More than 600 community members and University students filled the seats, walls and floor of Columbia 150 on Sunday evening, all waiting to hear investigative journalist Greg Palast speak about controversies in American politics.
The event, sponsored by the University Survival Center and featuring Palast as the keynote speaker, was in celebration of Palast’s book, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” The book focuses on Palast’s investigative reporting into debates like the 2000 presidential election results in Florida and the reasons for the war in Iraq.
Two other speakers spoke before Palast: Edward Monks, a local attorney, and Alan Siporin, host of KLCC’s talk show Critical Mass and author of “Fire’s Edge.”
Monks spoke first and focused on the radical changes he said media has made since the Reagan administration’s appeal of the fairness doctrine.
“Commercial talk radio is completely gone,” he said. “It is a
public relations arm of the republican party.”
Siporin, the next speaker, received laughter from the crowd as he talked about the Bush administration, even comparing the 2000 elections in Florida against former President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.
“Personally, I would rather have a president who screws a person than who screws a nation,” he said.
It was 7:15 p.m. when Palast took the podium to a standing ovation and thanked the crowd for coming.
“Special thanks for the invitation here at the Shedd,” he said. “They have very good reasons (for not wanting me), but it’s all bullshit.” Palast also added a special thanks to the one man who had brought the crowd together: President Bush.
Palast then launched into some of the stories he had uncovered as an investigative journalist working from London. Palast focused on the controversies of Richard Pearl, Barrick Gold, the war in Iraq, a terrorist organization and the 2000 Florida elections.
As Palast spoke of the stories he had uncovered, he also spoke of the lack of corporate media coverage of these events. He pointed out that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People won a lawsuit against the state of Florida after the 2000 elections, and added that there was little, if any, press coverage.
The event was originally supposed to raise money for independent media outlets, but organizers ended up losing money after controversy arose. Originally, Palast had been scheduled to speak at the John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts in Eugene, but he chose to throw away the contract three weeks ago. Kat Beglinger-L’Estrange, who organized Palast’s Northwest tour, said “the Shedd” didn’t want to host Palast after finding out he would be speaking about politics.
Beglinger-L’Estrange said the University allowed Palast to speak at Columbia 150, but she did not have time to fill out the paperwork required when charging for an event. As a result, the event made no money, and more than 400 dollars was lost on the broken contract.
To compensate for the lost funds, Palast ended his speech by asking people to send donations to help.
“We have to keep meeting like this,” he said. His final thought was a quote from President Bush, the only one Palast said he agreed with.
“‘Do not fight for a dying regime,’” Palast said as he quoted the president. “‘It is not worth your life.’”