[lbo-talk] Air America Radio: Democratic Party Business as Usual

Chuck0 chuck at mutualaid.org
Sun Apr 4 13:27:35 PDT 2004


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


> Direct producers and listeners should run the radio stations. As for
> professionalism, there are lots of individuals professionally trained in
> broadcast journalism who do not have full-time jobs doing it. Just
> looking at Columbus, OH, I can think of three right away: Bob Fitrakis,
> Evan Davis <evan at iwaynet.net>, and Chris Shumway
> <cshum1 at mindspring.com>, the last of whom is a former radio and TV
> broadcaster (for CBS and NBC affiliates, not for the independent media)
> who now teaches video production at Capital University: Chris's resume
> is available at <http://chris.shumway.tripod.com/id29.htm>.

Chris is an interesting guy who has true radical politics and broadcasting talent. I've talked to him and he's told me some hair-raising stories about working as an anchor for local TV. He's also been active with the Cleveland IMC.

This gets back to my criticism of Doug putting lefty celebrities on his show, like radical stations do during pledge drives. Sure, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn are interesting speakers, but when do we get to hear the next generation's Noam Chomsky? There are lots of talented radicals out there who could be tapped to do a truly radical, progressive radio network.

Air America is Democratic Party fluff, but at least it is a bit more lively than the stuff you hear on Pacifica. Democracy Now has solid radical politics, but does Amy Goodman have to b so dour and serious all the time? You know, we progressives do have a sense of humor despite the seriousness of our politics.


> BTW, make donations to _The New Standard_:
> <http://thenewstandard.net/>.

If folks have money, there are plenty of *radical* news organizations that need money. Infoshop News is trying to raise money to expand our operations and pay for more original journalism. See:

http://www.infoshop.org/2004fund_drive.html

Chuck0



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