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| HOME > Articles > Howard Zinn on AR |
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Can a society be called democratic if the flow of information to the public is controlled by a small number of wealthy and powerful interests? Yet, that is the situation in the United States today, and indeed, it has been true for a long time. Our closest observer of the growing monopolization of information is Ben Bagdikian, who in his book, The Media Monopoly, estimates that perhaps five giant conglomerates dominate the mass media of this country, including newspapers, film, radio and television.
What then happens to the free marketplace of ideas, which we are supposed to have in a democracy? Are these billion-dollar corporations going to allow a diversity of opinions? Are they going to present information which, in the hands of the public, might lead to rebellion against the interest of those corporations?
The answer to those questions is clear, in the history of the press, of radio and television broadcasting. Anti-establishment ideas are ruled out, information embarrassing to the political and financial leaders of the country is not going to be disseminated.
This is not a new phenomenon. Control of the media goes far back. Almost a hundred years ago the radical writer Upton Sinclair wrote a book called The Brass Check, in which he detailed the subservience of the press to big business. (In houses of prostitution, a brass check was the receipt for payment). In the 1920s and 1930s, another intrepid journalist, George Seldes, wrote You Can't Print That, and one of his examples of the press censoring itself was the failure of newspapers to report information about the deadly effects of tobacco. In the 1950s and 1960s I. F. Stone left his job as a mainstream journalist in disgust at the way big money determined what was printed, and started his own newsletter, which became famous as the place where you could get information not available in the major newspapers.
Today David Barsamian carries on in that noble tradition, bringing a rare and free spirit of independence and courage into radio broadcasting. He is the founding father of Alternative Radio, which, starting in 1986 in Boulder, Colorado, with no financial resources except David's persistence and grit, has built up a loyal listening audience in over a hundred radio stations in the United States and in many countries abroad.
David interviews and records thinkers and activists like Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, Edward Said, Angela Davis, Ralph Nader - people not normally heard on major stations - and thus brings their insights on war and peace, on economic justice, on sexual and racial equality, into the marketplace of ideas. David's own remarkable knowledge of history, his acute grasp of social issues, make him an extraordinary interviewer. I know of nobody except Studs Terkel who can match him as an intelligent and informed interrogator. David Barsamian and Alternative Radio have given a bold new meaning to "public radio." What is known today as National Public Radio and Public Television, remains timid, careful about staying within ideological boundaries, worried about whether funding will be cut off by conservative forces in the government, and whether corporate support will fade. David has no such worries - for his support depends on the public itself, which sees in his work a refreshing antidote to the nonsense we get in the mainstream media.
The work of David Barsamian, along with that of courageous men and women working in community radio stations, in alternative newspapers all over the country, keeps democracy alive. In a society controlled by corporate wealth, their efforts give hope to citizens who want to live in a world free of war and injustice.
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