BRING DEMOCRACY NOW! TO VPR
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You could tune in your radio from around Vermont and hear thoughtful international voices that dissect, entertain, criticize, analyze and explain the current global upheavel. Voices like bestselling historian Howard Zinn, award-winning author Arundhati Roy, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, Pediatrician and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott, Prof. of Religion/African American Studies Cornel West, Linguistics Prof. Noam Chomsky, British Parlimentarian Tony Benn, internationally recognized journalist Robert Fisk, Theoretical Physicist & international best-selling author Michio Kaku, Edward Said, and musician Ani DiFranco. In addition the voices of people working & reporting from around the world such as International Solidarity Movement workers, doctors in Bagdad and ordinary people reporting events they witness.
You would hear uncensored independent reporting from the streets of Bagdhad, from the refugee camps of Gaza, from the front lines of protests in New York City and Washington and from incisive critics both inside and outside government.
More than ever, Vermonters need to hear the broadest possible array of voices on their public airwaves.
More than ever, Vermonters need to hear DEMOCRACY NOW!
If you are a donor to VPR, urge them to carry DEMOCRACY NOW! Many people are also informing VPR that their pledge is now contingent on their carrying DEMOCRACY NOW! We suggest that you pledge by phone at 1-800-639-6391, since there is no way to add comments to an online pledge.
DEMOCRACY NOW! is a national, listener-sponsored public radio and TV show, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the country. The program was launched six years ago as the only daily election show in public broadcasting. Because of its success, Democracy Now! broadened its focus and became a national news show committed to bringing the voices of the marginalized to the airwaves on issues ranging from the global to the local.
Hosted by award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, the DN! staff has won wide professional recognition for their courageous coverage and investigations, including the George Polk Award for Journalism, the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Armstrong Award, and the Radio/Television News Directors Award, as well as awards from AP, UPI, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
RealAudio (quality on streaming audio is less than broadcast quality)Democracy Now! has been winning awards for breaking the silence and featuring voices from all sides of the story. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman has interviewed President Bill Clinton and countless other government officials. But she also routinely features the most eloquent critics of government policy, victims of the crackdown on civil liberties and casualties of the war.
Many of these are voices that we never hear on National Public Radio, or any other corporate media outlet.
There is a claim that the news from NPR is "balanced". We urge you to listen to Democracy Now! as often as you can and decide for yourself which coverage is more balanced. You also might wish to read this article.
One only has to look at the complaints that came out of their (especially early) coverage of the peace demonstrations. Even NPR had to comment on their own poor coverage.
In recent reporting on the invasion of Iraq, another article noted the Pentagon bias of NPR's reporting:
FAIR also has a list of articles on bias by NPR
The watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting recently analyzed coverage of the Iraq crisis. Of 393 guests who appeared on major network news shows in January and February, 76 percent were either current or retired officials. FAIR concludes: "Such a predominance of official sources virtually assures that independent and grassroots perspectives will be underrepresented. Of all official sources, 75 percent (222 of 297) were associated with either the U.S. or with governments that support the Bush administration's position on Iraq; only 2 percent of these sources were skeptics or opponents of war".
Washington’s Oil War By James A. Paul of Global Policy Forum killed by NPR
While the addition of BBC is some improvement you might want to read this article by Robert Fisk.
And it's worth remembering that it was the BBC that "reported" the rebellion in Basra, repeated over and over by NPR, that turned out to be nonexistent. Without reporters on the scene reporting that there was no uprising and no firing upon them by Saddam Hussein supporters, we still might be hearing about the BBC's rebellion.
Listen for yourself, and you'll understand the difference. Hear what hard-hitting independent news sounds like. Hear information that is not influenced by corporate underwriters, advertisers, or government spin-doctors.
We're confident that when you listen to Democracy Now! you'll hear discussion of the news like you've never heard anywhere else and you will want it on VPR.| Get Free Adobe Acrobate Reader |  |
If you would like to aid us in our desire to hear Democracy Now! on VPR, to find out more information, or your organization or business would like to sign the Appeal Letter, please contact us