(posted to the misc.activism.progressive newsgroup by Chris Bille) The following is an excerpt from Alexander Cockburn's irregular column in The Nation (Nov. 13 issue). Like most of his writing it is not posted on the magazine's website in order to ensure enough space for the apoplectic ravings of the likes of Eric Alterman. Consequently, I had to type out the thing by hand. Don't say I never do anything for you people!! "What the fall campaign did most of all was to show up the bankruptcy of people like [Patricia] Ireland [of NOW] and [Carl] Pope [of the national Sierra Club] -- the people who soft-shoed for Clinton and Gore for eight years. The sort of people, come right down to it, who are now trying to fire Pacifica's Amy Goodman. Yes, Mary Frances Berry, consultant to the Pacifica board, was a prominent presence at an October 24 gig organized by People for the American Way, presided over by Bill Clinton, and designed to scare progressives back to Gore. "Of course they want to fire Amy Goodman! She puts on the best show on public radio, doesn't she? The liberals [sic] who run Pacifica would much rather have manageable mediocrity than Democracy Now! There's nothing so irksome as success not achieved on their terms, under their rules and their rubrics. Amy has edge. She doesn't take "guidance." She's a loose cannon. She brought Ralph Nader onto the floor of the Republican convention in Philadelphia. She's not Tweety Bird or Terry Gross. So she has to go! "How is the Pacifica directorate trying to dump the most popular voice on the network? Easy. Choke the woman with bureaucracy. Demand that she file broadcasting flight plans a week ahead. Insist that she get prior approval for all her speaking gigs. Put it about that Pacifica needs "new voices," a bigger share of the yuppo audience. Murmur not so softly that Amy is old hat, is not really and truly part of the big Pacifica Picture. "It's a control thing. There's nothing on this earth liberals hate more than radicals straying outside the reservation. Let's stray. Onward!" Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
