On Sat, 12 Aug 2000 00:12:13 -0500 (CDT) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: NADER TELLS JURY DISTORTING THE NEWS IS AGAINST THE LAW By STEVE WILSON TAMPA (July 20,2000),Ralph Nader's appearance on the witness stand highlighted the fourth day of testimony in the trial of the two former Fox journalists who say they were fired for refusing directives to air false and misleading information about bovine growth hormone. After three more courtroom attempts by Fox lawyers to block his testimony as unwarranted and prejudicial, Nader sat in the witness box and told the jurors how television broadcasters have a legal as well as ethical duty not to distort news broadcast. Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not been aggressive in enforcing the law against it, he said, the commission has previously stated "there is no act for heinous" than deliberate distortion of the news by companies who hold broadcast licenses and supposedly serve the public trust. Under questioning by co-plaintiff Steve Wilson, Nader said any reporter who would go along with such directives would himself be guilty of violating the law that forbids it. Although Fox lawyers had filed and lost a motion en limine to keep Nader from even coming to Tampa to testify, they put forth another strong argument again after he arrived at the courthouse. Judge Ralph Steinberg again overruled the objections after co-plaintiff Jane Akre's attorney made a case that Nader is indeed qualified to offer expert testimony about the public interest requirements of the Communications Act which governs broadcasters. Even after Nader took the stand and began to testify, Fox lawyer William McDaniels stood up repeatedly to voice objections to many of the Nader's responses. Most of those objections were overruled by the court. Nader's testimony which lasted about thirty minutes and that of Florida dairyman Charles Knight interrupted three days of testimony from Akre who finally stepped down from the witness box at the end of the day Thursday. Knight drove 200 miles to tell the jury about his experiences with rBGH and with Akre who had contacted him as part of her investigation. Knight said the reporter was properly skeptical of the information he provided, but that she acted professionally at all times. The defense has suggested the journalist may have had her mind made up to do a critical story about Monsanto even before she gathered the facts. The trial continues Friday with testimony from Forrest Carr, the plaintiffs expert on ethical journalism. Dr. Michael Hansen, a scientist for Consumers Union, will also testify offer expert testimony on rBGH. Akre was never shaken on the witness stand in hours of cross examination by Fox attorney McDaniels. She acknowledged a contentious atmosphere with Fox editors and lawyers in wake of repeated pressure from them to distort the BGH story but she said she never acted improperly. She said she wrote and handed in stories as requested but in the end, Fox never broadcast any of the drafts she and Wilson wrote. (end of paste) 2) Another current breaking item is ABC News's announcement it will air on 20/20 some sort of retraction tomorrow (Friday). The story by John Stossel several months ago claimed lab analysis had shown organic produce to be contaminated. The lab that was named later denied it had conducted those particular tests. Nevertheless, ABC actually re-broadcast the story a few weeks ago. I'm pasting a story below. Sorry, no web site for this one. (start of paste) ABC to Apologize for "20/20" Report by Josh Grossberg Aug 8, 2000, 1:00 PM PT ABC News has announced it will issue a rare mea culpa on Friday's edition of 20/20 for a fraudulent on-air report by Stossel on the safety of organic foods. In his "Give Me a Break" segment first aired February 8 and repeated July 7, Stossel asserted organic foods contain more pesticide residue than conventional supermarket foods, and are less safe to eat. Stossel said his claims were based on tests commissioned by ABC News that revealed "by a small margin, more of the organic produce was contaminated [by E. Coli bacteria] than the conventional stuff." He then concluded by saying that, although the food supply is "pretty safe," organic foods may be "no better and maybe worse" for consumers trying to eat healthy. Soon after the report first aired, the Washington, D.C., based Environmental Working Group questioned the validity of the story. The group launched its own investigation (a report titled "Give Us a Fake"), which accused the network of faking pesticide tests and debunked each of Stossel's claims. In a July 31 letter to Westin, EWG President Kenneth Cook wrote: "I am writing to inform you or our conclusion that ABC News does not possess, and has never possessed, the test results Mr. Stossel reported. The reason is simple: we have confirmed with the experts ABC hired for its organic food story that the pesticide test results in question do not exist because no such laboratory tests were ever conducted for ABC News." Stossel told the group through his assistant that he would not respond "in any fashion" to their accusations. That is, until ABC announced that Stossel himself will apologize on Friday's broadcast for his mistake, acknowledging that pesticide tests were never really conducted. While Cook and company has called on ABC News to fire Stossel for his "remarkable breach of journalistic ethics and conduct," an analyst speaking for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting believes he'll most likely stay on the job. "He'll be disciplined but not in any severe way," said FAIR analyst Peter Hart. "I think the most troubling thing is that EWG released the information in February and ABC was less than interested in looking into it. It's aired twice and only now are they looking at the error. However, we'd rather ABC look at his overall record." Stossel's been in another recent toxic broiler over a 20/20 report that raised doubts about the real-life Erin Brockovich's research into Chromium 6, which helped a small California desert town win a whopping $330 million settlement against utility Pacific Gas & Electric. Brockovich, whose life story became the basis for the hit Julia Roberts film Erin Brockovich, said Stossel's report was not grounded in fact. (end of paste) I'm very grateful to Chiapas-L for providing information I could get nowhere else. I hope this post of mine will not be deemed off-topic. Anyone interested in following developments in sustainable agriculture may be interested in subscribing to [EMAIL PROTECTED] John Lozier At 07:08 AM 8/5/00 -0500, Harry M. Cleaver wrote: Another example of how the mainstream media misrepresents and misleads the public about the real situation in Chiapas. Even with Julia Preston out of Mexico we continue to face the same old problem! Harry On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Cupcaketoo wrote: Reuter's story abreviated: <snip> A member of the Human Rights Network identified the authors of the Thursday attack as members of the paramilitary group Peace and Justice, which is believed to be linked to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). It is not "believed to be", it is public knowledge that they have been funded by the state! <snip> Peace and Justice is one of several groups of armed civilians that surfaced after the Zapatista rebels declared war on the government in 1994 over the rights of poor and indigenous citizens. The group did not just "surface", it was financed by the state as one of many such groups financed, armed and trained by the state as an integral part of the its counterinsurgency war against the Zapatista communities. We know this from official government docuements as well as endless reports. The government has acknowledged the existence of at least 16 such groups and has stepped up efforts to disarm them amid a series of violent attacks. This is little or no evidence that the government is making any efforts to disarm them, on the contrary. A few were jailed after Acteal under the searing gaze of international public opinion but that's about it. <snip> ............................................................................ Snail-mail: Harry Cleaver Department of Economics University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712-1173 USA Phone Numbers: (hm) (512) 442-5036 (off) (512) 475-8535 Fax:(512) 471-3510 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP Public Key: http://certserver.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=hmcleave Cleaver homepage: http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/index2.html Chiapas95 homepage: http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html Accion Zapatista homepage: http://www.utexas.edu/students/nave/ ........................................................................... <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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