[lbo-talk] KPFK Event

[Joseph Wanzala]

Embarrasing 'conspiracy theories'!? - I am not aware of any that either 
McKinney or Ruppert has propagated. In fact, the statements that McKinney 
made, accusing Bush of a 9-11 cover-up have been increasingly vindicated and 
even echoed by others, including Howard Dean and now even somewhat timidly, 
John Kerry who has accused the Bush admin of stonewalling the 9-11 
investigation - the obvious corrolary to that accusation is "What are you 
hiding?" - whatever they are hiding, and they are obviously hiding 
something, it has got to worse than just 'how badly they screwed up' because 
that much is already obvious to the general public and they would have 
little to lose on that count.

The real embarrasment is the extent to which the establishment left have not 
only failed to challenge the Bush admins. dubious handling of 9-11 but spent 
a lot of energy hamstringing the efforts of others. The 9-11 issue has only 
gained more, not less traction as time has gone by and the notions that were 
originally dismissed as 'conspiratorial' seem less and less so. 
Nevertheless, you and others seem eager to give the Bush admin. an easy out 
with the 'failure' thesis, when in fact their stonewalling the 9-11 
Commission clearly suggests that they are hiding more than just their 
already obvious 'failure' - the issue in Iraq was not the failure of 
intelligence, but the malevolent and medacious manipulation of intelligence 
to justify a war. The 'failure' thesis tends to exculpate the Bush 
administration and if it was merely a matter of failure, the investigation 
would be a fairly straighforward affair.

You are also completely wrong about Pacifica's 'hardcore base'. The most 
popular public affairs program on Pacifica is Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! 
DN! has studiously ignored this issue for the most part as has most of 
Pacifica's core audience. The big ticket events for Pacifica usually feature 
the likes of Paul Krugman, Molly Ivins, Al Franken, Noam Chomsky, Daniel 
Ellsberg and other liberal staples - who in fact represent the muse of the 
'Pacifica hardcore'. People like Mike Ruppert remain on the margins of 
Pacifica much as they do within the establishment left. This is in no small 
measure due to the efforts of Norman Solomon, Mike Cooper, Chip Berlet, 
Steve Rendell, David Corn and others who successfully urged Pacifica 
management, specifically at KPFA and KPFK to refrain from indulging Mike 
Ruppert et al. By engaging Mike Ruppert and Cynthia McKinney, Pacifica is in 
fact doing just what you suggest and more - not only widening its audience, 
but widening its audiences perspectives.

Joe W.


>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] KPFK Event
>Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 11:29:56 -0500
>
>Joseph Wanzala wrote:
>
>>I'm not quite sure what you mean... but assuming any sincerity on your 
>>part, (I refuse to take your apparent snideness at face value) do you have 
>>any suggestions as to a 'better' event or speakers ....? Could you 
>>elaborate on why you find McKinney and Ruppert wanting?
>
>Because they tend towards embarrassing conspiracy theories. But we've been 
>over this territory a million times before; no need to again.
>
>Another point. Pacifica desperately needs to widen its audience beyond its 
>hardcore base. They're not going to do it with a lineup like that.
>
>Doug
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>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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