A Nation Divided

Cooper and Cockburn debate the fate of Pacifica, reveal the state of the nation
by Doug Nufer, The Free Press

In this corner, the producer for the Pacifica Radio network's RadioNation show and a contributing editor for the Nation magazine, Marc Cooper. And in this corner, the eternal challenger and therefore the champion of all we have left that is worth to defend, Alexander Cockburn.

When Cooper and Cockburn squared off in the Aug. 8 issue of The Nation, it was no contest. Cooper danced around defensively trying to win points for a punch-drunk status quo and Cockburn knocked out the opposition with a devastating barrage of haymakers (see David Bacon's article, p. 11). Had this been a prize fight, the referee would have stopped it early, but this debate in the left's great liberal hope of magazines had to go on and still must go on. Not just an intramural struggle, this conflict over the value of compromise has an essential relevance, particularly now that the Clinton Administration prepares to leave us with a legacy of welfare "reforms," environmental degradation, and corporate favors.

Cockburn's attack begins with a brief history of The Village Voice, the alternative weekly that set the standard for such publications and then inexorably reset the standard, as it evolved from a quirky and feisty paper to a slick commercial enterprise. He says the "modernization" the Voice went through decades ago is the "same game" the Pacifica directors now play to compete for a wider audience. He says Pacifica director Mary Frances Berry tried to get Attorney General Janet Reno to lean on the Berkeley Police to roust protesters at KPFA, that Pacifica plans to use scab labor to run its shows, and that the network would sell one of its stations to raise cash.

Rousing as Cockburn's attack is, Cooper's defense is more intriguing. Cooper bewails the blunders made by Pacifica directors, but rather than call for the leader's resignation, he says, Berry "would do much better to focus on improving Pacifica's management skills." He blames both sides equally for the "fiasco," argues that "change and growth are necessary," and, after indulging in the most hackneyed rhetoric this side of a corporate history, says, "The first step is to ratchet down the rhetoric..." as "...ways must be found to make [Pacifica] a stronger and clearer voice into the next millennium."

Passive voice may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but Cooper's mealy-mouthed rationalizations raise questions about the limits and effectiveness of compromise. To publish and widely disseminate some of the finest investigative journalism in the nation, does The Nation have to cater to some sort of lowest common denominator readership? A strong and clear denunciation of Pacifica simply won't do: so as not to alienate the establishment Democrats, perhaps it's best to present a divided front on the subject of Pacifica.

Returning to Cockburn's jabs at the Village Voice, I might point out that they do pay their contributors and staff (even if their progressive rhetoric is pretty hollow when you consider the work-for-hire agreements they force on freelancers in order to steal their copyrights). Those slick ads buy more space for news and print a lot more copies than an independent news journal run by volunteers can provide. In other words, Cooper presents an important viewpoint. Call it paying the rent, changing with the times, reaching a wider audience, or reaching anyone outside of a small circle of like-minded iconoclasts, losing a battle to win the war.

Nevertheless, The Nation's gutless straddle of this issue, ratified by no less than an unsigned editorial in the August 23 issue, is a national shame for anyone who has ever believed in the power of the word to uphold the principles of justice.

Doug Nufer has written book reviews for The Nation. His article exposing how Nation-advertiser South End Press forces small book stores to place big orders ran in the Free Press, after The Nation refused to consider it.