge of the agency’s effort to expedite the transition to digital-only TV broadcasting. He left March 4 before the agency could complete work on his plan to end the transition Dec. 31, 2008.

“A private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, CPB spends about 387 million annually on programming and grants for public radio and TV stations around the country.”

MOVIES GO ON-LINE

Hi-Tech Movie Joins GlobalVision in International Day of Screening to Support Fair Media Coverage

“Video on Demand (VOD) takes the basic television concept of providing instant entertainment to a level that can cater to the individual selection of the viewer. But isn’t this an old story we’ve heard before? The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. With the continued everyday presence of personal computing and handheld devices, a host of new products and applications were designed to maximize the use of the Internet. Yet nothing has come close to the picture-clear, DVD quality on the Hi-Tech Movie (www.hi-movie.com) entertainment portal.

“Designed to be an online movie theater, Hi-Movie is the first US website to offer full-length movies-on-demand using the Internet — without downloading a player and using instant video streaming. With over 35 million US households having broadband capability, and the number expected to double in 5 years, according to eMarketer, the PC-TV convergence has finally arrived. All that consumers need are a PC and high-speed Internet to click and view. More tech-savvy gadgeteers can hook up a wireless connection to their HDTV or plasma screens, and lean back to experience a digital living room of the 21st century.

“People want instant gratification and a broader selection of choices”, said Sunny Youn, CEO of Hi-Tech Movie. “We want to do to movies what Apple has done to music with the iPod”. At a recent iBreakfast conference at the Samsung Center in New York City, Peggy Miles of Digital Media Magazine forecast that a big trend on the Internet is providing ways for people to consume and create content, paving the way for personal video broadcasting, or even video-blogging.

Today’s consumers have many different choices for watching movies. According to reports, Hollywood’s box office brought in over $8 billion dollars last year, while consumers spent an additional $433 million on VHS purchases, $633 million on DVD purchases, $8+ billion on movie rentals, $2.4 billion on pay-per-view, $163 million on video on demand, and $19 million for subscription video on demand. The primary method for delivery of the $12 billion after-market for video will change dramatically over the next few years, and investors are banking on Hi-Tech Movie and other strategic partners to deliver results.

The demand for IPTV is obvious. In a March 2004 survey conducted for the US Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, 64% of 1,100 randomly selected men and women aged 20 and above ranked on-demand availability of their favorite TV shows as “top items requiring instant gratification”. True video-on-demand does not mean just an online shopping catalog of DVD or VHS rentals. It is an end to late fees, inconvenient trips to retail stores, and a limited video library selection.

In recognition of the fast-paced media and the global reach of international journalism, Hi-Tech Movie has partnered with GlobalVision and MediaChannel.org, a consortium of media watchdogs and non-profit organizations, to broadcast the short film “The Making and the Mission: Weapons of Mass Deception” beginning on March 15, 2005 for free to the public. The activities are part of an international day of screenings to mark the anniversary of the start of the Iraqi war. The film, by award-winning news producer Danny Schechter, gives an in-depth look at media coverage of international events and is available for purchase on DVD (www.wmdthefilm.com).”

OOPS

Yahoo reports: Typing error causes nuclear scare in Sudanese media

A stenographer for the US Congress generated alarming headlines in the Sudanese press this week by giving the mistaken impression that the United States conducted nuclear tests in the African country in 1962 and 1970. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, who had summoned the US on hearing the news, said it turned out that the word Sudan was merely a typing error for Sedan, the name of a nuclear test site in Nevada. “The American administration said that there is a typing mistake,” he told reporters. Mr Ismail said he was very relieved that the media reports were not true.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=7&u=/nm/20050310/od_nm/odd_sudan_nuclear_dc

INSULT OF THE WEEK

David Podvin writes on Makethemaccountable.com

“Ann Coulter is not merely eighty pounds of toxic sewage wrapped in six feet of reptile skin - she is the vicious ghoul that remains after conservatism has been scrubbed of its camouflage. Satan’s concubine has been vocal in her belief that torturing anyone identified as the enemy is good, and that torturing them using the most excruciating techniques is better. Coulter is not alone in the desire to feast on human suffering. Although she is considerably less circumspect than most right wingers, it is instructive that not one prominent conservative has repudiated her.

“Invoking God and country, the Confederates who currently run the United States are striving to make Andersonville a global phenomenon. Since 9/11, Republicans have dispatched domestic agents and foreign surrogates to torture countless people on various continents. Unsurprisingly, the reprobates have not been content to torment their prey physically. Conservatives are implementing a policy to humiliate other human beings, shaming their victims in the vilest ways imaginable, apparently oblivious that the true shame of this outrage is being inflicted upon the United States. Our own pious moralists have disgraced America in the eyes of everyone who does not view savagery as a virtue.

“Republicans say that world opinion is irrelevant, and to this limited extent they are correct: if every other nation approved of torture, it would still be totally indefensible…