{"id":11441,"date":"2009-10-17T04:44:35","date_gmt":"2009-10-17T09:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=11441"},"modified":"2009-10-17T04:44:35","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T09:44:35","slug":"michigan-public-radio-censoring-announcement-on-palestine-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=11441","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Public Radio Censoring Announcement on Palestine event"},"content":{"rendered":"

[PLEASE FORWARD!]<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope people will help us fight this CENSORSHIP by University of Michigan radio!!<\/p>\n

If enough people phone the station, this controversy will become sufficiently newsworthy to generate news stories!! People could phone the pledge line and very POLITELY say why they are NOT pledging – 888.258.9866<\/p>\n

And also phone the station and ask them to stop the censorship! 734.764.9210<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.israel-palestinenews.org\/2009\/10\/michigan-public-radio-censoring.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Thank you for helping us end censorship on Palestine!<\/p>\n

Best,
\nAlison<\/p>\n

If Americans Knew
\nOctober 16, 2009<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Michigan Radio (WUOM 91.7), an affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR), is censoring a program announcement.<\/p>\n

The local chapter of the nonprofit organization If Americans Knew, whose mission is to inform Americans on topics of importance that are under reported or misreported in the American media, is attempting to place the following paid announcement on the radio station:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019If Americans knew dot org,\u2019 a non-profit organization focused on media coverage of the Palestine-Israel conflict: Executive Director Alison Weir will visit southeast Michigan the week of Oct 12th. Details on the web at “If Americans Knew dot org”.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michigan Radio has refused to air the announcement, violating its ethical obligation as a publicly funded station not to censor information. While the station eventually agreed to run an amended announcement (cost: $1,000), it still refuses to include the organization\u2019s name, If Americans Knew.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Weir, who has traveled throughout Gaza and the West Bank as a freelance journalist and speaks widely throughout the United States, said that she will fight Michigan Radio\u2019s censorship, saying: \u201cIt is exactly this type of activity \u2013 to prevent people from learning the facts on Israel-Palestine — that is causing the perpetuation of this tragic conflict and that is behind the $7 million per day of American tax money that goes to Israel, a misuse of our money at any time, but especially when American schools, veterans programs, and businesses are desperate for funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weir said that her organization will fight Michigan Radio\u2019s censorship: \u201cAmericans should not allow censorship of our public airwaves. A free and vigorous press is essential to our democratic republic. To maintain a strong, healthy, free and prosperous nation it is critical that we hold onto our most basic Constitutional rights and principles. We will fight Michigan Radio\u2019s highly unethical and extremely destructive attempt to prevent its listeners from learning about an organization and allowing listeners to decide for themselves what they think of the facts it presents.<\/p>\n

Weir, whose organization is based in Oregon, is a 1969 Journalism graduate of the University of Michigan and was a Senior Editor at the Michigan Daily. She said it is especially troubling to find this censorship at a station based at the University of Michigan, since in her studies at Michigan her professors had emphasized the importance of a free press and ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

Weir said that despite repeated attempts to speak to representatives of Michigan Radio beginning on Oct 13th, no one had returned her calls. Weir, who has so far spoken at Michigan State University, Eastern Michigan University, University of Michigan Flint, University of Michigan Dearborn and other locations, still has three upcoming presentations. She says she hopes that the station will stop its censorship in time to run the If Americans Knew announcement.<\/p>\n

Tonight Weir will speak at the Flint Islamic Center (9447 Corruna Rd, Swartz Creek) at 7 pm. On Saturday Weir will be speaking at 2pm in Swartz Creek at Genesee Academy (9447 Corunna Rd) at 2pm and at 7 pm at the Unity Center (1830 W Square Lake Rd.). The events are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

Weir said, \u201cMichigan Radio\u2019s attempt to prevent listeners from learning of our organization demonstrates why our work is so important \u2013 Americans are being deprived of information by media who refuse to give us the facts on one of the world\u2019s most tragic, longest lasting, and destructive conflicts \u2013 one that not only costs the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, but that is also extremely damaging to Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weir\u2019s organization found that media reports on the Israel-Palestine reported on Israeli children\u2019s deaths at rates up to 13 times greater than they reported on Palestinian children\u2019s deaths \u2013 even though Palestinian children had been killed first and in far greater numbers.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the organization found that American media \u2013 including NPR \u2013 had failed to report on a 2003 Capitol Hill briefing in which a commission headed by former Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer, Rear Admiral Merlin Staring, and General Ray Davis, America\u2019s highest ranking Medal of Honor recipient, had announced their finding that Israel had \u201ccommitted an act of war against the United States\u201d in its attack on a US Navy ship that had killed or injured 200 American servicemen and that this incident had been ordered covered up at the time by the White House.<\/p>\n

Weir says, \u201cWe all need to oppose this censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[PLEASE FORWARD!] I hope people will help us fight this CENSORSHIP by University of Michigan radio!! If enough people phone the station, this controversy will become sufficiently newsworthy to generate news stories!! People could phone the pledge line and very … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-2Yx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11444,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions\/11444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}