{"article":{"id":1499,"heading":"Censored by IMC\/Free Speech TV","author":"Miki Seifert & Willie Franco","created":"2000-08-17 02:25:01","modified":"2005-08-15 00:23:12","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:23:12","article":"

On Monday, August, 14, at 2pm, during the IMC\/Free Speech TV satellite meeting, my husband, Willie Franco, and I were told that Silencing Dissent, a segment that we put together for the Monday night show, was deemed too controversial to be aired. The focus of this controversy was that one of the issues to be discussed was the questions that are being raised about the validity of the hypothesis that HIV causes AIDS.

This segment had been on the Monday Night Grid from the beginning and had been discussed at several meetings. There had been a few questions about the focus of the panel, and privately, one person, who is very much involved in the current medical model, expressed concern about this issue, but nothing else was said. We had expected more questions and were prepared to educate people on this issue and provide the scientific research that I used to write the script, but no one asked.

Below is a summary of the segment and the text of the script that was too controversial for even the alternate media.











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<\/p>\n","contact":"spgekko@hotmail.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"On Monday, August, 14, during the IMC\/Free Speech TV satellite meeting, my husband, Willie Franco, and I were told that Silencing Dissent, a segment that we put together for the Monday night show, was deemed too controversial to be aired.","numcomment":6,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/08\/censored_b.txt","filesize":"8.4 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/08\/1499.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":1509,"heading":"Hmmm...","article":"I don't know about \"censored.\" It is possible the priority level of this piece was lower than many of the other things. They can't just air everything. \r\n\r\nAlso on Monday during the time the IMC show was to air, the police took over the building and parking lot to check for a supposed bomb, therefore nothing at all was aired. ","author":"Anonymous","parent_id":1499,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-17 02:46:58","modified":"2000-08-17 02:59:18","fileurl":""},{"id":1518,"heading":"stopping misinformation is not censorhip","article":"Sorry, but I really have to disagree with the charge of censorship here. If the IMC is to have any credibility, it has to filter out stories that are malicious either by intent or by virtue of misinformation. This is especially true in it's video programming which has a wider general audience.\r\n\r\nThe AIDS segment described above is so full of inaccuracies and assumptions that it nearly constitutes a public health menace. To many people it would come off as potentially homophobic (AIDS as a lifestyle disease) and racist (Africans are dying of poverty not AIDS related illnesses). Every AIDS case worker I know would be in rage over the broadcasting of such misinformation. I'm no fan of Gallo, but I don't think this approach to the facts would have any impact on his work or methodology.\r\n\r\nThere are also many reasons segments may get moved around or cut entirely from the show grid. The live TV coverage is following an event that is as unplanned as they come, the grid will change mid show if something happens. This segment also seems more extraneous than most to the issues at hand, and it's allot to cover coherently in 15 minutes (a huge chunk of time in the IMC grid by the way). One issue would have been more focused of an approach. It may have simply been a format or timing decision (panel discussions make for difficult TV, especially longer ones).\r\n\r\nAlso - I'm not involved directly in this IMC project, I'm watching from a distance this time around.\r\n\r\nMichael\r\n\r\n","author":"Michael Eisenemenger","parent_id":1499,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-17 03:08:54","modified":"2000-08-17 03:21:53","fileurl":""},{"id":1538,"heading":"Misinfomation???","article":"Michael,\r\n\r\nGoing by your logic they shouldn't air people claiming that\r\nMumia is literally innocent -- this is a very contraversial issue even among Mumia supporters and is viewed as misinformation by many.\r\n\r\nGoing by your logic, the Black Bloc should not be covered\r\nbecause they are a very contrivesial issue among the activist community. Some think that they distort the message of the demonstrations.\r\n\r\nThere are many valid criticisms put forward by the AIDS Dissident movement and that are scientifically valid -- like why is AIDS called a virus yet the AIDS virus has never been isolated, if AIDS is a virus why does AIDS behave like no other virus in human history.\r\n\r\nExample: Influenza, Symtoms: fever, flem in lungs, body aches and other cold like symtoms. Symtpoms are the same for all humans who contract Influenza. Influenza mutates yearly yet symptoms are always the same with each new mutation.\r\n\r\nAll other viruses behave exactly like influenza (i.e. known\r\nsymptoms, symptoms are the same for all humans who contract\r\nthe virus, virus symptoms do not change when virus mutates).\r\n\r\nAIDS, Symptoms: too innumerable to mention. Symptoms vary\r\namong various risk groups. Alleged reason for this is that the \"virus\" has allegedly mutated to affect various risk groups in different ways.\r\n\r\nThere is a well known test to isolate viruses, all known viruses have been isolated through this methon except AIDS.\r\n\r\nDr. Robert Gallo, the man who first put forward the theory that AIDS is a virus, had made the same claim about cancer, he was wrong. Much of his \"cancer virus\" research\r\nwas essentially rehashed to make his case for AIDS.\r\n\r\nThese are all honest questions, where are the answers?\r\n\r\nI suggest that people check out the following websites:\r\nhttp:\/\/www.virusmyth.com\/<\/a>\r\nhttp:\/\/www.actupsf.com\/<\/a>\r\n\r\nI agree that some of the dissident criticism is \"out there\" but you DO NOT defeat misinformation with censorship, you defeat it with DEBATE.\r\n\r\nFinally, the claim that it is racist to say that people or color are dying of poverty is absurd. People of color ARE dying of poverty every day -- far more people of color are dying of poverty every day than are dying of AIDS. \r\n\r\nShawn\r\n","author":"Shawn Ewald","parent_id":1499,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-17 03:58:52","modified":"2000-08-17 04:12:43","fileurl":""},{"id":1560,"heading":"2 of 3 aint bad","article":"Hello, I'm just anonymous because there's no impressive reputation for me to advertise,\r\nand currently no specific affiliations. Just a reader in science areas over the years.\r\n\r\nObservations: \r\n The whole HIV-AIDS controversy is in a less rock-solid category than the other two issues. While\r\nit may turn out that the connection is off somehow, the details of it are way too specialized for full\r\nanalysis in this format.\r\n\r\n The other two are absolutely valid, intense concerns. Never heard of the \"konformist\" guy, \r\nthough, and if \"rebellion\" and \"subversion\" are on his agenda, he's just as likely going to be a\r\nliability to the good food movement as he is an asset. Readers should direct their research to:\r\nwww.mothers.org\r\nwww.bio-integrity.org\r\nwww.purefood.org\r\nwww.greenpeaceusa.org\r\namong others. And, keep up-to-date with these and other threads via\r\nwww.newscenter.org\r\n\r\nKeep it healthy!","author":"anonymous","parent_id":1499,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-17 04:40:27","modified":"2000-08-17 04:55:27","fileurl":""},{"id":1617,"heading":"SHAME ON THE CENSORS","article":"It is outrageous that discussion of the HIV theory as genocide and the poisonous drugs being promoted was not allowed at IMC. AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a condition of immune deficiency. Immune deficiency is caused by intravenous drugs, blood transfusions and malnutrition. The World Health Organization does not require HIV to be present for them to call it \"AIDS.\" They require simply a high fever, cough or serious weight loss, all symptoms of many curable diseases. In the US, most people who supposedly have \"AIDS\" are\/were intravenous drug users and\/or had improperly treated VD. Shame on IMC.","author":"SF SUNSHINE","parent_id":1499,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-17 10:49:27","modified":"2000-08-17 11:04:04","fileurl":""},{"id":2893,"heading":"Re: Michael Eisenmenger by Christine Maggiore","article":"The type of censorship endorsed by the IMC--accompanied by cries of homophobia\r\nand racisim--is nothing new. Many people that fight the malevolent interests of\r\nmulti-national chemical companies march in lock step with profiteering\r\npharmaceutical giants when it comes to HIV and AIDS.\r\n\r\nIn contrast to the baseless notions of Amy Goodman and Michael Eisenemenger,\r\npeople actually living in Africa--rather than reading about it in the\r\nnewspaper-- are very appreciative of my work and my challenge to orthodox views\r\nof AIDS.\r\n\r\nWith regard to the unfounded and unkind comments by Mr. Eisenemenger that I\r\npromote racist agendas, please see these excepts from three of many notes I've\r\nreceived from Black Africans since returning from the AIDS conference in Durban\r\nand a month in South Africa:\r\n\r\n\"My name is Dr. Vitalis Chipfakacha MB. MD. MPH and am head of HIV\/AIDS in a\r\nProvince of South Africa. I have just read your book \"What if everything you\r\nthought you knew about AIDS was wrong\". Thank\r\nyou very much. I would appreciate a list of all the materials you have on the\r\nsubject and their costs. Further is there any other material you can send by\r\nE-mail. Thank you very much for standing up for the common man.\"\r\n\r\n\"Your books arrived today, thank goodness. Uganda needs this information. The\r\nbiggest problem I have seen is that our people have been lied for too long that\r\nthey take HIV to be real. People have been hoodwinked not to see the dire\r\nconsequences of Poverty and senseless wars ravaging the continent\r\ncausing disease and malnutition as the bedrock of 'African AIDS'.\"\r\n\r\n\"I met you at the 13th Int AIDS (Pharmacutical) Conference in Durban South\r\nAfica. Firstly let me apologize for my ignorance or should I say my\r\nmiseducation as a health care worker. I work for the Health Department in and\r\nalready have been catching hell for my questioning about what we are preaching\r\nto the public. I'm originally from Mozambique and South Africa, and want to\r\nhelp in all ways possible. I've misled people to believing certain facts, so\r\nnow I need to correct this. I have a lot at stake, my kids to support, etc, but\r\nmy guilt over what exactly we are doing as health care professionals,\r\ncontinually troubles me!\"\r\n\r\nI have similar notes from Black Africans, many with similar credentials to Dr.\r\nChipfakacha, as well as from HIV positive and AIDS diagnosed Africans directly\r\naffected by these issues.\r\n\r\nWith regard to my alleged homophobia, I have three huge binders full of praise\r\nfor my book and Alive & Well's work, the majority of which come from gay men,\r\nand four of Alive & Well's seven board members are HIV positive gay men.\r\n\r\nI would be happy to share our collection of letters of support with Michael and\r\nothers at the IMC (or with those at that supposed bastion of free thought,\r\nPacifica Radio) who are openly prejudiced against HIV positives who dare to\r\nthink outside the lines of the AIDS orthodoxy.\r\n\r\nI challenge Michael to cite the \"inaccuracies and assumptions\" in my book that\r\nhe maintains \"constitute a public health menace.\" And I challenge any of the\r\nmany AIDS case workers he knows to meet with me for an open public dialogue on\r\nthese issues.\r\n\r\nI also encourage everyone on this list to share this email message in an effort\r\nto alert others to censorship perpetuated by the very people who profess to\r\nfight against it.\r\n\r\nThank you,\r\n\r\n\r\nChristine Maggiore\r\n\r\nFollowing Michael's letter, please find an account of my recent trip to South\r\nAfrica that will be published in the next issue of Awareness Magazine.\r\n\r\nFollowing that is a brief summary of what happened with Mikki Sieffert and\r\nWilly Franco's program \"Silencing Dissent.\"\r\n\r\n=====\r\n\r\nStopping Misinformation is not censorship\r\nBy: Michael Eisenemenger\r\neisenmen@tao.ca\r\n\r\nSorry, but I really have to disagree with the charge of censorship here. If\r\nthe IMC is to have any credibility, it has to filter out stories that are\r\nmalicious either by intent or by virtue of misinformation. This is\r\nespecially true in it's video programming which has a wider general\r\naudience.\r\n\r\nThe AIDS segment described above is so full of inaccuracies and assumptions\r\nthat it nearly constitutes a public health menace. To many people it would\r\ncome off as potentially homophobic (AIDS as a lifestyle disease) and racist\r\n(Africans are dying of poverty not AIDS related illnesses). Every AIDS case\r\nworker I know would be in rage over the broadcasting of such misinformation.\r\nI'm no fan of Gallo, but I don't think this approach to the facts would have\r\nany impact on his work or methodology.\r\n\r\nThere are also many reasons segments may get moved around or cut entirely\r\nfrom the show grid. The live TV coverage is following an event that is as\r\nunplanned as they come, the grid will change mid show if something happens.\r\nThis segment also seems more extraneous than most to the issues at hand, and\r\nit's allot to cover coherently in 15 minutes (a huge chunk of time in the\r\nIMC grid by the way). One issue would have been more focused of an approach.\r\nIt may have simply been a format or timing decision (panel discussions make\r\nfor difficult TV, especially longer ones).\r\n\r\nAlso - I'm not involved directly in this IMC project, I'm watching from a\r\ndistance this time around.\r\n\r\n=====\r\n\r\nI can't really say how the 13th International AIDS Conference went as I spent\r\nthe entire time at our exhibit booth. Because of the near constant crowds of\r\ndelegates interested in our materials and discussions, I was not able to attend\r\na single session, panel, presentation, or cultural event. I spent eight full\r\nhours each day engaged in lively, polite, and very productive conversations\r\nwith a wide range of people from around the world. In fact, all I saw of the\r\nconference were the restrooms, the cafeteria, and the hundreds of people who\r\nlined up to talk, listen, and learn about alternative views of HIV and AIDS.\r\n\r\nIn contrast to the media hype about the less than warm welcome that awaited us,\r\nour inventory of 490 pounds of printed materials and 500 books began to run low\r\nby the morning of the second day. Testimony to the success of our presence is\r\nthe number of times we raced out for photocopies and the hundreds of books\r\norders we carried back home. These requests for books, information and further\r\ncontact come from doctors, educators, activists, health ministers and other\r\ngovernment officials, treatment counselors, heads of AIDS organizations, and\r\nHIV positive and AIDS diagnosed people from an amazing array of countries\r\nincluding South Africa, Botswana, China, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Korea, Kenya,\r\nMalawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Uganda. Rather than\r\nbeing put down or challenged--or even worse, ignored--we found that our\r\nalternative data and discussions we were warmly and enthusiastically embraced.\r\n\r\nDespite all the big talk from AIDS enthusiasts about putting so-called AIDS\r\ndissidence to rest, the highly touted \"showdown\" did not occur officially or\r\ninformally, and the statements made in the Durban Declaration were dismantled\r\npoint by point, complete references, before the conference began. You can find\r\nthis detailed response to the stance taken by the 5,000 signing AIDS experts at\r\nwww.thedurbandeclaration.org and I would be happy to mail a printed copy to any\r\ninterested reader without internet access.\r\n\r\nThe whole idea of a confrontation between AIDS rethinkers and AIDS hardliners\r\nwas just one of many media misrepresentations. Had journalists promoting this\r\nnotion done their homework, they would have quickly discovered that our\r\norganization was the only official presence at the conference representing\r\nalternative views, and that only one of the \"dissident\" members of President\r\nThabo Mbeki's AIDS Advisory Panel, Dr. Charles Geshekter, was registered as a\r\nconference delegate. Instead, they misled the public and missed the real story:\r\nme, my husband and three-year-old son took on the entire AIDS establishment in\r\nDurban.\r\n\r\nI found that much noteworthy news went unmentioned and that the obvious irony\r\nof many events escaped the attention of most reporters. For example, uncritical\r\nglobal coverage was given to a humanitarian rally demanding toxic AIDS drugs\r\nthat South Africa can't afford in which protesters carrying signs that warned\r\n\"One Dissident, One Bullet\" marched alongside members of the Nobel Peace Prize\r\nwinning group Doctors Without Borders, while unanimous media silence followed a\r\nrally of traditional African healers using affordable natural therapies for\r\nAIDS who were excluded from official participation in the conference.\r\n\r\nOf the thousands of reporters hanging around Durban, my husband was the only\r\none to investigate the shanty town a few miles from downtown and speak with\r\npeople living at ground zero of the AIDS epidemic. In taped interviews,\r\nresidents told him how conference organizers prohibited them from attending\r\npublic events associated with the AIDS conference--a conference whose theme was\r\n\"Breaking the Silence.\" Mainstream journalists also failed to address the\r\nquestion of whether malnourished people crowded into homes made of scrap wood,\r\ncardboard and other found objects--often with no electricity or running\r\nwater--might suffer from diseases now called AIDS as a consequence of these\r\nconditions.\r\n\r\nAmong many unreported events was ACTUP's admission that their widely publicized\r\ntake over of pharmaceutical giant Bohringer Engleheim's booth was staged and\r\nthat Bohringer actually funds ACTUP. This revelation made ACTUP's cries of drug\r\ncompany greed and profiteering ring more than a bit hollow, and revealed that\r\nBohringer's post-take over announcement of lower prices for their AIDS drug\r\nNevirapine was a publicity stunt than a compassionate gesture.\r\n\r\nThe most disturbing and blatantly incorrect of the accounts coming from the\r\nconference had to be the international news reports of booing crowds and a\r\nwalk-out during President Mbeki's opening address. We witnessed an attentive,\r\nrespectful audience and that the president's remarks inspired a standing\r\novation. Second to this was an unchallenged front page news story \"Young,\r\nTalented and Dead\" that featured ominous predictions of a lost generation of\r\nSouth Africans and charts suggesting huge death tolls from AIDS. Simple math\r\nshowed that what the charts actually indicated was that the number of deaths\r\nfrom all causes including AIDS among South African men and women over age 15 is\r\nremarkably low at 8\/10ths of 1% annually, a rate almost equal to that of the\r\nUnited States. We also learned that in contrast to hysterical media reports of\r\nplunging population, infant mortality rates have not increased in South Africa\r\nduring the AIDS epidemic and that life expectancy there is at an all time high.\r\n\r\nWe discovered that the media is remiss in its portrayal of Nkosi Johnson, the\r\n11 year-old HIV positive AIDS activist who spoke on behalf of drug therapies at\r\nthe opening ceremony. The media has popularized the idea that Nkosi's illness\r\nis proof that HIV causes AIDS and that Mbeki is wrong for considering poverty,\r\nunsanitary living conditions and drug treatments as causes of immune\r\nsuppression in his country. This idea is based on the fact that Nkosi was\r\nadopted into a middle class home as an infant and claims that he began drug\r\ntherapy a few months ago only after becoming ill. During an interview filmed by\r\nmy husband, Nkosi told me that contrary to official statements, he has been on\r\ntoxic AIDS drugs for eight years and has become ill while taking them. I\r\ntactfully shared this revelation with his adopted mother Gail Johnson and the\r\nrest of South Africa during a live radio program that had us both as guests.\r\n\r\nIn addition to a private meeting with Gail and Nkosi Johnson, I was also able\r\nto see Winnie Mandela at her home in Soweto and introduce and discuss\r\nalternative approaches to South Africa's alleged AIDS epidemic. I also had the\r\nunparalled honor of chatting with my hero President Thabo Mbeki in his office\r\nat ANC headquarters in Johannesburg one evening.\r\n\r\nThis article just touches on the many enlightening and encouraging experiences\r\nwe had during our South African sojourn. I hope you will check our web site for\r\nfurther articles and for information on my husband's documentary film of our\r\nadventures.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n> On Monday, August, 14, during the IMC\/Free Speech TV satellite meeting, my\r\n> husband, Willie Franco, and I were told that Silencing Dissent, a segment\r\n> that we put together for the Monday night show, was deemed too controversial\r\n> to be aired.\r\n>\r\n> The focus of this controversy was that one of the\r\n> issues to be discussed was the questions that are being raised about the\r\n> validity of the hypothesis that HIV causes AIDS.\r\n>\r\n> This segment had been on the Monday Night Grid from the beginning and had\r\n> been discussed at several meetings. There had been a few questions about the\r\n> focus of the panel, and privately, one person, who is very much involved in\r\n> the current medical model, expressed concern about this issue, but nothing\r\n> else was said. We had expected more questions and were prepared to educate\r\n> people on this issue and provide the scientific research that I used to\r\n> write the script, but no one asked.\r\n> The focus of the segment was how and why dissenting scientific opinions to\r\n> the prevailing orthodoxy are not heard in the mainstream media. We selected\r\n> the issues of fluoridation, HIV\/AIDS, and genetic engineering to illustrated\r\n> this global pattern. These issues are commonly discussed in the mainstream\r\n> media and impact the essentials of life -- food, water, and the medical care\r\n> that people receive.\r\n>\r\n> The premise of the discussion is that the scientific evidence upon which the\r\n> public policy on these issues was based is questionable, at best; that\r\n> scientists who raise valid scientific concerns are defunded, and their work\r\n> is not published; that this occurs because of the vested interests of\r\n> corporations and government agencies that benefit from the accepted dogma;\r\n> and that the public is prevented from learning about this struggle within\r\n> science and how it impacts their daily lives. As this shows how money is\r\n> influencing public policy, we felt that it was an appropriate topic to be\r\n> aired during the DNC and the D2K actions.\r\n>\r\n> The panelists have and continue to fight to get this information into the\r\n> public debate. They were:\r\n>\r\n> Jeff Green is Director of Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, a national\r\n> organization that provides scientific documentation as well as grassroots,\r\n> legislative and organizational support to individuals and groups of citizens\r\n> concerned for the quality, access, and safety of their public water systems.\r\n> They have sponsored successful proactive legislation in California and other\r\n> states to prohibit the addition of hazardous waste fluoride from the\r\n> phosphate fertilizer scrubbers into the public water supplies. He has owned\r\n> and operated a management consulting firm for health professionals,\r\n> including more than 400 dentists, since 1972, and teaches on a nationwide\r\n> basis the protocol for determining the source and remedies for chronic\r\n> breath malodors that may be emanating from the mouth, nasal cavity or\r\n> digestive system.\r\n>\r\n> Christine Maggiore is a former AIDS awareness educator, the founder of Alive\r\n> & Well AIDS Alternatives, a healthy, unmedicated HIV positive mother and\r\n> author of the book \"What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was\r\n> Wrong?\" which has been translated into four languages and is used as a text\r\n> at several American and African universities.\r\n>\r\n> Robert Sterling is the chairman of The Great Boycott, a group opposed to\r\n> genetically engineered foods and the power of the chemical industry. He is\r\n> also the editor of The Konformist (http:\/\/www.konformist.com), the internet\r\n> underground magazine dedicated to rebellion, konspiracy & subversion. His\r\n> works have appeared in The Whole Life Times, Sightings, Disinformation,\r\n> Parascope, Steamshovel Press and Paranoia. He is a contributing editor to\r\n> The Los Angeles Free Press and has a regular \"Konspira-palooza\" column in\r\n> Getting It online.\r\n>\r\n>\r\n>\r\n","author":"Willie Franco","parent_id":1499,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-20 15:37:31","modified":"2000-08-20 15:51:54","fileurl":""}]}