WALKING THE DELICATE LINE BETWEEN REPORTER AND ACTIVIST
I SPENT THE second half of the 1990s hanging out with people who operate unlicensed radio stations. That was partly because I was covering them as a reporter, and it was partly because I was active in a movement to legalize their illicit transmissions. I didn’t see anything wrong with that dual role—I wasn’t pretending to be objective, and anyone who read my articles could see where I stood—but sometimes the lines got a little blurry.
Like the night in 1998 when I found myself standing on a nondescript West Philly block with a crew of crunchy anarchists. An outlet called Radio Mutiny was hosting an East Coast gathering of pirate broadcasters,
