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"It would have been easy for Israel to have bombed the entire city and population into submission. Easy, but not humane. It would have been humane of Pacifica to report the truth to its audience. Humane but, for Pacifica, never easy". <<RadioRote Jew Baiting for Higher Ratings: Pacifica Radio's Race to the Bottom Pacifica
Radio Pacifica
Radio is a community based media group that is supported by the
community in which their programs are aired. They currently have 5
stations which are located in Berkeley and North Hollywood CA., Houston,
TX., Washington, D.C., and New York. They have
"nearly" 60 affiliates in 27 states. Pacifica Radio was
founded in 1946 by Lew Hill, as an alternative to mainstream media,
which he felt was "biased and myopic." Pacifica,
they say, ran into tough times when a new board was established several
years ago which tried to change its programming content to some extent,
and replace a few of the shows with alternative music. After a
lengthy struggle, the board members resigned and a new management
appeared--with the notion of returning Pacifica Radio to its roots. Did
Pacifica Change? Pacifica
prefers to think of itself as a "Progressive" leader in
this country. By "Progressive," it appears they mean
ornery and contrary to anything the United States perceives as in its
best interest or that of its allies, (rather like how the French view
the British). Where every U.S. action is due to a corporate tactic
or just a mean spirited swipe against the "poor and oppressed"
of the world. Their target group is geared toward a younger
and early middle aged crowd as well as the "older hippies."
They scored some success in their reporting of the WTO protests, but as
that began to wane, Pacifica needed to change the focus of their
listeners to another event--lest their ratings drop. That event
was Israel. This
was an easy media event to follow, since Leftist rags (in concert with
their Ultra-Right opponents) constantly prime their audiences by
describing how bad Israel is -- and any attention given towards how bad
Arabs act is denounced as "Zionist" propaganda. After a
month full of PLO and "Hamaside" bombings in Israel, including
one that took place during Passover, Israel moved troops into the gang
land areas and began rooting out the terrorists and their fellow
travelers. For Pacifica reporters, who follow their cue from the
Arabist BBC, their reporting on the events in Israel marked the
beginning of the end of Pacifica's already questionable
level of accuracy in regards to their editorial checks and balances. Not
a "Massacre", but a Nuclear Holocaust. When
Israel sent ground troops into the Arab run West Bank refugee camps, ,
it did so with the knowledge that houses were booby-trapped by
terrorists in an attempt to forestall the Israeli's from capturing the
bombers -- despite the reality that the terrorist booby traps were set
in neighborhoods that also housed other Arabs in the area. The fact that
Arabs put other Arabs at risk fell outside of Pacifica's pin point
attack against Israel, and therefore was, as they might say, a
"non-event." That
Israel sent in ground troops was also newsworthy, but its point was
completely ignored by Pacifica. Normally, as one witnessed with
NATO's war against Serbia or in the first Gulf War, the initial attacks
were through continued air strikes. The idea of continued air
strikes is to decimate an entire city and then bring in ground troops
for a mop up exercise. The "negative" side of continued
air strikes rests with the idea that those being bombed become used to
air strikes and gain the advantage of knowing that as long as air
strikes continue, the enemy is not willing to commit themselves into
losing any ground troops -- and therefore not committed to the war. However,
what Pacifica refused to tell its listeners in its daily broadcasts was
that Israel did not decimate an entire city, carte blanche, through
continued air strikes. Instead Israel sent in troops who took out
the central part of the city that made up much of the terrorist gang
land turf. Houses were bulldozed to save the Israeli troops from
stepping into the booby traps the Arabs already announced were in
residences of Arabs who lived in them. Sending ground troops into
a hostile consolidated area is always risky. Israel lost a little
over 2 dozen troops and the Arabs lost around 50 in fierce door to door
gunfights. It
would have been easy for Israel to have bombed the entire city and
population into submission. Easy, but not humane. It
would have been humane of Pacifica to report the truth to its audience.
Humane but, for Pacifica, never easy. In
fact, "expendable" would best describe Pacifica's discarding
of truth when reporting about Jenin and other Arab run refugee camps.
Nothing less than reporting that all the Arabs died at the hands of the
IDF would have pleased Pacifica's news division more, and have given the
Radio Media Group a way to have justified their pre-mature and errant
analysis of the events that led up to -- and included -- the IDF
retaliations against the terrorists. Send
in the Capos When
a Jew Hater is not at hand, a Jewish Capo will do -- and Pacifica
certainly found a tidy amount to spread its vitriolic message. There is
Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now," a wordsmith who understands as
much as the head of Dubbya's Department of Public Perception that, in
winning the hearts and souls of Americans, it comes down to the
"battle for the 8th grade mind." Goodman
appears to have a fetish against saying anything critical about the Arab
governments, despite the fact that if she were a resident in most of
their countries, she would be severely punished for speaking out for
suffrage, women's rights, abortion, gay rights, corruption, insider
greed, bad government policy, democracy, and for merely being
Jewish. Instead, she acts the role of one who suffers from the
Stockholm Syndrome -- where Jews always kill and Arab terrorists
merely "allege" to do so. Her "debates"
consists of Arabists, "alleged" terrorist supporters and those
Jews who support Arab causes. She once framed a discussion with the
priming question of whether or not it is still OK to feel Jewish
even though that Jew did not support Israel's policy. This, as
opposed to, would one still be alive as an Arab if they directly opposed
Arafat or Saddam? Goodman
backs her Capo stance by inviting other Capos on, such as the holocaust
denying Noam Chomsky, whom she regards as the greatest Leftist thinker
in the nation. Given her myopic and imbalanced view of the
world, that is a small compliment indeed. She
once tried to goad a British journalist in Jenin to say a massacre
occurred. Much to his credit, he did not give in to her insistent pangs.
They settled on something similar to 'an unpleasant situation'. This
did not stop Dennis Bernstein from the Berkeley based Pacifica
show, "Flashpoints," (note the incendiary tone) later that
evening in calling Jenin a "massacre." His "source
" was (and can only be described given his approach to the event) a
screech monkey cum "Flashpoints" reporter named Bryan Wood.
Bernstein took as gospel that Israel tried to storm the Church of the
Nativity because Wood reported to him that he 'heard from someone on his
cell phone, who heard from another friend...' that this was indeed the
case. (That was not indeed the case, at all). Wood went on to
screech that he found "primary sources" (and repeated
"primary sources") that the original founders of Zionism
planned on killing all the Arabs in ways similar to the
"massacre" at Jenin. Did Bernstein ask him about his
source? Of course not. He probably thought it was from the same
friend of a friend of Woods. In fact, had Bernstein asked,
he might have realized that Wood's source may have been the fraudulent
Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Or, perhaps he recognized it for
what it was and remained silent, as a good Capo who knows his
place. Instead
Bernstein was caught up in the moment and joined in Wood's hysteria by
condemning Israel for its "massacre" in an emotive manner
based on questionable source material, which is unbecoming of a news
show host. Well, a real one anyway. "For
Example is not Proof." A
reader might give pause (and should do so) and question whether or not
Pacifica's self-proclaimed "news" hosts, reporters and
gunsels are merely aberrations found within a large media group.
One can point to the fact that these shows are on every weekday and the
Pacifica board must be cognizant of these host's similar viewpoints.
Further, that other shows aired on Pacifica share that same knee-jerk
hostility. It
should be noted that despite the Human Rights Watch report, and others,
that concluded there was no massacre at Jenin, one can still go to
www.pacifica.org or to its show http://www.flashpoints.net/
and see that they have not updated their material to correct their
egregious statements. The only massacre that remains is Pacifica's own
self inflicted one upon their already dubious editorial reliability. But,
as the French say, the proof is in the pudding. RadioRote decided
to take the matter into its hand by e-mailing Pacifica stations.
One set of letters were sent in harsh terms opposing their pro-radical
and anti-Israel sentiments. The other set was sent as an
"Aryan" who 'understood ' Pacifica's laments against
'The Jew'. One
Pacifica station responded a couple of times to one set of these
letters. Which one? Given the tone of their reporting, it will not
come as any surprise to RadioRote readers. But it may be worth
reading for its historical content. What may surprise the reader is that
one's indirect donations and taxes may be supporting this Media Group. Next RR: "Jew
Free Radio". Pacifica Part 2. Return to Contents RadioRote® allows distribution of
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