lbo-talk-digest V1 #2239

John Halle john.halle at yale.edu
Fri Dec 10 11:06:11 PST 1999



> Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:31:12 -0500
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: RE: Fwd: Seattle on Pacifica
>
> Max Sawicky wrote:
>
> >. . .
> >My local affiliate (WBAI) did not acquit itself well in its Seattle
> >coverage. The nadir was reached on Tuesday afternoon: As demonstrators
> >were being gassed and beaten, the drive-time call in show featured a two
> >hour interview with an executive of an internet firm holding forth on the
> >new vistas for minorities in the hi-tech economy. . . .
> >
> >I tuned into our own Pacifica affiliate Tuesday, WPFW,
> >as well during afternoon drive time. They had their
> >regular non-political programming, w/no mention of
> >Seattle.
>
> Because of internal Pacifica nonsense, the other 4 stations
> apparently refused to pick up the RadioNation coverage, which ran in
> Marc Cooper's regular 4-5 PM KPFK timeslot. That would have been 7-8
> PM in the east, but still well worth it. Much of it will soon be up
> on the Nation's website in RealAudio format.
>

I'm not sure what you mean by "internal Pacifica nonsense." Some of us might like to know more.

In any case, while I'll look forward to downloading it, Doug's commentaries in particular, Cooper's feed not being picked up is neither here nor there. The producers at the locals could have recognized the importance of Seattle and chose to cover it, perhaps figuring out a way to make its relevance clear to the constituencies they see themselves speaking to. Instead they ignored it altogether for the most part.

Why this was so is worth considering. In the case of the program I mentioned, the dominant ideology is a pseudo-Garveyite conception of minority "empowerment" which completely writes off the possibility of cross-racial coalition politics. Other producers had other narrow ideological axes to grind, and continued to grind them during the week.

Since BAI's listenership accounts for no more than an insignificant fraction of its 30 million potential listeners, one can only fantasize about what might have happened had it extended beyond the usual collection of health food cranks, demagogues, multi-cultists and turgid lefty policy wonks.

I'm old enough to remember how Nixon's bombing of Cambodia brought several million people around the country into the streets the next day. If the Pacifica locals were doing the job they should be, and which Democracy Now is doing in my opinion, the beatings and gassings in Seattle should have had a chance of having the same effect.

John Halle Assistant Professor of Music Yale University

CSMT: 203-432-4164, 432-2531 Dept of Music: 203-432-2985 Home: 203-785-9258



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