Revolution will be televised with new Green Left program

June 15, 2012
Issue 

Next week, Green Left Weekly will launch its newest project: an internet-based current affairs program inspired by shows like Democracy Now and Julian Assange’s The World Tomorrow.

The first Green Left Report will feature interviews with WikiLeaks supporter and activist Cassie Findlay and Cairo-based Australian journalist Austin Mackell.

Findlay is a member of Sydney’s Support Assange and WikiLeaks Coalition and helped found beattheblockade.org, which campaigns against the unlawful banking blockade of WikiLeaks by financial institutions such as Mastercard, Visa and PayPal.

Mackell spoke to Green Left Weekly about Egyptian politics in the lead up to the second round of the country’s presidential elections, which take place on June 16 and 17.

The show will also hear from Green Left TV’s Paul Benedek, who will discuss the politics behind the Green Left TV project. Since its launch three months ago, Green Left TV has uploaded 30 videos, receiving about 14,000 views. More than 100 people have subscribed to Green Left TV’s YouTube channel.

Plans are also underway for the second edition of the Green Left Report, which will be filmed before a live audience in Sydney on July 7. Independent journalist Antony Loewenstein will appear to discuss the failings of the mainstream media and talk about his new book Left Turn, which he coedited with Jeff Sparrow.

The July 7 show will also feature a report on the Greek people’s resistance to harsh austerity measures imposed on the country by elite interests. It will also discuss the rise of the left-wing Greek party SYRIZA and analyse the results of the Greek elections.

Like our newspaper and website, we aim to have shows like the Green Left Report play a part in the fight for social justice and human dignity. We need such alternatives because huge corporations, which report the news from the point of view of the richest 1%, control most of our media.

Media Lens founders David Edwards and David Cromwell have posed the problem in this way: “Consider two salient facts: 1) much of the contemporary world is dominated by giant, multinational corporations; 2) the media system reporting on that world is itself made up of giant corporations. Indeed, media entities are often owned by the same giant corporations they are tasked with covering.

“How young would a child have to be before it failed to recognise a problem here? And yet this is a realisation that escapes close to 100% of professional journalists.”

We want to expand the reach and coverage of challenging shows such as the Green Left Report as an alternative to the corporate media. But to do so, we need your help.

GLW needs to raise $60,000 in the next two months to help fund the Green Left TV project, as well as to buy much-needed equipment and carry out free training sessions for people who want to contribute their own films.

You can help make sure this people-powered activist media project survives and thrives with a donation to Green Left’s fighting fund today.

Donate online at greenleft.org.au. Direct deposits can also be made to Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 00901992. Otherwise, you can send a cheque or money order to PO Box 515, Broadway NSW 2007 or donate on the toll-free line at 1800 634 206 (within Australia).


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