Alternative Views

Alternative Views was a public affairs television program founded by Frank Morrow and Douglas Kellner that produced 563 one-hour shows between September 1978, and April 1998, produced in the United States of America. Its goal was to "provide information and perspectives that either were not shown on the regular media or were greatly distorted by them." The show also provided a platform for people to present their views and to play their documentaries. Although often platforming anti-imperialist, progressive and leftist viewpoints, the program did not present a strongly defined ideological line, resulting in a range of political viewpoints appearing on the show, including guests espousing left-wing anticommunism and right-wing libertarianism. Alternative Views was distributed by mail to 85 cable systems that served over 250 cities and suburbs.

Topics addressed in the programs include alternative energy sources, the CIA, civil liberties, international politics, labor unions, the effects of multinational corporations, poverty, pornography and violence towards women, racism, and U.S. foreign policy. International topics include interviews with former political prisoners from Chile, Iran, and Argentina, survivors of the Nagasaki bombing, and returned travelers from Cuba, Vietnam, El Salvador, Jamaica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Iran, South Africa, and Central Africa. In addition to presenting interviews, the program sometimes featured documentary footage related to the topics being discussed. For example, a 1989 episode titled "Accent on Angola" featured footage from Cuban television documentaries about the Cuban armed forces' participation in the defense of the Angolan government, providing English voiceover translation, while other parts of the episode featured a guest from the Venceremos Brigade to discuss Cubans' role in Angola.

In a 2005 interview with Axis of Logic, Alternative Views co-founder Frank Morrow stated that the US public was "duped" about events surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, adding, "I’ve always said that the American people are the most easily-manipulated people in the world. You talk to any Palestinian woman without an education and she’s more aware of and knows what’s going on than Americans do. In a way, it doesn’t surprise me considering the total control that the establishment now has on the media. [...] You knew the U.S. was going to invade Iraq regardless of what happened. The Project New American Century (PNAC) people said they were going to do it years ago, and they did."