Talk Radio Can't Handle the Truth

In "A Culture of Conspiracy," the Syracuse University political scientist Michael Barkun writes that "a conspiracist worldview implies a universe governed by design rather than by randomness." He notes that three principles are found in virtually every conspiracy theory: "Nothing happens by accident." "Nothing is as it seems." "Everything is connected."

We quickly learned there is a fourth factor: If you question a conspiracy, you might be a part of it.

"Information is power." That was an early mantra of the black-owned, Lanham-based conglomerate Radio One, which runs XM's Channel 169, "The Power." Over the past two decades, Radio One has been a resource for black people who may not have the financial means or wherewithal to highlight an injustice. Recently, hosts on the station have taken up the cause of a young black girl sentenced to jail time for pushing a hall monitor (the charges were dropped) and the case of a black 17-year-old boy in Georgia sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl.

We were eager to reach that audience, and on April 21, 2007, we launched the show.

Morgan is from the South Side of Chicago and a former Trotskyite who currently studies environmental issues at Harvard. Lartigue is a native of Missouri City, Tex., who spent time working as an analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute and the advocacy group Fight for Children. Together, you can find us on any end of the political spectrum on any given issue. Our biggest goal of the show was to challenge orthodoxies of whatever stripe.

Our theme song was Prince's "Controversy," and that's exactly what we often created. The economist Walter E. Williams, who has been a guest host on "The Rush Limbaugh Show," irritated some of our listeners by denouncing reparations for slavery and dismissing the need for a minimum wage. On the 82nd anniversary of Malcolm X's birthday, we dared to ask, "What did Malcolm X do?" Judging from the response from callers, you would have thought we had confessed to assassinating the Nation of Islam leader.

We did get occasional warnings from others at the station, but we dismissed them as office scuttlebutt. We received plenty of feedback from listeners who found our program refreshing. This was the provocative Wild West world of XM Radio, where shock jocks such as Opie and Anthony typically roam unchecked. No reason to be concerned, right?

It may be that Memorandum 46 is just too good to be false. It could be the "smoking memo" that activists have been seeking to prove that the U.S. government is still plotting against black Americans. At the very least, it's a ready-made excuse for every disappointment or ill plaguing the black community.

The prominent psychiatrist Frances Cress Welsing has suggested that blacks should hang a framed copy of the document in their homes. Joe Madison, XM's lead talk show host and a longtime activist, spread the idea that Memorandum 46 was genuine as well. After a show in May that explored the topic, he noted that he'd received 600 e-mails asking for copies of the document.

On June 2, we shared our exchange with Brzezinski about the memo on the air. A few days later, Lartigue was in the studio recording a promotional teaser for a second show that would explore the topic in more detail. The production director was incredulous: "Are you telling me it's fake?"

We sent the production director some links to the Carter library Web site, which were passed along to Madison. Over the next several days, Madison took to the airwaves to blast those who questioned the veracity of Memorandum 46. Morgan called in to Madison's show to ask him for proof. We heard the response on the air: We were engaging in counter-intelligence, he said.

Armed with our research, we returned to the issue on Saturday, June 23. We tried to dispel other urban legends, such as claims that the first U.S. president was black and that fashion designers Liz Claiborne and Tommy Hilfiger didn't want black customers. In the final hour, we made our case that the anti-black Memorandum 46 never existed.