many many of the scorecards as to who was right and who was wrong going into
this war
and we all know the story now that in virtually all will roll
continue
to fill moments on
uh... our television on a daily basis
continue to fill their opinion pieces on the pages of our newspapers
uh... many of whom
still concert of cling to that notion that there were sort of right
and what one thing that
and again this is a fairly narrow
and uh...
perhaps somewhat myopic perspective on my part
to the extent that i had any platform which ever to lean on
i ask that mention in the past that for two hours a
time sharply none best of show on earth and you let me go on
and do a version of the show
uh... where
without any real skills to do radio
uh... into simply so that guy who was probably more from even anthony body
else frankly
but there was no of virtual blackout
of any dissent
on any mass media in this country
of virtual blackout
there was literally us
handful of people
who were allowed
to go on television
and speak out against this war
there is a i think uh... a fairly broad awareness that phil donahue
um... was allowing
this entire was allowing dissent
as to our russian the war on his program that was on msnbc at the time
remember msnbc at that time
was not to in any shape or form
a uh...
liberal network
phil donahue was the edge of that spectrum
and
he was uh... michelle was taken off the air in the run-up to the war
a sense of the because he was too expensive relative to the ratings
his ratings were that he was the top-rated show on the front on the
network
uh... memo surface later is saying that n_b_c_ was concerned
that he was bringing on too many anti-war people and that it was not a
good uh... marketing position for n_b_c_ to be
in the run up to this war at that time remember they were also owned
the majority the ownership is owned by g_e_
in a near and major manufacturer of
weapons
uh... but there was another person who was allowed to go on the media
who was recruited by win without war which was an organization that was
basically is saying
do not
rush into a war let the weapons inspectors do their uh...
their job
an apparition was jinender awful
and
at the time jeannine and i'll were good friends
she knew my interest in this stuff
uh... and uh... we would talk about her appearances
just for a moment and and and and i want to make this point because it did
she
not only does she get no recognition from any of these writers
across the spectrum
for being one of the soul boyce is of descent in this country
they also don't examine the story behind that which is so important
no one knew more than ginny
that she was being brought on
she was recruited like i say with wood from with a by win without war
uh... this organization is in fact let's play the ad
that they had uh... that they were running
on some uh... networked i don't know how many networks uh... it ran on probably
very few would even accepting it
but this is a thirty second ad that they were in
there will be on the way
million
the detention
brian
you
marlena
and
she was recruited by this organization because
she was the only person
that would be allowed to be booked on these shows
and she was on uh... on msnbc
which was hostile towards our she was on c_n_n_ uh... i'd believe she actually i
think at one point uh...
even sat in uh... on crossfire
she was on fox
repeatedly
and she had more than anyone else knew that they were bringing her own
because she was
so easy to dismiss
the first question would be washed why do you think you have a right to speak
out for this into the first thing she would say is
uh... bring on howard zinn
bring on former weapons inspectors
bring on any of the um... the more
credentialed
voices of dissent in this country do it
i'd challenge you to do it
and of course they never would and so
imagine if you car faced with this
you know you are literally one of us
handful
this is no exaggeration
of handful of people in the country
who are both willing and able
to get onto the
national media
an express a view of dissent which is not being expressed anywhere except on
the streets as as
literally hundreds of thousands
of people protest
a magic knapper decrement
imagined uh... your
or representatives in your profession saying
don't do this why are you doing this
imagine knowing that you're going to get threats
the people are going to jump out of their car in new york city and come up
and threaten yet
and imagine continuing to do that
and
what it says of our media that
she was the only person
who is able and willing to do that
and what it says of our media today
the fact that people can go out and write these stories
about who got it right in who got wrong
and never mention her
and not because to certainly
wouldn't want that mentioned
but but what what what it says about our media
and it says even about those writers
is uh... is important and a its
it's stunning to me
there's been many pieces written about whether or not you know if we had
twitter today
uh... maybe the reporting that was coming from knight-ridder would be uh...
would be more widely disseminated there would be some push back here
but in many respects jeannine was the living embodiment of that
and
there is still disorder the even those uh... to those people who write today
who preceded somehow they'll be sullied if they
if they knowledge what she did
'cause that's the only explanation and considered not serious
at a time when all the serious people
were advocating for this war
inward a mission does
who would express any dissent
it is a failure even today
of those people
because they are to powered lee
in my estimation
to acknowledge what she did because they'd be afraid at sum up they'd be
considered less than serious for acknowledging
but what she did was real and it was important
and there's a lot to be learned
from
what she did then n
and i would argue
from they lack
of recognition of what she did by writers today
and i think you know it's its
it's it's appropriate that we we have on
uh... becky bond next because
the mechanism for fighting the these
these type of
media narratives and for pushing back
has to happen outside of the establishment
because even though is
well in sconce
establishment writers
still must protect
their status in some fashion or another
and we just don't see an off
uh... and so it's that much more important that you empower yourselves
to be able to push back on the prevailing narrative
out