Message 19726 of 21001 | Previous | Next [ Up Thread ] From psomers@n... Mon Apr 01 19:21:02 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: psomers@n... X-Apparently-To: NewPacifica@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_3_1); 2 Apr 2002 03:21:01 -0000 Received: (qmail 70114 invoked from network); 2 Apr 2002 03:21:01 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.216) by m11.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 2 Apr 2002 03:21:01 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO nycsmtp2out.rdc-nyc.rr.com) (24.29.99.227) by mta1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 2 Apr 2002 03:21:01 -0000 Received: from nyc.rr.com (66-65-3-253.nyc.rr.com [66.65.3.253]) by nycsmtp2out.rdc-nyc.rr.com (8.12.1/Road Runner SMTP Server 1.0) with ESMTP id g323ImOx003051; Mon, 1 Apr 2002 22:18:48 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3CA92379.D348FDB0@n...> Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 22:20:25 -0500 X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: NewPacifica@yahoogroups.com, "freepacifica@r..." Subject: Re: [NewPacifica] Re: Flashpoints@K... References: <20020401195503.81272.qmail@w...> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit From: Pamela Somers X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=58926995 X-Yahoo-Profile: wbaifree Dennis Bernstein's reply to a post on the Goodlight message board. Dear Friends, Here is my response to Ann Frank's "the truth about dennis." Please distribute where appropiate, db Dear Friends, Ann Frank's "the truth about Dennis" conspiracy theory(included below) is a silly attempt to degrade the work we do at Flashpoints. Like any conspiracy theory, it contains truth, half-truth and lots of juicy innuendo. The bottom line is that it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Have I put people on FP?s that I wish never made it to air? You bet!! And yes I have learned a great deal from my good friends at FAIR and other media specialist groups about dealing with and assessing information sources. But, I am an untrustworthy "Conspiracy Czar" because a columnist for a local Berkeley Rag-that most people read for the movie listings-had an axe to grind with me? I don?t think so. Even as I write this, I am in conversation with several people regarding how to deal with Mike Ruppert's 911/the CIA did it theory. Chomsky says it's pure fantasy, not worth commenting on. Norm Solomon says confront it and debunk it head on in a debate? His fans swear he's unsinkable, and Ruppert himself said he is definitely up for the debate. I'm going for the debate: Why do you say Ms. Frank? Should we let em' talk? * * * For anyone who really wants to judge me by my work fairly, it's readily available: Just tune in to FP's at 5pmPST, or go to the web at flashpoints.net. In the past ten years I have also written major articles for The Nation, Village Voice, Boston Globe, In These Times, The Progressive, Texas Observer, Vibe Magazine, Z Magazine The Bay Guardian, Newsday, Southern Exposure, The Kyoto Journal, Bangkok Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Examiner, and I have syndicated many articles for the Pacifica News Service, where I have been a contributing editor for twelve years. My articles have also been anthologized in at least a half dozen college teaching anthologies and I co-authored the book "Henry Hyde's Moral Universe" on Common Courage Press. Project Censored has selected my work for its most important Under Reported Stories list more than a half dozen times, and the San Franciso-based Media Alliance group honored Flashpoints this year for exceptional investigative radio reporting. I have been a guest on FAIR?s Radio Show, Counterspin, and my articles have appeared in FAIR?s newsletter, EXTRA. I was also arrested and dragged out of my own news room in July 1999 after breaking a story about the potential sale of KPFA and/or WBAI. I wrote about this extensively in a Feature piece for "Censored 2000" edited by Peter Philips and Project Censored and published by Seven Story Press. Again actions speak louder than words. I have no response to Ms Frank and all my erstwhile critics other than to raise this question: Have I stayed true to the Pacifica mission by featuring the following people and issues on the Flashpoints show? Let's start with last Friday: We had Adam Shapiro on from inside the compound of Yassar Arafat while it was under siege by the Israeli military:We had noted Israeli reporter, Amira Hass who writes for H'areretz from the West Bank: We had As'ad Abukalhil on democracy in the middle east:We had Fidel's Castro's speech from Monterey, Mexico and a related interview with John Ross in Mexico city about why Fidel was asked to leave the conference and how it has lead to the biggest diplomatic fight between Cuba and Mexico in modern history and we had a young Nigerian American poet reading. On Thursday we had to Palestinian teen girls, who live in refugee camps now under siege by Israeli forces. They talked about their parents being tortured in Israeli prisons, what it means to grow up with out a childhood, and why the Palestinian stone has become their best friend. The day before, we featured Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun Magazine on a Passover Fast to end the suffering in the middle east and to end the Occupation. Others who have appeared(mostly in recent months) on Flashpoints include: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Hanan Ashrawi, writer and leading Palestinian negotiator and spokesperson; Congressman Dennis Kucinich; Laura Flynn, Aristide Foundation for Democracy; Law Professor Frances Boyle on Ariel Sharon as potential war criminal; Earth Rights Interntional Attorney Richard Hertz, Torture in Burma; Lauren Leslie of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children on Medical Neglect and Abuse of Women Behind Bars; Earth First Activist Darryl Cherney on the bombing of Judy Bari; Dr. Earnest Sternglass, Radiation & Public Health Project; Dr. Janet Sherman, author of "Life?s Delicate balance" on the impact of low level radiation; Hawata Arraf of the International Solidarity Movement; Judy Greenspan of Californai Prison Focus/HIV aids committee; Riva Enteen of the National Laywers Guild; 9/11 victim Kelly Cambell; Corporate raider Ralph Nader; Sariya Amra of the ADC; Mumia Abu Jama; Ahmed Shaki, editor of the International Socialist Review; Denny Larson and Hilton Kelly of SEED; Robert Knight of WBAI; Novelist Activist Arundati Roy; writer/activist, Grace Paley; Alex Cockburn; Zimbabwe musician Thomas Mapfumo; former UN official Dennis Halliday on Iraq; Adam Isacson of the Center for International Policy; Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies; Fahter Roy Bourgeois of the School of the America?s Watch; Ali Abunimah of the Arab American Action Network; Pierre Labousier of the Haitian American Action Network; Professor Angela Davis; poet Janice Mirikitani; Penny Rosenwasser of Jews for Justice in Palastine; Bruce Mirkin of the Marijuana Policy Institute; Christopher Hitchens; Laura Flanders of Working Assets; Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen; Jennifer Harbury; Charles Kernigan of the National Labor Committee for Human Rights; Peter Philips, Project Censored; Isabel Allende; Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman; poet Naomi Shihab Nye; Catherine Austin Fitts, former Bush official; author, Martin Lee; Mario Murillo of Our Americas Radio and WBAI; Philip Cryan, Pesticide Action Network; poet June Jordon; novelist Alice Walker; Noam Chomsky; Phylis Bennis of IPS; Larry Birns,Council on Hemispheric Affairs; Center for Constitutional Rights founder Michael Ratner; Tikkun Founder,Rabbi Michael Lerner; former Enron worker Michelle Roboshow; Lucy Komisar of the Progressive Magazine; London Independent Reporter, Robert Fisk; BBC reporter Greg Palast; Shamus Collins, Irish Northern Aid, author/activist Helen Zia on Wen Ho Lee; Harvey Rosenfeld of Taxpayer and Consumer Rights; Joel Banin of Stanford University; Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice; Rhona Ramiro of Community for Human Rights in the Philippines; Michael King of the Austin Weekly; Russell Mokibber of the Corporate Crime Reporter; radicial author Michael Parenti; Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill of Democracy Now; Bernard White; Robert Knight; Ebrehim Hooper and Nihil Ahdwad of the Council on American Islamic Relations; Errol Maitland and many others from WBAI; former Attorney General Ramsey Clark; former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport; economist Julianne Malvaux; Michael Moore; Dr Helen Caldicott; Retired Admiral, Eugene Caroll of the Center for Defense Information; fired Palastinian professor Sami Alarian; Siham Rashid of the Palstinian Counseling Center; Ruth Rosen of the San Francisco Chronicle; Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; C.T. Vivian, long time associate and friend of Martin Luther King Jr.; Neta Golan, Isreali founder of the International Solidarity Movement; French farmer and anti-globalization activist Jose Bove (now pinned down in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers); actor Danny Glover; Tarik Ali of Verso Press; Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson Jr.; Studs Terkel; Howard Zinn; Israeli/America human rights attorney, Allegra Pacheco; the late William Kunstler; Hussein Ibish of ADC; Columnist Jim Hightower; Dr. Michio Kaku on the use of battlefield nuclear weapons; Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives; Gore Vidal; Dorothy Granada; Kevin Pina on the Haitian attempted coup; Suraya Sadeed on hunger and starvation of Afghani children; singer ? songwriter, Michael Franti; writer and visionary, Benjamin Barber; Sunera Thobani, Women on Peace in Afghanistan; Dr. Abdel ?Karim on CIA-FBI harrassment; Tanya Deeyar on Afghani human rights; noted author Ahmed Rashid; author Barbara Kingslover; Juan Gonzalez, Daily News, Pacifica Campaign; Japanese-American activist, Yuri Kochiyama; Sid Akbar on Afghani refugees in Afghanistan; Hatem Bazian, UC Berkeley; Ziad Ghani, Robin Clark, Adam Singh, Sean Fernandez, victims of hate crimes; Rania Masri on the backlash between Arabs and Muslims; Hussein Ibish, national spokesperson for the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee; Al Giardino of Narco News; Bobby Laverry, former IRA political prisoner; Professor Thomas Nagy on Destroying Iraq?s Water Supply; Alistar Millar on creation of a new generation of ?Baby Nukes?; authors Gary Webb, Peter Dale Scott, Bob Perry, former DEA agents Michael Levine and Celerino Castillo, and many others on CIA contra drug trafficking; Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children?s Alliance on Durban; media critics Norman Solomon, Marty Lee, Peter Phillips, Andrea Buffa, and many others; Danny Kennedy of Green Peace; Medea Benjamin founder of Global Exchanged; Dan Coughlin, Pacifica Campaign, now Interim Pacifica Director; Norm Stockwell of WORT on the Pacifica crisis; Dr. Karl Grossman on nuke in space; Professor Horace Campbell, on various aspects of African policy; novelist Sando Meallet; Prof. Deborah Santana, Mills College, Robert Rabin,of the Committee for Rescue and Development in Vieques; Peretz Kadron from Israel; Dr. Doug Rocky on the impacts of depleted uranium; Phil Klasky, The Nature Conservancy; Dr. Robert Gould, Physicians for Social Responsibility; Barry Lituchy, Prof. of Modern European History @ Kingsboro College; Attorney David Bernstein on the case of Kevin Cooper; KPFA host Larry Bensky; Juliette Beck, Global Exchange; William Blum on CIA and Afghanistan; Leslie Cagan of the Pacifica National Board; Peter Eisner, Center for Public Integrity; Northern Ireland Human Rights Attorney, Dorothy Bukantz, and Jared Rice on Death Squads in Northern Ireland; Pacifica Historian Mathew Lazar; Professor Stanton Glantz on the tobacco industry lawsuits; Kathy Kelly, Voices in the Wilderness; Steven Bright, Southern Center for Human Rights; Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation; Joe Stork, Dir. of Mid-East & North Africa Division; Bassam Abu-Sharif, Political Advisor to Yassar Arafat; John Tateshi on the movie Pearl Harbor and its affects on Japanese-Americans; Poet Diane DiPrima on revolutionary poetry and her biography; South African Poet Dennis Brutus; Parla Nolasco, Dir. Young Women United for Oakland; Tim Connor on Nike sweatshops; Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority Foundation; Harvey Wasserman, CA for Tax Justice; Dennis Moynihan of the Pacifica Campaign at an Epstein, Becker & Green action; Thomas Moran former Pacifica National Board Member; James Banford on the National Security Agency; Mindy Pratt, Media Dir. of TURN; Sheldon Rampton editor of PR Watch; Noam Hosshtater, Peace Now!; Mark Palmer, Earth Institute; Sister Leticia Boards on the appointment of John Negroponte; Nilda Medina on the bombing of Vieques; Scott Fleming on Pelican Bay Prison; David Orchard, Citizen?s Concerned About Free Trade; John Viola, Quebec Legal Collective; Maude Barlow, Council of the Canadians; Steve Porter, Ctr. for International Environmental Law; Karen Picket, Earth First; Jim Schultz, The Democracy Center in Bolivia; John Gershman, Asia/Pacific Editor for Foreign Policy in Focus; David Solnit, Art & Revolution; K. Ruby, WiseFool & Puppet Intervention; Carl Massineo, Attorney, Partnership for Civil Justice; Lyn Chee Wong, Prof. of Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley; Grey Brechin, Historical Geographer author of "Imperial San Francisco" ; Joel Benin, Stanford Prof. Mid-East Studies; Rhoda Berensen on Lori Berenson?s trial and jailing; numerous interviews with journalist and human rights activist, Alan Nairn, as he covered the historic vote for the liberation of East Timor. Dennis Bernstein > > Ann Frank > > the truth about Dennis > > Fri Mar 29 22:03:57 2002 > > 209.190.163.80 > > > > A Painful Task > > > > In the debate over conspiracy theories passions can run high. Radio > > station WBAI scheduled a debate on the journalistic issues raised by > > broadcasting conspiracy theorists and right-wing experts. One guest > > connected by phone to the New York studio was KPFA-radio host Dennis > > Bernstein, dubbed that station's "conspiracy czar" by one local > > alternative newspaper. During the live program Bernstein began alluding > > to > > conspiracies to smear and silence him and his guests, then angrily > > slammed down the phone. > > > > Why have some on the left fallen for the psuedo-radical siren song of > > the fascist right? Sara Diamond thinks that "after 12 years of living as > > an > > anti-administration anti-establishment subculture, many in the > > progressive movement know what they are against, but have lost sight of > > what they > > stand for. According to Diamond, this leaves persons susceptible to > > allying with anyone else that attacks the government." In part its > > desperation," > > says Diamond. "We have, in fact, lost influence and become marginal." > > And, Diamond adds, this happened "against a backdrop of political > > illiteracy." > > > > This political myopia has been shaped in part by a reliance on the > > electronic media for news routinely presented in ahistorical, sound-bite > > packages > > that fail to make connections or references to even recent history, much > > less events earlier in this century. Sadly, many Americans developed > > their > > understanding of fascism by watching the show "Hogan's Heros" on > > television. The age of television has promoted style over substance. > > Demagoguery of all political stripes flourishes in this environment. > > > > Interviewer David Barsamian who produces the syndicated Alternative > > Radio series from Boulder, Colorado warns that radio personalities who > > harp > > on conspiracies are providing entertaining confusion rather than helping > > listeners focus clearly on complex issues. He says progressives should > > not > > fall for "left guruism" where sensational anti-government theories are > > accepted without any independent critical analysis. > > > > Barsamian feels some on the left have been "mesmerized by the flawless > > dramatic presentation by Sheehan of the Christic claims" which > > distracted > > attention from the "substance of the allegations which don't all check > > out." This created a climate--even a demand--for elaborate conspiracy > > theories to flourish. Barsamian acknowledges "we all are longing for > > simple comforting explanations, but by focusing on The Secret Team, or > > the > > Medellin Cartel, we ignore the institutions that keep producing the > > problems." > > > > Doug Henwood, editor of Left Business Observer in New York, > > editorialized in April about the resurgence of fascist ideas around the > > world. Henwood > > cited a 50-year-old book by Karl Polanyi, "The Great Transformation," > > which listed symptoms for a country infected with fascism, including > > "the > > spread of irrationalist philosophies, racialist esthetics, > > anticapitalist demagogy, heterodox currency views, criticism of the > > party system, widespread > > disparagement of the `regime,' or whatever was the name given to the > > existing democratic set-up." Henwood writes that "the list is a good > > description of the political scene in much of the world today--the > > denunciation of Coca-Cola capitalism by German skinheads, chanted > > between > > attacks on Turks and Mozambicans; the racist welfare-baiting of our own > > demagogues; and ubiquitous, vague, and nihilistic denunciations of `the > > system' that offer little hope for transformation." Henwood is not > > surprised to see such symptoms appearing in the U.S., but is dismayed > > that so > > many on the left are unaware of the lessons already learned t Message 19726 of 21001 | Previous | Next [ Up Thread ]