KPFK is part of Pacifica Radio -- supposed public radio.
And Pacifica has serious issues regarding their lack of diversity.
So the new host they gave air time to was . . . Ralph Nader.
This is how you bring in new and young listeners?
The bad promotion insisted that this show is needed to air important voices that you would not hear otherwise like Jim Hightower and . . .
The list only got worse.
Jim Hightower?
Is there a ban on him at Pacifica Radio that I am unaware of?
No.
So what we were being told was that Ralph Nader would host another generic, by-the-numbers Pacifica Radio program that would sound like pretty much every other Pacifica Radio program already on the air.
That is what he has delivered.
Call it "consistency," if you want to be generous.
The only thing I have learned from listening to hours of the program?
Mr. Nader is at least partially deaf.
I have no idea why he has not addressed this publicly.
But it does explain why he shouts over and over.
He's not shouting out of excitement.
There is no excitement on his dull show.
An hour a week in which he covers everything every other Pacifica Radio program covers.
In the same way.
The sameness may be what finally kills Pacifica.
Since June, Mr. Nader has twice 'addressed' Iraq.
(Out of respect for Tomas Young and his family, I am following the community standard of not addressing the nonsense. His death was noted. We have been very kind, community wide, and avoided calling out those who tried to use him in March of 2013 to make a political statement. They know who they were and they should be ashamed of themselves.)
Back in June, as U.S. President Barack Obama was sending U.S. 'advisors' into Iraq, Mr. Nader took to the airwaves to slam . . .
Neocons who helped start the illegal war back in 2002 and 2003.
Thanks Bad Grandpa for another tale about the old days which allows you to avoid the ugly realities of today.
Of course, it was not neocons alone nor was it Republicans alone.
But that was Mr. Nader's focus and I guess when you are a worthless person in the twilight of your years, you try to pass that off as bravery.
You do not call out Mr. Obama.
You do not insist that these 'advisors' should not be going into Iraq.
You just peddle your ass like a cheap whore and then feign shock that no one wanted to buy your tired wares.
More recently, Mr. Nader had an especially absurd and ridiculous segment where he and Public Citzen's Lori Wallach whined about how voices against war are shut out of the mainstream media.
Oh, there is a new topic!
That was sarcasm.
The topic had meaning from 2001 through 2007 as a multitude of voices were shut out.
But today?
You are going to bring on peace 'activist' Jane Fonda to what?
To describe how she would have sex with Mr. Obama?
She really is becoming a sad old tart, let us all be frank.
She needed to cool her jets long ago.
Instead, she blogs about building a shrine to herself and connecting with her six-year-old self.
I guess she will do anything to avoid facing the reality of the world today which includes all the wars Mr. Obama carries out.
Someone needs to tell Ms. Fonda that she is pathetic and no one thinks her 78-year-old ass is getting any no matter how much she pretends in one dirty TV interview after another.
It is amazing what she will talk about -- orgasms, etc. -- on TV while avoiding the Iraq War despite declaring in January of 2007 at the D.C. rally that she had been silent too long and would not be silent anymore.
Jane be shocking
Jane be a bore
Jane take off your clothes once more
That was a Mad magazine parody of Jane Fonda back in her Barbarella days. One wonders why she thinks she is giving her life meaning today as she acts like a sex pot?
In fairness, she is far from the only alleged peace 'activist' who is silent.
In fact, they pretty much all are.
So it was hilarious to listen to Mr. Nader and Ms. Wallach fret and fuss over how "antiwar" voices were being shut out of the conversation.
They are not being shut out, they are shutting themselves out at this point.
And that, too, is typical of today's Pacifica Radio which would not know antiwar if it slapped it in the face.
It will never get over the disgrace of Aimee Allison and her justification of The Drone War which she posted on YouTube. Nor will it get over Ms. Allison calling for book burning on Pacifica airwaves (she wanted the issue of The New Yorker featuring a parody of the Obamas burned). Pacifica, for those who have forgotten, is supposed to be the home of free speech.
Mr. Obama himself never strikes me as being as outlandish and idiotic as his temple whores in the Cult of St. Barack. (Ava and C.I. coined the term "the Cult of St. Barack" back during the primaries and how apt that term has been.) That does not mean I cheer him on. It just means that a War Hawk like Mr. Obama still manages to come off far more sane than the ridiculous sell-outs who put him ahead of their beliefs and principles.
Six years of nonsense.
Into that environment Ralph Nader Radio Hour could have been a welcome and needed show.
But for that to happen, he would have to take on the powerful and the power structure.
Mr. Nader lacks the inclination and the spine to do so today.
So his show is another Feminine Mystique show.
Betty Friedan.
Were she alive today, she would have a great deal more to write about.
"The problem without a name" would now have to include leftists who now support war and War Hawks and War Crimes, who are silent as the Iraq War continues (the one Mr. Obama was supposed to end, remember?), as the illegal spying continues, as everything Bully Boy Bush did continues.
Mr. Nader does a weekly hour of worthless chatter.
And, sadly, that is true of pretty much everything Pacifica now offers.
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Ruth also covered radio in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008, .
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