Sunday, January 31, 2010

KPFA Silences Women (Ann, Ava and C.I.)

good

If "left" means "equality" and KPFA is the home of "free speech," one could expect that the network's longest show -- two hours daily, Monday through Friday -- The Morning Show would demonstrate that "equality" and "free speech" by booking guests that represented the population of the United States (or even just of the Bay Area). But that doesn't happen.

Women make up a little over half of the population in the United States.

If KPFA were concerned about representation, women would make up half the guests. Since women are regularly under-represented in corporate media (see the Sunday chat & chews for one example), you could argue that KPFA has an obligation to actually book more women than men as guests in an attempt to correct the imbalance created by Real Media.

What KPFA instead chooses to do on The Morning Show is to embrace the imbalance and further it.

For the month of January, The Morning Show's guests were tracked at Ann Mega's Dub.

January 1st: (omitted, all segments were 'encore broadcasts' -- all were male guests by the way)
January 4th: 5 male guests, 1 female
January 5th: 5 male guests, 1 female
January 6th: 5 male guests, 2 female
January 7th: 3 male guests, 3 female
January 8th: 5 male guests, 3 female
January 11th: 3 male guests, 4 female
January 12th: 6 male guests, 1 female
January 13th: 3 male guests, 4 female
January 14th: 6 male guests (no women)
January 15th: 7 male guests, 2 female
January 18th: 2 male guests (last two half-hours were devoted to playing MLK speeches, which we're not factoring in)
January 19th: 5 male guests, 3 female
January 20th: 4 male guests, 1 female
January 21st: 2 male guests, 3 female
January 22nd: 5 male guests, 3 female
January 25th: 5 male guests, 1 female
January 26th: 5 male guests (no women)
January 27th: 5 male guests, 1 female
January 28th: 3 male guests, 1 female
January 29th: 5 male guests (no female guests)

That brings a total of 89 male guests and only 34 female ones.

Despite being slightly over half the population, women composed only one-third of the guests. (A little over a third.) The term for that imbalance is sexism.

It should be noted that The Morning Show addressed sexism this month. In a segment. One. Once and only once (January 21st). Sexism is a social ill and something the left supposedly and/or allegedly wants to do away with. And The Morning Show leads the way! If you think the best guest to address sexism is a man. Is a man who is a Catholic priest.

That's right, America, once and only once sexism was judged important enough to be a topic of a segment and KPFA thought the 'expert' to hear from was a Catholic priest. Next up, Aimee Allison sits down with two nuns to discuss sex!

For those wondering, race was a topic repeatedly, both a scheduled topic and something to be repeatedly referred to in segments as a baseline. Sexism came up once and only once, in the segment with the 'expert' priest.

The Morning Show's attitude towards the struggle of women towards full equality was probably best represented by one guest. As Ruth observed, January 12th, 'progressive' David Swanson laid down the Party line on feminism: ". . . end slavery, give women the right to vote, to win . . ." There were battles fought, David Swanson wanted the world to know, and, oh, along the way, men GAVE women the right to vote.

Women fought for the right to vote. They fought and they won.

There's not a damn MLK day that goes by when the 'progressive' gasbags don't insist that MLK adopted from Ghandi civil disobedience. Where did Ghandi first observe civil disobedience? From the suffragette movement. No one ever wants to tell you that on KPFA.

But why would they if women were "given" the right to vote. When a 144-year movement, battle, to be able to vote can be turned into a 'gift' to women from those wise and generous men, you're getting a good look at just how much 'progressives' and The Morning Show devalues women and their accomplishments.

Remember these numbers: 123 guests, 89 of the men, only 34 of them women. The numbers paint a picture, a very ugly one.