Excess Of Evil

Source: The Nation magazine, 4/15 cover date

The Nation magazine, which pays some of the L.A. Weekly's benighted punditocracy to write for it too, joined the Evil Axis today, appropriately enough on April Fool's. Their web site posted that other Pacifica story that we've all been dreading. It's been in the works a while, coming at us as the second punch in the old one-two from KPFK/PNN's disgruntled writer clique, which lost its stranglehold on drive-time public affairs early this year. They've been rather pissy/moany ever since.

Having soiled a nice pair of running shoes on the Weekly's field pastry, I made a point of donning my old boots before wading into The Nation's magnum opus. Surprisingly, though, the new article wasn't that bad. Most of it stayed out of the pasture. Not all, but most.

Unlike the Weakly's prejudiced Ella Taylor, Nation Author Susan J. Douglas actually brought in something that can be described as journalism. She presents a logical sequence of facts and attributions and everything. Douglas appears to have actually interviewed people from both sides, which is more than Taylor did, even though once again the names Cooper, Schubb, and Rush show up with disquieting frequency. This article would get at least a C+ in an upper-division feature writing workshop, and maybe even a B-.

But don't count your blessings yet. The article really isn't all that good. It starts off with the same soggy lead as in the Weekly. Yes, that one again. It's the same tale of woe, about how positively yukky it is to be assigned a Pacifica story and actually have to hear from concerned citizens.

What IS it with these people? Do their e-mail providers charge a buck a message? It's quite odd.

After this pissy little screed, this apparent failure to understand the news business, Douglas then flat-out demands that we, the Pacifica movement, "Grow up." OK, honey... you go first.

This low point is followed by a pretty good, straight-on description of the problem. It doesn't veer too far off into the cow pasture until the end, when Douglas trots out some real whoppers about the recent iPNB meeting here in Los Angeles. For example:

"However, when you look at the minutes of the latest Pacifica board meeting, and read demands that KPFK have more Islamic programming, [...] you do wonder whether this automat-style programming would further segment, rather than bind together, progressive listeners. "

Sounds like someone should have found her better minutes. I was at this meeting. There was no demand for "more Islamic programming," though it's not such a bad idea given the current world situation. Only one public comment even came close, and it was from Loraine Mirza, a fired/banned news reporter/programmer whose excellent show about Islamic culture had been thrown off the air by Mark Schubb in just about the cruelest and most incredibly insensitive manner possible.

Loraine, whose health was ruined by the incident, does not appear to want her show back. She does, however, stand along with Lyn Gerry as a symbolic rallying point for the other 150 fired/banned at the K, and the thousands of listeners who want their community radio station back. She's an icon. Had Douglas bothered to ask any of the 400-odd people watching the board meeting, she would have known this too.

There are some other huge fact omissions. As Carol Spooner said in her letter to the Nation editor:

"One non-trivial fact left out of Susan Douglas' 4/15 report is that the California Attorney General brought suit against the old Pacifica board for breach of charitable trust and violations of California nonprofit laws, including illegal bylaws amendments, among other things. [...] Another unreported fact is that the old board had directors & officers liability insurance to cover their legal defense at little or no expense to the Pacifica Foundation, but chose to hire a law firm in which former director John Murdock is a partner..."

Carol is, as usual, right. Once again, the "Pacifica Activist movement" has been dismissed as direct-action thugs or deluded idealists, without telling the main reason why it did what it did - the documented fact that the old board was killing the foundation by trashing everything in sight. Carol, along with the illustrious Rafael Renteria from KPFT and just about everyone else that knows anything about radio, also makes the point that professional sounding strip programs and weekly or monthly community-driven content are not mutually exclusive, except in the tortured souls of Schubb and Cooper.

Taylor leaves this part out. Douglas leaves this part out. Were Lincoln around, he would probably leave this part out. They're supposed to. It's because Marc, Mark, Saul, Don, and these same old wordsmiths from KPFK's soggy ex-talent clique slant the facts, and make sure it gets left out.

These wretched souls, the old left, the anti-establishment establishment, the non-corporate corporate media, the Alternative Golden Rolodex, the Pundit Wannabe Round Table, the moronic Third Faction, the Excess Of Evil, the tired and the poor, the burned-out left-bashers, the circular firing squad, the KPFK gasbag brigade, the venomous Friends of Mark|c, the used-up UE-busters, the CPB-teat-suckers, the AFTRA sellout squad, and the utterly discredited hijackers of a great radio station, just can't handle losing one. Therefore they repeatedly take to the print media they control so well, to sling the same old crap, cook up the same old Moose Turd Pie, again and again, on how it's somehow OUR fault.