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<p style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>________________________________________________<br>
<br>
<br>
Rui Correia<br>
Coordinator, </span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:navy'>Southern Africa</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> WSIS Partnership<br>
(Media Institute of </span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Southern Africa</span></font><font size=2
color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>, SACOD, Highway </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Africa</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>)<br>
</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>38
Finch St</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
color:navy'>,<br>
</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Ontdekkers</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Park</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>, Roodepoort,<br>
</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Johannesburg</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>, </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>South Africa</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'><br>
Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336<br>
Cell (+27) (0) 83-368-1214</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'> </span></font><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></font></b><font
size=2 face=Tahoma><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
Update: Bush's War on the Press</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
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<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>Dear
Rui Correia: </span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>A host
of recent developments have made it clear that the Bush White House is doing
battle against the journalistic standards and practices that underpin of our
democracy. With its unprecedented campaign to undermine and stifle
independent journalism, Bush & </span></font>Co. have demonstrated brazen
contempt for the Constitution and considerable fear of an informed public.</p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>Free
Press has launched a campaign to chronicle and combat Bush’s war on the
press. Today, we published <a
href="http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=59381054&url_num=2&url=http://www.freepress.net/presswar"
mce_real_href="http://www.freepress.net/presswar"><b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>a new report</span></b></a> showing the scope and intensity of the
administration’s assault on press freedoms. The growing list of attacks
on the press is truly astonishing:</span></font></p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Infiltrating Public Broadcasting</span></font></b><br>
White House loyalists inside the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have
launched a crusade to remake PBS, NPR and other public media into official
mouthpieces. Kenneth Tomlinson’s tenure at the CPB was characterized by
targeting journalists like Bill Moyers who dared to air dissenting voices or
prepare investigative reports on the administration. </p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>Tomlinson's
goal was clearly to fire a shot across the bow of all public stations so
managers would shy away from the sort of investigative journalism that might
expose Bush administration malfeasance. Tomlinson resigned in disgrace but
left behind a cast of cronies to carry out his partisan crusade. And we still
don’t know the extent to which Karl Rove and others at the White House
orchestrated his efforts.</span></font></p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Manufacturing Fake News</span></font></b><br>
Under Bush administration directives, at least 20 federal agencies have
produced and distributed scores of "video news releases" out of a
$254 million slush fund set up to manufacture taxpayer-funded propaganda.
These bogus and deceptive stories have been broadcast on TV stations
nationwide without any acknowledgment that they were prepared by the government
rather than local journalists.</p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>The
segments — which trumpeted administration “successes,”
promoted its controversial line on issues like overhauling Medicare, and
featured Americans "thanking" Bush — have been repeatedly labeled
"covert propaganda" by investigators at the Government
Accountability Office.</span></font></p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Bribing Journalists</span></font></b><br>
The administration has paid pundits to sing its praises. Earlier this year,
TV commentator Armstrong Williams pocketed $240,000 in taxpayer money to laud
Bush’s education policies. Three other journalists have since been
discovered on the government dole; and Williams admits that he has "no
doubt" that other paid Bush shills are still on the loose.</p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>The
administration has even exported these tactics. According to the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Los Angeles Times</span></i>, the </span></font>U.S.
military is now secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written
by American troops.</p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Lying about the </span></font></b><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Iraq</span></b><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>
War</span></b><br>
The White House saw the battle for domestic popular opinion as one of the
main fronts in the war in Iraq. With the help of a compliant media, truth
became the first casualty in their campaign to whip up support. But rather
than admit to their lies and misinformation, the administration continues to
attack those reporting the truth.</p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>As
Frank Rich recently wrote in the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>New York
Times</span></i>, the administration’s "web of half-truths and
falsehoods used to sell the war did not happen by accident; it was woven by
design and then foisted on the public by a P.R. operation built expressly for
that purpose in the White House."</span></font></p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Eliminating Dissent in the Mainstream Media</span></font></b><br>
Bush has all but avoided traditional press conferences, closing down a prime
venue for holding the executive accountable. On those rare occasions when he
deigned to meet reporters, presidential aides turned the press conferences
into parodies by seating a friendly right-wing “journalist,”
former male escort Jeff Gannon, amid the reporters and then steering
questions to him when tough issues arose.</p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>They
have effectively silenced serious questioners, like veteran journalist Helen
Thomas, by refusing to have the president or his aides call on reporters who
challenge them. And they have established a hierarchy for journalists seeking
interviews with administration officials, which favors networks that give the
White House favorable coverage.</span></font></p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Gutting the Freedom of Information Act</span></font></b><br>
The administration has scrapped enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act
and has made it harder for reporters to do their jobs by refusing to
cooperate with even the most basic requests for comment and data from
government agencies. This is part of a broader clampdown on access to
information that has made it virtually impossible for journalists to cover
vast areas of government activity.</p>
<p class=body><b><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-weight:bold'>Consolidating Media Control</span></font></b><br>
The administration continues to make common cause with the most powerful
broadcast corporations in an effort to rewrite ownership laws in a manner
that favors monopoly control of information. The Federal Communications
Commission will announce plans to rewrite the ownership rules soon – it
could happen as early as February – with aims of unleashing a new wave
of media consolidation. The administration’s desired rules changes
would strike a mortal blow to local reporting and further squeeze
journalists.</p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><font size=1 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Verdana'> </span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>In a
famous 1945 opinion, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black said that "the
First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible
dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is
essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a
free society." In other words, a free press is the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>sine qua non</span></i> of the entire American
Constitution and republican experiment.</span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>We
started Free Press because our democracy demands a diverse and independent
media. The Bush administration’s attack on the foundations of self-government
requires a response of similar caliber. I hope you’ll join me in the
year ahead as Free Press works to hold the administration accountable for all
its attacks on journalism and see that such abuses will not be repeated in
the future.</span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>Please
take a moment to visit our <a
href="http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=59381054&url_num=3&url=http://www.freepress.net/presswar"
mce_real_href="http://www.freepress.net/presswar"><b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>online campaign</span></b></a> to defend democracy from the White House
assault on the media.</span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>Onward,</span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>Robert
W. McChesney<br>
President<br>
Free Press<br>
<a
href="http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=59381054&url_num=4&url=http://www.freepress.net"
mce_real_href="http://www.freepress.net">www.freepress.net</a></span></font></p>
<p class=body><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>P.S.
Know more people who would like to keep updated on this and other media
reform issues? Urge them to <a
href="http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=59381054&url_num=5&url=http://www.freepress.net/action/signup.php"
mce_real_href="http://www.freepress.net/action/signup.php"><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>join our e-activist list</span></b></a>. The more
people you enlist in the movement for media reform, the better our chances of
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