Summary: Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary andanalysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-hostNellie Bailey. Coming up: Black voters turned out in huge numbers and won theDemocrats a seat in the U.S. Senate from Alabama, but what are the Democratsprepared to do for Black people? And, Mumia Abu Jamal gives his sign ofapproval to a new book on the many ways that police get away with murder inAmerica. But first – the internet may never be the same again, after the FCC’sgutting of internet neutrality protections. Federal Communications Commissionchairman Ajit Pai, a former lawyer for Verizon, handed corporationsunprecedented control over how the internet will operate. Tim Karr, of the mediaadvocacy group Free Press, is confident that internet neutrality can be rescued. Victor Pickard is an associate professor at the Annenberg School ofCommunications at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of the book,“America’s Battle for Media Democracy.” Professor Pickard recently wrote anarticle on the corporate role in creating, what he called, “The MisinformationSociety.” Pickard agrees that the FCC has been “captured” by the corporations itis supposed to regulate. Black voters are universally credited with defeating Roy Moore’s bid tobecome the next U.S. Senator from Alabama. The far-rightwing Republican isaccused of having inappropriate relations with teenage girls, decades ago. Hebelieves homosexuality is evil and has said that the United States was a reallygreat country back during slavery. Roy Moore lost the special election by onlyone and-a- half percentage points. Black women voted for his Democraticopponent at levels of 98 percent, and Black men were not far behind. The NewYork Times and other corporate media acknowledge that Black voters saved theday for the Democrats, but there has been very little media coverage that putsthe Black political struggle in the South in any real historical context. We spokewith Kevin Alexander Gray, a veteran Black activist and author, in Columbia,South Carolina. Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, has turnedout another book, titled, “Have Black Lives Ever Mattered.” Abu Jamal has beenbehind bars for 35 years in the death of a Philadelphia policeman, but hissupporters around the nation and the world have been holding book parties tocelebrate the new publication, and to demand Mumia’s release from prison.Robin Spencer attended one of those Mumia book parties, at “Raw Space,” inNew York’s Harlem. Spencer is an historian with the Campaign to Bring MumiaHome. From his place of confinement in the Pennsylvania prison system, Mumia gavehigh praise to another activists’ book.
