CNBC To Feature CMI Media Stock Fund
SkeptInq@aol.com
Fri, 11 Jul 1997 16:15:02 -0400
---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj: CNBC To Feature CMI Media Stock Fund
Date: 97-07-11 14:34:39 EDT
From: SINisbet
To: SkeptInq
******NEWS ADVISORY FOR TUESDAY, JULY 15*******
CNBC will run throughout the day a feature on the Council for Media
Integrity's Media Stock Fund.
As part of CNBC's program "Hollywood Inc.", CSICOP chair Paul Kurtz will be
interviewed on the need for a balanced portrayal of the paranormal in the
media.
Aimed at providing leverage for CSICOP's response to the television market's
lucrative commercial marketing of fringe science and pseudoscience, CSICOP is
asking friends and supporters to help it acquire common stock in media
conglomerate companies. "The Media Stock Fund" will allow CSICOP to take
part in
shareholder meetings, where it can question the infatuation with the
paranormal increasingly demonstrated in television programming.
"We are deliberately targeting each of the major television networks, and
well known media conglomerates Westinghouse (CBS), General Electric (NBC),
News Corp (FOX), Time Warner(WB, Turner Broadcasting), and Disney (ABC),"
Paul Kurtz, chairman of CSICOP stated at the launch of the Stock Fund. "The
media have now virtually replaced the schools, colleges, and universities as
the main source of information for the general public. The irresponsibility
of the media in the area of science and the paranormal is a worldwide
problem. But it especially applies to the United States, where the media
have been distorting science, and in particular, presenting pseudoscience as
genuine science. Indeed, we are appalled by the number of 'documentaries,'
which are really entertainment programs, presenting fringe science as real
science."
The practice of organizing shareholder response within a company is common
among advocacy groups that seek socially responsible corporate conduct
through shareholder passed resolutions. As a shareholder, CSICOP will have
opportunities to attend shareholder meetings, submit viewpoints to
shareholder publications, and sponsor shareholder resolutions. While
exercising these and other shareholder rights, CSICOP will be representing a
broad, international constituency who support the critical investigation of
paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific viewpoint
while providing a balanced viewpoint to the public-at-large. "The Fund will
allow us to make shareholder meetings into accountability sessions for the
media giants when they package superstition and pseudo-science as fact" Kurtz
said.
With the "Media Stock Fund", supporters may contribute monies that will be
applied towards the purchase of stock in General Electric, Westinghouse,
NewsCorp, Time Warner or Disney. Dividends will be applied to the operating
cost of the Council For Media Integrity.
*****