Citizen Activists Demand Democracy Now!

By Jerold M. Starr, Executive Director

Activists in Maine, (Northampton) Massachusetts, (Las Cruces) New Mexico, (Binghamton and Buffalo) New York and (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania are demanding that Democracy Now! (DN!) be broadcast now on their community radio stations. Hosted by Amy Goodman, DN! is the only program in America where listeners daily can hear the voices of radical intellectuals, labor leaders and public interests advocates.

Guests have included the likes of Michael Moore, Helen Calidcott, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Cornell West, Ani Difranco and Howard Zinn. Goodman also invites spokespersons from the establishment like CNN's Aaron Brown and, in an election eve surprise, outgoing President Bill Clinton. And she breaks stories largely ignored by the U.S. corporate media, like civilian war casualties, protests, media bias, and corporate crimes.

DN! is produced Monday-Friday live 9-10am at Pacifica station WBAI in New York and airs on more than 120 radio stations. A TV edition of the show is distributed by satellite, reaching a potential 15 million viewers. Sadly, this outreach does not reflect a program that has won several awards, including the George Polk Award for Journalism, the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, as well as awards from AP, UPI and CPB. The web site features ringing endorsements from journalists attached to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.

Despite a recent full-page ad in Current, the public broadcasting trade paper, however, DN! depends largely on citizen initiative for local station carriage. Organizing and Outreach Coordinator Dennis Moynihan describes the DN! "organizing drive" as "somewhat nascent" and responsive largely to groups that already evidence a "little more organization and sophistication."

Frances Crowe of Northampton Massachusetts has been trying to get DN! on the air for four years. Her persistence is especially remarkable given that Crowe is 84 years of age. A former local staff of the American Friends Service Committee, Crowe coordinates a core group of six or seven peace activists who, in turn, draw on the contributions of a circle of 25 who, together, have generated as many as 600 petitions in support of airing DN!

They first approached the "Five College" station WFCR. Despite 600 signed petitions endorsing the request, Station Manager Martin Miller said that DN! didn't "fit into their mainstream [NPR] kind of programming." He directed Crowe's group to AM affiliate WPNI. According to Crowe, officials there agreed to run DN! for two years if the group was willing to raise $6,500 in underwriting for the first year's broadcast. Crowe's group raised the money from the Solidago Foundation "within 24 hours," only to have Miller cancel the agreement.

WPNI referred her further down the line to University of Massachusetts student station WMUA. Crowe's group presented their proposal in November where it carried by a vote of 85-3. Her group then was told that this was only a "straw vote" and they would have to resubmit their proposal in February. Turnout for that meeting was depressed by a major event featuring radical artists Danny Glover and Sonja Sanchez. Crowe and her colleagues were denied their right to make a presentation and the proposal was voted down narrowly, 28-25.

With help from the Solidago Fund, Crowe's group has hired a part-time coordinator to organize a six-month campaign. One aspect of the campaign involves collecting "pledges in exile" which will be donated to WFCR when they agree to air Democracy Now! The goal is to raise $50,000 by the station's Fall Fund Drive, of which they've already raised $5,000. The campaign scored a victory when two community cable stations began broadcasting the TV edition of DN! twice a day. They are currently working to have it broadcast on four other local community stations.

Campaigns in Maine and New York also have achieved partial gains from their efforts. In January 2003, Maine Public Radio (MEPR) Program Director Charles Beck, advised DN! advocates that carriage was "doable in theory," but would require "a lot" of evidence of support to counter the potential "resistance from current program fans." To make the proposal attractive, DN! offered MEPR their first six months of programs absolutely free, permitting the service to assess response before committing money.

Utilizing an informative web site, organizers collected endorsements from more than 75 union locals, churches, public interest organizations, and small businesses. They followed up with a call for "an e-mail/fax/phone blitz to MEPR" to make their case. On March 31st, MEPR formally rejected the request. Undeterred, several activists gathered at the MEPR community advisory board on April 5th to announce plans for a financial boycott unless they get satisfaction. Meanwhile, DN!'s Moynihan reports that this campaign did get some results when the WMPG Portland decided to carry the show for a week and consider permanent carriage in the near future.

The Binghamton campaign was initiated when Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting-Binghamton leader Bill Huston joined a number of local peace activists at the WSKG/WSQX community advisory board meeting. They complained about the dearth of local and alternative news and public affairs on WSKG and requested DN! for "balance."

Program Director Gregory Keeler and station President Gary Reinbolt criticized DN! for lacking "balance and objectivity" and said the advisory board was not there to "dictate programming." When they complained that they could not risk the 80 percent of WSKG's pledge money that comes in through their daily NPR programming, Huston offered to "make up the difference" between DN! pledges and those typical for the time slot should it fall short. Huston reports they dismissed the group, saying: "Look, we can't allow you to pay for access, because this would open the door for any kind of right-wingers to come in here and play the same game. We must insist that it is the job of the Director of Programming to decide what is best for the communities that we serve."

Using his web site, Huston and his colleagues called on sympathizers to petition, write and call WSKG to request the show. WSKG quickly agreed to air the full two-hour edition of DN! on sister station WSQX. WSKG's Keeler, exclaimed: "We've never received so many requests for any other single program in the station's history. After careful internal debate, we decided that Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! provides a progressive voice many people in our area are hungry for." Huston concedes the campaign's "success is mixed. While WSKG has a signal reach of nine counties in New York and Pennsylvania, WSQX only reaches Binghamton and Corning. TV critic Peter Hudiberg is now spearheading a revitalized campaign to get DN! on WSKG.

In Pittsburgh, videographer Rich Fishkin targeted community station WYEP because it was founded by activists, like Free Speech TV's John Schwartz, but had since abandoned almost all alternative public affairs programming. His 14 member advisory committee includes AFTRA Executive Director John Haer, South African poet/professor Dennis Brutus, and Pittsburgh "labor priest" Jack O'Malley (disclosure: the author also is a member).

Fishkin sent a letter to WYEP's general manager and program director calling for a meeting to discuss his request for broadcast of DN! He proposed that running the show offers "a great opportunity for WYEP to provide vital public service and expand its audience/subscriber base." On April 7th. WYEP General manager Lee Ferraro defended his station's present "mix of programming" and declined to "take off those programs that are embraced by our audience." No documentation was offered in this dismissal.

The campaign is negotiating Amy Goodman's participation in a major fall Pittsburgh labor conference on free speech, hoping to use her visit to further promote DN! on WYEP. Meanwhile, the campaign has arranged for DN! to be aired at 10:00am weekdays on WRCT 88.3, the Carnegie Mellon University student station.

What drives these activists to volunteer their efforts in the service of a radio program? They all are progressives who are concerned with the threat to democracy posed by the increasing monopolization of media under fewer giant corporations. According to Frances Crowe, "the corporatization of the U.S. and the world must be overcome by public education." She and the others find Democracy Now! a concrete place to start.

What seems to threaten these station officials so much that they refuse to even consider requests that include free programming, offers to match pledge totals, and threatened boycotts? Certainly there is the stated concern that community activists not impinge on station officials' control over the schedule. Beyond that DN!'s unabashed radicalism offers sharp counterpoint to the typical NPR "brand" of news and public affairs. The current fashion in NPR radio consulting is for a uniform, predictable "sound" tailored to the educated, middle class subscriber.

Crowe thinks official resistance might have an even more specific basis. She says: "WFCR is afraid of Amy Goodman's philosophy and her reporting on Israel and Palestine. Martin Miller told me that every time there are reports on the radio that are critical of Israel, they [the station] gets calls." Tragically, too many station officials are not willing to defend alternative programming.

The contradiction is that these seemingly insoluble world problems trigger events that frighten the public and promote greater escapism. Public ignorance is high and participation in the political process is low. In the absence of public demand, politicians have no incentive to propose fresh approaches to these root problems, preferring to quibble about minor differences in domestic policy. The way out of this morass can only be achieved through greater public education and citizen activism. Greater media democracy is essential in this process and public broadcasting is the natural place to start. For many, that means Democracy Now!