Sexism on the Good Ol' Blue Board

I saw an interesting exchange on the Blue Board recently, and I'm bringing it up here because a couple of things struck me about it.

First, I was bemused by the irony of how few rose to the defense of  other WBAI folks who were being constantly subjected to endless similar attacks by Chris Albertson, in contrast to how the majority of responders rose up in defense of Moderator R. Paul Martin, when a poster named "Melinda" went after Martin's
program Back of the Book in a similar vein. Obviously what was good for the goose was not good for the gander.  It was just one more example of why I consider the kind of unhealthy group think found on the Blue Board to be not beneficial to WBAI.

Second, I found the sexist nature of the ensuing exchanges with Melinda to be disturbing, with some calling for Melinda's head, after being labeled a "troll" several times by the Moderator Martin for essentially daring to post  the same sort of thing Chris Albertson posts with impunity. Interestingly, Albertson himself admitted that Melinda wasn't  doing anything that he himself didn't do. Duh.

At one point I wondered if the entire thing could be a satire. Was Melinda even a female? She was certainly being treated like one by angry, sexist denizens of the Blue Board. I was remembering what it felt like myself when I would post there. Following is a small sample of what went on.

click to enlarge

 
And here is an excellent refutation by one of the few females who still post regularly on that board these days.

 
I chose to publish part of the exchange here along with my comments about how sexism lurks just below the surface on a board that purports to support WBAI principles (freedom of speech, being a voice for the voiceless?), because Moderator Martin would suppress my comments if I tried to make them on his board. It's an example of the same kind of attacks that She was subjected to when standing up to Albertson, who I am convinced has operated as a mouthpiece for some other entity. 
Albertson could not have mounted his campaign alone with his scant knowledge of WBAI today, having been away from it for 50 years. I found him to be ignorant of almost everything about today's about WBAI, unaware of  the players, of the events of the previous decade(s), of the Chrismas Coup and all that ensued after that, of the local and national boards and the bylaws, etc.  He would often show his ignorance, and then come up with some little gem that had obviously been fed to him from somewhere.  So whatever he says should always be taken with a grain of salt. 
   
By the way I'm not agreeing with the Melinda poster that this is not a crisis for WBAI. Of course it is an extremely serious crisis. I don't necessarily agree with what Melinda says, but the point is to show how others will so quickly rise to the defense of a moderator who would allowed a fellow producer to be used as a punching bag on his forum, and who went out of his way to kill opposition to that. 

The other thing of course, is to illustrate how female posters there are subject to sexist, ad feminem attacks whenever they submit a post that steps out of line.