Context: Conspiracies/Media Debate

Since I posted about conspiracy theories and noncommercial media, traffic to my site has increased quite a bit, Geoff Berg of KPFT’s Partisan Gridlock, in his always bombastic style, blasted “right wing lunatics” for attacking Leo Gold (check it here) and my humble little blog has even made a few Pacifica spots. The conversation about whether conspiracy theories should be entertained by noncommercial, public radio and television is interesting to lots of people.

If you are coming to this blog for the first time, well, howdy. Thanks for visiting. This is my personal site to write on media, politics and more. I maintain a blog as well for KPFT, a radio station for which I work as program director. Here is my capsule look at some of what I’ve seen after writing the original piece, and my reason for writing it in the first place.

I maintain, if the appropriate representation of a movement is individuals casting aspersions on those who are critical of their theories as being bought off by someone, rather than a genuine interest in engaging people, such movements go nowhere, and probably rightfully so. However, my purpose for posting was to give an overview of some of the issues related to conspiracy theories, critiques of same, and to look into this latest incident involving conspiracy theories as it relates to media.

Clint Milby recently posted the following on his site. I wanted to address it, and thank those visiting for a spirited but respectful conversation thus far.

I would discourage any personality “Piss Wars” for lack of a better phrase, with Ernesto and Leo. This is not about them. It’s about their paymasters. It’s about the corporations who pay to have them there, and it’s also about a unsuspecting public who look to them as the source of truth and fairness. We must put an end to Pacifica Radios deception.

Similarly, I agree the discussion of ideas is not about Clint Milby personally. I do believe the ideas put forward, including suggestions KPFT be damaged in response to Leo Gold’s disagreement with Milby, should be vigorously debated. However, Clint called me lots of stuff on his site, and says my notes on the Oct. 29 are lies. With the exception of ellipses, in which longer stretches of stuff were not typed out, what is there is accurate. Clint’s leveled many false allegations, from claiming Leo Gold started interrogating him about martial law (he didn’t) to New Capital being a two-hour program (it’s not), and these latest shots across the bow should be seen in such a frame.

Echoing Clint Milby’s theme here, another individual posting comments in the original post suggests KPFT has “corporate masters” we must appease, thus the skepticism of 9/11 conspiracy theories. As I stated in comments, KPFT receives the lion’s share of our funding from listeners (around 90 percent), with a percentage coming from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and another from in-kind/matching/other gifts and grants. KPFT General Manager Duane Bradley and I, along with many of our programmers, have talked about this percentage breakdown openly and frequently on air — it isn’t a trade secret or anything. No corporation “pay[s] to have” KPFT around. Fund drives are a quarterly struggle for us, and Duane and I work long days to raise money for the station; if there are corporate paymasters, I wish they’d show up already so we didn’t have to do lengthy on-air fundraisers… kidding. Such claims are lies aimed at distracting people from the fact the ongoing ‘patriot’ boycott during the New Capital Show was rejected by listeners.

A few more critiques of conspiracy theories.

Bob Maschi wrote a fascinating critique of conspiracy theories that has made the rounds on several occasions. It reads:

It is no coincidence that the Conspiracy Theories about a New World Order date back much farther than most modern adherents realize. It was in 1958 that the John Birch Society (JBS – which can also stand for ‘Just BS’) was formed by Robert Welch. JBS began to compile numerous Conspiracy Theories into one, big Conspiracy Theory with the basic premise that international communism, financed by wealthy bankers, was slowly taking control of the planet…

The Conspiracy Theory of 9-11 is the prime example. Again, I won’t debate the particulars of this theory. Though I will admit that my general feelings about Conspiracy Theories are akin to my feeling about fast food and rug burns – avoid them whenever possible. But the 9-11 Conspiracy Theory pretty much began as an assault against the Bush/Cheney administration. It was a product of some leftists who were horrified by the actions of the US government after the events.

But this Conspiracy Theory has, for many people, morphed into much more than that. In fact, no one can possibly believe in every tendril that this particular theory has grown, as many of them offer conflicting views. But with every aberration, the theory branches off into a more conservative direction.

So far the result has been that many people who leaned left were attracted to this theory because of their predisposed political view. Then, slowly, as more fluff and foolishness was added to the theory, they followed along. Many people who were once leftists, and still consider themselves leftists, now spout the words of JBS Conspiracy Theories without realizing their origin. And, certainly, without realizing that these theories were designed to attack their own ideals.

This is the Conspiracy Theory version of Six Degrees of Separation. Conspiracy Theories rarely exist on their own without some connection to other conspiracies. Fall too deeply into one and you may become buried and blinded by many more. There are many people out there who are completely engulfed by Conspiracy Theories.

Friend and comrade Mike Ely also penned a few comments on the 9/11 discussion. He writes:

Now, to be clear: The vile creatures who run the U.S. and its empire are capable of monstrous crimes and the most cynical calculations. They enslaved Africans, murdered Native people, nuked Hiroshima, slaughtered the Vietnamese, and have invaded almost every country in the Western hemisphere. There is no crime they are NOT capable of… but, my examination of the facts have provided no evidence that they participated in THIS set of crimes. But such events are too risky, too unpredictable, too likely to fail or become exposed — for any major powerholder in the U.S. to risk it all by unleashing the plots.

Thanks for all the visits. Please check out other stuff on this site, including media training materials and more.