Mark Cooper's Bombast

Marc Cooper, in a one-sided fit of pique conducted during the 4 p.m.

fund-drive (5.22.01), denounced the members of the Pacifica Campaign as

"saboteurs, commissars, and ding-a-lings." They are, according to

Cooper, a "misguided group of 15 to 20, 25 to 50 people at most" who are

not unlike the various former enemies of Pacifica--Republican

conservatives, opponents of public radio, members of the far right--who

have attempted time again to de-fund "free-speech" radio, and are

alleging a corporate take-over of Pacifica. "I'm not angry. I'm

appalled and disgusted," Cooper added. The "real listeners" to

Pacifica, he intoned, "are standing up to defend this station. We're at

war." Cooper lambasted the "few" who "sabotaged the phone lines. These

geniuses tie up our lines because we're not pure enough for them. Well,

that's their opinion, and they're entitled to it." Cooper then clearly

implied, in his fair and judicious tone, that their opinion was the

equivalent of believing the moon was made of green cheese. "Their real

goal," he added, "was to keep you, our real listeners, from pledging."



Cooper continued his unilateral and decidedly vitriolic denunciation for

nearly one-half hour. He repeatedly suggested that the boycott was

equivalent to the host of other groups of neo-cons opposed to Pacifica

during the last four decades. He repeatedly stated that Pacifica and/or

KPFK was at "war" with these "useless" people, and called upon the real

listeners to "crush" the boycott and "crush" those who were allegedly

overwhelming the pledge phone lines. During the half-hour Cooper became

increasingly agitated and confused; his normal banter and sense of humor

were overwhelmed by his apparently mounting sense of frustration.



Cooper's characterization of the boycott and the opposition was entirely

without merit, and he made no attempt to sort out the complex issues

involved; he repeatedly and dramatically labeled all of the boycotters

as "saboteurs," whose mission was to destroy this station (KPFK) and end

its mission "of free-speech radio." The most alarming issue raised by

Cooper's diatribe is the fundamental one that has bedeviled Pacifica

free-speech supporters throughout the United States: how can Pacifica,

and Marc Cooper, in particular, claim that Pacifica is the sole bastion

of free-speech while at the same time preventing and suppressing the

very voices that have raised reasonable and valid counter-critiques of

the current Pacifica management? Cooper's performance this afternoon on

KPFK demonstrated that Pacifica management is unable and unwilling to

engage the opposition in a civil manner, and that Cooper et al. will not

permit representation of opposing views on this station or any other

Pacifica station.