Originally published August 30 2011
National Public Radio underwritten by Monsanto?
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) There was a strong reaction recently observed over public radio stations touting Monsanto and running Monsanto's promotional ads. Technically, it wasn't NPR (National Public Radio) as most assumed, but a program called Marketplace that is underwritten by Monsanto. American Pubic Media (APM) produces Marketplace.
But both NPR and Marketplace broadcast during the same time frame from stations that are public radio affiliates. They share the same network apparatus and appeal to the same audience.
Monsanto's use of the APM platform is a crafty PR maneuver to suck in gullible listeners by using the "feeding the world mantra" while ignoring Monsanto's dark legacy of profiting from toxic destruction and harassing farmers who try to do the right thing. (Legacy in source below)
Naive Public Perception of Public Radio
American Public Media's 32 million listeners, many of whom are liberal academics, accept public radio as unbiased, truthful news coverage. The same is true of NPR. They are all considered not-for-profit public radio, and they are carried by local not for profit radio stations. But why don't APM's or NPR's reporters and the majority of its listeners know what's really going on with Monsanto?
There are some really well done, accurate documentaries that reveal the truth about Monsanto. "The World According to Monsanto," "The Corporation" and "Food Inc" are examples. They have all been released during this past decade and are available on DVD. The best of those three, "The World According to Monsanto" was even available for viewing on the internet until it was taken down - by Monsanto maybe?
Perhaps politically correct public radio listeners consider such information conspiracy theory rubbish. Being politically correct is more important than conspiracy reality for many. And perhaps decent paying jobs in public radio are more important to journalists than real investigative reporting.
NPR escaped culpability of broadcasting Monsanto propaganda by pointing to APM's Marketplace, which aired this type of underwriting (sponsor) announcement for two years.
Marketplace is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable agriculture creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yields and conserve natural resources. Learn more at ProduceMoreConserveMore.com.
A more recent short documentary, "Farmer to Farmer," clearly showed GMO farming is unsustainable. This documentary included GMO and conventional farmers' testimonies. So here is yet another documentary ignored by public radio.
Besides being a blatant lie on all counts, this announcement pushed FFC guidelines to the limit for public broadcast. Announcing who is underwriting (sponsoring) is allowed, but promoting or allowing that sponsor to promote is not permitted.
While many listeners may have winced and let those short announcements go, there was a recent Monsanto propaganda report on Marketplace that many could not ignore. The title alone is the tip of the iceberg.
The Non-Organic Future
The title is "The Non-Organic Future." It was not a report registering concern over all that threatens organic agriculture, as one would expect from public radio. It condemned organic farming as a threat to topsoil while praising conventional and GMO farming as the true solutions to feeding the world. (Report broadcast transcript in sources below)
There were no interviews of anyone who opposed pesticide monoculture farming or GMOs. A couple of shills for GMO and conventional farming with establishment "credentials" did all the talking. And the reporter, Adriene Hill, introduced the report with this comment regarding the concept of small organic farms around cities "This isn't the future -- not if we want to feed everyone."
Get over it? Evidently Ms. Hill and Marketplace conveniently overlooked the 2009 conclusions of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), sponsored by the UN and World Bank.
It took 4.5 years for the IAASTD's 400 experts to arrive at the conclusion that small organic farming is the only way to maintain sustainable agriculture that could feed the world.
Follow the Money
According to Anna Lapp, author of Diet for a Hot Planet, the biotech friendly marketplace report was not sloppy reporting. Anna wrote, "Rather than being sloppy, it turns out that the reporting is actually a carefully constructed thank you gift for a prized advertiser."
NPR was not really the culprit this time. But let's have a look at NPR's association with Bill Gates and his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to a Seattle Times February 19, 2011 article "Does Gates media funding taint objectivity?" a $3.6 million Gates grant went to PBS' News Hour, another $3.3 million to Public Radio International, $1 million to PBS' Frontline, and $5 million to NPR.
The Gates Foundation distributes these funds for "influencing policy and advocacy."
The approach is sly. Influence the public to get behind tackling issues such as vaccinations and "sustainable" farming to cure the world's ills. This is the same Bill Gates who now owns a huge chunk of stock in Monsanto valued at over $23 million in 2010.
And it's the same Gates who announced this century as the vaccine century, which he went on to say could help reduce the world population by 15%. Vaccines cause more harm than good and have been used as carriers of infertility agents in third world vaccination campaigns.
Yes, appearing like a mild-mannered concerned geek gets a lot of support from the politically correct naive who don't know the dark side of GMOs and vaccinations. Gates' approach is sly and slick. He usually appeals to the need for actions rather than the what the actions really do. This makes it easier for public opinion to marginalize critics of GMOs and vaccinations, even when they are forced in Africa by gunpoint. (Natural News below)
A financial alliance with Monsanto, directly or indirectly, is a pact with the devil. Despite public radio's claiming their reporting is not affected by its "underwriters", a public radio euphemism for sponsor, the Marketplace report and its Monsanto ads prove otherwise. One does not bite the hand that feeds it, especially if it's the devil's hand.
Organic Consumer Organization's (OCA) Millions Against Monsanto would like you to email a complaint in your name to Marketplace/APM using their form via this link. http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/...
Sources used in this article and for your perusal:
Monsanto's dark legacy http://www.badseed.info/resources/monsanto.p...
The transcript from the "Non Organic Future" Mareketplace report http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/w...
Gates policy influence media funding amounts
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localn...
Gates Foundation Monsanto investments http://www.infowars.com/gates-foundation-inv...
Gates Foundation gunpoint forced vaccinations in Africa http://www.naturalnews.com/033119_vaccinatio...
NPR Monsanto funding disclaimer
http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/06/npr_is_...
American Public Media site http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/
Monsanto targets public media to propagandize http://www.grist.org/article/national-public...
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