Tuesday, September 8 2009   -   In the Media

by Jim Hoffman
Version 0.9; August 27, 2009
(Please refer to original article at this link for updated versions)
911research.wtc7.net

By now it's quite predictable: every year as the anniversary of the attack approaches, some of the most established mainstream media brands are pressed into service to sell the official story of 9/11.

The 2009 iteration of this spectacle is notable for the contrast between the designated brand and the obligatory message. That brand, best known for its high-brow photojournalistic National Geographic Magazine, has existed since 1889, complete with a non-profit Society dedicated to education in geography, archaeology, history, world cultures, and natural science. One can't help but wonder how National Geographic's many benefactors would feel if they understood how the brand was being used to prop up the "War on Terror" with its Popular-Mechanics-style attack piece to be aired on August 31, 2009.

A web feature on the website of the National Geographic Channel provides a preview of the show and a window into the methods and goals of the show's producers. Those methods are so heavy-handed that the critical reader can't help but see that those goals are something very different from educating. As an exercise, the reader might want to read the one-page feature first, and then compare notes with my analysis of it below.

National Geographic Then and Now

The 2009 documentary isn't the first time the National Geographic brand has been used to rubber-stamp the official account of the attack. On September 17, 2001 an article in National Geographic News attempted to explain the "collapses" with such memetic devices mouthed by "experts" as "the raging inferno" (likened to a fraction of the Hiroshima A-bomb) turning the steel to "Play-doh" and precipitating a "domino collapse" in which "the buildings' majesty was their own undoing".

 

Monday, September 7 2009   -   In the Media

Issued September 4, 2009

Numerous media outlets have contacted 911truth.org, asking us to "make sense" of Van Jones' "strange" behavior. We have issued the following statement:

As the eighth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, what doesn't make sense to us is that media outlets choose to impugn the character of the signatories rather than carry out your responsibility as watchdogs to call attention to the as yet unanswered questions raised in the 2004 statement. Five years later, we challenge you to finally print those same unanswered questions and pursue their answers with the same vigor with which you pursue the signatories.

We are overwhelmed by all the messages of support that we have received in the last 24 hours. We apologize that we can not possibly respond to each individual message, but please know we do read each one and are grateful for your support. For those of you asking what you can do to help, we encourage you to use the questions of this 2004 Statement as talking points for calls to your local media outlets and national call-in programs, and letters to the editors. Perhaps with your help, we can finally get answers to these lingering questions. Thank you.

For readers' convenience, following is the actual Truth Statement signed onto by Van Jones in 2004, currently being discussed in the media:

 

Monday, September 7 2009   -   In the Media

By Dwain Deets and Gregg Roberts
September 6, 2009
Published at Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911truth.org)

National Geographic Channel (NGC) first broadcast its two-hour special misleadingly entitled "9/11: Science and Conspiracy," on August 31, 2009. NGC, with 67% ownership by Rupert Murdoch, posed as a neutral party explaining both sides in an ongoing dispute. In reality, it manipulated the presentation, doing many subtle and not so subtle things to support the side of the official story.

In actuality, this so-called documentary was a de facto hit piece, an assault on truth, and obviously skewed in support of the government's explanation of 9/11 and against "9/11 truth." Whatever their intentions, the producers failed completely in any supposed attempt at balanced reporting and a fair presentation of both sides of the story.

 

Tuesday, September 1 2009   -   In the Media

Posted by Steven Jones at 911blogger.com
September 1, 2009

A special on 9/11 has just been shown on the National Geographic Channel, produced by Robert Erickson. Robert also conducted interviews with me and others. In March 2009, Prof. David Ray Griffin and I and Gregg Roberts exchanged emails with Robert Erickson which demonstrate our efforts to get Mr. Erickson and his team to be accurate and fair in their treatment of our scientific work regarding 9/11 – particularly the evidence for the use of explosives in the World Trade Center destruction. For the record, then, I have pulled together our exchanges of emails.

Robert Erickson, emailed David Ray Griffin on 3/27/09:
"if Jones is surprised that we just placed bags of thermite around the column...what else would Jones have suggested? "

I was informed of the question above and I responded on 3/28/09 as follows:

Robert,

Bags of commercial thermite set against a steel column -- what a pathetic "experiment." Not anywhere close to representing my views, as you must know, from our discussion about the red/gray chips and the crucial distinction between ordinary thermite and super-thermite! What a terrible and unfair straw-man joke you are evidently trying to pull.

Why can't you get a sample of super-thermite? I think you can, if you will actually try. Or are you like NIST which refuses to look?

 

Tuesday, September 1 2009   -   In the Media

Dear friends who've just viewed the National Geographic Conspiracy Theory on 9/11,

Thank you for taking time to come here and find our contact information in order to share your thoughts. We ask that if you are interested enough in this issue to write us hate mail because you actually believe the nonsense National Geographic states we "all believe" that you take a few minutes to click on a couple of the links to your left, in the "New to 9/11" section. What you will find is that essentially nothing that producer presented as the "beliefs" of "Truthers" actually reflects the real questions being asked by 9/11 truth advocates, as represented at this website.

This silly attempt to boil down the "Truthers" (what, people who are not actively pursuing answers to 9/11 questions are not in favor of truth? ridiculous...) to a few people who believe there was no plane at the Pentagon and the buildings were brought down by "thermite" is just that -- silly. Since you've come this far, why not have a look at a few of the 40 Questions or the Family Report Card and ask yourself why, after nearly eight long years, family members and other Americans are still wanting for answers to these core questions ... and ask yourselves why you're still not allowed to have those answers. And have a look at the articles on the front page at 911research.com or Journal of 9/11 Studies, and learn what the scientists are actually saying in their recently published peer-reviewed article. (No, it's not "thermite".)

We will attempt to issue a more thorough response within the next few days, particularly highlighting statements from those scientists (physicists, chemists, engineers) interviewed by National Geographic but not represented in the final edit. In the meantime, a brief review of these links will provide you with a much more accurate picture as to why millions of Americans (and our neighbors around the world) are still demanding a full investigation, restoration of our civil liberties, and truth-telling so that finally, accountability and closure will be forthcoming.

After this short effort at due diligence, if you still feel inclined to send us hate mail because you choose to believe the self-serving falsehoods served up by your corporate media, please feel free to do so. We'll be publishing a few of your more brilliant statements in our "Humor" section soon. Thank you.

 

Thursday, August 27 2009   -   In the Media

WCBS880.com
24 August 2009

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Former Giants football star Geoge Martin will again be pounding the pavement for those sickened by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

This time, he is walking from the George Washington Bridge to Giants Stadium - and he wants you to join him!

CLICK HERE to hear Peter Haskell's report

Then CLICK HERE to sign up!

The walk takes place on September 13, 2009.

 

Sunday, August 16 2009   -   In the Media

9/11 Revisited: The Enemy Within
Air Date: 8/15/2009 10:00PM

The "Experts" are starting to say the 9/11 conspiracy wackos might be right and with the 8th Anniversary of September 11th fastly approaching, many are still looking for the truth. Show Guest Mike Berger, media coordinator for 911truth.org, has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, CNN Showbiz Tonight, and Scarborough Country as well as hundreds of radio appearances. It took Mike Berger nearly 18 months before he began to question the official 9/11 story, but when he read about the significant purchase of put options on companies directly affected by the events prior to 9/11 that implied foreknowledge of the attacks, he began to research. We invite you to join us in looking at the theories, as well as the new evidence that has surfaced ... Don't you want to know the truth too? Special 2-Hour Episode!

10pm Central Saturday Aug. 15, 2009
Go to www.wwrealtalk.com to listen live, or for the archives later.

 

Friday, August 14 2009   -   In the Media

From Colorado911visibility.org

DENVER Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Denver, KBDI-12, Colorado Public Television
TV airing of "9/11: Blueprint for Truth"
with in-studio appearance by Richard Gage, AIA

KBDI Colorado Public Television to Air '9/11: Blueprint for Truth
Saturday, August 15, 2009 - 7:00 - 9:00 pm MDT

KBDI, Channel 12 will be featuring '9/11: Blueprint for Truth' as a pledge drive fundraiser. Richard Gage, AIA, will be at the studio for on-air interviews during this historic broadcast.

We are thrilled with this development!

ALSO - Boulder, Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 2:00 p.m.

Live presentation by Richard Gage, AIA

"9/11: Blueprint for Truth," Re-examining the Destruction of the Three World Trade Center High Rise Buildings

Internationally acclaimed 9/11 speaker and San Francisco Bay Area architect Richard Gage, AIA, will present the evidence of the destruction of the three World Trade Center high-rises at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Sunday, August 16, 2009, at 2pm in the Mathematics auditorium. Gage will give a live multimedia presentation on behalf of more than 750 architects and engineers questioning the official story of what happened to these buildings on 9/11/01. After careful examination of the forensic data omitted from the official account, these professionals are calling for a new independent investigation into these catastrophic events.

 

Sunday, August 2 2009   -   In the Media

By Peter Phillips
8/1/09

The corporate media in the United States are ignoring valid news stories, based on university quality research. It appears that certain topics are simply forbidden inside the mainstream corporate media today. To openly cover these news stories would stir up questions regarding “inconvenient truths” that many in the US power structure want to avoid.

For example, current research indicates that public schools in the United States are more segregated today than they have been in more than four decades. According to a new Civil Rights report, published at the University of California, Los Angeles, schools in the US are 44 percent non-white, and minorities are rapidly emerging as the majority of public school students in the US. Latinos and blacks, the two largest minority groups, attend schools more segregated today than during the civil rights movement forty years ago. Millions of non-white students are locked into “dropout factory” high schools, where huge percentages do not graduate. The most severe segregation in public schools occurs in the Western states, including California—not in the South, as many people believe. Most non-white schools are segregated by poverty as well as race. Schools in low-income communities remain highly unequal in terms of funding, qualified teachers, and curriculum.

Other taboo stories include civilian death rates in Iraq and questions on 9/11. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and a professional survey company in Great Britain, Opinion Research Business (ORB) report that the United States is directly responsible for over one million Iraqi deaths since our invasion six and half years ago. In a January 2008 report, ORB reported that, “survey work confirms our earlier estimate that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003…. We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000.” A 2006 Johns Hopkins study confirmed that US aerial bombing in civilian neighborhoods caused over a third of these deaths and that over half the deaths are directly attributable to US forces. Iraqi civilian death levels in the summer of 2009 likely now exceed 1.2 million.

 

Tuesday, July 14 2009   -   In the Media

By David Seifman
July 14, 2009
New York Post

Some 9/11 families are pushing for a November referendum to create a city commission with subpoena powers to study the attacks, The Post has learned.

Officials are taking the effort seriously, since the group, the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now, submitted 52,000 signatures and is paying the $75,000 cost of counting and verifying them.

 

Saturday, July 11 2009   -   In the Media

July 12, 2009
By Scott Shane
New York Times

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.

The question of how completely the C.I.A. informed Congress about sensitive programs has been hotly disputed by Democrats and Republicans since May, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the agency of failing to reveal in 2002 that it was waterboarding a terrorism suspect, a claim Mr. Panetta rejected.

... The disclosure about Mr. Cheney’s role in the unidentified C.I.A. program comes a day after an inspector general’s report underscored the central role of the former vice president’s office in restricting to a small circle of officials knowledge of the National Security Agency’s program of eavesdropping without warrants, a degree of secrecy that the report concluded had hurt the effectiveness of the counterterrorism surveillance effort.

Full story continues here: New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/politics/12intel.html?_r=1.