As someone who with a knowledge European WWII resistance, I know that one of their activities was Covert listening to BBC broadcasts for news bulletins and coded messages.
The BBC opened its studio to the first members of the resistance who fled France's occupation by Germany in 1940. This was when the service called "Radio Londres" began and would become the daily appointment of the French people for four years. It opened its transmission with : "Ici Londres ! Les Français parlent aux Français..." ("This is London! The French speaking to the French..."), now a very famous quote in France. It was the voice of Free French Forces under Charles de Gaulle, who on 18 June 1940 made his famous Appeal of 18 June, inviting his compatriots to resist and rise against the occupation.
There was a similar service for the Belgians Radio België or Radio Belgique. Radio Belgique was listened to by a majority of Belgians despite its being banned, far more than officially approved stations (like Radio Bruxelles) which broadcast German propaganda.
The BBC would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages, of which only a few were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard the first line of Verlaine's poem, "Chanson d'automne", "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line "Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a monotonous langour) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre-assigned missions.
Even after the war, the East German propaganda machine was foiled by people who could access western media, particularly in Saxony.
Where I am going with this is that when one is faced with a media which is clearly biased, listening to other sources of information is an act of defiance. But it isn't just listening to any source of information, but one which is reliable and trustworthy.
In some ways, the BBC World Service is beginning to follow the US media, but it hasn't gotten as corrupt as its US bretheren. Still, it is another voice and another source. It also has a history of being a trusted new source.
Showing posts with label Public Radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Public Radio. Show all posts
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Sunday, September 4, 2011
RADIO FREE USA!
I’ve been saying it, others have been saying it, and Southern Beale put it really well:
Sadly, we can no longer rely upon the news media to adequately inform us. The mainstream media has, as was pointed out recently, “become journalistically irrelevant when it comes to national issues and coverage.” Unfortunately, as my local newspaper’s eagerness to publish corporate propaganda demonstrates, local media isn’t much better. So we need to find a better way of communicating the facts without letting the special interest groups do their spin job.
So, how does one get informed in this digital age? After all, there is a huge volume of information out there available digitally, but how much of it is worth paying attention? Online astroturfing is more advanced and more automated than we’d imagined. Corporate media is pretty much in the hands of a few and that spills over into “public” media. US mainstream media is journalistically irrelevant when it comes to national issues and coverage. Broadcast media is incapable of explaining anything outside a commercial corporate framework. The US media is pretty much afraid to address anything that hints at the class warfare in fear of scaring away corporate underwriting through actual commercials, or the “underwriting” on US Public Broadcasting.
Sure, there are news sources outside the US, such as the BBC, but that isn’t helpful to the US citizen who needs to understand what exactly is happening in their country. How corporate interests have hijacked public interest through the US government.
The problem is that the war is on: it’s a war against women, workers, anyone who isn’t insanely rich, and those who would speak out about this situation. The problem is that people’s freedom is at stake as they become slaves of the corporate hierarchy that works to keep them silenced and in debt.
I will add a couple of links here for non MSM news:
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