David Barsamian once introduced Howard Zinn, in a radical and novel fashion that was true to his line of work, by telling an old Islamic story call The Elephant In the Dark. Howard Zinn then introduced David as follows: “I guess he’s the I. F. Stone of broadcasting, and for those of you who don’t know who I. F. Stone is, I can tell you that I. F. Stone is the David Barsamian of newspaper journalist.”
David Barsamian is the founder and director of Alternative Radio and the national producer for the radio program Making Contact, he’s a journalist, author, and lecturer. He is known for interviews with people such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Edward Said. Look into almost any of the question and answer style Chomsky, Zinn, or Said books and you will see that the book was compiled from various interviews done by David. His own book, The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting, is about media consolidation and its negative effects as well as how people are finding new ways of sharing information.
He is considered one of the “Top Ten Media Heroes” by the Institute for Alternative Journalism. On May 9, 2003 he was awarded the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Award.