Listener-sponsored independent media like Pacifica's radio stations existed long before Soros and the Establishment Foundations decided to both help subsidize Pacifica's Democracy Now show and begin setting up a parallel foundation-sponsored/ultra-rich-subsidized "independent" media network. The problem with alternative media groups accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from large Democratic Party campaign contributors like Soros and multi-million or multi-billion dollar foundations like the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and Bill Moyers' Schumann Foundation is it allows these sources of big money to exercise a special influence over the agenda of the alternative media. Check out the October 8, 1997 issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which contains the article "Following the money: Is the alternative press wire service compromised by secret foundation support?" by Ron Curran, for more information on this topic. To understand why most people in Los Angeles are politically powerless under the rule of the Democratic Party and their Ultra-Rich sponsors and Corporate Sponsores, one must identify specific individuals, such as Soros and Sagner, who use a portion of the surplus capital they obtain from investments in defense stocks or real estate speculation, to manipulate the U.S. political process away from an anti-classist/anti-racist emphasis.