Shadows of Liberty (2012) - full transcript

Temperatures are generally
in the upper 50's

to around the 60 degree mark
and they'll be rising.

Thanks, I'm Bill Griffith.

We have an update on that crash
that was causing tie ups on

Southbound 163 near the 15.

We spoke to the DEP's
Deputy Commissioner moments ago

and he says that this

main burst simply because it's old,

100 years old to be exact.

Also good to know,
I think I remember the Roeblings

built the Brooklyn Bridge
125 years ago.



In this country,
the most powerful country on earth,

is is so actually difficult
to get information,

especially outside our borders.

Not to mention what's going
on inside this country.

Four hours and 20 minutes ago

at 9:42 PM Eastern Time

that would have put it at five.

Public information,

the news we rely on to learn about

what's happening in the world,

to learn about one another,

is in the hands basically
of commercial enterprises.

And agreement
on health care is close,

- but support could still crumble.
- Giant media corporations like



Time Warner and News Corporation,
Disney, and so forth,

they get to decide what is news,

what is newsworthy,
and what is not newsworthy.

This is America,

how many of you people want to
pay for your neighbor's mortgage?

What the press is
pushing is distortions,

lies, lack of balance.

I have 900 channels on my TV

but 700 of them are selling the...

The American public

knows far more information about
sex scandal, celebrities, Hollywood,

than they know about
economics and the environment.

That's by design.

When was the last time, Governor,

that you were at a
Wendy's and had a Frosty?

Make no mistake about it,

it's to control people's ideas,

it's to control their imagination.

They wouldn't say it in that way

but they would edit my pieces,

they would push me in
different directions,

they would turn down stories
that were more critical.

We're in a profound
crisis of democracy.

You can't choke off discourse

and have a free society.

This is what you get
with drunkard kneeling,

it's... it's gonna happen.

These are stories
you will not be told

on radio, in newspapers,
or on television.

A clash between two worlds,

big media corporations

spinning public
perception for profit

versus the defenders of truth

who stand for liberty
and democracy.

And that's our news for tonight.

I'd often been asked if there
was any pressure on me

because of the kinds
of stories that I do.

I was always asked,

"Are there some stories
that you can't do?

Are there sometimes
that you're not allowed

to report on certain things
because of advertisers?"

And my answer is always,
"Absolutely not."

Two decades after
the end of the Vietnam War

the United States lifted the
trade embargo against Vietnam.

And CBS chief correspondent
Roberta Baskin

looked into one corporation's
search for cheaper labor markets.

The premise for the story
was the fact that Nike

were subcontracting
to these factories

on the other side of the planet,

but they weren't really
taking responsibility

for how the shoes were made.

And I asked to follow the trail.

In August of 1996

Baskin and a CBS News film crew

flew to Vietnam to investigate
the Nike factories.

We were able to kind of
peek through the keyhole but...

We were not allowed inside.

We were barred.

Go!

One of the things that really
shocked me was to discover that

the word Nike had become a verb.

The word Nike meant

to abuse your employees.

There were incidences
of physical abuse,

women who had their
mouths taped shut

for talking on the line.

15 women who were
systematically hit

with a top part of a Nike shoe
around the face and the neck.

It was this disparity
between seeing

the corporate image
that the company sells

and the reality in these factories.

"Just do it, or else."

Roberta Baskin's news report
about Nike abuses

was broadcast on CBS News
television across the United States.

CBS was very pleased,
submitting it for prestigious awards.

For me what was really...

exciting about it was that
the phones rang off the hook.

There was picketing of Nike towns
across the country.

There were boycotts that were being
organized by students on campuses.

We are not a Nike school.
We are not a Nike school.

I realized that it had
touched them kinda nerve.

Nike's labor abuses
reached the media

and the shoe giant came forward
to limit the damages.

We don't have abusive labor
conditions in our factories,

and really never have.

With Nike in denial,

CBS News commissioned Baskin
to do a follow up investigation

working with a
Vietnamese labor group.

Roberta's work was mainly about

the corporal punishment.

We helped add another dimension
to the problems,

the wages and the excessive
amount of overtime.

Nike's not the good guys.

Even though they've done a lot
of commercials saying they are,

but people at that moment realize

that they are not
part of a good team.

As Baskin was putting together

the updated news report
on Nike's labor practices

she received unexpected news
from inside CBS.

I got a call from
my executive producer

who said,
"The story is not gonna air,

it's been taken off schedule.

There's some sort of
deal being made

between Nike and CBS News

for the upcoming Winter Olympics."

The air went out of my soul.

CBS News was paying an enormous
amount of money for the rights.

And so by definition, they would be
seeking out commercial sponsors

who would pour
lots of money into it

so that they could recoup

the millions that they were paying
for the rights of the Olympics.

The 18th Olympic Winter Games
on CBS.

As CBS revealed
their Olympic coverage,

the deal between Nike and CBS
was plain to see.

The women's super-G...

Correspondent
after correspondent

are wearing these
Nike jackets on the air

with a little CBS
something or other,

you really couldn't read it,
in a big swoosh on the shoulder.

Is also scheduled on
the adjacent race course.

That was the deal.

Nike had convinced CBS News to turn
it's correspondents into billboards.

It was heartbreaking.

The CBS News correspondents
were furious.

They had to wear the Nike harkus

whenever they appeared on air.

It's just not done.

Baskin wrote a memo
requesting CBS management

to take the Nike logo
off the correspondents.

CBS had crossed
this incredible line.

How do you trust serious stories

when you're seeing the reporter

wearing a bunch of logos?

Immediately the President of
CBS News responded saying,

"This was a breach of
professional etiquette."

It meant that I should shut up.

How dare I raise a question

about the integrity of CBS News.

After questioning
the deal with Nike

Baskin was removed
from her position

as the chief correspondent
of CBS News.

It wasn't an ordinary transfer,

a change,

it was a demotion.

And it was a demotion
that was ...uh...

to send a message.

I ended up asking if I
could get out of my contract.

The president responded, "Great."

They were, you know,
happy to see me go.

Hi, Mr. Southron.

- I'm Roberta Baskin from CBS News.
- Yeah?

- Yeah?
- I wanted to talk to you about the problems...

To this day
CBS network has buried

both of Baskin's reports
on the Nike sweatshops.

These are the kind of
fundamental conflicts of interest

that result in censorship,

that result in a narrow debate,

and they come directly
from the fact

that we have made these
historical choices

to allow corporations to
own and control our media.

Media today is dominated
by a handful of corporations.

This is a far cry from the
original ideals of the country.

As Americans fought for
independence from imperial rule,

the revolution found
it's inspiration

in an unexpected place.

The United States was in many
senses founded by a journalist,

Tom Paine,

who called Americans to revolution

against a British Empire
that was thought to be

completely unbeatable.

This country was really founded

on the concept that
if you gave citizens

the information they needed

they could govern themselves.

The founders of the United States

gave citizens the fundamental
right to a free press.

A revolution
for freedom of information.

One of the primary reasons
for freedom of the press

was that it was the only way
that people outside of power

could keep the government
from becoming an empire.

Stop militarism,
stop the corruption,

the secrecy, and the cronyism.

That was the function
of freedom of the press.

There is a reason
why our profession,

journalism,

is the only one explicitly
protected by the U.S. Constitution.

'Cause we're supposed to be holding
those in power accountable,

asking the critical questions.

One of the first steps
of the new government

was to encourage the distribution
of independent news

through subsidies.

Read all about it!

This was actually America's
revolutionary contribution.

The genius of the subsidies
is that

it did not discriminating,
it's the content of the newspapers.

The abolitionist movement
didn't start in Congress,

it started in those freely
distributed weekly newspapers.

And that was really
where we began to address

the most fundamental sins
of the American experiment.

It's simply information
that is power.

It's information that frees us,

because when people get information
they then can decide what to do.

Today the founding vision
of America's journalistic independence

has become deeply distorted.

Media is the conversation
we have as a society.

It's the way we learn
about the world,

it's the way we learn
about one another.

We see the range of public debate

constrained because there may be

many things that citizens of a
democratic society need to know about

that private corporations may not
be interested in telling them.

The International Silver Company.

Just as newspapers had been

the driving force behind democracy,

the great hope of the 20th century

was the birth of mass media.

We think Google and
Facebook is a big deal,

imagine what it must have been
like in rural Kansas

to suddenly be able to listen
to a broadcast

from New York City every night.

And now we move down
45th Street to the Music Box Theatre.

You people must have faith.

You must not be stampeded
by rumors or guesses.

Together we can not fail.

It was apparent to
people at that time that

the control over this medium

was going to be a form
of social control.

With advertising
money pouring in,

corporate networks
pressured Congress to uphold profit

as the basis for
American broadcasting.

Your cigarette taste.

This was publicly owned property,

and lots of American protested

the we would turn over
this scarce resource,

these extraordinary airways,

to a handful of private
commercial interests

to make money by selling
advertising to us.

From Hollywood,
the Rolly's cigarette program.

In 1934 Congress passed
the Communications Act,

sealing the future of
America's broadcasting

as a for-profit system.

NBC, CBS, ABC,
these huge empires,

were built upon the gift for free

of monopoly rights to
government property.

It was an extraordinary
corporate welfare

that boggles the mind.

With broadcasting set up
as a commercial enterprise,

government regulations
were put into place

to prevent monopolies.

There was a cross party agreement

that commercial activity would
be regulated by the government.

No individual should have
such dominance of our media

that they could effectively
define the discourse.

The great transition came in
the election of Ronald Reagan

as President of the United States.

Government is not
the solution to our problem,

government is the problem.

Ronald Reagan believed
the answer to any concern,

any question as regards how
to create a good media system

was to get government
out of the way.

In order to
restructure media ownership

Reagan removed regulations.

Driving the bears back
into permanent hibernation,

we're going to turn the bull loose.

That whole model

was the idea that if you removed
all controls and regulations

and allowed the free market rip,

then everything would be fine,

everything would be wonderful.

In reality what it
does is it allows

a handful of giant
corporations to come in

and gobble up everything.

And these conglomerates don't see

journalism as actually
being central and essential

to the functioning of a democracy.

Their main interest
is making profit.

One merger symbolized
the takeover of mass media

by conglomerates seeking
ever higher profits.

For General Electric,

here is Ronald Reagan.

Good evening,
on this last Sunday before Christmas.

The Christmas season is
a time for the family.

People should remember
that Ronald Reagan

was funded by large corporations.

And so suddenly we saw
a radical transformation

of the media system
in the United States.

General Electric and RCA,

two of America's biggest
and best known companies,

in a dramatic move last night
the two announced plans to merge.

We'll now have the
strongest network,

we'll have a stronger
defense piece.

This is gonna be one
dynamite company.

The concentration

of mass media
in the hands of a very few,

very large international
corporations

who have a lot of
different businesses.

Defense business, theme parks.

And news became a
smaller and smaller part

of ever larger corporations.

The Reagan administration
approved General Electric's purchase

of major media holdings,

despite ongoing
violations of industry

laws and practices.

Meanwhile, from General Electric
and from my family and myself,

a merry, merry Christmas.

Eddy, don't you want
to say Merry Christmas?

The original sin was
going to Wall Street.

The demands of wall
street will require

empty desks in your newsroom.

So why don't you minimize
your actual product

and make more money?

Capitalism is not the best judge

of what's good for society.

When I knew it was time to go

the last speech I got from a CEO,

he had been selling cereal,

breakfast cereal,

before he was selling newspapers.

He came in at the bottom where
he gave a speech about the product.

He never once mentioned news.

He never once mentioned...

the role of a newspaper.

We're now at a stage where
every journalist who isn't asleep

understands that corporate
power has made it

impossible for them to do the job

as it needs to be done.

Police, freeze!

One of the biggest news stories
of the 1980s

was the explosion of crack
cocaine in the United States.

The crack epidemic
not only destroyed lives

in the sense that people were
addicted to this powerful drug,

but also it set off gang wars.

Certain communities like the
African American communities

were disproportionately hurt.

Gary Webb,
he began investigating that.

Gary Webb,
he thought being a reporter

was the best thing you could be.

The only independent
force in the society

to establish truth.

What first caught his eye,

he's got Nicaraguans
dirty in a drug deal

and they're not going down,
they're getting a walk.

Now if you're a reporter
you look into that.

As Webb looked at the suppliers
of the crack trade in Los Angeles,

the trail led back
to a U.S.-sponsored war

a decade earlier
in Central America.

The Reagan
administration wanted to be

proactive... uh... in...

uh... sticking it to the
communists around the world.

President Ronald Reagan
authorized the CIA

to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars

building, supporting,
directing the Contras

against the Sandinistas
in Nicaragua.

They are the moral equal
of our founding fathers,

we can not turn away from them.

Sponsoring violence in a
small Central American country

was far more important

Than stopping drugs from flowing in

to our cities and our communities.

After a year long investigation

Webb's report broke new ground

by becoming the first
major news investigation

published both in print
and on the Internet.

As a consequence,

even though the
San Jose Mercury News

is considered a regional newspaper,

it was able to get
national traction

and even international
traction on this story

because it was now on the web.

We've got all the
DEA undercover tapes,

we've got the FBI reports,

we've got the court records,

and they're all posted
for people to see.

By the way,
when you look at his research

and what he was doing,
and tracing it,

and he was hip enough to
check it and know it was true.

By November 1997

the website was getting over
a million hits a day.

Thank you.

What is the word on the street now?

Have you heard about the CIA?

Well you know what?

We have heard,

we have seen,
and now we are moved to action.

With the CIA on the defensive

and the public demanding answers,

the major national newspapers

waded into the controversy.

You have the fact that
the San Jose Mercury News

being in Silicone Valley

was sort of challenging

the gatekeeper function

that the New York Times,
the L.A. Times, the Washington Post,

and other big papers,
had assumed was theirs.

The Washington Post
weighs in and says,

"Gary Webb got it wrong,

but we can't tell you
exactly how he got it wrong

cause we haven't the
fainted god damn idea."

It was accompanied by
a piece that declared

that the African American community

was conspiracy prone.

So that sort of set the tone

that Webb's story
would be dismissed

and to agree, ridiculed.

You had major media outlets

going to the CIA and saying,

"Is this true?"

And the CIA would say,
"Oh no, this is not true."

And then the reportage was,

"Oh, well it's not true."

This is nonsense.

Come on, come on. I mean, come on.

Listen, listen,

there has never been a conspiracy

in this country.

The fact is that the shoddy
reporting on this story

was not from Gary Webb,

it was from his corporate
back detractors.

Now, I had a drink with a
major figure at the L.A. Times

and I asked him
about the crack back,

and he said,
"Look, there were meetings

in the building that
they weren't gonna let

a guy from San Jose, California

come into their turf and
win a Pulitzer Prize."

Expose CIA.

Expose CIA.

Expose CIA.

As the press attacked Gary Webb,

the public protested.

I got involved with the protests

because Gary Webb,
he had no hidden agenda,

he's not lying.

And we gonna put the CIA
and this country on notice.

With the national media
calling for a retraction,

the Mercury News took down
the Dark Alliance website

and reassigned Webb to a bureau

150 miles from his home.

- In the beginning, they were behind you.
- That's right.

And then they caught a wild world
of hell from the establishment media

and now they're not
behind me anymore.

And here is this guy
that had all these awards,

they scar that and broke a story

that everyone warned
him not to break.

All of a sudden a journalist
that should be hailed

is treated like a piece of crap.

A year later the CIA released

it's internal report into
the agency's involvement

with Contra drug traffickers.

There are instances where CIA

did not in an expeditious
or consistent fashion

cut off relationships
with individuals

supporting the Contra program

who were alleged to have engaged
in drug trafficking activity.

The contents of the report,

if you go into the actual
nitty-gritty of them,

what you find is that there
was a serious problem that

the U.S. government knew about it,

and that the Contras were far
more guilty of drug trafficking

and the CIA was more guilty
of looking the other way

than even Gary Webb had suggested.

With the CIA's report

about it's relationship with
Contra drug traffickers,

the media had a chance to
vindicate Webb's investigation.

The New York Times,

they do a story that is
half kind of mea culpa,

"we should have
done more with this,

it was worse than we thought."

And half,
"Gary Webb's still an idiot."

The Washington Post
waits several weeks

and does a rather
dismissive article.

And the L.A. Times never reports

on the CIA's findings.

So even though Webb
was proven correct

he's still considered a flake

who got a story wrong.

When he was interviewing
on another job,

they'd always say, "Aren't you
the guy who wrote Dark Alliance?"

And then they would
kill the interview.

He couldn't make a living
being a journalist anymore,

and that ripped his heart out.

He's despondent about
his inability to find work.

He got his father's pistol,

laid out a certificate
for his cremation,

and then he shot himself.

Frankly you know, if I have
to stand up and take a beating

for putting the issue
of government complicity

in drug trafficking on
the national agenda,

I'll take that beating
any day of the week.

I mean, I was glad
to do this story,

I'm proud of what we did,
and I'd do it again in a second.

We killed one of the few

decent working reporters
in the country.

By that we,
I mean the business I'm in,

media.

With the new
technological revolution,

Congress began drafting
new media legislation.

The media conglomerates
created the fantasy

that if they were allowed to own

dramatically more media

they could make
dramatically better media.

Big is better,

effectively.

Media corporations need
that favorable policy

that's gonna allow them to grow

and make more and more money,

and politicians need that media

to give them the air time that
they couldn't exist without.

Who's left out of that deal,

of course, is the public.

At that point behind closed doors

these media conglomerates
are asking for the rules

to be loosened even more.

Fantasy became reality

for the media conglomerates

when President Bill Clinton signed
the 1996 Telecom Act into law.

This law is truly
revolutionary legislation

that will bring the
future to our doorstep.

Telecom '96 really rang
the dinner bell

for media conglomerates to come
and eat up

every station that they wanted.

Following the Telecom Act

a wave of massive mergers swept
through the media industry.

A handful of entertainment stars

using mega mergers

are preparing to dominate TV
and movie screens worldwide.

The combination
of the two together

gives us the opportunity to become

the strongest creative
company in the world.

The superlatives were flying

as Viacom and CBS announced the
biggest media merger ever.

A new multi media giant

will soon control an enormous
amount of the entertainments.

Viacom is buying CBS,

parent of CBS News.

When you think
about the new Viacom,

you really only have to remember

a single number,

that's number one.

Capitalize on the convergence
of media, entertainment.

Almost as American as apple pie.

The world's largest
provider of Internet access

is merging with the world's largest
media and entertainment company.

When media consolidation
began to happen

the local broadcasters
weren't able to compete.

Well guess who those local
radio station owners were?

They might have been
a person of color,

or it might have been a woman.

This really just knocked
people out of the game.

We've totally
destroyed the localism

of broadcasting purely to
serve corporate interests.

There's nothing in market
economics that justifies it,

it's pure crony capitalism
at it's worst.

In this high tech digital age

with high definition
television and digital radio,

all we ever get is static.

A veil of distortion and lies

and misrepresentations
and half truths

that obscure reality.

In times of war the press
loses all critical distance.

Journalists see themselves as

first and foremost, patriots.

The result is essentially

the dissemination of propaganda.

In the word's media capital,

on September 11th, 2001,

the unthinkable happened.

The people who knocked
these buildings down

will hear all of us soon.

The terrorist attack
of September 11th,

as tragic as it was,

was almost like a godsend
to the Bush administration

because it gave
them the raisondetre

that they were looking for

to invade Iraq.

To link Saddam Hussein to 9/11

the Bush administration turned
to the intelligence community.

You have to remember this
is not an inductive process,

it's inductive.

You decide to go to war

and then you go find
the justification.

And this is exactly what happened.

Look, I ran Iraqi operations.

We didn't have any information.

With no evidence of
Saddam Hussein's role in the attacks,

defectors starting
emerging from Iraq

with exclusives for
U.S. news outlets.

There was an Iraqi

by the name of
Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri.

He claimed to have
evidence of you know,

biological and nuclear,

and various kinds of
weapons of mass destruction.

He also talked about

various facilities being
under Saddam's main palace,

he talked about nuclear facilities
being disguised as water Wells.

I mean, he was their
best corroboration

that Saddam was stockpiling
weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam has resumed his efforts
to acquire nuclear weapons.

Among other sources
we've gotten this

from first hand
testimony from defectors.

We know where they are,

they're in the area
around Tigrett and Baghdad

and east, west, south,
and north somewhat.

The success
of their propaganda campaign

would depend on one news outlet.

I watched this from the inside.

They created a stage
and broad journalists

into the audience dutifully
took notes and reported it.

They believed all the
crap they were fed.

The New York Times

is the intellectual and
political opinion leader

in the United States.

Sucking up the government in
the most outrageous ways.

Constantly trying to placate

the Military Intelligence Complex.

There's a story in the
New York Times this morning.

Read in the New York Times today.

And I want to trip to the Times
and I want to talk about this week.

Closer to
acquiring nuclear weapons.

We don't want the smoking gun
to be a mushroom cloud.

The smoking gun...

That could come in the form
of a mushroom cloud.

With the mainstream media
convinced of the necessity for war,

the administration took their case

to the world stage.

The coup de gras

and the most brilliant
propaganda maneuver of all

was Colin Powell's
absolutely fraudulent

presentation in front of the
united nation's security council.

Let me share with
you what we know

from eye witness accounts.

We have first hand descriptions

of biological weapons
factories on wheels

and on rails.

And Saddam Hussein has not...

Much of the
fabricated information

that was passed on by the
quote on quote, "defectors"

form the basis for
Colin Powell's accusations.

He didn't have any hard
evidence, but...

You should have seen the

press fall all over themselves

as soon as he was done
saying that this had

been a definitive case for war.

This irrefutable, undeniable,
incontrovertible evidence today.

Colin Powell brilliantly
delivered that smoking gun today.

He just flooded
the terrain with data.

He has closed the deal.

CNN, FOX, CBS, ABC,

the giant echo chamber that creates
public perception in the United States

were giving out the
administration lines.

Show down Iraq.

If America goes to war,

turn to MSNBC.

If you looked at
the television screens

with these graphics,
and drum-rolls,

and countdown to Baghdad,
and this kind of stuff,

it was a raw and open

celebration of American power.

This hour American
and coalition forces

are in the early stages
of military operations

to disarm Iraq,

to free it's people,

and to defend the world
from grave danger.

After the fall of Saddam,

Al Haideri,

the INC's defector,

finally had the chance
to show the world

the justification for war.

Mr. Haideri couldn't bring
these guys to a single place

that he claimed had housed the
weapons of mass destruction programs.

The media fell hook,
line, and sinker

for the administration's
case for war.

And in fact,

certain publications appear
to have been deliberately used

and openly receptive of

information that the
Bush administration

produced that was wrong

but that bolstered
it's case for war.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the President of the United States.

King, John king.

This is a scripted...

Thank you, Mr. President. How...

You can not go against
the White House and survive.

You're finished.

April.

Did you have a question
or did I call upon you cold?

- I have a question.
- Okay.

I'm sure you do have a question.

The whole idea in Washington
is to marginalize people

who go against the consensus,

and they do it very well,
you don't get invited to the party.

For me to blame the reporters
is to miss the point,

you have to blame the owners.

These are the people
who are responsible

for the conduct of the
people who work for them.

I want everybody to
get back, in the back of it now.

It is my belief that wars really
are started by the mainstream media.

It is my belief that the press
getting too close to the government,

actually, we are talking about

a sort of interbreeding

or intermeshing between

the structures of
the mainstream media

and this structure of the
Military Intelligence Complex.

The impact is that
we've got all of these

innocent people in
Iraq that have died,

we've got thousands
of American soldiers

and British soldiers
that have died.

They died for a lie that
was so easily uncovered,

but it wasn't allowed in
the biggest news outlets.

These private corporations are
making profit off the killing.

They push for more war,
it builds their audiences.

They limit the discussion about
whether war should continue.

The bring you the general
versus the colonel,

or the pro-war Republican versus

the pro-war Democrat,

and they have these
extremely limited debates.

When most people are
outside of that spectrum,

most people are against war.

The rapid consolidation of media

across broadcast,
also into film, book publishing,

created a situation

where instead of having
the democratic media system

that the founders anticipated,

with thousands of different owners

of small weekly newspapers.

You no longer had Tom Paine,

you had Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert is any
agenda that you want to shape.

For example, take the war.

You're having a global
media enterprise,

and if you shape that agenda at all

in terms of how the war is viewed?

No, I didn't think so.
I mean, we've tried.

Tried in what way?

Well, we basically
supported our papers, and um...

I would say supported... uh...

The Bush policy.

News Corp and
others have eaten out

nearly every single
independently managed newspaper

with the United States.

That is something that
is quite dangerous,

in putting it's business interests

and it's political interests
over the top of all that.

In order to
prevent media monopolies

the Federal
Communications Commission

was charged with
regulating the media.

The most important
job the FCC has

is looking out for regular citizens

and making sure that whatever
media policy is made,

that it's the best for the public

and the best for democracy.

- I'm available for questions.
- So.

Colin Powell leads
the drum beat for war,

and his son Michael Powell

was attempting to lead
the war against diversity,

of voices at home.

Once in office Powell waged war

against the last remaining
rules on media ownership.

Here is this agency that
very few people knew about.

And they were trying to
push through regulations

that said, "In a town, the...

Newspaper, radio, and television
could be owned by one person."

By a media mogul,

someone like Rupert Murdoch.

This is what people
feared the most,

that all the content for TV,
radio, and the newspaper,

coming out of one shot.

A one size fits all,

one news room community.

There was
almost no public scrutiny

until Michael Powell called
network coverage of the Iraq war,

"Thrilling."

There were these
millions of people

and they hear the FCC guy

is calling the coverage "Thrilling"

while he's trying to obliterate
the last remaining rule.

And it just tapped into this anger

that people were
feeling about the war.

Despite millions of people
protesting against the FCC,

Michael Powell didn't
get the message.

♪ Mass communication ♪

♪ Is the end of democracy ♪

Even when people did say,

"Hey FCC, we're the public,

we don't want you to do this."

The FCC turned around
and did exactly

what those mega-corporations
wanted it to do in the first place.

With victory at hand,

the media giants publicly expressed

their gratitude.

And it was pretty stunning.

The head of Viacom,
the Sumner Redstone,

he repeatedly said,

"Having a Republican
in the White House

is better for my company.

And I vote Viacom

and for that reason
I endorse Bush's election."

These large
conglomerate companies,

they contribute to
political campaigns.

They expect to get
something for their money.

Deciding on their own and
for their own purposes

the news we see and hear.

Is an inescapable conclusion

that we must reach if we are to
have a better society.

The only reliable,

durable,

and perpetual guarantor
of independence

is profit.

Thank you.

Every aspect of our lives,

from what we buy,

what is sold to us,

who produces it,

all those things are connected.

It's not only a monopoly of wealth,

it's a monopoly of
information as well.

In 2007,

with the FCC reviewing
it's media ownership rules,

the public came forward.

Millions of people
wrote to Congress,

wrote to the FCC,

emailed,

spoke out at forums.

You'd have a forum of 1,000 people,

this was unheard of,

saying, "No."

One media mogul can't own the radio,
television, and newspaper in a city.

Here was an example
where the public had intervened

and gummed something up.

Under new Chairman Kevin Martin,

the FCC announced public hearings

on media ownership in cities
across the U.S..

We have some of the most
entertaining people on the planet,

but we don't know a lot about
what's going on in the world

because the way our world is,
we have something.

Four companies controlling the
6% of four places of your markets.

That is not diverse,

it is not competitive.

Look where I am,
we are concerned citizens.

We're tying to believe
that we matter,

don't make fools of us.

And I beg the FCC to help us.

You can switch
from channel to channel

and see the same thing.

It's very clear that
this country has become

profits over people.

Despite overwhelming public
opinion against more consolidation,

Kevin Martin sided with
the media conglomerates

and removed the
cross ownership ban.

The two Democratic
commissioners have voted.

What Kevin Martin
did was demonstrate

his absolute
thoroughgoing contempt for

doing his job and representing
the public interest.

Embracing entirely the interest

of wealthy
corporate benefactors, period.

Pure and simple.

I think the people
that own the media

would be much happier

if we were a nation
of mindless consumers

rather than a nation of
informed, active citizens.

To seize this moment
we have to ensure

free and full exchange
of information.

That starts with an open Internet.

I will take a back seat to no one

in my commitment to
network neutrality.

Because once providers start...

It's simple, it's net neutrality,

it's non discrimination,

and it's a basic
principle that politicians

pay lip service to it.

That if the same players like AT&T,

Comcast, and Time Warner,

are able to take over the Internet

through lax public policy,

that we'll lose even the Internet.

Despite his election promises,

President Obama has brought in new

Internet pricing rules,

going against the principles
of a free and open Internet.

It is by making publishing
cheap, that permits

many more people to
become publishers

that permits many
more different voices.

That's where the Internet
has really excelled.

Blue Helix has published
a lot of information

about war,

about militaries, how they behave,

intelligence organizations.

And that information often comes
as a surprise to the public.

It's because the public
has been lied to.

Come on, fire.

We have moved the envelope for

what is acceptable
for people to publish.

The United States do something
to stop Mr.Assange.

We're looking a that right now.

Mr. Connels says he's
a high-tech terrorist,

others say this is akin to the
Pentagon Papers, what do you comment?

I would argue that it's closer
to being a high-tech terrorist

than the Pentagon Papers.

The greatest fight we have had

in bringing the first
amendment to the world

was in the bringing the first
amendment to the United States.

This guy's a traitor,
a treasonist, and... and...

and he has broken every
law of the United States.

Will the Internet remain free

or will a few companies be able
to control and monetize it?

That's the debate of the era.

We have to stop,

recognize that our
media is in crisis,

and ask ourselves,

what is the media that we want?

We want more information,

access to more information,

we have fewer people who
control the information.

Can't allow this country
to go down for the count

'cause some guys in Wall Street can't
make money producing garbage news.

The media is that kind of issue

where if we want it to be better

we have to fight for it.

These are the critical battles
we face right now

in the United States and frankly,

in the countries around the world.

How we respond to this moment

will be every bit as definitional

as how the founders
responded to their moment.

This is really about
having a conversation about

what kind of decisions
we want made in our name.

That's really what will save us,

is when we really
know what's going on.

Not filtered through the lens

or the microphone of corporation.