tv Book TV CSPAN January 8, 2012 2:00pm-3:30pm EST
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that. for example, that's why we have not been attacked since 9/11. the fbi every few months rolls up terrorists it's a myth that the fbi, you know, cannot function as an intelligence agency. that develops clues and leads to future plots. that is now the main priority of the fbi. >> the most recent book by ron kessler, the secrets of the fbi. >>.. ..our and a half. [applause] >> welcome, everyone, to cooper union, and this momentous launch
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of a masseterpiece of the latest book of juan gonzalez, written together with joe torres, called "news for all the people: the epic story of race and the american media." >> no one could be more excited about this tonight than i am, and maybe, oh, joe and juan's parents and family. but at bill meijer -- bill moyer said we needed this book for a long time, this book that is a sweeping history of the american news media that puts race at the center of the story, and to be here at cooper union, a university, a college for all the people that is still tuition-free -- [applause]
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>> -- and to be here on the stage, at this podium, where president abraham lincoln spoke, where the great abolitionist frederick douglass spoke, the greatest abolitionist of all time, but frederick douglass was an editor, a publisher, a writer, and when he came north to maryland, he took refuge not far from here, in an old brick house that was the printing press of david ruggle's born a free black man in connecticut. david ruggles and frederick douglass saw information as power. media as their form of liberation. that's why media is so
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important. and so to be here also tonight, on this 15th anniversary of democracy -- anniversary of "democracy now! --" [applause] [cheers and applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> i'm amy goodman, and co-host aring for 15 years. it is hi privilege to set beside juan gonzalez. i'll talk more about that introducing juan, but what is so thrilling as they launch this book tour that will take then across the country, is they are bringing back a story of heros
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and also of villains in the publishing industry, of villains and great writers who we have not heard about in one place, under one cover, until juan and joe, after seven years of deep research and even more than that, the wisdom of their life's experience, have now published "news for all the people: the epic store of race and american media" i hope everyone gets a copy and gets another copy to give to a library, college library, prison library, community center, everyone on c-span2 orders that book, and we welcome c-span to this wonderful evening. we began "democracy now!" on a few dozen community radio stations, now broadcasting on close 1,000 radio and television
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stations around the united states and around the world. [applause] >> for this very reason. to bring out the stories of people who did such great things in history, that we don't hear about now, and for the people that are doing those things right now in new york city and all over the world, their voices deserve to be heard as well. and to have the debates and discussions about the most important issues of the day with a microphone that is open for all. special thanks to cooper union for publishing this book, and to our cosponsor tonight, free press, which brings me to craig arrand, the ceo and president of free press. [applause]
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>> all right. new york city. how are you? i'm craig, the president of free press. i want to get a sense of our audience here. how many free press activists and members here tonight? all right. a couple. how about now -- "democracy now!" listeners? [applause] >> now, if you didn't cheer both times, that means we still have a little bit of work to do. can i take anything away from this book we're here to celebrate tonight is that when journalists and activists work together, change is possible. when independent media makers are paying attention to policymakers the media system can be transformed. of course, when we're not working together, when we're not keeping an eye on those decisionmakers things can go very, very wrong, and that's part of this story as well. for too long we have been taught that the media is just something that happens to us.
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we have been taught our media system is inevitable, even natural, and that's simply not true. the media system we have good, and bad, is the result of political choices, of business decisions, and of often complex policies being made too long in our name but without our consent. we started free place eight years ago bus we -- because we believe that real change on any issue that matters is going to be impossible without better media. we believe the only way to get better media is through better media policy. and the only way that's going to happen is by engaging and mobilizing the public at critical junctures like the one we're at right now. the decisions we make in the next few years are going to determine whether we have quality journalism, whether the internet actually meets its point,, -- its potential and whether our democracy continues to prosper.
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that's why i hope you'll take one small step, add your name to one of these little cards and sign our "change the media, change the world" petition. i promise we won't sell your name. people are going to try to tell you that signing a petition doesn't matter. i can't tell you how many times down in washington, dc where i come from, some congessal staffers call me up and said, all these petitions you're sending me, they're not really making a difference. and i'm always like, well, you know, before we sent those petitions you never called me. so there's the difference. people are going to tell you those facebook posts are those tweets and blogs, they tell you they don't matter. that's because they hope you will stop writing about them. they're going to tell you that taking to the streets done matter. they complain about how you lack a clear message. thousands of people on the streets here in new york and
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city after city saying there is too much power in the hands of corporations, saying there's too much corruption in washington, too many people figuring out that the media is increase leg complicit in the demise of our democracy? i think the message is pretty clear, i think it's just that they don't want more people to hear it. it's so much easier to fain concern about noise and sanitation and littering. it's for more simple to complain and saying that these protests like "occupy wall street" are too disorganized and that's just because they're hoping it will stay that way. they're going to try to tell you that "democracy now!" doesn't matter either, but "democracy now!" showed what really happening in egypt, and "democracy now!" bearing wilt when the state of georgia killed troy davis. "democracy now!" covering the protests as we speak, and there's not a single show that has destreeted -- devoted mow time to covering the immediateas
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a political issue and has featured the grassroots activists who are speaking out in their communities. i'm very honored to share the stage with juan gonzalez, who is truly one of america's great journalists. when i was in sidewalk -- chicago i had the pleasure offed didding juan's columns, in my case it really meant calling him and begging him to write more. and brings stories that no one else was telling. but most of all, i'm proud to be here tonight to introduce you my friend and my colleague, joe torres. joe grew up here in new york. started as journalist here on staten island and later came to washington to cover everything from the white house the are its that they that time anyway formerly known as prince. somewhere long the way he had an awakening that the media system we have right now is not the only option. he became the deputy director of
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the national association of hispanic journalists and along with juan, who was president at the time, he worked to make nhj not just another trade association but an advocacy organization, one that challenged media companies when they weren't covering or hiring communities of color, one that stood up under media consolidation and understand agency that policies made in washington had a huge impact on what was happening in newsrooms everywhere. over the past five years joe has been dig through are tithes and -- archives and has been on the front line for better media, bringing your message to the halls of congress and across the country. working to create thousands of new community radio stations, exposing the perils or media concentration, stopping big media mergers and protecting the free and open enter it -- inter. a passionate evangelist for a
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better media and a better world. so join me in giving him a big number city hometown welcome to joe torres. [applause] >> freedom's journal. our nation's first african-american newspaper was published right near new york city. and in its inaugural issue the publishers declared the reason why they founded the paper. they wrote, we wish to plead our own cause. too long have others spoken for us. for the press and the pulpit we have suffered much by being incorrectly represented. the year was 1827. this quote is so powerful because it is the reason why so many people have become
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journalists today. it is the reason why juan and i wrote this book, because we wish to plead our own cause. founded at a time when our nation's first ethnic newspapers began to appear. the first one was in 1808, the first native american paper in 1828. how were people of color who war brave enough and free enough able to publish newspaperrers during a time of brutal oppression, at a time when expressing your opinion could get you killed in the reason was the u.s. postal policies. heavily subdiesed the cost of delivering newspapers. it allowed people of color to publish they're own newspapers and speak for themselves. it created a decentralized media system. where powerful companies have ever since successfully pressured or government to pass policies that benefit their
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corporate amibitions while silencing voices of everyday people. because throughout history, whenever new technology emerges, it fundamentally changes the existing media system. new industries emerge, such as the telegraph, radio, tv, cable tv, and when this happens, our government is face with a critical decision. does it regulate each industry to allow voices to speak or turn over control into a hands of a few. starting with the telegraph the government has turn over control to the hands of a few. this decision has put corporate greatgatekeepers in control of whose voices will be heard and whose voice will be major alized. it has caused ore communities great harm since we're unable to tell our own stories, and too often when other people tell our stories they get it wrong. when radio was created there was great hope init would provide voice for the many.
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african-americans started clubss to teach each other how to broadcast. in san antonio, john rodriguez received a license to operate amateur station in 1916. and then he launched his first commercial album in 1922. a quarter century before history had generally recognized our nation's first minority broadcast owner. you see, people of color were not late the game. despite the social and economic obstacles they embraced radio from the get-go. by 1927, congress created the federal radio commission to regulate radio for the first time and corporate pressure got -- formed cbs, nbc; not a single person of color received a license but one who did receive license was a kkk organization in washington, dc. so it was not surprising the
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most popular program on radio was amos and andy, a minstrel show that aired each night. one of the host influencal black paper launched a program to get the show off the ear. 40,000 readers signed petitions in support of the campaign, which was 10% of the country's black population and it was perhaps the first movement to challenge racial bigotry in american mass media. despite the effort the mrc ignored the petitioners but the fight copies. in jackson, mississippi, 1966, the united church of christ challenged the license of wlptv for allowing white spremists on the air and no one from the black community. citizens didn't have a legal right to challenge a license
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even though the public owned the air waves. but that change did have a right to contest the license. a new media reform movement was born. and was led by black and brown organizations. groups like william rice, and the antidefinition leagues were founded. there were more than 340 license challenges in cities like at the atlanta, san antonio, and new york. it led the toe the first couple of policies to increase minority ownership. in the 1970s it came to a halt with the election of president reagan in 1980. the fcc relaxed openership
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rules. and clear channel went from owning 40 stations to 1200 stations stations stations in a matter of a few years. the media landscape was transformed and people of color began to arose. today people of color only own 8% of radio stations, and the number of colored people working for newspapers fell to its lowest level since 1993. so where are we today in 2011? we're living through a critical moment in history that does not come along we are often. the government is debate right now whether the internet, the greatest network ever created to date, will remain an open platform. will the government demand that the cable companies treat all web traffic equally? or will at&t, verizon and comcast successfully spend millions to convince lawmakers
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to allow a corporate takeover of the internet? will history repeat itself? you would think a corporate takeover over the enter it in would have broad based support of community ofs of colors but that not the case. they actively support the at&t and verizon corporate agenda. the reasons vary. the financial support many receive is a critical factor. i believe that places you on the wrong side of history and is a departure from our community's role of fighting for a decrial centralized media system. i'm puerto rican, i grew up near new york city. and there was little positive coverage of our commune in the media. our community has paid a high price for being marginalized
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since we have little control how we're portrayed in the media. latinos have taken to the streets if there wasn't an open internet, wouldn't have heard about the fight for troy davis. our communities have been rarely able to fight for a justice media system at the moment when the government is deciding its fate so we're fortunate because there are remarkable organizationses of color who understand why the fight for internet is critical to the self-determination of our community. groups like the center for media justice, the people's protection house, the media literacy project, the media justice league, applied research center, corporate change, media mobilizing project among the many organizations standing up and saying, not again. they're saying, no, we will not sit quietly by and allow corporations to spend millions
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convincing government officials to make sure there's news for just some of the people. they're demanding there's news for all of the people. [applause] >> so before i pass it back to aimy, i just want to say a couple of thank yous. a lot of people are saying thank you, but the family but we'll do that privately. i want to thank a couple of people specifically. our researcher or the project, and she is here there you go. and i want to thank andy, who was our editor of the book. and want to extend our condolences again to the family. juan and i only began to work with hayward.
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clay a was the marketing manager who -- she unfortunately was kill in july. so, we just want to extend condolences to the family because it's only been two months. so i'll turn it back to amy and thank you all for coming. [applause] >> so, it is my job tonight to introduce juan gonzalez. a very tall order. juan has been a professional journalist for more than 30 years. he is a staff columnist at the new york daily news since 1987. cohost on "democracy now!" for the full 15 years of our broadcast. he is a two-time recipient of the george polk award for
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commentary in 1998 and in 2002, -- 2010, and the first reporter in new york city to consistently report the health effects arising from the september 112001 attacks. as well as the coverup of these hazards by government officials. we congratulate the new york daily news for winning a pulitzer for their coverage, but juan should be getting a pulitzer as part of that coverage as well. [applause] >> juan gonzalez is a founder and past president of the national association of hispanic journalists, a member of the hall of fame. during his term as nahj president, he created an innovative program that creates partnerships between local communities and media organizations to improve coverage of the latino community and to recruit and retain more
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latino journalists. he also spear-headed a successful movement among u.s. journalists to join other citizen groups in opposing the federal communications commission deregulation of media ownership restrictions. juan is also a founding member of the young lords party in the 1970s. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> a founding member of the national congress for puerto rican rights in the 1980s. juan has twice been named by hispanic business magazine as one of the country's most influential hispanics and has received awards from many associations. now, we tonight are not far from an historic occupation. "occupy wall street."
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where hundreds of people are right now in the cold. they were in the rain last night. [applause] >> i just flew in from kansas city yesterday. there's an "occupy" kansas city as there is in cities across this country and around the world. juan gonzalez knows something about occupations. where do we begin? let's start in 1968. one of the leaders of the columbia university strike against war and against racism, juan gonzalez. [applause] >> yes, he knows something about occupations and about getting arrested. 1969 as well, juan led one of the occupations in east harlem of the people's church, that the young lord did to demand -- [applause] >> -- respite programs, free clothing programs, healthcare
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programs. in 1970, one of the first occupations he wasn't arrested at was the occupation of the south bronx of lincoln hospital, to get the city to build a new hospital. but then he was at it again in 1980, leading the occupation of independence hall in philadelphia, along with 200 poor latino squatters from hud housing. they were occupying the housing, demanding that they should be given the titles to those properties. well, they got arrested there, they did win those titles. [applause] >> well, and then, of course there, was the 1991 daily news strike, which juan also helped to lead as they occupied the brooklyn daily news office. i think ten people arrested. of course, one was one of them.
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juan as since settled down a little bit. and written four books. he wrote "fallout. the environmental consequence office the world trade center collapse" which documents the coverup of the epa and government officials of the hazards in ground zero when authorities were saying it was safe soon after the attacks for workers to go back, juan was blowing the whistle. tremendous pressure brought on the daily news but juan kept doing the reporting, and all that he report then has turned out, of course to be true. as you hear in every cough of every worker that has survived, the lucky ones. juan went on to write "harvest of empire. the history of latinos in america." that back has been -- book has been rereleased, selling more now than it was ten years ago. and his wonderful first book
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"roll down your windows" stories of a forgotten america. a collection of his columns. hitlesseest book, -- his latest book, this masterpiece, the epic work we are celebrating tonight, is called "news for all the people: the epic story of race and the american media" a landmark narrative history of american media that puts race at the center of the story. my media hero, juan gonzalez. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, and good evening
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to all of you. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> you know, jill did such a great job giving you a summary of the book that we've labored over now for the past seven or eight years in terms of research. i want to tell you why i wrote the book and my concern as a journalist, or what is happening to the delivery of news to the american people, at such a critical time, with so many people in the country going through such hard times and unable to think or better life in america, when that used to be a given that things were always going to get better in america. as amy mentioned, i have now
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been a professional journalist, working in the commercial or corporate media -- some people call it -- this is my 34th 34th year that i have been in that world. but that's not the only part of the news media i have been involved with. i've also -- thanks to this tremendous opportunity to collaborate and work with one of the really great journalists in america, amy goodman, and "democracy now!," for 15 years now, i've worked in the alternative, noncommercial, dissident's press in america, which hat its own tradition that goes back almost to the beginning of the country. and i've also been involved in another part of the media that rarely gets much attention.
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back in the early 1980s, i was -- i founded -- was a founding editor of a spanish-language community newspaper in philadelphia. , which i stopped being associated with about maybe 25 years ago, but it is still one of the important sources of news and information the growing latino community of philadelphia. so i have been involved in what is commonly called the ethnic press of the united states. and over the years in the commercial media, i have done something like 5,000 columns and newspaper articles and investigations, and maybe 2,000 to 3,000 shows on "democracy now!," and one of the things that is so frustrating is that we are in this country the
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people who have access to more news and information than any people in the history of the world. we have 1400 daily newspapers in the united states. we have 12,000 radio stations. 1200 television stations. we have hundreds of channels to choose from on our cable systems, and all of these cable -- national cable news networks, music 5, music -- news at 5:00, news at 10:00, any hour of the day news is on, and yet the american people are so remarkably misinformed about the world. how is it possible to have so much media and so little knowledge and understanding of the pressing problems that face our country and the rest of the world? and when 60% of the population
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believes that saddam hussein was involved with the 9/11 attacks, it's obvious that there's something fundamentally wrong with the kind of news and information that journalists provide to the american people. and so i became increasingly frustrated, not only with that aspect of it but also when communities of color -- everyone dislikes the media. one way or another, feel that the media do not portray news and information adequately, comprehensively, fairly, with compassion, but that is especially true in communities of color, who are so constantly under assault, denigrated, misrepresented, exploited, and the anger as a journalist sometimes when you go into
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various communities, the anger that you see in the african-american community or the latino community toward the press, is really palpable, and so i became increasingly frustrated. why was there such resistance to change? why is our media system not improving and providing more information and education to the people they can use as citizens. i began to realize it had nothing to do with individuals. it had nothing to do with particular media companies. but that we really have not grasped how our system of news operates in america. and i decided i'm going to find out because i've been in this business all these years and i don't understand it. i don't understand it. so, joe and i set about -- we scoured the national archives. we went into presidential libraries. we dug up papers from colonial times.
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we read everything that we could find that was written on different aspects of the media, to try to make sense of the system. and i think we have. i think we have come up in this book with a theory of how the american media system developed to the point it is today, and also what the central role of race and racial conflict has been in the development of that system, and i think that's the big picture thrust of what this book is about. and just to reflect on some of the things joe did not mention. i think the key thing that we have come to understand is that the media in america have never operated as a free market system. in fact, the public, through it government, has played a crucial role in the development of our media system, and, as joe
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mentioned, everytime a new technology comes around, it upsets the existing order and forces the government to step in and come up with new rules for hough information will be delivered to the people. so we have never had a really true market system, and there's been important government involvement, and there have been basically five major points in the media system in our country. as joe mention, the development of the post office by our founders. there was the telegraph which really brought news networks into existence, and gave rise to something that most people have heard of now but don't understand the critical role played by the wire services, the "associated press" in particular in the late 19th century, in spreading racial bias throughout the country. there was the advent of radio,
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and television was really only an extension of radio, and then there was the advent of cable television. cable television really made a big technological change, gave us many more channels. we used to have free tv for a few channel. now we pay through the nose for cable channels and finally, the internet. those five changes, technological breakthroughs, and at each point the government had to decide how news and information will flow in a democracy. and it was at those times when government was trying to figure o out what to with the new technology, big battle arose among interest groups in the society, and sometimes the public and advocates of media reform and democracy were able to win some victories. sometimes there were setbacks, but inevitably the system ended up not serving the needs of the
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public because -- one of the big battles, the steam that runs through each of these periods of time, is do we have a centralized media system or do we have a decentralized media system? now, we never think about this. what's centralized and decentralized? the united states is a nation. right? the colonies kept expanding, and more territories was conquered, and the native americans pushed back and mexico americans corn kerred and new states adds, so as a consequence, of the way we developed as nation, the political leaders of the different states -- if you were settlers going to set up the territory that would become the state of kentucky, or the state of oklahoma, or the state of mississippi, you didn't want the
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media companies back in new york and the east coast dictating what news and information your people would receive. you wanted your own local media. so the united states initially developed a most decentralized media system and earl newspapers of any country in the history of the world, and had the most newspapers per capita. newspapers were everywhere in the united states in the 19th 19th century because the government was subsidizing their delivery and the people wanted it because of the federal nature of the american system. so haas what happened is we developed a decentralized system initially that promote it democracy that joe was saying people of color flourished. how many people know there were 25 spanish language newspapers in new orleans before the civil war? before the civil war. including a spanish language
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daily that was published in the 1840s. there were native american newspapers. african-american newspapers, chinese newspapers, the golden hills news in 185 4678 because of the postal system, which everybody criticizes now -- the postal system was the first internet. it pulled the country together by providing the traffic of newspapers. so at the 19th century the main job of the postal system of the united states what not deliver letters. it was to deliver newspapers. 90% of the traffic of the postal system throughout the 19th 19th century was the delivery of newspapers, 10% was the delivery of correspondence. the postal system, until the civil war, was the largest employer in the united states government. there were more people working for the postal system than there were in the u.s. army.
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until the civil war. so you could argue that the main job of the united states government for the first 50-60 years of the 19th century was to deliver newspapers to its people. that was the job of the government. that's where all the money was going into. because the thousands understood that the greatest possible disdissim nation of only was critical to the democracy they were creating. so that was the idea of the founders. what do we have today? we have people who are looking at every possible angle to monetize your youoo of information, from your smartphones to your computers, every possible way they're looking to make money off of your use of new technology for information. they're not looking to improve the ability of citizens to strengthen democracy to get more
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knowledge and to function better as citizens. this is the fundmental problem that -- there was a much better, clearer idea early on in the country for the need for a decentralized system, and the same thing happened with radio, cable television. when cable television started in the 60s and 70s, there were hundreds of cable companies all around the united states. there were local affairs. if you wanted to put up a cable system you needed the local government, the local city council, to approve your using the city's rights of way to string your cable line into people's houses. so the local governments said, we want certain number of channels for educational programming, we want a certain number of channels for public access programming, we want your guarantees you're going have to diversified programming.
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we want your guarantees you're going to hire a diversified work force, and so all of these local companies to get a monopoly in the local cities, had to agree to all kinds of things. well, that's all gone by the wayside. there were african-americans who owned cable systems. there were latinos and asian americans, but little by little the government relaxed its oversight and today two companies, comcast and time warner, have bought up most of the other companies and now they have 50% of the entire market two companies of the cable systems in the united states. only now instead of where there were 17 channels in the beginning and four or five of them were like public access, now you got like 1,000 channels, and maybe eight or nine of them are public access, and the public access programming doesn't have enough money and it's been getowized. so the entire effort is to
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monetize the system instead of to inform. do we have a centralized media system or local news and information and what kind of diversity of ownership? so this is the big issue that we tried to get to develop a theory of how the media develops. the other thing is, what is the question of race in all this? most people look at, unfortunately, at the issue of race and racism in the media as a marginal issue, as if it's something that is off here on the side compared to the big issue others, who is running for president and what is the media going to do about this nature of -- this war or that war, and race is something off on the side. well, one of the things we discovered is that race and
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racial conflict has been central to the development of the media in the united states. we went back to the first newspaper on u.s. soil. public occurrences. 1690. benjamin harris. we were shocked when we read the paper. the bulk of that first newspaper was intelligence to the white settlers about what those, quote, savage indians, or skull -- skurking indians, five pages about how to better keep the native americans under control. throughout the entire colony period, sometimes as much as a third of the content of newspapers was information on indians. and later on, on african slaves
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and on the violence -- the articles warning of violence by either free blacks or slaves. so race was major issue in our press from the very newspaper until today, and the problem is that it was all being written by folks who saw african-americans and native-americans and later mexicans, and chinese, as others, as really not part of the nation. and so what we have tried to do in the book is resurrect a more complete story of these courageous african-american and latinos and native-americans, journalists, and tell the stories in their words, not in our words.
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we try to quotas much as possible from the newspapers of the time, from the radio shows, to show exactly the huge battles that were occurring over what kind of a media system will we have. and one of the things we were stunned by . i did not realize how much massacres, how many race riots, how many programs were organized by media, by newspaper editors and publishers. i'm not talking about biased coverage. i'm talk can about actually stoking and organizing racial riots and the one we talk about now in a couple of interviews on
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"democracy now!" that i referred to quite often is the example of daniels, in 1898. there are many. you'll find several dozens listed in the book. but in 1898, in wilmington, north carolina there was the only successful armed coup in the history of the united states. right after the spanish-american war, the white supremacists in north carolina were upset that there was still a black majority in wilmington and that the black majority had a majority control of the city council. it was the tail end of reconstruction. all the reconstruction government had not been dismantled. so right after the november eflex 1898, a mob of 2,000 armed
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whites marched into wilmington, they burned down the only black newspaper in the town, the record, alex manly's paper. they round up all the elected city council members, the black city council members members mea couple of their white republican allies, and order them to leave town at gunpoint. they appoint a confederate colonel, a former confederate colonel to about the new mayor of the town and they begin shooting up the entire black community. 60 people were killed. the leader of that revolt was daniels, the editor and publish 'er of the raleigh observer. well, you would say this is just some wild and rabid racist.
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well, daniels was one of the most respected southern editors of his day. he later goes on to become a chief advisor to woodrow wilson when wilson is reselected president. he becomes secretary of the navy when the united states fought in world war i, he was the secretary of the navy in world war 1. one of his disciples was a young undersecretary named frank delano roosevelt. and he names daniels ambassador to mexico. he is a rev veered figure, supposedly a pop list in southern law, yet he organized a massacre, admitted, admitted that he used his newspaper to foment and prepare the climate in the town for the armed coup.
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never held responsible. never jailed. no one was, for the crimes committed in the wilmington coup. but there are dozens of examples of this. the kent grant massacre of apaches in arizona. the sand creek massacre of indians in -- that the editor of the rocky mountain news helped organize and defend. there were many of these incidents that happened throughout american history. i call it the lure rid scandal of american journalism. the number of times that editors and publishers used their papers, or actually organized massacres and attacks on people of color. and there were -- and we've got more than a dozen examples in the book. so, these are stories that need to be told. and there were also people who
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stood up against it. whites, as well as african-american and latinos. my favorite is ben franklin. 1764, ben franklin finds out there's been a massacre of 20 indians in the pennsylvania colonies and the two philadelphia newspapers in the colony are not writing anything about it. one of the parties used to be his paper. but he sold it. so, franklin was upset over the news blackout. in philadelphia. so he writes a pamphlet to expose the massacre of these indians and chastises the white population that was involved in these attacks, and we quote his pamphlet where he really -- it's amazing hares nantz it is to today. the arguments he uses about the
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racism in the pennsylvania colonies. tom pane, stood up against slavery and criticized the leaders of the revolution who favored slavery. everett parker of the unite church of christ, who led the fight in mississippi to desegregate the ldt. there are many examples. so there's many examples of progressive white americans who stood against this -- of course, william lloyd garrison and his liberator, men examples of those who toad against the tide, but unfortunately not enough. so we developed a white racial narrative in america that lives to this day, even though it's gotten better thanks to what happened in the '70s, but still a long way to go. so we tried to tell how the system got constructed. how the importance that race has played throughout american
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history and the development of the white racial narrative and the counternarrative of people of color for more democratic media system. and we have tried to get the lessons that are valuable for now. because unfortunately, with all the great promise of the internet, some of the same kind of racial inequities that existed in newspapers and radio, in television, and in cable, we feel are all really being replicated on the internet in terms of enough sites and who owns these new sites, who gets hired to work on these new sites, and whose new sites get traffic and which ones don't, and unless we're more vigilant, we're going to find that the great promise of the internet just like the great promise of the tell gravel and the great
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promise of radio and the great promise of television -- this new technology was going to provide more news and information, would just be turned into another means to exploit the citizens and deal with them more as consumers than as citizens. so i think there's a huge story here in what has happened to our media system, and we have only begun to scratch the surface. we realize there's a lot more to be done, but i feel privileged to have worked with joe and to be able to get this far in being able to put the story together to make some sense of it. if you don't have sense of what has happened in the past, and how the problem got be where it is today, you have less likelihood of being able to change it for the better. so, i think there's great promise in the media that -- the social media and the citizen
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>> welcome to the second part of this program. we'll have this conversation for about half an hour, and then juan and joe will be signing books outside. by the way, if you are tweeting about this event or the book, as you read it, use the hash tag of news for all. first of all, congratulations, joe and juan. on this tremendous work that is such a resource for everyone. and i want to let people know, if you have friends or family across the country, juan and joe are early in the morning in the bay area, san francisco state and oakland, first congregational church, and santa cruz and fresno and los angeles
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and santa barbara and then comes monday. and then they well be in los angeles and northridge and tuesday they're heading to santa fe and albuquerque and san antonio some houston, and then thursday they're headed to denver. on friday they will be in washington, dc. >> and san diego as well. >> and san diego. >> and they're in every one of these communities. a remark able story to tell about their communities, and if you have cell phones, just turn them off because it might be create something interference. but i was most inspired in this book by the heroes. the people we hear so little about, and on "democracy now!" today, juan, we were talking
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about reuben salazar. juan won the reuben salazar award afew years ago, a towering figure in american journalism. talk about who he was and his significant for us today. >> well, reuben sallah was a mexican american who grew up in el paso, texas, and served in the army in world war ii and came out and got a job -- it was the first latino at his local el paso times, and he then eventually gets hired in the mid-50s by the los angeles times, becomes the first latino reporter in the los angeles times. and quickly ended up becoming a foreign correspondent. he gets sent to vietnam. he covers the u.s. invasion of
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and begins immediately to develop his incredible investigative reports of municipality in los ag >> developed a very little relationship with the los wit angeles police department, but because he's still writing a column for the l.a. times once e week, he's pretty well known. and then on august 29th, 1970, there was a big protest againsth the vietnam war by chicanos in the southwest called the chicano mother tore rum, and it -- moratorium, and it erupts into i conflict with the police, the police start attacking the demonstrators, there's rioting, police cars are burned, and somewhere -- reuben is covering this with his camera crew, and at one, in this a few minute break he and his camera crew try to take refuge from all of the fighting that's going on out ine the streets in a local bar when suddenly an l.a. county sheriffs
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surround the bar with no warning, they fire a tear gas projectile into the bar, and the projectile hits reuben directly inct the face and kills him instantly. there were a l -- couple of other people killed that day, dozens and dozens injured, and many arrests. so reuben, i think, was killed at the anal of 43.ec but -- age of 43. but he had already become by far the most well known latino journalist of his day, and yet -- and he was also an organizer trying to get latinotg communities to put more pressure on media companies to have fairer portrayals of the latino community. but tragically, his life was cut short. yet you never hear of reuben salazar. there's actually a u.s. postage stamp that was made of himm recently, the postal system recognized him. but in terms of the journalism
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schools or teaching young people about a journalist who was constantly striving to tell the truth and to give voice to theeo voiceless, you rarely hear about him. but there are many others. ida b. wells, the great editor -- [applause] in memphis originally a schoolteacher who decides to print, start a newspaper in her town of memphis. and when three of her friendsf are lynched by a mob of, in her town, she begins writing articles against lynching. her paper is burned down just like manley's paper was burned a down this wilmington.ming she's forced to flee the town, and she begins a campaign across the country exposing the epidemic of lynching in thepa united states. lynching in the u. and she was a muckraker long
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before the muckrakers, but again, her contributions are rarely talked about. there is john roman ridge, cherokee indian writer, who moved to california in the 18 fifties, found that the sacramental deed, those of you from california, the main paper at a state capitol was capitol was founded by a native american and ridge eventually sells the paper to a young man, an employee of his named james mcclatchy. mcclatchy then uses the paper, the "sacramento bee" to start the entire lets you newspaper chain which is today one of the biggest newspaper chains in america and yet the mcclatchy company's official history never
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recognizes that its flagship paper was founded by a native american. and there are numerous stories like this that we tell to resurrect these forgotten heroes. my favorite though, because democracy now started the radio program, is pedro gonzález. pedro gonzález was a radio announcer in the 1930s in los angeles. he was actually a singer, a very popular singer, and he started a morning show called the early risers. his show would be on early in the morning. as they were going into the fields to work you would play music for them, but then in 1930, president herbert hoover begins a mass deportation program against mexicans. we we are recording today there
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has been 400,000 people deported under the obama administration this year, a record. there has been a million now since barack obama became president. that's three years. herbert hoover deported a million mexicans in about a year and a half. they beat -- the deportation mexicans in the 1930s was far greater even than what is happening today and pedro gonzález was the only radio announcer to question this. to attack it, to condemn it. as soon as he started doing that the launch angela's district attorney indicted him on a rape charge. they convicted him and sentenced him to one to 50 years in san quentin prison, where he immediately went to san quentin and organized a hunger strike of all the inmates because of the conditions at san quentin and then a few years later the woman
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who had accused him of rape recanted her testimony and confessed that the authority to put her up to it so federal gonzález -- pedro gonzalez could be framed, he had to be released in 1940 is an but he was eventually deported to mexico where he remained for the next 30 or 40 years of the radio announcer tijuana having been expelled and daring to question the mass deportation program. where is the education of young journalists about the example of pedro gonzalez or ida b. wells, or john robin ridge or frederick douglass? i could go on and on, all of these great heroes who stood up, whose papers were burned down, who were jailed. ricardo flores mark cohn, a mexican journalist throughout
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the southwest, was jailed three times by the federal government on espionage charges and thrown in jail and leavenworth prison where he died because the u.s. government wanted to quash his newspaper because he was constantly condemning the government in mexico and the u.s. government was currying favor with ds. all of these journalists who circulated a free press, the founder of modern china edited newspapers in hawaii and then in san francisco, but who knows about these quotes, where you hear about them and where you learn about these examples of journalism and selfless attempts to educate people and bring greater consciousness. >> joe, who are some of the people who inspired you or who
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you are surprised to learn about? >> the person i wish i would have met he started a -- in the late 60s. he lived in washington d.c.. he was 30 years old. he worked for local church as an organizer. he understood right away that it was after the lgbt case that i discussed that there was an actual chance to open up our media and challenge. he and about 15 or 16 other african-american groups in d.c. badr license challenge against the station against the station owned by the washington paper, the washington evening post, and he understood that there were structural issues that need to be addressed.
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he went with other public interest groups to organize african-american groups across the country to file license challenges and what is really interesting about this and ruben salazar, ruben salazar address that, he addressed the black latino tension that existed in the late 1960s. he was a columnist but he worked as a correspondent and he was a little bit out of touch with what was going on. when he comes back he writes beautifully about it. he actually becomes the news director for km bx, station in los angeles and he fought the racial tension and community. he organized the conference, national chicano media conference at the plaza hotel where to try to get mainstream press to understand the problems
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going on and how devastating it is. we have this beautiful passage in there and it's really hard wrenching the way he describes what is the practical impact. so back to william wright though, what he was organizing the african-american -- we talk about in her book -- the department of justice actually had a program in 1964 that created the community relations service and the idea was to try to heal racial, the racial tension going on in our society. the former head of the ndp who was very sympathetic to issues of race was the head of it, he tried to get mainstream news organizations during the 60s. this is really a terrible thing that is happening. the national association of broadcasters.
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when the mainstream media really didn't do that, he took another route. he decided that he was going to help train local groups how to basically file license challenges but here is a government agency training the public citizens groups how to file challenges against her own broadcast station and the latino groups worked with this agency very closely because a few latino figures in there that were connected to the community came out of the hispanic community. they got this mantle, that particular aspect of the program when nixon came in, but literally in san antonio and denver, all the cities across the country, these latino rooms were working with the community relations service of the department of justice to learn how to file license challenges. those are some of the things that really no one knows about. it's not ancient history.
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it is a person who headed a service that dealt with the community who recently died. so those are just to name a few. >> medgar evers ended up on the tv station in jackson, mississippi once. can you describe how the station came into community hands and what happen? >> well, there was a constant battle obviously in the south over who was going to report the news of the civil rights movement expanding and developing. and, not only african-americans but every time not only does in the south but every time a civil rights organization or an african-american leader was the network news, a lot of times the local southern stations would preempt the news that wouldn't
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allow it to be shown on their local station. the affiliates of the big networks, and so many african-american leaders couldn't get on television and what ended up happening as a result of enormous pressure brought by the justice department at a certain point, one of the stations was forced to allow medgar evers under the fairness doctrine to get on television and to be able to rebut some of the local authorities on key issues of what was happening with the civil rights movement. and medgar evers appearance was really a death warrant because he had such a powerful appeal that the station was inundated by angry whites who were saying, why we as he allowed on
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television and with only what was the, two weeks later, two or three weeks later that he was assassinated. before this people had heard his name but very few people knew what he looked like. within a couple of weeks of appearing on television for the first time talking about civil rights, that was when he was assassinated. they were concerned about this. to hear how intelligent he was, by quonset a lot of people believe that was the reason why ultimately he was killed. >> take this to today, joe. the issues that you work on at free press. the issue of the fcc and what it has been doing. under the bush years and under president obama. >> we talk about a little bit in the book, and we actually do discuss this a little bit in the book but really i can't emphasize it enough.
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the commissioner of the fcc, baker, recently in march left the fcc to become a senior executive after she complains that the sec was taking too long to okay the merger between comcast and nbc. this is what you have. you have a president who said he was going to take a backseat to no one. he hired his buddy julius genachowski. genachowski has visited the high white house more than any official in the government. he goes over on the part of turkey. all the austerity. he is there all the time. he literally passed a rule in december to basically -- the future of the internet is basically a wireless connection.
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everyone has a cell cell phone orrin ipad or whatever and mobility is how people connect to the internet. because of the amount of pressure ats -- at&t is put on on me literally broder ruled that basically there are no rules for wireless and the rule goes to an -- into effect very soon. we have an internet potentially any day now outside of legal challenges where the companies can shut your site down. they will slow it down and for us, people of color that is troubling because we won't have the financial means to be able to afford to make sure our sites and our ability to speak freely. on for obama, it's been a disaster. actually the chairman door for him and the fcc was actually
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better. he actually punish comcast. he went against his party which was democrats so it's a real mess in d.c. and i'm telling you we need you guys to speak up and be a part of this. the money is unbelievable. money is unbelievable right now so we need people's voice is. >> joe what about the right -- role of civil rights groups? >> it's been an unbelievable ridiculous disappointment. there are a lot of different reasons why they support the corporate agenda, at&t and comcast. some groups just don't understand the issue so when someone is called up, this issue is going to -- because at&t hires people from our community to work with him to lobby the civil rights groups. there are some groups who are ideologically aligned.
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at&t last year gave $150 million to civic organizations and the head of at&t, jim said connie is the head of the political arm in d.c. and also is the chair of the at&t foundation that throws out this money. he says there are no strings attached, so we really need the civil rights. >> and in terms of the donations that they give, time warner and comcast, at&t gives a civil rights organizations, it's enormous. comcast through the marchers said, told the fcc we gave $1.8 million in cash and in-kind contributions to civil rights groups and other civic organizations and all the civil rights group supported the comcast nbc merger which, how can you argue for minority
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ownership of broadcast organizations if comcast is consolidating, really 26 local stations, cable franchises and 39 states. you have movie studios, the largest broadband companies. one out of for broadband connections is a comcast connection. this kind of consolidation is not good for democracy and it's not good for our community. >> as we began to wrap up, juan, are you optimistic as you you and joe engage in this sweeping look back at the media, looking at race as a central part of the development of the u.s. media? what is the arc you see it on? is this going, as martin luther king said, towards justice? >> well, yes. i am optimistic because i think as we gather better knowledge
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again about how the system came to be where it is today, we are in a better position to be able to change it, and i just want to read this little section from the close of our introduction which sort of sums it up, and where i think this is what is happening in america in terms of both the media and race. we say in the book the persistence of racial inequality in the news industry is part of a broader fight -- crisis facing american journalist. thousands of professional journalists, the survivors find it increasingly difficult to produce the kind of meaningful information the american people need and while internet blogs and web sites run by citizen journalists are increasingly generating important is that the commercial media ignored, such
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sites have yet to provide an economic model for sustaining full-time journalists in pursuit of production of news. model that could replace what old media has done for 200 years. the central role of the press in our society makes this interesting wide crisis a crucial problem for the entire nation. but thankfully, many citizens have already understood. in the first decades of the 21st century a new and powerful citizen movement of media reform came of age. that movement, which arose during a battle to prevent the fcc from deregulating broadcast ownership provisions already counts millions of americans from across the political spectrum in its ranks. the members of this new movement are deeply disturbed by the concentration of ownership in our news media.
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they are frustrated and angry over the endless hypercommercialism, infotainment and obsession with violence and sex that dominates this concept. they worry that despite the grateful tent -- great potential of the internet the largest companies exercise too much control over news and entertainment. they fear that these big media firms, along with the cable, telecom and satellite rod gas companies that control the pipes through which news, audio, video and internet reach every home are displaying only disdain for the public's responsibility to the press eliminated local voices, driving up diversity in viewpoints, undermining our democracy. with each day that passes, with each new advance en masse communications technologies, our biggest media companies race to readjust, to become bigger and more, and only by clearly
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grasping the main conflict of choices that shape our current media system can ordinary citizens successfully unite with concerned journalists and the workers within the system to bring about meaningful reform. the second democratic revolution of the u.s. media has already begun. those who hope to triumph in that revolution must first understand our system of news reaches its current stage. and i think that is the key thing. want to understand the problem, you can come up with a solution but if you don't really have a grasp of how we got into the mess, it's hard to figure out how to get out of it. i think that is already begun. people are beginning to figure out that media is so powerful, so powerful in shaping public opinion that unless we level the playing field in the system of news in america we are not going to do to advance any other.
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because interestingly, the mass media in america develops into a mass media in the 1830s, just around the time that voting rights were being expanded just from property owners to the mass of the property less. as workers in the 1830s, white workers, began to gant franchised, they were worried that one person one vote was a dangerous thing. you know because the majority might not vote the way you want. so therefore, the penny press and the mass media develops to be able to in essence not only sell goods but to influence the masses of people and how they vote and how they act. and so i believe that in a democracy, the power of the media is even more important to those who are the wealthy of
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society. if it's a dictatorship, the rulers dictate that in democracies one person one vote, there's always a danger that the majority may vote the other way. that is why it becomes so important terms of being able to influence our people and that is why all of us have to understand how the system got dealt so that we can figure out how to make it better. [applause] >> i will just add one to know. i just think that something has to give. we talk about the concern -- [inaudible] we can't have a country where the majority of the country are of color get -- that is not a democracy. something has to give. honestly, i have done a lot of work with groups across the country.
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i've mentioned a lot of them, all these grassroots groups across the country are verlander stand the impact on local communities who directly work with them. all these activists and folks who really have their finger on the pulse of what is wrong in their community. trying to really engage people and educate people why this is important. just to be on the ground doing it, so -- [applause] >> i just wanted to give you each one last-minute and i also want to thank all of those that made this event possible. i am julie crosby, or general manager who is behind the scenes making sure this video happens. miriam barnard and brenda, becky staley, elizabeth press, john gerber and all the volunteers and interns who have worked here, karen who is chair of our board at democracy now. they are the ones who ensure
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that this event happens and democracy now happens every day. i also want to thank of course free press who is co-sponsor this event, verso press and cooper union that is hosting this event. but the final words, starting with joseph torres. >> i am just doing this book has been a great experience. i will pay personal tribute to one of the can. i've been working with one for 10 years and he's the president of the national association of spanish -- director and the first time i met juan was the day before the million man march. i was working for hispanic new service and he was crashing at the apartment of charlie erickson. he had a couple of -- and one was a picture of the viewpoint of roll down your window, the
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person looking out into the street and it was a picture of a young african-american man looking kind of menacing. the second picture was of a latino family sitting on the stoop i think. my former boss, they tested me and said which picture do you like better? kind of like a setup question. but i have learned a lot from working in this process and just you know one is a person of principle and he has been able to have a career, it principle career and live by a set of standards, set a personal standards and that just can't help but rub off on you. i think i am more -- and believe what i am doing because i have learned so many lessons from one. th
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