Koehler on Koehler: I'm a long-time Chicago-based journalist, editor, teacher, public speaker, poet and fiction writer. I work as an editor at Tribune Media Services and am also nationally syndicated by TMS. I've won awards for my writing at the local, state and national levels, and generate intense reaction among readers (I've been thanked profusely, called a hero of democracy, had my life threatened and wished an inoperable brain tumor). A reader once called me "blatantly relevant" and I use that phrase as my byword every week. I write about politics from outside the Beltway and outside the unspoken assumptions of mainstream journalism. I see my column as a wedge of outrage into the mainstream media, a means of interrupting the conversation that accepts, as given, war, poverty, social inequity and environmental degradation. On my website, commonwonders.com, I describe the column as "part political brawl, part secular prayer." I have appeared in such newspapers as the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Toronto Sun, Houston Chronicle, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Tallahassee Democrat, and many others. I am a widower and single father, with a daughter who is a senior in college. I am currently working on a book about the peace movement. I am active in the men's movement and an enthusiastic participant in the evolution of human consciousness.
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which exists for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. We aim to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Electronic (computerized) voting systems are simply antithetical to democratic principles.
CER set up a lending library to achieve the widespread distribution of the DVD Invisible Ballots: A temptation for electronic vote fraud. Within eighteen months, the project had distributed over 3200 copies across the country and beyond. CER now concentrates on group showings, OpEd pieces, articles, reviews, interviews, discussion sessions, networking, conferences, anything that promotes awareness of this critical problem. Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005.
What a gem of an interview. Here is the best part, imho:
Koehler: The worst reporting comes from embedded reporters. Reporters are shockingly embedded in the status quo not just in Iraq but in the U.S. as well, from sea to shining sea.
What a great way of putting it. Brilliant!
by
Michael Collins (106 articles, 16 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 358 comments)
on Monday, December 10, 2007 at 12:35:01 AM
What a generous spirited, humane person he is, and how good you are to take the time and care to ask him provocative questions....and give him a chance to express his personal opinions in a supportive interview.