News and Public Affairs Day – Thursday May 14th

The theme of this year’s drive is ‘Spring into Action!’ – Like groundwater in spring, the power of the people is rising.  We’ll hear talks by Democracy Now co-host Amy Goodman, radical Texan Jim Hightower, media critic and historian Robert McChesney, Harvard professor and author Linda J. Bilmes and some bits from the Pacifica Archives.

Joe and Abe host a discussion of the Second Amendment. What are our rights and responsibilities?

Robert Sheer is a respected journalist and author, and is currently the editor in chief of Truthdig.com, an award winning political blog. In this interview with Dr Helen Caldicott he discusses the political climate in the US against the backdrop of economic crisis and a new White House administration. Sheer also talks about the military-industrial complex over the couse of his career, and describes his latest book, The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America, published by Twelve in 2008. 

The guest is Jeff Cohen, media critic and founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College in the state of New York. He has been a TV commentator at CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, and was senior producer of Phil Donahue primetime show until it was terminated three weeks before the Iraq invasion - for political reasons.

In this interview with Dr Caldicott, Jeff describes the media environment at the beginning of the current Iraq conflict, and explains how independent journalists and bloggers has become major players in todays multimedia landscape.