In Memory of Michael Corbin, Who Kept Watch, Held The Light.

“Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,

In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side;

Some great cause, God’s new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,

And the choice goes by forever `twixt that darkness and that light.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet `tis truth alone is strong

Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
— James Russell Lowell (1819 – 1891)

By Indira Singh

March 19, 2008 — Michael F. Corbin, internationally acclaimed radio personality, founder of a national radio syndicated program “For A Closer Look”, pioneer of Internet-based alternative media and investigative reporting, has died at the age of 52.Michael suffered a massive stroke and was found in his car at the side of a Denver road by a passer-by.

His passing leaves a void and many questions. Michael was in the midst of several important investigative documentaries, many of which sprang from his vast repository of in-depth interviews. Some of these are located at his Internet media site www.4acloserlook.com. His earlier material is at www.paranetinfo.com.

Michael began his journey in the 1980’s, during the early days of the Internet. This was a time in American recent history when news originating at media sites on the Internet was considered more authentic than that found in the daily newspapers on the streets.

He was the go-to person, the information lynch-pin for other serious investigative journalists and researchers, civilians, government and corporate whistle-blowers, noted authors, victims of government and corporate crimes, judges, politicians, private investigators and priests.

Michael was one of this country’s few trusted resources for many investigators, whose work led them to tread on the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt; one of the few who would dare provide an honest, incisive venue for speaking out. Michael’s interviews explored the back-stories behind the cardboard, packaged news. Unlike sensationalist alternatives, or wild conspiratorial grabs made by some muckraking peers, Michael never went for the cheap shot, never catered to the vulgar, nor promoted meaningless distraction that so dominates mass media. He deftly extracted facts from interviewees and placed them under a remarkable analytical lens. By the end of the interview listeners had a memorable grasp of issues – Michael had done his magic again.

Michael brought a vast wealth of his own knowledge to the subject matter, one reason why his interviews were so educational and relevant to so many. He could instantly provide context to help make sense of the forces shaping all our lives. Michael was not just a skillful interviewer, he was also a trusted, compassionate confidante for many on the front lines of harrowing exposes. Michael never betrayed a confidence, never took advantage of a witness’ plight, and was privy to far more information than made it on air. He never “played” a story to further an agenda other than the truth. The thousands of interviews and recordings he made should occupy the interests of an honest Department of Justice for decades.

For example, some of his earliest work exposed the chilling connections to a deviant elite at the highest levels of various US political parties, involved in gruesome activities that were passed off as “the work of UFO’s”. Michael believed there was likely other intelligent life, in forms we would not easily recognize, but never believed for example, the cattle mutilations in Colorado were the handiwork of fabled “green Martians”. When he came to having proof of which humans did it and why, his life was threatened In a chilling “full circle”, his most recent in-depth interviews of the courageous Diana Washington Valdez who wrote “Harvest of Women”, provide some connections with his earliest exposes.

Michael always faced security challenges. Once, his studio was fire-bombed. Despite all this he continued, quietly setting a standard for what it takes to be an investigative journalist in these dark times.

Michael did groundbreaking work covering the 9/11 financial trails and linking those trails to powerful oil, land and military interests pursuing land grabs through eminent domain in Colorado and Utah, and the foreign ownership of proposed American toll roads intended to be built on those lands.

Indeed, Michael had made some recent decisions to bring some highly visible cases to the proper venue: the American justice system. To this end he had embarked on a joint partnership between his newly formulated production company, www.filomax.net and the Risk Investigative Agency run by Indira Singh. One of his last interviews and an initial documentary of this joint venture was the case of John Caylor, an investigative reporter originally from Enterprise Alabama.

Michael interviewed some of the most significant names in American recent history: Father Malachi Martin, Chief Justice Roy Moore, Ralph Bunch, Daniel Ellsberg, Paul and Phillip Collins, Jim Marrs, Stanton Friedman, Diana Washington Valdez, Carlo Calvi, Russ Kick, Dr. Judith Reisman, Steven Emerson, Maury Terry, Jonathan Levy, Gary Webb, William H. Kennedy, Dr. Imad Khadduri, Joel C. Rosenberg, Charles Upton, David Aikman, Rich Lowry and so many more.

Michael’s important body of work may be found at www.4acloserlook.com and at www.paranetinfo.com. Some of the interviews are still available for purchase. His producers and partners are committed to preserving Michael’s unparalleled journalistic legacy – a knowledge base of over twenty years of his interviews.

No one will ever be able to replace the safe harbor Michael offered those investigating the high crimes of an evil elite. Many are now hard-pressed to find an intelligent, reputable place to publicly present their findings. Often, Michael’s words of counsel to those who were exposing the unspeakable came from Father Malachi Martin: “this evil shall have its day, but it will only be one day”. Michael was a profoundly spiritual man who truly believed that we should never give up. He truly lived the words of the poet Lowell: Though the cause of evil prosper, yet`tis truth alone is strong.