Shadows of Liberty

As a CBS News correspondent, Roberta Baskin did a story back in the 1990s about Nike's sweatshops in Vietnam. She discovered that employees were being grossly abused: their mouths were taped shut and they were beaten with shoes. The report was broadcast nationwide and led to protests and boycotts, but when Baskin made a follow-up to the story, it was kept off the air. This was because Nike and CBS had joined forces for the Olympic Winter Games, and CBS had paid a pretty penny to acquire exclusive broadcast rights. In Baskin's own words, "Nike had convinced CBS to turn its correspondence into a billboard." She was fired shortly thereafter. This is just one of the typical stories in , which reveals the limited freedom of American media. The documentary sketches a picture of a media landscape that is controlled by conglomerates with extreme political, social and economic power. Articles by investigative journalists are retracted or not taken seriously, critical journalists no longer stand a chance, and even renowned media neglect their journalistic responsibilities. Those in the know contend that the media are in crisis, and they ask the question of whether the Internet will remain free or fall into the hands of monopolistic companies.