The Park Center for Independent Media is hosting two exciting events this month, both very relevant in today’s political and media climate. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us. Both events highlight the citizen burglars who exposed FBI political spying, keeping their secret for four decades, and the role of journalism in challenging government misconduct -- in the Vietnam War era and today.
Tues., Sept. 23, 7:00 p.m.: Screening of documentary film 1971 (Before Watergate, WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden, there was Media, Pennsylvania) with talkback, Textor 103
Tues., Sept. 30, 7:00 p.m.: Talk by journalist Betty Medsger, who reported on the “liberated” FBI documents in 1971 and wrote the 2014 book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI, with Q&A and book signing, Williams 225
Meet the brave “ordinary” Americans who dared to defy one of the most powerful man in the country, longtime FBI head J. Edgar Hoover — feared by U. S. senators and even presidents — to expose the bureau’s illegal political surveillance and squelching of peaceful dissent.
These activists became the most hunted people in the country during the intensive investigation that followed their 1971 burglary of the FBI offices in Media, Pennsylvania, in which they carted away documents proving the bureau's spying. But they escaped detection, hiding their identities for more than four decades.
Learn of their story in the film 1971, based on the book Burglary by Betty Medsger, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 7:00 p.m. in Textor 103. A Q&A will follow with PCIM’s Jeff Cohen, who has written about FBI/NSA abuses and mainstream media failures to cover those abuses.
Medsger played an important part in the story. As a young Washington Post reporter in 1971, she received and reported on the purloined documents — the first files that pointed to the FBI’s vast surveillance of civil rights, student and antiwar activists.
Medsger’s page-turner book about them shows the power of nonviolent activism and bold journalism — as relevant as ever today, given the ongoing debates over government secrecy, mass surveillance and whistleblowers who risk much to inform the public about official misconduct.
Medsger will speak in Williams 225 on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 7:00 p.m. A Q&A and book signing will follow the talk.
Both events are free and open. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodation are asked to contact Brandy Hawley, bhawley@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3590.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20140902194313153