Activists, artist and citizens from nearly
all walks of life and perspectives
have struggled to reach beyond the limit of
mainstream media.
Whether it's Fox News and The New
York Times,
Rush Limbaugh or Brian Williams
people say they are tired of being
talked to were overlooked
the C to exercise their own rights to
free speech
to a felony to hear from independent
voices the exercise their rights and
fulfill their needs
by creating new avenues for speech by
inventing new forms of communication
and by seizing the microphone to speak
to their community this movement did not
begin and end does not end with the
Internet for social media
is a movement as a bold as the dawn mass
media
this series will highlight the
contributions alternative media
the challenges citizen space in a
political environment that seems to rule
or only those with the most money
political environment that does not
necessarily reward those with the best
ideas
for those who serve the critical
information needed their community drew
looking beyond mainstream media
I'll
I Mark Lloyd the director the media
power
here the New America Foundation we're
gonna do program looking at a crisis in
local grassroots media
featuring interviews with Catherine cart
the producer and senior editor a free
speech radio news
Alice all steen DC correspondent for
free speech radio news
and Askia Mohammad the news director
very PFW station that carries free
speech radio news
free speech radio news is a daily global
news program that offers first-hand
reports
featuring and in dept level is reporting
that is rarely achieved by public or
commercial journalism
despite its value is facing a funding
crisis
that may force operations to shut down
hi I'm doing marina anchor with free
speech radio news
in 2001 a few dozen freelance reporter
started producing
a weekly program up national and
international news
the idea was simple: to produce
community-based reporting
that featured grassroots voices and
stories that weren't being heard
in the mainstream in little more than a
decade we've gone into a
daily newscast with more than 200
freelance reporters
from across 6 cut free speech radio news
is killed the weekdays
on more than 85 non-commercial radio
station from Alaska to Florida
from Nova Scotia to California we seek
out
and report the stories from the ground
level with local residents and
first-person narratives
using reporters offer live in the
communities they cover
SSN provides hard news analysis
features and in that such men trees
reporters seek out
high-tech my sis wanted nice we
recognize the benefits are
work in this country Vitesse of all
skill levels
from the dole's just daughter outdoor
season jobless
invest time and resources into mentoring
new robot as giving them
the training and skills to produce their
own stories
each day at FSR and we determine our
coverage through a collaborative
decentralized editorial process that
allows multiple points of view
to inform the contact of our broadcast
on any given day our reporters and
producers
work together from Oaxaca Delhi Los
Angeles Gaza City
Legos and elsewhere pursuing stories
tracking down sources and comparing
perspectives the result is a uniquely
informative newscast reflects the
diversity
the world we live in I am eager to dr.
Daniela and
I'll even look in saint petersburg crash
I reported
on the growing protest movement and the
backlash again the moment for LGBT
rights in Russia
for free speech radio news I am a somber
mood of
reporter for free speech ready meals I
live and work in bethlehem city
palestine
i've reported on hunger strike in
palestinian political detainees held by
Israel
and non-violent protests organized in
the West Bank communities
against the Israeli settlements and warm
for free speech already in use
Madonna Madonna give brick impediments
pins I'm report and on communities in
southern Philippines
are recovering from Typhoon for free
speech
its I'm so if you have been reported for
free speech radio news
a live and work in key to eckford have
reported an indigenous rights
and that this movement an actor I'm
felix qui ca
and I'm guide to permission we live in
and report from different parts of the
world
like from countries such as Burma or
India
to countries like Georgia and the
Caucasus for piano
mean only focus on human rights issues
this kind of on the ground collaborative
reporting takes time and requires
ongoing sustain support we produce a lot
a daily program with a small
be some the live stuff so most of our
resources go directly to gathering and
reporting the news
it's vitally important that we support
grassroots journalism
like it aside and and make sure that we
grew or
in order to meet the needs of the coming
years we need your help to deal the
success
past and to keep officer on the
you can take but right now and supporter
for Sarah
and you can do it in a number of ways
first you can spread the word and tell
others about
FSR s-works our website our podcast on
social media like Facebook or Twitter
second you can volunteer to host
a party or a fundraiser in your
community third
you could call your local station and
asked them to run as a sign on the
program
if they already do then you can tell
them how much you appreciate it
fourth you can donate directly to offer
sometime today
your donation goes a long way of putting
reporters in the field
and bringing stories to their and feel
become a month a sustaining member to
officer and can show that we continue to
reach our audience
in your dynamic waz find out how to get
involved and
ever surrendered are by Ciba and shook
run
salamay thank you and as a joke and say
DD my Bluebird
Pacifica gives us most of our funding
about 70 percent and that has banned
the case for the last decade but
Pacifica has been going through its own
financial problems
and so they haven't paid us very much at
all
throughout the entire year our budget is
about
home thirty-six thousand dollars a month
so we had to come up with a way to meet
the gap fill the gap
and we launched a grassroots emergency
fund raiser
we put together that video and
ultimately in about eight weeks we
raised a hundred thousand dollars from
1300 people
and that was pretty historic for us our
audience is fairly small
so to be able to get that many people
donating their money and wanting to save
us
FSR and was was really a landmark
achievement for us
but there's still a long way to go
because
as I mentioned our budget is about
thirty six hundred dollars a month
and or thirty-six thousand dollars a
month I'm sorry and
so we do need to seek out other
sustainable ways %uh funding a pasar en
so let me ask you
for folks who are completely
uninitiated why is this service
any different and CNN why is it any
different and
BBC Radio what what what you get from
free speech radio network you don't get
from these other sources
Alice chair am I think it has a lot to
do with the kinda voices that we seek
out and put on the air
especially and the 24-hour news cycle on
the tight deadlines and any into
constantly be producing cases it though
is easiest and quickest just to go
to an elected official or call someone a
press release
or on call up a spokesperson from me
major organization I'm but we and our
reporters around the world
really do the work have finding
the people who are directly affected by
whatever it is we're reporting on
and getting there first-person account
what it is
and what there did how they're
organizing their community and what
they're doing
to try to create change and I think that
is that really important part about we
do
and I think that shows a lot and are
reporting
and I so again
wow and certainly there folks who listen
to NPR
who say will they don't they do the same
thing I mean is there
would you be able to make a distinction
between your reporters in
the different reporters on npr yeah I
think so
npr does great work and they do have
reporters
internationally but when you hear many
have their reporters they have an
american or
British accent they don't use a lot of
reporters who were born in rains
in the communities that they're covering
that's what really
sets FSR and apart sure we do have some
western journalists have decided to move
abroad but the majority are journalists
have been living in the communities
where they're reporting for a long time
or they're from there so one thing that
you'll hear when you listen to free
speech radio news and where a daily 29
minute long program is a diversity of
voices and accents and dialects because
we have reporters as you've seen in the
video who were natives to
the West Bank into the Philippine
then Nigeria a Argentina
Mexico russia's so many country is an
I'll about eight years ago
its I'm one officer in first started we
actually traveled around the world and
they were training
us citizens and community members and
young journalists and giving them the
tools in order to be able to report for
us
due to budget setbacks we've had shoe or
stop that for now but it's something
that we'd love to initiate again because
there's so many parts of the world that
you don't really hear from
on a regular basis BBC in NPR
in the hot spots there in cairo there in
london
maybe they were in Venezuela during the
elections but are they
there now now and because our reporters
I'll live in the community is that they
cover
they are constantly talking to local
sources they have their
ear to the ground is what we'd like to
say and so what happens as news trickled
up so rather than having a regional
bureau chief who may be reading the
wires and seeing what some other
mainstream are state-run media is
reporting on we have all of our
local reporters listening to their
communities
their neighbors and then telling us
what's going on on the ground level
the story is important you should be
covering it
US listeners need to hear about that
so a skier I am assuming that
airtime is tied on the PFW that their
folks who
want to get on the air who are on the
air why do you put
free speech radio network on the all the
content that we get from free speech
news
is I am is well produced
it audio quality is is a
rivals anything that you hear anywhere
else and
you know that the I had not really
considered until Kevin just said it
you have original voices you have voices
the indigenous grassroots voices
and I had not about that I mean what BBC
most voice is a breeze
you what al Jazeera most voices have
British accents
um but if you listen FSR and it is
amazing that you have
these voices and so then you also have
the stories
that are unique an original
the palestinian hunger strikers are i
mean the the stories are just
original I'm I'm constantly amazed even
in Dallas
that she's up she covers the
Capitol Hill stories frequently as well
as other stories in washington
that aside how do you know how does he
know
in time to be there and cover it
I'm something so that by noon or one
o'clock in the afternoon
she's done a story on something that
most people don't know even happen at
the pier W
we carry the content um
we don't carry the show as it this week
program we carry
the program in segments we carry
portions thereof
the various reports on on
are morning news show with the to our
new show
we care practically all the pieces in
various
places so that they sorta million with
what
one another and what we also have
otherwise have you broken something that
really suggests why free speech radio
news's
is different I think we're ahead of the
curve
a lot of the time will be covering
a an issue and you'll see it sometimes
weeks sometimes months sometimes years
later
on NPR in some of the other mainstream
media
we've been doing a really excellent job
with
coverage from the tribal areas of
Pakistan western journalists can't
really go there
there's only a few who've gotten and we
have somebody who's local from there so
we've been covering
the US drone war and the impact on
civilians since 2000 aints
as well as many of the other issues that
go on their women's rights
education we were the first to interview
mohlala
use of time she was 13 that was shot by
Taliban militants last year I'm almost
assassinated she survived
and in 2009 we
interviewed her when our reporter was
touring the Swat Valley
our local reporter so we were headed the
game she was
nominated as time one of times most 100
influential people in the theater and
she was on
free speech radio news your four years
ago so people could have
I heard from her then and even with the
recent
protests in Turkey we first covered that
on may thirtieth
and the rest to the media caught up
about two to three days later
and that's because we had a reporter on
the ground who knew that those peaceful
protest was going on
in guess the park to try to save these
historic trees
and we had coverage the very next day
when his sources told him
there was a raid and then it hit the AP
and
NPR about two or three days later but we
had even given our listeners more
context about a month earlier because we
had a story from
Istanbul for made a name out the
authorities there had put restrictions
on protesting in that same park
and we did a story on that and the
restrictions were because of this
development that they're putting in
there
that was what led to construction
companies knocking down the tree is in
the protests you've been hearing about
for the last three weeks so while we
don't necessarily break
corruption scandals and we don't have
the resource
resources to do investigative reporting
that's carried out over
weeks and months and years we do
regularly cover issues that eventually
trickle up to the mainstream media and I
think
it's a a way to be informed before the
restive
over the world is about many issues that
are important to people
now and yeah I have two examples I have
an example where the mainstream media
cut-up months later and I am an example
where they never caught up
something we cover and never really made
it mainstream media
I can talk about that one first last
year the Obama administration proposed
regulations for child farmworkers in the
US
and then under pressure from big
agribusiness and
axiom stay rescinded doesn't and
they were not going to pursue that
anymore I'm and the day that broke
I saw that there was I'm at
a group of child from our cousin former
shall hamburgers
in in DC in their meeting just a few
blocks from the Capitol on
and and having an unmanned and I ran
over there and there were no
reporters our partners at all I got to
sit down with former child star markers
and current health care workers in here
about
normal conditions that they work under
and how these roles what have
made it a big difference in their lives
Sen we ran that story and
we like 10 basically only for dove
trade publication reported on at all and
even then they only quoted
Labor Department official band
agribusiness officials so that's an
example or the mainstream media never
picked up on the story but also
I mean we've been hearing so much in the
media this week about an essay and
spying upon the front page every paper
and fleeting every newscast
I'm but when I went to the Supreme Court
to hear about the constitutionality
a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
Amendments almost no reporters are there
I just a handful thou I'm
you know now I ruined covering it but
you know we're actually in their am
hearing
hearing those legal arguments at the
time and reporting on I have no doubt
that there may be someone
watching this who will say well if this
is such a great service why can't you as
you to make in the market
why why can't you just so ads and and
just make money and compete the way
other news operations compete so what's
the
what's the challenge what's the answer
to that
what would become commercial Landon
right now we are
nonprofit and non-commercial I'll
we have been discussing alternative
revenue streams
would we be able to have more
sustainability if we took
underwriting for example but these are
difficult difficult conversations to
have since for thirteen years
we happen non-commercial we have been
completely independence
and our listeners have come to expect
that there's not a lot of distractions
with
underwriting or advertisements but if we
don't do that then listeners do need to
step up
and support us as as members in with
donations and getting the word out
on news has always been
supported pretty much by advertising
newspapers were very inexpensive because
there were expensive cars & and jewelry
and furs
on the second page news does not make
money
selling products does so
we couldn't move to that model I
but we are looking for more
publicly-funded solution so that we can
stay
non-commercial and we don't have to
expose our audience to use something
like at
get point everything that you see on
most television stations commercial
television everything that you hear on
a commercial radio is um to coin a
phrase from
ever cooper's surgeon-general is a
ever ties in delivery system it's an
advert delivery system
a programming is an advertising delivery
system
that's the point I'm it's just
when the dressing for advertising that
is what's fueling in paying for the
content and so
a you know in that sense a is a
a challenge I what
you know free speech news is on 85
stations
a probably some other larger stations
other Pacific the stations which
a on have their own financial challenges
in the larger markets
New York Washington a Houston Los
Angeles
and San Francisco Bay Area um I mean
those are
in you know among the those five cities
are among
senator top 15 um so
a the other stations that ever sorry
Anna on
might be in in tiny markets
community radio stations with are
practically all volunteer
operated which have vere little resource
and so the the advertisers or other
its its it's almost a self-defeating
for prophecy it's you you you have this
really special content and its on the
small stations
and a its its
a no one hears it not enough people I
sitting here
can I get FSR on on the web
can agree on that wouldn't our website
is FSR and out or
we have a daily podcast they can get
through iTunes downloaded to your phone
listen while you're commuting you're at
the gym
I'm and everything is posted on our
website in addition to our Daily Show
we also Commission and broadcast about
four to eight
long format documentarians every year
and I think that's a really unique
aspect FSR and because where else do you
hear at 29 minute long
audio documentary about you know news an
important issue we've covered
collectives in Argentina the drug war in
Guatemala
the drug war in Mexico so
I think across this industry have
non-profit Nunes
we need to come up with a sustainable
business
model my pitch to that funder would-be
that
you know we would keep reporting in
doing the great coverage that we're
doing
but we would also be smart about the
changing technologies and consumer
trends and meeting people where they are
and also putting effort into
the marketing and outreach and no
radio is great because it's an intimate
medium
and it can be really inspiring but it's
also invisible
do you think there's room for a business
model that would encourage more
collaboration
I along the lines have something like a
dick Cal Creative Commons encourages
people to use others material
but giving credit back in giving
payment back to their originators do you
think there's room for more
collaboration among journalist
in and business model Fenton it was for
instance
using what if someone were to come along
and say this is great material
I wish I had done it I didn't do it let
me check with them
and the F we can use this for some kinda
education-related material
and make and then fell it
I I think that does have a lot of
potential I think collaborations are
are wonderful because there are people
in different geographic areas people
with different
expertise and in various areas and
sharing all of that can really help take
your organization
further I think one of the challenges to
that
is is something that people in many
industries are facing is when it's on
the internet people expected to be free
so how do you both get out the
information and let people know that
it's there
and then also have a a firewall
Arpaio all of some sort that keeps them
out
so I think if somebody comes up with a
solution to that end
and also figures out I guess you know
should news
cost something or should it be
accessible and freeing
and then white what is created in the
packaging of that news that could then
be resold to other
institutions or organizations but I do
see potential there
and we do collaborate with other I'm
challenging outlet for they could
definitely be more should be more
I'm but for instance where a member of
the media consortium which has a lot I
really wanna members like Mother Jones
and color lines
I and I participated and a project they
did where
we received joined trainings and
workshops
on issues have media policy things like
surveillance broadband access and
I'm poor communities of color lots of
different great issue then
we were able to cover those issues in a
way we wouldn't have otherwise so we had
those
shared resources and sometimes I'm
appeared as a guest on on some Pacifica
programs as well
I'm so that promote up and help them
because I'm
at the Pacifica stations don't have
their own DC correspondent
I'd like to now and in the United States
where you
get your story leads from to receive a
lot of news releases
or how do you receive pictures for
stories to skip ear to the ground as
good grass roots media people
well we have reporters all over the US
and
most major cities am and alamin
Nick the US and Canada as I can only
talk about my experience here
in DC I I do get you know news releases
and everything and I and check on
every event that's going around town but
I think you know
being a member of the community and not
just thinking that I i'm mara partners
station here is really important and I I
hear about a monster friends and friends
a friend
I'm that aren't you know they don't have
it together into
and a press release or anything about
that and and so
on are morning editorial called every
morning we thank you now
the top story in the day is clearly axe
do we need to cover actor is there
something that really does their's
coverage that's not getting coverage
elsewhere and if we do have to cover
acts how can we cover in a way that no
one of those covering
sick at a different angle Fig got a
different source I'm
so you know I often find myself going
after what
all the other reporters on Capitol are
also going after but
asking different questions or sometimes
everybody ok
be in the capital China interview one
specific senator and I'll be
at a foreclosure defense action occupy
is doing
you know trying to keep someone in their
home in just it just depends on the day
and
and that or the beauty of our collective
decision-making and is
that we hash the is I'm issues out
together and every
everybody's opinion counts and sometimes
I feel really strongly that
something as the star economic ministers
I'm opposite way
I'll be during the campaign Antioch I've
chanterelle
interns in person I hear in the DC
office
and because we're at decentralized
editorial team
and a lot of our staff works from home
I'm and and make the most sense for for
me having my little office
barrett et 712 to bring people and
that's been students on
and its yeah it's been really great and
we
hat have a mission have have taking
people off scalable since I've taken
people that have
what's a print news experience but now
radio experience
or radio experience but it's not news
it's its music and
and commentary based or you know none of
the above
well
%uh I'll
dubbed
the
the
you
