WASHINGTON -- January 29 -- The latest documentary from Emmy Award-winning media veteran Danny Schechter will open in New York City on Friday, February 4 on two screens (Village East Theatre, 2nd Avenue and 12th St.; and New Metro, Broadway between 99th and 100th Streets). Entitled WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception, the film exposes the role played by the media in selling and misreporting the Iraq War. While journalists were embedded in Iraq, focused on the futile (and now-abandoned) search for weapons of mass destruction, Schechter “embedded” himself in front of his television set. He found an uncritical, acquiescent press corps that poses a far graver threat to American democracy than any posed by Saddam Hussein.

Schechter has spent thirty years as a media professional, including stints at ABC's 20/20 and CNN. Recently profiled in the New York Times, he writes daily on Mediachannel.org (www.mediachannel.org), the world's largest online media issues network. He is the Executive Producer for Globalvision, an independent media company. (www.globalvision.org) More information about WMD and Danny Schechter, as well as a trailer narrated by Academy Award winner Tim Robins, can be found at www.wmdthefilm,com. Review copies of the film are available from David@wmdthefilm.com. The WMD DVD will be released in early March to coincide with the anniversary of the war. Schechter has also written a companion book, Embedded, on the Iraq War coverage.

WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception has won top awards at major film festivals and has been distributed to movie theaters in 15 cities so far by Cinema Libre Distribution. One European critic called WMD “Fahrenheit 911 for adults.” It has also been compared favorably with such celebrated documentaries as OutFoxed and Control Room.

When Danny Schechter started calling attention to media complicity in the war, he was one of a few voices in the wilderness. More than a year later, the New York Times and Washington Post published mea-culpas about their skewed reporting. Recently, at Stanford University, three network News Presidents including CBS's embattled Andrew Heyward admitted their coverage was also flawed. David Westin of ABC confessed: "Simply stated, we let the American people down."

"As far as I can tell,” Schechter says, “there has been no fundamental change in the template of coverage in Iraq and no consequences for anyone in the media world who did more selling than telling pushing jingoism instead of journalism. No one died as a result of CBS's 'Memogate.'"

Schechter has been invited to testify in Rome February l0 on the role of media at the citizen-initiated World Tribunal on Iraq. This is the first time that media outlets will be "tried" for their role in promoting a war.

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