[Peace] A Film You WILL See on AOTA

[C. G. Estabrook]

On "AWARE ON THE AIR" Tuesday night (10pm ch. 6 in C-U) you can in fact see a 
good bit of Pilger's film -

along with Ron Szoke on "The Descent" and divers alarums, excursions, and 
animadversions from yr. obdt. servt.


It's Flag Day. Come listen to the lies being corrected, on Urbana Public Television

(which actually is "an accessible, responsible, and responsive media outlet.")


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Published on Saturday, June 11, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

_*'The War You Don't See': A Film You Won't See*_

An Open Letter to Noam Chomsky and the General Public
by John Pilger

Dear Noam,

I am writing to you and a number of other friends mostly in the US to alert you 
to the extraordinary banning of my film on war and media, 'The War You Don't 
See', and the abrupt cancellation of a major event at the Lannan Foundation in 
Santa Fe in which David Barsamian and I were to discuss free speech, US foreign 
policy and censorship in the media.

Lannan invited me and David over a year ago and welcomed my proposal that they 
also host the US premiere of 'The War You Don't See', in which US and British 
broadcasters describe the often hidden part played by the media in the promotion 
of war, notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. The film has been widely acclaimed in 
the UK and Australia; the trailer and reviews are on my website www.johnpilger.com

The banning and cancellation, which have shocked David and me, are on the 
personal orders of Patrick Lannan, whose wealth funds the Lannan Foundation as a 
liberal center of discussion of politics and the arts. Some of you will have 
been there and will know the Lannan Foundation as a valuable supporter of 
liberal causes. Indeed, I was invited in 2002 to present a Lannan award to the 
broadcaster Amy Goodman.

What is deeply disturbing about the ban is that it happened so suddenly and 
inexplicably: 48 hours before David Barsamian and I were both due to depart for 
Santa Fe I received a brief email with a 'sorry for the inconvenience' from a 
Lannan official who had been telling me just a few days earlier what a 'great 
honor' it was to have the US premiere of my film at Lannan, with myself in 
attendance.

I urge you to visit the Lannan website www.lannan.org. Good people like Michael 
Ratner, Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald are shown as participants in 
discussion about freedom of speech. I am there, too, but my name is the only one 
with a line through it and the word, 'Cancelled'.

Neither David Barsamian nor I have been given a word of explanation. All my 
messages to Lannan have gone unanswered; my calls calls are not returned; my 
flights were cancelled summarily. At the urging of the New Mexican newspaper, 
Patrick Lannan has issued a one-sentence statement offering his regrets to the 
Lannan-supporting 'community' in Santa Fe. Again, he gives no reason for the 
ban. I have spoken to the manager of the Santa Fe cinema where 'The War You 
Don't See' was to be screened. He received a late-night call. Again, no reason 
for the ban was forthcoming, giving him barely time to cancel advertising in The 
New Mexican, which was forced to drop a major feature.

There is a compelling symbol of our extraordinary times in all of this. A rich 
and powerful individual and organization, espousing freedom of speech, has moved 
ruthlessly and unaccountably to crush it.

With warm regards

John Pilger

John Pilger was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He has been a war 
correspondent, film-maker and playwright. Based in London, he has written from 
many countries and has twice won British journalism's highest award, that of 
"Journalist of the Year," for his work in Vietnam and Cambodia.

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