[Peace-discuss] Into the 'Belly of the Beast' -AM Talk Radio

[Charles Jenks]

Sunny Miller went into the 'belly of the beast' this morning with an
interview on AM drive time radio - WHMP, 1240.  Amid tough questions and
accusations that she was giving Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt, she
drove home points that

*there is no reason for war with Iraq - there is no evidence that it poses a
threat to the United States; we have been bombing Iraq weekly and are ready
to go to war, in fact, because it is weak militarily;

*elections and policy making in this country are not clean - citing the
impact of big money, such as big oil;

*when challenged on Iraq not having a democracy, she reminded the
interviewer that this President was not popularly elected and that there
were questions about the legitimacy of  his election;

*we have contaminated Iraq with radioactive, nuclear waste - depleted
uranium, which causes cancer and other lethal disease; we have also blown up
chemical weapons on site;

*over 159,000 American soldiers have gone on disability and many (over 8000)
have died after the Gulf War due to war connected illnesses and injuries.
Where is the media attention on this story, she asked?

*the VA has refused to fully investigate the causes of Gulf War Syndrome by
failing to broadly administer tests to detect depleted uranium exposure.

After the show, the co-host said to the host "I've never seen you so upset
during an interview" as they tried get the last word by making 'points' they
had not thought to make during the interview.

We welcome interviews with all media, and Sunny's interview  on one of our
local NPR station's - WFCR 99.5 FM - was played several times over the past
few days.  She was featured in a headline front page story in Monday's
Greenfield Recorder (raising the same issues as above with her interviewer)
and interviewed with other media yesterday for an upcoming story.

Yet, it is AM talk radio were we see a gap in the range of ideas.

We  need to go there, into the land of Rush Limbaugh and "Savage Nation".
In August, we accompanied Scott Ritter to a drive-time AM interview, on a
'Rush Limbaugh station' in Indianapolis. Thousands of people heard
information that they had not head, or listened to, before.  The host was
polite, but obviously not happy with the content. (See
http://traprockpeace.org/rittercampaign.html for more about the "Heartland
Tour" campaign against the war.)

Good hearted & misinformed people listen to these shows. Would they be
"Ditto-Heads" - as Limbaugh calls his fans, if they started to hear
different points of view.  Let's not cede the airwaves to hate and war
mongering.  

Peace, 

Charlie Jenks

President
Traprock Peace Center - http://traprockpeace.org
charles at mtdata.com