Our eldest son graduated from USC last year. During Parents Weekend I always made sure I scheduled time to hear you speak when you were a resource on media related issues. It just so happens, Richard Gage, the founder of Architects and Engineer for 911 Truth, graduated from the USC School of Architecture as well. Obviously, you and Richard are both smart, well educated men, but I would defer to your expertise in the area of film making and Richard’s in the in the area of the architecture and the engineering of buildings. We have a right to our own opinions, but the laws of physics are not suspended three times in one day in the course of history.

As a KPFK listener I was well aware of censorship in the MSM, but my research into the events of 9/11 and the media blackout (including on the left) during the theft of our elections took me further down the historical rabbit hole…and it has not been a pleasant journey.

I have no proof…but the suppressed evidence leads me to believe the reason the public is being denied a science based, independent investigation into the events of 9/11/01 is because the evidence might point to rogue elements from within the intelligence organizations/MIC of the U.S. and several of its “allies”. Since ignorant people might paint entire groups with a broad brush…there is tremendous fear innocent people could be swept up in the unleashed anger of the masses. There is a common trait numbers of these innocent people share and many have older relatives who have been down this road in the past (myself included)…This is why I will not behave like a “good German” and go along to get along. Someday in the future, Richard Gage, David Ray Griffin and the 911 Truth movement will be compared to Sophie Scholl and The White Rose Society.

I had read with much admiration about your salad days in Chile working for Allende and how when the coup arrived your own government shut the embassy door on your face. That you have changed over the years is a matter of conscious and must be respected.

In the spirit of Allende and Neruda I see the USA has betrayed its constitution does not exist in the interest of its citizens.

But now, especially when the limits of neoliberalism are demonstrated by socializing the loses of corporations deemed too big to fail coupled with an argument that universal health-care is off the table, Marxist viewpoints should be aired; precisely because ordinary people are estranged by the two parties who are beholden to special interests.
That people voted to end war and their government will not abandon the ‘national interest’ notwithstanding the peoples mandate.
To shut that down is to narrow the permissible discourse to corporate media or to NPR who is fearful of the republicans in congress that threaten to cut funds.
Like a few who have posted here I particularly enjoy Michael Slate’s show for the guests and communist viewpoint precisely because there is nowhere else in the electronic media where it is available.
I am puzzled as to why reforms at Pacifica means that the political discussion is confined to the two party system.

Last year, Arbitron switched over to a new way of measuring listenership. We found at WBAI that in one period Arbitron measured the listenership dropping, when measured in the new way, by 75 percent from the period immediately preceding (that is, from one month to the next).

We know that listenership had declined slowly over the last 5 years for WBAI. But to think that it dropped by such a huge margin — which corresponds to Marc Cooper’s interpretation way up above in this thread — is simply incorrect.

Pacifica listenership has NOT dropped anywhere near what Mark suggests, and it may even have rebounded somewhat this year.

Mitchel Cohen
Chair, WBAI Local Station Board

none of ur comments were censored. sometimes the commenting software gets hungry and swallows something on its own.

Nilli, youve put ur finger right on it. Pacifica was supposed to be an electronic town square open to all sorts of views and political debate. Founded by pacifists during the MCarthy period and given the nature of commercial media it is natural for it to lean left. But over the years it has been transformed into a narrow platform for ideological rants — into a very very narrow left wing outlet that isnt really very left wing as much as it is dogmatic, detached and yes rife with conspiracy NUTS.

I agree with Randy. The 9/11 Truthers are not just bonkers, they are also an INSULT to the dead, their families, and to the American people. I see NO difference between them and the Birthers. 9/11 Truthers, if born in a different era, would be sitting in the pews of Amme Semple McPherson warning of the End Times.

Go ahead, delete this one too since it’s all about pushing your opinion rather than having an open debate.

“The most important point is not even that making wild claims with no evidence makes the left look crazy. It’s that diverting attention to the supposed secret schemings of a few powerful individuals obscures the real issues, which are systemic. We’d be a lot better off talking about, say, how to organize unions than about this stuff.”

The same, however, can be said about ANY issue, but some folks seem to apply that logic only to this one. Why is that?

Exposing powerful individuals and their roles as interlocking directors on the boards of multinational corporations used to be a solid pasttime of the Left. Domhoff’s “Who Rules America?” was standard reading, back in the day. But now you’re implying that those kind of exposes are invalid. I don’t agree.

I and most everyone I know — even some of those who decry the 9/11 Truthers (like me) — have signed onto the petition in New York for a new, independent investigation of what happened on 9/11 and subsequently. Why not fight for it instead of disparaging that effort?

Mitchel Cohen

WOW! I’m convinced and that our despicable government would allow this to happen- shameful!

So where do I donate money for the truth?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Give me a break!

How stupid do they think we are? VERY stupid indeed. The see us as “useless eaters”, on the couch watching mindless television, eating poisonous GMO and pesticide ridden junk, sipping high fructose corn syrup sweetened toxic fluids. And thats what some of us are, but not all. The less brighter of us are getting off their butts, learning about the poisons that surround them and are incapaciting their minds. They’re changing things around them for the better, and are becoming properly INFORMED. Because of this the truth is spreading and the days of the criminals who truly are behind what hapened on 911 are numbered.