Note from IED Bill Crosier to the Pacifica National Board.
I met with the GMs and PDs (by conference call) on Monday to discuss how we could collaborate on coverage of Trump-gate hearings, however it progressed, with Russia, Comey, etc. The consensus on Monday was that we should wait until Congress schedules hearings. There was a lot of interest in covering something like that. We'll probably have gavel-to-gavel coverage on pacifica.org and possibly on some stations, but probably each station can choose what parts to broadcast live and what to save or repeat for the daily news or other shows. And we can mix in interviews of people who don't appear on other broadcasters during breaks.
Now that they will have Comey testify, that sounds like something we'll all want to cover.
I'll talk with the GMs and PDs about it next week.
Anyone have a better name for such hearings than "Trump-gate"?
Bill
As of course it won't be covered anywhere else, the public will rely on Pacifica for this vital coverage.
ReplyDelete~ 'indigo'
Should be as ground breaking as their coverage of the last presidential race...
ReplyDeleteSDL
Here is my response, as I posted it on Pacifica Radio Waves listserv:
ReplyDeleteNo sooner has the iED proposed that Pacifica team up to cover the Comey hearings in depth than the inflexible paranoia-propelled step forward, seize the slogan du jour and start an all-too-familiar rigging process.
It will be difficult enough to lace the local shoestrings into a meaningful contribution—coloring the extended string with uncontrolled assumptions and innuendos can only gnaw deeper into Pacifica's almost extinct credibility. It tells us something when a shrunken listenership can be seen as an asset. The hype and rampant distortion of current and historical fact—which we have heard escalate in recent years—places Pacifica on par with supermarket tabloids.
The idea of presenting the upcoming historical hearings from an alternate perspective is excellent, per se, but the opportunists who have routinely excluded opposing views are not likely to now return objectivity to Pacifica reporting.
When I read Bill's proposal, my spontaneous reaction was one of approval, but the more I think of it—and especially after seeing some of the loyal but decidedly biased candidates whose names are popping up—the more undoable such coverage seems.
I believe that gathering real, insightful, knowledgeable thinkers for analytical discussions could have merit, but who takes Pacifica seriously these days? It will take years to restore the confidence people and mainstream news outlets once had in Lew Hill's organization.
Yes, some of the players who—intentionally or not—have brought Pacifica down to its present low level waste no time getting the rigging process started.
The hearings will by their very significance get coverage from all sides, enough to form a basis for well-rounded individual opinions.,
Isn't it illegal to switch a product on a customer once it is purchased, without offering them a refund instead? Null is switching Brain Stuff to Memory Stuff seemingly without offering the refund alternative. Maybe he figured out if the Brain Stuff works, it will cost him and WBAI listeners. I thought of that while having several pints of Guinness Stout, which is probably better for the brain and memory than anything Null hawks.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Guinness is good for you, my mother's babysitter always said.
DeleteChris,
ReplyDeletePacifica will be flooded with listeners. No one will watch the proceedings on television.
When will Pacifica, especially Jim Dingeman who is flooding the LSB list serv with dumb ideas understand that FM radio is a monotonic function. Guess, which way.
Thank you.
Ed Manfredonia
I don't know if they are incurable dreamers or just plain dense, but they do come up with hopelessly undoable ideas while giving reality a short shrift.
DeleteDingeman is a good man - he took on Marksman, Murillo & Keyes - exposed them as crooks and thieves - he gave key material on Knight to the police when he destroyed station equipment.
DeleteI completely agree that Jim Dingeman's intentions are in the right place, I just think he is going about the task in the wrong way. I share his frustration and goal, however.
DeleteThe attempted invasion of wrongheaded ideologists is, in my opinion, just as harmful as that deck of race cards currently being dealt by the likes of the Crossroads guy, Mimi the acculturated, Ron 'professor' Daniels, Harebrained Haskins, the O'Brien Mumia-iites, et al, or the chronic lies tabloid sensationalists like Bonnie Faulkner, Geoff Brady and Tony Bates try to shove down the mini-listenership's throats.
The ball of deceit and avarice is rolling what once was an extraordinary, significant concept over the edge. The very first job at hand should not be to launch bigger events in hopes that they will pay some bills, it should be to decontaminate Pacifica. Bill Crosier has begun that process, but the bugs are still there. Reimers an Bates are long overdue for a ticket to oblivion, if not prison.
The problem with this copying what every other political coverage does. On the team, you must have a comedian. Doesn't matter if they're not funny. Everybody else has a comedian. So we do too.
ReplyDeleteRalph Nader has his Pacifica talk show with two. If not them, then who will they get? Jimmy Dore from TYT? The subject itself is serious enough. Adding comics who are the only ones who think they're funny just makes Pacifica look bad and drives away listeners.
WBAI's self-declared "comedians" are often funny, but inadvertently so and in a manner that produces the antithesis of their desired result.
DeleteYeah, Bates, Blosdale, Null, Brady and, of course. Fass are all a hoot.
DeleteSDL
Personally, I think that Mimi Rosenberg and Margaret Prescod are funnier. Their impressions of a bat-shit crazy "progressive" are hilariously over the top.
DeleteIt's a tough choice. I rather like it when Null does his Walter MItty routine—it's up there with Bates channeling con artists John Henrik Clark and Dr. Ben.
DeleteSpeaking of channeling, one of the WBAI nuts, like Earthmom or Davis, should get a crackpot on to channel Robeson, MLK, Malcom X, etc. and have the channeled spirits tell people that they need to donate to WBAI. You know many of The Remnants will believe it.
ReplyDeleteSDL
Bonnie Faulkner should team up with Bates and Brady for a spectacular only-on-WBAI revelation, a six-hour special with in depth analysis by Mimi and the brilliant morning duo of Pammie and Mike. It will be called "Scales of Destiny: the Reptilian Netherworld Alliance of MLK and Dr. Ruth".
DeletePR and leaflet distribution will be handled by the Mitchel-Dingeman.Group, a division of Reimers & Son Enterprizes.
At the KPFA meeting, Janet Kobren said a lawsuit has been filed by Sharon Brown, Efia N. and Adriana Casenave against Pacifica, David Beaton and Mansour Sabbagh regarding seating on the PNB. Have you heard anything about that Chris?
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I have heard that, but I am not surprised. Double standards are always a part of the crook's tool kit.
DeleteI half-listened to the meeting as archived, and that statement did indeed float by. As per custom essentially any and all meaningful information on finances, preparation for the planned audit, etc, etc, etc, was blacked out via the usual 'executive session' 'confidential' 'sensitive' dodge.
Delete~ 'indigopirate'
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DeleteI’m just imagining Ariana testifying in court….
DeletePOINT OF ORDER YOUR HONOR. I’M BEING SUPRESSED. HOW DARE YOU TURN OFF MY MIKE……
Bonnie Franklin has another anti-Semitic conspiracy nut on now. This one claims that Israel is in cahoots with ISIS.
ReplyDeleteThere are enough conspiracies inside Pacifica to satisfy even the most paranoid. No need to make up stuff. I saw a reference to an email from Crosier asking WBAI not to play the embarrassing zapper promo anymore. Do you know if WBAI has complied Chris?
DeleteAs far as I can tell, that product has been zapped. Crosier shoul also do something about the false history of Africans and other lies foisted on listeners by a station that professes to be the voice of truth.
DeleteI meant Bonnie FAULKNER". Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteMelissa Mark-Viverito, former WBAI producer and now City Council President is stirring up trouble - invited former PR terrorist to the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Brady can give him a zapper?
DeleteSDL
Brady is probably looking for a replacement scam product. I heard rumors of a battery-operated aura relocator.
DeleteHow about an interstellar fart atomizer?
DeleteSDL
Robert Fass Associates is currently beta testing that one on Staten Island. That may be linked to recent area fires, but such a connection is pure speculation on my part.
DeleteA tense discussion with multiple points of order and running commentary from our favorite director to everyone remotely related to Pacifica? Must be another PNB meeting. The delay tactics are getting obvious folks. At least try to be original. Follow the lead of Benito Diaz. His ability to slow things down is almost Shatner-like. They seem really MUTE phone system. It MUTE their mojo. Meanwhile, back in the executive session, the PNB is trying to figure out which auditor they can con uh I mean hire to do their books. To whoever they pick, I suggest getting paid up front.
ReplyDeleteI caught most of this engrossing meeting—still digesting it.
DeleteAs for, I suggest they check the nearest asylum... or wake up Berthold Reimers, distribute rose-colored glasses, and let him do his fantasy accounting.
I agree re Diaz, he is molasses. And let us not forget the uhuru guy, who woke up, grumbled, and disappeared.
Perhaps 'Uhuru' represents an aspect of the soul of contemporary Pacifica...
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhuru_Movement
~ 'indigo'