[The current issue of the Nation Magazine has an article by John Dignes
that supports the NPR-ization of the radical FM radio network that
broadcasts Doug Henwood's excellent radio show as well as some other show
that at least to me are less than excellent. But radical they are. The
Nation article has touched off an interesting series of posts on their
bulletin board, including this one by Bob Feldman]
Your article fails to mention the role a major investor in The Nation, Alan
Sagner, has played in promoting the NPRization/Corporatization process at
Pacifica's 5 radio stations. Nation Investor Sagner has been the chairman
of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board during the 1990s. And he
sat on the CPB board during a period when a magazine in which he invests,
The Nation, was able to increase its subscriptions by using Pacifica's
radio stations to promote the magazine on the Pacifica-aired Radio Nation
program.
While Nation Investor Sagner (who has also been affiliated with Columbia
University in recent year) was the CPB chairperson, the CPB board refused
to respond positively to Pacifica listener complaints about the
undemocratic policies of the Pacifica board. Nation Investor Sagner also
was on the board when former Voice of America Deputy Director Robert
Coonrad (who also headed Radio Marti) was authorized to be the CEO of the
CPB which funds 15 to 20% of the previously listener-sponsored radio
network that helped promote a magazine in which a CPB board member
invested. Your article also fails to mention that the Magazine Journalism
Center director at the Columbia School of Journalism where you work is
Victor Navasky, the editorial director of The Nation that has profited from
its 1990s collaboration with the Pacifica National Board and a CPB board
which includes Nation Investor Alan Sagner. Your article also doesn't
indicate that a member of the Nation Institute board of trustees, NYU
Graduate School Dean Catharine Stimpson, is the former "Genius Grant"
Program director of the MacArthur Foundation which you indicate now helps
fund Pacifica's "Democracy Now" show.
Nor does your article indicate that Nation Institue Trustee Stimpson has
sat on the PBS board of directors during the 1990s representing the special
interests of WNET-Channel 13 at the same time Nation Investor Sagner sat on
the CPB board which authorized Lynn Chadwick to attempt to NPRize and
Corporatize Pacifica's radio stations. Until The Nation begins to be
upfront with its readers about the degree to which it is linked to the
CPB/PBS folks involved in an attempt to turn the Pacifica Foundation's
radio stations into an instrument of the liberal wing of the Democratic
Party and a slightly left version of NPR, its coverage of the 1999 Pacifica
Listeners Revolt and the continued campaign to establish Listener
Empowerment at Pacific's radio station will remain intellectually,
politically and morally shallow.
Louis Proyect
(The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
