Right to Censorship at WBAI and Pacifica Radio

[Guest guest]

The email below refers to Gary Null a health broadcaster with strong views,

but unpredictable opinions. The author Steve Brown is a nember of the local

station board (LSB).arnold

 

At our previous LSB meeting on 9/3/08, John Riley -- a WBAI producer, host

of Out-FM, and part of the unofficial JUC clique or " apparat " that runs the

station -- took the microphone for two minutes during the Public Comment

period to explain why Gary Null should never be allowed to broadcast on WBAI.

 

 

What Riley said, as closely as I can recall, was that we could not possibly

let Null back on WBAI because he presented " incorrect information " [about

AIDS] and " ideas and opinions that contradicted accredited medical and

scientific authority. " Further, by allowing Null to air such " contradictory "

ideas

and opinions, the reputation of WBAI would suffer.

 

In other words, because John Riley and his " authorities " had adjudged Null's

ideas and opinions to be " incorrect, " they wanted to prevent the rest of

WBAI's audience from hearing those ideas and opinions, and making up their own

minds. It didn't matter that AIDS is still a hotly contested issue, and that

large numbers of scientists and medical specialists hold widely divergent

views on its cause and treatment. According to John Riley, WBAI should present

only one side of that issue -- his side.

 

Sadly, this kind of ideological rigidity is not limited to WBAI. Recent

emails from Sherna Gluck (a KPFK board members) and Jack VanAcken (a KPFK board

member and PNB member) reveal that a prime reason they seek to block Gary

Null from having a regular program on KPFK (despite a majority of staff members

who voted in favor) is that they view his position on AIDS as ... " incorrect. "

 

Nor is AIDS the sole focus of our ideological gatekeepers. Pacifica is

crawling with self-righteous " content police " of every stripe -- board members,

staff members, and especially program directors -- each with his own issue,

and each certain that only his side of that issue deserves air time.

 

For example: do you know which station's program director blocks

9/11-Conspiracy programming because it is " irresponsible " ? Which program

director fired

an award-winning producer after complaining that he " played too much White

man's music " ? Which station won't give significant air time to 3rd party

candidates " because they might siphon away votes from Obama " ? Which station

will

hardly ever run programming that is critical of Israel?

 

Pacifica's self-appointed thought police -- the John Rileys, the Sherna

Glucks, the Jack VanAckens, and many more -- now wield considerable power and

responsibility throughout the network. And because they have this power, they

feel they no longer need to discuss or debate, only to decree. These people

serve us badly.

 

Pacifica was created to facilitate, not smother, the communication of

alternative ideas and opinions. But I suspect that this would be news to John

Riley

and his friends. Which I consider to be the scariest part of my scary two

minutes -- i.e:, the fact that neither Riley nor those who applauded him that

night had the slightest inkling that his statements were fundamentally -- were

violently -- at odds with the core principle upon which Pacifica was

founded.

 

 

 

Hail the new Pacifica, whose leaders praise diversity in their speeches even

as they smother it in our programming.

 

Steve Brown

 

 

 

 

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