{"id":66,"date":"2010-06-20T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2010-06-20T19:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=66"},"modified":"2020-07-28T07:54:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T14:54:28","slug":"66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=66","title":{"rendered":"David Ray Griffin on Media Resistance to 9-11 issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recorded this interview in San Francisco at the Marine’s Memorial Club and Hotel on February 19, 2010. The occasion was the Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth press conference<\/a> announcing the group had surpassed 1000 signatures from licensed building professionals calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings. Griffin was a keynote speaker.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Richard Gage and David Ray Griffin<\/p><\/div>\n

Shawn Hamilton (SH): \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How do you account for the <\/strong>apparent psychological resistance even among members of the alternative media\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwho should know better\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto even looking at the evidence?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Ray Griffin<\/a> (DRG):<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In one sense it’s obviously a big mystery because these are people who’ve been on the forefront of exposing American complicity\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou know, if we talk about Howard Zinn<\/a>, [Noam] Chomsky<\/a>; we’re talking a long, long time here, so I never criticize these gentlemen because they’re heroes; they’ve done what they’ve done; we wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be here without them and so on. Some of the younger guys? I don’t know. Some of it is, I think, fear. I’m not talking about fear for their lives although I’ve heard of people who’ve said, ‘yeah, I’m afraid for my life,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but I don’t think that’s the main thing. It’s more a fear of, well, job loss. That’s a big one for reporters. I talked to a reporter who had done one nine eleven story and so I said, ‘Well, are we going to get another one out of this lecture,” and he said, ‘I don’t think so. I don’t think my job would survive one more story.'”<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Then, more generally, loss of reputation. The effectiveness of this term ‘conspiracy theory,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ‘conspiracy theorist’ and that no member of the press can be a conspiracy theorist because they’re supposed to be objective, even if objective means parroting everything the government says. In our day that’s what counts for objective. <\/p>\n

But if you parrot what somebody says who’s espousing what is defined as a conspiracy theory, which in the definition that I gave earlier means a theory that contradicts a theory the government has already spoken on, then that a conspiracy theory in the negative sense and very few reporters could survive in their jobs if they explicitly said that.”<\/p>\n

SH: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I understand that for the mainstream media, but what about the alternative media? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a split even at KPFA. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to touch this. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even want to look at it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying believe it, just look at the evidence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/strong><\/p>\n

DRG:<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That’s the next step down. They’ve been so effective with this scare tactic that even to give an open microphone to a conspiracy theorist means give them credibility and that means there’s something wrong with you. So, Shawn, I’m not sure that you’re going to fit in here in our future plans. So, you know how it works; everybody in the media knows how it works: nobody has to be explicitly threatened; they just know the rules. Maybe they tried one story once and they said, ‘Whew,’ that story wouldn’t go, certainly no story about nine eleven is going to go, so they learn not to do it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A third factor is, and some have explicitly said this, ‘we in the left-leaning press spent years building up our credibility, and now you crazy nine eleven conspiracy theorists are destroying our credibility. Well, first of all, a big majority of the 9-11 movement is not on the left; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on the right. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re libertarians and Republicans. Both Steven Jones and Richard Gage were lifelong Republicans, but this is the answer they give. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just an excuse; I think they really do believe that [we threaten] things they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked for.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So from their point of view, it doesn’t matter whether what we’re saying is true or false; it’s not expedient. It’s not helpful to what they consider the larger cause of exposing other high crimes and misdemeanors. So they say, well, we lose our credibility here, then we can’t do all this other good work, overlooking the fact\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI would say as a rabid member of the nine eleven truth movement, ‘Look, this is the big story. This outstrips anything<\/em> you could possibly be exposing from the last ten years or in the next ten\u00e2\u20ac\u201dprobably unless we have another one, and if we do have another one it will be partly your fault because you didn’t help expose this one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So I just think that’s a very poor answer, and for some people to say\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I regret that Howard Zinn, who showed great courage opposing [Noam] Chomsky on this who would not read my book even though they’re both good friends of Richard Falk<\/a>. Richard Falk wrote to Chomsky and he said, ‘I think you should read this manuscript. My friend David Griffin has been a great admirer of yours; he’s built on your work. He would love to have a blurb from you. Chomsky wrote back and said Dick, ‘No, I will not read your friend Griffin’s book.’ Howard Zinn read it. He wrote a blurb, and many people said, ‘I never would have read your book except for the blurb by Howard Zinn despite the fact that he got flack from many friends on the left for writing that very innocuous blurb\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe was not endorsing my ideas, he was just saying this is a serious book. Even though he got a lot of flack for that, he came back and endorsed a second book, so I praise Howard Zinn for the courage he showed even though\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I regret the fact that towards the end of his life he said,   ‘Well, nine eleven isn’t too important. It doesn’t matter too much what the truth is. I just think he made a terrible misjudgment in that.”<\/p>\n

David Ray Griffin Interview (audio) Part 1 <\/a><\/p>\n

David Ray Griffin Interview (audio) Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n

“Over 1000 architects and engineers have signed petition to reinvestigate 9-11 destruction”<\/a>   (Associated with story #14 in Project Censored’s currrent list\/book, Censored 2011)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recorded this interview in San Francisco at the Marine’s Memorial Club and Hotel on February 19, 2010. The occasion was the Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth press conference announcing the group had surpassed 1000 signatures from licensed building professionals calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings. Griffin was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[35,25,36,42,103,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1tQeJ-66","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6292,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=6292","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":0},"title":"David Ray Griffin on Media Resistance to 9-11 issues","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Richard Gage and David Ray GriffinFebruary, 2010, San Francisco http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=66","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=1250","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":1},"title":"America.gov, Cognitive Infiltration, and Obama appointee Cass Sunstein","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I first became aware of Cass Sunstein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ideas for controlling conspiracy theories after seeing several ads for a web site called America.gov run by the State Department. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a complex, well-funded site with more avenues than I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve cared to examine, but what caught my attention was the section under International\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "911"","block_context":{"text":"911","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":78,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=78","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":2},"title":"Over 1000 architects and engineers have signed petition to reinvestigate 9-11 destruction","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\"At some level of government, at some point in time, there was an agreement not to tell the people the truth about what happened.\"\u00c2\u00a0John Farmer, Senior Counsel to the 9-11 Commission in his book The Ground Truth (Page 4) \u00c2\u00a0 By Shawn Hamilton \u00c2\u00a0 Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "911"","block_context":{"text":"911","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theswillbucket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/ExaminerGage1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":982,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=982","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":3},"title":"A Noble Lie: a review of David Ray Griffin’s book “Cognitive Infiltration”","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I had great fun reading David Ray Griffin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Appointee's Plan to Undermine the 9\/11 Conspiracy Theory. Brilliant and funny, this artful explication of Constitutional law scholar Cass Sunstein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essay, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Conspiracy Theories,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d conveys important legal points while treating readers to enjoyable satire. As several talented reviewers have noted,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "911"","block_context":{"text":"911","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/e\/e4\/Cass_Sunstein.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=220","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":4},"title":"Amy Goodman Interviews David Ray Griffin-2004","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The New Pearl Harbor: A Debate On A New Book That Alleges The Bush Administration Was Behind The 9\/11 Attacks In a new book, well known theologian David Ray Griffin, alleges the Pentagon may have been hit by a missile on Sept. 11 and that the Twin Towers collapsed from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":607,"url":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?p=607","url_meta":{"origin":66,"position":5},"title":"State Crimes Against Democracy","author":"Shawn Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"State Crimes Against Democracy by Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff New research in the journal American Behavioral Scientist (Sage publications, February 2010) addresses the concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153State Crimes Against Democracy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (SCAD). Professor Lance deHaven-Smith from Florida State University writes that SCADs involve high-level government officials, often in combination with private\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "911"","block_context":{"text":"911","link":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theswillbucket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}