SCHECTER CALLING ALL FANS

Dear friends,

I am writing to friends, colleagues, and anyone I can think [of who] might be interested in knowing that our film indicting media coverage of the Iraq war will be opening in New York at the Village East Theater (12th and Second Avenue) on Friday evening (Feb. 4) for a week or more, depending on the turnout.

Winning a theatrical run for a hard-hitting low-budget film on the role of our media is not easy. Working with Cinema Libre (the same company that distributed "OutFoxed") we have been showing the film in cinemas, festivals and screenings worldwide. The response has been fabulous, and coming just a few days after the U.S.-imposed "elections" in Iraq, "WMD" can't be more timely. Despite a few mea-culpas for [its] pre-war reporting, much of the TV coverage continues to ignore civilian casualties and war crimes.

We need your help in getting the word out through your email lists and personal contacts. We don't have the kind of marketing budget you need to make a splash in New York. We do know many grass-roots networks, media groups and anti-war organizations who could help us pack the theater.

While some jaded reviewers defensively dismiss "WMD" for "telling us what we already know" (even though it has largely not been reported) others have been very supportive: The Chicago Reader calls "WMD" "a comprehensive and devastating critique of the TV news networks' complacency and complicity in the war on Iraq ... brilliantly argued and scrupulously documented ... a must see"

Doug Ireland writes: "In this film -- which is much more meticulously documented and more accurate than Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," and therefore infinitely more devastating -- Schechter shows with precision how U.S. mass media have been recruited as part and parcel of the Pentagon's war-propaganda machine." Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff calls "WMD" "something of a comic masterpiece." You can read more reviews online at WMDtheFilm.com and see the trailer narrated by Academy Award winner Tim Robins.

"WMD" will soon be touring campuses and other communities. The DVD will be on sale March 8th to mark the anniversary of the war. We have a "Teachers Guide" for classroom use as well. If you can help us promote the film, write David@wmdthefilm.com.

I will have more updates on my newly revamped daily blog at Mediachannel.org. You can reach me at dissector@mediachannel.org. Thanks for your solidarity and support,

Always unembedded and independent,
Danny Schechter, News Dissector
Editor, Mediachannel.org
GLOBALVISION
575 8th Avenue, New York, NY l0018 212 246-0202x3006