Masters admitted on the air what his critics have long charged: he continues to rely on the main stream media, after progressive audiences had to switch to the internet and foreign press to find any.
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.