The Promise - Full Version

[MUSIC PLAYING] Endless wars, abuse of powers, declining living standards. Now a profound economic crises has ripped asunder the American dream itself. Millions of people losing jobs and homes. They lack proper health care, and any real sense of security. As unemployment rises, we need to know why this crisis is happening, and what we can do to defend ourselves. Why are wages so low? Why is the society so laden with debt? Is it in ordinary American's interest to have a trillion dollar military budget to project power across the globe? Big oil and arms companies shape American economic and foreign policy with far reaching effects on the lives of ordinary people. With allies in government, trade unions, the media, and in think tanks, they're a hidden hand that controls the commanding heights of American politics. Corporate television news won't ask these questions, let alone try to find answers. Only a truly independent news network can tackle these questions with courage, with ordinary people's interests in mind. What makes the Real News different is our funding model. We don't have to worry about quick rating results. We don't have to worry about companies getting peeved and withdrawing their advertising. We don't have to worry about losing government subsidy. It means we can think and act independently and courageously. The Real News is a nonprofit, video news, and documentary service that provides independent, uncompromising video journalism. The Real News will be financed through the economic power of thousands of people around the world. We won't accept advertising, or government or corporate funding. Our goal is to compete for a daily news audience in the millions. We plan to break stories throughout the day on our 24/7 website, and our daily world news show for television will be available in over 50 million homes across North America. The Real News will feature entertaining and hard hitting programming, including Global Warning, reporting on problems and solutions in the environmental and climate change crisis. Welcome to the Global Underground. We'll be looking at our planet through the eyes of young artists from around the world. Skewer, the best of the world's political satire. I agree with you totally there, Tony. Face Off, lively, witty, and fair debate. How did television news shows cover this week's big story? Did they get the facts right? Did they get the context? Join us for the real story. The United States has played a major role in fueling the civil war, something that the American media is not telling the American people. Other programming will include the Politics of Faith, about politics and the prophets. International Justice, the law and human rights. Follow The Money, the global fight against corruption. Organize This, working people and unions. Think, featuring leading minds from around the world. And Rear View Mirror, the history behind the news. The heart of our service will be our daily news, where we change the definition of what's news, and who's a news maker. Are Canadian mining companies violating the rights of indigenous people in Canada and around the world? We report from Guatemala. [SPEAKING SPANISH] We've got a satellite up on the roof, and it runs throughout the day, multiple feeds, different parts of the world, the top stories of the day. That's a start. We are already working with journalists from different parts of the world who are well established, and highly respected in their regions. More than 7,000 people have been captured in America's War on Terror. Some have been released. 700 were sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But where are all the rest? Africa supplies a third of China's imported oil. President General Pervez Musharraf's army has deep historical ties to Islamic forces. Do we owe something to the Iraqi people other than just getting out? Do we owe them reparations for having brought about this war? I don't believe that. The Iraqi people are paying the highest price for the failure of American policy. Daily news is critical, because that's where people form their first opinion about a breaking story. And that's where they form their world view, because of the repetition of daily news. We have to break the monopoly on video based daily news. Now we hear that new wars, even endless wars, may be on the horizon. Isn't it time we debated whether a foreign policy that weakens our economy, and costs the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, is in the interests of most Americans? Here are the stories. Here a guy living in a trailer in his backyard, who's paying a mortgage on a house that was destroyed two years ago. And he can't even find a job, and nobody's helping him. But there's 362 tons of US cash, somewhere missing in Baghdad. Coming up on Global Warning. avaaz.org, in an online campaign, says, climate change is the greatest threat facing our world today. And we're almost out of time to stop it. One of the most important stories the Real News will be covering is the global warming climate change crisis. All the issues of our time converge here, from the disproportionate effects on the poor, to the very way we do business. Well, scientists are telling us we can't keep doing business as usual. And that's why we need television news that doesn't do business as usual. There are solutions for the urgent problems of our times. At the Real News, people working for a change to find solutions will be the most important stories we cover. This is Gavin MacFayden, with the Center for Investigative Journalism. And I'll be reporting from London for the Real News. I'm Oksana Chelysheva, in Moscow. This is Davey D from Oakland, California. I'm Pepe Escobar, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. This is where information really could be powered. I'm Willy, I'm in Hong Kong. I'm Babak Yektafar, reporting from Washington DC. I'm Siddharth Varadarajan, of The Hindu in New Delhi. In India, there would be enough numbers, huge numbers, who would be subscribers to such a channel, to see something rational. I'm Jodi Rave, reporting for the Real News from Western Montana. Large chunks of the world are very ready for a network of news that's not CNN, that's not the BBC. I am Taghreed El-Khodary in Gaza City. This is David Newman, of Ben Gurion University. Here and everywhere, people want the Real News alternative. I'm Leila Hatoum, reporting from Beirut for the Real News. This is the sort of thing we can build right now without anyone else's permission, from the government or the business community. The power's in our hands. If we're not going to sleepwalk into more wars, and into environmental disaster, we think we need to start with a television news network that won't bow to pressure, and has the courage to seek facts. And that means independent economics. And that's why we need you. You can organize house parties, talk to friends at school and at work. Send email blasts and spread the word. Distribute this video to everyone you know. Pick up the phone and call a few friends and suggest they visit therealnews.com. Invest just 10 minutes a day to ask friends and colleagues to join the campaign to create a truly independent source of internet and television news. Together we can build this network. Just 50,000 people at $10 a month gets us to our first level of sustainability. You can help us reach this goal. And when we do, we'll move to television in millions of homes across North America. Help us reach an audience in the millions. Please contribute generously. Spread the word. Let's make the Real News television network a reality. [MUSIC PLAYING] Real hope means facing a complex reality. Your tax deductible donation makes it possible. Please contribute. Visit therealnews.com.