The up and down relationship between Gary Null and WBAI (i.e. Berthold Reimers) had been going on for so long that it came to be regarded as a part of the station's irregular pattern. One never knew where this odd couple stood and there is no app for making that determination.
Then, in January, the sporadic Null rumble erupted into a potentially fatal lawsuit filed in New York against Pacifica, Reimers and others. (Find the papers here: The Null/Pacifica drama court papers, and more...
Although he ceased pitching on the air, it was puzzling but characteristically off-the-wall to hear Null maintain his daily WBAI schedule during the present failed fundraiser, but Reimers finally took some action: he informed Null that Fridays on WBAI's air would no longer be his. Null was prepared so when Friday came, he announced his contingency plan and ended his hour on an acidic note. The ship is sinking.
I think if you listen carefully, you can see what I have said is correct - Null is pissed he isn't getting the attention from his premiums hawking.
ReplyDeleteHis sarcasm belies he's hurting, and I love it.
SDL
He is seething, but caught between a rock and a hard place... he did not cause this situation, but he nourished it and now he is hastening the end from which there can be no resurrection from which he benefits.
DeleteNot quite a selfie, but.... let's call it a Nullfie. Were he the mercenary benefactor he likes to portray himself as, the prudent thing would have been to abandon the wreck... but that's something he seems loath to do...WHY?
Gary Null, passive aggressive much? He sounds like someone in a bad marriage getting called out on his crap. Of course, he doesn't want to leave. He's making around 60K from WBAI according to the draft budgets being thrown around. Now he has to weigh the cost of his material being pirated and his own operation. Can he get a settlement? Can he make it on his own PRN operation? Can WBAI afford to let him know? Wow. It does sound like a bad marriage the more I think about it.
DeleteStay tuned for the next episode of As Pacifica Turns.
Funny--when Null first appeared on WBAI, I saw his presence as a corruption of the Pacifica mission.
ReplyDeleteHere was a mountebank who made money selling dubious potions and pills, endorsed homeopathy, and advocated magic for curing cancer and other serious conditions. What was he doing on WBAI?
Now with the demise of the station, his is the only program I listen to. It offers a lot of the same nonsense, but where else on the radio does one hear interviews with jill Stein, Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader, Henry Giroux, and many other journalists, scientists, writers, and thinkers I respect?
I have not listened to his replacement on WBAI. I will listen to Null on PRN on line. Today he's interviewing John Perkins. I imagine that Reimers has replaced him with his (Reimers') mother, a certified Voodoo doctor from Port au prince.
TPM
"Funny--when Null first appeared on WBAI, I saw his presence as a corruption of the Pacifica mission".
DeleteNot so. Gary first appeared regularly on WBAI in Jan., 1980, despite his exaggerations. In the beginning, he lectured on vitamins and minerals, acupuncture, running, diets, vegatarianism, in a benign way, entertaining and he wasn't selling anything except letting listeners know when he would lecture at The New School and elsewhere. This slowly morphed over the next half-decade into the venomous arrogant quack cult leader we know today. Like Hitler, Stalin, Jim Jones, he started slow and, little by little, morphed when he knew he got away with each increment in lies. A plane ticket to Guyana and "Gary's Kool Aid" is next!!
KGT
I remember that. He basically was the updated, more extreme Charlton Fredericks (was that the old health guy on WOR?).
DeleteNull's "advice" has gotten far more extreme over the years. I remember back then when he told a story about how he was in Central Park and went to a food cart to buy some French fries and he didn't because the oil smelled rancid and was almost black. I don't think Null eats fries anymore.
SDL
p.s.- Does anyone notice that Gary, who is 71, always posts a pic taken when he must have been 21 on all his websites? If he really looks that good at 71, I'll swig his multicolored glop.
ReplyDeleteKGT