The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq.
It is being produced in a studio -- Grace Digital Media -- controlled by fundamentalist Christians who are rabidly pro-Israel.
That's Grace as in "by the Grace of God."
Grace Digital Media is controlled by a fundamentalist Christian millionaire, Cheryl Reagan, who last year wrested control of Federal News Service, a transcription news service, from its former owner, Cortes Randell.
Randell says he met Reagan at a prayer meeting, brought her in as an investor in Federal News Service, and then she forced him out of his own company.
Grace Digital Media and Federal News Service are housed in a downtown Washington, D.C. office building, along with Grace News Network.
When you call the number for Grace News Network, you get a person answering "Grace Digital Media/Federal News Service."
According to its web site, Grace News Network is "dedicated to transmitting the evidence of God's presence in the world today."
"Grace News Network will be reporting the current secular news, along with aggressive proclamations that will 'change the news' to reflect the Kingdom of God and its purposes," GNN proclaims.
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman ZNet April 29, 2003{Weissman being probably a Jew, Jewish, of Jewish descent. whatever. this point can't be made enough. our inability, all of us, to differentiate, to distinguish, means the real evil goes unnamed. just talking about whether he's a Jew is anti-semitic somehow. the very hesitance of someone like me means most are frozen with it, unable to say, well yes, the media is owned by Jews. but that's it, that's what's wrong. it's not 'Jews', it's a subset of that. we don't have the word, to further mark out what that is. so the devil hides behind Mrs. Lowenstein, behind Abel Pavlovsky, behind all the grief and horror of so many for so long, and it's as though, because of that horror, all the viciousness and duplicity and cruel disregard of so many powerful men is excused.
the most disconnected redneck in America can tell you the Jews run the major media. what I'm after is a linguistic step that makes that as meaningless as saying the media is run by men.
which men? white men? I'm a white man, and I couldn't be further removed from that shit if I was dead.
Jews? which Jews? Weissman? Seymour Hersh? Paul Krastner? I don't think so. Catholic priest is now a synonym for child molester but there are still priests on the frontlines of the struggle for social justice, it's the same with Jews. because the categories are kept so broad and all-inclusive, no real dialog takes place. we need the words. we don't have them.}
