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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Ex-Weather Underground Member Kathy Boudin Granted Parole
After 22 years in jail, Boudin was granted parole yesterday.
We talk to her son Chesa Boudin who was 14 months old when
his parents were arrested; her attorney Leonard Weinglass;
Jeff Jones, a founding member of the Weathermen and Norma
Hill, who called for Boudin’s release even though she
was a victim in the 1981 bank heist that led to Boudin’s
arrest. We also play excerpts of the new documentary “Weather
Underground.”
FCC Head Michael Powell Backpedals & Announces Study
on Local Media Ownership
After hundreds of thousands of Americans sent letters opposing
the FCC’s changes to the media ownership regulations,
Powell is bowing to public opinion and rethinking the new
rules. Among other things, he yesterday announced the FCC
would begin licensing more low-power community FM stations.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Ex-Weather Underground Member Kathy Boudin
Granted Parole
INTRO: After 22 years in jail, Boudin was granted parole
yesterday. We talk to her son Chesa Boudin who was 14 months
old when his parents were arrested; her attorney Leonard Weinglass;
Jeff Jones, a founding member of the Weathermen and Norma
Hill, who called for Boudin’s release even though she
was a victim in the 1981 bank heist that led to Boudin’s
arrest. We also play excerpts of the new documentary “Weather
Underground.”
“When I walk out of the prison gate I will gently touch
the air that surrounds me like a shawl. It is autumn and the
leaves are floating in circles of reds, browns, and oranges.
I am with my child in freedom, a reunion with my family and
friends who have lived these decades with me.”
These are the words of Kathy Boudin, a former member of the
radical group the Weather Underground. She has served 22 years
in prison for her role in a botched armed robbery in 1981
in which three men were killed.
She was granted parole in a surprise decision yesterday.
She is 60 years old.
In the 1960s Boudin, daughter of civil rights attorney Leonard
Boudin, joined the Weather Underground a radical group who
were convinced that only militant action could end racism,
inequality and the war in Vietnam.
They took responsibility for bombing two dozen public buildings,
including the Pentagon, eventually landing on the FBI’s
Most Wanted list.
In 1981, Boudin was recruited by Black Liberation Army members
to drive the getaway vehicle in an armored car heist in Rockland
County, New York. The idea was to have white people drive
the getaway vehicle, a U-Haul truck, to throw off pursuers.
A security guard was killed in the robbery at the Nanuet
Mall. Their truck was later stopped at a roadblock and two
police officers were gunned down by gunmen at the back of
the truck. Boudin was unarmed and sitting in the passenger
seat at the time. She was apprehended as she fled, pleaded
guilty to felony murder and robbery and was sentenced to 20
years to life.
Her son was just 14 months old at the time.
In prison, Boudin has served her time as a model inmate.
She developed a program on parenting behind bars and helped
write a handbook for inmates whose children are in foster
care. She also earned a master’s degree in adult education
and literacy. In the late 1980s she helped design an AIDS
support program that is now used as a model at prisons across
the country.
Boudin has spent 22 years behind bars. She is expected to
be freed from her New York state prison by late September.
Her possible release has been staunchly opposed by the families,
friends and colleagues of the three men killed.
Boudin said she was terrified during the gun battle and aid
there was no way “to pay the debt for my being involved
or participating in the crime that destroyed families and
destroyed men.”
- Leonard Weinglass, attorney representing Kathy Boudin.
- Chesa Boudin, son of Kathy Boudin. He recently graduated
from Yale University and received a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
He was a baby when his parents were arrested and imprisoned.
He was raised by Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, themselves
former members of the Weather Underground.
- Tape: “Weather Underground,” new documentary
directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel
- Jeff Jones, former member of the Weather Underground.
He now works as the communications director for the Environmental
Advocates of New York.
- Norma Hill, she was dragged from her car at gunpoint
during the 1981 robbery and testified for the prosecution
in the ensuing trials, but later befriended Kathy Boudin
while both were working with AIDS patients in prison.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 Boudin Cont’d
8:41-8:58 FCC Head Michael Powell Backpedals &
Announces Study on Local Media Ownership
INTRO: After hundreds of thousands of Americans sent letters
opposing the FCC’s changes to the media ownership regulations,
Powell is bowing to public opinion and rethinking the new
rules. Among other things, he yesterday announced the FCC
would begin licensing more low-power community FM stations.
For the second time this week, Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Michael Powell has been forced to respond to mounting
opposition over the FCC’s decision to rewrite the nation’s
media ownership laws.
Yesterday Powell announced the launching of an initiative
aimed at promoting what he calls ‘localism’ in
radio and television. He said a task force would be formed
to study the quantity and quality of local news broadcasts
and then make recommendations to Congress.
Despite his call for the study, Powell said he remained skeptical
of the notion that "the only way you can serve a local
community is by having a small station in a local community
owned by a local owner."
He also announced that the FCC would speed up the licensing
of noncommercial, low-powered FM radio stations.
Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan from North Dakota said, "It
is a very curious strategy for the chairman to change the
rules in a way that will dramatically damage localism and
then, nearly three months later, propose a process to examine
how those rules might affect localism".
Powell said at several points in the news conference that
he did not view the decision to appoint a task force on local
concerns to be a political one. When pressed about the timing
of his announcement, in the midst of the Congressional outcry
over media consolidation, Powell said: "Why now? Because
we are constantly working to try to find the best and most
constructive way to serve our public."
Powell’s announcement on localism came two days after
he called on Congress to draft new legislation to provide
the FCC with clearer direction.
- Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital
Democracy
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press,
Noah Reibel and Vilka Tzouras. Mike Di Filippo is our music
maestro and engineer. Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston,
Orlando Richards, Simba Rousseau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss,
Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis
Moynihan, Jenny Filipazzo and Ionnis Mookas.
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