sequent, emails that he was in possession of “thousands” of pages of in-house memos sent from his corporate headquarters in New York City to the head of the network’s television news department. He went on to say that these memos set forth directives about what material was, and was not, to be aired on the various outlets of the network.

This individual claimed he was developing serious doubts about the strict control of media events and decided that he would pass this material along to someone who might make use of it.

There was the question of his job security. If someone published his name, it would be certain he was not only fired but blackballed throughout his profession.

If tbrnews.org would agree to protect his identity, he would send us these alleged thousands of pages of notes, going back to 2001.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating so we accepted his caveats and he then sent to us by disk the pages he spoke of. All are on corporate stationary, signed or initialed by the senders and again, signed or initialed by the recipients in the news division.

It was always possible that this material consisted of a very involved hoax or was something designed for the news site to use and then have it revealed that it was not original. It would not be the first time that spurious disinformation had been sent to us in the hopes that it would be used.

There were not “thousands of pages” of memos but a total of 1,497 separate pages involved. Many of them consisted of short memos while others ran to a larger format.

Naturally, someone could easily have obtained correct in-house network letterheads, made copies of them and prepared false memoranda but the sheer size and depth of the collection was impressive.

If these memos were true, they showed with a terrible clarity that at least one part of the American mass media was strictly controlled and that the news was so doctored and spun that it might as well be official news releases from the White House and Pentagon.

The best way in which to ascertain whether or not these documents contained original information was to check the dates of issuance and compare the information with subsequent news stories.

This was a terrible, time-consuming chore but by selecting random memos and looking through the archives of various national newspapers, checking AP releases and so on, the results indicated that indeed, news was being managed.

However, it was also possible that someone else did this and was preparing these after the fact and making the memos conform to published material.

That having been said, we insisted on absolutely current memos so that we could then check these against future publications. If, for example, a corporate fiat was to show certain pictures or spin a story in a certain way, it would be relatively simple to simply read the press or watch television news to see if these suggestions were implemented.

It was both shocking and gratifying to note that this proved to be the case in a preponderance of cases and so we began to put these up, either in toto or, more often, in excerpt and watch as ordained news was created before our eyes.

When a corporate order states, for instance, that certain pictures should be shown with accompanying commentary and the memo predates a published story by a week or more, then it is more than likely that the memos are not inspired guesswork but genuine.

When tbrnews put up the first two pages, there were two basic forms of public response. One was to thank us for exposing something many people believed; that the American media was controlled and not free. (That much can easily be ascertained by reading the websites of various reputable foreign publications such as the Swiss NZZ, the British Guardian, the Canadian Toronto Globe and Mail, Reuters News Service, AFP and the Jerusalem Post. What any viewer can see on these sites is certainly not reflected in the American media.)

The second response consisted of irate, and literate, statements to the effect that all of these items were just stupid hoaxes and should not be believed. “I believe,” one writer who claimed to be a Professor of Journalism at an Ivy League college said, “these are just disinformation designed to discredit American journalists whose reputation for honesty and integrity is certainly beyond question. You are performing a great disservice in repeating these politically-motivated fictions…”

This is certainly a true statement because if it became generally accepted that the American media was only a mechanical parrot for various political organizations, it would no longer be either believed or watched. If viewers turned off their television sets, the networks would lose huge amounts of advertising revenue, reporters would be laid off and people would turn instead to the Internet for their news.

The file, “Controlling the News” has proven to be the most durable and viewed section of tbrnews. As the result of our earlier postings, we have been receiving a significant amount of input that extends far beyond the scope of our original informant. These sources include, but are certainly not limited to; an employee of a major American news magazine, a source inside the corporate offices of a major media conglomerate, various military sources, foreign press and intelligence individuals and persons connected with official agencies who are greatly disturbed by the machinations of the current Administration.

That these sources have requested anonymity is self-evident.

In the final analysis, it is always up to the reader to make up their own mind as to the truth, or fiction, of what they read. The media has an opposite view of this.

It is fairly obvious that the average Americans get their news either from TV, mostly, or, to a shrinking number, from the print media. If someone in East Peoria, Illinois sees something on CNN, the Voice of the White House, they have no reason to question it. And don't. The establishment does not worry about a website that, as in our case, reaches perhaps 100,000 people at a time when they have control over NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN that can, and do, reach millions a day.

What do they care about people who email messages back and forth? Even if a Pentagon plan to nuke North Korea were up on the net, all that would happen is that some would say, "See, I told you so!" while others would say "Oh shame! You are questioning our Glorious Leader (appointed to his high office by Almighty God Himself!) and putting our Brave Troops in danger!"

If the honesty of the American mass media is finally brought into serious question, perhaps the ruling Establishment cannot jam their lies down the public's throat with such ease.

Walter Storch

Part 30

Expanded Version of Controlling the News

Controlling the News is our most viewed and commented on section. About 95% of our communicants are in favor of it and encourage our continuation of it. The remaining 5% consist of strange people like defunct writer David Irving or Dr. Marc Webber of the equally defunct IHR as well as those who are stupid enough to assume that we ought to publish the identities of our sources so the media can weed them out. The usual line is: “I just can’t believe all this garbage unless you tell me, in strict confidence of course, who is giving these vicious lies to you.” Since the opinions of these writers in such a vein have no probative value, they really ought to try a different approach. Because Wally T. Beagle in East Jesus, Texas is scornful and spent the whole night with his Thesaurus looking up thunder words to impress us with has as much significance in the overall scheme of things as an army of flatulent mice in full chorus in a barn in Durban, South Africa.

Wednesday, December 24, 2003/ New York (printed in its entirety)

“Another Xmas and the corporate stockings are stuffed with the annual bonus checks. This has been quite a year all in all. An excellent year for news briefs with plenty of excitement, bombs exploding, daily episodes that were very often the result of Hollywood and not History.

The War in Iraq is a lot like driving over a cliff in your new car; thrilling until you stop at the bottom. Have we reached the bottom yet? No, but we are getting there faster than anyone wants.

Bush and his supporters have knocked over a serious hornet’s nest in the Middle East, and in Pakistan, North Korea, Afghanistan, and Europe. Their actions have initially caused some minor alarm that has rapidly developed into major panic.

The Arabs blew up the Trade Center because the U.S. gave blind support to Israel. The Arabs saw us as the financial supporter of their major enemy; an enemy that disposed them of their homes in 1948 (with the aid of the British and Americans) and also of many of their lives. Israel, backed unquestioningly by the US, has invaded their countries, their homes and done its best to destroy all the Arabs of Palestine. Discreetly at first and then with increasing boldness, the repression goes on.

With no sophisticated weaponry such as that possessed by America and Israel, the impoverished and embittered Arabs turned to suicide bombs and self-immolation, a certain sign of their end-game attitudes.

The duty of every national leader is to firstly concern himself with the well-being of his own country. The Bush people have not done this. Aside from some of the Bush cronies, the only entity that has profited from the turmoil; the destruction of Iraq and dispossession of Saddam Hussein, is the state of Israel.

We have removed one of their most dangerous enemies from their borders without a single IDF soldier being killed and at absolutely no expense to their treasury.

But now that Saddam is gone, the Israelis, and the Americans, have discovered that he has been replaced with a growing and very proficient Arab guerrilla movement. This movement, which shows no sign of abating, has taxed our troops to the limit with random and murderous attacks.

Gross ineptness on the part of the military command there has not won the hearts and minds of the Iraqi public but rather, by savage retribution against the civilian population has turned an entire country of millions of Arabs against our occupying troops.

Snipings, sabotage of the vital oil system, killing of Arabs that have cooperated with the U.S., to include revered religious leaders, random killings of GIs, destruction of the power infrastructure and a dozen other actions have created an intolerable strain not only in the U.S. military command but also inside Washington.

With the Neocon war party firmly in power, no suggestion of flexibility or compromise is possible. That the Neocons are all Jewish (and many of whom are actually Israeli citizens,) is becoming very clear to everyone, including, and very dangerously, the general public.

The role of the media, print and television, in this is mixed. On one level, the excitement of daily eruptions in Iran are good copy and produce fine ratings but the growing discontent, both among the ranks and also among the average citizens, is extremely dangerous in the long haul.

We in the media cannot be seen to attack the humble, brave and freedom-loving men in the field. The Bush Administration is just waiting for us to step over that line. On the other hand, it is no longer possible to simply ignore the growing storm and spend all of our time in lavishing praise on the Administration and parroting its memos. (Fox is by far and away the worst offender here. Murdoch gives sycophancy a very bad name indeed.

On the domestic scene, more and more is emerging about:

a. Bush’s probably foreknowledge of the 9/11 attack;

b. The growing problems not only in Iraq but possible eruptions and regime changes in a Pakistan that was bribed to support us;

c. A growing suggestion that vote fraud via deliberately defective electronic voting machines will revisit the terrible Florida election frauds in the Presidential elections;

d. The growing unhappiness, bordering on desperation, of the Administration about how it can put a lid on Iraq while at the same time preparing for probable other “shock and awe” attacks on the targets of the Neocon’s anger;

e. The actual number of the dead and, especially, the badly wounded troops in Iraq;

f. The growing “offshoring” of many hitherto “safe” middle class technical jobs to India, China and Singapore leaving tens of thousands of very apprehensive voters.

We are, I remind you, a business entity, not a charity or a blind supporter of lost causes. In light of this, I and many of my co-workers realize more and more that we will soon reach a point where we can no longer sit on the fence. We cannot run with the hares and hunt with the hounds at the same time and for myself, I would rather be a live hound than a dead rabbit!

The answer? We must find a consensus and very quickly. If, and I stress if, the public awakens from its hibernation and begins to growl in anger, we had all best have a simple and safe plan in place and it would be much better if we acted before we had to.

I would like your written opinions on this round robin on my desk no later than Monday, December 29th.

Let’s hope for a better New Year!”

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