There has been a lot of talk about iPD Mario Murillo bringing back to WBAI one of its most controversial and despised alumnus, Bernard White. He has already been heard speaking from the rented WHCR studio at a recent tribute and it seems almost certain that he is among the "new" voices Murillo will use to bury Haskins.
I have had major differences with LSB member Steve Brown, a close friend and supporter of Gary Null, but I think his open letter regarding the re-emergence of Bernard White is important. It is also of near novella length, but it contains countless reasons why Mario Murillo's hiring as iPD needs to be re-evaluated. If he takes back White, he will have erased any positive decision he has made since he, himself, was re-hired.
As I said, it is a very long letter, so the link in the above paragraph will allow you to download it for perusal at your leisure. Much of it will either shock you or stir up unpleasant memories, but if you care at all about WBAI, you should read what Mr. Brown has to say.
I won't have time to read all the new posts here until tonight. However, I do want to quickly say that bringing back Bernard White is asking for a not so civil war to erupt. Bad move if he is brought back for any more than the one show he did.
ReplyDeleteSDL
I hope, too, Mr. Albertson, that this will cause you to rethink your critique of some people @ the station. Mr. White was and IS evil. Mr. Murillo is a coward and a crook. Murillo's father is a CONVICTED felon. Mr. White should be in jail, along with Murillo's father. Samori Marksman enabled all of this when he was charge as well. The station has been a sewage pit for a long time Murillo should be ashamed of himself, but he has no shame and he does not care. His hands are full of manure for which there is no amount of bleach can clean!
ReplyDeleteI don't have time to read a novella length statement about this, so I'd like to ask what "taking back" White means? Giving him some air time? Or managerial status? I can't imagine WBAI has the funds to be making another new hire.
ReplyDeleteYep, I read the whole letter, and it confirmed my worst opinion of White. I saw a U-tube clip of him, where he sat there in all his glory, lording over some overworked gray haired hippie giving him some report about premiums. White was sitting there slouching while the dude stood before him, White surrounded on either side by activists or whatever they are called, that looked like the central casting's rejects from some banana republic movie about Castro! The impression I got was that the premium problem would have been solved long time ago, if these community heroes like White and his cohorts would lave jumped in mailed out some of those premiums.
ReplyDeleteI think that the horrifying incidents of verbal abuse and bullying went on at BAI, because the feckless lefties lost their spines to keep their precious shows on the air. Had they not cared, if they stayed or went at BAI, they could have called the police and filed the complaints, like normal people in the real world, and put some of these BAI thugs within reach of the court system and probation officers, which would have improved the mental health of these aging activists, but bullies only abuse those, who let them do it, and so we have Bernard White.
There is a reason why Murillo is bringing him back. Murillo is a loyal Justice and Unity (JUC) foot soldier and he is strengthening the coalition. The reason that he was brought on board is because he is the JUC member with most mainstream cred, and he is the committed to keeping the status quo. I said that at the very beginning. He is fighting for real estate on the Titanic, but that is besides the point. I think that Murillo is trying to bring White on board, because he might be fearing that the BAI Triumverate (Haskins, Bates and Reimers) is going to force him out, and he wants to stay, and he hopes that White will back him. I am not sure how Murillo is as a journalist, I heard that he was responsible for the non-coverage of the war in Colombia, because the Marxist darling FARC rebels were doing really ugly things in that war. But that might not been Murillo's personal bias, but BAI's as a whole.
It sure sounds like you might be right about Murillo. The irony is that the JUC factionistas are scrambling to mount a dead horse..... sorry, mule.
DeleteThe other day, when he was invited to take part in a 3-hour live tribute, Bernard White showed his true color, so to speak, by commandeering the show. He must be licking his chops right now. Through all of this, we hear nothing from the so-called GM, who has increasingly understandable reasons for not daring to show his face.
BTW, how did Bates pop up alongside Haskins and Reimers in your BAO Triumvirate? Don't tell me that he, too, is coming back!
actually Bates coming back is more shameful than White. Bates is very responsible for the very FAST decline of the station. He also has NO INTEGRITY and he is DISHONEST. As long as pacifica allows people like BATES to be on the air it will slowly decline to a dot in history. The character of those you bring to your institution matter and the GM knows Bates is dishonest but doesn't care.
DeleteWBAI is already nothing more than a footnote.
DeleteBates fits right into the current profile. He is a self-centered thug who, as you point out, lacks integrity and has severe problems with the truth. He and Reimers have much in common, although the latter is a wet dishrag to the former's spike ball. By hiring Berthold Reimers, Pacifica made a huge mistake... by keeping him around, they sealed WBAI's fate. That, of course, is what several PNB manipulators wanted all along.
Brown's letter says what needs to be said. All I can add is that White was a lousy producer before gaining any managerial position.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually funny how WBAI STILL hasn't been able to move on and get over the past couple of decades. It's still the same old people and same old crap. They never learn.
It's obvious the PNB needs to ban him from any Pacifica station and property, since WBAI won't do it themselves. I know, it won't get done.
Maybe they should bring him back as PD just for the damage he would do, including personally dealing with Reimers...
By the way, FARC are smarter than WBAI in that they made lots of money from the drug business.
SDL
Rare video of Bernard White Dada at WBAI, explaining recent firings...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-wi8ZIGYo
SDL
A few semi-demi-quasi-random thoughts:
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed largely an assemblage of feckless leftist cowards with an accompanying free-floating entourage of minor opportunists, bullies, and petty thieves.
They are overwhelmingly amateurs and incompetents.
Many of them are possessed of illusions as to their personal consequence, many are clearly narcissistic.
The founding ideals of Pacifica are worthy, but it’s impossible not to note that from the very first it’s been riven by the petty, vicious internecine warfare for which ‘progressives’, academics, aesthetes, and intellectuals are infamous.
‘The Crisis’ of late 1976-early 1977 and the installation of Samori Marksman mark (pun intended) an inflection point – though it’s to be borne in mind that the crisis in question and the installation of Marksman as maximum overlord of the imagined revolution pro-tem were the result of the decisions of the Pacifica board and the local board with their academics, ‘progressives’, ‘idealists’, other airheads (pun once again intended) and at the time of the crisis some folks on the hustle from the New York political scene.
Most people cling to air time as if their lives depend on it. Sadly, given their lives, they’re quite right.
One can’t, in the end, save people from themselves – nor institutions.
~ ‘indigopirate’
Of course I don't know what originally attracted these people—the users and abusers—to Pacifica, but if it was sincere and honorable, something at the core of this interrupted pacifist dream reverses the course of good intentions.
DeleteAs long as these same people, or others recruited by them, remain on the inside, I see no hope for the restoration of integrity to Pacifica. The reality thus becomes mission impossible. As you so aptly and sadly put it: Pacifica has a history. It has no present. It has no future.
I like Bernard. I talked with him often off the air. He's a gutsy guy. I agree with nothing he says but he has an intelligent way of coming to conclusions and you have to be on your game to refute him. I like his don't take no crap attitude. One thing I know from his mouth "He detests Gary Null and would fire him in an instant if he becomes either station manager or PD (not put him on the schedule)". They cannot coexist together. So NO Bernard because money talks and b.s. walks.
ReplyDeleteKGT
I warned the so-called movement to "Take Back" WBAI about what Mr. White was, and what he intended if brought back to power. I was right. In fact it was worse than I thought possible. Wbai became an anti-intellectual bastion of ethnic bigotry pseudo-science, history, and just plain no-talent producers announcers, and the sort of audience such attracts. An example...white volunteers were harassed out of the pledge room. "It's 'our' station now" was heard. An atmosphere of intimidation, and actual assault went on for near a decade. You see in his case there was a reason he was banned for life.
ReplyDeleteYour being barred for life is an outrageous breach of the very principles these bozos wave about when they want their despised listeners to cough up money for their crap. You probably know better than anyone what hypocrites and thugs these people are. Did you ever hear from Reimers? I bet not, and where can we hear the protests from your former colleagues? Much as I disagree with R. Paul Martin's suppression of speech, I give him high marks for telling it like it is when it comes to Berthold Reimers' mismanagement and the handling of your "case."
DeleteIronically, Lew Hill sought to diminish or eliminate hatred by founding Pacifica, and here we have all that he fought against being perpetuated and used to vandalize his concept under the guise of "peace and Justice."
Whatever R.Paul Martin may be to financial matters, he shouldn't be on the air or in charge of any place where he has a chance to censor people.
DeleteGermany, Italy, The Soviet Union, Hungary, etc. had "peace and justice" before WWII broke out, according to their standards of the time, of course.
SDL
What about Pickles of the North?
DeleteKGT
As one of RPM's "victims," I cannot disagree with you when it comes to his dictatorial ways. He is also arrogant and rude, and a terrible radio host/producer. That said, I also cannot ignore his positive accounting work and support for Sydney. Does one cancel out the other? Absolutely not.
DeleteNow, if you will pardon me, SDL, I have to start getting ready for another ear feed: it's Tuesday, which means Ifé at midnight.
Pickles of the North is, as far as I know, an innocent bystander.
DeleteI prefer deli pickles to the bland Northern variety.
Delete"Does one cancel out the other?"
I don't look at things in that manner. I take every action on its own individually. He's a mixed bag. I just don't like him, his yelling and abusing people. He's the same as the rest of them, really.
Well, Chris. Enjoy your Ife. Think back to nights of Studio 54, lines of white powder and when 42nd Street was actually a real people haven, not a tourist trap. Personally, I found that FM propagation where I am is pretty weird tonight (ever try eating a chicken fajita with one hand and tuning a radio dial with the other?), so a little DXing on the below 92.3 part of the dial is in store for me. Rare to receive WSHU (drowning WFMU) on 91.1, a reggae pirate over the normally blasting Ecuadoran pirate on 91.9, etc.
Dammit! 90.1 has Democracy Now playing! I can't get away from the shadow of WBAI, no matter what I do!
SDL
Anybody like Rich Conaty and Phil Schaap?
DeleteI love the old recordings Conaty plays on WFMU--his vintage taste is eclectic and he knows what he's doing.
DeletePhil Schaap is another story. I have known Phil personally for decades, but I can't stand his inane rambling, especially since so much of what he says os pure nonsense. I know he loves the music, but I cannot forgive him for distorting its history. He also has been unspeakably disrespectful to George Avakian, a friend of mine whose knowledge and contributions to jazz are real and important.
I can't stand Phil's shout outs. They break my eardrums.
DeleteKGT
They are almost as embarrassing as his drivel. He has a great collection of jazz and that's what he ought to be sharing, not his strained theories.
DeletePeople should know the real history of R. Paul Martin. He is a military man who has that mindset. He was Chief Steward of the WBAI Union who was forcibly removed by AFTRA because he refused to file grievances for union members at WBAI. He worked hand in glove with management to remove producers and spread lies. He is truly a foul person. If you are being censored, that is the reason!
DeleteIt all makes sense, I'm afraid.
Delete