Just before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I was asked to be on National Public Radio (NPR) to represent “9/11 Skeptics.”  When I first was asked to do this, in a 40-minute call with producer Alex Kingsbury, he said I would be on from 11 am to noon ET.  That was later changed by the replacement producer to twenty minutes starting at about 11:10.  James Meigs, from Popular Mechanics, was to be on before me for a longer period.  At the last minute, I was told I’d be on for only 10 minutes and that the conservative Canadian columnist, Jonathan Kay, would also be on.

I was the only guest questioning the official reports on this show about “9/11 Skeptics” and, in the end, I was only allowed to be on the air for five minutes.  The guest host and the two supporters of the official conspiracy theory proceeded to use some form of the term “conspiracy theorist” every thirty seconds throughout the show. The host suggested that there were “thousands and thousands of conspiracy theories” but didn’t name one. Meigs made it clear that he didn’t know what thermite was composed of, and Kay claimed that no amount of thermite could bring down the WTC buildings (but, of course, office fires could). It was enough to suggest that NPR suddenly becomes National Propaganda Radio when critical national deceptions require support.

These audio clips from the show tell the story and provide an opportunity to test people’s knowledge of the facts around Popular Mechanics and its peculiar position on 9/11.