Pete Seeger: 'It's Hard for Me to Talk About the Media Without Getting Angry'

[n2doc]

From an April 2001 interview with Pete Seeger conducted by David Guistina of Albany public radio station WAMC (listen here, registration required):

Q: Does the media do its job?

A: Of course not. It's hard for me to talk about the media without getting angry. Because if the United States or the world goes down in disaster, I would blame the media first of all, because the people running it are intelligent people. They know very well how evil they are. And when they say, "Oh, I'm just giving the people what they want." Sure–so do the drug pushers.

In the second installment of the interview, Seeger talked about an appearance on the Today show that turned out to be his last:

I haven't been asked on TV that much in recent years. I did get on the Today show once. And I knew that they wouldn't want me to sing a certain song. So I was prepared. I arrived at 6:00, and over the intercom, the director said, "Pete, what you got for us?" And I said: "Well, I got a little banjo tune, and I got something a little more serious. It's a funny song but it's got a serious point." "Well, let's hear 'em." So I sang the banjo tune. "Fine." So I sang the other, called "Garbage," which has the whole crowd going, "Garbage, garbage, garbage."

more

http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/01/29/pete-seeger-its-hard-for-me-to-talk-about-the-media-without-getting-angry/

[joeybee12]

1. Great line...so do drug-pushers...

KNR

[Hoyt]

2. Full story is great. Pete twisted those fools around like a pretzel.