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May 13, 2005
Opening Plenary: Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
35 years ago the transmitter for Pacifica station KPFT in Houston, TX, was blown up by the Klu Klux Klan. The Klan understood how dangerous the station would be. They took the station off the air for a few weeks, but it drew attention to the station and the network. A few months later the Klan did it again, and the station stayed off the air for three months. but just a few later the 5th pacifica station went on the air.
Pacifica was started by Lew Hill with KPFA in Berkeley, follwed by KPFK, WBAI, KPFT, WPFW.
Paul Robeson was whitelisted from nearly every space in the US, yet he knew he could be heard on Pacifica, breaking the sound barrier.
James Baldwin debating Malcolm X on Pacifica. The Pacifica archives are part of our history, and our future.
Dred Scott decision was made here in St. Louis, but he launched a movement, the Civil War ensued, ultimately Africans were freed and he was one of those who freed them. We have to recognize these movements. We need a media that recognizes mechanisms for change, not celebrities.
On mother's day, we think about the mothers of movements. Rosa Parks, didn't do it alone, didn't do it just because she was tired and wanted to sit down. She was an organizer, she worked with the NAACP. She understood the power of nonviolent civil disobedience, and chose her moment, and launched a movement.
It is critical that we have the media broadcast the voices at the target end of US foreign and domestic policy. We know what the media did at the invasion of Iraq, beat the drums for war day after day. We're not just talking FOX -- CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS. FAIR did that study just before the invasion looking at the major newscasts -- of 390 interviews only 3 featured anti-war voices. It didn't represent mainstream america when most of the country was against war at that time.
The voices that are excluded are not a silent majority, but a silenced majority. We've been on an unembed the media tour for the last month. More powerful than any bomb the Pentagon has deployed the US media and we have to take it back. The media are the most powerful institutions on earth. They're the way we learn about each other, how we learn about the rest of the world, and how they learn about us. It cannot be through a corporate lens. That is dangerous.
To be here in the city of Pulitzer she thought it would be relevant to bring one campaign started here. Embedding did not start now. It has been a disaster for the media. We have reporters embedded with troops. What about Iraqi communities? If we saw the images of war, we need reality TV when it comes to war. If we saw for just one week babies dead on the ground, women with their legs cut off from cluster bombs, soldiers coming home by the thousands in flag-draped coffins that Pres. Bush ordered not be filmed by executive order. Amy asked Aaaron Brown, "Where are the pictures." He said it's a matter of taste. Amy says, war is tasteless.
This is a movement for them.
The great untold story is the level of resistance from the top brass down to individual soldiers.
Going back to WWII, we can look at the precedence. Look at two reporters who were there when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One reporter defied MacArthur's order and travelled to Hiroshima and saw the destruction -- said there was bomb sickness and plague. He typed: I write this as a warning to the world. The Army and Gov't called reporters to counter radiation sickness and "Japanese propaganda." A NY Times reporter was working for the gov't and yet won a pulitzer for his reporting. She has called for the Times to be stripped of that pulitzer.
We are supposed to be the check and balance on government. As we sit here the democratically elected president of Haiti lies sick near death in jail. We should be hearing this story daily, how the country suffered a coup in it's bicentennial year, the oldest black republic.
It was independent media that brought out the story of Aristide's ouster last year. Pacifica, lpfm, public access TV -- we need to celebrate it all, powerful force.
Just down the road in Champaign-urbana one of the most powerful indy media centers, they just bought the Post Office.
Recently DN had the opportunity to cover the return of Aristide to this hemisphere. Corp. networks, are they there to cover this historic mission? DN went to chronicle.
AP took our reports. CNN called us on the tarmac, the lifestyle host thought this was a travel report. She told them of the coup, the CNN host said "you're kidding?" Amy calls this trickle-up journalism.
There is no question that what we can do together is a force more powerful than anything the network have presented at this point. If it involves taking on the networks and challenging their taking our properties of the public airwaves.
At 4:30 they will be outside the hotel to leaflet commuters to let them know that KDHX and other community stations. This hasn't reached the mainstream radar screen, but that may be a good thing.
We have a decision to make, What do we want the media to represent?
Democracy Now.
Again, more rousing applause, standing ovation.
Bob thanks everyone.
Posted by paul at May 13, 2005 12:19 PM