This is part of a post that we found on the Blue Board recently, along with some commentary.
I'd be interested in Armand DiMele's diagnosis of Chris Albertson, based on the self-serving papp he posts to his blog regarding BAI in general, and this discussion board, in particular.I mean, why *this,* happened upon the other day when I ran a TOTALLY unrelated search :
"Also happening on the BB is Pam Cooke's persistent effort to have a censorship order against Edwin Johnston lifted. I have no idea who Johnston is, but I gather that he played a not so nice role in a past coup.
Commentary: Of course he doesn't. This is a typical example of how little Chris Albertson actually knows about the WBAI/Pacifica community, even though he's constantly sounding off like an expert.
Post continues:
Anyway, Cooke—who appears to be a selective free-speech advocate—is very eager for him to be allowed to speak freely. Johnston is probably a nice guy, but one has to wonder about anyone who is endorsed by these native habitués of the infamous snake pit—they'll hiss on you in a New York minute if you say something that doesn't sit well with them."
Edwin Johnston is an activist, artist, writer, renaissance man, who happens to have done ten times as much for KPFT in just *one* of any number of years, than Albie's done for BAI throughout ALL the years since he, unfortunately, *discovered* the station. Why try so obviously to cause a rift between people - ? Someone who plays those kind of anti-social, manipulative games is just a low life control freak.
Commentary:
Chris Albertson is indeed all that, but not JUST that. We think there's much more to his continual assaults on WBAI, and that his disruptions are the mark of a professional, well-thought out plan. Before you discount that idea, let me remind you that WBAI and Pacifica have always been targets of disrupters, in assaults that go beyond any one particular individual's narcissistic need for attention.
Post continues: Albie has literally CLOGGED the search engines with BAI-and-BlueBoard related pages from his crappy blog.
Commentary:
Sad but true. It's an abomination that when anyone searches on WBAI now, they have to wade through all thst sludge. In his overweening egotism, Chris Albertson has set himself up as some special arbiter of what's supposed to be good about WBAI and Pacifica, and he has been using the Internet to promote himself and disparage WBAI.
Might I add that Albertson has been given free reign on the Blue Board by the short-sighted and near-sighted R. Paul Martin, who pretends to like free speech, while curtailing the free speech of several people in the WBAI community.
Post ends: What an arse Albie is.
Commentary:
True, but that single term does not totally sum up Chris Albertson, who is more than a stupid and foolish person who acts like a buffoon. There's a method to his madness. What's mind-blowing is how some others have acted like "arses" by paying so much attention to this guy -- who have actually courted his opinion. Usually they are those who have some sort of ax to grind, or suffer from some degree of sour grapes syndrome - and there are even a few people who seriously love WBAI and have sincere insights to share who fall into his traps. Why they would pay any attention to him is the question.
Thread killer
Chris Albertson shuts down any reasonable discussion about the station with his over-the-top screeds. He seems to sit stationed on the Blue Board, ready to pounce on every poster that shows up, to turn every thread into an Albertson-directed attack on WBAI. The hapless poster who dares offer legitimate concern or criticism immediately gets walloped, and will usually retreat at that point. Result: end of what could have been an informative thread. Albertson's really quite a master of that. Sadly, a couple of the posters who could actually respond to this because they have clearer heads when it comes to WBAI, and were able to give the guy a run for his money, were prevented from doing so by the short-sighted moderator R. Paul Martin, who decided to ban them on some inconsequential pretext. One of them posted a message from management, which Martin didn't like. R. Paul Martin, who has been exerting his control freak power on the board that he now owns, apparently believes that he's the only one who should be posting "official" management memos (never mind that the poster in question was the outgoing Chair of the WBAI LSB). The other poster got banned for daring to refer to Albertson's daily regurgitations as "dumps". Well off with that poster's head for using such a "scatological" term! These were mere pretexts of course.
To be continued...
