As a matter of principle, we believe in holding the higher moral ground and not descending to the unethical valleys of those who do not share our Christian world view. This means, amongst other things, we will not discuss the private family lives of any our members or investigators, whether leaders or lay people, and will neither confirm nor deny what unscrupulous journalists, self-styled 'investigators' or others may say about our personal or home lives. We consider the home to be sacrosanct and the business of only those who live there and close and trusted friends.
We believe in answering all theological and practical matters related to Church life on our website and discussion boards in front of witnesses. We therefore as a rule do not engage in theological discussions by snail-mail, e-mail or IM. Occasionally we will make a statement for the press which is simultaneously published on our website and discussion groups when supplying news reporters with material they can quote in response to specific questions.
Because you can never tell in advance whether a news reporter is honest or not, we now like to ask for a list of all the questions they wish to ask us in advance setting out their agenda. We will decide, on the basis of the questions, whether to give a written response or agree to a viva voce interview. If we agree to the latter, then we will want a written agreement from the newspaper that they will confine themselves to the stated agenda. We will then publish these on our website and/or discussion boards.
Again, because of negative experience, we request written confirmation from the newspaper that they will submit to us a draft of any article they wish to publish prior to publication so that we can point out any factual errors. We will publish this as well, along with our questions, so that the public can see the process in action and draw their own conclusions when the final article is published. Finally, we expect a copy of the newspaper containing the article to be sent free to us, together with copies of any newspapers that contain follow-ups or comments on said article by either newspaper staff or readers. We will want written agreement that they will do this.
Finally, we expect the publishing newspaper issue an authorised document waiving any copyright from articles published about us, granting us automatic premission to publish what they write on our websites and discussion boards. We require this because NWT denied us the right to do this so that we could not minutely analyse and critique their article, even though we have done so here minus the original material.
Australian journalist, author, film maker John Pilger speaks about global media consolidation, war by journalism, US military’s quest for domination/hegemony in the post 9/11 era, false history in the guise of ‘objective’ journalism. Filmed in Chicago at Socialism 2007: Socialism for the 21st Century by Paul Hubbard. June 16, 2007 Broadcast on Democracy Now - The War and Peace Report - August 7, 2007