Millions of people in the United States still don't know that new and convincing evidence has emerged that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to support its plan to invade Iraq. The "Downing Street Memo," a secret British government memo that was leaked to the Times of London in May, quotes the head of British foreign intelligence reporting on a July 2002 meeting with US officials: "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
The reason why most Americans have never heard of this memo is that the mainstream US media, especially television stations, have by and large refused to cover it. While they have done story after story on the Star Wars release and the Michael Jackson trial, they have been virtually silent on the Downing Street Memo, whose contents could provide the grounds for the impeachment of the US president. Click here for links to recent news stories—good and bad—on the Downing Street Memo.
The blackout of this memo is just the latest in a series of media lies and omissions about the Iraq war and other issues that are of critical importance to people in the United States and the world. We must take action to insist that our media do its job by investigating and reporting the truth about the Downing Street Memo.
TAKE ACTION
Demand that your local newspaper and TV stations cover the Downing Street memo and discuss growing calls in Congress for a "resolution of inquiry" about whether this memo could be grounds for impeachment. Just last week, 35 members of Congress attended a hearing on the Downing Street memo, but the media coverage of the hearing was either derisive or non-existent!
Here's what you can do:
•Find out if your local newspaper or TV station has covered the Downing Street memo. (Just call the newsroom and ask someone there to look it up in their computer system.)
•If the media outlet has not covered the memo -- or covered it adequately* - begin a campaign to get coverage. (*Mentioning the memo during a story about Bush and Blair's recent press conference is not adequate. How many times has that media outlet covered the Michael Jackson trial?)
•Ask for a meeting with the editor/manager, so he/she can hear your demands.
•Find out the phone and fax numbers of the newsroom of the media outlet you're targeting. Get everyone you know to phone and fax in to demand that the outlet cover the Downing Street memo.
•If this still doesn't work, organize a protest outside the media outlet. Bring signs and chants. Try to get other media outlets to cover your protest. Get people to cancel their subscriptions, complain to advertisers, call for a boycott, etc.
•WHEN YOU WIN, let us know so that we can let others know about your victory. Email us at andrea@globalexchange.org.
•We also encourage you to find other ways to let the public know about the Downing Street Memo: write letters to the editor and opinion pieces for the local newspaper; distribute flyers (available at www.afterdowningstreet.org ) outside supermarkets and in other public places; pay for newspaper and radio advertisements about the Downing Street memo.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Demands for Media Outlets:
•Thoroughly cover the Downing Street Memo scandal
•Report on the demands in Congress for a resolution of inquiry and discussion about whether this memo could be grounds for impeachment
•Editorialize in favor of an investigation of this memo by Congress
More Information: www.afterdowningstreet.org
