As President-elect Barack Obama focuses on the meltdown of the U.S. economy, another fire is burning: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You may not have heard much lately about the disaster in the Gaza Strip. That silence is intentional: The Israeli government has barred international journalists from entering the occupied territory.
Filed under Weekly Column
Evo Morales knows about “change you can believe in.” He also knows what happens when a powerful elite is forced to make changes it doesn’t want.
Filed under Weekly Column
Alice Walker is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But Monday, I called her to talk about a true story. The Obamas had just visited the White House. The first African-American elected president of the United States had visited his soon-to-be residence, a house built by slaves.
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Filed under D.N. in the News
Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat writes, “To all those for whom America has represented generations of racial injustice, the election of America’s first Black president marks the beginning of a new era…But unless the inspired millions who brought him to power continue to believe their demands matter and insist on holding him accountable each step of the way, it will be Obama’s corporate and hawkish friends who determine the domestic and foreign policies of the coming administration and our collective future.”
Filed under D.N. in the News
You could almost hear the world’s collective sigh of relief. This year’s U.S. presidential election was a global event in every sense. Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, represents to so many a living bridge—between continents and cultures.
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The legendary radio broadcaster, writer and oral historian Studs Terkel has died at the age of 96 in Chicago. Over the years Terkel has been a regular guest on Democracy Now!
In 2005, Studs Terkel appeared on Democracy Now! shortly after undergoing open heart surgery. He told Amy Goodman, “My curiosity is what saw me through. What would the world be like, or will there be a world? And so, that’s my epitaph. I have it all set. Curiosity did not kill this cat. And it’s curiosity, I think, that has saved me thus far.”
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Election Day approaches, and with it a test of our election system’s integrity. Who will be allowed to vote; who will be barred? Who will get paper ballots; who will use electronic voting machines? Will polls be open long enough to accommodate what is expected to be a historic turnout?
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News Corp.‘s Rupert Murdoch awaits FCC approval for his purchase of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. The sale would bring one of the nation’s oldest and most respected newspapers under a vast media empire that includes the Fox Television network, 21st Century Fox film studio, and more than 175 other newspapers. We’re joined by Dow Jones union leader and radio host Steven Yount, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg, and Craig Aaron of the media reform organization Free Press. [includes rush transcript]
The Federal Communications Commission has approved a set of rules to auction off a sizable chunk of the public airwaves. These rules will likely affect the lives of everyone in this country that uses the Internet and mobile phones. Craig Aaron of Free Press and Wally Bowen of the non-profit internet service provider Mountain Area Information Network explain. [includes rush transcript]
The Mayor’s office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting is considering new permit and insurance regulations for photographers and filmmakers that would radically undermine the First Amendment right to photograph and film in public places. If passed they would have harsh consequences for independent and low-budget photographers, filmmakers, journalists, artists, students, tourists, amateurs, and really, anyone with a still or video camera and a sense of curiosity about New York city. We’re joined by three guests: Beka Economopoulos from the coalition Picture New York, Christopher Dunn from the New York Civil Liberties Union, and independent filmmaker Jem Cohen. [includes rush transcript]