Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Like Big Tobacco, Coca-Cola has the right to push their product. Like Big Tobacco, Coca-Cola knows of the health risks of their product, yet prefer silence to safeguarding children," writes John Borowski. After publishing an earlier article, Borowski was contacted by Coca-Cola's principal manager of scientific and regulatory affairs, who suggested the piece "misinformed" readers.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Just before the election, a film about Iraq hit art house theaters around the country," writes Eartha Melzer. The "Voices of Iraq" documentary came from more than 400 hours of footage from 150 digital video cameras distributed to people around Iraq.
Wikipedia, the successful open source encyclopedia, is launching a daily news website called Wikinews. Its goal is to "create a diverse environment where citizen journalists can independently report the news on a wide variety of current events." Will it succeed? I think it's got some problems, but also potential.
Submitted by John Stauber on
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, co-authors of the Center's 2003 book Weapons of Mass Deception, appear in filmmaker Danny Schechter's latest movie of the same title, but the movie is completely the creation of Schechter. A review on the Portland Independent Media website asks "what do you get when you cross relaxed media ownership laws, the military industrial complex, and public opinion?
Submitted by Laura Miller on
"In 1996, journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles that forced a long-overdue investigation of a very dark chapter of recent U.S. foreign policy – the Reagan-Bush administration’s protection of cocaine traffickers who operated under the cover of the Nicaraguan contra war in the 1980s," Robert Parry of Consortium News writes. Webb paid a high price for his "Dark Alliance" stories written for the San Jose Mercury News.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
A new campaign charges Sinclair Broadcast Group, the "largest single owner/operator of television stations in the United States," with "misusing public airwaves with partisan news programming." The campaign, by Media Matters for America, MoveOn,
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Should "deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary" be adopted "for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations"?
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
In Kuwait, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was asked why soldiers "had to dig through landfills to find scrap metal to up-armor vehicles." The soldier who asked the question discussed it beforehand with an embedded reporter.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"U.S. Special Operations Command, whose antiterrorist missions are usually conducted in utmost secrecy, is in the market for an ad agency," reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Discovery Communications International (DCI) is about to launch a cable TV network called "the Military Channel," which will focus on all aspects of the armed forces, military strategies and personnel throughout the ages.
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