Informed Discussion

With the announcement that the fourth annual Paul de Armond Citizen Journalism Award will be presented to Stephanie Kountouros at Cascadia News Now, a weekly public affairs radio show airing on KMRE, it is possible that round two of the fossil fuel export war at Cherry Point will include informed discussion by citizen journalists, researchers and scholars who monitor local anti-democratic organizations. The previous year’s recipient of the award, Sandra Robson, stood up to threats from the coal industry for her expose that revealed financial ties between coal exporters and local Tea Party PACs that promoted anti-Indian racism on KGMI radio. With the looming conflict over exporting Tar Sands bitumen and Bakken Shale crude from Cherry Point, this discussion will prove vital in preventing organized violence by Tea Party fellow travelers like the Minutemen and Christian Patriot militias–part of the dark side that Public Good research director Paul de Armond examined in his 1999 review of ideas motivating the fascist movement in the US.