Never let it be said that the bloggers here at Room 8 lack a sense of humor.

I'm going to paraphrase this famous quote: "In a world of lies and deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

This is a credo I stand by. We are awash in a sea of mistruths, obfuscations and outright asshattery; our "news: organizations actually have a mandate to LIE TO US.

Does anyone rec all the case of the RBGH scandal? This came about when two reporters proposed a story involving the dangers of this additive to our milk supply.

They were told, in no uncertain terms, to CHANGE THEIR STORY.

They refused, and sued their employer.

Read below...I'll continue after the interlude:

Former Fox Reporters Challenge Network over rBGH Scandal

JOURNALISTS CHALLENGE LICENSE OF FOX TV IN TAMPA ON EVIDENCE OF FALSE AND DISTORTED NEWS REPORTS

TAMPA (January 3, 2005)-For what is believed to be the first time ever, two television journalists have challenged the broadcast license of a station on grounds it deliberately broadcast false and distorted news reports.

Veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson filed the petition Monday against WTVT Fox-13 in Tampa, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Television empire.

The formal Petition To Deny the station's pending license renewal presents the Federal Communications Commission with 98 pages of what the journalists say is "clear and convincing support for the claim that the licensee is not operating in the public interest and lacks the good
character to do so."

The challenge stems from what the reporters say was a year-long experience inside the station where they resisted Fox managers who repeatedly ordered them to distort a series of news reports about the secret use of an artificial hormone injected in dairy cattle throughout Florida and beyond.

The claim also cites another case of alleged deliberate distortion at the Fox-owned television station in Kansas City, WDAF Fox-4.

The journalists also charge that WTVT has violated federal rules with regard to keeping on file viewer complaints and comments. The reporters say not one communication regarding the dispute over the
hormone story was found in the files even though there were several examples of letters which should have been there.

"There are no greater supporters of the First Amendment than Steve and I," Akre said. "But the First Amendment is certainly not a license
to lie and no broadcaster should be allowed to put its own financial interests ahead of the public interest. The public interest is by law
the primary obligation of every broadcaster who uses our public airwaves to make their corporate fortune, especially when broadcasting the news."

"The FCC itself has clearly said `rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest and indeed, there is no act more harmful to the public's ability to handle its affairs' and who can disagree?" Wilson added.

The reporters charge station executives demanded the reports be falsified and slanted to avoid a threatened lawsuit by the hormone maker
Monsanto, as well as potential loss of advertising from dairymen and others who objected to the reports.

Though Fox officials never pointed to a single inaccuracy in the proposed broadcasts, they nonetheless fired the two after the reporters
refused to yield to management threats of dismissal. The two also refused what they characterized as a six-figure offer of hush-money from station managers who wanted them to leave and forever keep quiet about the issue.

In 1998, the two filed a civil court lawsuit seeking employee protections under the state Whistleblower Act that resulted in a
$425,000 jury award to Akre. That verdict was then overturned in 2003 when an appeals court accepted Fox's defense that since it is not technically against any law, rule, or regulation for a broadcaster to
distort the news, the journalists were never entitled to employee protections as whistleblowers in the first place.

Although Fox has always denied it ever ordered deliberate distortions, the jury found the reports at the heart of the dispute were "false, distorted, or slanted." While the appellate court ruling that
reversed the jury called the journalists' suit "without merit from its inception," that finding was based solely upon the court's finding on the threshold issue that the Whistleblower law did not apply in this particular case. No court has ever disputed the jury's conclusions about the news reports themselves.

"The public expects the FCC to exercise its authority on complaints of indecency on the public airwaves and it has in cases like Janet
Jackson and here locally with Bubba The Love Sponge. Certainly no less important is the public's expectation that the airwaves they own will not be used to lie and mislead them on issues of
public importance," Wilson said.

"Steve and I are gratified that six disinterested people who spent more than a month reviewing the facts ultimately agreed the story Fox demanded was, as the jurors determined, `false, distorted or slanted.'

"As we said in our Petition, we are not seeking to retry our whistleblower case at the FCC. We are doing what we said all along that we have a duty to do: bring the facts of Fox misconduct to the attention of a federal regulatory agency that long ago promised it would act to protect the public interest against broadcasters who twist the truth in
news reports," she said.

"Reporters seldom if ever speak out against the news organization that employs them. I'm proof that doing so is not the best path to career advancement-but what happened here was too egregious for any honest journalist to ignore," Akre said.

"And now, with the strongest, clearest, and best-documented case of news distortion ever presented to the FCC by newsroom insiders, we call
upon the Commissioners to exercise their authority to assure the public is being well-served and not misled," Wilson said.

The petition seeks a full and thorough investigation by the FCC followed by public hearings on the matter before any determination is
made to renew WTVT's license to operate the station for the next eight years.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR A COPY OF THE PETITION, CONTACT:

JANE AKRE jakre@bellsouth.net

STEVE WILSON wilson@citicom.com

Our "news" organizations have NO IMPETUS TO TELL US THE TRUTH.

This is the world we live in, ladies and gentlemen - a world where three buildings are rendered as to dust, and nearly ten years later, we haven't anything approximating an answer.

We have pharmaceutical companies purporting to be in the business of healthcare, but whose main raison d'etre is MONEY.

We have a push for biotechnology that is in its current stages, imperfect and dangerous to every living being on this planet. But in this, at least, there are some signs of sanity rearing its head:

Nations finally agree on GM food labelling

Sarah Schmidt - Post Media News

OTTAWA — The countries of the world ended two decades of bickering Tuesday when they agreed to guidelines for genetically modified food labelling.

The United Nations summit of food safety regulators from more than 100 countries, including Health Canada, produced the first-ever consensus document when the United States dropped its long-standing objection to the labelling guidance document at the Geneva summit after debating the issue for 20 years.

Canada had objected to GM labelling guidelines until last year, when the international group met in Quebec City.

The new Codex agreement to which Canada signed on now means that any country that wants to bring in mandatory GM food labelling rules will no longer face the threat of a legal challenge from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

I am not a Luddite. I understand the uses of technology, and I deal with technology in its myriad forms daily...but I do not believe that technology belongs everywhere in our society. Computers do not admit to making mistakes and errors - they just continue to operate, and without regard to the repercussions of the actions taken (or not undertaken). I also advocate accountability and responsibility, two words that seems to be missing from some folks' lexicon.

So...the Casey Anthony case has concluded, and she was found not guilty for the death of her child, Caylee. I do hope that justice has been done...but in a world where 2,000 child on average go missing daily, I don't know. There's entirely too little regard for the fates of our children.

The Roger Clemens case in slated to begin. Does Congress really not have anything else more important on their plate?

Majority Leader John Boehner insists that the Republican Party will "never agree to tax hikes".

I don't believe anyone wants "tax hikes", but let's be sure what's happening here. There are loopholes in which corporations dance through, with the threat of them "leaving" to find better tax laws elsewhere.

I say, don't let the door hit you on your tuchis on the way out. There are plenty of businesses who'd love a chance to do business in New York. If anyone mentions the theory of "trickle-down" to you, you should really offer them a stern look in return. "Trickle-down" is one of the biggest lies in the name of capitalism, along with"the check's in the mail" and that other story about not leaving you a deposit between your lips.

When Halliburton Corp is forgiven for a $500 MILLION tax burden; but regular joes like you and I are terrorized by the Fed's henchmen, the IRS...something smells...and that's not pate.