By Darren Weeks
On the heels of Michael Corbin's departure from this world, we have lost another powerful voice in the fight for the preservation of our property rights, and in the battle against the multi-national corporate takeover of our food supplies.
If you've never heard the name Derry Brownfield, then you have been deprived of the opportunity to listen to one of the most relevant patriot broadcasters of our day. His broadcast is carried by his own Brownfield Network of radio stations which includes Ted Anderson's powerhouse Genesis Communications Network (GCN) and John Stadtmiller's Republic Broadcasting Network. Additionally, Derry is carried on Nashville-based shortwave giant WWCR and a host of about 80 commercial radio stations along with numerous micro FMs which receive the show in one form or the other.
Derry brings a mix of old-fashioned common sense, down-on-the-farm humor, and many years of agricultural experience and knowledge to the microphone. It is this mixture which has been delighting audiences since 1994, when he switched from reporting agricultural news to the more entertaining, but no less informative hour-long talk format.
A rare breed in patriot and agricultural broadcasting today, Derry covers such vital topics as the Biodiversity Treaty, Agenda 21, and other United Nations initiatives that are designed to steal our water and property rights. He is a heavy hitter on issues such as the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which is the USDA's plan to register every farm and farm animal in America and implant all livestock with Radio Frequency Identification tags. He has spent a lot of airtime informing his listeners about a similar National ID program for people — the REAL ID.
Brownfield has also long been covering the takeover of our food supplies by corporate interests such as Monsanto. It is a subject that he is all too familiar with, given the fact that he has watched corporate interests progressively advance to frightening and dangerous levels over the years.
It is his unwavering commitment to telling the truth — even if it means venturing into areas where others fear to tread — that has landed Derry Brownfield into hot water from executives of Learfield Communications, his former company, and his founding partner Clyde Lear who bought out Brownfield's share of the company in 1985.
On his April 16th broadcast, Derry did an excellent expose of Monsanto with guests Fred Stokes of the Coalition for a Prosperous America and Michael Stumo, legal counsel for Organization for Competitive Markets. This writer heard the broadcast. It was a factual representation of how Monsanto is controlling the agriculture business by patents and lawsuits.
Monsanto has made it a practice to sue farmers who refuse to buy their genetically modified seeds when those farmers' crops are contaminated by Monsanto crops from nearby farms. In recent days, they have begun targeting dairy farmers.
Quoting from a recent Vanity Fair article about the dangers of Monsanto seed consolidation, Derry referred to the company's patent enforcers as mafia-type "goons" who spy on farmers, taking pictures of their operations, and threatening them if they refuse to comply with the company's wishes.
“Multinational corporations are doing everything possible to change agriculture — and not for the better. I know a little bit about this. Not a lot, just a little bit. But Monsanto — literally, they have Mafia goons out, do they not? They show up on farmers’ property, they try and harass them, they say if you don’t sign this, we are going to take you to court. They have literally tried to destroy agriculture as we know it. They have a goon squad. Maybe that’s not what they like to be called. But if it was the Mafia, we would call them the goon squad.”
In an interview with the Corporate Crime Reporter, Clyde Lear described the events leading up to his evicting Derry from the company the two had founded together.
It is important to note that Lear claims in the quote below, that he's sure Derry's allegations about Monsanto are untrue. I can personally attest that I have done my own independent research on Monsanto and Brownfield's claims are very much the truth! I too have covered Monsanto's food control on occasion on the radio show and can recall a particular broadcast where Nancy Levant pointed out that Monsanto was actually trying to patent the way pigs have sex! I verified her claims while we were on the air. They want to control all of the food! They really are an evil empire, as Brownfield claims.
Now to the Corporate Crime Reporter:
“If the Monsanto issue had not come up, we would not be here today,” Lear said.
Lear said that the President of Learfield Communications, Roger Gardner, talked recently with John Raines, Monsanto’s director of public affairs.
“John Raines talked to Roger Gardner about the difficulties they felt Brownfield is giving them,” Lear said. “(Gardner) told me he talked to John Raines about the Vanity Fair article.”
“The pressure I got came from the president of the news division, Stan Koenigsfeld,” Lear said. “Stan is the guy that has responsibility for selling and maintaining the financial viability of our news division. Stan is a no nonsense guy. So, Stan comes in and says – why are we doing this? Why do we continue to do this? We give him all of these things and he spits in our face by lambasting our good advertisers, without giving them an opportunity for fair and balanced reporting. And it is not reporting – it’s just entertainment. Why do we continue to do this?”
Lear says that the complaints have been mounting over the past five years about Brownfield.
“And I’ve been saying to Stan, settle down, it will all be alright,” Lear said. “But I imagine Stan is getting a lot of pressure from his sales executives. We have three that call on Monsanto for different products. And I would assume that he is getting pressure from those sales executives. When those sales executives call on Monsanto, Monsanto is complaining to the sales executives. That is where the connection happens. But you would have to talk to them about the kind of leverage Monsanto is putting on them. They have never to my knowledge threatened to pull any advertising.”
Lear finally confronted Brownfield.
“I went to him and said – Derry, look, lay off of this,” Lear said. “Lay off of this Monsanto thing. I am getting a lot of complaints.”
Lear said he was the only one in the company who could approach Brownfield.
“I’m the only one who can talk to him,” Lear said. “No one else in the company will go to him. He is kind of persona non grata. He is one of the guys who helped start the company years ago. He was my partner for years until 1985 when I bought him out. He is a dear friend of mine. So, there is no one else – all of the rest of the guys are half my age. They won’t go to him. They are afraid of him. They just won’t go and talk to him.”
“They all came to me and said – go talk to Derry,” Lear said. “We’ve got to quit doing this. Plus, it came at a bad time. It came during the same week that the National Association of Farm Broadcasters national convention was being held in Kansas City. And at that convention, of course, Monsanto was omnipresent. They are there trying to woo farm broadcasters, because they want them to say nice things about them, right? So, here are all of the Monsanto people at this convention. And their advertising agencies – Osborne & Barr out of St. Louis – among others. They were all there. And it was embarrassing, because all of that week, Derry is lambasting Monsanto.”
“We have explained to Monsanto, in any way we can, that the Brownfield Network has nothing to do with Derry’s show,” Lear says. “This is a completely independent show that he puts on. Well, Monsanto says – he’s doing it from your studios, isn’t he? And we say yes, we give him space because of the history.”
“And they ask – how else do you help him? If he weren’t doing the show, would this problem disappear?”
“So my guys came to me and said – we’ve got to do something about this.”
“So, I went in to Derry and I sat down with him,” Lear said. “It was very good natured. I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t planning on doing anything. I said – let this Monsanto thing go for awhile. Just let it go.”
“He said – ‘Clyde – Monsanto is an evil empire,’” Lear recalled. “‘This is evil. He said – every farmer hates Monsanto. You know what they have done – and then he would lambast Monsanto and lay out this litany of stuff that they do. It included milk. Apparently there is a human growth hormone that they put in the milk. I don’t know a thing about it, but apparently they won a court case that prohibited milk retailers from putting on the milk carton the label – hormone free. I didn’t know anything about this, but Brownfield was complaining about how the liberal judges of America are siding with the evil empire. And Monsanto pays them off. All kinds of allegations which I’m sure are not true. But Derry believes them.”
“So, I said – will you let Monsanto be on the air? And he said – I’m not going to give them a forum. But then he changed his mind and said – yeah, bring them on. I'll let them on the show.”
Lear then went to hole up with his executives. And his execs told him – “It’s bigger than this now. We just don’t need to be associated with him.”
“So, I just walked back there and said to Derry – you say you are not going to lighten up. And he said no, I’m staying the course. And I said – not with us you are not. You are going to have to find some other way to distribute your program, and you are going to have to find some other office to do it out of.”
Given that he was willing put Monsanto on his show, why not keep him on?
“Maybe we should have,” Lear said.
Would you reconsider your decision?
“I don’t think so,” Lear says. “It is just not a business I want to be in anymore.”
Lear says he feels sad about parting with his old buddy, but he wants to help set up an internet radio studio for Derry out of Derry’s home office.
“We are helping him build a new facility in his home,” Lear says. “But we won’t have a connection to him. Then we can easily say to Monsanto – we don’t have a thing to do with Derry. We don’t have a thing to do with him. He’s not on our property. We can’t control him.”
Writing on his blog, Lear stated of his decision:
Derry Brownfield is a radioman. He's been talking to farmers, city people, and "Constitutional Americans" for 35 years with me...and for a number of years before 1973. He's good. And, he's a dear friend.
His last show will be in the middle of May. The "Common Sense Coalition" grinds to a halt on our system, but likely will continue with a new ownership group.
Eight or ten years ago Derry quit doing his market shows on the network which bears his name and started a new, daily, hour-long talk show. It was home-spun humor that lifted up Constitutional values on some 80 radio stations across the country. Most of his listeners loved him as did his affiliates. He didn't mind controversy or taking on giants like the Monsanto Corporation. He thought they were bad for farmers, too big for their britches and generally bad for America. Increasingly he's been saying so, without seeking balance, in my opinion.
Nothing has made me prouder than my association with Derry. He taught me how to drink Scotch and so much more. If you've been reading our history in this space, you're aware of that. He's a gentleman in every way. His wife, Verni; and children, Joy, Jay, Jon and Jim are a credit to him. He turned 76 in January I think. His legacy is huge. His name is the moniker for America's largest Agricultural network; the "field" of his last name is forever in our corporate name. We love you, Derry; don't be a stranger.
In response to angry comments from several listeners, Lear wrote:
Derry and his program through the Common Sense Coalition (of which I own 49 percent) isn't journalism at all. It is entertainment. Without Learfield's stipend, the program would have gone away years ago. We pay for studio time, for a producer, for the satellite channel, for telephone lines, and offices, all without reimbursement. I'm close to retirement and have given over day-to-day responsibilities--and financial success--to younger executives. They feel these freebees need to stop. So that's the main reason. But, you're right, Monsanto is part of it. So let me talk about responsible reporting.
These comments imply that what we do in the hundreds of other programs produced by the staff for Brownfield Ag News every week – on air and on line – are not balanced. John Raines and crew at Monsanto know very well that the professional agricultural journalists reporting news for Brownfield will cover all sides of a story, whether it makes Monsanto look good or bad. They don’t always like what we say, but they respect us for telling the truth.
If we broadcast or print anything that is commentary or editorial in nature, we identify it as such and always have facts to back up the opinions being voiced. Cyndi Young's Issues program is a good example of that. There are a whole lot of people out there who disagree with what she has to say, but they will never question her integrity because she uses facts to back it up and always identifies an opinion as an opinion.
Some seem to think the reason Derry is leaving is because Monsanto threatened to stop advertising if we didn’t put a gag on him. If that were the only reason Derry was asked to leave, then I can see why they think we are selling out. We've parted ways because accusations being made about not only advertisers, but individuals, corporations, government, (fill in the blank) were based on fear and lies with absolutely no truth to back them up.
Absolutely no truth? Mr. Lear obviously is a business man and devotes absolutely no time to reading documentation! Nearly everything Derry says is documented. The show is indeed entertaining, but not at the expense of the facts. Mr. Lear calls himself a friend of Brownfield, yet does his best to discredit him. What a friend! To make matters worse, he compares Derry with elitist New World Order shill, Rush Limbaugh!
I abhor radio talk shows like Rush Limbaugh...and Derry Brownfield where half-truths are articulated. I won't be a part of them. And, that's MY right.
Finally, I'm working with Derry to find alternative distribution means and ways to keep his entertaining show going. But I'm afraid I can no longer be associated with it. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.
Joining a chorus of dissenters who made comments on Lear's blog, John Crabtree confronted Lear on his hypocrisy:
"Mr. Lear, How do you reconcile holding Derry Brownfield to a standard that you have not and will not hold yourself or your network to? Seeking balance relative to Monsanto? When was the last time any media syndicate sought balance when dealing with Monsanto, least of all yours?"
So far Derry is refusing to comment until after May 30th, when his departure from Learfield is finalized.
Developing...
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