#Newsfail

Touting the bold message that “independent radio that won’t lead you to war,” comedian Kilstein and journalist Kilkenny tell the tale of their popular podcast, Citizen Radio, with equal doses of edgy humor and insight. The show’s creators, inspired by the pioneering news program Democracy Now, realized their brand of censor-free, low-budget media without the influence of corporate cash would go against the commercial grain, running counter to mainstream media’s focus of “sexy over substance, drama over facts.” Under their mission statement of “truth-telling above brainwashing,” no person or topic escapes their barbed scrutiny whether it’s the “climate change denial cult,” Fox News, CNN, “legitimate rape,” same-sex marriage, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, Glenn Beck, the War on Drugs and legalized weed, or Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. When the authors tackle gun control and Constitutional guarantees, they argue the obvious with a wry statement of truth: “Of course you can kill people with other objects aside from guns, but the point is it’s a lot more difficult to commit massacres with objects that aren’t guns.” Feisty, literate, and uncompromising, the work of Kilstein and Kilkenny stresses the role of a free and independent press as a powerful guardian of democracy. (Oct.)