** PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY **
An open letter to the KPFT Houston community
From: the Flashpoints team
RE: The cancellation of Flashpoints during the expanding US-Israeli war against Lebanon and Gaza
August 4, 2006
Dear listener-supporters of KPFT Houston,
It comes as a total shock to the Flashpoints team that the management of KPFT has decided to spike Flashpoints from the airwaves in the midst of the expanding US-Israeli wars against the people of the Middle East.
As we’re sure many listeners to Flashpoints realize, one of our key focuses has been the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the destruction of Iraq. Now, for over three weeks, we have featured daily frontline reports from the South of Lebanon from a group of human rights activists, reporters, and citizen journalists. We believe no other daily national newsmagazine has come close to our frontline coverage, particularly when it comes to the silenced plight of over a million and a half Palestinians locked down in Gaza and under daily attack.
No one from Flashpoints has been contacted by the management of KPFT to let us know that the show is being spiked, despite the expanding wars that we have covered so thoroughly and consistently. We on the Flashpoints team believe now more than ever that the people of the Middle East deserve an unfettered voice and a platform to speak from to counteract the biggest lie of all: that every Palestinian is a terrorist, every Middle Eastener is Osama bin Laden, and Israel needs to be defended at all costs.
It is Friday morning, August 4th, and Israel continues to bomb Lebanon, killing, most recently, 23 farm workers in the South. Four more Palestinians in Gaza were killed just hours ago. Why Duane Bradley and the KPFT management would cancel Flashpoints at this time is hard to comprehend. We wish they would call us back and let us know what they have in mind that will replace the work that Flashpoints does, or perhaps even give us an opportunity to work out an alternative to total censorship and the killing of a show that so many of you have expressed strong support for.
We thank those of you who have sent us a flurry of letters and emails to let us know what KPFT’s management did not see fit to communicate to us in a professional manner. We urge you to listen to the show on the internet and through podcasts and to do all that you can to prevent this media injustice from taking place.
With the greatest respect,
The Flashpoints Team
www.flashpoints.net
510.848.6767 x260
