Here's a post that got removed from the Blue Board today. Whether the poster also got banned remains to be seen. I'm posting it here because I believe it shows the current mindset about the moderation that goes on there. Most are afraid to criticize der Führer's modus operandi out of fear of being banned themselves. But might there be safety in numbers? What would happen say, if all the posters there spoke out at the same time? They could shut down the Blue Board! Well... almost. No doubt there would still be one person busily posting away, and that would be the brown nosed Chris "Tartuffe" Albertson, who always makes a point to post a hypocritical "thank you" whenever the moderator criticizes something said or lays down the law.
Note that the post being replied to was referring to a particularly nasty ad hominem attack by Chris Albertson, which out of respect to the target we will not repeat, but which was allowed to remain on the board for 2 days and 52 viewings, until this particular poster caused the entire thread to be disappeared.
The word's out that WBAI is in the process of relocating from 120 Wall Street to Harlem. The new digs will have a well equipped broadcast studio that is solely for the use of WBAI. Meanwhile management and key staff personnel will be temporarily moving to the World Financial Center downtown for the next six months, while the search for permanent space continues.
WBAI never fully recovered from the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, but has learned some lessons in the process, which has made it easier to find workable solutions. Logistic problems which may have seemed insurmountable at one time are now being dealt with in creative ways. The plan is to have a flexible arrangement in the future, where hosts will be able to broadcast and hook into the station from various offsite locations.
Check back for more details of WBAI's move as they become available.
January 2 update
It was announced that WBAI will be moving to the studios of WHCR at City College, which is located at 160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031. They have two main studios and one performance room. One studio will be dedicated for WBAI.
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.
Today all Pacifica stations are participating in a day of programming for their sister station:
KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley WPFW 89.3 FM in Waghington D.C. KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston
and *streaming on wbai.org
There's a nationwide call for volunteers to go into their local stations to take phone calls.
WBAI was badly hit by Superstorm Sandy and has not yet been able to return to their studios after being evacuated from their building at 120 Wall Street in the downtown area of Manhattan. The building was badly flooded and is still unusable. WBAI's fund-raiser was interrupted and the station doesn't have the facilities to continue fund-raising, and can't raise the money needed to meet payroll, so their entire staff faces layoffs. And if that happens, WBAI will go dark.
It's been two weeks since Hurricane Sandy hit the area, when the entire NYC transit system was shut down, and many parts of the New York/New Jersey area are still in crisis. Seven WBAI staff members camped out at the station to continue live coverage of the storm on Sunday night, but by Monday evening the waters were rising to the 2nd floor, the electricity wa cut and WBAI was off the air.
WBAI has since then been broadcasting from a temporary studio at Gary Null's headquarters, and has been playing archival material and has been unable to cover what was happening on the ground; the voices of the community and the organizing of relief efforts by grass-roots groups such as Occupy Sandy. Please help this historic radio station get back in their studios, so they can start reporting on the devastation in the many communities in New York and New Jersey that were so hard-hit.
There was an old man who lived on the Bleepin' Blue Board. He had so much time on his hands, he didn't know what to do -- bored. So he constantly posted about the glorious past; When he was in charge; before things went down fast. And he mocked his opponents for whatever they said And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
What a silly goose I am!
WBAI has been airing presentations from the Pacifica Archives recently. They are wonderful. It's great to hear radio from the past. But this guy Chris Albertson who is from the archives himself, has shown himself unable to appreciate the present.
What he appears not to understand is that it's a different century now. Pacifica can't go back to what it used to be back in his day, it went forward to reflect the times. If Albertson doesn't like that it's because he's too stuck in the past (and too stuck on himself).
So those who have not yet been "put to bed", so to speak, must "put up" with his daily releases and continue to counter them with common sense.
Note: WBAI continues airing Pacifica archive material throughout today (Nov. 14). Tomorrow there will be a special fund drive with all 5 sister stations participating, to help WBAI recover from Hurricane Sandy. WBAI was forced to cut short its Fall Fund Drive and vacate its studios because of damage done to the building by Sandy. They are still not back in their own studios.
Outgoing WBAI LSB Board Chair Mitchel Cohen further discusses his banning from the Blue Board. Seems, according to R. Paul Martin, that it's all about following The Rules.
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Mitchel's Response to Chris Albertson's usual half-truths (remember, a half-truth is a whole lie).
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We get it: you can lie all you want, and insult, mock and libel others with impunity, but... if you don't follow The Rules, get out of town!
"All right, now that makes four mistakes we've made."
In keeping with the latest Pacifica "hanging" meme (Chris Albertson has yet again called for WBAI's GM Berthold Reimers to be hanged on his blog), Blue Board Moderator R. Paul Martin has been working overtime to build his reputation as a hanging judge.
In addition to myself, and and some other good people like Doctor Kiel Basy ( a long time WBAI listener-supporter who I had the pleasure of meeting at sidewalk protests outside WBAI after the Christmas Coup), a few more people have been added to the list of the banned.
Banned from the Blue Board
Now none other than the WBAI LSB Chair Mitchel Cohen has not been banned from the Blue Board. According to Mitchel, his only "crime" was to posting one of the WBAI GM's updates "in the wrong place".
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Another One Bites the Dust
And then comes this from esteemed long-time LSB member and BAI activist Carolyn Birden.
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So now we begin to see why the Blue Board has become such a Ghost Town.
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.
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 is Chris Albertson. 
