The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1449: Nightline: September 20, 1982 by June Jordan
Host: Samia Bashir (guest host for Maggie Smith)
Date: February 4, 2026

Overview

This episode of The Slowdown is guest-hosted by poet Samia Bashir, who reflects on the evolving nature of news, media, and truth in the digital age. The focus is on June Jordan's poem "Nightline: September 20, 1982," situating it within its original social and political context—specifically, the Lebanon crisis and the United States' response. Bashir discusses the absence of communal consensus on "truth" in today’s media landscape and explores how poetry remains a vital space for personal and collective reckoning, illuminating and challenging hidden realities.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Changing Nature of News and Information

• From Monoculture to Multivocality:

  • Bashir contrasts the era of singular, authoritative news figures (like Walter Cronkite) with today’s fragmented, participatory information ecosystem:
    • “In those days there were only a few news broadcasts. Information in those days was limited to the things a select few decided were worth sharing, and the majority of folks moved through the world with the same ideas about what was factual, real or true.” (01:02)
  • Now, information is democratic but unvetted:
    • “Everyone gets to have a say, but no one gets vetted. This sounds dangerous, and perhaps it is, but that idea also skips over the question of who gets the right and responsibility to do the vetting.” (02:19)

• Media Landscape as Mycelial Ecosystem:

  • Bashir uses a metaphor of a “mycelial ecosystem—rhizomatic, recursive and alive, but also prone to infection, distortion and runaway growth” to describe today’s media. (01:38)

Historical Context: Nightline & 1982 Lebanon

• Nightline’s Role & 1980s Politics:
  • Ted Koppel as a voice of monoculture; the U.S. reacting to crises in the Middle East.
    • “For 25 years between 1980 and 2005, Ted Koppel anchored the national nightly news magazine Nightline as another of those singular monocultural voices. The early 1980s were a moment not too unlike our own. Shifting immigration laws unsettled something long buried, lit a spark that continues to burn like wildfire.” (02:52)
  • Bashir summarizes the pivotal news moment on September 20, 1982—President Reagan’s address on the Lebanon massacres and U.S. intervention.

Poetry as Response and Reckoning

• Unique Power of Poetry:
  • Poetry allows not only reflection, but compels action and empathy:
    • “Poetry can drive us not just to see things anew, but to act upon what we see. Our bodies are already acting out their response. Our heart rate pulses more quickly, our palms get a bit sweaty. We suddenly need to do something about a fact that had previously gone unseen or unacknowledged.” (04:09)
  • Poetry as a medium for shaping our own impressions of the facts, activating personal and collective conscience.

Presentation of June Jordan’s Poem

• Direct Engagement with News & Tragedy:
  • Bashir reads the poem’s striking opening line, itself an “unfortunate way to say it,” capturing the tension between political calculation and human horror:
    • "I know it's an unfortunate way to say it, but do you think you can put this massacre on the back burner now?" (04:58)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Changing News Landscape:
  • “Instead of a media monoculture, we have something more akin to a mycelial ecosystem—rhizomatic, recursive and alive, but also prone to infection, distortion and runaway growth.” — Samia Bashir (01:35)
• On the Dilemma of Vetting Truth:
  • “Everyone gets to have a say, but no one gets vetted. This sounds dangerous, and perhaps it is, but that idea also skips over the question of who gets the right and responsibility to do the vetting.” — Samia Bashir (02:19)
• On Poetry as Catalyst:
  • “The poem, then, can make the unseen no longer unseeable. Today's poem reminds me of the power of poetry to comment, to respond, to shed light and offer us space to form our own impressions of what the facts may mean…” — Samia Bashir (04:27)
• On the Core Line from June Jordan’s Poem:
  • “I know it's an unfortunate way to say it, but do you think you can put this massacre on the back burner now?” — June Jordan, read by Samia Bashir (04:58)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–00:38: (Ad, host transition)
• 00:38–01:38: Bashir introduces her role and reflects on “the death of the news”
• 01:38–02:52: Contrast between past monocultures and today’s media ecosystem
• 02:52–03:47: Historical context—Nightline, Ted Koppel, Reagan, Lebanon 1982
• 03:47–04:27: The role of poetry in reckoning with facts and inspiring action
• 04:27–04:58: Lead-in to, and reading of, the focal poem’s powerful line
• 04:58–05:18: (Credits/outro)

Conclusion

This episode uses the lens of June Jordan’s poem—written in direct response to a moment of international tragedy and political calculation—to meditate on the role of poetry as a vital check on narratives, both public and private. Bashir’s commentary draws parallels between past and present, emphasizing poetry’s unique capacity to make the unseen visible, motivate action, and provide a deeply felt, individual reckoning with historical facts. The episode invites listeners to consider how poetry can serve as both a mirror and a catalyst, offering not just new ways of seeing, but also the courage to act.