If we lose power and can't turn on the TV or get the Internet we'll still be able to listen to WBAI on our battery powered radios. YAY!
Postscript Well many things have happened since the above was posted. WBAI's building at 120 Wall Street was so badly flooded that WBAI was forced to evacuate and go off the air for a period of time. Gary Null then generously offered the use of his uptown studio to WBAI and they have been broadcasting from there since then. Consequently, Gary's own Progressive Radio Network has not been able to air, but there are many great shows on the archives that can be heard at: http://prn.fm
The Pacfica Archives Fundraiser corresponded with the coming of Hurricane Sandy, and WBAI has been continuing to air some wonderful material from the Pacifica Archives, interspersed with live broadcasts. It's been a rare treat.
Post Postscript - November 9 Update WBAI is continuing to broadcast from Gary Null's studios while work is being done to repair damage done by Superstorm Sandy at 120 Wall Street. Best estimate is that WBAI will be able to return to their studios sometime next week. In the meantime, they have built a jury rigged studio on the second floor of Gary's building, so that both WBAI and Progressive Radio Network can now broadcast at the same time.
That's what happens when an overly efficient moderator starts banning good people. When you have your little talk with R. Paul Martin, maybe you should point that out to him.
Who is this guy? Someone whose claim to fame in the Pacifica community is that he spent a few years at WBAI as a manager a half century ago, back in the 1960's. And now after a long hiatus of 50 years he is back - back from the dead, so to speak - because in all those intervening years he has not been a part of the WBAI community. And as he himself is so quick to tell us, having worked at WBAI gives one no special creds. Look at the way he's dissed so many of the oldtimers like Larry Josephson and Steve Post and others (who BTW did not like him either). Yet he thinks he's somehow qualified to make all kinds of judgementts and pronouncements about WBAI and that people will listen. His name isChris Albertson.
He has a captive audience on the Blue Board thanks to ModeratorR. Paul Martin, who puts no stops on him. Has it something to do with free speech? Hardly, since Martin does put stops on others. But Albertson is permitted to reign there like the petty tyrant of ideas that he is, subjecting others to his thoughts there daily. And if you disagree with him -- expect to receive some abuse. He lurks on the board, ever ready to pounce on the unsuspecting poster. Nearly everybody who posts there now gets a reply from this guy. It might be all very laughable, except for the fact that he really is out to harm certain people. And the opportunistic R. Paul Martin who now calls the shots at the Blue Board, lets him get away with it time after time.
Albertson mostly goes after WBAI management (of course, of course - all WBAI's current problems are their collective fault) , and in particular, a producer named Robert Knight, who does the evening program Five O'Clock Shadow on WBAI. Albertson has stated that the main thing he doesn't like about Robert is his take President Obama. Never mind that Knight is not the only Progressive to take a dim view of Obama. Just look at things being said by people like Chris Hedges, Mike Feder, Gary Null, Gerald Celente, Glenn Ford, to name just a few. The list of Obama disappointees is very long indeed, even though it pains me to say it, and I'd take him over Romney, since at least he gives lip service to Progressive ideals.
Chris Albertson, an ex-music critic, really has no qualifications for judging Robert and has shown himself incapable of appreciating Robert's brilliance, yet nevertheless believes he's qualified to serve as Robert's critic. He has set himself up as chief critic in residence on the Blue Board, and loves to give "reviews" as if he was Pauline Kael and everyone is just dying to hear what he thinks about this or that. He supplements this with links to his own blog, which I will not provide a link to, as it contains too many trash postings. I doubt if Albertson understands half of what Robert Knight talks about, but his bloated ego does not permit him to admit that, to take a step back and listen and learn something. Somebody once called him a "monster", and in this sense he is exactly that, having little or no empathy for others, having very rigid views, and being determined to impose those views on others.
Robert Knight has been covering foreign news for years, and is especially knowledgeable about what's going on in the Middle East. In the following post, someone attempted to engage Albertson about Libya after he had made one of his typical cracks:
Albertson never answered! Of course he didn't, because he couldn't! Albertson doesn't have the expertise to do so. And yet he projects himself capable of analyzing and critiquing Robert Knight's analysis of Libya! But he throws things out with nothing to back them up and just leaves them hanging in the air, the same way I imagine a provocateur would operate. I'm not calling him that but just saying that members of the Left are often their own worst enemy.
Five O'Clock Shadow's two shows that immediately followed the September 11 attack in Benghazi are archived.
September 12 show:
"Five O'Clock Shadow" with Robert Knight
Ambassador Edward Peck, Jennifer Loewenstein, Barack Obama, Robert Knight
LIBYAN EMBASSY ATTACK TESTS OBAMA CLAIM THAT AL QAEDA IS "ON THE RUN"
US
drones and warships are now menacing post-coup Libya in response to an
al Qaeda-linked Benghazi consulate assault that killed four Americans,
including the ambassador. Anti-American protests escalate in Egypt,
Tunisia, Yemen and elsewhere, ostensibly over an islamophobic film.
As evidence accumulates indicating a
well-coordinated RPG attack on the Behghazi US consulate, and precise
mortars on another "safe house," as US military systems converge there,
questions persist whether post-Gadhafi Libya is a vindication, or tragic revelation of Barack Obama's "bipartisan" covert belligerence, reminiscent of 1954 in Iran and Guatemala.
Vijay Prashad discusses Cyrenaican militancy in the "new" lawless anti-Afro militia-ruled Libya, Medea Benjamin details the tyranny of drone strikes in Libya and elsewhere, and Shahid Buttar celebrates a federal court ruling denying Obama-approved US military detention of citizens and journalists.
This second show has a fascinating exchange between Robert Knight and brilliant Middle East scholar Vijay Prashad, who didn't believe Al Qaeda was involved, whereas Robert did. It made for an interesting conversation, and Mr. Prashad provides some interesting background information.
Robert Knight had nailed it! Compare that verifiable fact to the ignorant assertions of
Chris Albertson about "Knight's skewed picture of what happened in Libya". Two days after the tragic event Knight had it right. He beat out the pundits on both Fox and MSNBC, Middle East experts, and even the White House! This is the sort of thing that people listen to WBAI for - what you normally do not get on the major media.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we heard about Romney making millions from the auto bailout on WBAI -- and heard it from the horse's mouth, Greg Palast himself, who appeared live on both Democracy Now and Five O'Clock Shadow and Gary Null. How often do you see Greg Palast on cable TV? How about never? Actually, Ed Schultz did finally mention the article in The Nation, several days later - and I give him credit for that. But it was mentioned much too briefly in my opinion, and was not given the kind of attention that so many relatively minor factoids get over at MSNBC, where one host after another will cover the same talking points until it's coming out your ears. In my opinion this could have been and should have been a major campaign issue. It should have been brought up during the Obama-Romney debate, but it seemed to be on no one's mind.
Then came the matter of the Third Party Debate in Chicago. You'd have barely known it was happening if you only watched MSNBC, although Lawrence O'Donnel did bring it up -- after the fact -- explaining that it didn't warrant coverage by MSNBC because the numbers were not large enough (15%) to warrant it according to Lawrence. Maybe so, but the ideas were large. And we got to listen to them and hear commentary and analysis afterwards, courtesy of WBAI. Both the official Obama-Romney debate and the unofficial Independents debate were covered by Pacifica/WBAI.
The Five O'Clock Shadow can be heard Monday - Thursday at 5pm on WBAI 99.5FM and streamed live on wbai.org. http://www.wbai.org/
It's a great show, but don't take my word for it - listen for yourself.
A Blue Board review of the Independent Presidential CandidatesDebate that was held in Chicago and anchored by Larry King. The debate was sponsored by the Free and Equal organization http://freeandequal.org/
The debate was aired on WBAI, and followed with a panel discussion hosted by Robert Knight.
A little ray of light slipped onto the Blue Board this morning. (click to enlarge image)
The above is from one of the more intelligent posters who still post over there. I couldn't have said it better!
After watching a bit too much of the MSNBC post debate cheerleading rally, it was refreshing to be able to turn to the radio for some astute analysis that was not as one-sided. On Pacifica's Presidential Debate Coverage with Mark Bebawi and Robert Knight, which aired on WBAI, we heard a variety of assessments that differed from the rah rah on MSNBC and Fox News.
In addition to instant debate analysis from Mark and Robert, we also heard from Peter Van Buren, a 24-year veteran Foreign Service Officer at the State Department, and author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, from Dennis Kucinich, former Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008, from John Glaser of antiwar.com, from Glenn Ford of Black Agenda Report, from Alice Slater, NY Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and from Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy.
The debate moderater Bob Schieffer said that the questions "are all mine", but what bothered me was questions not asked, like I wish he had asked Mitt Romney about the bombshell that Greg Palast released this week that Governor Romney, who criticized President Obama's bailout of the auto indusry, personally made millions from that very bailout! I have not heaard one word about this on TV since I heard about it on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! and Robert Knight's Five O'Clock Shadow, after The Nation Magazine broke the story on their web site.
I heard nothing about it in the major media, although there were people from The Nation appearing on MSNBC. I guessed this was not an "ok'd" topic? Maybe The Nation needs to protect their Most Favored Nation status on MSNBC!
Well thank goodness for the Internet then. And thank goodness for Pacifica radio and WBAI. Where would we be without them?
You can find the post-debate show as well as audio of the entire debate on the WBAI archives: http://archive.wbai.org/
Just scroll down to Monday and click on the shows between 9pm and 11pm.
Or you can get the commentary minus the debate here:
Chris Albertson once again shows his true colors with this nasty post about Frank LeFever. Frank has been a shining example of listener support for years. I can't think of any listener volunteer who has worked harder or done more for WBAI than Frank has. Yet see how Albertson tries to defame him! If you still don't get it, shame on you.
If you are a WBAI member, be sure to vote for Frank in the upcoming WBAI Local Station Board elections.
I'm glad to be able to say that because recently I've been getting discouraged. I've always enjoyed reading Cog Dis, a Blue Board character and station insider who whose cogent posts have more than once restored my faith in the WBAI community.The following series is a perfect example of the type of thing that goes on these days that shakes that faith.
The post that started it.
Here's a perfect example of how Albertson works the Blue Board. (click to enlarge)
See how it works? He raises questions that have little or no basis in fact, but will take on a life of their own, which often happens with the help of a particular anonymous poster who usually responds positively to everything Albertson says, adding a new wrinkle to the fabrication,
It's no surprise to see nonsense like this being posted. What surprises me is that the moderator R. Paul Martin allows this sort of thing to stand, while censoring people like myself who support WBAI and don't tell lies.
Albertson of course picks up on it and expands it further in his usual attempt to take advantage of any opportunity to twist the truth:
So I'm lovin' this reply from Cog Dis:
That says it all. It's good that Cog Dis is there to clean up the messes since the moderator won't do it. Although his stated goal is to "clean up" the Blue Board, he's more interested in censoring those "nasty" or "scatalogical" posts that seem to so offend his delicate sensibilities, rather than going after those who seed and spread lies.
Today we were greeted with this lovely message from Blue Board moderator/administrator R. Paul Martinet:
That's right, an entire thread had been disappeared overnight. Not moved from the Issues to the Peoples Board, but totally disappeared, apparently for having offended the sensibilities of the mod. Odd, considering how impossible it was to get rid of a single, small, slanderous post by fair-haired good old boy Chris Albertson. That's the weird value system at work on the Blue Board these days. But nobody dares complain, because it could mean off with their heads!
Yep, the moderator of this WBAI-related message board is always lurking there now like a big fat spider, waiting to gobble up the next hapless fly that comes by. Why? Because he apparently gets his jollies from maintaining an iron grip on what gets said there.
Once again I question his judgment. I recall that the thread raised objections to Pacifica's relentlessly one-sided support of Palestine that ignores Israel's side. I think it's an idea that deserves more examination by the Pacifica community, and should be a topic on a WBAI message board, as it's something one is likely to hear about on WBAI's air. But Martin had already proclaimed it inappropriate to discuss the issue, because he thinks it is not a WBAI issue. The idea that Israeli complaints might have any legitimacy has already been dismissed as "insane" etc. by chief opinion-maker in residence Chris Albertson, who is also Martin's idol and mentor. Yes, he was unfortunately brainwashed by Albertson early in the game, which has led him to ignore even the most outrageous of Albertson's posts, while banning people such as myself and others who too vociferously objected to them.
This post by Stephen Garcia is an example of the type of "hate post" that's commonly seen on the Blue Board nowadays. The moderator R. Paul Martin has no problems with this type of poster, but refers to people who support and love WBAI as "trolls", and bans those who post comments that are strongly in favor of WBAI that would provide counterpoint to posts like these. As those ranks thin, these negative posts stand out more and more.
This latest toxic brew cooked up by Chris Albertson which he calls "poetic", reaches a new low even for him. But Albertson, who has been encouraged and emboldened by an all-forgiving moderator, seems to be getting more and more out of control. This time however, with this attack on WBAI GM Berthold Reimers, I think Albertson may be hoist to his own petard. See if you agree.
Although this was published on his own blog. Albertson's main vehicle for communicating with the WBAI community is through the Blue Board, where he posted this link to his blog:
Click to enlarge images
Forget about "poetic license", which seems to be what he's claiming in his disclaimer, to refer to the lynching of a black man in this context is disgustingly racist and insensitive and has no place in any Pacifica dialog.
Yet the moderator has done nothing about this man! My feeling is that R. Paul Martin, the current moderator of the Blue Board, has a personal agenda and a conflict of interest, and should not be moderating a WBAI-related message board where he has the final go or no-go say on which side can be heard. Martin cut off my own voice on what I believe to be a technicality (my use of the word "dump" when referring to Albertson, who actually does "dump" on WBAI every day). At any rate it should not be Martin's call to silence the voice that was loudest in opposition to Albertson, while allowing Albertson to continue his comments unopposed.
At least one poster though, has expressed disgust with his latest blog:
WBAI has a new Buddy Program which is quite ingenious, and in a way reminds one of the days of the Great Depression, which is really what WBAI and its sister Pacifica stations are in right now. At a time when they're needed more than ever their very survival is at risk, and they need some big donors, but what can the little guy do? Well for very little money one can support WBAI in a new and innovative way that can really make a difference to the station. Giving $10 a month to BAI is not that painful when you consider how much you pay for your monthly cable. One of the problems WBAI has had to contend with is the increasing number of days spent fund-raising in order to stay financially afloat. If the new Buddy Program catches on, it's possible that WBAI can significantly reduce the number of fundraising days needed, maybe even eliminate an entire fundraiser. That's a good thing, right? What's not to like? You wouldn't think anybody could possibly argue with that idea.
Well... think again. Chris Albertson will tell ya, along with his own buddyTPM, what's wrong with BAI's buddy program. As fund drives roll around we're always treated to Albertson's souped-up harangues against BAI, now fortified with TPM, which go on steroids as he lashes out at one of his favorite targets: pitching and premiums -- the very things that enable BAI to stay alive.
As an aside, I found it interesting that he recently praised one of his pets: "Joyce Jones has the right idea when it comes to premiums, she offers original material that she has commissioned and produced specifically for WBAI's fund-raising efforts."
Nothing against Ms. Jones, but contrast this with his hypocritical remarks about one of his peeves: In one of his most dishonest campaigns to date, Albertson attempted to implicate Robert Knight in engaging in a type of fundraising he deplores - the use of outside premiums than can be purchased for less cheaper elsewhere - whereas Robert, who has created many high quality home-grown premiums, has been setting a shining example to producers like Ms. Jones, something that has never been acknowledged by Albertson.
Now Chris Albertson has something new to go after: WBAI's Buddy Program. He has taken to using a device on his blog that he calls TPM, which functions as a sort of stand-in for his own ideas and opinions. He'll often highlight comments from TPM that appear to have appeared on his blog at pertinent intervals, which mysteriously and magically mirror Albertson's own views. Exactly. Albertson couldn't have said it better (or worse, that is). He will then often take those comments and rather than leaving them to languish "at the bottom of the page" , as he says, will elevate them into centerpieces, often turning them into colorful eye-catching images.
Who is TPM Really?
Is TPM a fictional character? A real person? A composite? Who knows? Does Albertson even know? TPM of course, stands for The Pacifca Maven, although there's nothing of the maven about TPM, who hates WBAI as much as Albertson does.
TPM is the wayAlbertson now goes about telling us not to support WBAI. And it comes as no surprise that WBAI's recent effort to raise funds via the Buddy Program is their latest target. Both Albertson and TPM have been disparaging the program and making fun of it. Sadly there are otherwise intelligent people connected to WBAI who ostensibly care about the station (including R. Paul Martin, the current moderator of the Ble Board), who fall for their propaganda. When will they wake up to the fact that this is destructive hate speech that is not in any way helping WBAI, and could be hurting it?
I give credit to LSB Candidate Frank LeFever, who often does understand that, although he bends over backwards to be fair too often, in my opinion. In return, Albertson often disrespects Frank and denigrates his tireless efforts to help WBAI. Albertson has the cynicism to question Frank's motives, often labeling them as self-interest, exhibitionism and all the usual stuff we hear too often from Albertson. Although I don't always agree 100% with Frank, I applaud his efforts to help WBAI, which are often done at great expense to himself and his own health.
Check out Frank's Facebook pages:
By:Glacial Drift(static-72-89-27-43.nycmny.fios.verizon.net) Date: Saturday, 6 October 2012, at 12:03 pm
No one bothers to post anymore.The stupid, and ugly finally pushed everyone away?
Dear Uncle, it's your pal R. Paul Martin who was stupid enough to push everyone away! In the words of your other pal Chris Albertson, the moderator has "cleaned up" this board, and made it safe for -- what? not safe for democracy or freedom of speech, but safe for posting -- so that you and a few goodmen can now post safely unopposed by thebad and the ugly trolls that once terrorized the board. Gee, you might as well be talking to a chair now!
That's right, while the station struggles to stay alive, we have this kind of advice being published by a supposed "friend" of WBAI. Need I state the obvious? With friends like this, who needs enemies?
Actually he is no friend. He doesn't really like WBAI very much. What he likes is the ghost of a WBAI past, something that exists only in his memories of 50 years ago. Things always look best in the golden haze of days long gone by. The truth is, things weren't so very wonderful back then, as you can find out by reading a little history (further down in this blog). But back to the point here. For whatever reason, Albertson wants to hurt WBAI while professing a desire to help it. Don't believe it. Almost every one of his communiques is misleading or destructive in some way. And that's why I've spent so much of my precious time opposing him, pointing out the truth when I see a distortion.
The post (below) which appears on his own blog, is a recent example of the type of disruptive provocateurism employed by Mr. Albertson:
It's also an illustration of how the current Blue Board moderator, WBAI staff member R. Paul Martin, supports this guy. It's also an indication of an apparent ulterior motive in his banning of the one who would most consistently point out Albertson's half-truths and fallacies when they occurred. Of course Albertson has called me a troll because he doesn't like that! And he refers to my banning as "cleaning house". What happened to the free speech that you so vaunted in the past, Mr. Albertson? Your hypocrisy is outstanding though not surprising.
But for R. Paul Martin to fall for that is inexcusable. I had thought he was far more intelligent than that, but what I'm seeing is either fuzzy logic, anti-womanism, or... an ulterior motive in banning me and enabling Albertson. No matter what you want to believe regarding his motivation or intelligence, one has to admit that it's a conflict of interest for a WBAI staff member to be moderating this stuff, and making these kinds of decisions.
Martin's decision was as follows: Albertson's post (above) that contained a link to these most recent inaccuracies and rumors, was allowed to stand, while my post (below) that partially refuted them was removed shortly after it appeared:
At least one other person disliked what Albertson was doing here. Here's a comment made by Mitchel Cohen, the outgoing Chair of the WBAI Local Station Board:
I've noticed that Blue Board postings have thinned to a trickle recently. Suppress the free speech of Chris Albertson's opponents and look what happens. Is this the trickle downtheory of posting?
Not just one, but maybe two or three flew out
I've also noticed that some of the best posters there have disappeared. This occurred right around the same time that I was going - not that gently - into that good night. Were they taking a stand? Did they willingly go into that goodlight exile? Or were they also banned?
And around the same time we were also being treated to this hypocritical political speech by the new Blue Board moderator R. Paul "Nurse Ratched" Martin, given on his Saturday morning radio show on WBAI:
"Some
greasy fried
chicken
franchise
owner has this
biblical crap
going on about
who can get
married, so
there's this
big flap about
all of that.
People say:
"Oh, he has
free speech
rights!" Of
course he
does. He gets
to say his
anti-gay crap
and people get
to counter
with their
free speech
too. I mean,
the remedy for
free speech
that you don't
like is more
free speech.
Say something
about it. Say:
"Well I
disagree, and
this guy is a
nincompoop",
and all those
wonderful
things that we
can all say
about each
other."
Apparently Chris and I received and relayed to blueboard Berthold's message at about the same time, his snidely-headed entry posted before I hit the "post" button.As usual, Chris repeats the Big Lie he has so predictably repeated at every opportunity, i.e. that Berthold is somehow hiding, under a rock, avoiding questions. Rather than thanking Berthold for today's initiative, he says "oh, does this mean you will stop beating your wife?"ALSO PREDICTABLE: Chris will say it's beneath him to attend the LSB meeting, has no wish to intrude or to call attention to himself, etc. etc. and in a dozen other ways chicken out, passing up an opportunity to confront Berthold and "his defenders" face to face.He'll say, "my views are well known".Ha ha ha.There will be those at the LSB meeting who will not even recognize his name, much less know his "well known" views. That's what he's really afraid of.Of those who might recognize them, some will do so because of his cameo appearances (n = 2) in the Bob Fass documentary, "Radio Unnameable" (screenings of which he also dared not attend).
What does it mean? Well it seems there were dueling keyboards, where two posters both hit the enter key at the same time, and posted the same announcement:
Berthold seeking questions *LINK*
By:Frank LeFever<Send E-Mail>(pool-96-224-10-231.nycmny.east.verizon.net) Date: Wednesday, 3 October 2012, at 4:45 pm
GM BERTHOLD REIMERS SUGGESTS AGENDA ITEM FOR OCT. 10 LSB MEETING:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: [WBAI-LSB-PUBLIC] Next LSB meeting OCT 10 Wednesday, October 3, 2012 4:34 PM From: Berthold Reimers To: "Mitchel Cohen" Cc: "wbai-lsb-public@yahoogroups.com", "Hatzis Chris", "Davis Kathy", "Katz Andrea"WBAI Management report 1 hour with questions. Why? What can be more important than knowing what is going on at WBAI. Since I could not attend the last meeting, there is a lot to talk about: 1. Programming 2. Finance 3. FundDrive 3. WBAI Silent Auction 11-7-2012 4. 120 Wall Street - Plans 5. Chris Hedges at Ethical Culture 10-15-2012 6. WBAI at the Apollo Theater 10-16-2012 7. WBAI website - Increasing traffic and exposure8. Cuts - 2 cut already made - status 9. WBAI staff impression 5 minutes or more 10. Election: List, process, etc... 11. Premium - Status, progress, etc... 12. Outreach initiative to the community and to the progressive caucus of the City council. 13. Opening up the station to the community. 14. BAI BuddyAnyone of these items could be a conversation for the entire night. However, I would appreciate if the LSB could be prepared with concrete proposals to help WBAI. Please feel free to send me your ideas so I can incorporate in the presentation.Thanks,Berthold Reimers General Manager WBAI Radio 99.5 FM
Chris Albertson's announcement was of course embellished by sarcasm, which is what Frank LeFever is referring to here. Frank is also referring to one of the Big Lies that Albertson has promulgated for several years, the one that Berthold Reimers is a do-nothing manager who hides from the listeners (look who's talking). Now this seems to be a conclusion that Albertson has arrived at all on his own, which he likes to repeat over and over, until he believes that the rest of us believe it too. Well I for one have actually listened to Management's reports to the listeners, to the LSB, and to the PNB, and I'm well aware that Mr. Reimers continually engages in constructive activities that benefit the station, often working late into the night. Time to face the facts, Albie. Why is that so hard, I wonder?
Almost daily for two years now, an entity purporting to be a former station manager named Chris Albertson posts hearsay, conjecture and even blatant lies on a WBAI listener's forum known as The Blue Board. I say purports because no one has actually seen the man in person since he avoids WBAI meetings and events, even the recent screening of a film about his former colleague, Bob Fass of Radio Unnameable fame, in which he himself was featured: http://www.radiounnameablemovie.com/
It kind of reminds me of The Big Lie technique used by the Republcans during the election campaign -- in which they keep repeating things like how Obama took 716 billion away from Medicare, or how Obama removed the work requirement from welfare. Neither is true but the idea seems to be that if enough people hear it enough times - especially people who are not paying particularly close attention -- eventually it becomes "true" by default.
This is why I've always thought it important to confront Albertson whenever I knew something he was saying was not true. I posted there not to keep Albertson honest - LOL - but to provide an alternative point of view. Such thinking is not so uncommon at a place like WBAI. But far from being rewarded for my efforts I actually got "fired" by the new moderator R. Paul Martin, who has demonized me as a trouble-maker, even referred to me as a troll. What's up with that? Why kill the whistle blower? Methinks there may be a conspiracy afoot. Such thinking is not so uncommon at a place like WBAI.
