Is Left-Wing Radio making a come-back? or creating a presence on the national scene? Encouraging signs.

[James H. Fetzer]

Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:38:29 EDT [06:38:29 AM CDT]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Hartmann's Move

Jim,

I wanted to finish up our little conversation last week by saying major media are folding around the world because consumers not only realize there's no news in them but there are exploding alternatives to the propaganda. Shows like yours and top names like Thom Hartmann, Amy Goodman, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, Bill Press, Ron Reagan and so many others are making serious progress. The propagandists aren't safe on national TV. Despite the relentless assaults from Rash Limberger, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and the whole evil hornet's nest, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow's numbers keep growing by leaps and bounds. What I'm trying to say is the great efforts by the left are starting to compete with the entrenched control by the right of the media sources in this country. Hell, up my way in upstate New York, the strongest radio broadcast channel is Fox. I can't find a left leaning political program on my car radio. I'm forced to the Internet to get my programming. It's shows like yours and the many others who're going to be the future of news in America. This issue is an important subject for discussion. You may want to dedicate a show to this topic. Perhaps, you could invite one of the names already mentioned to speak on the growth and impact of left leaning media. Except for a few well chosen newspapers and magazines, I get almost all my daily information about what's happening in America and around the world via the Internet. I receive about a hundred newsletters and other informational broadcasts from websites all over the world. If I really want to find out what's happening in any place on the globe, I consult the local broadcasts there. You'd be surprised how different the local reporting can be from the filtered broadcasts in the alleged Western world. The ugly duplicity is easily revealed this way. There are no wars in the Middle East. These were two invasions and occupations of sovereign countries by US and UK forces with a little help from small, debtor nations. Even if you believe the claptrap that 19 Muslim hijackers executed the 9/11 attacks, NONE of these men came from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Regardless of whether Osama bin Laden is holed up in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan and allegedly used a few bases in these areas to launch his attacks, these are no legitimate excuses to bomb, invade and occupy three nations without permission and stay indefinitely for no apparent reason while accomplishing absolutely nothing. These "counterattacks" are nothing more than "make-work" maneuvers for the Pentagon and the military industrial media incarceration complex (MIMIC). They're using these nations as free fire zones to keep our forces sharp and to try out new weapons. These are our real objectives. The Muslims are fighting us because we're killing them. WE'RE the aggressors, not them. WE'RE killing them in their own communities, in their own streets and in their own homes. How horrifically heinous can we be? Very. So, Jim, you may want to consider these ideas for one of your shows. I wouldn't mind joining the discussion. Whaddya think? Please check out the forwarded release below, too.

Franklin L. Johnson
[e-mail]

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2009
Update from Thom Hartmann
Just got this in my inbox from Thom Hartmann, and I thought I'd share in its entirety (as Sundays can be a bit lazy):

We haven't been issuing press releases as this stuff has happened, so if you want to be the one to break the news feel free to put this stuff into your own words...

1. In addition to our commercial Dial-Global syndication, we're now a Pacifica affiliated show, providing a 3-hour live and delayed show to Pacifica non-profit and community stations around the world *with no commercial content* through the Pacifica audioport. We're doing this by simultaneously generating two identical shows; one commercial and one non-commercial (where the commercial breaks are filled with content like Labor Radio News, Hightower comments, a Science show, etc.). As a result of this, we've picked up just in the past few months since this affiliation began several dozen new stations, including one that covers an eighth of England and one that covers about a third of Ghana. Yep - our show is the only US-based mainstream political talk show, left or right, that (so far as I know) is carried now on local independent radio stations on 3 continents. And we're on more stations, have more listeners, and have more live clearances then any other progressive show in the country.

2. We also started doing a TV show - simultaneous with our radio show. We first migrated it to our new channel on YouTube, with whom we started a commercial relationship a few months ago, at www.youtube.com/thomhartmann. The show was picked up last week by Free Speech TV (on Dish Network satellite TV) and is now carried live from 2-3 PM ET following "Democracy Now" and "GritTV." We're also producing a half-hour TV show that will begin in the next week or two on FSTV, with most of its content cut down from our 3-hour radio/TV show. We'll also be offering this half-hour show as a video podcast.

3. We've re-established our relationship with Air America in that they're carrying my show on their Washington DC radio station and on their website. We're working on ways to strengthen that relationship, and pleased to see our name again on their brand new website at www.airamerica.com and that their DC listeners can hear our show on the weekends. (So our show is now "brought to our listeners - and viewers - by Dial-Global, Air America, Pacifica, YouTube, and Free Speech TV"...)

Keep up the great work with LTR, and if there's ever any way we can help, let me know!

Thom

[James H. Fetzer]

Excellent comments, Thoth II. You may not know, but I took Hartmann to task in my amazon.com review of his ridiculous book. The book of his is titled, ULTIMATE SACRIFICE; my review is titled, "Ultimate Rubbish".

[Thoth II]

Comment by Thoth II 14 minutes ago Delete Comment I totally believe in strong liberals like JFK and RFK in history, because they really tried to help the middle class, which is why they were removed. Even Hillary Clinton and Obama have taken a stab at health care and that really has to be done, I'm ashamed of the USA for not getting this passed at least in Hillarycare 1994.

But I hate to say that many of the liberals on this list have disappointed me. Thom Hartmann, for example, wrote a massive disinfo tome on JFK entitled Ultimate Sacrfice, a mafia did it nonsense.
Amy Goodman: I remember she turned up her nose to Kevin Barrett when he confronted her over 911 truth.

Liberalism is no good until they attack the machine that removed JFK at its cores, including the political assasinations of the 1960s plus 911. Until then, it is faux liberalism.

Maybe I'm naive, but to me the situation is like this: the MSM is obviously suffocating the truth. so we at least need an opposition party and media which are "above ground" . Otherwise, what we have is something akin to Vichy France: a Nazi uberlord and French Resistance. And today, the 911 truth movement is this underground movement.