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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- Larry Bensky's Hang-Ups:A Veteran KPFA Programmers Censorious On-Air Tactics & Guests Who Fail the Smell Test During an on-air KPFA listener conference in 1999, Joseph, a black activist, complained to Mary Berry, then Pacifica board chairperson, about Larry Bensky's tactless approach to censorship -- insulting and hanging up on callers, talking over their comments, muttering under his breath and every other conceivable means of giving them the brush-off. Bensky had been fired by the station, but Ms. Berry was considering him for re-hiring. Joseph, however, was adamant in his criticism of the talk-show host and contested Bensky's reinstatement. http://www.radio4all.org/fp/mfb-callin.htm KPFA On-Air Appearance of Mary Frances Berry and Lynn Chadwick,� 5/5/99 Joseph: ...You know, for all the piety that Larry Bensky has about censorship, we feel that when it comes to authentic, legitimate, responsible intellectual criticism or comment or question regarding issues -- especially those issues that affect the black community -- that Larry Bensky has shown an historical pattern, especially on Living Room, of dismissing, summarily preempting, censoring, cutting off, diverting, subverting ethnic points of view he doesn't like no matter how short the question or comment, no matter how civil. And he either shields certain guests from legitimate authentic black criticism or accountability -- or when the guest is even resonant to a certain question from a black perspective, especially a black guest, like Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Bensky will interpose and preempt the guest's answer with his own and abruptly move to the next question. MFB:� Right. I understand. Joseph:� You've been told about this.� I said an older black woman called -- I certainly don't know her at all -- when you were on with Nicole Sawaya.� And, you know, you unintentionally, I am sure -- you unintentionally sort of plied her off with platitudes about, you know, keep on listening...Many of us Bay Area blacks have to live with these people like Larry Bensky or Michael Krasney, you know, at KQED....And apparently an intelligent, articulate white woman who called and complained about the same sort of thing -- not only with regard to minorities and women -- but also with regard to those views who are more progressive than Larry Bensky's, who he censors or dismisses. ------------------ [Listeners notice] http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/09/1645150_comment.php IndyMedia News Section by Fred Sunday, Sep. 14, 2003 at 12:00 PM ... The other issue not addresed here is the level of denial in the US about what it is that we're doing. It's a whole mentality. The ways to maintain their denial include all sorts of bizarre arguments ... like Larry Bensky's absurd argument this morning to keep people quiet about the voting machine scandal - "Now if you have a candidate polling with a 5 point lead going into the election and he loses with a 3 point loss, he's going to raise high hell . . . . right?" Luckily his guest corrected him.... ----------------- http://www.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=September%2011%20Opinions Left-Wing Journalists Attack Those Who Question Bush's Role in 911 10-Jun-02 September 11 Opinions Bev Conover writes, "Gangway for the self-appointed gatekeepers of the left who are on a crusade to spin, smear, attack, and label as loony anyone who won't accept the official line that the events leading up to and surrounding September 11 are nothing more than a series of coincidences and intelligence failures. This cabal of lily-livered leftists, ensconced in their ivory towers, have decreed we are bad kiddies for even suggesting that the Bush administration was complicit in or took advantage of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the baddest of all is Michael C. Ruppert, who publishes From the Wilderness." Conover cites Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive, Norman Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy; David Corn of The Nation, Michael Alber of Z Magazin, Steve Rendall of FAIR, Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates; Larry Bensky of Pacifica Radio, and Noam Chomsky of MIT. Why are these folks attacking those who want the truth? ---------------------- http://www.oilempire.us/saudi.html Neo-con Pacifica By Joseph Wanzala Thus (see below) we have a leading KPFA/Pacifica voices (inadvertently) furthering a neo-conservative agenda. Larry Bensky recently interviewed Gerald Posner and Amy Goodman interviewed two authors (Peter Lance and Richard Miniter) whose books both pushed the 'Saudi Arabia did it' thesis though the emphasis was more on the supposed failure of the US intelligence agencies to do their job. These sort of developments show how problematic it is for Pacifica and progressives in general to marginalize so-called 'conspiracy theory' researchers and instead develop a preference for 'safe' journalists like Posner and Lance. What good is Pacifica if middle-of-the-road watering holes like 'Salon' can make more incisive contributions to one of the most critical questions facing progressives than anything one might hear on Democracy Now? I think it is clear that the overbearing concern of many leading Pacifica commentators - including Bernstein, Bensky and Goodman not to be seen as 'marginal conspiratologist' is having the effect of leading Pacifica into the intellectual arms of the neo-cons. There is now a community of investigative researchers (Ruppert, Chossudovsky, et al) who have raised critical questions about 9-11 and the criminal nature of state power in general but who have been declared 'beyond the pale' by the left establishment. Therefore the general thrust of their work is rejected. Since no other progressive journalists seem to be doing their own original work on this question - they turn to establishment/mainstream journalists safe in the knowledge that they will not be attacked for putting out the wrong message. I think this is a very dangerous trend and I hope that we can begin to see a change in attitude from progressives to the extent that (they/we) recognize the dangers in the trend I have laid out above and which is discussed further below. ----------------- Shiu Hung: "Bensky will continue to shovel out his lineup of so-called experts to further marginalise the 9/11 skeptic position and needlessly continue to prop up the official story as the gospel truth. His show, Sunday Salon has recently featured Gerald Posner with his new book: Why America Slept? And Chip "John Foster" Berlet�s ridiculous comments concerning US air defense�s stand down on 9/11. According to Berlet, the Stand down was because the Pentagon didn�t want to bother the East Coast Corridor suburbanite�s with loud jet noises. Practically every expert guest Bensky had on since 9/11 repeats the official lies and disinformation...." ---------------- http://www.questionsquestions.net/topics/gatekeeper_recent.html 9-11 Coverup At Pacifica Radio! Hear Larry Bensky of KPFA attack 9/11 skeptics with ad-hominem smears, 27 Apr 03 (audio): http://www.radio4houston.org/911/audio/LarryBenskyAttacks911Research-2003042 7.m3u ---------------- http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs0209/1120_gunaratna.html Pacifica's Larry Bensky gives airtime to RAND Corporation shill On October 13, 2002, the day after the nightclub bombing in Bali which killed nearly 200, KPFA's Sunday Salon hosted "international terrorism expert" Rohan Gunaratna in an hour-long interview with commentator Larry Bensky. Gunaratna expounded on themes that were consistent with his other media appearances, insisting categorically that only al Qaeda could have been behind the bombing, and -- echoing a kind of pseudo-critique that has become a staple of what one might charitably call an "antiwar-lite" Left establishment -- argued that Bush's focus on Iraq is objectionable simply because it threatens to interfere with escalating the "War on Terrorism" (this "critical" viewpoint, by the way, can also be found in a number of recent publications by the Council on Foreign Relations). Another common theme typical in Gunaratna's media appearances is his claim that the spread of terrorism can be blamed on such outmoded conceits as "tight limits on how intelligence and police officials can gather evidence against suspects, a strong civil liberties tradition and easy access to education and welfare provision". One thing of note about Gunaratna's appearance on Pacifica Network's KPFA is that Bensky chose not to open up the lines for call-ins, so there was no opportunity for the KPFA audience to challenge him. -- Alex Constantine www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
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