<nettime> Followup report on WBAI and Democracy Now

[ronda@ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

Just a quick footnote to a post I sent to nettime last week 
about Democracy Now not being on the air.

I called WBAI on the day when "Democracy Now" did not broadcast.

The next day Amy Goodman was back on the air and she said
that many many listeners had phoned into the station and 
that that was helpful in the program being back on the air
the following day.

The few examples of media that take on their responsibility
to shine a light on public and commercial abuse in the US are 
especially important. Today on her program Amy featured a study 
about the commercial pressure on the media in the US and the 
ways that the media caves into it. 

I think they said the study would be available at the 
web site of F.A.I.R. (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting).

There is a censorship of the media in the US, a censorship
that requires the reporting of stories favorable to 
commerical entities and certainly not critical of commercial
entities. In one case I know of a tv station (news exposure
program) finally did a program about a dangerous health
hazard at a local employer and they were threatened with
a lawsuit before they ran it, and subsequently made it
milder than originally planned. I know of several other
instances where stories were *not* done by reporters
because they would reflect poorly on powerful corporations.

It is good that Democracy Now is back on the air.

Ronda
ronda@ais.org
http://wwww.ais.org/~ronda
http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/


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