Having refused to be a guest on KQED´s public affairs program Forum because she was not allowed equal time, America´s leading peace activist Cindy Sheehan audaciously called in to the program this morning to get a chance to address House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Upon stating that Nancy Pelosi has ducked her responsibility of meeting with her San Francisco constituents since 2006, the impatient program host, Michael Krasny, interrupted Cindy to prod her to ask the question his call screeners had agreed to. In all, Cindy Sheehan was granted less than 40 seconds to speak, and was not allowed to respond to Nancy Pelosi´s answer. Cindy Sheehan is running against Nancy Pelosi for California´s District 8 Congressional Seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. by Robert B. Livingston.
Please visit here for the transcript and KQED interview. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/10/29/18547364.php?show_comments=1#18547411
Democracy can be a messy affair.
No one likes to argue or make a disturbance-- but as one activist puts it in the film, a public radio station has a louder ¨megaphone¨ than any the protesters could have brought with them.
All the candidates deserved equal time-- and I admire the way Cindy Sheehan sacrificed her own mass media exposure by standing for that principle (KQED is the nation´s most listened to NPR station).
KQED, ostensibly a public broadcast station, in actuality operates like a dictatorship.
In October 2006 KQED had its members vote on a slew of by-law changes with one tucked in which asked if members would agree to giving up their votes in the future-- ones that could be significant in helping decide the direction and decisions of the station.
Perhaps because they trusted KQED´s promises of becoming more ¨efficient¨ and also because few members bothered to vote-- the station´s future direction was put in the hands of it´s board and managers alone.
KQED´s members gave up their voting rights! http://tinyurl.com/create.php
Since, I have avoided listening to KQED, particularly Forum, which had largely become an echo chamber for corporate propaganda and a firewall to any reasoned dissent of corporate interests.
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