"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 grave-site" "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 it'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 up-linked 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 cross-hairs," "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 citizen-four" "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, do." "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 outhits 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 mis-buried," "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 buy-able" "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 pie-ties" "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 canceled 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 expose 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 att." "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."