on the one hand, i fully agree with joseph that the local advisory boards are the wholly inevitable, and still necessary, results of the struggles pacifica supporters have had with a top-down management campaign of harrassment, vengeance and outright theft -- this in addition to, you know, generally supporting grassroots democratic action within a public radio network of the kind which would be unheard of in the "beg-a-thon" npr/pri sphere, to say nothing of honoring the collectivist spirit which resulted in pacifica's creation in the first place.
nonetheless, doug is entirely right about SOME aspects of pacifica's race-baiting amateurism. one reason i jump on him in his dismissals of amy goodman is the fact that, whatever else pacifica does to self-marginalize itself, here's one journalist whose impact is felt well-outside of the handful of listeners the network itself has left.
and yet, as vladimir ulanov might have inquired, what is to be done? the pat scott era, followed by the loathesome christmas coup/utrice leid regime at wbai, would have never been any kind of solution to the struggles at pacifica, unless maybe you worked for the pew foundation. that was, inarguably from my point of view, the nadir of the network. the subsequent outposts created in exile, including the generally superior (to anything else on radio, i mean) "free speech radio news" network, and some of the management team that returned from exile at 'bai (i'm particularly thinking of bernard white), will always have my support, even where they have only shown up how much farther pacifica has to go.
i remember in the 80's when WBAI did a day-long samuel beckett marathon, when they'd have an atheist-oriented christmas day broadcast, when playthell benjamin had a show (and now does commentary)...we can only dream of this kind of broadcasting again. as it is, as many challenges as it faces, better an "amateurish" truth-talking-to-power than the spiteful reactionaryisms of the pat scott/utrice leid fiefdoms. as a sometime volunteer at wbai, i'm as guilty as anyone for letting the network slide into irrelavancy -- and, to this extent, i DO agree with joseph (maybe for the first time!) that the solution to pacifica rising to its own challenge and the challenge of the times we live in is more, not less involvement. there's so much that's still great about the network, best to shore these up and hope for a long-term transformation...it sure won't come overnight.
and, along these lines, looking forward to your show tonight, doug!
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________________________________james keepnews
I've gotta say, after hearing so much about inefficiency and incompetence in Iraq, it's amazing we actually got to sovereignty ahead of schedule. We're like the Domino's Pizza of liberation!...Does this mean we'll be bringing the troops home two days ahead of schedule?
- get your war on: http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war37.html
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