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'News Dissector' Danny Schechter Dies

Danny Schechter (R) pictured with Steve Van Zandt. Schecter died yesterday at the age of 72. (Jon Kalish)
Danny Schechter (R) pictured with Steve Van Zandt. Schecter died yesterday at the age of 72. (Jon Kalish)

Journalist, activist, music and television producer Danny Schechter died yesterday at the age of 72 of pancreatic cancer.

He was one of the early voices heard on Boston’s big rock and counter-culture radio station, WBCN in the 1970s. He was known at the time as “The News Dissector.”

Schecter became active in the anti-apartheid movement and in the 1980s, and produced an album with musician Steven Van Zandt (of the E Street Band) called “Sun City,” which became an icon of the movement against apartheid.

Correction: In the broadcast, Robin Young said the audio clip of Danny Schechter talking about his meeting with Nelson Mandela in New York was included in a set of CDs produced by Jon Kalish. In fact, the clip was from an interview Kalish did with Schechter in the wake of Mandela’s death that aired on WGBO in Newark, New Jersey.

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