Lis­ten: One Seg­ment

Review­ing mate­r­ial about the use of genet­i­cally engi­neered ade­n­oviruses for “gene ther­apy” which uses viruses to intro­duce DNA into cells in order to cor­rect genetic defects. (The ade­n­ovirus causes the com­mon cold, and neu­tral­izes the p53 gene, which helps to pre­vent cancer.)

The cancer-causing mon­key virus SV40 also neu­tral­izes the p53 gene. Mr. Emory has rumi­nated about the pos­si­bil­ity of genet­i­cally engi­neer­ing an ade­n­ovirus that could cause can­cer. In light of the fact that the Merck firm has been involved in genet­i­cally alter­ing ade­n­oviruses, this is not a pos­si­bil­ity that should be too read­ily dis­missed. The pro­gram reviews infor­ma­tion about Merck’s involve­ment in bio­log­i­cal war­fare and mar­ket­ing the hepati­tis B vac­cine, appar­ently impli­cated in the devel­op­ment of AIDS.

Next, the pro­gram updates the tragic progress of physi­cian assisted sui­cide in Ore­gon, the only state to leg­is­late the pro­ce­dure. The pro­ce­dure is being con­sis­tently abused, lead­ing to the death of inno­cent and cur­able people.

Next, the pro­gram high­lights the role of U.S. intel­li­gence in alter­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion of jour­nal­ism and cul­ture. Dis­cussing a review of a book on the CIA’s manip­u­la­tion of cul­ture dur­ing the Cold War, the pro­gram sets forth the Agency’s alter­ation of movies, such as the film ver­sion George Orwell’s Ani­mal Farm and 1984. Other films, books and peri­od­i­cals were sim­i­larly mod­i­fied by “the Company.”

The pro­gram then looks at a U.S. Army “psy-ops” team and its work with CNN. This col­lu­sion con­sti­tutes direct involve­ment of the mil­i­tary with the cov­er­age of the Balkans war. The broad­cast con­cludes with analy­sis of “ex-” CIA offi­cer Tom Braden’s role as the “lib­eral” in the Cross­fire pro­gram, oppo­site Pat Buchanan. (Recorded on 4/2/2000.)