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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (7804)	5/28/2007 12:14:15 AM
From: ExCane	Respond to of 20106

PUBLIC BROADCASTING COMPOUNDS EFFORTS TO CENSOR, SUPPRESS PRO-MODERATE MUSLIM FILM BY ‘DUMPING’ IT IN OREGON SANTA MONICA,CA - The travesty that has characterized the public broadcasting system’s handling of a taxpayer-underwritten documentary, “Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center,” continued with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announcing yesterday that it had reached an agreement with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) to distribute the film. Unfortunately, while this announcement was momentarily perceived as a victory by many who have been outraged by the suppression of this movie by the Public Broadcasting Service and its Washington station, WETA, in reality it amounts to nothing more than a desperate effort by CPB to dispose of the film in the face of mounting pressure from Congress, the media and the public to allow its immediate, national distribution. The fact of the matter is that on 21 May 2007, ABG Films Inc. advised CPB in writing that “CPB has materially breached the expressed provisions of the Grant Agreement and has breached the implied covenants of good faith and fair dealing. Moreover, CPB, through its own conduct and through the conduct of its agents, contractors, and representatives, has intentionally, recklessly, and negligently damaged the value of the documentary and that this damage is substantial, irreparable, and continuing. For these and other reasons known to CPB, ABG Films hereby gives notice to CPB of the termination of any and all broadcast, distribution, and revenue sharing rights granted pursuant to the Grant Agreement.” It is against this backdrop that the sudden move to dump the film via Oregon’s Public Broadcasting organization was made by CPB – without consultation with the film-makers or their agreement. CPB evidently did so in the hope of further hoodwinking those who want to see “Islam vs. Islamists” into believing they would actually be able to do so, on a basis equivalent to that afforded the other “America at a Crossroads” films and promised in a press release last year by CPB, i.e., common-carriage across the national PBS network, during prime-time and with a major publicity campaign to promote it. Instead, the true character of the CPB-OPB arrangement is quite different. According to OPB President Steve Bass, the two have agreed only that the film would be “made available to the 354 Public Broadcasting Service member stations across the nation as a ‘stand-alone’ TV program. We plan to distribute the film to any public broadcasting station that wants it.” It is unclear how many – if any – PBS affiliates will, in turn, opt to air it and, if so, whether they will do so when no one is watching. Then Bass added an even more telling indictment: “We’ll package it and also produce some sort of discussion to accompany the film, and give it some context.” In other words, a film PBS and WETA tried to censor and suppress and whose producers it sought to blacklist will only be aired with some sort of remedial “discussion.” Given the experience with public broadcasting to date, presumably such a discussion will prominently feature Islamists. After all, it was their views the series producers tried to compel the film-makers to promote. It was also their spokespeople and adherents who were exclusively featured in a film produced by the series’ host, Robert MacNeil, which ran in lieu of “Islam vs. Islamists” in the “Crossroads” 11-program roll-out last month. In response to the CPB-OPB announcement “Islam vs. Islamists” Co-Executive Producer Frank Gaffney said today: “The voices of moderate Muslims need desperately to be amplified, not suppressed. This is vital not only to those like the heroic anti-Islamist Muslim moderates we have profiled in our film. It is critical, as well, to the future of all of us whose lives will be affected by the outcome of the epic, global struggle now under way to define the nature and practice of Islam. “It has been unbelievable that PBS and WETA have gone to such lengths to suppress a film that accurately depicts this struggle and amplifies the voices from the Muslim center. It is outrageous that they have been able to prevent the promised airing of such a film for a national, prime-time audience for over a month. And it is wholly unacceptable that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting continues to prevent another national network from providing such distribution pending decisions by individual PBS stations about if and when they might air our documentary with a kind of ‘consumer’s warning label.’ We owe it to the moderate Muslims to fight this ongoing effort to suppress their voices, and we intend to do so.” from freethefilm.net +++++++++++++++++++++++++ also see Message 23488509 and Message 23515864 barringer- thanks for finding this, I thought it was dead. Wouldn't it be nice to listen to the moderate voice instead of the current public voice of Muslims, which seems to be either islamist or victim?