>Another thing to think about under the general rubric of leftists being
>INTERESTING. (Humor thus is only one way of keeping people's attention.)
>The left groups in the US are generally "vanity" outfits, like Pacifica
>radio programming or public access cable TV. Without the need to make a
>profit, there is very little feedback mechanism. In the SWP, a group that I
>have the most familiarity with, you had a subsidized newspaper. It lost
>money. Hence the question of its readability was irrelevant.
>
>That is one reason that Doug's LBO and Ken Silverstein's Counterpunch are
>so lively. They have to be if the rent is to be paid.
Lou, how promarket of you.
WBAI, Pacifica's New York station, raises almost all its money from its listeners, and pays tribute to the central Pacifica organization in Berkeley. Being listener-supported isn't too much different from what LBO & Counterpunch are. The stuff that raises the most money for Pacifica, though, is the health quackery, with the oily Gary Null in the lead. Colon purification plays much better among the check-writing classes than does the political economy of taxis or the status of life in Indonesia.
Doug