I'm feeling charitable.
Me too.
Let's give away some money.
Well, here's a good organization.
What?
Friends of the Alternative Radio Station.
Good. Let's give money to them.
Oh, wait.
Huh?
Here's another good organization.
Oh, let's see that list.
Enemies of the Friends of the Alternative Radio Station.
And why not the Friends of the Enemies of the Friends of the Alternative Radio Station?
How about the Fairweather Friends of the Enemies of the Friends of the Enemies?
Or the Tools of the Fairweather Friends.
Or the Dupes of the Tools.
Or the Puppets of the Dupes.
I have a question.
What's your question?
What is this Alternative Radio Station, anyway?
WBAI.
Well, there wouldn't be any of these groups without WBAI.
Then let's give money to WBAI.
That's what I was thinking.
Pass the checkbook.
WBAI. It's worth all the trouble.
Causes all the trouble.
It doesn't cause all the trouble.
Uh-huh.
It reflects trouble.
Uh-huh.
You see, free speech and alternative views often stir up trouble.
Just sign your name.
Okay.
And you're listening to Trouble Free Radio here at 99.5 FM WBAI New York.
It's just about 8 o'clock.
Which means, once again, it's time for another action-packed edition of Off the Hook.
So I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving.
Now I can't make a cough.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if they could, they would.
Von Dilly Bonk would the best expect the worst.
I hope that's understood.
Von Dilly Bonk!
Von Dilly Bonk!
I watch the children in the shine of the light, night-style doing anything my radio advised.
With every one of those late-night stations playing songs bringing tears to my eyes,
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver when the switch broke cause it's old.
They're saying things that I can hardly believe.
They really think we're getting out of control.
Radio is the sound salvation.
Radio is cleaning up the nation.
They say you better listen to the vice of reason.
But they don't give you any choice cause they think that it's treason.
So you had better do as you were told.
You better listen to the radio.
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.
I wanna make them wish they'd never seen me.
Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead.
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed.
You either shut up or get cut out.
They don't wanna hear about it.
It's only inches on the reel to reel.
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools trying to anesthetize the way that you...
Radio is the sound salvation.
Radio is cleaning up the nation.
They say you better listen to the vice of reason.
But they don't give you any choice cause they think that it's treason.
So you had better do as you were told.
You better listen to the radio.
Wonderful radio.
Marvelous radio.
Wonderful radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
Radio, radio.
And in the end, it always comes down to speech.
That's really the biggest thing, the biggest enemy of those in charge is always speech.
And you know, I've been doing a lot of looking over the things we've done over the years
here at Off The Hook, the things we've done over the years at 2600, things I've done over
the years in my life, the things that humanity has done over the many years that we've been
a blight on this earth.
And it really is kind of amazing how the themes tend to repeat themselves.
The stages are always changing, but the themes are always the same.
And that basically is the struggle of the individual against the state, against the
way things are, people who change things, people who actually have the guts to step
forward and do something new and different and controversial.
Well on that note, I want to express some special thanks to our listeners who have reminded
me of how important that is over the last few weeks.
Over the last few years, I just maybe haven't been looking as closely as I should have,
but I think BAI listeners really, they remind us why it matters so much.
Why speech matters, why individuality matters, why creativity matters.
And I just want to thank people out there for all the support, for everybody who has
listened to this radio program, who listens to this radio station, and well, who keeps
their individuality sacred.
It's a really important thing.
I've learned a lot about, I guess about courage over the years, looking at the various things
we've been through.
Of course, we have the things that we always talk about here on this radio program, such
as the people who get sent away for playing with computers, the people who get sent away
for being kind of in the way, being too much of an individual, being too much of a pain
in the ass.
Happens time and time and time again.
It's been happening ever since we started and it'll probably continue forever.
That's just the way things are.
But you know, it takes a certain kind of person to just stand up to the system and speak out,
regardless of what the consequences might be.
And we've seen that many times here and on the world stage.
Look at what happened to Bernie S. when he stood up and embarrassed the Secret Service.
He was sent to prison for two years for nothing, for absolutely nothing.
Kevin Mitnick simply for being a name.
Didn't have to do anything, just a name.
Five years for that.
Oh yeah, and copying some files and saying he was somebody he wasn't on the telephone.
That's a real crime.
And of course, FiberOptic, years before that, again, for being a public figure.
In fact, I remember the judge sentencing him as a public figure, saying, well, you're a
public figure, so now I'm going to sentence you as a public figure to send a message.
To send a message to all the other individuals out there who might not get the message otherwise.
Conform or suffer.
That's what it's all about.
That's what it's always been all about.
From Tiananmen Square to the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, wherever you might be expressing
your discontent, wherever you might be expressing your individuality.
That's the message that they want you to hear.
Conform or perish.
You know, I've been really kind of sentimental over the past week or so, just thinking about
all the things that have happened.
I went through all the old shows, and I didn't actually listen to all the old shows that
we've done, but they're all stored up on the website, on 2600.com, and I was just looking
at the descriptions, and boy, so much has happened.
So much has been going on over the years, we've been through such hell, and it never
seems to end, we never seem to actually reach a conclusion, we never seem to get to the
point where we can say, yeah, you know, we were right.
We suffered for it, but we proved that we were right, and now, you know, victory is
ours.
We never get to that point.
It's always one fight after the next, and we never know where the next fight is going
to be coming from.
I remember the very, very first time that we put out an issue of 2600.
This was before the radio show began, this was back in 1984.
Yeah, interesting, isn't it, how things work out?
And I remember, there's a certain feeling you get when you challenge authority.
There's two kinds of feelings that you can get, all right?
One feeling is when you know you're wrong, when you're doing something bad, doing something
illegal, and you're, you know, I stole a piece of gum once from a 7-Eleven, and I felt bad,
I got caught too, but nothing really bad happened, but, you know, I felt guilty.
That was, I guess, a challenge to authority, but it's not the same kind of feeling you
get when you challenge authority, and you're right, you know you're right, you believe
in what you're doing.
And when we put out the first issue of 2600 back in January 1984, that's the feeling that
I got, the feeling that, you know, we're challenging authority, we don't know what's going to happen
to us, we don't know what the reaction to this will be, it could be, you know, a boot
through our door tomorrow, and, you know, prison for life, who knows?
Who knows what will happen to somebody who dares to put out this kind of material?
You know, we were inexperienced, well, I shouldn't say entirely inexperienced.
Back in high school, I had worked on an underground newspaper, which I understand a lot of the
kids today are doing, which is great, it's really an incredible way of expressing yourself.
In my particular case, we had this newspaper that was the school newspaper, it was called
Kaleidoscope, and it was pretty much as bad as the name sounded.
We tried, friends of mine and me, tried to express ourselves through that forum, failed
miserably, because the whole thing was run by the school, and they wouldn't print anything
even remotely controversial, so we just got together and we came up with our own little
newspaper or magazine, whatever you want to call it, we called it Revelations, and we
put it out, we just put it out, you know, we printed it and distributed it to people.
I'll never forget the feeling I saw when I saw people actually reading what I had written,
but it was also that same feeling of, uh-oh, what have we done, what's going to happen
to us, we're going to be crucified for this, and that makes me realize why so few people
are willing to do something like that, because the feeling you get is really, it's a very
stressful type of a thing, when you challenge authority, and you know that they know it,
and you just don't know what they're going to do about it.
You know, it's kind of a real feeling of anticipation.
You know you're right, but that doesn't always compensate for what you've done, and you have
to ask yourself, well, is it worth it, and of course, everybody around you, from parents
to friends to total strangers, is advising you, don't do this, what are you, crazy?
Don't put yourself on the line like this, don't, you know, you've got a life to lead,
don't let somebody else do this, always let somebody else do it.
Never do it yourself, or never, you know, yeah, I do the same thing, no, always do the
sensible thing.
I have to say, with just about every major decision I've made in my life, I've always
gone against the advice of the people that tell me to be sensible, and that wasn't an
exception, we put out the newsletter several times that year, and yeah, we got scrutinized,
we got chastised, we got criticized, but in the end, we were recognized, hey, that's
pretty good, isn't it, yeah, and nothing can compare to that feeling, nothing can compare
to the feeling that you've done something significant, that it matters, that you've
expressed yourself, and you didn't back down, and that's something I've carried with me,
the first issue of 2600, same way, except, you know, instead of the school authorities,
we were dealing with the federal authorities, and it was a bit more of a formidable obstacle
to think about.
Other instances over the years involve other kinds of things, such as a year or so ago
with the whole Amadou Diallo case, where a bunch of us decided that it was time to speak
out against the NYPD for not indicting the four police officers in that killing.
Of course, later they would be let off scot-free, but they hadn't even been indicted by that
point, so there was all kinds of civil disobedience going on throughout the city, well, actually
at that one police plaza, and the feeling that you would get knowing that by engaging
in this kind of civil disobedience, you were going to be arrested, you were going to be
taken away, in this particular case, taken away by the people you were criticizing, the
police, oh, that's pretty scary, I'd been through this before at a nuclear power plant,
but it was with 600 other people, I always seem to get arrested with lots of people,
and that's something that I guess is a lot more comforting, but there are people that
do this with groups of two or three, or sometimes just by themselves, and those are the real
heroes, those are the people that I really have a lot of respect for, the people that
stand up for what they believe in, knowing the risks, sometimes going into it by themselves,
and really facing it with a lot of guts, I think that's something that we have to recognize.
We see it all the time, whether it's kids in high school today that stand up to teachers
for being oppressive, there are so many oppressive things going on in schools today, especially
involving technology, there's barcodes on people, they hand out these ID cards and force
you to wear them around your neck with barcodes and your social security number on them, people
are getting punished for having websites, a couple of weeks ago we talked about this
guy up in Salem, New Hampshire, who was arrested by the police for having a website that criticized
them, that mocked them, same thing going on in schools, if you put up a website mocking
teachers, mocking your school, you could get suspended for that, even if it's on your
own home computer, I mean, this kind of thing, really, it takes a lot of guts to stand up
to, and it's very, very easy to simply back down and say, yeah, okay, I'll conform, because
I don't want to perish, I'm just going to conform.
And never has it been more important than now to stand up to that kind of a thing and
to say, I'm an individual, I'm going to express myself, that's simply the way it has to be.
I remember, we also did something in St. Louis, this is all documented on our radio shows
too, which is pretty amazing, the St. Louis mall incident, yeah, this is one of the craziest
things I think I ever came across, where it was against mall policy to wear baseball caps
backwards, that's right, they actually said that they would kick you out of the mall if
you wore your hat in a manner in which it was not intended, and I just remember a bunch
of us in there, in St. Louis, you know, St. Louis, I mean, I'm not even familiar with
that place, we just went and bought a bunch of hats and gave it to like a dozen people
and started walking around the mall with our hats on backwards, and boy, did security go
nuts over that, the most ridiculous things, wearing your hat backwards, I mean, you'd
think you were like, you know, burning a flag or something, which is another form of expression
which a lot of people have problems with, but come on, wearing a hat backwards, my God,
you got people over in Belgrade and Czechoslovakia, people who are really putting their lives
on the line, standing up for free speech, you know, getting shot, getting jailed, and
in our country, we're afraid to wear our hats backwards because of somebody in a, some mall
security guard kicking you out? Come on. So we're in sore need of being able to coherently
express ourselves. Occasionally we have people, we have the Bill Cheeks of the world, we have
the Steve Jacksons of the world, we have the Daniel Morgans of the world, these are all
people that have been featured on our radio show at one time or another, people who have
stood up to the authorities in what may be, what you might think are insignificant ways,
but really are significant, whether it be having certain bits of hardware that could
be used in a particular way that the authorities don't like, whether it's publishing a newsletter
like Satellite Watch News, which was put out of business by General Motors and DirecTV
because it told how to crack their systems, something that we would print in 2600 in a
moment, yet somebody else was not only put out of business, but had his entire life disrupted
by this. You know, these are things, these are everyday things. It's speech, it's expression,
it's a way of communicating information, and it's always what it comes down to. It's always
the one thing that the oppressive state feels is the biggest threat of all.
Well, guns, that's okay. You know, have as many guns as you want, run around and go crazy,
you know, drive your big cars, your SUVs, just be careful what you say. Yeah, we don't
want you to say something that might be taken the wrong way, that might be overheard by
the wrong people. You know, I felt this fear also last year, this kind of, I don't know
if the word is fear or just trepidation or what exactly, but it's just the feeling that
maybe you've bitten off a little more than you can chew, and maybe you should back down
a little bit, maybe you should listen to all these sensible people around you that tell
you, you know, let somebody else do it, let somebody else fight the fight. Last year when
we were deluged with all these lawsuits, we haven't been sued once this year, what's wrong?
Come on, corporate America, it's the end of January, we haven't been sued once yet. 2001
is not looking good so far. We were sued, I think, well, threatened with lawsuits probably
about a dozen times, sued, actually sued twice last year for the whole DVD mess. But there
was a time last year when we were out in California and Kevin was being released just about a
year ago. He's been out for a year now, only has two more years left on his supervised
release. And the word came down that we had to remove those links. We had to remove, actually
we didn't have to remove the links, we had to remove the file itself, the DECSS code
from our website. And I'll just never forget the feeling that they really mean this, that
if we don't take this file off of our system immediately, somehow, from California, they're
really going to come after us and do God knows what. And that was a real feeling of
what are we going to do next? What's going to happen to us? How is this going to be resolved?
Can this be resolved? As things happened in that particular case, we followed the word
of the court as actually we always have followed the word of the court. We haven't violated
any court orders, but it struck us as bizarre and scary that this kind of a thing could
actually happen. But later on that year, after the court case came down, after we lost the
court case, which by the way is in appeals now and will be heard probably in April, one
of the rulings, one of the conditions of the ruling was that we had to take down all links,
all links to the websites that had the program. And not only take it from our site, it wasn't
even on our site anymore, but take it down, take down the list of other sites, the links
to other sites. At that point, we realized that we had to do something. If we simply
took these links off and just erased any mention of this DECSS program, that would be an unacceptable
breach of freedom of speech. That would be something that just we could not live with.
How could you do something like this, especially as a magazine, as a magazine publisher? These
things hit people in the publishing business every single day, the value of freedom of speech,
the value of the spoken word, the written word. So we knew that we had to do something. We had
to abide by the court order, but we also had to protect our freedom of expression. And that's
why we just simply eliminated the actual links to the sites and replaced them with a list. Knowing
full well that that kind of a thing could really enrage the judge and result in all kinds of
horrible things happening to us, it was a statement that had to be made, because we simply wiped away
all reference to those sites. I guess it would be a form of self-censorship, because it wasn't
specifically what we were told to do. And that's what we needed to hear. We needed to hear somebody
tell us, you may not speak of this specifically ever again. You may not even mention the word.
You may not even talk about it in a sentence. So that's why we we made that move. That's why we
went from links to lists. And if we had lost the list, we would have gone to conversational speech.
We would have brought it all the way to the point where the judge would have said just that. You're
not allowed to speak about this anymore. You're not allowed to even think about this. These are
the kinds of battles that people are fighting every single day. And it doesn't look like there's
going to be any end to it anytime soon. But you know, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a
good thing, because it keeps people aware of the situations that are out there, of the things that
are going on. And those things are going on all over the place. I want to read you a story from
from the media. It's called A Dark Tale from TV Land. Not TV Land the channel, TV Land just a
commercial broadcaster. Most people would probably agree that TV news anchors and reporters should
have a strong determination to search for and report the truth no matter what the economic
consequences to their station or network might be. I bet they would also agree that it is a
journalist's duty to expose and challenge bias or censorship within the news media. But most
people don't know that in many TV newsrooms journalists are routinely discouraged and
even contractually forbidden from performing these essential duties. Furthermore, violators
are severely punished. Sounds alarming, but it's true, as I found out last summer. On July 26,
without ever submitting a letter of resignation, and with the corporate security chief waiting to
escort me from the building, I resigned, in quotes, from my job at WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio. To put it
more accurately, I was fired because I challenged station policies that put severe limits on free
speech, and I exposed a particular arrangement between the station and a major advertiser that
allowed the advertiser, rather than the news department, to have direct editorial control of
a daily news segment. My purpose was to write a piece of media criticism in which I would combine
personal experience with a bit of broadcasting history in order to challenge the popular image
of the news media as aggressive public watchdogs and champions of democracy. In my own way, I just
wanted to share with whomever might surf by my website a few of the things I had learned about
the news media after working in it for 15 years, and perhaps challenge other anchors and reporters
to think about the severe limits placed on our profession by powerful corporations. I opened the
essay by recalling that, early in my news career, I readily accepted the popular media self-image,
but the simple fact that I never really thought about it very deeply. I just accepted, at face
value, the pronouncements made by my bosses and other respected news professionals, and went about
the task of building what I hoped would be a successful media career. On my way up the ladder,
however, I gradually began to see that the image didn't jive with reality. First of all,
news broadcasts became more and more loaded with trivial fluff pieces, or what I've come to call
crash-and-burn stories. Car crashes, house fires, street fights, and other hard news that... Street
fights? I've never seen that on TV. Other hard news that has very little public relevance. Secondly,
important social, political, and economic policies and issues, elections, taxes, health care,
affordable housing, wages, the military, etc., were generally ignored or presented very briefly,
with little or no critical examination. In many cases, it appeared that the copy had been lifted
word-for-word right off a corporate or government press release. Is this the way a true public
watchdog using the public airwaves behaves? Of course not. But as I came to realize,
after finally looking critically at my own profession, it is the way news outlets driven
by the quest for mega profits behave. Quite simply, it's the mad rush for money that drives
the news business. TV stations make money by selling audiences to advertisers, which are,
of course, other businesses. Additionally, TV advertisers aren't really interested in the whole
audience. They want to reach the most privileged audience. Thus, all programs, especially the news,
are aimed at specific target audiences prized by rich advertisers. The competition among TV news
outlets for select audience groups and advertiser limits rather than expands what we see and hear
on the news. What's good for big business is good for everyone. In my essay, I also argue that this
practice of narrowcasting rather than true broadcasting is largely due to the anti-democratic
structure of our radio and TV system. Public airwaves handed over to private corporations
for free with almost no regulation to ensure that the public is being properly served. We
can't escape the fact that American mass media is based on the transfer of valuable public resources
to unelected, unaccountable private corporations intent on maximizing profit rather than serving
the public. It's a system controlled by a few rather than the many. So you see, I was trying
to focus on the big picture and connect it to the small picture. That's why I also wrote about the
anti-democratic structure and censorial policies within media companies, putting special focus on
my own contract, which is the standard contract for WBNS news anchors and reporters. In no uncertain
terms, it said that I cannot make any statements or remarks about the station or its sponsors that
tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably on them. It also said that as an employee, I could not do
or say anything that might subject WBNS and its sponsors or any other group attached to the
station to disrespect or criticism. Of course, this begs two important questions. One, how can a TV
station, a private news outlet using the public airwaves, get constitutional free speech or freedom
of the press protections yet at the same time deny these very rights to its employees? And two, if a
news outlet takes away or severely limits its employees' free speech, the freedom to criticize and to
oppose, isn't this a direct form of censorship that cripples the employee's ability to be a responsible
journalist? My underlying argument was, and still is, that news anchors and reporters must have the
freedom to initiate vigorous debate about media policies, and they must also have the freedom to
question and challenge the actions of their own station and other corporations that might happen
to be sponsors or business partners of their station. Otherwise, the entire notion of a commercial
free press is only a sad illusion. The idea that it is an illusion becomes more apparent in another
passage in the essay. In it, I explained how a local bank became not only sponsor of a WBNS news
segment, they also got to supply the expert commentator, a bank official, and write the script.
Each day, the bank would select a topic and fax the newsroom a set of questions for the anchors to
ask the expert during the segment. Many of the questions referred directly to products and
services sold by the bank, or addressed major policy issues that directly affect the banking
industry, like interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve Board. During the time I observed this
practice and reviewed the faxes approximately every three months, the anchors didn't deviate
from the bank's script. This was a clear case of an advertiser buying control of the news, or rather
a TV station selling control of the news outright. Many co-workers quietly agree that this arrangement
was not only deceptive, but also unethical and disgusting. Sadly, deals like this are becoming
more and more common in TV news, but TV executives are not likely to come clean about them. They'd
rather have the public believe that these advertisements disguised as news are
really fine pieces of journalism produced by station employees. If an employee decided to
expose these things, it would strike at the heart of the station's carefully manufactured
image as an unbiased public servant and a noble steward of the airwaves. So when the bosses finally
read my essay, after being told about it by some co-workers who had stumbled upon it, all hell
broke loose, as the saying goes. I was quickly summoned by the general manager, where I was told
that I had breached my contract by writing something that could, in the words of the contract,
tend to discredit or reflect unfavorably on the station and a sponsor. However, they never
challenged the facts presented in the essay or claimed that I was lying or even making distortions.
The fundamental issues I raised, contractual censorship of employees and direct advertiser
control of the news, were never addressed. I must add that I was aware that my essay could be
construed as a breach of contract in strict legal terms and not in terms of real justice,
although I was a bit surprised that WBNS would act so quickly to prove a central part of my thesis,
that dissent is not allowed in a corporate newsroom. After getting the boot from the GM,
the first time I had ever been fired in my life, I cleaned out my desk and was quickly escorted from
the building by the corporate security chief, who had been called to the station before I was
summoned to the GM's office. In the days after I was fired, word of what happened spread through
news media gossip channels first, then started reaching the general public. As a result, my
website, which had been rarely visited, started getting hundreds of hits a day. Many viewers sent
emails telling me they were appalled by the station's actions. Broadcasters and journalists
from all over the country were quick to offer support and to confirm what I had written. I
agree with your comments about the erosion of competent journalism in the name of blatant
capitalism, all at the expense of the viewers, were the words of one disillusioned TV reporter.
Other journalists from corporate newsrooms shared their own horror stories, from being
forced to do special fluff reports for big advertisers and business partners, to softening,
or even dumping, important investigative stories about corporate crime and abuse. Some described
how internal censorship and the dizzying amount of corporate spin they were subjected to caused
them to make the painful decision to leave journalism altogether. Not exactly a ringing
endorsement of the profession. Given this high degree of dissatisfaction within the news media,
which media scholar Robert W. McChesney calls one of the most striking developments of the last 10
to 15 years, and considering my particular case, I find myself asking one final question. If news
anchors and reporters often admit privately that important news is either censored or distorted for
financial reasons, and if news outlets are willing to fire those employees who say it publicly,
can there be any more doubt that the corporate news media are incapable of fulfilling their
public duties? And that's a tale of horror from someone named Chris Shumway. His website is
members.tripod.com slash chris.shumway spelled s-h-u-m-w-a-y. I'm sure you can find out more
information there. And that, based on the people I know in the corporate media, and I know quite a
few of them actually, that's the way things work these days. Yeah, that's the way things work. That's
how, that's how the business is run. And it's, it's a sad thing. Of course, there is a parallel. There's
a parallel here, because we've been discussing issues like this over the past several weeks.
Actually, we've discussed these issues quite a bit over the last few years, and they've been discussed
in many other forums here at this radio station as well. But unfortunately, we have been directed
not to talk about it anymore. As many of you know from listening to the station, from listening to
other, other broadcasters here, we have what is known as a gag rule in order, where we cannot
discuss matters pertaining to the station and to things that are happening here of a similar bent
to what we've read. And we're going to respect that. We're going to not have discussions on
those particular specific issues, and I ask our listeners to respect that as well. Public
information, of course, is something we will continue to, to provide. And of course, if,
as happened last week, a news story is taking place right in front of my eyes, I'm certainly
not going to ignore that. But this is something that obviously makes it hard for us here at the,
at the radio station to act objectively and fairly, but we're going to try our best. But I would be,
I would be a hypocrite if I didn't say that I think it stinks. Let's get to some, I guess, mail.
We're getting a lot of mail. Actually, you know what? A lot of this mail we can't read,
for the same reason. Okay, well, I'll try to, I'll try to modify this one. This person pledged money
to the radio station during the last pledge drive, and while he's just wondering if, I'll
skip all this, all this, he's wondering if he's going to get his, his, his material that he pledged
for. I can answer that question very directly, and that is, yes, you will get everything that,
that you pledged for. We just got the list of names last week, so everything I think is going
out today, that is everything as far as the H2K videos, and there are still some things that we
are waiting to get, but everybody will get everything that they asked for. That is not
going to be in jeopardy in any way. I should also point out that in two weeks, we're going to be
doing fundraising, and I want to stress, and this is, this is probably where I differ with a lot of
other of the media critical people out there, I think it's, it's going to be essential to support
the radio station, and to make sure that we survive, because the only way we continue to
fight for free speech is if we're here to fight for free speech, and I intend to continue fighting
for free speech as long as I have the ability to do so, and I like to think that our listeners will
stick with us in as many ways as they possibly can to do the same. Otherwise there's not much
point. Why is it just start playing the country music now? You bring me the records, Isaac? What's
wrong with country music? Well, you know, there's no country music station in New York. Well, it's 107,
but that's like... That's not in New York. That's in nowhere. That's up in the, in the Sticks,
Westchester. Oh, in the Sticks of Westchester. Yeah. We need something, we need something here in this
city. I agree. Yeah. I don't think it should be here, but, you know, somewhere else would be nice.
Why don't they take one of those other radio stations, like, you know, Classic Rock. Aren't
there two Classic Rock stations? I think there's more than that. Well, it's the same music. It's
Classic Rock. You know, it's the same music over and over again. Because if it wasn't, it wouldn't
be classic. So obviously they're playing the same song. So why don't they just have one station do
that? Well, every year there's a whole new batch of music that enters the classic category. I hear
somebody who's, who's critical. Always critical people out there. And I really, I admire our
listeners. I admire BAI listeners. I also admire our specific listeners. People only listen to our
radio show, although I think they should listen to as many BAI programs as possible. It's always,
they always approach things with a critical eye, with a challenging eye. And I think that's the,
kind of, the theme of this place in many forums. And that's, that's what keeps us going. But this
person is challenging to some degree. Picked up an apple at a grocery store in Toronto. The store
had the usual small round sticker, which usually displays the type of apple and the produce code.
However, upon closer inspection, this label had an advertisement for a local television station.
In large type and in small type. The type of the apple and so on. I'd never seen or heard of such
a thing. Where does it stop? I expect my beefsteak to carry a seared or stamped advertisement on it
within the next five years. Just think of all those exposed surfaces at the meat market. I mean,
what better place to put ads? You put ads in food. You put food in your face. Simple.
It's right there. Sorry, I got to turn you a mic on. Go ahead.
We've seen ads on fruit in this country.
Actual advertisements?
One of the major television networks, which I won't mention, put yellow stickers.
You can mention it. You can mention the television network, I think.
I don't want to say any more about them than their ads have already said.
That rule of that network? Okay, fine. Was it say something like,
watch Oprah at 430 or something like that?
There was an advertising campaign with stupid yellow things with cute sayings on it,
and they put some of those sayings on fruit.
Well, I don't know. I don't know where this is going. Advertising everywhere you look.
Okay, here's some informational material. We're going to take some phone calls, too.
212-209-2900 is our phone number. Again, please keep in mind what I said before.
I should also point out that we're checking into just how specific we have to be here,
but it says quite clearly that we should not give any information about meetings.
So I ask that you not give information about meetings.
I believe you can give phone numbers, websites, things like that, but let's keep it to that.
No prolonged discussions. No discussions at all, actually, on that particular matter.
That's just the way it is.
Like I said, I expressed my opinion on it, and that's how I feel.
I'm sure that's how a lot of other people feel, but it's reality, and we have to deal with it.
This person wrote in saying, I heard you talk about 2001 in the last couple of radio shows.
Well, here's the story. They were screening it in San Francisco.
Before the movie started, the guy presenting it informed us that we would be watching a DVD, not a film,
because the studio withdrew all prints of the film a short time ago.
You know why? It's because they're going to be re-releasing it in theaters in September.
So we can see 2001 in September, but just not now, unless you want to watch a DVD somewhere.
Thanks to Max for that submission.
Further proof that BAI listeners provide us with the information that we need to know,
because we don't always know everything.
I have something. This is definitely...
Look at those phones. Every single light is lit up.
I'll get to the phone in just a moment.
I'm going to throw this at you, Isaac. Try not to get hit in the head this time, all right?
Okay, hold on. Let me move the mic out of the way, so I have a chance.
Ready?
Ready.
Ow.
Okay, look what that is.
Cybertrack.
Cybertrack. This is what I did.
I went to Amazon.fr, which is Amazon in France.
That is the country, France is the country where they have already released the takedown film with Kevin Mitnick.
Well, not with Kevin Mitnick, allegedly about Kevin Mitnick.
It has been released on DVD in France already.
It hasn't even been released in this country at all.
This is the film that we were protesting over the last couple of years.
That's another time I got that feeling of trepidation.
You know, standing outside Miramax with ticket signs, not knowing what's going to happen.
What are they going to do?
Are they going to pour boiling water on us or call the cops or what?
And I'm sure everybody else who showed up at that demonstration felt the same way.
That's a good feeling, though, in the end, when you know you've stood up for what you believe in.
This film is now out on DVD, but it's only Region 2 DVD.
See, it says that on the back, Region 2, which means that in this country,
if you put this onto your DVD player, it's going to say,
I can't see this.
Illegal region code.
Get this out of me, you know?
It's going to barf.
But you know what's really cool?
What's really cool?
It has the English track in secondary audio programming.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
I've seen the film.
I imagine, since you handed me the copy.
I have the Apex player that has region-free backdoor settings in it.
Very illegal.
Very immoral.
Shame.
I can't believe I even buy into that.
I don't buy into that.
Of course I don't.
We have the right, the simple concepts here, the right of free speech,
the right to watch something that you buy.
I bought this, for God's sake.
I bought this, and I should have the right to see it on my own TV set.
And these morons seem to think that they can take that right away.
It's a Region 2 DVD.
So unless you have a Region 2 DVD player, you won't be able to see it.
Is that bottom picture the fight between Mitnick and Shimomura?
Because it looks like someone's trying to kick him in the head,
but not being very successful.
No, I don't think that is, because that's daytime,
and that supposedly took place at night in the film anyway.
But anyway, I did see this.
In fact, we have a 26-hour meeting coming up this Friday.
I might be persuaded to actually show it informally, not a public showing,
nothing like that, just a bunch of friends, no admission charge
or anything like that open to the public.
But I'd have to lug my DVD player with me.
Pretty pathetic I have to do that, isn't it?
Small price to pay.
And I also got...
You could have warned me that time.
Oh, sorry.
That's the video copy.
Oh, this is the VHS version.
VHS copy.
And that's in PAL, of course.
So you need a PAL machine.
It's a lot easier to get a PAL machine than it is to get a Region 2 DVD player.
Well, I always thought that they'd start running after the guys
who did the conversions between NTSC and PAL very early on,
but evidently they didn't.
They just go after guys like you.
Amazing, isn't it?
What are we talking about here?
We get a tag for printing source code on our website
that actually allows people to see foreign films.
This film I don't think is going to be released in this country anytime soon.
Or if it is, it's going to be released very quietly.
But I'm going to write a review for this, I think.
I think I have to do that.
You put it on the website.
I'm just seeing it.
It really, it's pretty bad.
I have to tell you that right now.
It really is pretty bad.
Do you watch it in French with the subtitles or in the actual English?
I watch it in the actual English with French subtitles.
You can't turn the French subtitles off, unfortunately.
Oh, I can't, okay.
Yeah.
All right, we're going to take some phone calls.
First, we have a special guest who's just been deported to our country.
What?
Yeah, well, sort of.
Lex is here.
He tried to go to Quebec, Quebec City.
I believe there's something going on up there.
What's going on up there?
In April, the Free Trade Area of the Americas is meeting to have a giant summit.
But it's January.
You're trying to get up there early, aren't you?
No.
On last weekend, there was a consulta.
All the activists were meeting to prepare and to inform each other what's going on.
Okay.
And you got turned away at the border?
Yeah.
There was a van of 10 activists from New York City, and I was one of them.
And we tried to cross the border into Quebec City, and we were denied.
Denied into Canada?
I think they'd be desperate for anyone they can get at this point, but they actually turned you away.
Yeah.
First, they found charges to deny people on trespassing charges, which are misdemeanor here,
but apparently constitute a felony in Canada.
Trespassing in Canada or trespassing here?
Trespassing in the United States.
So they looked up in a computer people's names and found that someone had a trespassing conviction or an outstanding warrant or what?
Just a conviction.
A conviction.
15 years ago.
Okay.
So the message that Canada is sending is that they do not want any trespass.
If you've ever trespassed in your life, Canada does not want you in their country.
That's basically what they told you.
No, this is ridiculous.
There's arsonists that cross the border every day.
Oh, yeah.
That's business, though.
They have to cross the border.
How else are they going to set the fires?
Unbelievable.
So they actually turned all of you back?
Yeah, but not before searching us.
Oh, really?
Finding documents and photocopying them.
Really?
What kind of documents?
They searched all our bags and found political papers, and it took nearly an hour to photocopy all of it.
Were they tipped off or something?
Just a van full of people going up to Canada on a January day.
What's the big deal?
Were they expecting something?
Well, apparently they were expecting activists to cross the border for this consulto.
We're sure that that's why they turned us away.
I mean, it's obvious that they got orders from someone higher up to inform them that this was going on and to deny these activists.
I mean, we didn't pose any threat to their country.
Well, we've seen this kind of thing.
I mean, you've been involved in activist things before, I imagine.
Right.
This reaction seems to be mounting.
This seems to be more of a kind of an overreaction to people in various ways, whether it be bringing out the riot gear or simply denying you access to places that you've always had access to before.
You see this as some kind of a trend?
Yeah, and apparently it's increasing as they get more and more scared or something.
I mean, I can understand people going to Prague and being denied three days before the action, but this is three months before we're trying to enter Canada.
This is ridiculous.
Makes you wonder what April's going to be like.
Well, just trying to enter Quebec is somewhat suspicious.
I mean, why would anyone want to in the first place?
All right.
That's just not nice, Isaac.
That's just not nice.
At what point did you assume I was nice?
On behalf of the Francophones, I feel I must not censor you but censure you.
I withdraw the comment.
Yeah.
All right.
Maybe you should withdraw more than just your comment.
Yeah.
Let's take some phone calls.
Thanks very much for coming by.
Thanks for standing up for what you believe in.
I think that's an admirable thing.
No problem.
All right.
A lot of people are doing that out there in various ways and being challenged every step of the way.
All right.
Let's go over here.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hi.
I want to thank you, Emmanuel.
Everybody's thanking you for what you're doing and what you keep doing.
Well, thanks for listening.
Yeah.
I'm kind of a strange listener to your show.
I listen to it a lot.
But, of course, I hardly know anything about my computer and you guys know everything.
Oh, no, we don't.
We don't know as much as you think we know.
No, you know more than I do.
And it's become more and more clear to me that a lot of our listeners, I don't think they listen.
Maybe they do, but they don't know anything and they don't have any computers.
And they don't know how to do it.
They don't know how to get on the net.
And, of course, they can go to the library, which you can tell them, but then they are squeamish.
So I think it would be great, and I've always thought this about your show,
if your intelligent, skilled listeners could get together, like a buddy system,
to take somebody to the library and say, here, look, this is what you do.
This is where you go.
And this Saturday afternoon there will be a meeting of listeners that would like to meet people who do that.
Okay.
Well, what I was going to suggest was the, well, I think we can announce this kind of a meeting,
the 2600 meeting on Friday at the Citicorp Center.
Yeah, that's a good place to go to.
Yeah.
But I don't think those people are listening to your show.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
People who don't have anything, they're not hearing this probably.
So they'll be meeting on Saturday afternoon if people want to have a number for it.
Well, you can give a phone number.
Okay.
I really have to draw the line at that.
I can or I can't.
No, give the phone number.
That's as much as I can.
Okay.
It's letters.
It's the words Inkslob.
I-N-K-S-O-S-L-O-B.
Nice going.
Inkslob.
212 Inkslob.
Okay.
Great.
Thanks.
Bye.
Boy, I like getting phone numbers that spell things.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Good evening, brother.
How are you?
Okay.
You know, I really want to commend you for the very intensive and genuine and impassioned
monologue that you delivered respecting the global dissent of fascism in the world.
Well, thanks.
I think you did an exquisite job.
I think you did it quite objectively.
And I think, quite frankly, that I have gleaned your growth over the weeks that I've been
listening to WBN.
I shouldn't say weeks.
Time slips more quickly than one thinks.
It's really been a sustained period of time.
And I have followed your enlightenment to the extent that you are able to give our listeners
far more than the particular pale of expertise that you control vis-à-vis technology.
And I want to say that if the listeners do not heed your very, very astute and articulate
message, then indeed it is a shame, because we are in an era where people think they are
promised tomorrow but do not understand that tomorrow is being taken from them.
And most particularly, hopefully, there are a lot of youth out there.
Many of us understand this battle because it's recycled.
And we must fight fascism and all of its ramifications and all of the ways that it more or less
percolates into everyone's daily lives.
And you have done a very good thing tonight, brother.
You've given a very, very highly spiritual message, and you have spoken so with truth.
I can tell when people are rolling off the tongue because there is a certain good spirit
down on them, as opposed to some type of a programmed dissertation that seems to be enamored
in its own discourse.
And you've done a very good job.
This is a very good message for you, brother.
You really have much higher callings than the noble calling that you dispatch from,
discharge from day to day or week to week here on WPAI.
So I'm urging the listeners to sit back and reflect on what you have said, because we
are all in a crisis situation.
And to remember Europe during World War II.
Remember Rome under Nero fiddling away as Rome burned down.
The Rome that we call the United States today, the great power, the one that has dubbed itself
the greatest civilization or history of society in the history of civilization, which is its
own irrigation, has nothing to do with merit, by the same token, is very much like Rome
under Nero.
Okay.
Listen, I want to thank you very much for calling.
I just want to try and fit in a couple more people.
Thanks so much for your kind words, though.
Continue your good work, brother.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Very nice things.
Probably the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.
I'll take another phone call.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Speak up, please.
Hi.
Am I on the air?
Yes, you are.
Go ahead.
Yes.
This is Miguvam.
I just wanted to make a comment.
Go ahead.
The other day I was on a website, and this was an advertisement.
It said, know where your customers are.
And I clicked on the link, and believe it or not, it pinpointed me within 10 miles.
Really?
Yes.
I don't remember the name.
Well, I'd like you to remember the name.
That's kind of scary.
It was scary.
And they were selling the technology, too.
Okay.
Well, let's make this an appeal to all our listeners out there.
Find that site.
I want to know more about it.
They can actually pinpoint your IP to something fairly local.
Yes.
I believe they got in trouble a few months back for mapping the Internet.
It was just scared the crap out of me.
They got in trouble for mapping the Internet?
I don't know about that.
I don't know.
There was something, another company.
The technique isn't all that interesting, actually.
They simply look at your IP, get an idea of who is responsible for that particular routing block,
then do a who is on the company where you have the address information sitting there,
and they basically give you the address of your ISP, which may or may not be in your general vicinity.
I think this was a little different.
It was not like NeoTrace, but it was on the net.
It was crazy.
I'll find the address for you guys.
Please do.
Please do.
Bring it to the meeting on Friday.
Again, 2600 meeting this Friday.
All over the world, actually.
Here in New York, 5 p.m. at Citicorp Center.
Juns is here.
How are you doing?
Good.
How are you?
Pretty good.
Pretty good.
Since you're here, the stream is going out, I guess, by itself.
Well, with everybody else helping out, obviously.
Right.
We're not minding the store.
Yeah.
We're told we have 188 people online right now listening around the world.
Yeah.
That's great.
That's up from about 130, 140 average.
I should also point out to regular BAI listeners that our main stream seems to be down.
Nothing nefarious at work here.
It's just some kind of technical problem.
It's been down for a couple of days.
And we have a backup stream, which you can get to at www.2600.com.
And it's great.
It's great being able to hear the station everywhere you go.
It's great being able to listen to all kinds of voices on the internet.
I think that's what the true future is going to hold for all of us.
I think that's going to pretty much do it for us here tonight.
We'll be back again next week.
Remember, the fundraiser actually starts a week from tomorrow.
And we'll be fundraising in two weeks here on this radio program.
And I guess basically I just want to ask people to stay strong
and to continue to challenge authority wherever you can, you know, to think for yourself.
Please stand up.
Don't stand up.
Anyway, this is Emmanuel Goldstein for everybody.
Thanks very much for being a part of all this.
We'll be back again next week.
Yeah, we'll talk to you then.
Good night.
Your country needs you
To play football
Wake up call
You hear the call
All for one
And one for all
All for one
And one for all
What happened to
You made of mine
When things were loud
You made them right
All for one
And one for all
All for one
And one for all
Now in the classroom
I was told
By the end time
How you were both
A pint of beer
Black pants and spats
You sneering store
They passin' and they fightin' and the war must start
The war must start
The war must start
Yeah, yeah
They passin' and they fightin' and the war must start
And they will never fall
Can say they passin' and they fightin' and the war must start
The war must start
The war must start
They passin' and they fightin' and the war must start
Hi I'm Barbara Nimri-Aziz. At 9 p.m. following Emmanuel Goldstein and his
off-the-hook crew stay tuned for Tahrir with yours truly. Then at 10 p.m. Ed
Menjie and Ken Gale present Nafsed. At 11 WBAI will rebroadcast today's
evening news with Jose Santiago and his stellar news team. So keep your digits
locked at 99.5 on the FM dial. WBAI in New York City.
Please I would like to give a shout out to all the prisoners around the world.
The prison system is out of control and people you love are living under
conditions that no one deserves. Why not let them know you care by sending them a
message over the airways with WBAI's prisoner shout-out line broadcasting
your voice every Thursday morning at 645. Do you have a loved one behind bars and
you haven't called? Pick up the phone and dial 212-209-2958. That's the
prisoner shout-out line 212-209-2958. I miss you so much at home man. I really do man.
Stay strong brother man. Daddy loves you. Stay strong and we're gonna be alright.
I love you today, tomorrow and always. Love and kisses. Bye.