Re: [acid-jazz] Fascist media

From: Koen Mariën (ko_ma_at_pandora.be)
Date: 2003-03-28 22:42:54

  • Next message: Dgasque_at_aol.com: "Re: [acid-jazz] NightFlight Playlist 3/29/03"

    apparently the chorus of the new spearhead single goes: "we can bomb the
    world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace". wise and beautiful
    words...
    greets,

    koen

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "MundoVibes .com" <mundovibes_at_hotmail.com>
    To: <acid-jazz_at_ucsd.edu>
    Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:31 PM
    Subject: [acid-jazz] Fascist media

    > If you don't think it can happen here -- it is. Anyone opposed to Bush's
    > reich is now a target. And the media are complicit in this, including MTV.
    > Read on and then act:
    >
    > Soldiers at the Door
    > By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
    > March 27, 2003
    >
    > On March 27, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman interviewed hip-hop artist
    > Michael Franti on the national listener-sponsored radio show Democracy
    Now.
    > What follows is a rush transcript of that interview:
    >
    >
    > For nearly a decade, hip-hop artist and activist Michael Franti has been a
    > leading progressive voice in music. He grew out of the Bay Area music and
    > political scene of the 90s. In 1986 he founded the drum and bass duo the
    > Beatniks, paving the way for his next musical endeavor, the Disposable
    > Heroes of Hiphoprisy. His most recent musical project is the musical
    > collective Spearhead, begun in 1994. Franti has used his music to push
    > social boundaries, speaks out against sexual violence, encourages his
    > community to prevent the spread of HIV and has been very vocal in his
    > opposition to war. And now it maybe the reason why the government is
    looking
    > at him and his group Spearhead.
    >
    >
    > Amy Goodman: It's good to have you with us. Can you talk about what's been
    > happening as you've been touring the country with songs like "Bomb da
    > World"?
    >
    >
    > Michael Franti: Well, we've been touring for the last year and a half
    > performing that song and everywhere we go it gets standing ovations,
    people
    > begin to cry. People are just very grateful to hear any voice out there
    > right now who are speaking in support of peace and human rights.
    >
    >
    > What's happened as you've been on this tour?
    >
    >
    > Well, what's happened most recently is that we performed at a rally on
    March
    > 15 in San Francisco and the next day on the 16th - that rally was out
    here -
    > and on the 16th on the East Coast, a band member of mine who prefers to go
    > unnamed, his mother received a visit from two plainclothes men from the
    > military - and this band member of mine has a sibling who is in the Gulf.
    >
    >
    > And they came in and talked to her and said, You have a child who's in the
    > Gulf and you have a child who's in this band Spearhead who's part of the
    > "resistance"(in their words).
    >
    >
    > They had pictures of us performing the day before at the rally, they had
    > pictures of us performing at some of our annual concerts that we put on
    that
    > are in support of peace and human rights. They had his flight records for
    > the past several months, they had the names of everybody who works in my
    > office, our management office Guerilla Management. They had his checking
    > account records. They asked his mother a lot of questions about where he
    > was, what he was doing in this place, why he was going here. They
    > confiscated his sibling's CD collection that they had brought over to
    listen
    > to while they were in the Gulf, and basically were intimidating - told her
    > which members of the press she could talk to and which members of the
    press
    > she should not speak to.
    >
    >
    > And basically what this signals to me is that - I don't feel like we're
    > being particularly singled out or under any investigation for any activity
    > because all the activity that we do is very much above board and all the
    > events where photos were taken out were all public things we were at. But
    > what it does signal to me is that there's a lot of us who are now making a
    > blip on the radar, you know, whether we're organizers at rallies, whether
    > we're musicians, whether we're people who are speaking out, authors,
    > writers, actors. And we're beginning to make little blips on the radar.
    > They're starting to pay attention and collect information about what's
    going
    > on. You know, more important to me or more important than me you know,
    being
    > a part of that is the fact that our civil rights are being eroded across
    the
    > board for every person.
    >
    >
    > And for musicians in particular it's a really hard time. Last week our
    label
    > received a letter, a mass email from MTV instructing the fact that no
    videos
    > could be shown that mentioned the words "bombing" or "war."
    >
    >
    > No videos could be shown that had protesters in it. Any footage from
    > military - they gave a list of prior videos that could not be shown, yet
    MTV
    > has aired videos that show troops saying goodbye to their loved ones and
    > going off to war in a very heroic fashion and troops which are gonna be
    > coming home traumatized, wounded and dead and then be treated and thrown
    > onto the scrap heap of veterans, as we've seen veterans treated in this
    > country.
    >
    >
    > And at the Academy Awards, there were also letters and talk that went
    around
    > saying not to speak out. Radio - mainstream radio, Clear Channel in
    > particular, of course - has put the word out not to air songs that are in
    > opposition to the war and in support of peace. Meanwhile, our song "Bomb
    Da
    > World" which we just put out is now in heavy rotation on a top youth radio
    > station in Australia and in Denmark and it's expected to get added to a
    lot
    > of stations in other countries.
    >
    >
    > A few days ago, Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill and I were at
    the
    > Ani DiFranco concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to talk
    about
    > Democracy Now and the importance of independent media in a time of war,
    just
    > before she went on. And Clear Channel, which owns New Jersey Performing
    Arts
    > Center, runs that venue, told her no political information could be given
    > out and threatened - it seemed the venue threatened to close down the
    > concert if there was any political speech.
    >
    >
    > It's incredible, it's outrageous and I think it's something that we all
    need
    > to be aware of and need to support the art, you know, whether it's music,
    > whether it's films, whether it's dance performances or whatever, this is
    the
    > last place, apart from Pacifica and a few other stations around the
    country,
    > where these voices are being heard.
    >
    >
    > And Clear Channel that runs 1,200 radio stations now, runs many of the big
    > venues in this country for musicians.
    >
    >
    > So it's important that we call these stations and demand that these voices
    > be heard.
    >
    >
    > Well Michael Franti, I want to thank you for being with us, as we go out
    > with your voice, with "Bomb Da World."
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > _________________________________________________________________
    > Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
    > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >