| NPR Write Up
More Than a Song: The Struggle for Free
Palestine
What follows is my take on the series of events that occurred
around my song, Free Palestine, and National Public
Radio's (NPR) Open Mic Stage website.
NPR's website (www.npr.org)
features a program called All Songs Considered which
highlights the work of established musical artists. The program
also has a showcase for less established and unsigned artists
called the Open Mic where anyone can submit music
for a chance at having their song appear for a week (Wednesday
to Wednesday) with 4 or 5 others. During that week visitors
to the site can rate each song on a scale of 1 to 5 where
5 is the highest. DJ Krimson, the producer of the song, told
me about the program earlier in the year but I didn't send
in my submission until after we had completed the album.
A little over a month later NPR emails
me saying Free Palestine has been selected to appear on
Stage 47 of their Open Mic and they want to know if I can
send them a write up about why I wrote the song. Naturally
I'm pumped. So I craft what I think is a concise
explanation about the song and
why I wrote it but I'm concerned that it might be a little
long so I check out the Open Mic page and look to see how
long other artists have gone on about their songs and I
figure I'm in the clear when I see a couple pretty extensive
quotes. I also noticed 2 other things while I was viewing
the site: 1 there's an "Open Mic Favorites" section where
the highest rated songs are highlighted for the rest of
the year and even the highest rated song of the year gets
a position for a second year, and 2 there weren't any other
political songs and only one 'hip hop' song.
When my stage is launched and I look
at my quote I see that it's been edited.
For some reason they felt the need to remove the part about
how the IDF has a policy of censoring film that journalists
take of the occupied territories - maybe this was an omen
- who knows. I contact as many people as I can and encourage
them to vote for my song. One of the people I emailed was
Haithem El-Zabri from the PalestineOnlineStore.com,
whom I had met at Socialism 2004, and he offered not only
to help spread the word but to carry my CD at his store.
Going into the weekend Free Palestine was in the
lead with an approximate average rating of 3.5 compared
to the 2.5 and lower averages of the other songs. Only
one other song was close with a rating of about 3.2.
24 hours later my song is dead last
with a rating of 1.3 while all the others had a rating
of 3.4 and higher. Naturally I was pissed. Haithem emails
me saying that this has to be an isolated attack on the
song organized by some anti-Palestinian group which is
most likely Zionist. He offers to email
NPR and continue gathering support
for the song, I agree with his assessment and accept his
offer. His
efforts result in calls to action
on numerous listservs that reached people around the globe!
Calls went out on Al-Awda.org, United for Peace and Justice,
Both Vancouver, BC's and Italy's Indymedia.org, messageboards
at OkayPlayer.com, lyrics were posted at Nilemedia.com,
it was referenced in an article at JordanTimes.com, a promo
was written up on AxisofLogic.org, etc. (google - son of
nun free Palestine - for examples)
Wednesday, the final day of Stage 47 came
and Free Palestine was on top. The new stage usually launches
around noon so I waited to see when the results would be
made official. Noon comes and goes, 1pm then 2pm come and
go and finally around 3pm they launch the new stage with
a note saying that due to voting irregularities the final
results aren't available. I'm thinking 'here it comes, my
own private Florida.'
Thursday comes around and Free Palestine is
placed in the "Open Mic Favorites" section so I send a thank
you email to everyone I contacted
before and asked Haithem to forward the message to all
his groups. And just when we thought the dust had settled...
I visit the NPR site and the entire
favorites section is gone! Naturally I'm ... So I send
an email to
NPR requesting an explanation, while offering one of my
own, and they reply saying
they didn't pull the section because of anything political.
Rather it was that the favorites section was encouraging
competition which they believed killed the spirit of the
program, they also said that my song resulted in the largest
instance of illegal voting they'd ever seen, they said
the section itself was never promised to artist and that
it was a very inefficient way of highlighting the favorite
artists of weeks past. Now I wasn't born that long ago
but I wasn't born yesterday.
NPR didn't have any problems with the
favorites section before my song and all of a sudden the
section is too inefficient? Come on. NPR may not have promised
artists placement in any favorites section what so ever
but what they did promise was a position in the following
stage. This event has
exposed NPR's undemocratic and consequently anti-Palestinian
position in so far as when music they don't like wins,
or when people complain about a song that's won, NPR changes
the rules of the game whenever they don't like the score.
Some might see parallels to when the NPR program All
Things Considered cancelled a story they were scheduled
to air on Mumia Abu-Jamal because of pressure from police
and anti-Mumia groups.
Concise
explanation [Back
Up]
The original quote I wrote...
I wrote "Free Palestine" because we need to put
an end to the occupation. So little is said about the Palestinian perspective
in that conflict, few people know that film from documentaries
or news reports taken in the occupied territories must be
approved by the Israeli Defense Force before it can be broadcast.
I wrote this song because I wanted to dispell the myth that
opposing the repressive measures of the Israeli government equals
anti-Semitism. No one today would accuse slavery abolitionists
or those who fought against apartheid in South Africa of
being anti-white/Christian because it was obvious that they
were anti-racist and anti-oppression. I also wanted to expose
the fact that U.S. tax dollars are the #1 sponsor of the
destruction of Palestine today and therefore echo the call
of many activist organizations to divest from Israel until
it halts these measures. If we call Patrick Henry hero and
a revolutionary for saying "Give me liberty or give
me death" why do we label people fighting
much worse oppression than 'taxation without representation'
terrorists for saying the same thing?
Edited [Back
Up]
The version of my quote NPR displayed
"I wrote this song because I wanted to dispell the myth
that opposing the repressive measures of the Israeli government
equals anti-Semitism. No one today would accuse slavery abolitionists
or those who fought against apartheid in South Africa of
being anti-white/Christian because it was obvious that they
were anti-racist and anti-oppression. If we call Patrick
Henry hero and a revolutionary for saying 'Give me liberty
or give me death' why do we label people fighting much worse
oppression than 'taxation without representation' terrorists
for saying the same thing?"
Email NPR [Back
Up]
Here's the email Haithem sent to NPR and their
reply
Dear Robin,
I need to alert you regarding an issue you
may or may not already be aware of. There has been
a coordinated campaign to undermine a particular song on
Stage 47.
On Friday, I rated a song that I liked very
much - "Free Palestine." At that moment,
it had the highest score - something like 3.898, if I remember
correctly. The closest competitor was "Jesus" with
just a few points less. All the other songs were significantly
lower, and "Girls Will Save the World" was extremely
low - 1.something.
The next day, it seemed like a hurricane had
hit the stage. ALL the songs were 3.something, except
for "Free Palestine" which was about 1.3 and ranked
last!!! I can tell you that this is very abnormal,
and I imagine you would also see it this way. And to
me, it is clear what happened; pro-Israeli activists launched
a coordinated campaign of undermining this song, and utilized
their wide networks to get everyone to vote 1 for "Free
Palestine" and 5 for every other song. Either
that, or they have found a way to make repeated votes. I
think you will agree with me that this is not fair play.
Why do I believe that pro-Israeli activists
have done this? Other than the fact that it would take
many many identical votes to bring about the change described
above within 24 hours, and the fact that "Girls Will
Save the World" couldn't possibly merit a 3.something,
I have many a time seen pro-Israeli campaigns intended to
bash anything that is pro-Palestinian. A few examples:
- Last year they tried to prevent Palestinian
student organizations from holding a national conference
at Rutgers University, claiming that one of the groups involved
(the International Solidarity Movement, which advocates non-violent
resistance) supported terrorism!
- This year, they tried to prevent the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston from screening a documentary film
about media bias ("Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised
Land" - directed by an Israeli!).
- Whenever a screening of the film "Jenin
Jenin" (exposing the aftermath of the Israeli army's
brutal attack on a refugee camp) is announced, the venue
where it is screened receives tonnes of e-mail and other
forms of pressure to cancel the event.
- House representatives who have expressed
any criticism of Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people
are targeted at the next election, and immense support is
given to their opponent. (see Paul Findley's book "They
Dare to Speak Out - People and Institutions Confront Israel's
Lobby")
So, in conclusion, I want to make sure you're
aware of the foul play that has occured here, and that
it is unfair that the artist S.O.N. not be featured as an "Open
Mic Favorite". I am asking my friends to visit "Open
Mic" and rate "Free Palestine," but we are
no match for the vast pro-Israeli network (or their hacking
skills, if that has occured). And since this song was
rated the highest on Friday, before the campaign to sabotage
it, and since it is not often that you have songs advocating
for human rights or other socially responsible issues,
I ask you to kindly consider including S.O.N. as an "Open
Mic Favorite". Ofcourse, if you do that, you would
receive much hate-mail from the groups that have sabotaged
the song, but at the same time you would be doing whats fair
and right.
Thank you for your consideration, and I would
be very interested in hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Haithem El-Zabri
Executive Director
Solidarity Design.
Their
reply [Back
Up]
Hi, Haithem.
There are a number of irregularities with the current show. We
have a
script that recognizes ballot stuffing and kills irregular
votes. We
haven't run it yet, but will before we take the current show
down. This
will even out the voting.
thanks for your note,
Robin
His Efforts [Back
Up]
Here's the email Haithem sent to the lists
Dear friends,
A Baltimore-based hip-hop artist recently released a song
called "Free Palestine" with extremely powerful
lyrics. "Son of Nun" describes Israeli
brutality, Palestinian resistance, draws parallels to Apartheid,
and calls for divesting from Israel and supporting the Intifada.
"Free Palestine" entered NPR's "Open Mic" competition,
where each week songs are rated by listeners, and the highest
ranking one will remain featured for the rest of the year.
"Free Palestine" was doing extremely well, and
was at the #1 spot with the highest rating on Friday. However,
the pro-Israel crowd got wind of this and orchestrated a
heavy campaign to push the song down. Apparently hundreds
of them rated "Free Palestine" the lowest score
(1) and rated all the other songs the highest score (5). Within
24 hours, "Free Palestine's" score dropped from
3.898 to 1.372, and from the first spot to the last!!!
We need to fight back and get this song the exposure it
deserves, and support this artist who is under heavy attack. The
lyrics are below. The voting ends tomorrow, so please
vote today, and pass this message on to other supporters
of Palestine.
Please go to this URL today, and rate the song a "5." You
can rate the other (competitor) songs also, to help the ranking
of "Free Palestine" move up.
www.npr.org/programs/asc/openmic/index.php?episode=47
Thank you,
Haithem El-Zabri
PS: The CD, "Blood and Fire," is available
for sale at the artist's site, as well as at PalestineOnlineStore.com.
Thank
you email [Back
Up]
Here's the thank you email I sent to everyone
Greetings and thanks to everyone who made 'Free Palestine'
impossible to ignore!
I just wanted to let everyone know that "Free Palestine" was
voted the Open Mic Favorite for Stage 47 and will now remain
on the main Open Mic web page for the rest of the year! The
song could only have achieved this success with the coordinated
efforts of you who struggle tirelessly for justice and a
free Palestine.
Your work to spread the word proved to all who sought
to silence us that this wasn't just about a song. To
me what happened this past week represented a small opening
in an otherwise repressive atmosphere that is close minded,
if not outright hostile to the cries of Palestinians for
equality, justice, and peace. No one in any sovereign nation
would endure the injustice committed on Palestinians or Iraqis
without resisting, in fact few sovereign nations, if any,
exist that have not been born out of resistance. The
voice of that resistance must always be echoed but never
be silenced.
Your actions have elicited posts to Italy's indymedia.org
website, axisoflogic.com, sustain's listserv, united for
peace and justice's listserv, Al-Awda's listserv, 1,000s
of hits to my website which used to only get about 20 hits/day,
several orders of the cd, and invitations to tour and perform
in Palestine (which i plan to do next summer - since
i'm a high school teacher during the year).
I only hope that we continue our struggle for a free Palestine
consciously in this election year, here in the U.S. and
call Bush and Kerry on the carpet for their
anti-Palestine positions on the Apartheid wall, and the funding
of a racist and oppressive Zionist regime.
*** [Back
Up] A special thanks to Haithem at the www.PalestineOnlineStore.com for
taking the initiative to spread this farther and wider
than I ever could have done by myself, especially at the
most crucial time in our campaign.
Divest from Israel!
Long live the Intifada!
solidarity,
-s.o.n.
Email [Back
Up]
Here's my email to NPR about removing the favorites section
Dear Robin Hilton,
I recently visited the Open Mic page on the NPR website
and noticed that the Open Mic Favorites section is gone.
If you could explain why this has happened I would greatly
appreciate it. Considering the fact that the section has
been a feature of the site for a very long time it seems
unlikely that the removal of that section is a coincedence
given the circumstances surrounding Stage 47. It would be
quite unfortunate if all past and future artists will
be denied the promotional exposure and the reward of the
democratic rating process that your website affords those
who have no other way of displaying their work before a guaranteed international
audience. If the decision to remove the Open Mic Favorites
section is the result of my song "Free Palestine" I
would ask you to reconsider. I am sure you know that i could
list several reasons why, but I ask you to reinstate
the feature for two simple ones - 1. it is what artists have
been promised for so long and 2. the name of the program
is All Songs Considered.
Please do not succumb to the pressure of those who would
have you take away the opportunities of so many because they
disagree with the political perspective of one artist. Where
is the justice in that? You took a chance on selecting my
song and people responded and voted to elect it as a favorite.
I and many people seriously doubt that had another song from
Stage 47 been voted the favorite, the Open Mic Favorites
section would have been removed. Please do not perpetuate
the isolation and marginalization of a people who only ask
for justice and equality by erasing what history has just
recorded.
Sincerely,
Kevin James
(S.O.N. - Son of Nun)
Reply [Back
Up]
Here's NPR's reply
Hi, Kevin.
Thanks for the note.
It seems hard for people to understand, but NPR does not
take sides on any issue. In the case of All Songs Considered,
your song got on the show simply because we thought it was
well done. As such, we weren't taking a chance on it because
we had nothing to gain or lose by putting it on. We pick
what we think is the strongest material musically and let
it stand on its own.
The real problem is that Free Palestine drew a record number
of illegal votes, putting it at the center of the most egregious
case of ballot stuffing we have ever seen. Tens of thousands
of votes, all from the same user id and same IP address,
overwhelmed our site, giving your song 5s while giving all
the other songs 1s. In other words, the same person (or most
likely someone who wrote a computer script to hack our system
and automate the voting) voted over and over again for the
same song (yours), which obviously isn't fair. It was easily
the most offensive abuse of the Open Mic system we've ever
seen.
We could have simply pulled your song from the site and
disqualified it. But when ballot stuffing occurs, it's impossible
to know who, exactly is behind it, and the artists themselves
may be oblivious to it. Removing their song for something
they may ultimately have nothing to do with isn't exactly
fair either. Instead, we go over the votes and delete the
ballot stuffing. It's a tedious process, but it isn't hard
to find the illegal votes.
In the end, Free Palestine ended up being the most popular
on the show and we're comfortable with the final vote totals
for everyone. We are not, obviously, bowing to any pressure
either to take the song down or to keep it up. It's still
there, in the archives, along with all the others.
Open Mic is not a competition. The voting is meant only
to give artists feedback on their work, so they have some
idea of what listeners think of their music. We have never
promised anyone anything for being the most popular on a
given episode. There is nothing to win. Despite this, too
many of the artists who get on the show (and presumably their
fans) see it as a competition... which leads to problems
like the ones we experienced with your song last week.
We took the "favorites" section down for two reasons.
First, one long, seemingly random list of names streaming
the length of the page doesn't really help anyone find a
particular artist they're looking for. We're in the process
of reconfiguring our entire archives, both on Open Mic and
the regular show to make them easier to navigate. We may
return the list of most popular artists once we've had a
chance to rework it. Or we may create a new search engine
to better browse the site. In the meantime, we're attempting
to make better use of the space.
The other reason we removed the list is because we're trying
to reduce ballot stuffing or fraudulent voting. While it's
not a competition, noting the most popular artist from each
show compels too many people to make illegal votes in an
attempt to get their favorite song highlighted. It kills
the spirit of the program. You might also have noticed we
changed the language at the top of each Open Mic page, making
it more explicit to discourage illegal voting.
Open Mic is still a relatively new program and, hopefully,
there will be many more changes to improve it in the coming
months.
thanks,
Robin
Following
Stage [Back
Up]
Here's what NPR promises artists who are voted the highest
in their stage.
Open Mic is an online music community
where unknown artists can have a chance to be heard, and
listeners can vote for their favorite songs. Consider it
a virtual stage for independent, unsigned or self-produced
musicians to share their songs with npr.org users. Listeners
then give the artists valuable feedback by rating each
song on a scale of one to five. The
most popular artists, or those with the highest rating,
will be highlighted on the next "stage".
A new stage will go online every Wednesday.
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