The theme song to THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW got it wrong, censorship, not love, is what's all around these days. Case in point, the following comment.
That's our community's Ann and she was commenting on an article at WSWS entitled "YouTube personality Jimmy Dore promotes fascist Boogaloo Boy." She was commenting on Eric London's article . . . until her comment was -- as noted below her name above the comment -- "Removed."
WSWS, for those who missed it, has been whining repeatedly about it being censored. But it's more than happy to censor others.
What's objectionable about Ann's comment? What 'community standard' did it violate?
Nothing and none are the answers.
Before we get to Jimmy Dore, let's get to what Ann's talking about because it's important.
The SEP published WSWS. Many do not know that. We didn't know that for years and when Sharon Smith would e-mail this site or THE COMMON ILLS about how we had taken a position because we were pro-SEP, we were honestly confused. The now defunct SOCIALIST WORKER was Sharon's main outlet and they were at war with WSWS -- WORLD SOCIALISM WEB SITE. We didn't know there were sides and our opinions didn't change after we knew there were sides. [For some of this, see this site's "The Sharon Smith Roundtable" and Elaine's "Sharon Smith is such a s**t" -- both from 2010.]
We're not interested in their squabbles -- or weren't. Due to sexism, and apparently harassment and rape, the US SOCIALIST WORKER imploded.
But while it was around, if it had a strong point, we were willing to note that. The same with WSWS. They didn't get along? That was an issue for them, not us. We were never pitting WSWS' politics against US SOCIALIST WORKER's politics -- we did find WSWS to be less naive and considered them both to be Socialist publications -- they, however, considered each other to be fraudulent.
WSWS is still around and that's good for WSWS but it's bad for SEP.
SEP is a political party. It's not much of a political party, it's small and embarrassing.
Ann's comments go to that.
Joseph Kishore. If you know the name, you may know it from here or one of this community's websites. He ran for president, on the SEP ticket, in 2020. Wait. That's not worded correctly. He was given the SEP's presidential nomination. He didn't do anything with it. To claim he ran a campaign is to insult others -- Howie Hawkins, Jo Jorgensen and Gloria La Riva, for example -- who weren't part of the duopoly and worked their butts off. While Howie, Jo and Gloria worked hard to reach out to potential voters, Joseph didn't really do a damn thing -- except maybe violated FEC rules?
His campaign site repeatedly posted 'campaign statements.' They weren't statements. They were WSWS articles -- most written by someone other than Joseph. Where is the wall between SEP campaigns and the WSWS -- someone needs to define that wall and it may end up being the Federal Election Commission.
Despite raiding WSWS for content to post at Kishore's campaign website, they still couldn't deliver regular content. WSWS publishes at least five days a week, multiple article. But Joseph couldn't post content regularly. He also apparently felt the best way to turn out the vote was basically to go on vacation from September to the November election day. Jo was barnstorming the country, Howie and Gloria were doing online events and Joseph was . . . sitting on his lazy ass.
This isn't how you run a presidential campaign and it isn't how you build a national party. Following the 2020 election, WSWS published a ton of articles but, to this day, not one has bothered to turn a critical eye towards their own failures and argue how they can improve things for the inevitable 2024 campaign. On the left, many of us have rightly noted that the Democratic Party had a critical failure when they refused to seriously address what had gone wrong in the 2016 presidential race. Instead of looking at how to improve their next campaign, they focused on nutty conspiracy talk of Russia. We'd argue a serious examination needs to take place of the 2020 primary race and the 2020 general election race -- despite the Democratic Party win in the general election. But we especially believe that a losing run needs to be examined and learned from.
Is the SEP incapable of learning?
Here's one thing that might help them: Pick a candidate -- a real one -- before the election year.
SEP doesn't primary. They just decide who they're going to run. January 27, 2020, they announced who their candidate would be (Kishore). It's a bunch of a closed door decisions where they reward each other but pretend like they're all about representation and building a party.
If they're not going to be a real party -- i.e. one that at least pretends to listen to their party members -- then they at least need to pick someone capable of running a campaign. Someone who can write an actual campaign statement -- not just repost WSWS articles. Someone who can get off their lazy ass and do videos every week to get the word out on the party and on the candidate. Someone who can offer a very clear and concise explanation of what the SEP is and how being elected president would improve the lives of others.
Which brings us to Jimmy Dore. We like Jimmy, we like THE JIMMY DORE SHOW. That doesn't mean the show can't be better. We could all be better -- including us. But, December 30th, one of us was noting that Jimmy, Katie, Krystal and others needed to expand their guest lists. Jimmy invited WSWS' Jerry White on last week and it all went to hell. Our first thought, "We didn't push that, did we?" No, thankfully, we were arguing just for Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford to be featured as guests. So this can't be pinned on us.
Jimmy did try to expand the range of his guests and invited Jerry White of WSWS on which would provide Jerry with an audience he might not usually reach. It could be good for the SEP, good for WSWS and good for Jerry. It could be good for viewers to hear a Socialist explain what the people need from the current administration. There was a chance for a real dialogue that could really have an impact.
Jerry blew that chance and blew his appearance on THE JIMMY DORE SHOW. Jimmy hosts a talk show. He interviews many people. Jerry was ticked over the guest before. He didn't like the guest before. That's his right. He can be as queeny as he wants. Bette Davis used to pitch a fit over some of the women on talk shows -- once she was over fifty, she could be a real bitch about a 20-something female being featured on the same episode she was guesting on.
But while Bette kept her anger off camera, Jerry decided to play queen bitch on camera and have a freak fit. That's how he used his time.
It wasn't, as Ann pointed out, time used wisely. He attacked the guest from the previous segment, he demanded the guest be censored, he yelled and hollered and ensured that he wouldn't be invited back on -- probably that no one from WSWS would be brought on. His antics didn't paint WSWS or the SEP in a kind light.
Again, most people don't know the SEP and aren't aware of the connection it has to WSWS -- even people who read WSWS. This was a major interview opportunity. This was a chance to create interest in the SEP and its positions. Instead, Jerry was a flamer carrying out a flame war.
WSWS comes off a little unhinged from time to time. They spent months, for example, telling readers that Donald Trump would refuse to leave the White House and use the military to keep him in place. This deranged 'coverage' wasn't unlike the coverage they offered in 2013 where they were offering lies about Boston and what was taking place there . . . based on coverage by people who weren't even in Boston. As Trina noted in real time, despite WSWS' 'reporting,' Boston was not under martial law.
At times like that, we wonder what they've been smoking? And why the hell they don't share it with us?
Mainly, we wonder about their hypocrisy.
It's whining. When you call for the censorship of others -- or when you censor them yourself -- and then you get censored? If you're objecting to that, you're whining.
There's an easy way to not whine -- stand against censorship. But that was too much for Jerry White and it was too much for WSWS.
So they wrote an article calling Jimmy a racist. As Ann pointed out, they're a little too White, White, White to get away with that. That's their staff, that's their outlook.
This isn't a WAR ON WSWS! piece. We'll continue to note them when they have a valid point. And we'll call them out when needed. Trina, for example, called out Joseph Kishore for lying in 2012. They do that a lot and it always seems to be for the Democratic Party. Yet, please remember, they always accused the US SOCIALIST WORKER of doing that and they now accuse JACOBIN of the same thing. They really seem to struggle with hypocrisy at WSWS.
Jimmy Dore is not perfect and he would never argue that he was. But what he was doing with his talk show was worthy of applause. He tries to have a conversation with people -- not one group of people -- he wants to further understanding -- of ourselves and others. That's something to applaud. We're still scratching our heads over why Jerry White and WSWS are so threatened by that?
