One of the Obama administration’s top priorities is “diversifying” the nation’s airwaves. Its commitment to public broadcasting and outreach to Muslims has made the unthinkable possible: This week, publicly funded Pacifica Radio will begin airing an hour of “news” from the radio affiliate of Al-Jazeera television. AJE news will be heard early in the morning in three of the network’s five markets — including New York City. The network’s remaining two affiliates — including WPFW in Washington, D.C.– will pick up the AJE broadcast early next year.
By 2011, the voice of Osama bin Laden’s preferred network will be heard in two of the three 9/11 attack sites at taxpayer expense.
According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s 2009 Annual Report, taxpayers gave Pacifica Radio’s five stations nearly $1.6 million last year alone, down slightly from $1.75 million in 2008. The station-by-station-breakdown is as follows:
| Pacifica Station | Federal Grants (2009) |
Federal Grants (2008) |
| WBAI-FM (New York) | $359,915 | $461,299 |
| WPFW-FM (D.C.) | $238,381 | $332,229 |
| KPFA-FM (Berkeley, CA) | $451,009 | $359,907 |
| KPFK-FM (Los Angeles) | $382,035 | $425,029 |
| KPFT-FM (Houston) | $160,529 | $174,088 |
| Total: | $1,591,869 | $1,752,552 |
Showing incredible insensitivity, Pacifica Radio’s executive director, Arlene Engelhardt, hailed the move as a cultural Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “It will give our listeners a little different perspective than an American network,” she said correctly. She added, “We have a tradition of looking for alternative points of view.” That they have.
Radio Pacifica: Communism is on the Air
Radio Pacifica has long hosted the political far-Left at public expense. The institution was recently headed by Leslie Cagan, a Castro admirer who maintained her membership in the Communist Party after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This author was the first to report she and Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin established International Occupation Watch in Baghdad in 2003 in the hopes of convincing American soldiers to declare themselves conscientious objectors and get sent home. Occupation Watch also spread stories of alleged U.S. atrocities against Iraqi civilians. Cagan and Benjamin joined forces one year later when they delivered $650,000 in cash and supplies to “the other side” in Fallujah. (Again, this author was the first to report this.)
In 2009, under arcane rules, Pacifica Radio’s New York affiliate, WBAI, elected convicted terror lawyer Lynne Stewart to its Board of Directors. Her election took place shortly before being ordered to begin her (light and long overdue) jail sentence for passing messages between convicted terrorist, “The Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman and his Islamic Group, ending a ceasefire with the secular Egyptian government.
In the midst of her trial, the National Lawyers Guild — once described as “the legal bulwark of the Communist Party” — asked Stewart to give the keynote address at its “Cry Justice” conference in October 2003. After likening its attendees to King David, Beowulf, and Sir Galahad, she made a more apt comparison:
And modern heroes, dare I mention? Ho [Chi Minh] and Mao [Tse-tung] and [Vladimir] Lenin, Fidel [Castro], and Nelson Mandela and John Brown, Ché Guevara…Our quests like theirs are to shake the very foundations of the continents.
The radicalism of its board is only muted by the insanity of its programming. This Memorial Day, its most widely known program — Democracy Now! hosted by Amy Goodman — featured a rant by the most cited academic in America, Noam Chomsky. Chomsky denounced “the great killer and torturer Ronald Reagan, one of the grand criminals of the modern era” and a “monstrous creature.” Sadly, that is but the tip of the iceberg of Pacifica’s radicalism.
Now, as in so many other instances, the radical Left has to appeal to a network that regularly features terrorists in order to find someone who hates America as much as we do.
This, with Juan Williams’ firing, and the FCC’s drive to push Rush Limbaugh off the airwaves, should give conservatives new impetus to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting completely. It is hardly a coincidence that publicly controlled airwaves, a pillar of the Soviet system, promote socialism on our airwaves. It is, however, economically insane and morally offensive that Americans must continue paying for it during a time of massive unemployment and endless deficits.
Please share this post with your friends and comment below. If you haven’t already, take a moment to sign up for our free newsletter above and friend us on Twitter and Facebook to get real time updates.
Follow @WestJournalism
Loading ...
Of course this is about as misleading as most of what Floyd writes.
First, there is no evidence that Pacifica (and therefore taxpayers) is paying al-Jazeera anything. In fact, it may be the other way around, with al-Jazeera subsidizing us, since Pacifica's executive director has said it won't cost Pacifica ANYTHING.
Second, the $1.5 million figure represents all of Pacifica's public funding, for all operations and programming.
Third, al-Jazeera is based in Qatar, which has good relations with the U.S. (and has for years), and houses branch campuses of Virginia Commonwealth University and Texas A & M, among others.
Fourth, al-Jazeera is internationally recognized for its outstanding coverage of world affairs. But it does have a :"scary" name for the Islamophobes that Floyd likes to jerk around.
Second,
Muslims can have their own broadcasts, if they want, too, but I don't want to pay for it with my tax dollars. If they want it, they should pay for it. Plus, no matter who is paying for it anyone can listen to it, and many more young people may be swayed to believe the radial beliefs of Islam. Being culturally sensitive and understanding is good, but it DOES NOT mean we compromise the moral principles we were founded upon. We need to stand firm, not bow in weakness to other cultures.
Actually, all of NPR's revenue comes from the government agencies and donations. It gets all this money, but it doesn't have to make a profit!! It gets to ruin our nation's views, for most all of their worldviews are liberal, socialist, and marxist. I pay for these views that I do NOT agree with. If I don't agree with them, why should I have to pay for them.
Since you must agree with them, YOU pay for NPR's programs. I'll turn off the radio!!
I have found as I have traveled through life that, to a large extent, people like you actually can can be "judged by the fruits of your labor". In other words, you are not just an example of someone who is promoting your version of " free speech" when you help other other violent political causes by admiring and allowing al-jazeera to broadcast their version of Moslem news and views to the world in the name of freedom. They parrot the ultra-conservative views of other Moslem nuts who wish harm and violence on all non-believers of THEIR religion. I believe we all have a right to our views — SHORT OF VIOLENCE. Jazeera is nothing more then a proponent/supporter of many who believe it's their way or the highway. No different than the propoganda machines of the Nazis, Fascists and Communist supporters of the past who brought a lot of misery to the world. The support of people like you that refuse to see this and allow/help Bin-Laden and other violent extremists to continue to exist only furthers their aims. And the Band plays on …
"I believe we all have a right to our views — SHORT OF VIOLENCE."
I agree–if you mean short of committing violence. On the other hand, commenters on this site are more likely to actually advocate violence than is al-Jazeera, which it's pretty obvious that you don't listen to or read: http://english.aljazeera.net/
James, I appreciate your down to earth comments and it confounds me why you keep coming to this website to try and knock some sense into these people. Its funny because these readers blindly follow whatever these articles say and then deny contradictory evidence. I get heated every time I get here and I'm sad because a lot of these contributers are blatantly raciest. Anyway, keep it up, I don't know how you do it.
Thanks, Chris. In truth I don't expect to change the minds of any of the regulars here, though I hope occasionally to get one to think a bit more deeply about something. I write for a few reasons:
First, so that people who stumble on the site for the first time (like those who keep referring to the video where Obama "admits" he wasn''t born here as real because they're too lazy or dumb to read the description under the video) might get another perspective, since they obviously don't read much and probably don't go to many "unfriendly" sources.
Second, I see it as a personal test of my own values and ideas. If I don't expose myself to others' ideas, no matter how flaky, I can't very well justify holding onto my own. And I also pride myself in being civil (even if a bit snarky) in most cases.
Finally, I actually enjoy the interaction with some of the folks, and, while I find many of the views troubling, I recognize that the racists and those who advocate violence are mostly cowards, anyway. Maybe growing up as an educator's's kid in a small Idaho logging town gave me a warped perspective.
Thanks again for the comment.
James certainly does get us to do our homework.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I can't even get all of my students to do all of theirs.
All funding for public radio should be cut off ASAP. I hope our Republican House of Representatives will have the fortitude to cut these funds! Broadcasting Al Jazeera is tantamount to treason as it is these same people who want world domination, they also seek to destroy our type of government and our way of life. Who needs their poison on our airwaves?
The ONLY thing that Obama and Islam have in common is that: 1. THEY ARE ANTI-MESSIAH and
2. THEY WANT TO DESTROY U.S.! Next comes the two-Witnesses described in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 7 one of these soon coming FEAST OF TRUMPETS(WAR) ! Watch(2011, 12, 13?)
WHY? Because we, along with England, are the real ISRAEL, not JUDAH(Gen. 48:16)! Watch!
Forget to take your medication?
why is this allowed to happened?
Oh, just because of a little thing called the First Amendment. Thank God.
Obama will have them kissing the Karan next.