The Military Industrial Media vs. the Internet

From "Robert Kemp" <sensuant@hotmail.com>
Date Sun, 19 Sep 1999 18:42:44 EDT


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From: bob@erols.com [mailto:bob@erols.com]On Behalf Of Bob
Sent: Friday, September 17, 1999 7:47 AM
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                       THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL MEDIA

                            VERSUS THE INTERNET

                    60 Minutes Anti-conspiracy Slop Job

         by Ian Williams Goddard

         The major media have launched a disinformation war designed
         to smear the Internet.  The Internet represents a heretofore
         unparalleled level of informational competition for the major
         media.  A primary pretext for these Internet attacks focuses
         on the "conspiracy theories," or alternative news and views,
         that the Net allows the public to freely access and express.

         Most recently the CBS program 60 Minutes (02/1/97), using
         false and misleading claims,  attacked conspiracy theories
         and alternative information on the Internet such as my work.

         60 Minutes anchor Lesley Stahl, while arguing for the removal
         of undesirable information such as mine from the Internet,
         promoted the hysteria-inducing fear that freedom of access
         to conspiracy theory is a threat to the minds of the children.

         After showing my TWA 800 web page with my name prominently
         displayed, Lesley Stahl pointed a finger at the lead graphic
         I created (http://www.erols.com/igoddard/twa-fact.htm) saying:

                   STAHL: Shouldn't this be expunged ?

                   GUEST: On what grounds?

                   STAHL: That it's wrong, that it's
                   inaccurate, it's irresponsible, that
                   it is spreading fear and suspicion
                   of the government; 10,000 reasons.

                   GUEST: Ooh, sedition I see. So it's
                   anti-government, so it spreads fear.
                   But who should regulate it? ...

                   STAHL: So you think it's better
                   to leave all this junk out there?

         Now let's see how accurate the claims of 60 Minutes are.
         My graphic, or "junk," which 60 Minutes calls "wrong" and
         "inaccurate," contains one sentence making three claims:

                   (1) The "streak of light"
                       reported to "hit the plane"

                   (2) "followed the course like
                       the outline of a parabola"

                   (3) not unlike a guided missile.

         (1) The New York Times (07/19/96) said that eyewitnesses
         reported a "'streak of light' hitting the plane just before
         it blew up."  An eyewitness I've interviewed, Roland Penney,
         told Newsday (09/01/96) that "the thin white line" that raced
         upwards toward TWA 800 "hit that plane." This is just a small
         sample (more here: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/twa-fact.htm)
         of the massive body of available missile-witness accounts that
         60 Minutes wants you to believe are "wrong" and "irresponsible."

         (2) As quoted on my web page, The New York Times (07/19/96),
         citing the evidence that "the airplane was hit by a missile
         fired from a boat," reported the following:

                 Paul Angelides, who lives in West Hampton
                 Beach... saw what he described as a "red
                 meteor with a smoke tail" that followed
                 the course like the outline of "a parabola."

   [Note Dec. 31, 1997. This is course, the old theory, of a long
   range missile. It was the FBI that pointed out Angeklides and Fred
   Meyer to the New York Times and indeed the FBI which promoted the
   missile theory. The claims of 150 witnesses all saying the same
   thing also originated with FBI leaks and the FBI even leaked to
   Marcia Kramer of WCBS-TV in New York that the Pentagin was not
   co-operating with them]

         (3) A streak of light that shoots across the sky leaving the
         smoky and curving trail cited in claim 2, is by definition
         "not unlike a guided missile." The two primary possibilities
         are that this streak is  (a) a meteorite or  (b) a missile.
         The radical degree of curvature sighted in my graphic, which
         is consistent with most accounts, eliminates (a) leaving (b);
         and therefore it is indeed most like a guided missile.

         That's the kind of logical analysis CBS wants to have
         "expunged" from the human record because it spreads fear
         about the government, and specifically about the U.S. Navy,
         which the owner of CBS, Westinghouse, works for [1].

         So, each and every claim I make that 60 Minutes would like
         you to believe is "wrong," "inaccurate," and "irresponsible,"
         is IN FACT logical, true, and accurate according to over 150
         eyewitness accounts cited in major media sources. Therefore,
         the claims of 60 Minutes are, to the contrary, the only
         claims proven to be false and inaccurate.

         WHAT 60 MINUTES IS NOT TELLING YOU

         While Lesley Stahl may have laughed at web pages claiming
         that the major media are not telling all about TWA 800, the
         fact is that the major media routinely suppress verifiable
         information that should spread fear of the government.

         For example, CBS has the Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR)
         video from Waco, TX (4/19/93) that shows the FBI shooting
         machine-guns into Mount Carmel, the Branch Davidian's home,
         most heavily as the fire started and people tried to escape.

   [Note Dec. 31, 1997 By the way, CBS also has the videotape of Buford
   shooting the 3 BATF agents on Feb. 28, 1993, because I saw a portion
   broadcast on the CBS Evening News on May 5. 1995 or 1996 - although
   the key frames may be missing - KWTX-TV claims they were never shot -
   and Dan rather probably does not realize that's what it is]

         Not only has a top FLIR expert evaluated the video [2],
         concluding that it shows gunshots toward the building,
         but according to Gordon Novel (head of investigation in
         the Ramsey Clark Waco lawsuit, who acquired the FLIR video
         from the quickly dead former head of CIA, Bill Colby) CBS
         even had the video examined by the independent laboratory
         Infraspection Institute of Berlington, VT,  which also
         concluded that the video shows machine-gun fire toward
         the building. 60 Minutes did its homework and was ready
         to run the FLIR video with the findings.

         However, Novel reports [3] that all it took was an angry
         call from the Justice Department for CBS and 60 Minutes to
         cave-in and opt instead to suppress the truth by not runn-
         ing the FLIR program.  Because it seems CBS does not want
         to spread any fear or suspicions about the government, CBS
         viewers can be sure never to see the shocking FLIR video.

         Contrary to Ms. Stahl's laughter at the claim, the major
         media,  even her own program,  are willfully suppressing
         powerful evidence against the US government and in so do-
         ing are willing to sacrifice the interests of the American
         people for the security of those in power with the blood
         of men, women, and children all over their hands.  Then,
         after covering up mass murder in Waco, 60 Minutes moves
         on to smear and suppresses evidence suggesting that the
         US government killed all 230 people aboard TWA 800. The
         pattern is clear: serve the State, screw the people.

         MAJOR MEDIA vs THE INTERNET

         While the major media work to smear the Internet as an
         unreliable source of lies and rumor, the facts are that
         the Internet has proven to be more reliable in terms of
         getting the truth out more quickly than the major media.

         A case in point is the recent coverage the ABC program
         20/20 (01/17/97) gave to the compelling evidence of fore-
         knowledge by the federal government of the Oklahoma City
         bombing [4]. While 20/20 called this report "an exclusive
         investigation," the fact is that every detail they "scooped"
         could have been found on the Internet a year beforehand.
         Indeed, ABC took the credit for the leg-work of many grass-
         roots investigators, whom the major media had been smearing
         previously as the "paranoid nuts" that lurk about in the
         dark and fearful world of the Internet.

         The chaotic dynamics of Internet-information processing
         is light-years ahead of the major media, which can only
         hope to keep pace with the rapidly evolving information
         structures that form the electronic world of cyberspace.

         DYNAMICS OF INFORMATIONAL FREEDOM

         As on-line researcher Thomas Shoemaker [5] observes [6],
         the process-focused nature of the Internet's informational
         structure renders the Net too dynamic and fast-paced for
         the outdated product-oriented media behemoths, which the
         Internet threatens to cut down to size:

                 The media of which Lesley Stahl belongs
                 to is failing. They achieved dominance
                 years ago, when there was less competition
                 from other information systems: their main
                 worry was about what other members of their
                 monopoly were doing. Now they are in decline
                 and denial. They have and continue to view
                 the "news" as a "product" which is massaged,
                 molded, dressed up, packaged, promoted, and
                 then delivered to the consumer as a finished
                 commodity.

                 The internet is perceived as a threat by
                 Lesley, her co-workers and their bosses,
                 because it is not product-focused,  but
                 process-focused. They cannot successfully
                 cope with the creative, turbulent decentral-
                 ization of the internet...it is just too
                 free for them. Their idea of news is an
                 address to the peasants (us) from the
                 royal family (the media, of course).

         The process nature of Internet informational-structure allows
         a story to unfold spontaneously in such a way that the whole
         decentralized society is free to become active participants
         in a public investigation and analysis of available facts,
         free to make the input that Lesley Stahl wants "expunged"
         from the human record.

         But even as their Internet smear campaign, frequently focusing
         on TWA 800, may signal a fear in CBS of the chaotic and spon-
         taneous nature of informational freedom, CBS may smear those
         proposing that TWA 800 was hit with a U.S. Navy missile simply
         because CBS is owned by the large military-industrial-complex
         contractor, Westinghouse, which works for the U.S. Navy [1].

         ON THE INTERNET, GOOD INFORMATION DRIVES OUT BAD

         The fear that bad information threatens the good on the
         Internet fails to observe that over time and with the input
         of thousands of minds, we have a greater ability than ever
         to see all sides of the story. The instant input of so many
         people who know parts or all of a give topic allows the
         Internet as a whole to more quickly drive out bad informa-
         tion than the major media where few are permitted input.

         When I write an essay and post it to the Internet, instantly
         people with other ideas or expertise in an area I cover can
         critique it for all to evaluate.  While many replies offer
         only empty insults expressing rage rather than constructive
         analysis, on the whole, this system of automatic feedback
         and input accelerates the process of "social learning."

         The major media of all varieties make their case in forums
         that are insulated from the instantaneous and equally visible
         input and critique of others.  It's exactly as Tom Shoemaker
         observed previously, that the major media wants to address
         the public like the royal family addresses its sea of
         peasants, where rebuttal is discouraged and denied.

         To a larger degree than at any time in human history, the
         Internet puts us all on the same level; the Internet is a
         great equalizer.  Let us honor this gift to humanity, not
         disparage it as those who still live in the old ways seek
         to disparage the new and empowering media that is the Internet.

   ***********************************************************************
    IAN GODDARD (igoddard@erols.com)  Q U E S T I O N   A U T H O R I T Y
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    VISIT Ian Goddard's Universe   ----->   http://www.erols.com/igoddard
   _______________________________________________________________________

   (c) 1997 Ian Williams Goddard  (*) free to copy nonprofit w/ attribute.

     TWA 800: THE FACTS -->  http://www.erols.com/igoddard/twa-fact.htm

       WACO - WTC - OKC ---> http://www.erols.com/igoddard/facts.htm

   _____________________________________________________________________
   [1] CBS/Navy link: http://www.westinghouse.com/indst/h_gesc.htm
   Found on cited CBS webpage (03/09/97): "Westinghouse Government
    Operations manages several sites owned by the federal government.
    US Navy sites managed by Westinghouse Government Operations:
    (1) Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
    (2) Plant Apparatus Division near Pittsburgh,
    (3) Machinery Apparatus Operation in Schenectady, New York."

   [2] FLIR analysis and testimony of Dr. Edward Allard as filled in court:
   
http://home.dc.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9702&L=flight-800&O=A&P=8949

   [3] AMERICAN FREEDOM: 1(8) p 11.  http://www.amerifree.com

   [4] Review of 20/20 report: http://www.jbs.org/vo13no04.htm#okc

   [5] Thomas Shoemaker's TWA 800 research page:
   http://www.webexpert.net/rosedale/twacasefile/default.htm

   [6] Thomas Shoemaker comments on the Internet to Flight 800 list:
   http://home.dc.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9703&L=flight-800&P=1786

   [7] More examples major media attacks on Internet-conspiracy theory:

http://home.dc.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9611&L=flight-800&O=A&P=14831
   http://www.erols.com/igoddard/decree.htm




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