[Peace] Stop fake news on local TV

[Timothy Karr, Campaign Director]

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that at least 20 federal agencies have made and distributed pre-packaged, ready-to-serve television news segments 
to promote President Bush's policies and initiatives.

Congress' Government Accountability Office determined that these "video news releases" were illegal 
"covert propaganda" and told federal agencies to stop. But last Friday, the White House ordered all agencies to disregard Congress' directive.

The Bush 
administration is using hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to manipulate public opinion. Here's how to stop them:

1. Sign our petition at www.freepress.net/act/fakenews 
and help us get 250,000 people to join our call to Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and local television stations. Tell Congress and the 
FCC to toughen and enforce laws against "covert propaganda" and demand that broadcasters come clean with viewers about using government-produced news.

2. 
Join others in your community to create "citizen agreements" with your local TV stations to stop fake news broadcasts. These agreements are official documents 
filed at the FCC that - if broken - can be used to deny license renewals. Free Press will connect you with others in your area working to ensure local 
broadcasters identify the sources behind the "news."

Unless we speak out now, the White House will continue to act with impunity - taking advantage 
of understaffed and incautious local news operations to manipulate public opinion.

Please take a few moments to sign the Free Press petition and forward 
this message to everyone you know.

Onward,
Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press

John Stauber
Executive Director
Center for Media and Democracy


P.S. 
To learn more, read the in-depth report from Free Press on the systematic effort by the Bush administration to manipulate journalists and the American 
public. It's at www.freepress.net/propaganda/ .

--------
You're receiving this message as a subscriber of the Free Press E-Activist list. To discontinue 
/*Your email ID. <diaEmailID='8808765'/>--*/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/attachments/20050314/ea408dc6/attachment.htm