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Street Roots • July 10-16, 2015
The Barsamian theory of revolution
David Barsamian — author, journalist, ‘Alternative Radio’ founder — discusses how real change can happen
BY RIANNA HIDALGO
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
avid Barsamian is full of quotes.
Among his favorites is Samuel
Huntington’s “Power remains strong
when it remains in the dark; exposed to the
sunlight, it begins to evaporate.”
Barsamian will tell you, in words rife with
sarcasm and wry humor, that the media are
the ones pulling the curtains.
At a recent Town Hall lecture in Seattle,
he tossed out phrases like “Presstitutes,”
“Lapdogs with laptops” and, my personal
favorite, “Press corpse.”
“It’s an art, really,” he told a chuckling
audience. “Dead bodies posing as
journalists.”
Barsamian is a journalist himself, one who
is highly critical of nearly all mainstream
news sources for failing to question the
status quo, distorting and ignoring
alternative views, and not only buying into
but also becoming part of “corporate crap.”
He believes journalist Finley Peter Dunne’s
old notion of comforting the afflicted and
PH O TO COURTESY
afflicting the comfortable has been turned on
David Barsamian founded the hourlong public affairs radio show “Alternative Radio.”
its head.
"H ie media fuxtctxoa as a
So in 1986, he
weapon of mass distraction, a
high note and a call to action. This time, it
founded the hourlong
Madonna adoption to a Justin Bieber a rrest
was a translation of a poem by Ahmed Faiz:
The media function as a weapon of mass
WMD. I think I t poses a serious public-affairs radio
“Speak, your lips are free. Speak, it is your distraction, a WMD. I think it poses a
show called
health hazard lo r the
own tongue. Speak, your life is still yours.”
serious health hazard for the communication
“Alternative Radio,”
communication needs e l
which continues today
needs of citizenry in a democratic society,
citizenry In a democratic
Rianna Hidalgo: I wanted to start with
and is offered free to all
and we need to have ideas and perspectives
society, and we need to have
“Alternative Radio” which you founded in the
public radio stations in
that cut through all the garbage about
American Exceptionalism and, you know,
Ideas and perspectives that cut the U.S. His work as an '80s. What was going on in your life at that
point, and what fueled your desire to start it?
“We are the city on the hill” and “God’s gift
through a ll the garbage about independent
to humanity” and all of the jingoistic
American Exceptionalism and, investigative journalist
David Barsamian: I was a volunteer at
nationalism.
has earned him the
you know, 'We are the city on
KGNU, the community radio station in
I was just in the Boulder post office, and
ACLU’s Upton Sinclair
the h ili' and 'God's g ilt to
Boulder, and I began the program called
Award, among other
there’s a huge line there today because
humanity' and aH ol the
“Ganges to the Nile” and another program
boastings (including
there’s a shortage of clerks. Workers have
called “Hemispheres.” I was developing my
being deported from
been laid off or volunteered to retire early,
jingoistic nationalism /'
skills as an editor, narrator, writer, producer,
India, likely for his
and I thought to myself, this country can
interviewer, all those things, and I was very
reporting on largely
build aircraft carriers that are worth billions
unhappy with the state of the media in the
unreported human
and billions of dollars but can’t staff a post
United States, particularly the fact that
rights violations in Kashmir).
office; cannot provide universal, free health
people I admired very much and thought
It’s no surprise that he is a wealth of
care (or) universal, free education from
should have a wider audience were virtually
excerpts and passages. He is known for his
kindergarten right through to university;
not to be found anywhere — of course not in
interviews with hundreds of activists,
cannot take care of the environment and
the corporate media but not even in the
thinkers, writers, artists and historians who
cannot take care of its poor people.
so-called alternative media. I’m talking about
run against the grain, especially Noam
people like Noam Chomsky and Edward Said
Chomsky. Many of those conversations have
R.H.: The list of issues you bring up is long.
and Eqbal Ahmad, Howard Zinn, Helen
been folded into books, such as “Power
Is there a current event that you think we
Caldicott, Angela Davis. People who I believe
Systems: Conversations on Global
should really be paying attention to?
really need to be heard because of their
Democratic Uprisings and the New
D.B.: First and foremost has to be the
radical, progressive ideas that were so
Challenges to U.S. Empire.” By the time he
ecocrisis, because that will have enormous
relevant then and continue to be relevant
arrived in Seattle for his lecture, Barsamian
planetary consequences. We’re treating
now.
was on the tail end of a Northwest tour with
Mother Earth like a dumpster, like a garbage
So, on a whim and with not much
seven speaking engagements in eight days.
can, and we keep defecating upon her.
background or encouragement, I said, I’ll
He was exhausted, sporting a raspy voice
It’s going to have extremely dire
in addition to his ironic “Homeland Security” take a chance and see what happens and that
consequences for the future. That, I think, is
was the beginning of “Alternative Radio,”
T-shirt But he still spoke with passion and
something that I talk about no matter what
unapologetic fervor about U.S. foreign policy, which is gonna be celebrating its 30th
the topic is that I’m asked to speak on,
anniversary soon.
the Middle E ast global warming, capitalism,
because it is threatening our very existence.
democracy, terrorism, income inequality and,
R.H.: The people you mentioned - what
The number of species that are
above all else, the use of media across the
drew
you to them?
disappearing is at a record rate, the rising
globe as a propaganda arm.
temperatures threaten coastal regions and
He spoke from his home base in Boulder,
D.B: Well, there’s so much crap in the
island communities all over the world. The
Colo., despite several warnings that these
corporate media. I mean, much of it is just
extreme weather that is being experienced
topics “make his blood boil,” and that I might sheer escapism, from the latest Jenner
need to move the receiver away from my
operation to a Kardashian divorce to a
ears. Still, even at Town Hall, he ended on a
See BARSAMIAN, page 11
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