Sen. John Kerry has launched a petition drive asking that the General Accounting Office investigate the Pentagon's role in producing retired military experts to spread favorable press coverage of the Bush administration's prosecution of the Iraq war.

The major TV news outlets have done little if any coverage of this story - which broke two weeks ago - either out of embarrassment or self-preservation. Under federal law, it is illegal for the government to spread propaganda within the borders of the U.S.

Today in Congress, the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing on HR 5353, the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act". This is the bill that would make Net Neutrality the law in America.

Network Neutrality -- or "Net Neutrality" for short -- is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

A propaganda program run by the Bush administration we reported on last week has been "suspended" by the Pentagon according to news reports out now.

This program was (is) an abuse of our trust in the media, as these military analysts were presented as "unbiased experts" when in fact they were mouthpieces for the administration. The administration abused their control of military contracts to ensure that these analysts would say what they wanted to say.

While it is good that the Pentagon has suspended the program. That doesn't help the fact that this program helped build support for the Iraq War. And given the impact of that on all of our lives, it means there is still justification for Congress to investigate whether laws were broken by this flimflammery.

The New York Times yesterday published an expose' of how the Bush administration manipulated the trust America has in the media and the trust the media has in its analysts.

What this investigation shows is the following:

*    The Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld recruited former military officials to be their mouthpieces in the media but under the guise of being independent experts;
*    These military analysts were fed talking points by the administration but were not to reveal their relationship with the administration;
*    Many of these analysts were involved with securing military contracts for themselves or others, and benefitted from the increased access - and conversely were intimidated into not straying from the talking points for fear of losing contracts;
*    The development of this propaganda machine began before 9/11 and was utilized to generate support for attacking Iraq and is now being used to make Iran the new boogieman;
*    Former Attorney General Gonzales also used the propaganda machine to justify the use of warrantless wiretapping.

This story is breaking and we expect many more details to emerge. But there are several points to be made here. First, it was wrong for the administration to use the carrot and stick of military contracts to deceive the American public. Second, it was wrong for the administration to betray the trust of the American public by trotting out spokespeople under the guise of being independent. And third, it was wrong for the news networks to not look into the conflicts of interest of their supposed independent analysts.

We encourage Congress to investigate this matter further so the public can understand exactly what happened here. If it is shown that the administration tied government contracts to political support in a public forum, heads should roll.

As we begin to see more companies announcing lay-offs and our economy tripping toward an unknown future, our community media becomes even more important.

During rough times, whether Mother Nature is being extra testy or the local Citigroup lets go of 9,000 neighbors, newspapers, TV and radio must be real resources for people to talk about their problems and discuss the solutions.

As it sits right now, your local newspaper is more than likely owned by a corporation that owns many others across the country. The effects of this kind of change are lower news budgets, which in turn means more stories bought from the AP and little local coverage. The local coverage that is available is very light. Journalists no longer have much time for investigation, so increasingly stories come straight from press releases.

In effect, we are in the dark about what is really going on.

The capacity for community dialogue is low. Let's move forward and fight for more. Tell the FCC that you don't want any more media consolidation. Tell your Congressmen that we will no longer put up with media in the corporate interest instead of the public interest.

Free Speech TV, KBDI TV, KGNU Radio, and Denver Open Media are hosting a lecture with award-winning journalist, Amy Goodman. Amy's program, Democracy Now!, airs on over 350 stations across the nation, providing access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S. corporate-sponsored media.

*WHEN*: Sunday, April 20, 7:00 PM

*WHERE*: East High School Auditorium,

1600 City Park Esplanade, Denver

*COST*: $10 for FSTV members, $15 for non-members and at the door *Also Available* are a limited number of $100 VIP tickets which include preferred seating, a reception with Amy at 6 PM before the lecture, and a copy of her new book, Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times.

Tickets will be Will-Call only, and can be picked up any time after 6 PM on the day of the event

Call 303-296-1212 during business hours or visit KBDI.org to reserve your tickets today!

I know you've all been missing your somewhat regular dose of information on what Common Cause has been working on across the country at the local, state and national level.  Here's the latest edition of the Yellow Memo (as it's known in the CC office - it has been printed on yellow paper for as long as anyone remembers).  Thanks to volunteer Mary Jo Cittadino we've got the memo back up and running.  In future it'll mostly be posted under her name, but I wanted to introduce it this time.  Enjoy! 

House Administration Committee Approve Bills

On April 2 the Committee on House Administration approved two vital measures: The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008 (HR 5036) will help states safeguard voting machines in November's general election. The Universal Right to Vote By Mail (HR 281) will ease administrative hurdles for voters who wish to vote by absentee ballot. The bill clarifies that voters may request the right to vote by absentee ballot without needing to give an "excuse."

Common Cause has championed both measures since their introduction. In a press release, President Bob Edgar commended "those on the House Administration Committee who voted in support of these measures" and urged "the full House and Senate to follow suit to help ensure voting security and accessibility in November."

More below the fold.

I saw the movie Stop-Loss over the weekend and it blew me away. The term refers to what happens to a soldier after he/she has put in the contracted time and then is still sent back to war for more tours of duty. This is happening, presumably, because the Bush administration does not want to begin a draft. So in order to maintain troop levels, the same courageous men and women are being sent back, whether they want to or not.

These people signed up to serve their country, showing their honor with their actions. Are we serving them by dragging them back into combat after years of good service? The Vietnam War became unpopular enough for people to stand up and speak out. Family members, friends, and acquaintances were being sent overseas, making the war closer to home for more people. For the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fewer families and communities of people are being directly affected by the tragedies of war, keeping the reality of these wars and their unconstitutionality just out of sight.

With the majority of the media that we consume consolidated into just a few hands (over 50 in 1983 and 5 right now), only a handful of people decide what we see, hear, and read about the war, perpetuating this problem of no information. If our local paper, TV station, magazines and even state level papers were independently controlled, just think of the diverse perspectives we would have access to!

I don't want to read the same stuff that everyone in the country is reading. How are we to inform ourselves as responsible citizens if most of the media have exactly the same content?

These soldiers deserve to be heard. We owe it to them to learn of their sacrifice.

Tell the FCC you want diverse media, instead of corporate media. Tell your Congressmen to stop the FCC from allowing more consolidation.