[Reader-list] Grace News

[Mitch]

Grace News (znet)
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV
news station for Muslim Iraq.

It is being produced in a studio -- Grace Digital Media -- controlled by
fundamentalist Christians who are rabidly pro-Israel.

That's Grace as in "by the Grace of God."

Grace Digital Media is controlled by a fundamentalist Christian
millionaire, Cheryl Reagan, who last year wrested control of Federal
News Service, a transcription news service, from its former owner,
Cortes Randell.

Randell says he met Reagan at a prayer meeting, brought her in as an
investor in Federal News Service, and then she forced him out of his own
company.

Grace Digital Media and Federal News Service are housed in a downtown
Washington, D.C. office building, along with Grace News Network.

When you call the number for Grace News Network, you get a person
answering "Grace Digital Media/Federal News Service."

According to its web site, Grace News Network is "dedicated to
transmitting the evidence of God's presence in the world today."

"Grace News Network will be reporting the current secular news, along
with aggressive proclamations that will 'change the news' to reflect the
Kingdom of God and its purposes," GNN proclaims.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. government agency
producing the television news broadcasts for Iraq, likes to say it is
the BBC of the USA.

BBG runs Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and Radio Sawa -- Arabic
language radio for the Middle East.

"Our mission is clear," BBG's Joan Mower told us. "To broadcast accurate
and objective news about the United States and the world. We don't do
propaganda, leafleting -- we are like the BBC in that respect."

Well, then why hook up with Grace?

BBG's Joan Mower said that Grace Digital Media is a mainstream
production house used by all kinds of mainstream news organizations.

"Grace will have nothing to do with the editorial side of the news
broadcast," she said. "They are renting us equipment, space, studio. The
Grace personnel we use include technicians, production people but no
editorial people."

But Mower said she couldn't get us a copy of the contract between BBG
and Grace Digital media. Nor could she say how Grace Digital was chosen
as the production studio.

Grace News Network proclaims that it will be a "unique tool in the
Lord's ministry plan for the world."

"Grace News Network provides networking links and portals to various
ministries and news services that will be of benefit to every Christian
believer and seeker of truth," according to the company's mission
statement.

The CEO of Grace News Network is Thorne Auchter.

The same Thorne Auchter who began the dismantling of the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under Presidents Reagan and
George Bush I.

Auchter did not return our calls seeking comment for this story.

While it's unclear whether Grace News Network actually produces any
news, it has produced a documentary movie titled "Israel: Divine
Destiny" which it showed at the National Press Club in September 2002.

The film is about "Israel's destiny and the United States' role in that
destiny," according to Grace News Network.

Grace News said that it could not make a copy of the film available to
us at this time, since it is now undergoing post-production editing. Nor
could it provide a transcript.

The mainstream media has documented strong and growing ties between
right-wing Republican Christian fundamentalists and right-wing Sharonist
Israeli expansionists.

This alliance is personified in Ralph Reed's Stand Up for Israel, a
group formed to "mobilize Christians and other people of faith to
support the State of Israel."

President Bush has very strong ties to fundamentalist Christians, most
notably Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham.

Last week, Franklin Graham delivered a Good Friday message at the
Pentagon, despite an uproar over his previous slander of Islam as "a
very evil and wicked religion."

Don Wagner, a professor of religion and director of the Center for
Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University, an evangelical
Christian college in Chicago, has written extensively about what he
calls Christian Zionism, whose leaders he identifies as, among others,
Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, and Franklin
Graham.

"Christian Zionists have historically pointed to Genesis 12:3 - I will
bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse,"
Dr. Wagner said. "They have interpreted this to mean that individuals
and nations who support the state of Israel will be blessed by God. It
has come to mean political, economic, and moral support, often
uncritically rendered to the state of Israel."

Grace News Network seems to fit the mold.

Joan Mower says that BBG is currently producing and transmitting six
hours of news into Iraq including a dubbed version of the daily evening
news from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS, plus three hours of original news
programming from BBG.

BBG says it sees no problem in having Grace produce the evening news
broadcast for Iraq.

Given the brewing anti-American revolt through all sectors of Iraqi
society, maybe it should reconsider.

We called Grace Digital Media to speak with Cheryl Reagan.

Her secretary told us that she has been away in extended vacation for
more than a month -- in Israel.

When will she back? we asked.

No one knows, the secretary said.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor, http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are
co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the
Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press;
http://www.corporatepredators.org).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman



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