From an April 2001 interview with Pete Seeger conducted by David Guistina of Albany public radio station WAMC (listen here, registration required):

A: Of course not. It’s hard for me to talk about the media without getting angry. Because if the United States or the world goes down in disaster, I would blame the media first of all, because the people running it are intelligent people. They know very well how evil they are. And when they say, “Oh, I’m just giving the people what they want.” Sure–so do the drug pushers.

In the second installment of the interview, Seeger talked about an appearance on the Today show that turned out to be his last:

I haven’t been asked on TV that much in recent years. I did get on the Today show once. And I knew that they wouldn’t want me to sing a certain song. So I was prepared. I arrived at 6:00, and over the intercom, the director said, “Pete, what you got for us?” And I said: “Well, I got a little banjo tune, and I got something a little more serious. It’s a funny song but it’s got a serious point.” “Well, let’s hear ’em.” So I sang the banjo tune. “Fine.” So I sang the other, called “Garbage,” which has the whole crowd going, “Garbage, garbage, garbage.”

In Mister Thompson’s factory, they’re making plastic Christmas trees

Complete with silver tinsel and a geodesic stand

The plastic’s mixed in giant vats from some conglomeration

That’s been piped from deep within the earth or strip-mined from the land

And if you question anything, they say, “Why, don’t you see?

It’s absolutely needed for the economy” Oh, Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

Their stocks and their bonds — all garbage!

Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

What will they do when their system goes to smash

There’s no value to their cash

There’s no money to be made

But there’s a world to be repaid

Their kids will read in history books

About financiers and other crooks

And feudalism, and slavery

And nukes and all their knavery

To history’s dustbin they’re consigned

Along with many other kinds of garbage

Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

Well, he said: “Pete, you got something a little more cheerful? This is early in the morning.”

So I sang, “Walking down death row/ I sang for three men destined for the chair….”

“Pete, do you have something else?”

“‘If the revolution comes to my country, let me remember….'”

“Well, Pete, I guess we’ll stick with ‘Garbage.'”

Well, I got to do it on the air, but I wasn’t asked back. I haven’t been on the Today show since.