Critics of controversial Sunday morning KPFK talk show host Ian Masters have long charged him with unfamiliarity with basic facts widely reported and known on progressive web sites, on other KPFK programs, such as Don Bustante's Middle East in Focus at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, and in the foreign press. His comments and questions, to be distinguished from the answers of his guests, they say, reflect a world view defined by sources of limited scope.

On November 16, 2008, on Live from the Left Coast, the second hour at noon of his two-hour program, in an interview with Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com, Masters said:

I would love to do a follow up with you and talk to you and some other people just to get a better handle on the world of blogging since it appears to [be] becoming more and more influential and I spend so much of my time talking to the main stream press. So I should get up to date, shouldn't I?

Indeed, he should get up to date and learn what many in his audience already know.

One issue stands out where his reliance on main stream media sources has left him clueless. For years, Sunday after Sunday, Masters, originally from Australia, has wailed on and on about why the Democratic party doesn't function as an opposition party as he knew in his home country, opposed Republican initiatives when opportunities arose, and kept its promise in 2006 to stop the wars.

He apparently doesn't know that Australia no longer has an opposition party either. Of course, he wouldn't know that from reading the Los Angeles Times.

To those who listen to hear his guests and who know how Washington Democrats get their money from the same corporate and class interests as the Republicans and advance the same policies of organized money as another wing of the same party, Master's wailing sounds like someone scratching glass. Only someone still relying on main stream media would wonder why the Washington Democratic party does what it does.

Masters is a member of the KPFK "gang of three," "Ian, Lila, and Grace," who organized the KPFK Local Station Advisory Board slick slate mailer campaign that recently took over the Board. Who financed the campaign remains a mystery.

The other two were controversial talk show host Lila Garrett, Mondays at 7 a.m., and community member and Board member Grace Aaron.

Plank two of their platform was "financial and organizational transparency."

Masters has also opposed the 911 Truth Movement, people seeking to learn the truth about what happened on 911.

KPFK broadcasts at 90.7 FM in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties, and 98.7 in Santa Barbara County.

I was told by a person who also like you doesnt like Ian Masters information or positions, that his show was rated '5' by some official radio audience listening rating services, while other shows on KPFK are usually only "1"... this from an LSB member...

so while I cannot verify the actual numbers, it appears that this is a source of audience listening thus sponsorship [read cash to the KPFK sustainability] to the maintain other shows that get maybe 3 calls for very small contributions.

Does that count at all ?

Apparently those who dont like Ian's guests, slant, personality or show are not necessarily a majority either. Everyone has a right to have and voice an opinion.

And the slate factor is just adding ammunition to show him as a 'bad person' or a conniving one is it ? Were there not many more on that same slate ? and why is there not an inquiry about the funding of those mailers by LSB members if it is not legal or proper procedures to do so ?

Let's balance the accusatory stories here, not just take sides.

In 2004 I went to an event where he spoke and was telling people to vote for Kerry. Masters is no progressive. Just another partisan Democrat.

one of the best shows on kpfk.

Masters' a long-standing screed for the national security state, violated election by-laws by promoting his staff assistant Doan to represent his self-interest on the LSB repeatedly on-air in the 2007 election financed by a democrat-controlled non-profit and contrived to unfairly tilt toward his corporarist, payola-fed, corrupt, under-investigation local lackeys in the democrat party to stage yet another take-over coup (culminating in the ponzi scheme now in process to sell off the station property) of this eviscerated, failed excuse for a revolutionary, anarchist, radical broadcast station that Lew Hill originated in the middle of the last century.

Ian's sources seem pretty wide open to me, and I like to think myself well informed.

I keep trying to remember the last other person to interview Jane Hamsher in Los Angeles or generally at the time that Ian had her on -- and I can't think of a one.

There are always a slew or group of those who want to determine all KPFK programming to their own slants and tastes. So they try to exclude some and hope to infiltrate the hallowed halls with ONLY their OWN kind. Too bad.

that is not what KPFK was suppose to be nor claims to be, tho it sometimes sounds like it is very very slanted ONLY 1 Way.

At LSB meetings, or at any place where those vocipherous voices want to dominate, yes, not just be heard - but DOMINATE the programming - they label, slander, exclaim loudly and insist that Ian Masters is the worst of the worst and a govt CIA infiltrator and worse.. blah blah blah...

and yet, while gag orders for OBEDIENCE to silence and exclusion of all the paying members of KPFK be kept ignorant, he has occasionally hinted or implied that all that was suspected in dysfunctional operations at Our Radio Station - so that inquiries could at least be made - or further research done.

That he had the boldness, courage to not be censored so completely as all the other payola'd programmers agreed to be, needs to be appreciated ....even if his views or guests are not of "your type" or liking, speaking to those who want to demean, insult, discredit and destroy the poor man.

Yet, it has been elsewhere noted, tho it must be more verified and then referenced for the 'rest of us' that his shows produce more $$$ than most other programs on KPFK, regardless of who likes him or does not.

The Hammer Forums presented monthly reveal a man who explores and invites experts and very knowlegeable people who then INFORM THE REST OF US with what we do not know or access about current/political events. And seeing him act as a moderator in person displays a balanced, courteous, knowing what is going on more than most of us [especially the self-serving critics here and encountered where they love to feel a bit powerful] .
No one has yet claimed that Ian Masters is the world's best interviewer or explainer of what is going on globally now. No one has said they wanted a date with him or to give him a big fund so he can open his own media outlet.

No one is making big adoration gestures or even doing more than saying most often "I learn a lot from his programs/ forums and I want to hear more of what he knows and who he invites to INFORM US ALL" = instead of sticking to limited viewpoints and the same old 'revolutionary-type-know-it-alls' that want to claim full power over KPFK programming and everything else that is in their ltd worlds.

but then, the KPFK crowd is a bit strange and odd and dissident and will never agree to much -- because that is also it's motto - "YOU gotta be wrong because ONLY I am RIGHT ! "

ahhh, so those who want to hear the same old line...only...will continue, here and anywhere they can get a listener to stick around. How much easier it is to criticize than even attempt to do the same good work ? very !

It's getting painful listening to this guy's broadcasts. Pick any situation in the world, & invariably he sides with the Obama administrations rather hawkish outlook. It could be Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, Honduras, Argentina.....any country with a government at odds with the IMF, & Master's will recycle some ex Clinton era state department clown, or democratic hack from the Brookings institute to present the DNC party line. The foreign policy thuggery of the past admin he stills pursues with a relish. The thuggery of the present he does his best to soft pedal, even implying that Snowden has seriously damaged U.S. foreign policy objectives (to promote goodness no doubt). Currently Master's is on a mission to revamp the Cold War with Russia, His recent dismal group of "experts" includes a Pavel Felgenhauer, who Masters quoted days later on his program. Felgenhauer's analysis of the consequences of Russia's war with the belligerent Georgian's was so off, that it makes him a suitable choice for Master's show. That it is no longer possible to distinguish liberal democrats from Jeanne Kirkpatrick is a tremendous tragedy for this nation.

It's getting painful listening to this guy's program, and KPFK in general. Consider any foreign policy situation, and Master's invariably sides with the Obama administration's hawkish viewpoint. Russia, Venezuela, Honduras, Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Argentina, any country whose government is at odds with the IMF or Wall Street, and your sure to find a one sided argument, delivered by recycled Clinton era State Department clowns, or DNC party hacks at the Brookings Institute, with a strange affinity for promoting an unholy alliance of "moderate" neoliberals with jihadists, fascists, or reactionaries of the old regime in these societies. Masters, who postures as a fierce denouncer of U.S. militarism, imperialism & human rights violations, when conducted by the Bush administration, is mostly silent, or soft pedals similar policies and outcomes by Obama's administration officials. Edward Snowden, for example, is constantly undermined by most of Master's guests as either a fool, or someone who has compromised U.S. policy (with the assumption being that it is ethical & fair minded). Master's current passion is in reanimating the Cold War. Yesterday, while working himself up about recent Russian/Putin perfidies, & slights to the Obama administration, Master's momentarily lapsed into a speculative proposition of using Tatar animosity towards Russians as a fertile source of terrorism to roil Russian society. His "esteemed" guest was a Pavel Felgenhauer, a corrupt former low level Soviet official, who predicted dire consequences for Russian in it's brief war with Georgia: naturally, a fitting guest for Master's program. Master's was so fetched by Felgenhauer's predictably provocative analysis, that he continues to refer back to him throughout the week. That it is now difficult to distinguish Democratic liberals from Jeanne Kirkpatrick, is a tragedy for this country.

- did your first post not appear maybe due to your browser having catched the stale page?


re: establishment media and air personalities and the future of radio

as far as I'm concerned they're all hacks - none of them address anything that falls outside the BAU paradigm, anything that really challenges the status quo. It's all a matter of to what extent they don't.

I see no indication listeners want to go there anyway, so as always with stations like these, programming boils down to audience share, and covering real issues is sacrificed on the altar of popularity.

If stations were truely independent and didn't require underwriting or even listener support such pressure wouldn't exist. Another constraint with syndication and competition for airtime are the scarcity of timeslots/dayparts. This is another form of pressure to program what's perceived as what the audience wants, rather than the priority being what's most important for them to know.


The solution is large numbers of community stations which are self-supporting. The overhead is low when special facilities aren't required (tower, studio) and each signal on the air multiplies the available time slots so that everyone who desires has a chance to be heard.

The future I see will eventually foster just such a situation, but that future isn't what present audiences wish to picture.

Since at the present time blowtorches dominate the airwaves along with listener's minds, there is very little vision or motivation to have such stations. Time will change that however, and people like me are already pre-positioned to provide such service. The equipment involved is portable low power audio feeds combined with low power transmitters along with one man antennas easily erected and moved. Running off solar panels. I'm building inventory of such equipment presently.

Ian Masters is really getting out of touch with reality. All his programs lately are about Trump and Putin and all of it is just bashing these two. A lot of misplaced observation, boring guests with status quo bias.
The whole show is uninformative, almost like a main stream media outlet propaganda. I stopped listening to him, it is time for him to retire.

I used to enjoy Ian Masters shows. But at this point he is nothing more than a tired hack who cannot say anything more intelligent than 'Russia did it' and 'I blame Jill Stein' His constant deriding of KPFK is getting old as well. The station would do really well if they replaced him with somebody like Abby Martin, Cent Ugur, Ring of Fire (if any of them would be interested).
If KPFK wants to remain relevant, they nust start catering to a progressive listener and an old DNC/Clinton hack is not the vessel for such a message