WMD" Previews at Silver Lake Film Festival - Controversial new film exposes role media played promoting Iraq War

Was the Press Selling or Telling?

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) September 22, 2004 -- With mass media focused on Michael Moore's new film bashing President Bush, another feature-length documentary titled, WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) is creating as much controversy as it takes on the media itself, and its role in promoting the Iraq war in the guise of covering it. Produced by Emmy Award Winning Danny Schechter, the News Dissector, a former ABC and CNN producer and for many years a fixture in Boston media. The filmmaker is the author of six books on media issues including his latest EMBEDDED, about the reporting from Iraq published by Prometheus Books. WMD - investigates collusion between the military, giant media companies and the government.

The film screens on Sunday, Sept. 26 at 5:30 p.m. at Theater 13 at, ArcLight Cinemas Sunset & Ivar, Hollywood, CA.

"We have heard a lot of "chatter" about "intelligence failures" and "policy failures," says outspoken Director Schechter, a former Nieman Fellow in Journalism: "Now it's time to look at media failures" because The Administration could never have won support for its deceptive policies if the media was not complicit. George Bush should have won an Emmy for TV production."
    
Schechter brings an outsider's perspective and an insider's experience in turning the cameras on the role the news networks played in distorting news and treating the military campaign as "mili-tainment." Schechter's film includes never before seen footage from Iraq, insider information about Pentagon information warfare strategy and a report about torture at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison that predates the US network stories by eight months. The film investigates the embed program, infiltrates Fox News and takes a global approach to analyzing coverage.

A year in the making, WMD represents guerilla filmmaking without any backing from major media conglomerates. WMD is currently in negotiations for national distribution. Academy Award winner Tim Robbins narrated a trailer which can be seen online at www.WMDthefilm.com.

As timely as today's headlines, WMD comes on the heels of an admission by the New York Times that its pre-war coverage was deeply flawed and contributes to a growing debate within the news business about its own role that many commentators described as totally different from the coverage seen around the world.

The hard-hitting expose is screening to sold out sessions in several large cities across America, including, Nantucket Film Festival, Dallas Video festival, Boston Political Film Festival, Lowes East, NYC, New Haven, CT and on American campuses and in several cities in Europe. Schechter's published work on the war has been hailed by many journalists including the BBC's Greg Palast, axed war correspondent Peter Arnett and Iraqi blogger "Riverbend." War critic Noam Chomsky praises his "careful and comprehensive" work on Iraq for "great skill and insight."

For more on WMD or to interview Schechter, call Nikki Oldaker (203) 214-3628. For more information about Danny Schechter's work, see www.newsdissector.org/Dissectorville or e-mail dissector@mediachannel.org

NOTE: Danny will be on a panel at 3:00 p.m., September 26th Location: TBD - probably the same location as screenings contact: Roger Mayer Festival Director - Office: 818-989-6371
Cell: 818-231-0530

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