In our final RadioActive program, Robert Jensen discusses the state of media today, his latest projects, and his entry into the church community as a venue for progressive organizing and community.

Click here to download MP3

There’s been a flutter of media-related discussions about the Wikileaks saga in the past week.  Ultimately, the fate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may rest in the determination of whether his site constitutes “journalism.”  But what’s not being discussed as much is that Wikileaks has been modeling its habits off of tried and true methods used for decades by the more traditional media outlets.  For instance, one of the myths is that WL is indiscriminately “dumping” documents onto the web with no regard for consequence, doing such things as including names of civilians, or deceased, or other information that could result in direct harm to someone.   On the contrary, WL has followed the lead of most major media in redacting such information.  In fact, there are reports that WL has even contacted the US government to help determine what information should be redacted.   Check out this week’s Counterspin for an interview with Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com.  (Greenwald interview begins at around the 10 minute mark of the show).

Greenwald also tracks some of the major inaccuracies in the press about WikiLeaks, noting the similarities between it and the lead-up to the Iraq war.  Check it out here.

More myths about the WL situation can be found online here, OpEdNews.com.

Discussion on the efforts to democratize radio, as a tool for social justice and community.

Click here to download the MP3

(EFF) Secrecy surrounds law enforcement’s communications surveillance practices like a dense fog. Particularly shrouded in secrecy are government demands issued under 18 U.S.C. § 2703 of the Stored Communications Act or “SCA” that seek subscriber information or other user records from communications service providers. When the government wants such data from a phone company or online service provider, it can obtain a court order under the SCA demanding the information from the provider, along with a gag order preventing the provider from disclosing the existence of the government’s demand. More often, companies are simply served with subpoenas issued directly by prosecutors without any court involvement; these demands, too, are rarely made public. (For more background on how the SCA works, see this section of EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense manual.)

Continued…

Michael Moore’s latest documentary is a critique of capitalism- in mainstream theaters- pretty big deal. “Capitalism: A Love Story” starts off comparing the US to the Roman Empire- a fairly easy task. In addition to other commentary, the documentary seems to be focused on the anti-capitalist stance of various Catholic priests, the consequences of the housing crisis, corporate bailouts and, finally, some alternatives in the form of worker-run workplaces. Read the full story

Perhaps it was a bluff, but sources indicate that even though Hartford Public High School officials planned a virtual lockdown of the school for today’s PBS Newshour visit, the plan to sequester a list of problem students was not implimented.  No word yet as to why this action was not taken as planned.  A list of students was circulated late last week.  These students were to be kept in a designated room all day while the PBS film crew was present.  Read the full story