New Independent Television Channel Wants To Help You See The Forest From The Trees: The Real News

The Real News: A New Independent Television Channel Is Set To Change The Way You Look At Reality And To Focus On Facts With No Propaganda And No Advertising Money - Independent World Television

Photo credit: TheRealNews.com

"Democracy depends on an informed and engaged public and on a courageous press that holds those in power accountable.

Yet on television, where most people get their news, propaganda and spin are reported as reality and facts are treated as just a matter of opinion.

Today, most television news are nothing but well-packaged propaganda clips delivered to increasingly numbed television audiences as if that was the objective "reality" existing out there.

True investigative journalism, reporters digging into difficult and uneasy issues, open debate and criticism of world events from multiple viewpoints are seldom heard. Unjustifiable indifference and a well coordinated refusal to challenge the official version of events permeate television newsrooms.

We must not sleepwalk. We must not consume television and newspaper news as if it was God's word. We need television, online and print journalism that dares to seek truth and does not bow to political or financial pressures."

This I was writing, just about a year ago, when first announcing the arrival of a new independent television channel wanting to break away from traditional television past dependence on advertising and political support and focusing on delivering (both "online" and on traditional television channels) independent news and real debate - without funding from governments, corporations, or advertising.

* No corporate dollars.

* No government funding.

* No commercials.

* No strings.

This is the promise that IWT (International World Television) made a year ago when first announcing its efforts to find voluntary supporters worldwide and extra capital to bring their idea to fruit.

A year later, IWT is much closer to its original dream than it was ago, and ready to start moving into its final and decisive launch phase: daily online news.
In this video, Paul Jay, CEO and Senior Editor at IWT - shares here is vision and call for support for the upcoming Real News. As I would much like to support this and all othe initiatives working towards making news and reporting more transparent to the average reader, I invite you to check out IWT plans and mission and to give them a hand of support if you can.

English Text Transcript:

See The Patterns

An interview with Paul Jay
CEO and Senior Editor - The Real News

Paul Jay: I would start talking with a taxi driver, and, y'know, 'what are you doing?' and I'd say 'You know, we're building this TV network, no government funding, no corporate funding, no advertising' and the taxi driver would say 'oh, you mean the real news'. I heard it over and over and over again.

So our measure of success will be I'll get in a cab and the cab driver's gonna say, 'well I had this politician in the back seat yesterday, and he was telling me such and such and I said uh-uh that's not true, I saw it on the real news.'

If I hear that, if we can get to the taxi drivers, if we can get to ordinary people and help them have the facts to defend their own interests, then that will be a big measure of success.

Hi I'm Paul Jay, Chair of independent world television and senior editor of The Real News, our soon to launch daily news show. This is a very exciting time for us. Three years ago we said to ourselves 'go big or go home', and I have to admit that there were moments when we weren't sure that we weren't having to go home. But now the project has taken a very big step, we've landed some serious seed money and we're about to start some production.

This space that you see will be where we set The Real News. In the corner will be a debate and interview segment - debate being a very important part of our network. Here will be our daily news show - we're in the process of casting hosts. We're gonna have a team of four or five hosts who are journalists, and who will be doing stories, as well as presenting stories to you here.

All of this became possible because people like you became members. And so, this is an unabashed pitch for more membership money.

The whole point of our network is that we're about the future, we're about solutions, we're about looking for ways to... it's not enough to do news where at the end of it you want to blow your brains out. You know, there's no point to doing news if it isn't about how you can engage in the world to make it better.

Identifying Traits

What makes The Real News different from other television news?

Paul Jay: We don't think The Real News will be run by people who are braver, or more courageous, or smarter than other journalists. There are many people of talent working in other television news rooms.

What makes us different is our funding model. Hundreds of thousands of people across the globe - starting in English - send five or ten dollars a month to us. If enough people do it, we can sustain this.

With that kind of funding model we don't have to worry about quick ratings results, we don't have to worry about withdrawing of advertising or government subsidies. It means when we're in the news room we only have one thing to worry about - we get the facts right.

Most people are fairly clear that politicians are not speaking to them honestly, openly and sincerely. But the news media's reporting on them as if they are.

Why do we need The Real News?

Paul Jay: We need television news that can stand up under the most furious assault, whether that assault is the drum beats of war, or partisan political pressure - if you're gonna have democracy, you've gotta have an infrastructure that can say 'no, that's not true, that's a lie, and here are the facts'.

If you do verifiable facts, you're accused of being doing left-wing journalism.

So if we had reported on Colin Powell on the day he want to the UN wasn't telling the truth, would that have been left-wing journalism? Well, it would have been said so, but it would've been real journalism. And when Sy Hersch broke Abu Ghraib was that left-wing journalism? No, it's journalism.

It seems too complicated, and part of the way news is done is every event seems isolated like that happens, then this happens, then this happens - there's no pattern.

The problem is people can't see the patterns. Well, that's our job - that's what historical context is, people have to start to see the patterns. But if you feel that you can't, then you feel detached. So it's called apathy, but what is the apathy? Are you apathetic about your own interests?

If in a hundred years people are gonna look back and say 'what did The Real News do?'

What do I hope that they'll say? Is that we inspired people, to be conscious, to know their world, to embrace the facts fearlessly. To act. To write their own future. Not to think it was overwhelming, not to think it was too depressing, but to feel optimistic that there can be a future, so I hope we make people hopeful. But not naively, not through rose colored glasses.

Real hope means facing reality.

Make The Real News a reality.

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IWT plans to broadcast on satellite, digital TV, the web and via multiple public and nonprofit channels. In the U.S., IWT will be broadcast via Link TV, a channel which is already available in over 26 million homes.

For more information and some critical commentary on ITW production and distribution approach please see: Online TV News: New Independent World Television News Network To Launch

Original article written by Robin Good for Master New Media as: New Independent Television Channel Wants To Help You See The Forest From The Trees: The Real News