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Monday, December 23, 2019

Grossman on 'Space Force' getting traction


Journalist Karl Grossman has had much success in the last week or so getting his articles published about the Global Network's opposition to Congress passing Trump's Space Force proposal.

There have been more than a handful of articles in leading alternative media outlets.  In addition Karl and I have been interviewed on several progressive radio and podcasts from coast to coast.

In the old days (late 1980's to late 1990's) mainstream media would routinely cover most of our 'No nukes or weapons in space' efforts.  But not anymore. 

I'll never forget riding in my car in Orlando during one of our three campaigns (1989, 1990,1997) to oppose the launch of deadly plutonium-238 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  I was listening to ABC radio news and an interview with me came on the air.  I used to do a couple of radio talk shows a night from all over the country for weeks on end during these campaigns.

But corporate consolidation of the media (to just a handful of big wig owners) has virtually wiped that 'free media' off the map.  That's why we now rely so much on alternative media (and making our own videos) these days.  I fear they will take down YouTube next.

Think about it - what if the corporate masters completely (or even near completely) shut down Fazebook, YouTube, etc.  Most organizations would be hurting.  Information flow would halt virtually overnight. (Many groups have already been kicked off Fazebook and Twitter.  I have been put in Fazebook jail for weeks at a time, not allowed to post for 'violating community standards' - what ever that means.)  Very few groups still have street mailing lists and don't print newsletters anymore.  That might be a big mistake.

Anyway many thanks for Karl for keeping the story out there on space issues.  He was one of the founders of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space in 1992 along with Citizens for Peace in Space in Colorado and the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice where I worked from 1983-1998.

In his latest article published on Portside, entitled The Very Bad Space Force Deal, Karl ends the piece with these words:

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is gearing up for a selling campaign for a Space Force. On, a website called “Space War Your World At War”, Barbara Barrett, Air Force secretary, is quoted as saying that the Air Force has come up with a “strategy to find support among not just U.S. lawmakers, but also among the public for Trump’s new branch of the country’s armed forces, the Space Force. She opined that this could clarify to the broader public what the U.S. is doing in this domain and why exactly it needs a separate force for operations in space, as well as funding.

Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and is the author of the book, The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet. Karl is an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion.

Bruce

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