Democracy Now: A Relief From Corporate News B.S.

By Thomas Boothe and Danielle Follett, Le Monde diplomatique
Posted on January 16, 2008, Printed on January 16, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/73900/

A small group of activists in the rural northeastern corner of Tennessee in the United States persuaded their local public radio station, WETS, to start broadcasting the progressive news-hour Democracy Now two years ago. This pocket of Appalachia would seem to be unwelcoming territory for such an endeavor since the economically depressed farming and mining region votes overwhelmingly Republican -- by as much as 75 percent in the last presidential election -- and is, according to Joseph Fitsanakis, organizer of Democracy Now Tri-Cities (DNTC), "the kind of place where 30 years ago you couldn't really do anything politically unless you were a Klan member."