The International News Net (INN), a 5-day a week newscast on Free Speech TV, produced for seven years by a largely volunteer progressive news collective, recently canceled production. What happened?

Media News spoke with the show’s creator Lenny Charles to find out.

INN World Report used to air three times a day on Free Speech TV, part of a news block that included Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman and GRITtv with Laura Flanders (now both airing 4x a day).

INN World Report relies heavily on volunteers and pays only modest stipends to the producers and technicians. While Free Speech TV covers the cost of the show’s satellite uplink, there is no fee paid for the newscast.  In spunky independent media style, INN has always solicited support from individual donors to scrape by on a shoestring. But times are getting tougher by the day.

INN looked at where its support was coming from and identified the majority came from the West Coast, not surprising given the area’s long history of support for independent media. So they made a request: give us a prime time slot on the West Coast, 8:00 pm, so we can continue to support ourselves by being on-air when our biggest donors can watch.

The answer was no.

Media News called Free Speech TV Program Director Eric Galatas and had our phone call returned by General Manager Jon Stout.  He confirmed what Charles had to say: stressing it was INN’s decision to cancel production, and that 3:30 and 11:00pm (with an early morning re-broadcast) were not necessarily poor time slots for West Coast viewers.

But Charles says INN needs to be watchable for West Coasters with jobs and families who can’t stay up for an 11pm newscast, otherwise the program will lose its biggest supporters.

Making the dispute thornier is the resource discrepancy between the grassroots INN and the better resourced Democracy Now! and GRITtv productions. INN World Report had, until the recent suspension of programming, aired only on Free Speech TV.

The loss of an independent platform like INN, one which Free Speech TV and Media Alliance agree was a valuable outlet, is a big one.

George Galloway, British MP, commenting to FSTV staff after an interview on INN World Report: “The interview was professional, well-handled and in depth. Their staff is so small I am astounded they actually pull this off for you every day”.

Jon Stout, General Manager of Free Speech TV to INN: “I agree with you that there are advantages to an early evening time slot on the West Coast”.

Media News has to ask, if we’re all in agreement, then why can’t we get this done?

Stout, when asked this question, said Free Speech TV has to balance the needs of audiences, producers and activist organizations.

Stout mentioned that accommodating INN’s request for the 8pm West Coast slot would restrict airtime for other independent producers, including a documentary series, mostly one-hour programs, that couldn’t be relocated to the 30-minute slot INN would vacate at 11:00pm PST.

The upshot is the loss of a valuable independent media outlet.

Free Speech TV viewers and supporters who would like to make a comment on the end of INN production can email viewercomments@freespeech.org or call Free Speech TV at 1-800-378-8855.