Re: Pacifica board/Nation Magazine collusion
Louis Proyect wrote: [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. Thanks for the kind words, Lou, but I've been reading Feldman's stuff for years on the FreePacifica lists, and he's really off base on this. Feldman takes a useful technique - tracing board links and such - and goes into overdrive with it. I'm not unfamiliar with the internal workings of The Nation, and believe me, Sagner has no influence on the magazine's content. There are many stories one could tell about The Nation and Pacifica, but that's not one of them. Doug
Re: Re: Pacifica board/Nation Magazine collusion
Thanks for the kind words, Lou, but I've been reading Feldman's stuff for years on the FreePacifica lists, and he's really off base on this. Feldman takes a useful technique - tracing board links and such - and goes into overdrive with it. I'm not unfamiliar with the internal workings of The Nation, and believe me, Sagner has no influence on the magazine's content. There are many stories one could tell about The Nation and Pacifica, but that's not one of them. Doug Actually, that led to further exchanges: posted by Victor Navasky on Apr 17th 2000 02:21:32 PM Not only that but I'm also on the board of the Author's Guild, The Whistle Blower's Project and have served for any number of years on the boards of PEN, Swarthmore College, The Little Red School House and others.. Do you think there's any chance that Ford and/or MacArthur could be persuaded to help any of these worthy institutions? PS I (like The Nation) was against the Gulf war, but don't tell anybody. posted by Louis Proyect on Apr 18th 2000 10:49:18 AM Yes, Victor, you are on many boards. But that is part of the problem, don't you see? The non-profit board is a curious institution. People with access to funds, particularly from the more guilt-ridden trust-fund offspring of one robber baron or another, like to feel good by doing good. Hence, all the foundations setting agendas for the radical movement. My own organization Tecnica lost all its funding after Chamorro was elected president of Nicaragua. We were told by the Funding Exchange that Nicaragua was no longer "sexy". AIDS fightback was. The whole point of Pacifica is to break with that model and make the stations beholden to the grass roots. If Pacifica becomes a leftish clone of NPR, beholden to the philanthropic moods of people like Stewart Mott or Alan Sagner, we're doomed. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
RE: Pacifica board/Nation Magazine collusion
LP: [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. . . . I tuned into our local Pacifica station during both Seattle and this past week-end. In the former case they were playing records, in the latter they had on a program about local theater. I am really glad I signed the stringers' petition. WPFW sucks real bad. Meanwhile, Amy Goodman was on the stage at the demonstration. mbs
Re: RE: Pacifica board/Nation Magazine collusion
I tuned into our local Pacifica station during both Seattle and this past week-end. In the former case they were playing records, in the latter they had on a program about local theater. I am really glad I signed the stringers' petition. WPFW sucks real bad. Meanwhile, Amy Goodman was on the stage at the demonstration. mbs posted to the Nation bulletin board by Merl Hills on Apr 16th 2000 02:37:30 PM: Why is there no discussion or investigation of the many reports coming out that former Voice of America employees have worked their way up from volunteers to positions of responsibility at WPFW -- Pacifica's Washington D.C. Station? Why is there no discussion of Bessie Wash's pressure on the Pacifica Network News to tone it down so as not to offend the many WPFW listeners who work at the Pentagon? Given the recent admission that PSYOPS interns were working in the CNN and NPR newsrooms during the war in Kosovo,these reports have taken on an even more ominous credibility. Louis Proyect (The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
