I wouldn't break out the bubbly.... not quite yet!
An unvarnished blog that dips into the past and comments on the present of WBAI-FM, a once significant, intelligent New York radio station that for years has suffered chronic abuse from within and now nears extinction. Your comments are welcomed and will not be censored.
Null's been on a stunning self-serving rant for the past hour..."I never lie"...
ReplyDeleteNull stated that BAI has reduced payroll now of $30,000/month -- Michael G. confirmed that and said there are currently 6 paid staffers. Well, that's $5,000/month ($60,000/year) per person 'on average' -- while not in the 1%, not exactly 'poor' so why the whining?
I think Null lies by nature (organic lies, you know) and Michael Haskins is like Pavlov's dog. What you describe sounds familiar—they rerun these awful, deceitful Null blathers endlessly. People are apparently biting...which tells us something about the audience these scams have generated over the years.
DeleteI remember some years ago the bible thumper Oral Roberts used the angle that if he didn't raise some large sum of money (I think it was 1 million dollars, maybe more), God would take him to heaven. Well he actually raised the money! Need I say more?
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, The New Yorker published a letter received from the Oral Roberts people. She had sent in $25 for a prayer plate, but never received it (sound familiar?)
DeleteThe letter expressed sympathy with her problem and an assurance that "we will pray that your problem is solved."
Perhaps Reimers can do something like that... a little voodoo ceremony in the premiums room?
Berthold Reimers is a liar. He previously stated his intent to use the annual upcoming grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to pay the severance. I am glad that WNYC got the 10 Million grant. They do modern radio journalism. They cover world events. Their political analysis of the events in Ukraine yesterday was better than that of Ian Masters. Amazingly, none of the BAI regulars have mentioned anything about the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, though some believe, that it might be the opening volley of WW3. The parochialism of BAI broadcasting is amazing, though, I think, it also may be the radical left-wing bias. In any case, BAI does not deserve the grants the NYC gets!
ReplyDeleteWith regards to Reimers soliciting an Obamacare (notice the perjorative term used by Republicans to describe the Affordable Health Care Act. Shows Reimers ignorance) specialist, I am glad, that he finally got the concept of public affairs broadcasting, but why not REBROADCAST Ian Mater's numerous interviews he did on that topic. I know it's not Null infomercials, but it's what Berthold is looking for.
I have to agree with the Anonymous, that BAI board meeting actually represents the left. I have seen the You Tube clip with the sledge hammer and I have also seen the follow up clip of the listener comments to the board. It goes for over an hour. It's a geriatric kindergarten! I recognized R. Paul Martin immediately. Was he drinking directly from the neck of the soda bottle that was supposed to be shared by all? Who was the guy trying to chair the meeting? In a follow up clip I saw Monroe Litman, finally. I first heard him, when Bob Grant was humiliating him on WABC. The man had no dignity left. I felt sorry for him, until Chris wrote, that it was him disrupting the meeting by yelling that the meeting is illegal. The question I have is, who was that angry black middle age woman, who was behaving like a snake and was asking the person on the camera to count the people in the room?
Obama uses the term "Obamacare" when referring to his healthcare debacle.
DeleteHe sure does—a smart move that disarmed detractors who coined the term as a negative. :)
DeleteThat is true. I forgot this part. Not a total debacle. I have an uninsured friend who lost his life savings to a week's uninsured stay at a hospital for a life threatening acute illness. He owned more, but they took his meager savings, would barely buy a new subcompact car, and wrote off the rest to charity. Now he has insurance through this healthcare debacle of Obama's, and the last crisis cost him under a grand.
DeleteWatching the extended part two of the clip, with Monroe Litman, I realized that there is a definite power hierarchy at BAI. At the bottom of the pyramid are the listeners, exemplified by Litman, who are dumped on by everyone else. His free speech is limited to 120 seconds. Next on the food chain are listener volunteers, a step above them are non-Justice and Unity volunteers, who were doing the legwork to keep the station financially viable, a step above them is Steve Brown, who was sitting by himself. At the top of the BAI local board food chain are the Justice and Unity activists, exemplified by Bernard White, some guy named Brinkley, who could play a secret police chief in a Hollywood movie about a banana republic, and a light skinned female with a green scarf, who maintained silence. Notice how Brinkley, whoever he is, and other Justice and Unity members each have their own "community organizations" and "non-profits". These are the radical left in every sense of the word. They dominate the work and the discourse of others by their silence. Bernard White dismisses the work of the bearded white guy by requesting substantiation for his report. Note how none of the Justice and Unity folk did any meaningful presentations? And that angry black middle aged woman, who when reminded of Robert's Rules, asks contemptuously, if Robert is in the room. In Part 2, she walks out of the meeting to text her son, then interrupts the meeting by asking to have her brought up to date. These people clearly wield power at the BAI local station board, and their leadership style has been defined as toxic, by the U.S. Army. Toxic leadership will wreck your career as a US Army officer, and is defined as the "Verbally aggressive, emotionally abusive and manipulative practices designed to further one's own career and personal agenda." And yes, this is what Stalinists behaved like in communist party council (soviet) meetings in Russia, except they can call the local secret police and making their antagonists disappear. And then there is this arrogance of Justice and Unity power and privilege: When board members are asked to volunteer 2 hours//MONTH to oversee the mailing of premiums, somebody who is trying to look like Trotsky named Bob, begs off, saying that he doesn't have any more time to donate to BAI and then they start lobbying to use every argument and feint that they can, to bring back two of their banned local station board members. And then we get to meet Reimers, he is the money guy. He knows how to market premiums and raise funds. That's why he is still in. When they tried to expand their audience and attract younger listeners, they reached out to Occupy Wall Street and the radicalized college students in CUNY who were lobbying for the Dream Act and free tuition for themselves. They would have done better, had they appealed to regular college kids. And again, to underscore, Public Radio International, WNYC's parent network, is MORE DIVERSE than BAI, so racism and opportunity for minorities is a card that BAI radicals can’t use in this argument.
ReplyDeleteAlso notice, how Amy Goodman is declining to comment on Ukraine crisis, choosing instead to focus on Fukushima nuclear disaster. Somebody correct me, if I missed her broadcast and she did any coverage of the events in Ukraine and the Russia's takeover of Crimea.