On Mon, 17 Jul 2000 17:24:29 -0500 (CDT) Project Censored <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
For immediate release
July 14, 2000
Ralph Nader, Walter Cronkite On Witness List
Fired Journalists Stand Up To Media Empire;
Whistleblower Case Is First Of Its Kind
While an increasing number of Americans suspect mainstream news
organizations sometimes twist the news, two veteran investigative
journalists say they are ready to prove in court how Fox television
managers and lawyers at WTVT Fox 13 in Tampa ordered them to deliberately
distort news reports and then fired them for resisting those directives.
The landmark whistleblower lawsuit is believed to be the first time
any journalist has ever filed a claim against his own news organization
and offered evidence of behind-the-scenes manipulation of the news.
When the trial begins next Monday, reporters Jane Akre (pronounced
A'-cree) and Steve Wilson say they will show exactly how Fox hired them
and advertised their reputations for hard-hitting investigations but then
folded and pressured them to slant a story in favor of an advertiser who
threatened "dire consequences" if their reports were broadcast.
CBS journalist Walter Cronkite and public interest advocate Ralph
Nader are both on the plaintiffs' witness list, despite efforts by Fox
attorneys who desperately sought to block their testimony.
The trial will pit the two fired journalists with Wilson representing
himself for more than two years in an effort to save money on legal fees,
and Akre represented by a small Tampa firm,against the powerful Washington
law firm of Williams & Connolly, the same lawyers who represent President
Bill Clinton personally. To get their day in court, the plaintiffs have
sold their home, spent their life savings battling the media giant, and
say they have been branded as media traitors never likely to get another
good job in the business again.
To the amazement of most legal observers, the reporters paved their
way to court by defeating three Fox motions to summarily dismiss the case
without a trial. Those victories were engineered by Akre's legal team led
by John Chamblee and Tom Johnson.
At the heart of the dispute is a series of reports produced by Akre
and Wilson revealing the widespread and virtually secret use of a
synthetic hormone being injected into dairy cows throughout Florida and
much of the U.S. The hormone causes cows to produce more milk.
The investigative reports that Fox abruptly pulled from its schedule
in early 1997 would have revealed that without the consent or approval of
milk drinkers and those who serve it daily to their children, use of the
synthetic hormone has altered what used to be called nature's most nearly
perfect food.
The stories would have also disclosed for the first time that leading
grocers now admit they quietly broke their 1994 promises not to buy milk
from hormone-injected cows until the practice achieved widespread
acceptance. Surveys have shown that the vast majority of consumers do
not want artificial hormones in their milk and would avoid such milk if it
were labeled. No dairy anywhere is known to label its milk as coming from
cows injected with artificial hormones.
Although legal in America, the artificial bovine growth hormone (rBGH)
has been banned in Canada, throughout Europe, and elsewhere due in large
part to concern about health risks for milk drinkers. One of the chief
concerns is that while the growth hormones do cause the cows to produce
more milk, the milk is changed in a way that could promote breast, colon
and prostate cancer.
"In wake of the two written threats1,2 from Monsanto to Fox News
chief Roger Ailes, we were asked to put Fox's interest in its own bottom
line ahead of the public interest," said plaintiff Steve Wilson. Monsanto
is the multi-national chemical company that makes the genetically
engineered hormone.
"When the president of Fox Television Stations saw those threats,
that executive who controls more television stations than anyone in
America simply ordered his lawyers to 'take no risks' with the story."
Wilson said. The executive's directive has been confirmed in sworn
testimony from two Fox attorneys3,4 in the written notes of one them.5
"And we have also discovered, in another handwritten note of one of
the broadcaster's attorneys, that if they tried to kill the story and word
leaked out, it would be a major p-r problem for Fox'" said co-plaintiff
Akre. "So they decided to eliminate their risk by pressuring us to
placate Monsanto and essentially lie to the public. No decent journalist
can ever do that."
The reporters will testify that Fox managers first threatened to fire
them for insubordination, then offered them a six-figure deal to entice
them to go along. When the pair refused, they say they were strung along
for months re-writing the story 83 times in an effort to get it on the air
before being suspended, locked out, and ultimately fired by Fox for what
the broadcasting company claimed was "no cause."
The reporters will not be able to tell the jury about a second deal
Fox offered to pay each reporter a whole year's salary for no-show jobs as
"news consultants" in exchange for their leaving quietly and never
disclosing to anyone what they learned regarding the milk or the quality
of Fox journalism. The trial court ruled that the second six-figure deal
was actually made to try and avoid a lawsuit. To encourage out-of-court
settlements, such offers cannot be admitted into evidence when disputes
cannot be settled without a trial.
The issue has drawn world-wide attention as a result of a website the
journalists posted the day their lawsuit was filed. The reporters, who
happen to be married to each other, have also traveled far and wide to
accept invitations to speak about genetically engineered milk and their
experiences with Fox. They have vowed not to personally benefit from
their efforts to publicize the story Fox refused to tell.
Many of the documents from the suit are posted on the World Wide Web
at
http://www.foxBGHsuit.com
For further information or to arrange interviews:
Jane Akre or Steve Wilson (727) 796-6504 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
John Chamblee or Tom Johnson, Akre's Attorneys (813) 251-4542
###
--------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Ruggiero | Seven Stories Press | www.sevenstories.com
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