If any more proof was needed that we live in an upside-down world, the saga of TV news reporters Steve Wilson and Jane Akre serves as the definitive case study. Husband and wife, Wilson and Akre are exhausted emotionally and financially, but also relieved. Their eight-year struggle—known to many from the 2004 documentary, The Corporation—with WTVT, a Tampa, Fla. Fox… return to article
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Reader Comments (16)Page 1 of 1 pagesFox News siding squashing truth and sising with a big corporation?Mercy me!What next?
Strange,you can’t be a foreign citizen and run for president.Foreign nationals can’t be allowed to shape U.S.policies through legislation.However,if you’re Rupert Murdoch,you can set up a propaganda station and facilitate the shaping of U.S. policies that benefit you and your cronies.
Unbelievable.If our current media and politics had been the basis for the film"Network",the plot would have been rejected as too far-fetched.
Posted by wwoods on Jun 23, 2005 at 7:13 AM It is the courage of people like Steve Wilson and Jane Akre that keep hope alive for many of us.
Posted by Emma Squires on Jun 23, 2005 at 10:50 AM The name “FOX NEWS” is a fraud, ipso facto. FOX NEWS is a propaganda outlet for the republican party, period. Every word uttered by a FOX reporter is either an outright lie, or is based on a false premise express or implied (just like the corporate pimps, Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Drudge, etc., etc.). And Tampa, the anus of the bible belt, is the perfect place for this kind of disgrace to occur.
This case demonstrates that ALL GOVERNMENT (all 3 branches, state and federal), under conservative control is government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation.
This case very starkly demonstrates why conservative, corporate, pimps, like the Bush family, Bill Frist, Orin Hatch, James Sennsenbrenner, Tom Delay, etc., are so eager to populate the federal bench with lifetime appointments of other pimps of their ilk, like Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William H. Pryor, Jr.
Conservatism is a disease, like cancer, Bush is a malignant tumor, and they are consuming America.
Posted by Lefty on Jun 23, 2005 at 11:05 AM No one who pays any attention will be surprised with this outcome. Corporate America owns the airwaves and newspapers. So it’s no wonder their cronies can quash a story they perceive as dangerous to their economic well-being. Wake up U.S. The non-thinking, ‘I’ll just accept whatever my government tells me’ crowd will eventually lead us down the very same path supplicant citizens have walked before.
Posted by Oh Yeah on Jun 23, 2005 at 2:09 PM With the recent fight over filibusters in the Senate, the reports of religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy, the glaring lack of discussion in the cowed US press of the “Downing Street memo”, the turning off of microphones in hearings called by democrats to discuss the patriot act’s abuses, and the denial of access to hearing rooms for hearings on the downing Street Memos, the threatening of judges who dare to uphold the law, I hope the entire country has finally seen the real goals and agenda of the Republican Party as it is currently constituted. It is nothing short of the total destruction of all opposition in every arena. The judiciary (and the packing of it) is important in providing a fig leaf of legality to future actions to suspend the bill of rights, the constitution, to destroy what’s left of the social programs, labor rights, workplace safety, environmental protections, civil rights laws, even the right to vote (Justice Scalia has already informed us, in 2000, that the constitution grants no such rights). The secrecy of this administration and the intimidation of those in the press who might actually report the news, along with the administration’s creating their own phony news reports for broadcast, shows a desire on their part to keep the public from finding out what they’re up to.
And what they’re up to is; One party rule, a “Christian” nation, a “Corporate” nation. Does it sound familiar? I hope so. And I hope my senators, and congress-people, and all truly patriotic citizens, resist and reject these moves to legitimize the takeover of this country by right wing extremists.
Any Democrat that voted in favor of confirming torture-memo writing lawyers to head the justice department, incompetent and demonstrably dishonest national security advisors, extremist, activist judges with corporate agendas, or in favor of social security privatization, the bankruptcy reform bill, or any bill that leaves the vote counting in the hands of private companies run by people pledged to elect republicans, must be exposed as the closet republicans that they are, forced out of the party, and out of office, so that the rest of us can get on with trying to save this country from it’s descent into theocratic corporate fascism.
The damage done to this nation by 9/11 pales in comparison to the damage done in the last five years by this president and his policies. It has to be stopped, and stopped now. Democrats have to stop cooperating with it, abetting it, enabling it. Many seem to think that if they observe some code of etiquette in dealing with the other side, that they will do the same. The other side sees this as weakness, and so does the public. The other side has as it’s goal a permanent grip on power in this country, fair elections be damned, the constitution be damned, working people and retirees be damned, hell, even soldiers and veterans be damned.
We all have to try even harder to prevent further erosion of our constitution and our democracy and drive these people (a generous term ) from power. Impeachment is more than warranted, and long, long overdue. This administration truly has committed high crimes.
Posted by Kenneth D. Brown on Jun 23, 2005 at 6:46 PM Just hold on folks. When Hillie takes over in 08 she,ll fix everything. Praise the Lord, Opps we,re not supposed to pray in the upcoming Brave New World under the Clintons and Uncle Teddy.
Posted by Paul Harrington on Jun 24, 2005 at 12:44 PM My heart goes out to both these fine reporters. I blew the whistle once and it’s taken me more than fifteen years to get back to the same salary level I lost. Nevertheless, it was worth it for my own piece of mind. Keep up the good fight!
Posted by Val on Jun 24, 2005 at 12:46 PM Even if Hillary did win in ‘08, she couldn’t POSSIBLY do a worse job that the current chimpanzee we have in office.
Posted by Margaret on Jun 24, 2005 at 4:33 PM Ms. Casten, do you think Akre would be willing to do a phone interview with me? Do you know what happened to the story on the growth hormone?
Posted by Rachel Worthy on Jun 27, 2005 at 12:08 PM Mr. Harrington, in the alleged Brave New World, anyone can pray, they just can’t make someone else pray. It’s about being balanced. Contrary to the talking heads allegations, no one wants to stop you from praying or waving a chicken over your head singing monosyllabic voodoo chants if that’s what you want to do. While it may be what the large percentage of ‘mericans want to do, it doesn’t get to be endorsed, supported or otherwise promulgated by the state, which, we would like to see less of - interfering in personal and private lives.
Posted by T. Dolan on Jun 28, 2005 at 9:41 PM The ability of Conservative Propagandist Fox News to crush a pair of truth telling reporters with the aid of the U.S. legal system is horrifying.
I agree with Ken Brown and Lefty that the right wing has seized control of our government but I am at a loss to explain how the American electorate has let it happen. Mass ignorance on the scale of the German population’s in the 30’s should not be something so easily accomplished today, yet it appears conservatives are doing just that. George W. Bush’s agenda benefits a tiny sliver of the wealthiest members of society, yet he won large support among the middle and lower economic classes in the last election. It is the great existential mystery of our time.
Posted by Bob C on Jun 29, 2005 at 5:49 PM Bob C. said:
“ . . . [B]ut I am at a loss to explain how the American electorate has let it happen. . . .”
It’s easy Bob, put the election in the hands of a private corporation - Diebold - whose chief executive has publicly declaimed his allegience to Bush, and then rig the election, twice.
Add to that some good ‘ol fashioned racial profiling by Jeb Bush in the 4th largest state - revoking the voters’ registration of tens of thousands of legally registered black voters, on the grounds that THERE NAMES WERE THE SAME OR SIMILAR TO names of allegedly illegally registered voters who, supposedly, registered to vote before having their civil rights restored following incarceration. No registered voters with hispanic surnames (predominantly far right-wing Cuban immigrants), had their voters’ registration revoked.
And that was just Florida.
Sure, even if the election wasn’t rigged, a shocking number of idiots still voted for the anti-christ, Bush. But, that’s the result of relentless brainwashing by the corporate media. I don’t believe that a majority of American voters actually voted for Bush.
Posted by Lefty on Jun 30, 2005 at 9:06 AM Bovine growth hormone is a major health problem. For me, it caused over 10 years worth of sinus congestion before I identified it as the source of these problems and switched to organic dairy. If this information had come out in 1997, it could have saved me hundreds of dollars in unnecessary allergy meds. News programs should spend more time informing the public of these problems and not waste our time advertising reality tv shows.
Posted by Daniel on Jul 1, 2005 at 4:09 PM Daniel,
News programs are paid for by advertizements for products made by chemical and drug companies (Bayer, Aventis, BASF, Dow, Dupont, W.R.Grace, ADM, etc., etc.), who have poisoned our food and water supply. The people who produce the news programs don’t have permission to give you that information.
BTW, no one thought my metaphore of Tampa being hte anus of the Bible belt was funny? I’m hurt.
Posted by Lefty on Jul 3, 2005 at 4:51 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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