Category Archives: News

The creation of Low Power FM radio stations has been one of the most active struggles within the media reform movement. Over the last several years, LPFM proponents have been pushing congress to authorize the creation of hundreds of low power community radio stations, giving a voice to non-commercial community groups. Despite the immense popularity of the LPFM cause, there have been powerful forces seeking to stop the creation of these LPFM stations. The National Association of Broadcasters and other corporate interests have mounted significant challenges to LPFM, claiming that low power stations interfere with their larger signals. An independent study ordered by Congress has concluded that this is untrue.

While the LPFM movement continues to gain momentum both in Congress and among the populace, there is still a lot of public outreach needed to get the word out about the benefits of LPFM. In order to do that, the United Church of Christ has created a TV documentary titled LPFM: the Peoples Choice. It has been offered to NBC TV stations nationwide as part of the “Horizon of the Spirits” series and will air starting this weekend. So far only seventeen NBC affiliates have agreed to air the documentary. WOOD TV 8, the local NBC affiliate, is one of the many stations that is not airing the program. For information on how to contact WOOD 8 and tell them you would like them to air LPFM: the Peoples Choice, click here.

On Monday, September 20 the three Grand Rapids based TV stations and the Grand Rapids Press reported that Hillsdale native Eugene Armstrong was brutally beheaded in Iraq by a group reported to be “Jordanian militants.” “Beheaded man a ‘good guy in the wrong place,’ mourners say” was the headline in the Grand Rapids Press while the local TV coverage focused on the community vigil in Hillsdale commemorating the victim. While each of the Grand Rapids based news outlets focused on the human tragedy of this man’s death, they refused to ask the broader questions of what brought him to Iraq and what roles foreign civilian contractors have played in the occupation of Iraq. The news coverage did state that the Jordanian militants were demanding that all Iraqi women be released from Iraqi prisons, yet this issue was never investigated in local media reports. Human rights organization Amnesty International issued a press release condemning the killing of Armstrong, stating that “killing civilians are recognized international crimes involving the violation of people’s most basic rights, and for which there can be no justification.”

In addition to coverage of the mourners in Hillsdale, local NBC affiliate WOOD TV 8 solicited responses from Michigan Congress members. Senator Debbie Stabenow says “This cowardly act only recommits our nation to bringing these killers to justice and eliminating the agents and roots of terrorism around the world” and Representative Vern Ehlers was quoted as saying “I can’t comprehend people behaving that way towards non-combatants. I think it shows what kind of people we are up against.”

Apparently, Ehlers and Stabenow don’t see US bombing of civilian targets and shooting of non-combatants as cowardly. We would recommend that our local congressional representatives check out Iraq Body Count for a statistical account of the human cost of the war or the photo gallery at Robert Fisk’s page for a more visual account of what the US military has done to civilians in Iraq over the past 18 months. In addition, we’d like to point out that since both Stabenow and Ehlers, along with our other Senators and Representatives, signed off on this illegal war and occupation, they are guilty of violating International Law and could, using the precidents established at the Nuremberg Tribunals, justifiably be tried as war criminals. For more about the legal responsibility of Vern Ehlers and other U.S. congress people for this war, check out The Trial of Vern Ehlers.