"The grapes are sour," said the fox

“Now I don't know if asking Robert to lay off his Obama thing will help, but you could try. Next time he's on, and taking calls tell'em to lay off.”—Sidney Smith

Robert Knight apparently came near death very recently when he was hospitalized to undergo a serious lung operation, It is, of course, good that he survived, but his problem is not limited to that physical one. I think it has been made abundantly clear by his on-air behavior that he also has a mental problem, and it is not limited to his obsessive hatred for President Obama.

Knight, I am told, used to conduct his work at WBAI in a professional, intelligent manner. Difficult as that is for me to believe, I am inclined to do so. But something snapped and reduced him to the delusional, dishonest propagandist he is today.

I experienced that personally when he interviewed Bob Fass seven months ago and labeled me a secret military agent for the U.S., the implication being that this is how I obtained by immigration visa in 1957. I bring up this instance of attempted character assassination, because, being the victim, I have in it incontrovertible proof of how his fantasies form the basis for what he wants us to believe is honest “journalism.” Whatever Knight once may have been, he is now a shameless fraud.

I dealt with this here last June This link goes there; it has the audio and my comments, sparing me the need to go into repetitious details and return to last night's frivolous rerun of a pre-election “Earthwatch” episode.

Did you hear it the first or second time around? If you have the slightest doubt about Knight abusing the WBAI air, check it out in the archive at WBAI.org.

Whether Barack Obama’s presidency makes you feel hot, lukewarm or disgusted, he is our elected Commander in Chief and he has twice garnered the majority of this country’s votes. Criticize him as severely as you think his handling of the presidency warrants, but do so fairly. I, myself, have been extremely critical of Mr. Obama, and disappointed in the discrepancies between his words and his deeds, but consider the alternative we faced, consider his humane decisions. Hell, look at the GOP and consider how eager they are to get rid of Mr. Obama—that alone speaks volumes in his favor.

Robert Knight’s hatred has blinded him. He has been on an anti-Obama crusade almost since he cast his vote for the man (and, possibly, because he gave him his vote in 2009). The program he repeated last night is a vitriolic hate fest aimed at the President, and—typically—totally one-sided. When a caller indicated his displeasure with Knight’s lack of professionalism, he was promptly gotten rid of, but Monroe’s replacement, perennial caller “Tom from the Bronx,” was twice thanked for his paranoid drivel.

Robert Knight’s venomous personal agenda, his routine twisting of truth to present new “facts,” and the teen queen, tee-hee way in which he conducts himself during broadcasts is just the sort of thing that has made the majority of WBAI’s listeners head for the exit. It all works to the station’s detriment—it is an abuse of privilege and it should not be tolerated by management. Of course, neither should management’s behavior be acceptable by Pacifica. Only the listeners have shown the proper reaction: they tuned out.

I was very sorry to hear that Tom Wisker’s problems include alcohol abuse and I understand that this has also been one of Knight's weaknesses, but Tom was never vicious, Tom was sometimes incoherent and he fell asleep on the air, but there was no hate, and there were moments when he managed to push away the demons and shared with us his uncommon expertise.

Now Tom Wisker has been suspended, but I wish they had called it a medical leave instead. Alcoholism is a disease that I witnessed first hand in my pre-teens, but I have also seen it conquered. The self-serving vindictiveness and dishonesty that Knight spews on a steadily dwindling audience six times a week is a character flaw, which is far more difficult to overcome.

Robert Knight was once fired by Bernard White, a man who was hated by many at WBAI. That may have been a factor in his being rehired by Reimers, a man who is not hated, but certainly has earned the disrespect he gets. Reimers not only brought Knight back, he threw out good people to make room for “5 o’clock shadow,” a program that has never kept the promise made by Knight in his comic book promo, a program that mostly serves as an ego-stroking soap box for the man and his delusions.

Let us hope that Tom Wisker overcomes and gets back on his feet to do more informative programs, and that Reimers and Knight go the way of all slush: down the drain.

Please read the comments below, and add your own.