Taking on language and symbols favored by the right, ex-TV talk show host Phil Donahue rallied media-reform activists with a short anti-war speech at the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis. "We are hear because we believe we are the patriots," Donahue told nearly 2,000 attendees during a evening music-and-conversation session at the three-day event. "We believe conservative voices should be heard. But we are hear because we also believe there is another voice that needs to be heard."
Donahue called the Iraq war "unnecessary, unaffordable, unconstitutional and unwinable" and he said that the Bush administration "have called a war and sent other peoples' kids to fight it." He said the war was a "terrible idea and we have got to fight the carnage."
"We are here because we want an America where the red states talk to the blue states," said Donahue. "It's our flag, too . . . we are proud to be American and we will salute the flag . . . God bless this, God bless that, God bless my dog and God bless my cat . . . oh, God must be wincing!"
"Here's to the beginning of a new media in America," he concluded.
(LISTEN to Phil Donahue during a March 25, 2005 interview on Democracy NOW!)
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