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Just found this in my inbox
MEDIA CHALLENGE !
Three Week Action Plan
March 24, 2003 - April 11, 2003
One Call a Day to Democratize Media - an action from Peace Coalitions
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 arms 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 Administration¹s 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@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@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@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@cnn.com CNN SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM). 404.827.1500. cnnfutures@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@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 Women¹s Strike.
NETWORK NEWS EXECUTIVES ADDRESSES
ABC News President: David Westin
77 W. 6th Street
New York, NY 10023
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NBC News President: Neil Shapiro
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
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MSNBC V.P. Live News Programming: Mark Effron
One MSNBC Plaza
Secaucus, NJ 07094-------------------------------------------CBS News President: Andrew Hayward524 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
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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."
***Newsweek¹s disclosure that the Administration¹s most oft-cited best source of intelligence about Iraq¹s pre-1991 weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein¹s late son-in-law, told UN inspectors and the CIA in 1995 that Iraq¹s 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 President¹s personal religious beliefs and close ties to fundamentalists seeking ³apocalypse² 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 Hussein¹s 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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