I have been close to thinking that way myself.
But then I think: Is a radio station with THE MOST POWERFUL SIGNAL IN NYC useful to our movements? (50,000 effective watts from atop the Empire State Building.)
What could Greens do with such a signal, capable of reaching 18 million people?
How could programming be expanded?
What is keeping WBAI from doing that?
Those are some of the key questions that we face. Knowing that nasty arguments happen (aside from the "of course" government disinformation), is it worth trying to keep the station afloat, to sail it through the Scylla and Charybdis of this radical ecological and social justice journey?
The stakes are very high for our movements; there are real choices to be made such as, Do we envision a broad and expanded set of programs that include diverse and even divergent views within the overall Pacifica mission, or do we want to, in our frustration, cede to the Workers World and Working Families Parties control over progamming, with their very narrow-interest "megaphone-style" perspective for what a radio station should be, as a means to forego the battling?
These are the stakes, and we each have to decide whether having to put up with all the unfortunate animosities are worth it. (Some -- many -- don't have that luxury.)
When it's put THAT way, I of course come down on the side of "Yes, of course it is worth it." I wish the battling wouldn't exist. But I also wish the U.S. government did not preside over a vicious capitalist economic and social order, and that people could explore their different perspectives as a positive venture that strengthens us instead of as a tear-you-down-at-any-cost attack in which the ends are seen to justify any and all means.
I would be glad to participate in a forum that explores the intricacies of these questions as pertain to WBAI and the Greens if the folks on this listserve are interested in setting up that project, and the hidden traps that are snarling at our feet whenever we try to take a step forward.
Mitchel Cohen