Hat Tip

Many thanks to reader Ellen for this great link to Utah Phillip's "Talking NPR Blues" (I think NPR Check has found its fight song). Ironically, I've got to give a nod to NPR for airing a fine tribute to Phillips on Thursday's ATC. Of course "Talking NPR Blues" wasn't mentioned, but Bill Harley who presented the piece included Phillips' radical side, for example noting his aphorism that (take note NPR) "the most radical thing in America is a long term memory."
For more on Phillips see this recording site (where the photo came from) and this tribute (which is part of a great larger project).

Raz and Slur Part 2: Playing Reporter

In my previous post "Raz and Slur" I noted how Guy Raz characterized the attendees at an antiwar speech as being "mostly aging hippies" and "draft dodgers."

Unlike Raz, I did a little work and contacted the organizers of the event in Richmond (see flyer here). Here's what Adria Scharf of the Richmond Peace Education Center had to say about Raz's reporting:

"To describe the audience as 'mostly aging hippies' is truly a mischaracterization. At least a quarter of those in attendance were college students and young people in their 20s. Another quarter to a third were members of the faith community whose churches had cosponsored Jonathan Hutto's visit, and the rest were community members, including African American community activists and members of the Richmond Peace Education Center among others."

In our community we've been holding regular Saturday curbside antiwar demonstrations since before the Iraq War began. Invariably some knucklehead passing by yells out of a car window, "Get a job!" It's always a bit amusing because it's a Saturday afternoon and because most of the 30-50 of us in attendance have full time jobs and a lot of us, frankly, look like middle-age, working Midwesterners. Clearly those who yell such things can only see us through the prism of their own warped preconceptions. It's amusing on the street, but when it comes out of the radio, it's disgraceful.

Raz and Slur

It was good to hear NPR reporting on dissent within the military. Then toward the end of the piece Guy Raz unloads a doozy. He describes meeting Navy petty officer, Jonathan Hutto, one of the founders of the Petition for Redress movement. Raz says "I met Hutto few weeks ago in Richmond, Virginia during another one of his lectures; the turnout was modest – mostly aging hippies and a couple of Vietnam-era draft dodgers."

Aging hippies--please! I wonder how Raz arrived at that determination. And draft dodgers--now that's some serious journalism. I'd be willing to wager that whoever was there and didn't get drafted was probably a draft resister. Of course I do look forward to Guy Raz being consistent in the future when he will refer to Dick Cheney and George W. Bush as aging corporate swindlers and draft dodgers (or chickenhawks).