http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=158341




Soros-funded group: Stop Big Media
Marxist-led organization has close links to White House
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Posted: May 26, 2010
9:57 pm Eastern

© 2010 WorldNetDaily


NEW YORK – A coalition initiated by a George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization calling itself Free Press is petitioning to "stop Big Media."

A newly released book, meanwhile, documents Free Press has close ties to top Obama administration officials.

Last week, WND reported Free Press published a study advocating the development of a "world class" government-run media system in the U.S.

Now the group is pushing a new organization, StopBigMedia.com, that advocates the downfall of "big media" and the creation of new media to "promote local ownership, amplify minority voices, support quality journalism, and bring local artists, voices and viewpoints to the airwaves."

States the website: "Big isn't always bad – unless you're talking about the companies that dominate our country's media. ...The only way to stop Big Media is by getting organized in our communities and demanding our leaders in Washington start listening to the public instead of the industry lobbyists.

The hot new best-seller, "The Manchurian President," by Aaron Klein reveals inside story on Team Obama and its members. Now available autographed at WND's Superstore!

"Big Media have limited ownership opportunities for women and people of color, pushing them off the public airwaves and stifling vital voices. Coverage of issues that matter to people of color, women, the middle and working class, and rural communities has disappeared. The result? Media that fail to represent our nation's diversity."

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Among the coalition partners of StopTheMedia.com are Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the AFL-CIO, Feminist Majority and the Ralph Nader-founded group State PIRGs/U.S. PIRG.

Government-run media

WND reported Free Press recently released a 48-page study, "New Public Media: A Plan for Action," that agitates for a "world-class public media system in America."

The Free Press study urges the creation of a trust fund – largely supported by new fees and taxes on advertising and the private media – to jump start the founding of a massive government-run public media system that will ultimately become self-sufficient.

"We believe local news reporting should become one of public media's top priorities," said Free Press Managing Director Craig Aaron, one of the paper's co-authors.

"We should redeploy and redouble our resources to keep a watchful eye on the powerful and to reliably examine the vital issues that most Americans can't follow closely on their own," Aaron stated.

Avowed Marxist

Free Press is a well-known advocate of government intervention in the Internet.

A new book, "The Manchurian President," documents the founder of the Free Press, Robert W. McChesney, is an avowed Marxist who has recommended capitalism be dismantled.

The book, subtitled "Barack Obama's ties to communists, socialists and other anti-American extremists," also documents the close ties between Free Press and leading Obama administration officials. The new work was written by WND senior reporter Aaron Klein and co-author Brenda J. Elliott.

McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois and former editor of the Marxist journal Monthly Review.

In February 2009, McChesney recommended capitalism be dismantled.

"In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick-by-brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles,'" wrote McChesney in a column.

The board of Free Press has included a slew of radicals, such as Obama's former "green jobs" czar" Van Jones, who resigned after it was exposed he founded a communist organization.

Obama's "Internet czar," Susan P. Crawford, spoke at a Free Press's May 14, 2009, "Changing Media" summit in Washington, D.C, revealed "The Manchurian President" book.

"Manchurian" shows Crawford's pet project, OneWebNow, lists as "participating organizations" Free Press and the controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

Crawford and Kevin Werbach, who co-directed the Obama transition team's Federal Communications Commission Review team, are advisory board members at Public Knowledge, a George Soros-funded public interest group.

A Public Knowledge advisory board member is Timothy Wu, who is also chairman of the board for Free Press.

Like Public Knowledge, Free Press also has received funds from Soros' Open Society Institute.

Issues of restrictions on speech are not limited to Crawford.

WND previously reported Obama's "regulatory" czar, Cass Sunstein drew up a "First Amendment New Deal" – a new "Fairness Doctrine" that would include the establishment of a panel of "nonpartisan experts" to ensure "diversity of view" on the airwaves.

WND also reported that in a recently released book, "On Rumors," Sunstein argued websites should be obliged to remove "false rumors" while libel laws should be altered to make it easier to sue for spreading such "rumors."

In the 2009 book, Sunstein cited as a primary example of "absurd" and "hateful" remarks, reports by "right-wing websites" alleging an association between Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers.

Sunstein also singled out radio talker Sean Hannity for "attacking" Obama regarding the "alleged associations."

"The Manchurian President," meanwhile, which just hit the New York Times best-seller list, alleges Obama has deep ties to an extremist nexus that has been instrumental not only in building his political career but in crafting current White House policy.