Good news! You can watch Pirate TV with streaming or downloaded video, from the comfort of your computer. I have never been able to watch the broadcast shows (on my boob tube) at the appointed times, so the availability of streaming and downloadable films greatly expands the value of the service.
Here, for example, is a streaming video of ex-insurance company executive Wendell Potter describing how Corporate PR is Killing Healthcare.
This search page lets you find other streamable videos. (The interface is a bit awkward.)
If you click on one of the entries further below, or at the following link, you can access wmv files, which you can save to your disk. The files are large (hundreds of megabytes). But, hey! They’re free and the speakers are top notch.
Pirate TV Seattle — Challenging the Corporate Media Blockade!
 Peter Ward: Our Flooding World |
 Chris Hedges: Death of the Liberal Class |
 Gwynne Dyer: The Geopolitics of Climate Change |
 Noam Chomsky: When Elites Fail |
 Peter Dale Scott: State of Emergency |
 Peter Dale Scott: America’s Afghanistan |
 John Dean: Conservatives w/o Conscience |
 David Suzuki: The Big Picture |
 Bill McKibben: Eaarth |
 William Calvin: Putting the CO2 Genie Back in the Bottle |
 Arjun Makhijani: Carbon & Nuclear Free in 30 years! |
 David Korten: A New Game; A New Economy |
 Antonia Juhasz: Black Tide |
 Sanho Tree: Addicted to Failure |
 James Billmaier: The Electric-Vehicle Revolution |
 John Perkins: 2012 Prophesy: Radical Global Change |
 Malalai Joya: US Out of Afghanistan Now! |
 Dan Imhoff: Why the Farm Bill matters and what we can do about it! |
 After Citizens United: What Now? Forum |
 Daniel Tucker: Changing Our Food System |
“The Pirate Television Production Company was started in 1997 and produces an award winning weekly 58 minute cable television series that runs on SCAN- Seattle Community Access Network and PSA- Puget Sound Access in King County Washington. Pirate TV has also shown on Free Speech TV and provides audio for David Barsamian’s outstanding Alternative Radio and KEXP Mind Over Matters 90.3 FM Seattle. ” . (source)
Interestingly, the vast majority of speakers seem to be white men. I’m sure that is not intentional.
Ed Mays, the producer of Pirate Television, has exacting leftist standards for content he will broadcast. He writes:
The question arises: Is Eric Alterman radical enough to be on Pirate TV? I feel I have to bring this up to protect my own credibility. Because Eric Alterman is a stenographer for the party line in a few too many instances and a promoter of a few too many official myths for my taste and methinks many of you may feel the same. For instance: The Nation columnist and author of “Why We’re Liberals” says “The killing of Osama bin Laden was a just and necessary undertaking.” I thought we were liberals because be believe in the rule of law? Because we know that if Osama bin Laden, Bradley Manning, or anyone else targeted by the government doesn’t have a right to a fair trial, neither do we.”
I’m not that leftist, though in recent years I’ve moved to the left somewhat.
This week’s show was good. (I watched it by downloading it). It described how US crop-dusting planes destroy not only cocoa leaves but also farmers’ legitimate crops in South America.
Sanho Tree: Addicted to Failure
Just possibly the pre-eminent expert on drug policy in the United States is Institute for Policy Studies Fellow Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project. In this talk, the prolific writer and former military historian, takes the so-called “war on drugs” apart piece by piece and exposes how in every possible way, the U.S. drug war has the exact opposite effect than its purported intention, which, we are told, is to stop drugs. In fact, prohibition is the price support mechanism that makes the illegal drug economy possible and makes regulation impossible.
Don-
Thanks for plugging Pirate TV! I wanted to respond to some of your comments. As per Eric Alterman, I hate to trash the guests and I’m conflicted about it. As I pointed out later in the write-up, Alterman’s point in this talk is right on- the problem is not Obama. If you think that, you are being distracted from the real problem which is the onset of “Kabuki” democracy. My purpose wasn’t to suggest that Pirate TV has a “filter”. But I’m sincere about what I said re: protecting my credibility. It’s just my way of saying that the views of this person don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of the “management” so to speak.
The purpose of Pirate TV is to put back what corporate media filter out. If you want to get the “conventional wisdom” you need to look to corporate media. The Church Committee in the 70’s exposed that the CIA at that time had some 400 US journalists on the payroll (see: http://www.namebase.org/news17.html). I found out yesterday that Alterman was calling for the use of torture in interrogations immediately after the 9/11 attacks. I sometimes seriously wonder who he is working for: bin Laden? the CIA? both?
As per what you said about the show “increasingly featuring white men”. Sorry about that, I honestly haven’t been paying much attention to the race or gender of the guests. I’ve been taping most of the video at the Town Hall. I provide a lot of content for Alternative Radio and David Barsamian recently raised this point about the Town Hall also. I think that it’s unfortunate but a large majority of important political books being published right now appear to be written by white men. I will strive to even the scale. Perhaps some readers of this may want to help by suggesting events for me to cover? Next week: Amy Goodman.
Thanks -Ed
piratetvseattle@gmail.com
Thanks for your comment. FYI, I did not write, “increasingly featuring white men.” I wrote, “Interestingly, the vast majority seem to be white men.” Of course, I did not mean to imply that there was intentional bias. I was just lamenting the imbalance.
Speaking of Amy Goodman, I attended her speech at the Seattle Green Festival and wrote this Report on Amy Goodman’s speech at the Seattle Green Festival.
Thanks again for Pirate TV. We’re both trying to make amplify progressive voices.