Oh, geez, here we go again with this pissy stupidity.
First, you have certainly mastered the fine art of quoting out of context. Since there was not one but three questions I asked Doug, and since the question regarding the either side in the dispute was posed in exactly the same way ["Is Utrice Leid the second coming of Benedict Arnold?"] as the question regarding Amy Goodman, that is, as paraphrases of the charges partisans of the two sides are flinging at each other, any reasonable and _honest_ reading of the questions would see that no side was being taken, and no opinion of who was right or wrong ventured. These games of quoting out of context only demonstrate that those who play them have no interest in intellectually honest dialogue.
Second, the questions were not about Pacifica, but about what was happening with WBAI. I know that it is general practice in some quarters to have "universal" doctrinal lines which one simply applies to any particular situation, but some of us actually like to know about the specifics before we make judgments. That is why I asked Doug about what he might think about the particulars. Read what Doug had to say next to Noonan's uninvited intervention: it is instructive. Doug's description of Utrice Leid certainly fits my impression of her as a listener of her show: it is among the very best on the station, and while I have not always agreed with her [I find her continued insistence upon supporting Tawana Brawley's clearly unfounded accusations years after the event just plain wrong-headed, for example], but I have never found her to be anything but intelligent, and she certainly never stoops to the type of intellectual dishonesty seen above in a debate.
It is so heartening to see solidarity among people who can't pass up an opportunity to make a public jackass of themselves.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
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