Nate Thayer

“American Journalist praised by Khmer Rouge for ‘support’ ”

“American Journalist praised by Khmer Rouge for ‘support’ ”

(Author's note: This was from a KR radio broadcast the day after my interviewing Pol Pot and 4 days before publication of that first inteview in two decades in the Far Eastern Economic Review. Not only did it piss me off, it underscored their cluelessness on any remotelessly effective PR strategy)

The Associated Press

October 20, 1997

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (AP)-The Khmer Rouge yesterday praised an American journalist Saturday who in June was the first outsider to see the group’s notorious leader Pol Pot in 18 years, and said he is back in guerrilla territory interviewing them again.

In a radio broadcast, the radical Marxist guerrillas said their leader Khieu Samphan met with Nate Thayer, a journalist with the Far eastern Economic Review on October 15.

A few of Thayer’s colleagues also were present at the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng, 190 miles Northwest of Phnom Penh, the announcer said.

Thayer captured international attention in June when he witnessed a show trial  of Pol Pot by the guerrillas he had led for three decades.

Doubts persist, however, as to whether the Khmer Rouge has truly repudiated Pol Pot, or whether Pol Pot staged the trial himself as a propaganda ploy.

“Khieu Samphan thanked Nate Thayer and the international neutral press for taking note of the truth about the struggle of the Cambodian nation and people to reach real real national reconciliation, peace, and democracy,” Saturday’s radio broadcast said.

"The Cambodian nation and people strongly need the support and assistance from the international community in order to realize this very sacred objective."

The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia 1975-79, transforming the country into a vast labor camp, and killed as many as 2 million of the country’s 7 million people through starvation, exhaustion, and execution.

The Khmer Rouge waged a guerrilla war in the countryside after they were ousted by a Vietnamese invasion. The movement began to crumble last year, however, as thousands of war-weary guerrillas began defecting to the government.

Khieu Samphan remains holed up near Anlong Veng with the group’s last hard-liners, who in an attempt to make themselves more palatable to the international community, said they cut their ties with Pol Pot.

In the trial witnessed by Thayer and cameraman David Mckaige, Pol Pot was denounced by his comrades as a murderous traitor and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Holly Harris will spin her blues on 'BOS

Holly Harris will spin her blues on 'BOS

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

January 8, 1993 | Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff

Holly Harris is an ambassador for the blues in Boston, whether she's listening to music at a blues club, emceeing a blues festival or spinning blues tunes on the radio.

Starting this weekend, Harris has a new home at WBOS-FM (92.9), where she'll host Blues on Sunday at 10 p.m. For the past decade, Harris has mostly found a nitch on noncommercial radio, hosting a Sunday morning show on WMFO-FM (91.5) and subbing for Mai Cramer on WGBH-FM (89.7). Last year she signed with WCGY-FM, doing "Rockin' Blues" on Sunday night.

Harris, from upstate New York, said she's not that musical herself, although she's been surrounded by it. Her father has a doctorate of music from Columbia University, and his father was Al Jolson's No. 1 trumpeter.

Her jolt for the blues came when she was 16 and heard B. B. King. "It just hit me as the most beautiful music I'd ever heard," Harris recalls.

She ended up in Boston at Suffolk University in the early '70s, and listened to all the radio shows in town. WMFO's Sunday Morning Blues caught her ear, and when host Nate Thayer asked her to fill in when he left to travel, she gladly did. It's been her show since 1982, and she plans to keep doing it.

Harris, a school counselor during the week, was content with the three-hour show on Sunday (11 a.m.-2 p.m.), but when WCGY-FM (95.3) approached her last spring about doing a blues show on the rock station, Harris was receptive.

"I thought a commercial station would be a great forum, and it is," she said. "I think the blues is finally coming into some respect it always deserved."

Harris' latest gig will be hosting a show that has been on WBOS for a year and a half. Up to now it has had rotating hosts, Bill Smith and David O'Leary, both of whom have full-time jobs at the station.

She said she probably won't make the show as rock-based and consistently uptempo as the one at WCGY, and will play a variety of tempos. She also wants to take listener requests.

"I'm really big on local features, too, and want to spotlight one local group every week," Harris said.

No stranger to the Boston blues scene, Harris frequently emcees shows at clubs, and served as a consultant for the new House of Blues. Harris and Rick Russell founded the Blues Society in 1988.

Harris is a fan of Cramer's show on WGBH on Friday and Saturday nights, but is encouraged that commercial stations are starting to take the nod. WBCN-FM (104.1) now has a Sunday morning blues show.

Steve Becker, the program director at WCGY, said he intends to continue with the program and is already on the lookout for a new host.

The radio ratings that came out yesterday reflect the fall period, when listeners supposedly are back to their regular schedules and listening habits. The numbers, on which ad rates are based, are the equivalent of TV's "sweeps." The bosses at WMJX-FM must be grinning broadly over their first-place ranking for all Greater Boston listeners, age 25 to 54. 'MJX, which has been sprinkling the TV airwaves with advertising, vaulted from fourth-place in the last ratings book; it bumped WODS-FM down to No. 2. Next were WBCN-FM, WXKS-FM and WBOS-FM, which zoomed up from 10th to 5th place for its best book ever. (It, like 'MJX, has been heavy into TV advertising, and has revamped its playlist.) Next were WBMX-FM, WBZ, WSSH-FM, WZLX-FM, WCDJ-FM tied with WZOU-FM, WRKO-FM and WVBF-FM. Then, WEEI, WCRB-FM, WHDH, WILD tied with WFNX-FM, WCGY-FM, WOKQ-FM and WAAF-FM.

On the all-encompassing group of listeners age 12 and older, WBZ jumped into first place with 7.4 percent of the audience -- perhaps the election gave the all-news station a boost. Next in line were WXKS-FM (7 percent of the audience), WRKO (5.5), WMJX-FM and WBCN-FM tied at 5.3, WODS-FM (4.7), WZOU-FM (4.5), WSSH-FM (4.2), WBOS-FM and WHDH (3.8). After that were WZLX-FM (3.6), WBMX-FM (3.5), WCDJ-FM (2.5), WCRB-FM and WVBF-FM (2.4), WAAF-FM (2.3), WEEI (2.1), WPLM-FM (2), WFNX-FM (1.9) and WILD (1.8). Finally were WXKS, WCGY-FM, WOKQ-FM, WCAV-FM, WCTK-FM, WLYT-FM and WMEX. Spinning the dial

Comedian and actor Roger Kabler, of the NBC sitcom "Rhythm & Blues," will take his TV role seriously when he takes over the WILD (1090) airwaves this morning from 8 to 9 a.m. Kabler plays "Bobby Soul," a hip-talking DJ at an all-black radio station in Detroit . . . Dave Palmater invites folkie Rosalie Sorrels to perform live today at noon on WUMB-FM (91.9).

Pol Pot Dead: NPR All Things Considered

Pol Pot Dead

NPR All Things Considered

April 16, 1998 

Linda Wertheimer, Robert Seigel  

00-00-0000
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Pol Pot, the leader of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge movement, is dead. He was 73 years old. His political movement, the Khmer Rouge, was responsible for the deaths of more than a million-and-a-half Cambodians.

Pol Pot's regime controlled Cambodia to 1975 to 1979, and eliminated all those who stood in the way of creating a agrarian Marxist state. But the Khmer Rouge was forced from power after a Vietnamese invasion. The group was essentially broken into factions.

And last year, Pol Pot was tried by his former comrades as a rival took control of what remained of the Khmer Rouge.

In the last year, the United Nations and the United States had revived an effort to formally hold Pol Pot responsible for the genocide that occurred in the killing fields of Cambodia.

Nate Thayer, the Southeast Asia correspondent for the "Far Eastern Economic Review," first interviewed Pol Pot in October 1997.

It was the first interview the leader had given to a western journalist in 18 years.

Earlier today, members of the Khmer Rouge took Thayer to see the body of Pol Pot at a camp near the Ti border. He confirmed that the body being displayed was indeed Pol Pot.

NATE THAYER, SOUTHEAST ASIA CORRESPONDENT, "FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW" : There is no question that I saw the body of Pol Pot, it was Pol Pot, and that he is dead. There is not question of that. There is questions raised on, of course, how he died. They say he died from heart failure. In fact, it's logical. I tend to believe it. But really without forensics it's impossible and of course there is speculation that he was the victim of a political murder.

WERTHEIMER: The reason that the news of his death has been received with some skepticism in Southeast Asia and here is that the United States has been interested in trying to arrest Pol Pot and has been working with China to try to do that and felt, I believe, that that was a possibility, that it was coming close, and then he dies.

THAYER: That's right. There was movement and significant movement that the remnants of the Khmer Rouge were now willing to turn Pol Pot over for proceedings in front of an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.

Now, Pol Pot's health has been extremely frail for a long time.

For the last 20 days or so he has been taken through the jungles as they've lost much of their territory. Today, while I was in the Khmer Rouge area, there was very heavy fighting very close by both incoming and outgoing artillery and small arms fire. There were regular mine explosions. The trauma of an elderly, extremely frail, probably very demoralized man under these conditions very easily could have prompted a heart attack, which is what they -- his wife, who I interviewed this afternoon, claims happened last night.

WERTHEIMER: Does the death of Pol Pot change anything for Cambodia? Is he still significant enough a figure that it changes the equation there?

THAYER: You know it's a very good question because, in fact, Pol Pot has been held up as the boogie man lurking in the jungles. But in fact he's been purged from any political role for some time.

And along with Pol Pot's death, unfortunately, goes the chance of finding out really what happened and why. There's so many unanswered questions of why so many people suffered so unspeakably and so unfairly. And this man was in sole control.

But the fact is that there are thousands of people who are guilty of crimes against humanity who continue to wield power in Cambodia' s mainstream politics today: the current prime minister, the defense minister, the interior minister, the finance minister, the justice minister, hundreds of generals in the military and security forces.

And these are people whose government is recognized and supported by the United States, among others.

Much of the United States' so-called quest for Pol Pot is really Washington politics. The fact is that there are mass murderers who are in power who are being issued diplomatic visas and have free run of the country today.

And maybe the death of Pol Pot will refocus really where it should be, in my view, which is that Cambodia is a country that is really on its knees, and whose people continue to suffer under despotic leaders 20 years after Pol Pot was driven from power.

WERTHEIMER: Thanks very much, Nate Thayer.

THAYER: OK, thank you very much.

WERTHEIMER: Nate Thayer is a correspondent for the "Far Eastern Economic Review." This is a rush transcript. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

Transcribed by Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. under license from National Public Radio, Inc. Formatting copyright (c) 1998 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio, Inc. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information please contact NPR's Business Affairs at (202) 414-2954

Holly Harris will spin her blues on 'BOS

 

Holly Harris will spin her blues on 'BOS

The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

January 8, 1993 | Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff

Holly Harris is an ambassador for the blues in Boston, whether she's listening to music at a blues club, emceeing a blues festival or spinning blues tunes on the radio.

Starting this weekend, Harris has a new home at WBOS-FM (92.9), where she'll host Blues on Sunday at 10 p.m. For the past decade, Harris has mostly found a nitch on noncommercial radio, hosting a Sunday morning show on WMFO-FM (91.5) and subbing for Mai Cramer on WGBH-FM (89.7). Last year she signed with WCGY-FM, doing "Rockin' Blues" on Sunday night.

Harris, from upstate New York, said she's not that musical herself, although she's been surrounded by it. Her father has a doctorate of music from Columbia University, and his father was Al Jolson's No. 1 trumpeter.

Her jolt for the blues came when she was 16 and heard B. B. King. "It just hit me as the most beautiful music I'd ever heard," Harris recalls.

She ended up in Boston at Suffolk University in the early '70s, and listened to all the radio shows in town. WMFO's Sunday Morning Blues caught her ear, and when host Nate Thayer asked her to fill in when he left to travel, she gladly did. It's been her show since 1982, and she plans to keep doing it.

Harris, a school counselor during the week, was content with the three-hour show on Sunday (11 a.m.-2 p.m.), but when WCGY-FM (95.3) approached her last spring about doing a blues show on the rock station, Harris was receptive.

"I thought a commercial station would be a great forum, and it is," she said. "I think the blues is finally coming into some respect it always deserved."

Harris' latest gig will be hosting a show that has been on WBOS for a year and a half. Up to now it has had rotating hosts, Bill Smith and David O'Leary, both of whom have full-time jobs at the station.

She said she probably won't make the show as rock-based and consistently uptempo as the one at WCGY, and will play a variety of tempos. She also wants to take listener requests.

"I'm really big on local features, too, and want to spotlight one local group every week," Harris said.

No stranger to the Boston blues scene, Harris frequently emcees shows at clubs, and served as a consultant for the new House of Blues. Harris and Rick Russell founded the Blues Society in 1988.

Harris is a fan of Cramer's show on WGBH on Friday and Saturday nights, but is encouraged that commercial stations are starting to take the nod. WBCN-FM (104.1) now has a Sunday morning blues show.

Steve Becker, the program director at WCGY, said he intends to continue with the program and is already on the lookout for a new host.