05/02/04 00:00 | 615 W Boston
Thursday, April 29: BOSTON
Thursday night's event was a special treat for us. We were joined by Noam Chomsky, who was just back from a European swing to promote his newest book, “Hegemony or Survival.” The setting was the Cambridge Forum in Harvard Square, which was packed with 700 people. Noam is one of our heroes: long a lone dissident voice who has never tired of speaking truth to power.
This day began for the Democracy Now! crew at a TV studio in Washington DC with CIA analyst Mel Goodman talking about the previous weekend protests against the 60th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF. Njoki Njehu, director of the 50 Years is Enough campaign, talked about the 60 years of the World Bank (the 50 Years is Enough campaign started a decade ago — hence the 60th party). Njoki spoke about the cruel burden of how, on the tenth anniversary of the South African elections, South Africa is still paying the debts of the apartheid regime.
Democracy Now! also had on Sybil Edmunds, the FBI agent who slammed as “an outrageous lie” Condoleezza Rice's claim that the government there were no warning that planes could be used against eh US before 9/11. On Monday, a battery of eight Justice Dept officials went to court to try and impose a second all encompassing gag order on her — which will forbid her from repeating anything that she has previously -- so that she can not testify in a lawsuit filed by 9/11 victims' families. She has already testified before the 9/11 commission. Conservative Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has said he considers her “credible.”
Tuesday, April 29: HADLEY, Mass.
Another packed event: this one held at Chapin Auditorium at Mt. Holyoke College in western Mass, together with Odyssey Bookshop. 800 people showed up for the talk and book signing!
Wednesday, April 28: WASHINGTON, D.C.
It was great to come to DC, home to Pacifica station WPFW. We began with a reception at Mimi's, a favorite pub and restaurant in Dupont Circle run by an Iraqi American. The WPFW fundraiser was attended by 700 people. It was great to have WPFW's Verna Avery Brown kick off the evening by talking about the domestic costs of this war: the US is spending $1 billion a week on the Iraq occupation. To think what that money could be better spent on...
One of the many well wishers came up toe Amy and said, “Democracy Now! and coffee are my addictions!” We hope he doesn't kick he habit anytime soon.
Monday, April 26: NEW HOPE, PA
The Exception to the Rulers tour moved from west to east, finally arriving in our nation's capital. The day began for Amy with an interview on a CBS-TV affiliate. Amy talked about the corporate media reaching an all-time low in its coverage of the invasion—an especially interesting subject for this corporate news station.
That night, Amy drove to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where she joined FAIR founder Jeff Cohen on a panel discussion about the media's coverage of Iraq. Jeff talked about his experience as the producer of the Phil Donahue Show in the lead-up to the invasion. As we describe in The Exception to the Rulers:
“In February 2003, MSNBC cancelled Phil Donahue's show. A leaked internal memo claimed that Donahue would present “a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. He seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's motives.” The report warned that the Donahue show could be “a home for the liberal anti-war agenda at the same time as our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”