Dr. Mary's Monkey and the Media Radio Show with Ed Haslam & Melissa Cornick, 4/28 8- 10pm

In the first hour, the focus will be on Edward T. Haslam and his book- Dr. Mary's Monkey-
How the Unsolved Murder of a Doctor, a Secret Laboratory in New Orleans and Cancer-Causing Monkey Viruses are Linked to Lee Harvey Oswald, the JFK Assassination and Emerging Global Epidemics. This is a remarkable book of an odyssey lasting many decades, by a native of New Orleans. In some way's a murder mystery, looking at a major cover-up by the government and the media, his book has received almost zero press, despite the fact that he brings to light a major witness to the assassination of JFK (Lee Harvey Oswald's ex-lover) who worked with Oswald, Ferrie and Mary Sherman in a secret laboratory developing cancer causing viruses, to be used as bio-weapons.

Ed Haslam, the author of Dr. Mary’s Monkey, was born in Kansas where his family had lived for several generations. His grand-parents were the school-teachers and country-doctors of the prairie. Shortly after his birth in 1951, his father (who had just returned from Harvard and the U.S. Navy) accepted a position teaching at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans. During the next 35 years that Ed Haslam lived in New Orleans, he personally heard and saw things that involved the investigation into the Kennedy Assassination, the murder of one of his father colleagues, and claims of biological weapons to be used for political purposes. Haslam’s 1969 comment: “If there is a bizarre global epidemic involving cancer and a monkey virus thirty years from now, at least we’ll know where is came from” states his concerns clearly.

Haslam’s education was that of a well-placed New Orleans male. He attended Jesuit High School in the late-1960s. The background event of these years was Jim Garrison’s investigation into the JFK assassination. Haslam had teachers, classmates and friends whose family members were involved in the case in one way or another. This experience gave him an “insider perspective” of these events.

As the U.S. flag-bearer for Jesuit’s U.S. Marine Corps JROTC unit, he marched in many Mardi Gras parades and developed an interest in the “parade beat” music of this unusual city – an interest he was to pursue. After graduating from the demanding agenda of Jesuit High School, he studied Art History at Tulane University and further developed his interest in music and writing.

For most of the 1970s he worked with the legendary piano-player Professor Longhair, considered by many to the one of the Founding Fathers of Rock-and-Roll for his contributions to the style in the 1940s. In 1975, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney visited New Orleans to honor Professor Longhair and wrote the song “Rock Show” to commemorate his visit to Longhair’s concert which Haslam produced.

When Longhair died in 1980, Haslam got out of the music business to pursue a career in advertising. There he was able to use his creative, musical, art and writing skills as a Creative Director. His radio campaigns for Tabasco Pepper Sauce and his work for The Treasures of the Vatican art exhibit at the World’s Fair in New Orleans recall this period. It was during this time that he stumbled upon hard evidence connecting people involved in the JFK assassination investigation to the medical community in New Orleans. But the time was not right to speak out.

In the 1980s Haslam’s advertising career took him to Detroit where he managed advertising campaigns for the Chrysler Corporation – and where he made presentations to then-Chairman Lee Iacocca. In his word’s, “I went from Professor Longhair to Lee Iacocca in 8 years.”

In his final days in Detroit, as the AIDS epidemic fixed itself upon the media landscape, Haslam started questioning what he had seen and heard in New Orleans. He began work on a research project known as Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus: The Story of an Underground Medical Laboratory. The book has expanded into the current version, which is in its third printing.

His website- www.themonkeyvirus.com has links to the interviews with Judyth Vary Baker, Oswald's lover, and a key witness in the book to detail precisely what was going on in the secret laboratory, as well as Oswald's role in the murder of JFK.

In the second hour, our focus will be on the media with our guest Melissa Cornick-Horyn, whoo, in her career as a network news television producer, has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking original investigative reports, including the prestigious 2006 Edward R. Murrow Award and Mongerson Prize for Ethics in Investigative Reporting. (One of her award winning stories looked at "Cruelty to Owners" and the unethical seizure of animals under the guise of "saving them.")

Melissa has focused on untold stories that highlight human and civil rights issues. Although her career spans CBS, NBC and ABC, 60 Minutes, Dateline, 20/20, Primetime and Walter Cronkite’s CBS Reports, Cornick has worked much like an independent producer; from generating fresh concepts, to gumshoe investigating, to shooting, to crafting and editing. Her objective is to give a voice to the voiceless while highlighting the tenets of ethics of journalism.

She was the first national news journalist to investigate the wrongful conviction of one third of the adult black population of Tulia, Texas, a story which will be made into a feature film starring Halle Berry next year. The report called, “Town on Trial”, was credited with showcasing the issue so that ultimately, prisoners were exonerated from continuing to serve up to 60 year prison sentences. However, network leaders were influenced by a letter writing campaign by white townspeople who convinced the network to not air further updates about the prisoners’ release.

Currently, she is involved in multi-media strategies for balanced journalism across multiple new media platforms worldwide, including online and locative mediums.

She lectures and mentors young people of every background on the importance of cultural pride and education. She believes in responsible citizen journalism from a variety of points of view.

Melissa and I will both be attending a Media Conference at the end of the month in Sunnyvale, California entitled- NewsTools2008.org- A Concept/Design mashup for journalists, technologists and entrepeneurs. In preparation for the conference, we were given the assignment of interviewing one another, we had such a fruitful conversation that I invited Melissa to continue the conversation on the radio show, initially under the theme- "Media Reform, Revolution, or Renaissance?" to examine the history of the media and it's current state of evolution and where we would like to see it go, if possible, coming from very different backgrounds. I forwarded Melissa Ed's book and also invited her to take part in the first part of the show, since his work is a pathbreaking piece of investigative journalism which illustrates the power of the government and media to suppress or expose information about world shaping events.

In our dialogue Melissa made some interesting points. Her stories are generated by what she perceives to be injustices which biologically affect people and those that hear their story. Investigative pieces which require a lot of work, resources, exposing large crimes which affect large numbers of people are increasingly frowned upon and discouraged by the major networks. Genuine journalism should be as inexpensive as possible and comes from grassroots initiatives, generally the victims trying to share their experience. Often victims do not know or understand the law or their rights. It is very important to encourage and enable citizen journalism. While it is harder and harder to break stories into the corporate press, it is possible for stories to come out in the local press, or the internet and be amplified to the point where they cannot be ignored.

If you have a question or wish to join the conversation, the call in number is- 512-646-1984.

Questioning War- Organizing Resistance is hosted every Monday by Bay Area's Carol Brouillet is a longtime activist who organized three conferences on Strategies to Transform the Global Economy and (the first) marches on her Senators and Congresswoman in January 2002 to Demand a Congressional Investigation of 9-11. She publishes the Deception Dollars, and Co-Founded the 9-11 Truth Alliance, and the Northern California 9-11 Truth Alliance . She organized premieres of films, educational events, marches, rallies for 9-11 Truth, the San Francisco International Inquiry into 9-11, and produced the film Behind Every Terrorist- There is a Bush. She is also a mother of three boys and held a weekly Listening Project in downtown Palo Alto from October 2001 to October 2007, now she holds it once a month on the 11th, in solidarity with other 9/11 Truth activists worldwide. She ran for Congress in 2006 on the Green Party ticket on a 9-11 Truth, Peace, Impeachment platform and will be on the ballot again in 2008.

2008 Shows are archived at- http://mp3.wtprn.com/Brouillet08.html and 2007 shows are archived at http://mp3.wtprn.com/Brouillet07.html