The Seattle Indy Media Center is a coalition of many independent media organizations and producers, offering live coverage of the WTO protests ignored by the corporate media.
by Chrysalis Aristaeus 3:15pm Wed Dec 1 '99
NPR can be given good marks for their coverage of the Battle of Seattle, but they can't touch this service. IndyMedia ROCKS!! By the way, BrightSpirit is my partner. She rocks too.
Coverage on National Public Radio's Morning Edition of yesterdays police riot in Seattle was VERY good, given NPR's usual habit of pulling their punch just when it really counts. Not anchor Carl Castle who put the blame where it belongs when he introduced a feature report on the protests today by saying "protests against the WTO in Seattle yesterday turned ugly WHEN POLICE USED TEAR GAS, PEPPER SPRAY AND RUBBER BULLETS ON DEMONSTRATORS" and quoting the Seattle police cheif as saying (in a beautiful and chilling example of Orwellian language) that "police used restraint, but not excessive restraint". They used a long quote from a demonstrator who described in detail how the police attacked peaceful protesters and moved on to a tape of a reporter repeatedly asking the police cheif to confirm if rubber bullets had been fired and the cheif repeatedly dodging the question and sounding like a fool. The story went on to imply that police badly mishandled the whole situation noting ironically that protest planners had told Seattle officials months ago that they planned on shutting down downtown Seattle. You can go to www.npr.org to hear some of their stories using RealAudio.
Also this morning on NPR, veteran journalist Susan Stamberg interviewed historian Howard Zinn, author of "The People's History of the United States" (a must read if you haven't already) who spoke eloquently on how more and more people must adopt the philosophy and techniques of non-violent civil disobedience as the best tool for change in the new millenium. That was a breath of fresh air.
Also, NPR's token republican commentator, Kevin Phillips, agreed with the Seattle demonstrators that the WTO is out of control, a threat to the environment and erodes democracy.