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by R. Salazar
Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 at 7:20 PM
This is Eben Rey, Committee to Strengthen KPFK staff candidate for the local station board.
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It really shouldn’t really be possible,
but Eben Rey, a Black lesbian programmer at KPFK who’s running for the
local station board with the slate called “The Committee to
‘Strengthen’ KPFK” is a right wing conspiranoid who runs links from her website
to CNN’s arch racist prime time host Lou Dobbs. She also shares the
extreme racist Right’s paranoia about the so-called North American
Union, the latest bogeyman of racist organizations like Southern
California’s “Save Our State,” a
group that has marched openly in the company of Nazis, and which
recently held a rally denouncing the “North American Union” at the
Westwood Federal building, a rally featuring Black Republican and
Minuteman Ted Hayes. Hayes promotes the same basic line as Eben Rey.
Dobbs is on record repeatedly supporting
the Minutemen, and denouncing those who call the group racist. He’s
declared, “"I support the Minuteman Project and the fine
Americans who make it up in all they've accomplished, fully,
relentlessly, and proudly." Dobbs supports the Minutemen; Rey
supports Dobbs. And The
Committee to “Strengthen” KPFK apparently has no hesitation about
promoting Rey as a “bridge builder.” Rey was obviously thrilled to
interview Dobbs on her program, in a 25 minute segment, calling her
chance to talk with the xenophobe “absolutely fantasic.” (Listen here.)
Rey
claims in her candidate
statement “There are so many great things in store for KPFK. As we
get back to the mission of bridging divides through music, art and
politics we have and will always prove the naysayers wrong!”
Apparently,
getting back to the mission of bridging divides means going back to the
era of Pacific’s “Hijackers”, including former GM Mark Shubb, who purged
virtually all programming by and for the African American and Chicana/o
communities from KPFK’s airwaves. But Rey praises Schubb, and buries
the truth, saying “I came into Kpfk (sic) during Mark Schubb's tenure
when training workshops welcomed new blood into the station and gave
them the skills to succeed.”
The
other “bridges” Rey is building on her program’s website include
links to the right wing Ludwig Von Mises institute (click ”Mark
Thornton” at the bottom of her main page) and the virulently
anti-communist Epoch Times out of Taiwan ( Click Eben’s “darling”,
Sherry Chung, also at the bottom of the main page.) Rey
is undoubtedly the only lesbian in town to provide us with a link to the
ultra conservative and intensely hompophobic WorldNetDaily
and that ultra-republican stalwart, Human
Events, which features Ann Coulter on its editorial staff. Rey
doesn’t miss a beat, also offering to connect you with rightwingnews.com/
on her links page, where, fittingly she also keeps a link to Paranoia
Magazine. No kidding. Other matters pressing for Rey’s attention
include a link to a video on an “alien autopsy” from the
“Roswell” incident, which shows someone endlessly poking around on a
3rd rate “B” movie dummy, and a link to an internet poll
you can vote in, but where you can vote for nothing but Republican
candidates for president.
It’s
quite safe to say that Eben Rey is herself a Black Republican. Despite
her endorsement of Dobbs and his xenophobic vitriol, she would
apparently consider herself a “moderate” to “liberal”
Republican. She openly endorses Republican candidate Ron Paul for
president of the United States. Her paranoia about the “North American
Union” is so intense that she says “What this means is that you will have to
register as a Republican to vote in the Republican primary in California's closed primary system! OMG yes!! But this is a part of the new rules
for radicals which are those whom seek to work the system instead of
having the system work you! Go to California’s Secretary of State
website for information and forms to do so.”
So, there we have it; KTLK, the AM talk
station, takes on Right wing hosts and raises the slogan ”Progressive,
the New Mainstream.” Eben Rey does them one better, saying the “new
rules for radicals” mean joining the Republican Party. Makes you
wonder what they mean by ‘The Committee to “Strengthen”
KPFK.’
Rey, in her candidate statement, says she
aims to bring
“unity and support to the programmers, staff and management of Kpfk
(sic).” But, at a station like KPFK, (where after several years on the
air, Spanish language programming still
remains controversial), endorsing the racist and xenophobic positions of
a Lou Dobbs and the radical right wing paranoia of groups like save Our
State around invented issues like the “North American Union” can
only bring division and intercultural hostility, not the “unity and
support” Rey pawns off as her actual intention. ‘The Committee to
“Strengthen” KPFK’ recently released a full color, glossy brochure
promoting all their listener candidates for the Local Station Board, a
brochure that was mailed to every single KPFK subscriber. It cost
thousands of dollars, dollars that might otherwise have been used to actually
strengthen KPFK, dollars that have no place in an election that will
determine the control of a radio station founded by radical pacifists
and anarchists, one that pioneered the concept of the listener sponsor,
precisely in order to avoid
the control of those with the deepest pockets. They did so because as
they stated in the network’s mission statement, they wanted to promote
understanding across cultural boundaries, not, like Eben Rey, Mark
Schubb, Ann Coulter, Ted Hayes, Lou Dobbs or the Minutemen, to fuel
Right wing paranoia and xenophobia, not to deepen the divisions between
us, but in order to really bridge them, in fact and in practice. Vote For
independent grass roots street activists for the KPFK Board -- Vote
OUT the xenophobes and their endorsers. |
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by kpfk listener
Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 at 8:21 PM
omg does it get worse than this? A Republican on the air, next on the board? This really is a takeover, and I'm not sure what party we're talking about anymore.
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by Roger
Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007 at 9:52 PM
KPFK is all for diversity. KPFK welcomes blacks, whites, Asians, Native Americans heterosexuals, homosexuals, ect. ALL LONG AS THEY HAVE IDENTICAL VIEWS AND POLITICAL POINTS OF VIEW.
A republican at KPFK seems like a refreshing sliver of diversity. The real xenophobes are the people who ostracize those who don't think like they do.
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by Leslie
Monday, Nov. 26, 2007 at 12:03 AM
Mr. Salazar,
May I repost this article to my website, radiojustice.net?
--Leslie Radford
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by just another listener
Monday, Nov. 26, 2007 at 12:29 AM
You call Eben Rey promoting racists and xenophobes like Lou Dobbs PROMOTING DIVERSITY?!
Maybe,then, we should help George W. Bush get a show on KPFK to PROMOTE PEACE!
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by mous
Monday, Nov. 26, 2007 at 11:47 AM
There's also the Dave Emory stuff that goes on during the overnight. His paranoia knows few bounds, and right now is on an anti-Islamic tangent focused on the Muslim Brotherhood. (Not entirely unfounded.) Paranoids, whether they're right or left wing, are fixated on the particular enemies, and often generalize to entire populations. A nationalist American paranoid might have a grudge against all Germans because of Hitler, or against all Muslims because of 9/11. Every member of the group is viewed with suspicion, defying logic. Today, the right is fearing Mexicans, particularly the "illegal immigrant" kind. This is illogical- Los Angeles probably has over a million of these people. What's the problem? Things here have been pretty peaceful, for a big city. The stock answers these right wing paranoids give are: law, gangs, and culture. Law - well, it's true, they broke the law, and this can't be disputed. Gangs? Most of the gangs are American, and the Mexican American gangs often have roots going back to the 1930s and 1940s. Culture? This city used to be part of Mexico. It grew as a mostly-white city after it was taken over by the US. The city is also culturally influenced by different Asian ethnicities, by Jewish and Catholic ethnic-religious culture, and by Black people since before it was part of the US. The history of LA has a few instances of when class wars have become race wars, when economic pressures or demographic changes have motivated people to mobilize against people of color. In 1871, mobs of Americans burned down Chinatown, murdering 19 people. [ http://www.camla.org/history/massacre.htm ] In 1943 mobs of American GIs brutally attacked Mexican American youth (some GIs themselves) in the Zoot Suit Riots. [ http://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi07t.htm http://www.suavecito.com/history.htm ] In the 1940s, White people in suburban communities formed ad-hoc militias to enforce de-facto segregation, by terrorizing up Black people who dared to cross over into largely White communities. [ http://www.slashdoc.com/documents/61107 ] The history after the 1940s has been one of increasing racial integration, but with a side effect that class is maginfied. The split between rich and poor is increasing daily, leading us to situations where conflict is likely. The character of the conflict can be defined along class lines, or along racial lines. Right now, the primary conflict being created is between "Americans" and "Mexicans" or "foreigners". In the media, there's little that presents the growing class inequalities as a root of conflict. For the record: I LOVE Roy of Hollywood's show. It's usually entertaining, and occasionally provacative. I just don't agree with the politics.
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by R. Salazar
Monday, Nov. 26, 2007 at 3:29 PM
Dear Ms. Radford;
Yes, you may repost this to your website. I hop it is of use to you and your readers for discerning something useful about the social values behind the politics at KPFK. You know, there are many of us who believe that the people aligned ( broadly speaking) with the 'Committee to "Strengthen" KPFK' would like to eliminate Spanish language programming from the station, but none of them has gone on record with that.
There are elements of both a class struggle and of culture struggle that underlie what's happening at the station, and the way it's showing up in this election. There are people on the West side who have had effective control of the station since the days of the hijacking. The "elections" have only served to strengthen their role, since programming has been aimed at this group for years- for decades, and since white liberals make up the majority of the listener sponsors. Finally, however, the arrogance and karma of power catches up to all who wield it, and it seems to be catching up to the "Committee" now, as well.
Respectfully,
R. Salazar
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by Fight2Win
Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007 at 2:22 PM
Its hard to believe that a conservative could make it into KPFK and no one who works has spoken out! Conservatives and bigots make it clear who's side they are on. We need people at KPFK who make it clear what their side they are on. Anyone who wants to work with racists or friends of racists don't present me or my people.
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by Meyer London
Friday, Nov. 30, 2007 at 2:18 PM
Things are sometimes more complicated than they seem at first glance. For example, Mexicans as well as Anglos participated in 19th century attacks on Chinese people in Los Angeles. And it was not only affluent "suburbanites" who carried out racist attacks on Blacks attempting to move into certain neighborhoods- working class whites were doing the same thing inside the city of Long Beach at least as recently as the late 1950's. In any event, the worst simplication of all is that calling for changes at KPFK is simply a continuation of these deplorable events. It is as simplistic as claiming that the ludicrous "Black Mental Liberation Weekend" broadcast on KPFK a few years ago means that all Black programmers at the station agree with its Nazi-like message of anti-semitism.
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by Anti- Zionist
Saturday, Dec. 01, 2007 at 12:55 AM
Meyer:
Offer us one quotation- even one- to back up your claim tha the Afrikan Mental Liberation weekend program you refer to was anti - Jewish, much less that it had a "Nazi like" theme or intention.
Good luck.
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by Meyer London
Saturday, Dec. 01, 2007 at 11:21 AM
"Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" - forged document which supposedly is a plan by Jews to take over the world. This was recommended during the Mental Liberation Weekend as useful reading for understanding what Jews are up to. I guess you don't find anything anti-semitic or Nazi-like about that.
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by Lord Locksley
Saturday, Dec. 01, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Much as it pains me to have to admit it, I find myself in whole hearted agreement with you,Meyer....for years Henry Ford went so far as to subsidize the distribution of this wretched tract until even he realized it was a hoax....the fact that an 'enlightened' outfit like KPFK would even mention it on the air is proof to me that they are utterly clueless....which would explain why their sister station KPFT in Houston 'permanently banished' me from the station after canceling my show as I was considered a 'threat to the station's license....the more things change at Pacifica,the more they stay the same
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by Meyer London
Saturday, Dec. 01, 2007 at 12:34 PM
One thing is to Eva's credit - after hearing it once she would not let it be aired once per year, which some staff and listeners wanted.
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by Anti-Zionist
Monday, Dec. 03, 2007 at 3:51 AM
Meyer, this is not a quotation, this is a "He said- She said."
"Quotation," Meyer, as in "citation." AS IN EXACTLY WHAT WAS SAID ON THE PROGRAM, AND BY WHOM.
QUOTATION - NOT ANECDOTE.
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by anti-racist
Monday, Dec. 03, 2007 at 9:56 PM
Well, you'll have to make do. Stop nitpicking. You've tipped your hand too much already.
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by Pacific Peach
Thursday, Dec. 06, 2007 at 9:38 PM
pacificpeach@gmail.com
if you thought by being black and lesbian it meant a person was progressive or revolutionary, well my god(dess) ... you're getting the exact rude awakening you deserve ...
look at their words and their deeds first ...
hopefully, you will know better from now ...
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by Eben
Sunday, Dec. 09, 2007 at 11:47 AM
uhfmedia@yahoo.com
The post by R. Salazar is shallow, reactionary and embarrassing to Pacifica! It is this very same mind set that has supported a management at KPFK which was racist, homophobic and practices cronyism(sp?)! It is this very mind set which has supported Eva Georgia, the tyrant and fiscal opportunist, through years of our pleading for a thorough investigation of actions! And what do we have today? We have a payout of between 65k to 100k to this same grifter!! All of you should be held personally accountable for the money siphoned and wasted because of your ignorant racist identity politics agenda!!
Oh but instead here is a shallow hit piece...OMG a black lesbian Republican talking to Lou Dobbs!! Did you hear Amy Goodman had him on for an hour? What this shows is that you don't have strength in the foundations of your beliefs, so when facts don't work for you, you do what our true enemies do - you try to character smear!! Calling me 'paranoid' about the NAU. Why because it involves illegal immigration and so much more. But you don't care about anything beyond your tribal interests. Well I along with millions of others do! And your fear mongering, narrow minded political stance will not stop free speech on KPFK or Pacifica! What will stop is the abuse of the LSB by those whose interests is skin deep!!
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by anti-fascist
Sunday, Dec. 09, 2007 at 4:43 PM
Yeah, Eben. I KNOW Amy Goodman interviewed Lou Dobbs.
BUT, deary, YOU'RE NO AMY GOODMAN.
Amy Goodman kicked Lou Dobb's ass in a very sharp exchange.
You didn't kick his ass, you KISSED it in a fawning display of reactionary cowardice.
You threw him not even one tough question. You didn't even pitch a soft ball. You set him up with questions that totally agreed with and reinforced his world view, and that allowed him to paint himself as the most reasonable of middle class populists.
You entirely AVOIDED the question of immigration. It was a sickening and pathetic display.
if you are inclined to talk about "shallow," and to point fingers at others on that score, nothing could have been more shallow than your complete non- challenge to Dobbs.
Shallow also aptly describes your reply above.
LOU DOBBS SUPPORTS THE RACIST, FASCISTIC MINUTEMEN.
OBVIOUSLY, SO DO YOU.
But, just as you avoided the tough questions with Dobbs, you are evading the tough questions this article poses about your politics.
You've got a lot of damn gall to try to switch the subject over to someone else you consider a "tyrant" WHILE YOU USE KPFK'S AIRWAVES TO VIOLATE ITS MISSION AND TO PROMOTE THE TYRANNY OF ARMED RACISTS AND FASCISTS.
KPFK Is NOT about _your_ so-called "free speech.". Its mission calls for promoting cross cultural understanding,and you know that to be true.
SO, SHOW US HOW SUPPORTING DOBBS AND THE RACIST FASCIST MINUTEMEN IS IN LINE WITH THE PACIFIC MISSION. SHOW IS HOW YOU ARE ABOUT PROMOTING CROSS CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING.
EXPLAIN TO US HOW URGING PEOPLE TO JOIN AND VOTE FOR republicans, OF ALL THINGS, PROMOTE THE RADICAL ANARCHO-PACIFIST IDEALS OF PACIFICA'S FOUNDERS.
YOU CAN'T. SO, SHUT UP, EBEN.
You should be REMOVED from the airwaves, and if management doesn't nail you and remove your right wing ass, they, themselves are ignoring the mission.
But maybe they will stand up for the station's mission
Maybe your buddy Lou Dobbs could find you a day job.
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by just asking
Sunday, Dec. 09, 2007 at 6:38 PM
You've gotta admit, Eben, that supporting Dobbs means supporting the MInutemen; that it means that you support a group of nut- jobs that even that ultimate nut job, G.W. Bush, had the good sense to call armed "vigilantes", and that everyone to the left of Mussolini knows are a bunch of hard core racists.
How does supporting racist vigilantes qualify you or your slate- which should be called "The Committee to undermine the KPFK Mission" - to run the station , or even to represent its listeners and staff?
Eben, you're running for a staff seat. Do you really think the KPFK staff is now so xenophobic that they, too, will support the Minutemen as part of the drive to get rid of Spanish language shows on KPFK?
Is that what you are all really after?
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by SOLOMON
Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 at 5:50 PM
If the NAU does come to fruition, what does that make Eben then?
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