Media Play

by Steven M. Greer M.D.

29 April 2004

Conventional Wisdom has it that we live in a free and open society with a free press, which plays the role of a key check and balance on government secrecy and abuse.

This and other fantasies, foisted on a gullible public, have enabled runaway illegal secret projects to get away with murder, and they are now on the verge of planeticide - the killing of an entire planet.

The truth is that we have free media - so long as it is inconsequential. That is, freedom of the press exists so long as it is exercised within a certain sphere of influence that does not reach a critical mass of significance.

Sure, you can say and write anything - so long as it does not get placed in front of the masses in an honest way. The quaint notion of a free press, serving as the Fourth Estate and watching vigilantly over the interests of The People is one of the great lies perpetrated by the government, and by the corporate media itself. Every insider knows this is a lie.

Big Media must be distinguished from the media in general, insofar as the former is utterly corrupted and the latter is sequestered into spheres of limited influence and significance.

Mass retail media,

the nightly news

CNN

The NY Times

The Washington Post

Newsweek

Time

and the like,

...are less free on anything of real significance than the media of many third world countries - or even communist China.

We know, because we have beta tested the system. (More on this later.)

The implications of this corruption cannot be overestimated. In the world today, the corrupt, dumbed-down and controlled Big Media is the central reason for significant investigations being killed, illegal secrecy persisting and major scientific breakthroughs being suppressed.

Without the cooperation, compliance and corruption of Big Media, the shadowy programs that keep the world burning could in no way prevail. In fact, when recently asked by a member of Congress how these illegal operations persist and flourish, I had to tell him it was the primarily due to the fact that Big Media give them a free pass.

Years ago, while at a gathering in New York City with Laurence Rockefeller and a few other influential people in the city, Bob Schwartz, a noted journalist who had been on the Board of Time Life (before it was Time Warner, or AOL Time Warner etc, etc) flat out told me that the Big Media,

“…had become scribes taking dictation from the right hand of the king…” rather than really functioning as a free press and the Fourth Estate.

He proceeded to tell me how he had given his friend Mike Wallace of CBS’ 60 Minutes a number of government documents on UFOs, and that Mr. Wallace wanted to pursue the story, but ultimately dropped it due to pressure from ‘somewhere’.

Now, Big Media will tell you that the UFO matter is closed, that the Air Force looked into UFOs and ended Project Blue Book with a report from the Condon Committee that essentially said there was nothing to study.

This is one of the Big Lies and can be proven to be so. But every Big Media outlet in the US holds to this line, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary - and the fact that we can now prove that Dr. Condon himself corrupted the study and was on the payroll of the shadowy projects keeping the matter secret!

Essentially, America has no free press of any significance when it comes to real investigative reporting, government secrecy or serious technology breakthroughs dealing with energy and propulsion systems that could replace Big Oil. The Big Media is vertically and horizontally integrated into a large corporate and quasi-governmental matrix of shadowy interests and corrupting influences. In no way is the major media in America free, nor has it been for decades.

In the late 1990s I met with a senior reporter for the Washington Post, whose beat included government, military and national security issues, who told me that he was sitting on rather explosive files on a number of issues (hint: we were talking about secret underground facilities and certain genetic experiments that are ongoing).

When I asked him when they would run that story he winked and said,

“Oh Dr. Greer, you know that nothing important is ever printed in the Washington Post. We will never print that kind of story and, if anything, we will work to debunk it if it appears anywhere else…”

When I asked him,

“Well what about the Fourth Estate - our free media being a check and balance on government and extreme secrecy that is out of control?” he said, “You know that doesn’t exist anymore…”

We had a drink and went on our way.

Senior government officials, members of Congress and top Pentagon officials with whom I have met have cited media infiltration, corruption and ridicule as the main reason they steer clear of certain areas. Why look into super-secret UFO related projects if you will only be shellacked by the Big Media as Senator Moon Beam?

Of course, many people in the media never look into these issues since they have blindly accepted the party line and bought into the ridicule and disinformation surrounding the subject. A lack of independent investigation, and a prevailing prejudice, prevents most journalists from even giving a cursory look into these controversies.

A senior editor for the Boston Globe once told me that they would never run a story on UFOs “…even if you put a dead ET on my desk…” since such topics were the stuff of the low-end tabloids. (I guess 24/7 coverage of titillating details of sexual escapades and lurid murders are ok, however.)

Persistent ridicule and a glib dismissal of ‘conspiracy’ theorists and ‘UFO believers’ are about as far as most journalists get. The facts are seldom investigated, and on the rare occasion when they are, the story is blocked.

It is also an open secret that the intelligence community has infiltrated and used the media for decades. What is not acknowledged is the extent to which the Big Media are controlled by corrupt interests that are the antithesis of freedom. It is a pervasive problem that is subtly managed very quietly, but anyone who has gotten close to the truth on a really Big Story that these interests want kept secret know what happens.

Such journalists walk into the mother of all buzz saws, and learn very quickly how un-free the Big Media really is.

Into The Buzzsaw, with a foreword by Gore Vidal, is a book that recounts the experiences of a number of journalists who came across a story that ‘they’ did not want out - and who found out how ruthless media suppression really is.

The crown jewel of secrecy is the collection of projects that deal with advanced technologies, energy systems, propulsion systems - and UFO matters - that, once disclosed, would end the need for oil, gas, coal or nuclear power. The corruption and secrecy surrounding this issue is like none other - it is in a class of its own. The media can only cover the subject either in a cavalier or dismissive way - or through direct disinformation and ridicule.

No honest investigative report has ever appeared, over time, on this subject in any Big Media outlet - not in over 50 years of secrecy. Why?

Because they are not allowed to do it. And if they did, it would mark the end of their career and possibly their lives. It is not an overstatement to say that I have spoken to mainstream journalist who evince palpable fear when the matter is brought up.
Of course, because of sensational cases of ‘investigative reporting’ like Watergate, Monica-gate and the like, the public believe the media is this fierce watch dog guarding the interests of the people and courageously ferreting out the truth. If only.

Sure, Big Media can have 24/7 coverage of trivial matters like a President’s private sex life (NEWS FLASH: Powerful men are known to have affairs and may even - gasp - lie about it!). Or a bungled and clumsy break-in at the Watergate. But the really big stories are never printed, the research is not allowed, and the truth is only whispered about privately, and carefully.

Shills in the Big Media are the central reason why the truth about many matters of great importance will never be told. Sure they will tell you about a titillating scandal, or about a tax cut, or a bombing. But get close to stories related to real power, and these Big Media hacks run the other way.

The proof?

In May of 2001, The Disclosure Project held a major international press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC. Hosted by legendary White House reporter Sarah McClendon, the event featured over 20 top-secret government, military, intelligence and corporate witnesses to UFO events and projects.

No flakes amongst these: The witness testimony presented ranged from Brig. General to Colonels to a top FAA official. The National Press Club ballroom was packed with media from around the world and the event was - briefly - reported on CNN, BBC, Fox and many other outlets.

This two-hour event was the most watched live press event on the Internet and eventually over 1 million people saw the event on the net. We called for a full investigation into illegal covert programs dealing with UFOs and covert energy and propulsion projects. Congressional hearings were requested and the media were asked to fully investigate the matter.

Tens of thousands of people wrote members of Congress and the US President asking for full, open, honest hearings at which some of the over 400 military and government-connected witnesses identified by The Disclosure Project could testify. (The reader may read the testimony of over 5 dozen of these witnesses in the book Disclosure).

Interestingly, the first hour of the event was externally electronically jammed by “someone outside the Press Club”, according to Internet hosting company Connect Live. (Sources later confirmed that this was an electronic warfare jamming of the broadcast.)

Senior producers at two Big Media networks, who had been briefed in advance and were planning major exposes in their newsmagazine programs, later told me that they were not allowed to go forward with their investigations or broadcast the programs.

When I asked why, they simply said,

“They just won’t let us do it.” And when I ask who are ‘they’, I was told, “Dr. Greer, you know who they are…”

Indeed.

Here, smoking gun evidence, official government documents and dozens of credible, corroborated, top-secret witnesses were presented to the world’s major media - and Big Media did virtually nothing. On major stories, involving controversial matters, I am told the New York Times requires three points of corroboration.

Here, dozens were presented, from men and women with impeccable credentials and high national security clearances - and they were not anonymous sources, but presented with name, rank and serial number! But the coverage was brief (just enough to allow for ‘plausible freedom of the press’, I am told by insiders) and then quickly taken down. And no Big Media entity was allowed to do serious follow-up investigations. And none have occurred up to this date.

Such ‘editorial discretion’ has been abused hundreds of times to keep big stories out of the major media. People do not realize it, but we already live in an extremely controlled and closed society that is micro-managed by an elite few - all the while looking populist, democratic and open.

As I write this a few miles from Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, I can feel him spinning in his grave…

Meanwhile, it is up to us to get the truth out, notwithstanding the overwhelming force and corruption of the Big Media. It is almost too late - but not quite. With a Herculean effort, we might yet get the facts out before the public before the control freaks run the entire biosphere into the ground and we end up, Mad Max-like, fighting over the last barrel of oil in endless oil wars.

Perhaps someone in Big Media will step up to the plate and do the matter justice. But more likely, we need to identify a financial sponsor to start what I am calling “The Disclosure Network” via satellite. With adequate funding, we could begin real investigative reporting on issues that really matter - and renew the promise of a free press.

Until then, spread the word and get the truth out. Ultimately, if the people will lead the leaders will follow. Time is getting short for the corrupt corporate Big Media to regain its role as the Fourth Estate. And the earth cannot take another 50 years of ecological abuse, geopolitical instability born out of the injustice of poverty, and more oil wars. It is up to us to change course and create the sustainable civilization necessary for peace.

For without peace there can be no future - and peace is impossible without truth, an open society and justice.

There is time to act, but we must act now.

CIA Memorandum Subject

Task Force Report on Greater CIA Openness

dated December 1991 (Page 10 is missing) - June 2004

Note: This memo supports "Media Play" most notably on page 6, which says

"PAO [Public Affairs Office] now has relationships with reporters from every major wire service, newspaper, news weekly, and television network in the nation. This has helped us turn some intelligence failure stories into intelligence success stories, and it has contributed to the accuracy of countless others.

In many instances, we have persuaded reporters to postpone, change, hold, or even scrap stories that could have adversely affected national security interests or jeopardized sources and methods."