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NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E, JULY 2003
THE OLD EAGLE
BY DON JAMES
“We have to keep the newspapers free in the
hopes that one day they will use that freedom to tell the
truth for the whole people."
-JOHN PETER ALTGELD
For those who remember, we of this portion of the
Oregon North Coast had our owi few years of Camelot in
the early 1970s — and we had our own unique oracle called
the North Coast Times Eagle which was published in a ram
shackle building in Wheeler and distributed worldwide to the
delight of readers
When I came to Cannon Beach in 1969 to head the
writing section of the Haystack program I found the town and
the North Coast to be among the most charming places I had
encountered.
I had been to Carmel, the East Coast & Middle West
I had been a wire service reporter, editor, advertising "creative
director," corporation president, and eventually an educator
Probably more than a million words I had written had been
published Perhaps, as an interviewer wrote about me, 'The
man has been around so much it is almost redundant to inter
view him."
A nice, but probably true observation. I have been. And
I mention this to give me a measure of credence in what I have
to say
This is a tribute to that small, almost insignificant news
paper, our North Coast Times Eagle that attracted worldwide
circulation Not only did it delight countless readers, but it also
attracted many exceptionally fine young persons who were
struggling to find a voice in the disastrous aftermath of war
They worked for practically nothing but with heart, dedication
and a rightful demand to be heard.They came and went, almost
200 of them, and many continue helping shape the nation’s
destiny.
Robert Stanley Need, its founder and editor, was one
of the finest men I have known He wrote an outstanding novel
about Vietnam (his war) vtfiich, because of the literary market
of the time, was never published It should have been.
We met one summer afternoon in his newspaper office
near deadline for the next edition. He was tall, somewhat gang
ling, with dark friendly but penetrating eyes, and a welcoming
smile. His voice was thoughtful and passionate. The one thing
he did not say but you quickly knew — he was a man with a
dream and he was on the way to making it come true for him
self and others.
When you knew him better you learned that he was a
man of unusual depth. Although a pragmatist he was also an
idealist, a scholar, a humanist. In his small house above the
Nehalem River was a grand piano that almost filled the living
room He played beautifully
The afternoon we met he took me on a tour of his
newspaper in an old two-story building in Wheeler that had
formerly been a bank and has since been tom down Because
he could not possibly afford an expensive offset press to print
the newspaper, he and his continually revolving staff wrote,
composed and 'stripped' in the pages to be photographed for
the offset plates elsewhere. It is a common practice with small
newspapers across the country.
To get his publication ready many steps were neces
sary that called for specific equipment that ranged from type
writers to light tables. Somehow Bob Need and his people
collected, improvised and put together a startling array of used,
discarded, worn, homemade and unusual equipment. The crew
could work at any of the tasks from covering and writing stories
to stripping in the layout sheets.
Although they had their own photographers, they estab
lished their distinctive trademark by using very old line drawings
clipped from old catalogues, magazines, books, or any printed
artwork that often dated back to the 1850s and 1860s Combined
with "spot" news stories of what was happening at publication
time, the total effect was unusual and outstanding, including
headlines in old type fonts. When necessary they used photos
by staff photographers which were often of high quality.
If the Times Eagle had its old fashioned image, readers
quickly learned that the news it printed was highly contemporary,
on-target and frequently startling. Need inspired his staff to write
as they saw it and heard it They did, possibly shockingly so at
times, and thankfully so at others.
It is a well known fact a newspaper needs advertising
to exist. Although advertisers from metropolitan areas frequently
saw the value of the Times Eagle, possibly too many local adver
tisers for one reason or another failed to recognize certain truths
of marketing, audience penetration and advertising intricacies
well known to advertising agencies and experts
Perhaps it can be almost amusingly illustrated by adver
tising by a dairy firm that tags its ads with: "Support your local
cow."
Unfortunately too many advertisers in the area did not
see the advantage they could probably gamer if they would
"support their local newspaper"
The Times Eagle folded at Wheeler Robert Stanley
Need's dream was almost lost
But not entirely One of that original staff kept the dream
and faith alive.
The late Don James was a well known and beloved
Oregon writer, teacher and mentor He was a frequent contri
butor to the original Times Eagle and wrote this memoir in
1984 for the Bom Again Bird's 5th anniversary when he was
79 years old.
This 24th anniversary issue of the
resurrected NCTE is in memory of my father
William Copeland McCusker, 90 on June 2
(he died 5 years ago), and Hideo Hashimoto,
world renowned peacemaker, friend and
spiritual mentor for half of my life, who
died June 22 at age 92.
-MICHAEL PAUL McCUSKER
EUGEN MAIER-KRIEG
ACTUAL FREE SPEECH TV
BY KATE O’NEAL
There is an amazing channel now available over the
DISH satellite system called 'Free Speech TV'. A listener
sponsored station with no corporate underwriting, FSTV is truly
free to do investigative reporting and air documentaries and
films not necessarily corporate/government friendly. (Yes, dear
ones, there really is such a critter.)
“Democracy Now!," the FSTV news broadcast available
three times each weekday, comes from the loft of an old fire
house just blocks from Ground Zero, NY. The walls are papered
with news articles, posters and photographs. Cuts from songs
of protest and videos of demonstrations from around the globe
often comprise the brief interludes between the stories. And
these are stories one is hard pressed to find anywhere but
perhaps the internet and foreign newspapers Some have been
headlined around the globe, but covered only scantily or not at
all in U.S. media Broadcasts direct from Baghdad and Palestine
and even reports from small independent videographers around
the world help make this the most informative, astonishing news
program available in the United States.
The hour long news broadcast (expanded to two hours
now on Pacifica radio stations) excels in its major investigative
scoops and meaty interviews well seasoned with spicy tidbits. A
recent goodie involved the recall of some baby car seats. What
made this especially interesting was that there were no defects
in the seats, only the instructions. The instructions were written
above a fifth grade reading level and, therefore, not comprehen
sible to a large part of the American public who, consequently,
installed them incorrectly. (Approximately one-third of the U.S.
public is barely functionally literate now. Shows, doesn’t it?)
These are the opening lines of some recently featured
articles:
“The U.S. and Britain relied on a forged document in
making the case that Iraq has a nuclear program."
“Did Pakistan intelligence officials fake the arrest of Al
Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?"
"The U.S. chains and shackles naked detainees to the
ceiling in Afghanistan "
"Haliburton, one of the U.S. firms set to make profits
from the rebuilding of postwar Iraq, is still paying Vice President
Dick Cheney a million dollars a year.”
"Today we ll interview the investigative journalist
Richard Perle calls ‘The closest thing American journalism has
to a terrorist.’”
“An Easter Bunny-dressed protester was arrested at a
Kmart store in a demonstration against Easter baskets contain
ing toy soldiers and weapons.”
Democracy Now! is hosted by veteran Pacifica
journalist, Amy Goodman. A Harvard graduate and a journalist
for twenty years, she has won some of the highest awards in
mainstream journalism while traveling the globe to report on
events under-reported or completely ignored by mainstream
media She was brutally beaten in East Timor in the midst
of a massacre by Indonesian troops Repeatedly arrested for
covering demonstrations from the front lines, Amy was most
recently arrested covering the Code Pink' demonstrations at
the White House Attired in jeans and little, if any, makeup,
she’s not one to mince words, pull punches — or stifle a laugh
The most exhilarating project FSTV is undertaking is
work with IndyMedia, the growing international network of tiny
media centers, often consisting of only a video camera and a pc.
These folks produce some of the most astounding, disconcerting
gritty vignettes of the people's struggle against global fascism
imaginable Some have had to be smuggled out of the countries
they were filmed in. All bring a visceral impact lacking in even
the best print journalism and, of course, tell stories that turn the
lies spewed by the corporate owned press upside down.
Frequently, Free Speech TV presents special program
ming that illuminates a critical issue through original productions
as well as acquired programs and special web content. Created
with partnering grassroots organizations, these national “teach-
ins” mix crucial analysis with concrete steps for joining the grow
ing movement for progressive social change. Recent campaigns
include Mobile Eyes Against Military Intervention', Mobile Eyes
On Creating Peace', and Mobile Eyes on Economic Justice*.
FSTV’s current campaign is ‘Mobile Eyes: Who Wants
War?’ This series includes the following programs and many
more:
-"Good vs. Evil: Bush’s Theology of War” is an original
FSTV production rebutting the Bush doctrine on national secur
ity.
-’Strategy for Security or Blueprint for Empire" presents
a round-table discussion on the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Hosted by
Laura Flanders, this.program was organized by FSTV and The
Nation magazine.
~ “Media in the Service of Empire’ was co-produced by
David Barsamian, founder and host of Alternative Radio, and
Free Speech TV. The program analyzes the social and econo
mic forces that shape the mainstream media’s war coverage.
-’Hidden Wars of Desert Storm," a documentary that
premiered on FSTV in the past year, exposes the Pentagon’s
extensive use of depleted uranium weapons, the history of the
CIA’s relationship with Saddam Hussein, and many other topics
seldom discussed on American television.
-’Iraq: War Against the People’ documents the allied
force’s invasion of Iraq during the Gulf War, and the social and
environmental devastation that followed.
-’Good Kurds, Bad Kurds’ examines the political found
ations of the U.S. government's alliances with Iraq, Turkey and
the Kurdish peoples who form the world's largest dispossessed
population.
“In Whose Interest?" Informed by scholars and analysts
like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, this documentary traces
the history of the U.S. military’s global expansion.
Riveting films such as Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing
Consent, brilliant satire, and even a gay & lesbian news program
round out FSTV’s astonishing lineup.
Because Free Speech TV is what is known as a "public
interest” channel, part of a set-aside required by federal statute
for non-commercial, non-profit channels, it is available to any
DISH subscriber, regardless of whether subscribed at a high or
low rate and is far less expensive than cable. (Also included in
the basic package is World Link TV, which airs unfiltered news
programs, films and music from around the world.
This is incredible stuff, folks. Get it while it’s still possi
ble. Who knows what monstrous corporate entity might gobble
up DISH and knock off the only independent stations now
available in this, our “land of the free." (Rupert Murdock is
acquiring Direct as I write.) And if Ashcroft finds out about it —
well, let’s just keep it under our hats, alright?
I don’t work for DISH TV and won’t make a dime off this
article I just want y'all to know there is a way to stay informed,
sane and even hopeful in these most Orwellian of times.
For a sampling of the fare visit www.democracv.ora and
freesoeechtv.org.
Kate O'Neal lives in Astoria and among other activities
is a member of the Clatsop County Bill of Rights Committee.
KMUN-FM has begun airing Democracy Now! news
headlines at 10 a m. every weekday.