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"You May Rejoice, I Must Mourn" - Fredrick Douglass'
Fourth of July Oration
Juan Gonzalez on Media, Racism and the Role of Third World
Journalists
"You May Rejoice, I Must Mourn" - Fredrick
Douglass' Fourth of July Oration
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered one of his
most powerful speeches against slavery in Rochester, NY. We
hear a dramatic reading by Bernard White of Pacifica Radio
station WBAI of Douglass' historic Fourth of July Oration.
Sunday is the Fourth of July. While many in America hang
flags, attend parades and watch fireworks, Independence Day
is not a cause of celebration for all. For Native Americans,
it is a bitter reminder of colonialism, which brought disease,
violence, genocide and the destruction of their culture and
way of life.
For African Americans, Independence Day did not extend to
them. While white colonists were declaring their freedom from
the Crown, that liberation was not shared with millions of
Africans captured, beaten and separated from their families
and forced into brutal slavery thousands of miles from home.
Today, we turn to one of the most powerful voices of the
abolition movement: Frederick Douglass. He was born a slave
in Maryland in 1818. As a young boy, he was taught how to
read by slaveholder Sophia Auld. It was a dangerous and radical
act that changed his destiny.
Douglass escaped from slavery in the 1830s and became a leader
in the growing campaign against slavery through lectures and
his anti-slavery newspaper, The North Star.
On July 5, 1852, Douglass delivered one of his most powerful
speeches against slavery in Rochester, NY. This is a dramatic
reading by Bernard White of Pacifica Radio station WBAI of
Fredrick Douglass historic Fourth of July Oration.
Juan Gonzalez on Media, Racism and the Role of Third
World Journalists
We hear a speech by Democracy Now! co-host and president
of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Juan
Gonzalez.
Perhaps more than any time in recent history, the media has
become a power player in international and national politics.
Media outlets like the New York Times, CNN and President Bush's
preferred news source FOX News have a dramatic impact on public
opinion and ultimately what people believe to be true. Certainly
in the case of the invasion and occupation of Iraq this has
been true with reporters like Judith Miller and Michael Gordon
of The New York Times printing what was essentially propaganda
from the White House and so-called Iraqi defectors in an effort
to convince the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction. Add to this also FOX News's drumbeat reports
and commentaries on Iraq and the so-called war on terror regularly
passed off as objective news reporting.
In fact, a Washington Post poll taken last September found
that 80% of those who watch Fox News believed at least one
of three misconceptions: that WMD had been found in Iraq;
that al Qaeda and Iraq were tied; or that the world had approved
of US intervention in Iraq.
But that is here in the US. Internationally, journalists
have painted a very different picture of the so-called war
on terrorism. The rise of Arabic language broadcast outlets
like al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya has played a major role in
battling the US government propaganda campaign, particularly
in the Arab World. Today, we are going to take a close look
at the media with Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez. Juan
is also the president of the National Association of Hispanic
Journalists. In February, he gave a major address in Dallas
at a regional conference of the NAHJ on the theme of Media,
Racism and the role of 3rd World Journalists.
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 Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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