Why Solidarity and Political Education Can Build Movements

Why The Media Ignores The Threat of Nuclear Weapons,Puerto Rico Protests Against Colonialism, Manufacturing Consent In South Africa

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Karl Grossman, an author, TV program host and professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury to discuss the lacking coverage by the media of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the critical importance of the treaty as the world is seemingly trending toward another cold war, why the media has largely ignored the existential threat of nuclear weapons, and the complicity of the media in downplaying such dire threats like nuclear weapons and climate change.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dianne Viera, political activist with the collective Jornada Se Acabaron las Promesas to discuss recent protests in Puerto Rico against the energy company LUMA and its devastating mismanagement of Puerto Rico’s electrical system, the relationship of LUMA’s control of the island’s electrical supply to the austerity measures imposed by the US via the fiscal control board and the broader colonial control of the US, and what lies ahead for the movement against LUMA and against the colonial austerity measures imposed by the fiscal control board.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Ajit Singh, an investigative journalist with the No Cold War project to discuss US funding of the media in South Africas as part of both its historical and contemporary cold war strategy, how the National Endowment for Democracy funds news organizations in places where Washington has an interest, how the NED funds many mainstream media outlets in South Africa, and how the NED’s web of grants affects the content of the media organizations that it funds.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jon Jeter, award-winning journalist and foreign correspondent, radio and television producer, Bluesologist and Decolonizer, and author of the book “Flat Broke in the Free Market: How Globalization Fleeced Working People” to discuss why the elite class focuses heavily on so-called experts with degrees from Ivy League schools and why black radical politics is ignored, the recent raid on the Uhuru movement offices and its connection to the thought-killing exercise that was the Russiagate story pushed by the mainstream media, and why a critical analysis of the material and political conditions is crucial in the current moment of superficial and emotional knee jerk reactions.

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