CHALLENGE TO TV NEWS
THE DEBATE BEHIND THE FILM WMD: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
WMD AND THE
DANNY SCHECHTER
"THE NEWS DISSECTOR"
BOOKS BY DANNY SCHECHTER
Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception How the Media Failed to Cover the War on Iraq Prometheus Books, 2003; ColdType.net (e-book version) Media Wars: News at A Time of Terror Inovatio Books, Bonn Germany 2002 Rowman & Littlefield, USA 2003 News Dissector: Passions Pieces and Polemics Akashic Books 2000 Electronbooks.com Falun Gong's Challenge to China Akashic Books, 1999, 2000 Hail to the Thief How the Media "Stole" the 2000 Presidential Election (Ed. with Roland Schatz) Inovatio, 2000 (Germany) ElectronPress.com (US) The More You Watch The Less You Know Seven Stories Press, l997, l999
For other work by Danny Schechter, visit www.newsdissector.org/Dissectorville
FOR A JOURNALISM OF TRUTH AND COURAGE
FORGING AN OPPOSITIONAL CULTURE
"It's not surprising that documentary-makers have usually worked in a spirit of advocacy. They are people sufficiently committed to a point of view to go to the trouble of obtaining expensive equipment, carting it into the field, shooting miles of film under often unpleasant or dangerous conditions, and spending months or years splicing the results into a coherent movie. It's easier to write an editorial. It's easier, even, to write a book. People who make documentaries don't make them because they believe that "reasonable people can disagree," or that there are two sides to every question. They believe that there are, at most, one and a half sides—a right side and a side that, despite possibly having some redeeming aspects, is, on balance, wrong. They make movies because they are passionate about their subjects and they want to arouse passion in others, many others. Louis Menand, The New Yorker "Political documentaries are becoming very, very important," Cinema Libre founder Philippe Diaz says. "People will tell you that five or 10 years ago, they never would have thought to go to a documentary in the theater, but because now they are so disenfranchised by what they see on TV in terms of news, they go to theaters to see a movie." ABC News "There is a thirst for political explanations for the general situation that we live in. The fact that there is enough to go around and yet we live in a system that creates scarcity and demands war requires some analysis." TheyRule.net "…multiple factors may underlie the surge in political pop culture. 'The ownership of mass media by giant conglomerates makes independent film one of the few places where criticism of corporate chicanery can reach a large audience,' says Kevin Lally, editor of Film Journal International." Christian Science Monitor "The film's success (Fahrenheit 911) also tells us something about media today and tomorrow. It emphatically shows what it takes to cut through the data-smog (as David Shenk terms it) of our overheated mass culture.We're all info-overloaded, and put-upon. Emotion and attitude cut through. Right-wing talk show hosts long ago seized on this insight and ran with it, and now they daily blot out wild and never-substantiated claims in the name of free speech and being irate." Pat Aufderheide, Newsday "What is going on I think is firstly and most obviously a process of the development of a truly oppositional culture that demands product - that includes among other things heroes like Moore and Chomsky, and films that act as the antidote to the "news" produced by media giants and corporations." Professor Gary McClennan, from a web posting

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