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Alternative Radio for November 29, 2010
1:00 PM - 1:58 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: Alfred McCoy - "United States of Surveillance"
The telescreens in Orwell's "1984" monitoring Winston Smith are crude devices compared to 21st century technology but they make the point. Big Brother is watching your every move. Today, the weapons of surveillance in the hands of state agencies have grown enormously in scope and sophistication. Basic rights are in jeopardy. Invasions of privacy such as warrentless wiretapping, intercepting cell phone messages and reading email are increasing. When those electronic interventions don't work there are always the old reliable agent provocateurs, framing and planting of evidence. In fighting the so-called war on terror, surveillance is one of the biggest growth industries in the United States. There are always new threats. Turn the cameras on and your liberties off.
Alfred McCoy
Alfred McCoy is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of the classic "The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade." For "Closer than Brothers," his pioneering book on the impact of CIA torture on the Philippine military, he was awarded the Goodman Prize. He is also the author of "A Question of Torture" and "Policing America's Empire."
Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International.
Established in 1986, AR is dedicated to the founding principles of public broadcasting, which urge that programming serve as "a forum for controversy and debate," be diverse and "provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard." The project is entirely independent, sustained solely by individuals who buy transcripts and tapes of programs.
Its "headquarters" is situated to correspond with its position in the mainstream mass media: down an alley, behind a house, on top of a garage in Boulder, Colorado. From this rarefied location, AR's programs manage to reach over 125 radio stations and millions of listeners. AR is part of the non-profit Institute for Social and Cultural Change.
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