PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Where Is the Fourth Estate? I know...
by Emily L. Bell Sunday, Aug. 10, 2003 at 8:25 PM
stonecoldemilybell@juno.com (email address validated)

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ejected me from its building after publishing my stuff 14 consecutive days of every 21 days since early 1997 after I asked a single question. "for Pittsburgh Indymedia"

During this long, smothering avalanche of lies coming down on us from our nation's Capital, I've been wondering where the Fourth Estate was. Now, from personal experience, I know for sure.

A little background is necessary: In January 1997, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette invited me to join a three-person weekly rotation to compile and write its historical, on-this-date Almanac on page A-2. Although I was a part-time public relations employee for the newspaper at the time, I agreed to be published on a freelance basis. Shortly, one person quit the rotation, and the Post-Gazette invited me to fill that week's seven columns, as well.
After my public relations post was ended in March 2000, the Post-Gazette requested, in writing, that I continue submitting columns for the Almanac on a freelance basis.

The Post-Gazette purchased my 350-400-word daily submissions for publication for 14 consecutive days of every 21 from early 1997 until March 2003; I accepted first $50, later $60, a week. (My greater recompense was the satisfaction of seeing my stuff published virtually untouched by a cadre of editors.)

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On February 24, 2003, while researching online for the Almanac, I happened across a photograph of the Pentagon in flames after being struck by American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11. Suddenly, I realized that I could see nothing that resembled wreckage of a Boeing 757 commercial aircraft.

Distressed, bewildered, and unable to believe my own eyes, I spent the next week frantically looking for all the images I could find on the Internet. I found a number of "crazy" conspiracy websites along with several sites debunking the theories of conspiracy; I also found images at the Department of Defense website, http://www.defenselink.mil

I had several friends explain that the airplane had been going so fast, it disintegrated upon impact into tiny pieces that were consumed by jet fuel flames. They could not explain why there was no airplane-sized hole in the Pentagon's reinforced granite wall, which stood, intact, for nearly half an hour before collapsing into a tidy heap.

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For more than six years, I had done most of my research for the Almanacs at the Post-Gazette's offices, in its microfilm library, and I decided to look there next.

On March 2, 2003, while passing through the newsroom to the microfilm library, I asked two staff writers of long acquaintance to look at the pictures I'd printed out and explain to me why there wasn't any Boeing 757 wreckage.
The city desk editor overheard and interrupted me by ordering me to leave the building immediately. I protested, but when she threatened to call security, I left the premises under her personal escort.
On March 5, the managing editor telephoned to inform me that the newspaper would cease accepting my Almanac submissions. She would not discuss my ejection from the building three days earlier.

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About a month after my ejection from the Post-Gazette, a reporter for the competing newspaper, the (Greensburg/Pittsburgh) Tribune Review, interviewed me for almost two hours about my experience. (Before taking his leave, he told me he'd been at the Pentagon that day; I waited for the slap-down. When I asked if he saw any airplane wreckage at the scene, he paused and quietly said, No.) His editor nixed the story because it was "a personnel issue."
I wrote to every major news organization and have received no reply. I wrote to the NPR ombudsman and have received no reply.

It is said that an oak tree is just an acorn that held its ground. Am I an acorn or just a plain crazy nut?

Speaking of nuts, this fake-ass 5-clip security camera video footage will drive you:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/720851.asp?cp1=1

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