>
> MARC COOPER'S PUBLIC STATEMENT ON PACIFICA <...>
>
so marc cooper says that amy goodman and co., conducted a "smear campaign" against yasko. he dedicates about 5 paragraphs of text to smear goodman and co. however, in all of these 5 paragraphs i do not read anything about what exactly they did and why it was wrong: the closest that cooper comes to reason is this section:
> Yasko was driven out by a smear campaign mounted by Juan Gonzalez,
> his Pacifica Campaign and Amy Goodman, constructed on the flimsy
> basis of links Yasko had maintained on his gay-oriented website. Like
> a claque of Church Ladies, Gonzalez, Goodman and friends have publicly
> turned Yasko into a tawdry porno king -- or was it misogynist? Or
> was it a dangerous sexual fantasizer? Or maybe it was just a plain old
> Pervert. That's the nature of innuendo and smear- it's everything and
> nothing all at once.
so gonzales and goodman suggested, based on some links on yasko's site that he is what? a misogynist? a porno king? are these their words? is cooper interpreting their words for us? and why was this evidence flimsy? does cooper care to convince his audience of why the links were flimsy basis? or is it that just links alone are a flimsy basis?
i do not think the politics of wbai/pacifica is a "private greivance". these are supposed to community radio stations and public funded organizations. as a listener i expect better than the detached intellectual professionalism (the same stuff that someone like say ted koppel is praised for - "balanced views", "objective presentation", etc) that cooper seems to so admire and advocate. if wbai staff adopt the same mechanisms of protest as used by oppressed workers elsewhere, why is that "unprofessional" and something to be condemned? and if they are in the wrong, what better way to convince the listening public of this wrong than through public on-air debates and airing of opinions.
wbai listeners have heard amy goodman's program and some of us value it greatly. most of us also witnessed utrice leed's tactics and on-air innuendos and rhetoric especially at fund-raising time (including references to racism on the part of the dissidents). cooper might have valid points of criticism against goodman or gonzales, though he doesnt seem to wish to substantiate them, but i think listeners will show the right response in returning their support to wbai and choosing goodman/gonzales as the lesser evil.
--ravi