Author
Vinny Lombardo
Media EmergenC:
Interview with Anthony Lappe of GNN
click link to download
Last week, the National Association of Broadcasters, or N.A.B., perhaps the most influential lobbying body on Capitol Hill, held their annual "Radio Road Show" convention in San Diego, CA. Meanwhile, independent journalists, and media activists from around the US also converged for their own gathering, dubbed Media EmegenC, to open up a dialogue about the successes and failures of the media democracy movement. Local organizers with the Independent Media Center put on the four-day event, which featured video screenings, musical performances, street actions, workshops, and forums, addressing efforts to inject diversity and localism onto our airwaves.
Anthony Lappé is the editor of the Guerrilla News Network's web site, GNN.tv which features original news, interviews, commentary, innovative video and an active forum for dissent and investigation. He has written for Black Book, Details Gear, New York, The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, and Salon.com, among others. In television, he worked as a correspondent for The New York Times Video News International (now NYT-TV). In 1996, Lappe received two grants from the U.S. government to help train reporters from the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in the West Bank. Later, he was a breaking news producer for Worldwide Television News (WTN) and a documentary producer for MTV News and Specials. He is the co-author, with Stephen Marshall, of GNN's first book, True Lies and the producer of GNN's feature documentary about Iraq, BattleGround: 21 Days on the Empire's Edge (directed by Marshall) I had an opportunity to interview Anthony Lappe about his work. We spoke outside the Rosary Room in Downtown San Diego. He begins by describing the principles of the Guerrilla News Network.