Radio

Convention Songs

August 30, 2004

(archived broadcast )
In a hilarious prelude to the Republican informercial this week, Mark will interview “Trixie” and “Winnie”, from the a capella drag-queen singing-group, The Kinsey Sicks on why they want to be Republicans.
Featuring their music: “I Wanna Be a Republican” and “Dubya’s Good to You”

Introduction to the Republican Convention

August 29, 2004

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(archived broadcast )
The Republican National Convention begins this week in New York City, the site chosen to take advantage of American sympathy for the victims of September 11, 2001, despite the fact that the great majority of New Yorkers are profoundly disgusted by the Administration of the current occupant of the White House.
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The Myth of a Free Press

August 26, 2004

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(archived broadcast )
Guest: Kristina Borjesson, Editor of Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press
We do not have a free press in America. At least, not in the sense that journalists are free to write about whatever they discover to be true without pressure from their editors, corporations, and governments to toe the Administration line.
Borjesson and prominent journalists make clear in this fascinating book the
severe constraints journalists work under:
— self-censorship
— corporate interests of their news organization
— cheerleading (providing the public what the public is perceived to want, rather than the truth)
— threat of government action, most notably the Federal Communication Commission headed by Colin Powell’s son, Michael Powell
— media consolidation by Rupert Murdoch’s FOX empire, Clear Channel radio stations, and other right-wing organizations aided by the FCC.
— government propaganda/disinformation (false information disseminated openly or secretly leaked by the Administration)
— requiring journalists to participate in “media pools” so they cannot obtain information by asking questions outside of US government minders
— giving “good sources” to journalists, who in return, repeat the lies of those sources without indpendent verification or scrutiny
Join us for a fascinating look into the myth of a free press in America, on one of the few independent sources of information that remains outside these contraints, Mark Levine’s INSIDE SCOOP.