[Peace-discuss] [Peace] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl security journalism martyr Gary Webb

Sat Oct 18 19:21:08 EDT 2014

Stuart

Sorry,  if I utilized the "wrong" Peace List of communication, I know I've done this before. However, in this case I think I was in compliance, given my goal was an attempt to enlighten, announce, or advertise alternative news media, based upon Robert's assessment of the film and the realities of yesterday and todays media.  It took me a while after returning to the US a few years ago, to discover the NYT's etc., can't be trusted to deliver accurate information. So I hope my response to Robert, will not be filtered out.

Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:15:28 -0500
Subject: Re: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl security journalism martyr Gary Webb
From: yaaqovz at gmail.com
To: salevy at illinois.edu; slevy at ncsa.illinois.edu
CC: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org; peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; peace at lists.chambana.net; karenaram at hotmail.com

Stuart, 

Robert correctly sent this to peace-discuss.  Then Karen's reply was not filtered, and was sent also to peace at lists. Is there anything you can do to filter out peace-discuss from those who want also announcements of peace at lists?
Thank you,

Ya'aqov

On Sat, Oct 18, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Karen Aram via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> Robert
>  
> Excellent review of the film "Kill the Messenger", thank you. I do challenge
> your last statement that "there is no alternative to US main stream media",
> or rather our corporate owned media, there is however "Democracy Now", " The
> Thom Hartmann Show", "Aware on the Air", " News from Neptune" all on UPTV 6,
> and RT News, though no criticism of Russia takes place, also does a good job
> of covering international news on station Mhztv, along with Peter Lavelle's
> "Crosstalk" on Sundays which like NFN offers more indepth analysis. I am
> just referring to the tv programs which challenge mainstream media. There
> are many links, blogs, etc. out there, not to mention some of the radio
> programs.  The only newspaper I have come across is the Public I published
> here locally.
> "Democracy Now" did cover the film "Kill the Messenger," and the actual
> events of the time, a couple weeks ago.
>  
> If we think the food might be poisoned maybe we shouldn't eat it at all.  
>  
> ________________________________
> Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 12:27:19 -0500
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] @ the Art: "Kill the Messenger" docdrama on natl
> security journalism martyr Gary Webb
> From: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>
> By happy chance, I saw the movie "Kill the Messenger" at the Art last night.
> I say happy chance because I had never heard of the movie until I saw it
> listed on the marquee. I happened to be downtown and thought, what's at the
> Art?
>
> Folks who were active in the Central America solidarity movement will
> remember that Gary Webb, a journalist at the San Jose Mercury News, "broke
> the story" in mainstream media terms about how the CIA supported
> drug-runners during the Contra war and "looked the other way" (at least)
> while these drug-runners brought cocaine into the United States, fueling the
> "crack cocaine epidemic" in urban America.
>
> But for an audience today, the story of the movie that is to me so resonant
> and powerful is not that the CIA supported drug runners without a care to
> the consequences of that for urban Americans; that's old news. The story of
> the movie that is resonant and powerful today is how mainstream American
> journalism betrayed Gary Webb. Instead of following up the story, newspapers
> like the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times set
> out to destroy Gary Webb.
>
> This was a guy who was established in his career as an investigative
> journalist. If you look at his entry on Wikipedia, every year or so he got
> another award for investigative journalism for publicly exposing wrongdoing
> by powerful bad guys, for things he wrote alone or with others.
>
> He didn't set out to expose wrongdoing by powerful bad guys in the U.S.
> government. He stumbled across it. But having done so, he wouldn't accept
> the idea that exposing wrongdoing by powerful bad guys in the U.S.
> government was off-limits. He thought that was part of his job, too. It
> reminded me of the young prosecutor in the Costa-Gavras movie "Z," who
> didn't get the memo that the generals in the Greek military junta were
> off-limits.
>
> For his service to the public, mainstream American journalism destroyed Gary
> Webb's career and destroyed his life.
>
> I highly recommend seeing the movie, particularly for its portrayal of the
> Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. These are good images to keep in
> mind as we consume mainstream U.S. media. We have no alternative to
> consuming mainstream U.S. media, just like someone in prison has no
> alternative to eating the prison food. But if we think that the food might
> be poisoned, we should eat it very carefully.
>
> ===
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
>
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