Full transcript
0:11up hello i'm richard gizbert in your at The Listening Post
0:16this week Hugo Chavez is gone but the check the state government
0:20Nicolas Maduro continues to go out at with the media over the Venezuela story
0:25first it was Glenn Greenwald's partner
0:27now what's good what's known as lawyer held and interrogated flying into
0:31Britain
0:32Amazon's Jeff baeza zones The Washington Post
0:35but is also in business with the CIA does that put the paper in a conflict of
0:39interest
0:40and high and photography thing a couple of russians
0:44snapping away above the clouds over Shanghai
0:47that's our web video of the week ever since anti-government protesters hit the
0:51streets in Venezuela 10 days ago we've been tracking the media coverage of that
0:55story
0:55what began as demonstrations over inflation shortages and a lack of jobs
1:00is now being characterized by president Nicolas Maduro
1:02and the media that back im as an attempted coup d'etat
1:06media outside the country tend to see this story differently
1:09a 24-hour news channel beaming in from neighboring Colombia has had its path in
1:13the Venezuela blocked
1:15on the orders the president then Maturo threatened to kick CNN espanol
1:19out of the country over its coverage for all of the issues that matures
1:23predecessor Hugo Chavez had with the news media
1:26this is the first time venezuela has affectively reigned in coverage from
1:30outside its borders
1:31both the government and the opposition have taken to Twitter to wage their
1:35media battle but many of the images spread
1:37mostly on the opposition side have been exposed as fakes
1:41either older from another country altogether his opponents accuse
1:45president Maduro of muzzling the media
1:47but this isn't the first time Venezuela's democratically elected
1:50government
1:51has accused opposition news outlets at having an agenda that goes far beyond
1:55near journalist our starting point this week is Caracas
1:59going broke
2:02on day one of the protest
2:07venezuelans looking for live comprehensive coverage tuned into
2:11MTM 24 Anthony and again i'd ask the channel is columbia BTV Venezuela's
2:17state-run channel
2:19at Nicolas Maduro looking presidential working
2:22a crowd of supporters re whether columbia some people died
2:26and a lot of people were injured in Cuttack a and in other cities
2:30the coverage was timid and PLO way there were no explanations for this
2:35I know that journalists analyst channels have to verify information
2:39in real time people reporting but that cannot keep us from doing our jobs
2:43fatal journalism is about keeping people informed him adolescence everyone him
2:48for my
2:49the only channel foreign cable channels
2:53that was broadcasting live this protest was taking all the air
2:58so you know really this is a problem because it affected
3:02the right-field ministry lungs Albans felons to be informed
3:06to access to important information I think it the
3:10obviously affected climbing environment in which
3:13journalists and media are during the war
3:16ang here is the government's response from a parliamentarian who deals with
3:20media issues
3:21in Venezuela more see you the press in the country hasn't been objective or
3:25impartial and
3:26they have become a position spoke in the international community should know
3:31did business with a experiencing itself can undoubtedly
3:35supported by the US also the national and international media
3:39are manipulating information saying the government is lashing out
3:44want to demonstrate million gondola money for can be
3:47those are the kinds of arguments many governments make when they clamp down on
3:52their media
3:53accusations have been ideological bias conspiracy theories
3:57and big talker manipulation from the outside
4:00however supporters
4:04up the federal government also argue that it's not paranoia
4:08if they really are out to get you he's very different
4:12to be found freedom of the press when you have a
4:16responsible political the neutral media Howell its
4:19and he's certainly not the case in Venezuela
4:22most of the privately own media outlets are profoundly
4:26and table their views also a clear precedent
4:30the new that president came in 2002
4:35the democratically-elected Hugo Chavez had been in office for three years
4:39having inherited the media landscape controlled mostly
4:42by his right-wing opponents some news outlets including TV channels RCTV
4:47and benefits yawn openly backed the coup against Chavez that led to the
4:51president's
4:52temporary over get out get the living
4:55the coup leaders then went on those channels thank them
4:59and said the coup could not have succeeded without
5:02it took you go cha best three days to regain power the Chevy stirs would never
5:06forget what happened
5:07and the government then went to work redrawing the Venezuelan
5:11media landscape this as being
5:14years in the making when the
5:17event so for our a probe to something to happen
5:21the government oppression chose at that time realize
5:24that the state media route to was being a week
5:27to challenge the influence Primedia and since then
5:31they have built a prosperous state-owned media
5:35that basically are sensors any
5:38opinion on your point of view contradicts
5:42the garment and basically broadcast propaganda
5:46and there are the word the last year only warn
5:50only one critical broadcaster remaining in the
5:55glory shielded
5:59now even global the issue on has changed sides after years of clashes with the
6:04choppers government
6:05and crippling fines for alleged violations have media laws
6:08it was sold off last year to businessmen reportedly tied to the government
6:13Cecilia call monotonous was an editor at Global BC on but quit the day after the
6:17protest began
6:18over the Black Edition she says she relied
6:21on the Colombian channel NTN 24 for the kind of coverage
6:25she could not get domestically then back-channel
6:28want to block as when both are equipped that happened on the 12th of February
6:33I remember because I left my office went home to watch NTN 24
6:37and all of a sudden the signal was cut it to be in person but the wall
6:41this the president made that decision against NPN 24
6:46is it was encouraging violent protest
6:49the government cannot allow that kind of Bapu so we are monitoring many
6:53international China's
6:55such as CNN in espanol save it
6:59lowering the Quattro another theater program has been implemented under a
7:02rock
7:03and some other the Big Green media around the world work trying to
7:07influence
7:08public opinion band it cannot handle him that when I might be helping your
7:12annually on K the government claims that NTN 24
7:16causing havoc they were not they were doing my job
7:20as a journalist I can tell you they were keeping people informed about what was
7:23going on
7:24they were showing images that were not shown but any local channels
7:29don't so opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez his campaign has moved on line
7:35activists have to providing news images not all of which proved to be real
7:40and some even went mainstream sum up the images that where
7:44posted by media hell that's where after was proven to have been taken from our
7:50Greece or Egypt some were shown to have been doctored
7:54the effect of these images is to
7:58mislead at best and or the context allies
8:02at a story you know here the average person
8:05the problem is that people have used social media to fill a void
8:09they've noticed that local media and not doing their jobs
8:12people want to be informed and social networks provide them with an outlet
8:16however most of these people believe everything they read
8:19which is not true they're not journalists they don't realize they need
8:22a source
8:23you to 14 per capita per copy to my a decade ago Hugo Chavez ran the
8:27government and the opposition had most
8:29the me today under Nicolas Maduro the media playing field is still lopsided
8:34but its slanted in favor have the chip East the Bolivar Ian revolution has
8:39transformed the country
8:41the one thing that hasn't changed is when venezuelans turn on their
8:44televisions
8:45they still don't get the full story they still don't really know
8:49what to believe our Global Village Voice is now on the coverage of the story
8:53coming out a Venezuelan
8:55reliable information is very hard to find people are inadequately
8:5811 most dangerous I'm certain times the country has ever faced
9:02people are turned to social media and international news outlets than
9:05or these problems have not received the attention they deserve
9:09me it's important to be due because they give means
9:13protests censorship cases double in the past 12 years
9:17there's less reliable information and more rumors
9:20even that some people tend to share a verified information
9:23or features their social media the economic situation
9:27has been almost entirely ignored since the protests began
9:31and while protesters maintain your focus were becoming clueless
9:35about the central government's economic decisions and actions
9:39wait I'm not listening post newsbytes remember the story of David Miranda he's
9:45the partner Glenn Greenwald he was detained at Heathrow Airport in London
9:49because he was carrying hard drives
9:51containing some other data leaked to greenwald by Edward snow
9:54on the national security agency surveillance story now Snowden's lawyer
9:58says
9:58she's gone through the same kind of think about jessalyn Radack up the
10:01washington-based
10:02NGO the Government Accountability Project says that last week she was
10:06detained
10:07and questioned at Heathrow in a way that she described as
10:10intrusive and ha style and that she was questioned about her trips to Moscow to
10:14meet with snow
10:15raid AHC was on her way to the Ecuadoran Embassy in London to meet with wikiLeaks
10:19founder Julian Assange
10:21when she said she was detained she later said I feel like lawyers and journalists
10:24are now beginning to be targeted
10:27at the borders of countries in the western hemisphere in so-called
10:29democratic countries
10:31David Moran the incident at Heathrow to play six months ago he says he was held
10:35for nine hours
10:36this past week Britain's High Court ruled miranda's the tension was in fact
10:40lawful
10:40deemed to be justified in the interests of national security
10:44last week we look to the intensifying media story that's coming out of Turkey
10:48since then journalists have hit the streets to say enough is enough
10:53on february sixteenth around 200 journalists came out to protest against
10:57what they call censorship in government pressure
10:59marching on the officers the governor of Istanbul the call to the easing the
11:03restrictions
11:04and an end to government interference one participant GM I'm not set
11:08censorship is squeezing journalists
11:10pressure and self-censorship are burning the media
11:13the Prime Minister's interfering with live reports and even some tights
11:17which she was referring to an incident from coverage last year's taxing
11:21protests
11:22went to eat air 21 called haberte RTT demanded that the channel changer
11:26headline
11:27and the editors there comply audiophiles recently leaked online revealed
11:31a newspaper editor colluding with allies at the heir to one government and
11:35altering news coverage
11:36in the government's favor finish that was the reason deportation up my here's
11:40a novel of an azerbaijani journalist
11:42supposedly over an expired visa he had criticized the government
11:46on Twitter and then there's also the highly contentious
11:50internet bill recently passed by Parliament which critics argue with the
11:54government's way
11:54to control the flow of information online in what s an election year
11:58in Turkey gunman in Libya have attacked a television station twice in one week
12:02it's part of a trend of targeting the media there
12:05at midnight on February 12 the Tripoli headquarters our as to my TV
12:09store the gunman forced journalists out before firing
12:13rocket-propelled grenades into the building a week later shots were fired
12:17at the same office no one is reported to have been injured
12:21awsome as a private network but commentator say is a target
12:25because it's critical stance on the general National Congress the country's
12:28main political authority
12:30and for opposing the influence of Islam in Libyan politics
12:33Layla Asare awsome us Ashraf Salazar be said
12:38these people must have a message they want to deliver but this is not our way
12:41and we will continue in the same way and deliver our message and the people's
12:45message
12:45it's a similar story in Ben Ghazi where Libya are our TV a channel
12:49also known to be critical of religious groups in politics was recently attacked
12:53elsewhere in Libya earlier this month four journalists were kidnapped
12:57three of them worked for the state-owned network our Wataniya TP the other for
13:01the state-owned newspaper
13:03tablets
13:06Washington DC is a city of conflict special interests
13:10and for the journalists working their potential conflicts of interest
13:14six months ago just as of the tech barren from Amazon dot com bought the
13:17washington post for $250 million dollars
13:20two months later Amazon a company that's all about data
13:24wanna $600 million dollar contract with the Central Intelligence Agency
13:28for cloud computing services that has set off the alarm bells a group called
13:32roots action .org is asking
13:34how can the post write a piece on the CIA without first disclosing to its
13:38readers
13:39that its owners other company Amazon is being paid to safeguard
13:43the agency's data all this is going down in the wake of the Edward snowden
13:47NSA story on surveillance in america and whatever the post
13:51the only newspaper ever to take down an american president
13:54like many papers it was losing money between fifty and a hundred million
13:58dollars a year but
13:59is a potential conflict I've interest a price that a money-losing publication
14:03simply has to pay
14:05after it gets bailed out by a tech billionaire
14:08The Listening Post flow Phillips now on the post the Amazon CIA deal
14:13and the possible implications for the paper's journalists
14:16the
14:19a basic principle of journalism is to acknowledge when the owner the media
14:23outlet
14:24has a major financial relationship with this subject
14:27have coverage so begins the petition presented to the washington post last
14:32month
14:32requesting the paper be open with its readers
14:35about the fact that its new wood Jabez has recently secured a home
14:41billion dollar deal the data processing in security
14:44between his old company Amazon I'm
14:47CIA so on the one hand Amazon
14:50years paid all this money by the CIA to keep
14:54it secrets as a clandestine agency on the other hand
14:59The Washington Post is reporting online
15:02all sorts of aspects in the CIS big issue no
15:05course surveillance and they were the NSA is doing
15:09with the FBI is doing with the CIA is doing legally or illegally
15:13and so if you have the owner of the POS
15:17breaking about looking forward to our her successful relationships with the
15:21CIA
15:22through Amazon and is at present any conflict for you the fact that you
15:26provide the cloud that the CIA uses
15:29for its data I don't think so give me a break questions countries journalism
15:33requires if it's going to be authentic
15:35that people know what they're getting and the best way to deal with that is to
15:38be candid with the readers whenever there's
15:40substantial coverage at the CIA that's not happening
15:43on the petition signed by more than 33,000 Americans
15:49was taken in person by Norman Solomon the post executive editor
15:53Martin Baron requesting full disclosure about a potential conflict of interest
15:58whenever the post reports on the CIA the paper refused
16:02The Listening Post requested an interview with Aaron
16:06who declined percent isn't email saying no journalists here have
16:10any links to the CIA as is evident from our journalism
16:13with reported aggressively on the CIA and other agencies
16:17much to the consternation poster certainly
16:20been reporting on an essay abuses that really isn't the point it's really
16:25the disclosure shining the spotlight on it let people decide for themselves at
16:29the post reporting
16:30is a good inaccurate and not pulling any punches
16:34but I say that shouldn't trust anything post right about it absolutely
16:38now but should have that information this
16:42built-in conflict when when you do rely on their stories
16:46we put that to Dana priest the post
16:49Pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter much of his work over the past
16:5328 years
16:54has focused on intelligence in counterterrorism it's correct
16:59that they say that we need to
17:02a talk about are conflicts of interest we don't need to do in every story we've
17:08done it before
17:09Jeff bases on suppose now but it's really Amazon that has the relationship
17:13we're gonna be very mindful up the public perception
17:17if any one at the washington post any editor
17:20any owner and publisher ever ever said to me
17:24don't write about that because we have corporate interest
17:27I would be outta there in a second the relationship between mainstream media
17:32outlets in the CIA
17:33is not a unique to the post known you back in 1977
17:38colbern sting one-hopper the reporting team that catapulted the post into the
17:42global spotlight with watergate
17:44produce an extensive report from rolling Stone magazine
17:48exposing previously classified relationships
17:51dating back to the nineteen fifties between the CIA
17:55and some of the most influential media outlets in america
17:58including the New York Times CBS News
18:01and time magazine according to Bernstein
18:05more than four hundred journalists secretly carried out assignments for the
18:09CIA
18:09during the Cold War buns teen wrote reporters shed their notebooks
18:14editors shed that stops including New York Times which
18:18over a 15-year period sent a dozen or so
18:22undercover reporters around the world to provide assistance to the agency
18:26back in 1967 the washington post itself
18:29disclose that the CIA
18:32had been paying had paid a million dollars over five years to the Newspaper
18:37Guild
18:37the Union reporters editors and others and then the
18:4119 seventies there was the Carl Bernstein
18:44peace 19 eighty occurs in salisbury top reporter at The New York Times order
18:50book that three chapters on the times and the CIA
18:53connections so things don't change over time I hated
18:56you know be done Jill Abramson but she is now the executive editor
19:01the New York Times and we wish Ian
19:05the early 2000's Bush US bureau chief in in washington where judy miller was
19:09working for hotels
19:11all mineralized weapons of mass destruction mushroom
19:14whether the health she got promotion
19:17so if these people keep bubbling to the top and then you have
19:21conflicts of interest par excellence on poor people
19:24reserves well polo there's not much hope
19:28that the press the mainstream press is going to give us the right time a day
19:33and given the mainstream media's track record over the past decade
19:37many Americans understandably dubious when it comes to reporting on
19:41intelligence matters
19:42I'm a law was passed in 1996
19:46prohibiting the use of journalists as agents or assets by intelligence
19:50agencies
19:51for congress then could never have foreseen a world in which a tech barren
19:55but by an american media institution with the CIA contract
19:59hanging over them like a cloud triggering questions over conflict of
20:03interest
20:04and demands for disclosure I have to be frank when I read the petition I thought
20:09well have you been reading the washington post we have been
20:13second to nobody in the world reporting on critical stories
20:18having to do with the CIA just last month by road a
20:22very large story called CIA covert action in Columbia
20:26just recently the post again has been out front
20:30on writing about the national security agency
20:33the documents the Edwards snowden has released and we've continued to be
20:38very aggressive in that despite the
20:42critical nature love
20:45the politics around that the revelations from Edward snowden about
20:49the NSA have really shown how deep and wide the surveillance activities go
20:55and so frankly our petition urging full disclosure from the washington post
20:59about their
21:01CIA Bastos Amazon ties
21:05this just begins to pull on the thread you know if it's a
21:08few pixels on a screen if it's a little bit of the ink in the printed article
21:13then people know a little bit more about the conflict of interest that exist
21:18four decades ago the washington post made journalistic history
21:22by taking down a president today it's just another newspaper struggling to
21:27survive the changing economic landscape
21:30which begs the question: can the post or any paper
21:34really afford to look a gift horse like Jeff benzos
21:37in the house more global village voice is now on the washington post
21:43and its owners relationship with the CIA there is particular
21:47residents for washington Post ownership de celos
21:51II doing business with the CIA
21:54through Amazon the poster courses done a lot of terrific reporting on national
21:59security issues
22:00I'm not really sure what the POS can do other than disclose
22:04whenever it's appropriate and executive editor Martin Baron is said he will do
22:09exactly that
22:10I have no reason not to take him at his word and I really think that's about the
22:14best
22:15posted my view that the washington Post management and
22:19Jeff business leader have a conversation about
22:23his business contacts and make proper decisions about
22:27which it does require disclosure the context though
22:30and mister B's a stoner the newspaper beggars can't be choosers at some
22:34appropriate level
22:36although I believe that people involved in politics or
22:39religion or social there's any kind are absolutely entitled to be owners 0
22:45publications the proof is in there forms
22:48well finally here are some of the key attributes that the filmmakers behind
22:54this next video their creative
22:56tenacious they have a healthy disregard for the rules and clearly
22:59no fear of heights Russian photographers but the mic or often battalion skoloff
23:04have made a name for themselves with their daredevil camera work
23:07not only have they just scaled all 650 meters at the Shanghai Tower
23:12China's tallest building in the second tallest in the world they did it without
23:15any harnesses or safety straps they were able to photograph
23:19film and blog about the entire process
23:22what the ascent may have left the owners of the building a little red-faced over
23:26the lack of security
23:27around their skyscraper the duo's video has got more than 23 million hits on
23:31line
23:32and some other pictures are amazing we'll see you next time
23:35at the Listening Post cash
23:39Kristen Wyatt ride
24:281
24:42mama shortly
24:48up
24:53up
24:55up