LEWISTON – A statewide grassroots group has demanded “Democracy Now!” but Maine Public Radio has quashed the request.
“People feel things in their gut, but if they don’t see it ever reflected in the media they assume they’re all alone and tend to shut up,” said David Kubiak, a supporter of a drive to bring the program “Democracy Now!” to Maine Public Radio.
Kubiak and a host of others planned to protest Maine Public Radio’s refusal to pick up “Democracy Now!” at the station’s community advisory board meeting in Lewiston Saturday.
But, on Friday, radio officials canceled the meeting, citing bad weather forecasts.
As to whether the planned protest influenced that decision, Charles Beck, vice president for radio services at Maine Public Broadcasting, said, “That’s not the case at all.”
He added that the station will reschedule the meeting sometime within the next month..
“Democracy Now!,” a program broadcast daily on the Pacifica Network and now carried on 120 stations nationwide, champions social justice, civil liberties, human rights and labor struggles, said its anchor, Amy Goodman.
But some detractors call her the left’s answer to Rush Limbaugh.
The debate
Beck said his station has received about 2,400 requests to pick up the show. “This is a very well organized group,” he said. “I’ve been very impressed. They’re very passionate about their beliefs.”
But station officials decided not to air the show.
“We feel it’s advocacy journalism, Beck said. “It’s promoting a point of view.”
Maine Public Radio does not want to lean either to the right or the left, he said, adding that the program would damage station credibility and limit audience trust.
But supporters of the program say its point of view does not get heard enough in the media. People “just don’t hear the debate,” Kubiak said.
One factor that makes a country fearful is a lack of full and healthy debate in the press, he said.
“Democracy Now!” offers a different journalistic point of view and asks questions other media outlets do not, Kubiak said. Most stations on television and radio rely too much on official sources who support official policy, he said.
“There was an old journalistic ethos that the point of journalism was to monitor centers of power and ask hard questions,” Kubiak said. “You don’t see that being done now.”
Asked whether Maine Public Radio relies too much on official sources, Beck said: “I think we’re doing the best we can.”
Television media does sometimes sensationalize, he said. “I think Maine Public Radio has stepped to the plate to fill some of that void. I think we’ve done a great job of that.”
—-In protest
Maine Public Radio is currently engaged in one of its pledge drives. Supporters of bringing “Democracy Now!” to the station are asking people to withhold support until Maine Public Radio agrees to pick up the show for a three-month trial period, Kubiak said.
That trial period would come at no cost to the station, he said, adding that the program would be free for 18 months.
Beck said he did not expect the group’s protest efforts to hurt the pledge drive.
“I don’t expect that (the supporters of “Democracy Now!) will be pledging their support,” he said.
Whenever the corporate media drift to the right, people have to turn to the public sphere to get balance in news coverage, Kubiak said.
“If Maine Public Radio can’t serve that function for us in a time of crisis it is not worth supporting,” he said. WERU broadcasts “Democracy Now!” to about 85,000 people in the Blue Hill and Bangor areas, Kubiak said, adding that WMPG just picked up the program and reaches 70,000 in the Portland area.
“Air space is limited,” Beck said. “We try to not air too many programs that are available elsewhere.”
Kubiak feels, though, that the program should still be offered on Maine Public Radio.
“North Korea calls itself a democracy,” he said, adding that Maine Public Radio may be using the word “public” simply to get more support.
“Basically we’re just asking everybody to work the phones now and work on the pledge-drive issue,” Kubiak added.
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