[Peace-discuss] NPR and WILL

[jencart]

Thanks so much for saying this so cogently, Al.  This is exactly how I feel.  I'd long since given up on local and national PBR and PBS, but I was still expecting more from BBC World/Ch 12 @ 5p... But when Aristide was ousted, they accidentlally got an expert who criticised US policies that impoverished Haiti and accused the US of backing the ouster.  Boy, did this take the announcer aback, and boy did they cut him off!  I get out my checkbook and then put it away again. If they accepted DN! on PBR and PBS, I'd dare to hope again, assuming they didn't have to balance it out w/ Rush....

Jenifer
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This morning I listened to the morning news on WILL AM from 6 to 7 am.   There was no mention whatsoever of John Conyors hearing on the Downing  Street Memo yesterday.  This is obviously explosive news, 30 members of  Congress attended, and 122 or so members of Congress have signed a  letter asking for an investigation. So how is it that there is no  mention on "our" public radio station?  Obviously, the people at NPR  have been intimidated, but I think it goes beyond that.  Their news has  been going downhill for years.

So I have a dilemma, and I would like to initiate some discussion.  Of  course, I support the concept of public media, but I can't support what  is going on at NPR in Washington.  I strongly support what Kim and  others have accomplished at WILL with local programming.  How can we  support public media and local programming but not the kind of  programming we currently get from NPR and PBS?

Americans contribute millions to local NPR and PBS stations but we  don't get as much independent media as we should. I think we do a lot  better locally than  many other communities in the country, but that is  only a side point here.  I have to ask the question, what would happen  if all those millions were instead contributed to independent radio and  TV?  What would happen if Amy Goodman, Bob McChesney, etc. got to spend  that money instead of the neo-conservatives in Washington who currently  run our public media?

We are at a point where our public media is under attack, and we have a  campaign to save it and mitigate the budget axe.  But we have to ask  the question about what we are saving and what it look like after we  succeed (if we do).  It seems to me that there should be some way to  influence the content if we are going to put our efforts here.

I don't know the answers, only the questions.


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu

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