All language subtitles for 2016. ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE Truth, Deception and The Spirit of I.F.Stone

♪

♪

♪

And in all of my
years of public life,

I have never
obstructed justice.

And I think, too,
that I can say,

That in my years
of public life,

That I welcome
this kind of examination

Because people
have got to know

Whether or not their
president is a crook.

Well, I'm not a crook.

♪

To share with you what
the United States knows

About iraq's weapons
of mass destruction,

Every statement
I make today

Is backed up by sources,
solid sources.

These are not assertions.

What we're giving
you are facts

And conclusions based
on solid intelligence.

♪

Renewed hostile actions
against United States ships

On the high seas
in the gulf of tonkin

Have today required me

To order the military forces
of the United States

To take action in reply.

So, what I wanted to see

Is if you could give me a yes
or no answer to the question:

Does the nsa collect
any type of data at all

On millions or hundreds
of millions of americans?

No, sir.

It does not?

Not wittingly.

You have to get rid
of this ignorant

And meddlesome majority.

Control them, make sure
they do the right things

All for their
own good, incidentally.

If they're allowed
to participate,

They'll make all kind
of mistakes, errors,

But we,
the responsible men,

We know how to do
the right thing

Like get into
the vietnam war

And invade iraq and
deregulate the banks

So that everything crashes.

We--we get
everything straight.

♪

My fellow citizens,
at this hour,

American and
coalition forces

Are in the early stages
of military operations

To disarm iraq,

To free its people,

And to defend the world
from grave danger.

♪

I believe,
very deeply,

In freedom
of the press

And the role of press
in a free society,

And I have ever
since I was a kid.

You can't fulfill your
function unless you're free.

One of the great reporters of
the 20th century, I.F. Stone,

Told journalism students
never to forget

That all governments lie.

He could speak
with authority,

Having spent seven decades
exposing deception

And official lies

By digging deep into
government documents

And transcripts.

I tried to prove
what I was saying

From the horse's
mouth, as it were.

Using the government's
own documents,

Government reports
and transcripts

And press conferences,
speeches,

And analyzing them the way--
the way a historian would.

He gained his
greatest fame and impact

Publishing a newsletter called
"I.F. Stone's weekly."

Everybody in government
and journalism knew izzy stone

And read his stuff.

I.F. Stone's weekly
is about this size.

Well, I.F. Stone's weekly
was a classic example

Of an independent
journalistic organization

That was able
to report the truth

And that's the way
alternative media,

Which I really think,
is real journalism

Has always worked
as a vehicle

That has exposed
the collusion,

Hypocrisy and lies of
the commercial media.

Do you presume to
criticize the great oz,

You ungrateful creatures?

I mean, stone was kind
of like toto, you know.

It was like his job was
to pull back the curtain.

The great oz has spoken.

Oh!

Pay no attention to that
man behind the curtain!

And to see what
was behind that curtain

And what was behind
that curtain, yes,

It was the
all-powerful oz.

It was also just
a frightened little man.

Nothing and nothing that any
of us need to be frightened of,

And why are--why are
we frightened of that?

That's the embodiment of what
he and his weekly stood for

And it certainly was
a huge inspiration to me.

♪

♪

I want surveillance
of certain mosques, okay?

I watched in
jersey city, new jersey,

Where thousands and thousands
of people were cheering

As that building
was coming down.

Donald j. Trump is
calling for a total

And complete shutdown of muslims
entering the United States

Until our country's
representatives can figure out

What the hell is going on.

♪

You have no choice.

Who would have thought that
this circus would come to town,

But you know, it may
not be good for america,

But it's damn good for cbs,

That's all I got to say.

The money's rolling in
and this is fun.

I've never seen
anything like this,

And you know, this is gonna
be a very good year for us.

It's a terrible
thing to say,

But bring it on,
donald, go ahead.

Keep going.

It makes you
ask, seriously,

Whether those executives
who run media conglomerates

Have any more
ethics or morals

Than those who run
the oil and gas industry,

The pharmaceutical companies,
the tobacco industry.

It's an open
question to me.

♪

♪ drivin' my limousine

♪ now it's all designed

♪ to blow our minds

♪ but our minds
won't really be blown ♪

♪ like the blow
that'll get ya ♪

♪ when you get your picture

♪ on the cover of
the rolling stone ♪

♪ rolling stone

♪ wanna see our
pictures on the cover ♪

♪ wanna buy five
copies for our mothers ♪

♪ wanna see my
smiling face ♪

♪ on the cover
of the rolling stone ♪

We're in new hampshire,

Which is like, the capital
of depressed america, where,

You know, the manufacturing
economy has disappeared,

And we really don't examine
those issues at all.

We don't actually
talk to people at all,

'cause you don't have time.

There's only time
to watch the speech,

To ask the people
in the audience

What they think
of the speech

And then you go on

And you move on
to the next spot.

The entire thing
could be shot

In a sound stage
in la with--

Just by rotating in
a different audience each time.

♪

♪

Well, donald trump,
of course,

Remains the strong
frontrunner up here

To win the republican primary
in new hampshire tomorrow.

It snows in
new hampshire,

People know how
to put--get cars.

They got--they used
to put chains on,

Now they got good tires.

Why should they trudge through
the snow for donald trump?

Well, you know,
my whole concept

And my whole theme,
frankly, behind it

Is make america great again.

Make america great again!

We're going to make
america great again!

We're going to make
america great again.

Build a wall!

Build a wall!

I'm very focused
on the idea

That these voters have
completely shifted their tune

About what
they're upset about.

But you know, there's
a lot of subtleties

That people in this kind of
audience don't pick up on,

And he's smart
enough to know

That he can just steamroll right
past a lot of those problems

And they're not going
to be noticed by anybody.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Wow, this is beautiful.

♪

♪

We had a lot of fun.

We gave very
high grades on that.

Even people that hate me
gave me good marks,

Isn't that amazing?

For the next 20 minutes,

He's talking about how
he's gonna slap tariffs

On every country that
imports to the United States

And yeah, how he's,
you know, ford is gonna--

Want to relocate
a factory and he's--

He, donald trump,
the president,

Is not going
to allow that.

The idea of giving
the government

That much power over--
over corporate business

Doesn't seem to trouble
this audience at all,

Which is odd when you
think about it after--

After all those
years of propaganda.

For years and
years and years,

What was the party line that
we got was that, you know,

Free enterprise cures all.

The market is
self-correcting.

We're the best
in the world.

We have confidence
we're gonna do that.

Well, that's not what
he's saying anymore.

People don't have
confidence in that anymore.

Now they need--

Now they need the
strong man to step in

And make sure
that we all get paid.

I'll bring back our jobs
from china, from mexico,

From japan, from
so many places.

I'll bring back our jobs
and I'll bring back our money.

Matt taibbi's acerbic
writing on donald trump

Is really reminiscent
of I.F. Stone's writing

On the demagogue
senator joe mccarthy,

And presidents like
ike eisenhower, john f. Kennedy,

Lyndon johnson,
richard nixon.

♪

Matt is sort of a cross
between I.F. Stone

And hunter s. Thompson,
the original gonzo journalist,

Who so raucously,
viscerally,

Would skewer the
powers that were

In the early '70s.

And as izzy was drowned out

When mainstream media gave
joe mccarthy his megaphone,

Taibbi's independent voice
can't really compete

When mainstream
tv news, for months,

Provided a fairly
uncritical platform

And a massive
megaphone to trump.

When do we beat
mexico at the border?

They're laughing at us
at our stupidity.

They're bringing drugs.

They're bringing crime.

They're rapists and some,
I assume, are good people.

♪

♪

We spent about a year
doing this story,

And we found evidence
that bodies, human bodies,

Were buried in,
I would say, a criminal way.

♪

If we had 200 bodies that
were buried in a criminal way

In the United States,
if they were anglo,

I think that we'd
be hearing about it.

Because they're mexican,

Or because they're
from south of the border,

For the most part,

There wasn't any
sort of an uproar.

The national media
didn't pay attention.

We found mass graves
in the United States.

We found people dumped
into a mass grave,

And they were
not catalogued.

They were
not documented,

They were not
properly treated.

Some individuals were
buried in trash bags.

The mainstream media,

If we're talking about
national media coverage

Of the migrant deaths
in falfurrias, texas,

To my knowledge has
been non-existent.

Media executives,
for the most part,

People who make decisions
on what's on television,

Are really some of the
most ill-informed people

When it comes
to the news itself.

The choices that are made

Are entertainment based.

Who's pretty?

Who speaks english?

These are things
that I'm asked

When I'm pitching a story.

They're not going to
watch a bunch of bodies

Being exhumed
from a gravesite

And seeing law enforcement
held accountable.

That's not something
that's savory,

And I'm talking about all
of the mainstream media

On major networks.

Abc, nbc, cbs, pbs.

We're being dumbed down,
we're being watered down,

We're being misinformed,
we're being misled,

And we're being told
information which is false.

♪

I remember pitching
a story to 60 minutes,

Which I had done one
for about a year prior,

And it was about the border
and it was about migrants.

Stories that rarely get
to see the light of day,

And they told me,

"john, we already did
a border story for you."

It was a year ago, so there
must only be one border story.

It's not what their
audience wants to see,

So they're
not interested.

Even if it's newsworthy,

They're going to consider
the ratings first.

♪

The heat index, a combination
of temperature and humidity,

Is among the highest
in the nation.

Pictures can't capture,

And I can't
adequately describe,

How hot and how
humid it feels.

♪

It's like walking
through soup.

♪

Everywhere there are
signs of migrants.

♪

It's certainly
a winter coat.

♪

Some young woman,

Probably brought her best
clothes and best jewelry

'cause she was here
to get a job.

♪

I think the last
time I checked

There are over 10,000 people
missing from records in mexico,

Just in mexico,
not central america,

Who have crossed
that border.

That means 10,000 families

Who are still looking
for their loved ones

Who may have crossed
that border illegally

And were never
heard from again.

Where are they?

There are no
records of them.

They're probably
in some cemetery plot

Somewhere in
texas or arizona.

This is going on
all over the border.

♪

My colleagues, we have an
obligation to our citizens.

We have an obligation
to this body

To see that our resolutions
are complied with.

We wrote 1441

To give iraq
one last chance.

Iraq is not, so far,

Taking that
one last chance.

We must not shrink from
whatever is ahead of us

And our responsibility to
the citizens of the countries

That are represented
by this body.

Thank you, mr. President.

Did colin powell close
the deal today in your mind?

I think for anybody who
analyzes the situation,

He has closed the deal.

This irrefutable, undeniable,
incontrovertible evidence today.

Colin powell
brilliantly delivered

That smoking gun today.

It was so compelling,

I don't see how
anybody at this point

Can not support
this effort.

It was devastating,
I mean, and overwhelming.

Overwhelming abundance
of the evidence.

♪

This was the mainstream
media's darkest hour.

Go, go!

Fight, fight!

They were more
than cheerleaders,

They were complicit.

He just flooded the
terrain with--with data.

The powell speech has--
has moved the ball.

I think the case is closed.

You do not, under
international law,

Wage a destructive sociocide.

They basically blew
apart the country

'cause they wanted
to get saddam hussein.

Well, this is like one of the
greatest international crimes

Since world war ii.

This is abc
world news tonight.

This is nbc
nightly news.

♪

This is the
cbs evening news.

And it was committed with
the complete complicity

Of the mainstream media
that kept critical voices,

Such as ours,
off the air.

Oh, I think it's important
to have experts explain the war

And to describe
the military hardware,

Describe the tactics.

Talk about the strategy
behind the conflict.

I went to the pentagon
myself several times

Before the war started

And met with
important people there

And said,
for instance, at cnn,

"here are the generals
we're thinking of retaining

To advise us on the air
and off about the war,"

And we got a big
thumbs up on all of them.

That was important.

Journalists,
too many of them,

And some quite explicitly,

Have said that
they see their mission

As helping the war effort.

At msnbc, I was
on the air daily

As a political
and media analyst.

And if you define
your mission that way,

You'll end up
suppressing news

That might be
important, accurate,

But maybe isn't helpful
to the war effort.

But I lost my time
because they had to make room

As we got closer to
the invasion of iraq

For this endless parade
of retired generals,

Majors, admirals,
former cia chiefs,

And we know now those people
had no independence,

They were being fed talking
points by the pentagon,

And most of what they said, as
our country was driven to war,

Was false.

♪

Wealthy insurance.

♪

From pacifica,
this is democracy now!

♪

Democracy now!,
it's slightly larger, I think,

Than the space
I.F. Stone operated out of,

But very much modeled
on this idea

Of the media being
a sanctuary of dissent.

You know, necessity is
the mother of invention.

We couldn't afford
the satellites

That the networks had.

We worked with the internet
from the beginning

Out of necessity.

Now, we're broadcasting
on over 1300 radio

And television stations.

Public access tv,
community radio,

Public radio, pbs,
public television,

But we're not there to
win a popularity contest.

We're there to bring out
the voices of people

All over the world.

♪

♪

From pacifica radio,
this is democracy now!

Pope john paul ii's senior
advisor has arrived in baghdad

For meetings with
senior iraqi leaders.

Last night,
he presided over a mass

At st. Joseph's church
in central baghdad.

Democracy now! Correspondent
jeremy scahill was there.

Regardless
of their faith,

Iraqis are praying
for a miracle.

Almost no one believes
that war can be averted.

John paul ii has added his
voice to the growing chorus

Against a war on iraq,

But it's unlikely that
george w. Bush will listen.

His own methodist church
has come out

Against an attack on iraq,

And bush won't even
meet with its leaders.

For democracy now!, this is
jeremy scahill in baghdad.

♪

The problem is most of the
big media are businesses.

They respond to
their investors,

The stock market
and their advertisers,

And independent journalists
bring their conscience to work

And they call the situation
as it really is factually,

So they're a rare breed.

They're not indentured
to commercial motivation.

Well, the problem is
is the illusion of free press.

You know, we don't have state
media in the United States,

But if we had it,
how would it be any different?

It's easy to
criticize fox.

It's fox, it's cnn,
it's the new york times.

That's why we need
independent journalism.

You know, that's
why we need a media

That challenges
the corporate power.

When we cover war,
we can't be brought to you

By the weapons
manufacturers.

When we cover climate change,
we can't be brought to you

By the oil, gas,
coal, nuclear companies.

When we cover healthcare,
we can't be brought to you

By the insurance and
the drug companies.

We have to have a media

That is a counterbalance
to those in power.

It's the only
equalizing force.

I think the media
is really nihilistic.

It's--it's about
making money.

What makes money
in this country happens to be

Avoiding difficult truths
about our society.

You know, a story about what
it's like to be on welfare,

That's not
a story, right?

But you know, kim kardashian
falls into a puddle

In central park,
that's a story.

Well, kim and kanye,
also known as kimye,

Are expected to get married
here in florence this weekend

In a medici fortress

That cost $400,000
to rent out.

Erin mclaughlin,
cnn, florence, Italy.

♪

♪

If you had to come
up with a slogan

For what our new
media venture is,

The one that jeremy scahill
and laura poitras and I are--

Are building under the
aegis of first look media,

You probably could
use as a slogan,

"the spirit of I.F. Stone,

But funded with
$250 million."

Glenn greenwald has been
a lightning rod for controversy

Since he obtained those secret
nsa documents from ed snowden

And published some
of them in the guardian.

Now he's launching
a media company

Backed by wealthy ebay founder,
pierre omidyar.

The main thing is you got
to encapsulate all of this

In a way that it
can't be decrypted

And read when it's in
transit across the network,

Or on either
of the end points.

Okay, I mean,
just so you know,

These documents are basically
all gonna be uplinked within,

Like, 48 hours, 72 hours.

This is--this is
simply, you know,

You want to get in the process
of doing this for everything

Because it seems hard,
but it's not hard.

This is super easy.

Thank you so much
to the academy.

The disclosures that
edward snowden reveals

Don't only expose
a threat to our privacy,

But to our democracy itself,

And I share this
with glenn greenwald

And other journalists
who are exposing truth.

Thank you.

♪

Was mr. Daoud
killed immediately

Or did he live for
a while after he was shot?

You saw the us forces take
the bullets out of the body?

♪

When glenn greenwald and
jeremy scahill teamed up

Together at the intercept,

It was like a--

A dream for
adversarial journalists.

♪

And since 2014, they've
been able, with their team,

To break story after story
of political corruption,

Especially
scoop after scoop

About the national security
surveillance state,

Which mainstream journalists
often tend to avoid

Out of a false notion
of patriotism.

Good journalism today has
the state in its crosshairs,

And you never want
to punch down.

You always want
to punch up.

That's what I think
we're trying to do

At the intercept.

And then once
you have that file,

Just right click the file
in the finder.

Were they--were they able
to decrypt it at all?

I don't think so.

Well, you look behind me

And you see a news room
full of fantastic,

Independent reporters who come
from all sorts of backgrounds,

But this is still very much
a--a project in development.

I would say our mission
statement is--

Is to produce adversarial,
fearless journalism.

This central idea that,
I think, everyone shares

Is that the more
power someone wields,

The more journalistic
accountability

And scrutiny they need.

I mean, it says explicitly
there that they're--

That it's supporting drone
surveillance operations.

Most of the bandwidth
is on galaxy 26,

And not an nro
secret site.

That must be
the satellite.

Yeah, it can support up to
40 uav sorties simultaneously.

And these are satellites
showing construction

Of a facility in germany

That the us uses as part
of its drone program.

The german government
basically is trying to argue

That it doesn't have any--

Any role at all

In the targeted
killing program,

'cause that would be
illegal under german law.

It's a story that
involves many countries

Being involved with
the us drone program

And their governments either
are not aware of it, or--

Or they're lying,

And that's part of what
we're trying to nail down.

Part of my discussion that
was shown in citizenfour

With snowden
had some reference

To the use of ramstein

As part of
a chain of command

In which these drone
executions are carried out.

♪

You know that?

But the drone papers
really solidified this--

This role in a way
that is really important

And it created,
actually, some debate

And some scandal in germany.

The german population was almost
entirely unaware of the role

That ramstein is playing in
this program, and obviously,

Germans overwhelmingly
oppose the death penalty

And so it stands to reason
that if they had known about it,

They never would
have allowed it.

This is the most
sophisticated

So-called clean way
of bumping people off.

♪

I became sort of obsessed
with this notion that a man

Who is a constitutional lawyer
by training,

Who won the nobel peace prize,
is presiding over a--

An attempt to legitimize

And some would say,
legalize assassination

As a central component
of us policy.

I'll make our government
open and transparent,

So that anyone can ensure

That our business is
the people's business.

Just as louis brandeis
once said,

"sunlight is the
greatest disinfectant."

Who would have thought
that we'd get a president

Who is a charismatic,
perhaps--

Probably one of the
smartest presidents,

If not the smartest
president in us history,

With a great background
in social justice causes

Who would preside over more
prosecutions of whistle blowers

As spies than all previous
administrations combined,

Who would expand
the drone program

And try to legitimize
the assassination program?

When obama was elected,

He pledged that
his administration

Was going to be the most
transparent in history.

No more secrecy.

That's the commitment
I make to you as president.

No more secrecy.

You know, we'll
work with sources

Or with documents
that we've obtained,

And then you, you know,
you try to hunt down

The publicly available
record on these things

And I mean, an incredible
amount of stuff

Is sort of hidden
in plain sight

If you dig far enough.

That's all of what
I.F. Stone was doing.

I guess what's different
is that, you know,

Part of what we do is
try to cultivate sources

And talk to people who
are directly knowledgeable

About various operations
in the military

Or the cia or the nsa
and then, you know,

Then you start going
down a rabbit hole.

I mean, I've often
said that I thought

That I.F. Stone
is the first blogger,

Even though he existed
before bloggers existed,

But in my view,
he really encapsulated

What became the
new media ethos,

Which is the idea of working
as independently as possible

From all of the power
factions and centers

On which you're reporting,

And what we've built here, in
terms of our new media outlet,

Is very much, I think, based
on the ethos that he pioneered.

♪

Ooh, do you feel the
breeze from the subway?

Isn't it delicious?

♪

♪

I got to meet I.F. Stone

In the mid '80s
in washington, dc.

I wanted to put out my
own weekly moore's weekly,

And I just wanted to go
and talk to him about it.

It was just
an amazing afternoon

That I got
to have with him

To really, kind of,
pick his brain

And tell him, you know,
what I wanted to do

And he gave me,
you know, good advice.

Advice I kind of already knew,
because I'd read him, you know.

His--his great motto

Of all governments
are run by liars

And nothing they say
should be believed,

And he said--
he said to me,

But I would
expand that now

To governments,
corporations,

You know, it's not just
the--the government.

It's this--that--
anybody in power.

You must start,
as a journalist,

With the assumption that
they are lying to you.

Now, some of them
may not be lying,

But it's their duty
to prove to you,

The journalist,
that they're not lying.

Through high school,
I read I.F. Stone's weekly.

One of the things
I learned was that

Humor isn't just
about telling jokes

Or just about funny ha-ha.

Humor can be the most piercing
of political weapons.

I'm--I'm stunned that more
people actually don't use humor

Because it's so powerful,

And one of the great things
that you learn about humor

And good ridicule
when in politics

Is that it's very hard
to respond to it.

The faa has
taken the action

To close all of the airports
in the United States.

Thousands of travelers
were stranded.

Among them, ricky martin,

Due to appear at tonight's
latin grammy awards.

Not even
ricky martin could fly.

But really,
who wanted to fly?

No one.

Except the bin ladens.

♪ we got to get
out of this place ♪

♪ if it's the last
thing we ever do ♪

That whole idea of
how I found that thing

On the fbi and the
bush administration

Allowing the bin ladens to
fly out the day after 9/11,

That is directly
from I.F. Stone.

He said to me, he said,

"when you pick up the paper,
you go to page 17 first.

Don't read the front page.

Skip the front page,
go to page 17.

'cause that's where
the truth is.

And it's gonna
be really small.

It might be in a little
two paragraph story,

Or it'll be buried
in paragraph 78,

But that's where
they're putting it,

And they know
what they're doing.

So, you just
go right there."

Yeah.

What I saw and learned

From reading
I.F. Stone's weekly

Was about an agenda

That was not determined

By conventional wisdom.

To me, that's the real
enemy of great reporting

Is conventional wisdom.

-Mrs. Hamblin?
-Yes.

Hi, we're from
the washington post.

I'm carl bernstein,
this is bob woodward.

A friend of the committee said
that we could contact you.

I brought no
ideological baggage.

Whatever my background
was to watergate,

I brought
a reportorial sense to it,

Partly because I thought,

"how could the president
of the united sates

Be involved in
something this dumb?"

At the beginning.

Conventional wisdom is
the enemy of good reporting

And I think izzy
understood that.

I understood that
from the get-go.

Can I help you in some way?

Yeah, I'm carl bernstein,
I've been waiting here

-Since nine in the morning.
-Would you wait outside?

I've been waiting
out since this morning.

Go ahead and
finish your call.

Wait outside,
please, will you?

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm the reporter from
the washington post.

We talked on the
telephone yesterday,

And you told me to come
on down here and I'm here.

Okay, yeah,
I got the press here.

Watergate is an unusual
instance, and I mean,

At first people didn't believe
the stories we were writing,

Including most of our colleagues
in the press in washington.

Watergate is
an unusual instance

In which the right
things happened.

Bernstein got
another source.

The guy at justice
confirmed.

If there's any doubt,
we can run it tomorrow.

You don't have to, the story's
solid, we're sure of it.

I just got off the phone
with him, it's gold.

Okay, we go with it.

♪

♪

Normally, when I get in,

Which is around this
time, 1:00, 2:00, 2:30 p.M.,

I see what else
the morning producer,

'cause the morning
producer leaves,

Like, early afternoon
around 3:00,

But he's normally,
you know,

Checked out a few
possible stories,

So depending on
what he suggests

And he's often been in
conversation with amy,

I immediately start
reaching out to people

To guess potential guests.

Yeah, I think that
should be fine.

We'll just make sure to
start with another segment

And then,
you could be on,

Like, at 8:00, at 8:30.

Amira hass is here,
and she leaves Saturday,

So I think we should definitely
have her in the studio tomorrow.

Sharif is here.

-And he has this investigation.
-On yemen, yeah.

And then, anything else that
happens in the world today.

Okay, now going to
pitch on the stations

To make sure they're around

So that we can
continue to broadcast.

Okay, that's great,
amy, thank you.

So your son
served in iraq?

Yeah, he survived
like three ambushes,

But he came out
screwed up.

He's, you know,
the ptsd, you know.

Here.

Well, handsome man.

Yeah.

How many life
has to be destroyed?

How many family?

Stupid wars,
you know, it's like...

But you feel kinda,
you know, in danger.

Have you been
threatened before?

There's dangers, yeah,
of working there now.

But the risks we take

Are much less than what
other people are doing,

So especially people
who work in human rights.

They have much bigger risks and
so, compared to them, you know,

You get courage when you--
when you see them work.

You know,
they say, you know,

We're engaged in
a war on terror,

And they use the same
language as they use here,

"war on terror."

But the policies just
result in more terror,

So we have more
terrorism now,

And more war.

I started working
in journalism

Right around the beginning
of the iraq war in 2003.

-Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you too.

It was very frustrating
as a young person

Living here in
new york, as an arab,

As someone who was
newly politicized

And watching this massive
invasion being drummed up.

One felt like you had to scream
and say, "this is wrong."

And there were these
kinds of protests

And it was when I first
heard democracy now!

And I first heard
these kinds of voices

That I hadn't heard
at all on other airwaves.

Voices of dissent,
voices of opposition.

People who were
not allowed on the air.

I was very much drawn
to this kind of journalism.

My first day
at democracy now!

Is the first day of the
iraq war, March 19th, 2003.

Reporter nicholas kulish
who broke this story.

All that and more,
coming up.

Amy goodman has nurtured
a number of journalists,

Including sharif
abdel kouddous.

He was a correspondent,
a senior producer,

He was occasionally a co-host,

And then 2011,
the uprising begins in egypt,

The country that
sharif was born in,

And he flies to egypt

And country is almost
unrecognizable to him.

That the fear was gone
and his vivid reporting

Had millions of people
following his reporting.

It's just after 10:00 a.M.
On Tuesday morning.

Today marks the
one week anniversary

Of the popular uprising
that began January 25th.

There's more people here than
I have ever seen in tahrir,

Yet in this revolt.

Today's the day
that they say

They're going
to get mubarak out.

For more, we're joined
by sharif abdel kouddous

Who's just
returned from yemen.

He's a democracy now!
Correspondent,

A fellow at the
nation institute,

And he's recently written a
piece for the global post called

"with us help, saudi arabia
is obliterating yemen."

It's the first
of a two part series on yemen.

Sharif, start off
by just explaining

What you found in your
weeks-long trip there.

Well, I spent
most of the time

In the houthis controlled
north of yemen

And this is an area

That's been pounded
relentlessly

For the past nine months
with near daily air strikes.

You can't visit a city
or a town in yemen

Without seeing
the destruction on the ground.

Everything has
been hit from homes

To schools, restaurants,
bridges, roads,

A lot of civilian
infrastructure and--

And with that, of course,
comes a lot of the suffering.

♪

The saudi bombing campaign
is backed by the United States

With logistics and
intelligence support,

And I think that's a fact that
many americans don't realize

That they're complicit
with their tax dollars

In this conflict
that has civilians

At the epicenter
of its suffering.

Be very careful
back there.

I will.

♪

These are mass graves
they're combing all day.

Every one is different.

Would you want your
son buried that way?

Or your mom or your
sister or your brother?

I mean, this isn't how you want
someone you love to be buried.

♪

So good to see you.

You too, sorry, I'm standing
in the door to keep it open.

Ah, how are you guys?

I'm great, thank you.

Good, well, we could do
the elevator or the stairs.

How many flights up?

♪

Hey, audrey, do
you remember john?

Audrey, john,
nice to meet you.

Thank you so much
for doing the work.

♪

Okay, john,
so this is what

We end up with oftentimes.

So, you can see
these are really white

Because they're
sun bleached.

So, this person was out
for a long period of time,

And they also sustained quite
a bit of carnivore damage,

But you can see
this is an individual

Who has 206 bones at
a minimum in their body,

And we have three.

And there's no way you will
ever identify this person.

Well, we have
taken a dna sample

And this was
actually analyzed

At the central
identification lab

Through the joint
armed forces.

It could be if we can match
this dna sample to a family.

♪

I have no doubt that if
200 poodles were misburied,

Everybody would
be up in arms.

We'd probably change
some sort of poodle law

To make sure that these
were buried properly.

The fact that these
were 200 human migrants,

Mostly latin american,

Is the reason that
nothing has been done.

It's the sole reason
that nothing has been done.

These people don't count.

For the most part, they're
considered to be criminal.

They're here
to rob your jobs,

They're here to
ruin our economy.

Donald trump would like to build
a wall to separate us from them.

They're marginalized
and they're vilified,

So if they die and are thrown
into a hole in the ground,

Good riddance.

Para ti.

¿como te llamas?

-Carlos.
-Carlos.

Soy reportero.

♪

♪

My father really believed in
the importance of a free press.

He once told me, "if something
goes wrong with the government,

A free press will
ferret it out,

And it will get fixed.

But if something goes
wrong with the free press,

The country will go
straight to hell."

This is
the typewriter on which

My father typed
with two fingers.

So, how long was he
using this typewriter?

Well, as long as I
can remember, really.

It's a--it's amazing that he
would type with two fingers.

So, he never--he never
learned how to type with...

He wasn't very mechanical.

In fact, our cars
kept breaking down

Because he never
changed the oil.

♪

I.F. Stone was both
an investigator and a writer

With sarcasm and wit
and humor in his work,

And today's I.F. Stones,

A lot of them don't come
to that level of writing,

Except when you think
of matt taibbi.

The media has spent
decades turning the news

Into a consumer business

That's basically
indistinguishable

From selling cheeseburgers
or video games.

You want bigger margins,

You just cram
the product full

Of more fat and
sugar and violence

And you wait for your obese,
over-stimulated consumer

To come waddling forth.

♪

Breaking news right now,
just coming into the abc--

The death toll has
risen even higher today.

We start with celebrities
behaving badly.

Squealing, like, panda
lovers all over the planet

Riveted as this mama bear
delivers a cub, and then--

People can
vape without--

As his hover booster
board burst into--

Congresswoman, let me
interrupt you just for a moment,

We've got some
breaking news out of miami.

Stand by, if you will.

Right now, in miami,
justin bieber has been arrested

On a number of
charges that--

What we call right wing and
liberal media in this country

Are really just two
different strategies

Of the same kind of nihilistic
lizard-brain sensationalism.

There's nothing but murders,
bombs, and panda births

Delivering to
thickening couch potatoes

In ever briefer blasts
of 40, 30, 20 seconds.

The world's most
powerful investment bank

Is a great vampire squid wrapped
around the face of humanity,

Relentlessly jamming its
blood funnel into anything

That smells like money.

And the funny part about
that is, of course,

Vampire squids don't
have blood funnels,

So we had a fact checking
issue with that, and it was--

But I thought that was part
of what made that funny

Was that, you know, it was
a nonsensical image, right.

You know, you had
this thing that was

At once terrifying,
and ridiculous.

I thought that summed up
what the bank was all about.

♪

In news from iraq, at least
16 people were killed Thursday

In clashes between us troops
and shia militias in baghdad.

The dead included a photographer
for the reuters news agency,

And his driver.

They apparently came under
fire from a us helicopter.

♪

♪

♪

In December,
democracy now! Traveled

To the calais refugee camp.

The largest
refugee camp in France,

About two hours
north of paris.

Six to seven thousand
people are living there,

Camped out in
makeshift tents.

Occasionally
people stop to talk,

But we've been
warned over and over

That people don't want
their faces shown.

They're afraid.

They're afraid of
being targeted here

And they're afraid
their families

Will be targeted
at home.

Were there drone strikes--

Yes, there were
drone attacks.

They are always killing innocent
people in the villages.

Civilians become very angry and
they join the group of taliban.

So, what do you think
the us should be doing now?

You know, us is just
increasing the war.

Actually, us don't want
to finish the war.

It's their game.

It's the game of...

George w. Bush, obama.

They don't care about the
people who are dying there.

President obama said the war
is ending in afghanistan.

Do you see it ending?

Until americans
leave afghanistan,

It will be not ending.

Never.

The map of this camp,

It's a map of where
refugees are from.

Most of these countries
have been bombed

By the United States.

Syria, afghanistan,

Iraq, sudan.

I didn't think about it,
but that is true.

What's very
important to explain

And what's
systematically lacking

In all the accounts
that I had come across

In the mainstream media,

Why is this happening?

Why are these people
where they are?

Why are they suffering
the most inhumane conditions,

The most abject degradation,

And of course, it's very
important to have empathy

And solidarity for the
suffering of these people,

But we can't think
that the suffering

Has fallen out of the sky,

And they're just
particularly benighted

Because they happen to have been
the subject of that, right.

There are policies
that have been enacted.

There are decisions
that have been made.

There are bombs
that have been dropped.

As a consequence of which,
these millions of people

Are destitute in
the way that they are,

And we have to allow
them to tell that story.

Do you think the
russian, syrian, french,

British bombing of
syria will save it?

No, no, no.

It's not the solution.

You can't protect someone
by killing someone else.

♪

In international waters,
in the gulf of tonkin,

Destroyers of the
United States navy

Are assigned routine
patrols from time to time.

Sunday, August
the 2nd, 1964,

The destroyer, maddox,
was on such a patrol.

Shortly after noon,
the calm of the day is broken

As general quarters sound.

In a deliberate
and unprovoked action,

Three north vietnam pt boats
unleash a torpedo attack

Against the maddox.

A classic example of
I.F. Stone's ability

To ferret out something
when no one else was doing it

Was the gulf of tonkin excuse
for going into vietnam.

♪

Three weeks after we had
the so-called attack

By the north vietnamese,
izzy read all the after reports,

And he said, "where--where's
the debris if we had been hit?

Why isn't there more
being talked about?"

And he said there were
all kinds of excuses

Why this little, tiny
country would go against

The largest fleet
in the world,

Except the fact that it
might have been provoked.

All of the media was just
following it right into war,

As was congress,
and I keep thinking

If the mainstream media
had followed izzy,

We might not have had
that ten year disaster.

♪

♪

We hadn't been able to
get it through our heads

That this is
a political war.

All you have to
ask yourself is

Why is it that here
are vietnamese

On one side, on our side,

And here are the same
vietnamese on the other side.

And on one side, they have
very little in the way of arms.

They have no air force,
no napalm, no big boom-boom,

And they really
fight magnificently.

And on our side, you have
five times as many troops,

All that equipment, all that
firepower, all that artillery,

And they're
not worth a damn.

A lot of people protested
I.F. Stone's being on,

Because can you imagine
he had the nerve

To say things against
our war policy?

Well, it was
bold at the time

When we were suffering
with all kinds of things.

Assassinations,
and the vietnam war,

A subject on which stone
was quite brilliant,

And how we got into it

And how we were probably
never gonna get out of it

The way we were
going and it was--

Took guts to say
those things.

The extreme right and
the hate mail writers

Were always ready to go.

Ask any solider back from
vietnam, he'll agree with me.

I don't mean to say there
aren't brave men among them,

And some good troops,
but on the whole,

The men on one side
are fighting

And the men on the other side
don't care and are deserting.

Why is this?

Why, because the men
on the other side

Feel they're
fighting for freedom.

They're fighting
for freedom from--

From domination by the white
man, and by the westerner.

I.F. Stone would be debunking
the official fictions

As soon as government
was spewing them.

Whether it was during
the joe mccarthy era,

Or all of the lies
about vietnam.

You could read
izzy stone within a week,

And he was debunking
these fictions.

We need to know
what governments do.

We need to know
what's real,

And we need to know
what's bullshit.

And that's the
biggest problem,

And izzy was great

At saying,
"hey, I checked.

This is bullshit."

Just as izzy wrote and
published I.F. Stone's weekly

Out of his home
with his wife,

Esther, managing
the accounts,

Tom engelhardt with his
blog, tomdispatch.Com,

Is another example
of how a journalist

Working from
a small office at home

Can reach
a very wide audience

With independent
reporting and analysis.

On how I started
tomdispatch,

You'd have to go back
to literally to 9/11,

And our news began
to constrict, you know,

In a way I hadn't seen, even
at the height of the cold war,

As far as I was concerned.

And I suddenly
realized that out there,

There was another
kind of news.

I started obsessively
gathering this stuff,

And then, and writing
little comments,

And my little comments
became a kind of commentary

And then this was the
miracle of the internet,

People started jumping on.

People started writing me and
saying, "can I be on your list?"

I didn't even really
know I had a list,

And suddenly, I had
a list of 400 people

Including journalists and I
mean, susan sontag wrote me,

I mean, out of the blue.

I didn't know
susan sontag.

I'm now almost 71.

I'm plunged into,
I was from the beginning,

Plunged into a world
of much younger people.

I had no idea
what I was doing,

But I had been working
as a book editor

With great writers for years.

Chalmers johnson,
all sorts of people.

And I started asking them
once this thing started,

I started asking them if
they wanted to, you know,

Write and it was like this
kind of communal activity,

And it's turned from that thing
that it was into what it is now,

Which is my little
intros and then a piece.

I mean, it could be by me
or by any one of a--

I think a pretty
striking set of writers.

♪

The establishment reporters,
without a doubt,

Know a lot of things
I don't know,

But a lot of what
they know isn't true.

He was a fantastic
journalist and the--

As he himself pointed out,

The greatest contribution
to his career

Was his being excluded.

He didn't have,
as he pointed out,

He didn't have
to waste his time

Going to press conferences
'cause he wasn't invited,

So he didn't have to hear
all the deceit and the lies

And so he didn't have to
waste his time repeating them.

He could just go
straight to the documents,

To the historical record,
see what's happening,

And he did it brilliantly.

Going in the
white house and going

And asking questions
of the press secretary,

It's a job that some
people have to do.

It's not often that you develop
new information from doing that,

And it just becomes
a battle of spins.

I do remember going once

And ari fleischer
was press secretary

And he kept, just
saying the same thing.

"no, it's true, it's true."

I go, "but this report
just came out from wherever

And it says that actually
that didn't happen."

And he goes,
"no, but it did happen."

And I really felt like I was
talking to a guy who was saying,

"the sky is green."

And I would say, "no, no, no,
actually, the sky is blue."

He goes, "no, no,
the sky is green."

And you can only do that so
much, and people, you know,

Who are on that side
will say, damn it is!

We ask each nation
on the security council

To weigh the merits that make
a decision about war and peace,

And if anybody thinks that
there are nations, like mexico,

Whose vote could be bought
on the basis of a trade issue

Or something else like that,
I think you're giving--

Do a grave injustice
to the independence

And the judgment of the
leaders of other nations.

Think about the implications
what you're saying.

You're saying that the leaders
of other nations are buyable

And that is not
an acceptable proposition.

Thank you.

♪

Good afternoon, everybody.

What concerns does
the president have

About the possibility that
donald trump could someday

Be the us commander in chief?

The president
has confidence

That if mr. Trump is
the republican nominee,

He will not win
the general election.

It's kind of a, you know,
a bit of a kabuki,

Theatrical production each day,
and so he's here facing,

I don't know how
many reporters, 70--

70 reporters or so,

Who really want to
drive him off message,

And so he has to come out
and seem more or less

To be answering questions
without saying anything

That's gonna make news.

What is the president
hearing from us allies

And those who participate
in us military operations

Alongside americans?

I'm not gonna be able to
share any secret details

Of conversations that
the president has had

With other world leaders,

But there are global
consequences for arguments

That are made by
domestic politicians.

But I think, you know,

The white house should
recognize that the media,

Which represents the public
to some degree, you know,

Has the right
to ask questions

And that sometimes
they have to answer things

That aren't really, maybe,

What they most are interested
in talking about that day.

Hello?

Oh, I wouldn't--I mean,

I thought we already
went over this,

But you will not be identified
as a source for anything.

Your name will not, you know,
appear as, you know,

Being connected
to these documents

And certainly no quotes
from anything we talked about.

One of david corn's major
scoops was the 47% video,

Where you had presidential
candidate, mitt romney,

Do a $50,000-a-plate dinner

Talking about how 47%
of the us public were moochers.

When this comes out,
thanks to david corn,

It changes the momentum
of the 2012 race

Between romney and obama.

The president of the united
states defeats mitt romney

In this--at this
time right now,

We have made
this projection.

So, the president
wins this battle.

♪

When the source
with the 47% video

Is looking to bring
that to the public,

He didn't take it
to nbc news or cbs news.

He takes it to david corn
in mother jones

Because he'd seen
the investigative work

In the previous months that
corn had been doing on romney.

♪

Okay, here's the
list of the folks

Who testified
at the trial,

So they're the ones
we need to find.

Will do.

♪

There's new
intelligence today

Indicating saddam hussein
has stepped up his efforts

To obtain nuclear weapons.

The latest information,
us officials saying

That over the
past 14 months,

They have seen saddam hussein
trying to obtain weapons

To try and build
an atomic bomb.

It was basically sort
of a feedback loop.

The administration
was out there

Starting to beat the
drums for war in iraq.

The new york times, anxious
to be ahead of the pack,

And to get
the real scoop

When they found
people with--

Administration officials
who were presenting evidence

That wasn't that strong,

But the new york times
went with the story

And then dick cheney
cited that story to say,

"look, the new york times."

It was already coming
out of the administration.

He now is trying,

Through his illicit
procurement network,

To acquire the
equipment he needs

To be able to enrich
uranium to make the bombs.

Specifically aluminum tubes.

There's a story in
the new york times this morning.

The lead up to
the war in iraq.

The particularly egregious
case is the new york times,

There's no question
about it, because it--

It ran stories

Contrary to the truth.

It ran stories
that the sources

Had planted information

That should have been checked
out and the sources were--

Were questionable
to begin with

In terms of their
own objectives,

So the times is
a particular case

Of particularly
great failing.

There's nothing
like experiencing

The world's
finest journalism

In its original form.

And I want to
attribute the times,

I don't want to
talk about, obviously,

Specific
intelligence sources,

But it's now public,
that in fact,

He has been seeking to
acquire the kinds of tubes

That are necessary
to build a centrifuge.

♪

I remember,
particularly,

Watching cheney
on meet the press.

And throwing
out this stuff,

And saying to
my wife, saying,

"this is bullshit.

There's something
missing here."

There will always
be some uncertainty

About how quickly he can
acquire nuclear weapons,

But we don't want the smoking
gun to be a mushroom cloud.

Two days, I think it was,

Before the war was
launched in March 2003.

The washington post
had a great story

And the headline
was something like,

"much of the bush
administration's case for war

Is inaccurate or
wrong, experts say."

And it was on page a19,
it was, you know, inside,

And the question that
I've had since that point

Is under what
definition of news

Is that not
a front page story?

That experts say
administration's case for war

Is wrong.

♪

♪

Two trumps.

-Yeah, two trumps.
-And I added a line.

Yes, lisa,
this is the order,

And what's circled
and not circled.

I think that on the
lloyd blankfein one,

I would end on
my tsunami analogy.

"and it's about to
crash on their head."

On their heads, yes.

Okay.

I.F. Stone was onto
something really smart

With the
subscription business.

What a lot of people miss
about that business model,

Which in general was
a smart business model,

It puts your financial
incentives in the right place.

If your financial incentives
are to please advertisers,

You will please
advertisers, right.

But in the long run,
you want to incentivize yourself

To be aligned
with your audience.

The way you're aligned
with your audience

Is if your audience
is paying you.

So, if you go in
the wrong direction,

They punish you
by saying, "I'm leaving

And I'm not paying you
the subscription anymore."

That was true of I.F. Stone
with his newsletter,

It's true of our show

Because we have a subscription
model on our website.

♪

Now, you can't get
carried away with it,

Because sometimes you have
to act out of principle,

Even if it loses
you subscribers.

For example, after
president obama was elected,

I began to criticize him

For some of the things
that I realized, whoa,

Well, that's not
a progressive position,

And that's not
a progressive position.

And in the beginning we
lost a lot of subscribers

'cause people said,
"whoa, no, wait a minute now.

We worked hard to get
president obama elected.

You seem like you're being
disrespectful to him."

Well, there you got
to stand on principle

And we survived that and
then those guys came back,

And even more came back
when they realized,

"oh damn, you were right."

Hillary clinton is tired

Of the bernie sanders
camp's lies, she says.

In fact, here,
let me show you.

This is when
she had a run-in

With a greenpeace activist.

Can we talk about
climate change?

When people make
these kinds of claims,

Which now I think
have been debunked,

Actually the washington post
said three pinocchios.

The new york times
also analyzed it.

She says that,
"oh no, it's debunked."

Okay, great, I'll go
to the source itself

That quote, unquote,
"debunked" the story.

Washington post.

So, that adds up to all the
donations to hillary clinton,

Up to more than
$4.5 million,

So they acknowledge it.

They acknowledge it,
right there, right?

But it's still
only two percent

Of the total contributions
received by clinton

And outside groups
backing her.

Now, that's true, but think
about that for a second.

Their excuse for her
is, "yeah, I know,

She took four and a half million
bucks from the oil guys,

But she's taking so much
more from the others.

The bribes that the oil
and gas companies gave her

Are small compared to
what the banks gave her."

See, not guilty.

Bernie sanders is a liar.

So, elizabeth warren,
that's an interview--

I don't think there
is even video of that.

I think it's ib times.

But we do have the panel on
morning joe and on hannity.

And also geraldo?

After the meeting, we had
a few videos that we're doing

And to just basically get a good
round--round out the stories.

Three years later, some senator
says, "I never said that."

Even if you can't find
it somewhere online,

I still have it.

So, I don't get
rid of anything.

So, we have tons
and tons of things

That I just have saved of
what everyone has said ever

That we've ever done.

There's a lot, yeah.

I don't envy the guy
who has to cut it all.

I could toss you
a couple raw videos.

You can cut those down.

Yeah, by me,
you mean arthur, right?

Good luck with that.

-Okay, thank you.
-All right, man.

I'm amused at people who claim
that the governments don't lie.

Really, do you know
human beings that never lie?

Let alone human beings
who need to cover their ass

And protect their job?

Let alone people who need
to do all that in public?

Of course, they lie!

Of course they do.

When is the last time
you heard cnn say

The pentagon is lying?

Isn't it amazing that in these
decades of cnn's existence,

They have never
uttered that sentence.

So the pentagon has never
lied, according to cnn.

♪

Congressman, but overall,
I'm a deficit hawk too.

I don't want out
of control spending,

So then I assume
as a deficit hawk,

You also want to cut
defense spending

And you want to raise
taxes on the rich, right?

Well, I think the first
purpose of this government

Is to defend the nation,

And if we cut defense
to the extent

That we're no longer safe,

Let me suggest to you,
there's nothing that would have

A more negative impact
on our economy.

Nineteen percent
of the deficit

Is defense spending,

And we've spent
more on defense

Than the entire rest
of the world combined,

But you still think we cannot
cut a nickel from there.

We need every nuke, every sub,
every aircraft carrier,

Otherwise we're not gonna
be able to out-nuke iran,

Is that the logic?

When cenk was first
working at msnbc,

I just assumed
he was on cloud nine,

Because he wanted it so bad
and then there was this one week

Where they flew me
into new york

And I helped them produce
the television show.

Right then and there,
I knew it wasn't right for us,

But I didn't
say anything.

I just kinda like,
sat back and waited to see

If cenk was gonna do what
I thought he was gonna do.

Phil griffin, who's the head of
msnbc, pulls me into his office.

He sits me down
and he says,

"cenk, I was just
in washington,

And they're not happy
with your tone."

And I sat back in my seat, like,
"oh my god, it's happening."

Right, this is
like a movie!

They're--they're
giving me this speech.

You know, some people
told me that you were dumb.

I think you're smart.

In fact, I think you're
smart enough to understand

A situation when
it's explained to you.

And he said, "look, I want to
be clear with you about this,

So just cool it.

Bring it down
a little bit."

Now, if I felt
that you had

The welfare of
the state at heart,

Like I have, I'd say
you were a man to watch.

So, they would
say things like,

"we need you to act
like a senator."

And I thought, "why?

Why on good god's
green earth

Would you want to act
like a senator?"

Does that mean
I should lie more?

I should be more fake?

People don't like senators.

Congress, at that point,
is at an approval rating

Floating between
7 and 11 percent.

They hate senators!

♪

They don't have
to tell an anchor

Coming into the
mainstream media,

"hey, be pro-government."

Although with me, I was so
thick-headed they had to.

Right.

They just don't
hire that guy,

And if they make the
mistake of hiring him,

They demote him
or they fire him,

And then the message
is clear in the building.

"shh, we don't criticize
the powers that be.

We don't criticize
corporations.

We are a giant
corporation.

We don't take on
the establishment,

We are the
establishment."

And the guys who play
ball get promotions

And everyone in the building
sees them getting promotions.

So, it is
an evolutionary process

By which the mainstream media
gets the product that it wants.

I think what happened
to cenk uygur at msnbc

Illuminates the process

Leading to what
noam chomsky calls,

"manufacturing consent."

Corporate news outlets
often end up

Being more propagandistic
than journalistic.

Manufactured consent
makes sure that the ignorant

And meddlesome majority
keeps out of things.

So, if they want--

For decades they've wanted
national healthcare,

But they don't understand,
so keep them out of it.

They want higher
taxes on the rich,

Then you know,
put them to the side.

They don't
understand things.

They're opposed to wars,

It's 'cause they don't
understand how important it is

For us to bomb libya
and whatever it may be.

It used to be
in earlier times

That you could use
force to do this,

But by the early
20th century,

Countries like England
and the United States,

The more free societies,

It was recognized that force
was no longer sufficient,

So you had to turn the control
of attitudes and opinions.

It's quite conscious
incidentally.

I think manufacturing consent

Is essentially
the rosetta stone

For understanding the
hieroglyphics of the us media.

It is the case
that if you go

To most media figures

And/or to media corporations and
tell them that they're really--

Constrain them of things
they can and can't say,

And not only
will they deny it,

But they'll essentially
be truthful in their denial,

In the sense that
they believe that denial,

Because they don't have someone
standing over their shoulder

Deleting words
that they write

Or compelling them to say things
they don't want to say,

But the entire system
breeds a certain orthodox.

It breeds a certain
kind of range of pieties

And if you deviate too far
from them, it will reject you.

So, yes, you're perfectly free

Once you accept the--

You internally
accept the principles

And you feel under
no pressure in censorship.

You can say
anything you want

As long as you accept
the concept of objectivity.

Ninety-nine percent of the
people who work in the business

Just think they're doing their
jobs and they don't realize

That they're creating
this kinda endless,

You know,
minefield of stupidity

That it's gonna be impossible
for us to all breach

When the time
comes, you know.

Those reporters who
care more about truth

Will eventually become
management problems,

And the ones who
can read power,

In essence,
function as courtiers,

Know how to
play the game.

The veneer of
objectivity, neutrality,

Impartiality,
truth, and yet,

Assiduously serve,

In essence, power,

Are the ones who rise
within the institution,

And that's why if you
look at the top management

Of even institutions
like the new york times,

They're filled with such
incredible mediocrities.

They can do exactly
what they want,

But they wouldn't
be in that position

Unless they already
accepted the framework.

I.F. Stone is
a perfect example.

He's a terrific reporter,
maybe one of the best,

But he didn't accept the rules,
so he was out of the system.

Same with innumerable others.

Jeremy scahill, glenn greenwald,
amy goodman, even matt taibbi.

♪

From my reporting,
these are all

The autopsies
that were ordered.

Is this a scientific
autopsy report from--

You're laughing.

This doesn't look like a report
that my students would do.

The report doesn't
look like a--

That even your
students would do, okay.

You know,
I'm sort of getting at,

Whether or not there
was some sort of a scam

With the autopsies.

All these reports
are missing.

Oh, those are the
missing ones, oh, okay.

So, over 30% of the
autopsies ordered.

You don't even have
a lab report for.

We don't even know if
they were ever performed.

They were billed.

I have the cancelled checks.

Oh.

I just don't have if
the autopsy was performed,

What they found.

You get appointed to the board
of one of these commissions,

Essentially in texas, by being
a large campaign contributor.

This is all an exposé
of this mass grave.

Make these people
own this shit.

Make 'em own it,

Because this is what
is existing in this state

And it's those people
over at the capital,

But it's also people who just
go about their daily lives

And let it happen.

♪

He had to answer questions
for weeks about this.

He also was pulled in
by some high ranking

Local officials in the state and
asked very similar questions,

So he's had time to prep.

Basically, what happened
is nueces county

Was providing autopsy
services for brooks county,

And they were overwhelmed
with nueces county alone.

Course I wasn't around when
all of this was being done,

You know, we kind of picked
up after the fact, you know.

Some of them were done

During the time of
your tenure here too.

Some of them
were after 2007.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So, I'm just wondering

Is that the mortuary
who's dumping bodies?

Actually, well, we had--

In other words,
who monitors the mortuary?

They're an independent
contractor,

So in other words,

You contract
somebody to do it,

You pay 'em 750 bucks
and they go do the job.

All we know is
we're gonna pay

For four--
$500, $500, $500--

And it's gonna say,

"one was eddie canalis,
he was identified.

This gentlemen
was john doe.

The other one was
another john doe."

In a case where
I was not comfortable

With cause of
death, dna and--

That's the criteria where
you saw something suspicious.

What if you found just bones
or a skull or something?

It's--it's difficult.
You can't do that.

It would be
a waste of time.

You would not
order an autopsy

If it was just
a skull or bones.

Once the sun,
108, 107 degrees--

So, a sun bleached skull
or something, no?

No, no, they wouldn't.

You don't have a problem

Until somebody makes
a problem out of it.

♪

The documents I have
and the evidence I have,

I asked him directly
about those things

And he lied
through his teeth

Through every
single one of them.

So, the way the bodies
were buried, the mortuaries,

The contracts,
everything, he's just--

Just bullshitting
me the whole way.

♪

In my investigation
prior to speaking to him,

I have found nothing but
discrepancies in the paperwork

And the documents in the
way that records were kept,

And he basically,
without knowing he did,

Admitted it all to me,

And I'm actually just shaking
a little bit from it.

♪

The only way I'm able to
do the investigative work

Before we even bring it
to a broadcast outlet,

Before we bring it to
the mainstream media,

Is because I actually
get paid every month

By the nation institute.

I have a monthly stipend,

An investigative
stipend that allows me

To put all these
pieces together

And I can spend
months on a story.

I can spend
a year on a story

Before I even bring it
to a broadcast outlet.

If the medical examiner

Or the forensic person in
brooks county examined bones,

He charged one
flat fee, $1500,

And there were
many bones examined.

They might as well have been an
eight-year-old who wrote them.

"I saw a man
lying on the ground,

His bones were scattered.

They looked okay to me,"
is basically a report.

Fifteen hundred bucks.

He was judge for eight
years from 2007 to 2014.

That's when all the
bodies were buried.

We--we know that brooks county
is under-resourced

And their record
keeping isn't great,

And so let's just take that
at face value for now.

I don't think
it's so much that.

I think there's
something going on here.

Obviously.

♪

I think about I.F. Stone a lot
and I think about his phrase,

"all governments lie."

And I also think
about the fact

That most of his
reporting was done

Putting his face in
a stack of documents.

It wasn't flashy.

He found the fact
that governments lie

Basically by what
governments do.

They're bad at
covering up their lies.

I can take you
to where I work

And I can show you
stack after stack

After stack
of documents

And I find, in our own
government documents,

Nothing but lies.

Nothing but
misrepresentation.

Nothing but
covering up the truth.

And governments
do lie frequently,

And it's my job to
find out when they lie.

♪

♪

If you don't step back and
look at the bigger picture,

Fundamentally, the empire
is not afraid of anyone really

That's running for office.

Whether it's the democrat
or the republican that wins,

The core institutions
of that necessitate

A brutal military force that
backs up the sort of, you know,

Velvet-gloved hand
of the free market

Is a given with every single
person that runs for office

Or can get the nomination
of those parties.

So, you know, even if
you have someone that,

In the general election,
is perceived to be,

You know, crazy.

Once they sort of start
getting those briefings

From the permanent
power structure,

The intelligence community,

They all step into line.

♪

Well,
in journalism school,

You're taught
to be objective,

And objective means

Report accurately what's
going on within the beltway.

So, inside the
system of power.

If you report that
accurately, you're objective.

If you go outside that,
you're biased.

Well, plenty
of things outside

That this is a narrow
concentrated power system.

One of my favorite lines
from any film

Is from the film
"the usual suspects."

You know, kevin spacey,
amazing as kaiser soze,

But at the end of
the film, he says,

"the greatest trick
the devil ever pulled..."

The greatest trick
the devil ever pulled

Was convincing the world
he didn't exist.

"...Was convincing the
world he didn't exist."

You know, you've got
crazy people thinking

That the department
of homeland security's

Gonna put them in
a fema camp somewhere.

You have other
people thinking

That obama's gonna come
and take their guns.

That's all a sideshow.

That's all a total sideshow.

The coup already happened

And the most brilliant
part about it is

None of these people
seem to realize it.

♪

I can draw a line
from I.F. Stone

Directly to what
I'm doing now.

It makes me sad to
think that actually,

He isn't with us and it
makes me really hope that--

That the next I.F. Stone
or two or three or four

Or 400 are out there now,

Who might be watching this
right now, and thinking,

"you know, I can do this."

Because you can do it.

You know, you can do it.

Especially if you--
again, do the work.

Do the hard work, but realize
that sometimes the best stuff

Is right there
in front of your nose,

And you don't even know it.

♪

I've actually written
a book you might like better.

It's nice to meet you.

Funding is the key to great
investigative reporting.

That doesn't really
have a time frame.

It may take you months
to get a document

That may take you in many
different directions and so,

For me, time is--is equal
to the amount of funding,

And funding is equal
to the amount of time

That I can spend
on something.

I'm working on
a project right now

That I've been working
on for the past year

And I probably will
take another year

Before it's actually broadcast.

If I were working
for corporate media,

This story would never air.

It just--I'd never
have that luxury

Of being able to develop
a story for that length of time.

As independent journalists,
I was wondering,

What do you guys think
the implications are

Of our news media
being reduced

To 140-character
sound bites?

Twitter can play an incredible
role if used properly

By journalists
in debunking myths

Or misinformation.

The flip side
is also true,

Which is that it can
spread misinformation

Very, very quickly.

I--I think that the future
is taking so much

Of what's amazing
about the creativity

And innovation
of young people

Who are dipping their toes
into the water of journalism

And the ideas that they have,
and the lack of cynicism,

And we try to meld that with
old school muckraking techniques

And slow cooked journalism.

Whoever figures out how to
really web those two things

Is gonna create something very
special in the media landscape.

Almost my entire life
as a journalist

Has been spent
in poverty media.

You know, media outlets
that have no money,

And we are
professional beggars,

And begging can
sometimes come in the form

Of asking for funds
from--from a foundation

Or it can come in the form
of writing a letter

To your family
and friends, saying,

"I really want to go
to iraq to be a reporter.

Can you kick in
25 or 50 bucks?"

And that's actually
how I financed

The first time
I ever went to iraq,

Was begging my extended
family to pitch in

At $25 and $50.

He's come a long way

Since he was pretty much
the original volunteer

At democracy now!

Jeremy scahill.

The fact that I--I now have
received this designation

Is a tremendous honor,

And I want to pledge
to use this opportunity

To educate a new generation
of young journalists

About the incredibly
important work of I.F. Stone

And the legacy that
he has left all of us

And the challenge
that he has left us all

In a very dark time
to simply be journalists.

This isn't a career,
this isn't a profession.

Journalism is
a way of life.

♪

My hope is that we somehow
miraculously produce

A generation of
young I.F. Stones.

We need to stop keeping
up with the kardashians

And start going back and
catching up on I.F. Stone.

Thank you very much.

♪

I think he's really
an inspiration in the role

That media can play
in the world.

I think the media can
be the greatest force

For peace on earth.

Instead it's wielded
as a weapon of war,

And that has
to be challenged.

I.F. Stone taught us
governments lie,

All governments lie,
especially in a time of war.

When the media acts as
a conveyor belt for the lies,

Why it matters is
because lies take lives

And we see
the enormous devastation

That came from that

That we still
live with today

So many years later.

That came from a media that
did not challenge the lies.

♪

Just because
you're a journalist

Doesn't mean you check
your humanity at the door.

This is--you don't
somehow get some pass

To not care about people.

Sometimes there is only
one way of seeing a story,

And sometimes the
truth is just true.

♪

There's only two
types of reporters.

There's those who care,

And those who don't.

Most of 'em don't care,
but if you care,

If you are as I was
in el salvador,

Or gaza or sarajevo,

Then you are immediately
branded as political,

Because if you care,

You can't lie to
cover up oppression,

Atrocity, genocide.

And I.F. Stone cared.

The vietnam war has
been a terrible defeat

For all the brand
names we believe in.

For general electric and
general motors and at&t.

For all the great
corporations,

All the great industry
that do the push buttons,

And when they--
when they turn to war,

They know how to
kill people en masse.

And here, down
in the jungle,

Way below is this
strange creature

That we can't crush.

This strange animal
we can't kill.

It's time to look closely
at it and see, by god,

It's a human being,
and isn't that wonderful

That human beings can resist

All this murderous
technology of ours?

♪

Very briefly and in no small
measure to remind ourselves,

An observation by stone

And what he thought
journalism was all about.

In his words,
to write the truth,

To defend the weak
against the strong,

To fight for justice,
to bring healing perspectives

To bear on the terrible
hates and fears of mankind

In the hope of someday
bringing about a world

In which man will enjoy the
differences of the human garden

Instead of killing
each other over them.

If you look
you'll find much more.

♪

♪