kasia
10-16-2004, 05:11 PM
recently, hustler magazine & larry flynt have launched a series of attacks toward various radio personalities of KPFK (Pacifica radio). the situation is a result of this.
Not in Our Name, an anti-war org, decided to ask Hustler mag to partner with them for more exposure. Not in Our Name is a respectable group - i've met several leaders from their organization. extremely progressive and active. but to take a step like partnering with a magazine that promotes sexism, racism, and rape, in my opinion, forces many of their supporters to either turn away or compromise their own values.
KPFK host Aura Bogoda caught this and sent them an email:
KPFK’s RESIDENT RACIST AURA BOGADO’S FIRST EMAIL
I am outraged that NION LA would use an endorsement from a misogynist like Larry Flynt to garner attention to what may very well be one of the biggest demonstrations in recent history. I will be in New York because as a woman of color, I want to stand against oppression and domination in all its forms. Sexism and racism are a flagrant part of Flynt's capitalist exploitation. I visited larryflynt.com and linked to an interesting article titled, "The Rape Shield Law: It's Just Wrong". In it, Flynt essentializes feminists as "anti-men", and says that Rape Shield laws create an "uneven playing field" for rape victims. It's very easy to kill Iraqis when we de-humanize them. By de-humanizing women through pornography it's similarly easy to rape them and say laws are created that give these women and unfair advantage.
For these reasons and more, remove me from NION LA's list, and take a minute to consider who "Our" stands for "Not In Our Name". To me, "our" stands for the People, not the Pigs like Flynt. I want to create alliances, but not when they threaten the core of my liberation.
Aura Bogado
Producer/Host
KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles
in response, a Hustler writer responds, in essence calling Aura a butch and outspoken community advocate Sonali Kolahtkar a "merchant of hate." (Sonali was the deejay who invited us on her show during the Anna Guo case). hustler threatened to denounce kpfk in their upcoming issue. they further proceeded to call the staff of KPFK "Stalinists."
in the below message, flynt speaks repeatedly about how aura is racist and anti-Anglo men. if you read her email above, however, there is absolutely no mention of flynt's race, nor did it seem like she was inclined to go there.
FLYNT TOUCHES OFF PROGRESSIVE RANGE WAR
Larry Flynt’s support this week for the national action group Not In Our Name’s demand of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg drew a screeching rebuke from hard-line men-haters in the group. One member of NION, radio show host Aura Bogado, launched into hysterics in an email denouncing Flynt’s support and distancing herself from the activist group.
Bogado’s hate-addled, racist rant against Anglo heterosexual males touched off dueling emails between Hustler magazine editors (and lifelong liberals) and KPFK station personnel, including Bogado. The broadsides were fired in front of a growing audience of hundreds of influential progressives across the
country—thanks to email trees and blogs.
What follows are the actual emails as they came online:
INITIAL EMAIL ALERT OF FLYNT’S SUPPORT FOR NION ALERT!!! ALERT!!!
Larryflynt.com has just posted the NION call for a massive, public media campaign
to pressure Mayor Bloomberg to grant permits for Central Park demonstrations!!!
Check it out! (just dont look at the pictures) www.larryflynt.com
HUSTLER ISSUES CHALLENGE TO KPFK
Revealing both their true agenda of censorship as well as a hatred of heterosexual Anglo males that motivates much of their philosophy, the Fifth Column of Stalinists posing as Progressives at Pacifica’s KPFK radio in Los Angeles have again misled their listeners and outright lied about Hustler magazine and us, two of its editors.
During an email exchange that started on August 25th which pitted us against KPFK’s Aura Bogado and Jamie Lee over a proposed alliance between Not In Our Name (NION) and Hustler, we confronted Bogado in mass emails for making what we consider to be clear and undeniable racist and sexist attacks as well as employing ugly smears in an effort to exclude us from supporting NION.
On September 1st, KPFK host Sonali Kolhatkar dedicated her show to the issue of pornography and took the opportunity to again defend Bogado’s racist, sexist attack on Flynt, Hustler and heterosexual Anglo males. Since Kolhatkar refuses to deal with this debate truthfully, let’s again establish a few facts:
A) NION first approached Hustler and asked for support of their efforts in NYC. We repeat: NION FIRST APPROACHED HUSTLER and asked for support.
B) Hustler agreed to support a fellow progressive cause and posted the requested information on LarryFlynt.com.
C) Aura Bogado launched into a high-octane tirade at the news of Hustler’s support, called Flynt a “Pig,” essentially accused him of supporting rape and casually intimated a link bewteen Hustler and child pornography. In an ensuing mass email Bogado then decried that “it’s alright to be a white male” after Sept. 11th (as apparently it was not all right to be white, male and heterosexual before the terror attacks?)
D) After reading through a couple of her emails that were laced with anti-Anglo, anti-male heterosexual screeds, we responded forcefully, confronting the venom that Bogado apparently believes she is entitled to spew because she is a self-declared “oppressed woman of color.” (Does that make us “privileged non-gay males not-of-color?”)
Look, had Bogado simply fired off an email stating she doesn’t believe in what Hustler does or that she believes an alliance with a pornographer is wrong, we would have no problem with that—though we would wholeheartedly disagree.
But Bogado attacked us in a very racist, sexist manner and smeared us to boot.
Why is Larry a “Pig?” Because he publishes explicit depictions of consenting adults having sex that some people object to? How is it NOT ok to be a white, heterosexual male? How is publishing, editing or reading Hustler synonymous with rape and child pornography?
Since she made these statements, we call upon Bogado to elaborate on them. As she dismissively noted to Robert Corsini that she was “bothered that he felt entitled” to question her, it seems clear to us that Bogado is as arrogant as George W.—she doesn’t feel she has to explain herself or her positions.
This was borne out when we confronted Bogado in mass emails of our own, as she did what extremists often do—she hid. Her supporters, specifically Jamie Lee and Alan Minsky of KPFK, didn’t bother directly addressing the inherent racism and sexism in Bogado’s tirade, but instead Lee took the lead in asserting that our daring to question Bogado’s ideology and motives was “misogynistic” and “very dangerous.”
Minsky just shuffled around making excuses for Bogado.
We suppose our comments were very dangerous—to the extent that people who spread racist hate never like to be challenged and become frightened when confronted.
Kolhatkar’s show on Sept. 1st stooped to a new low by picking up the nonsense started by Jamie Lee and carrying that ball further, calling our emails confronting Bogado “abuse” and claiming we had “threatened” her. While we have never threatened anyone, one of Kolhatkar’s guests on Sept. 1st was the infamous Diana Russell, the Mills College ‘professor’ who as repeatedly come within a hair’s-breadth of publicly calling for the murder of Flynt. “How I wish that Flynt’s would-be murderer had been a better shot!”
Russell told the San Francisco Chronicle on March 11th of this year. “I hate and despise this man…”
As Larry is a heterosexual, Anglo male, this vitriol apparently is sanctioned by Kolhatkar, Bogado, Lee and, sadly, Minsky (who doesn’t seem able or willing to raise his voice against such blatant advocates for violent sexist racism).
But to state, as Kolhatkar and Lee have that we “threatened” Bogado is simply an outright lie.
And it’s a lie that was spoken to the listeners of KPFK without the benefit of a rebuttal. In fact, Kolhatkar had every opportunity to call us before the show and give us the chance to defend ourselves, but she chose not to—and this is progressive?
Accordingly, we challenge Aura Bogado, Sonali Kolhatkar and Jamie Lee to meet us in debate. We will open up five (5) pages in Hustler to feature the debate in print (edited only for space) and it must be broadcast on KPFK unedited, as well as streamed on both KPFK and LarryFlynt.com websites.
While the cadre of Stalinists who have wormed their way into KPFK may hope that we will fall silent in the face of their hate-based lies, to the contrary we intend to employ every asset at our disposal to continue to challenge them and their agenda, all the while building bridges with those in the true Progressive community who understand that alliances aren’t ideologically pure marriages that demand total fidelity to a single cause, but rather working relationships for a goal of the common good.
We haven’t and won’t back out of a movement we believe in or turn away from friends just because Aura Bogado may also be a member. At the same time, we’ll be damned if we let her own racist, sexist attacks keep us silent or force us out of the cause.
Sincerely,
Bruce David & Mark Cromer
Hustler
i though this was interesting because, as women of color, we are often placed in positions to have to choose between furthering an end that would benefit that API community but would compromise our values as a woman OR maintaining our intergrity by foregoing that path but also hurting the API community. how do you all feel about this?
Not in Our Name, an anti-war org, decided to ask Hustler mag to partner with them for more exposure. Not in Our Name is a respectable group - i've met several leaders from their organization. extremely progressive and active. but to take a step like partnering with a magazine that promotes sexism, racism, and rape, in my opinion, forces many of their supporters to either turn away or compromise their own values.
KPFK host Aura Bogoda caught this and sent them an email:
KPFK’s RESIDENT RACIST AURA BOGADO’S FIRST EMAIL
I am outraged that NION LA would use an endorsement from a misogynist like Larry Flynt to garner attention to what may very well be one of the biggest demonstrations in recent history. I will be in New York because as a woman of color, I want to stand against oppression and domination in all its forms. Sexism and racism are a flagrant part of Flynt's capitalist exploitation. I visited larryflynt.com and linked to an interesting article titled, "The Rape Shield Law: It's Just Wrong". In it, Flynt essentializes feminists as "anti-men", and says that Rape Shield laws create an "uneven playing field" for rape victims. It's very easy to kill Iraqis when we de-humanize them. By de-humanizing women through pornography it's similarly easy to rape them and say laws are created that give these women and unfair advantage.
For these reasons and more, remove me from NION LA's list, and take a minute to consider who "Our" stands for "Not In Our Name". To me, "our" stands for the People, not the Pigs like Flynt. I want to create alliances, but not when they threaten the core of my liberation.
Aura Bogado
Producer/Host
KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles
in response, a Hustler writer responds, in essence calling Aura a butch and outspoken community advocate Sonali Kolahtkar a "merchant of hate." (Sonali was the deejay who invited us on her show during the Anna Guo case). hustler threatened to denounce kpfk in their upcoming issue. they further proceeded to call the staff of KPFK "Stalinists."
in the below message, flynt speaks repeatedly about how aura is racist and anti-Anglo men. if you read her email above, however, there is absolutely no mention of flynt's race, nor did it seem like she was inclined to go there.
FLYNT TOUCHES OFF PROGRESSIVE RANGE WAR
Larry Flynt’s support this week for the national action group Not In Our Name’s demand of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg drew a screeching rebuke from hard-line men-haters in the group. One member of NION, radio show host Aura Bogado, launched into hysterics in an email denouncing Flynt’s support and distancing herself from the activist group.
Bogado’s hate-addled, racist rant against Anglo heterosexual males touched off dueling emails between Hustler magazine editors (and lifelong liberals) and KPFK station personnel, including Bogado. The broadsides were fired in front of a growing audience of hundreds of influential progressives across the
country—thanks to email trees and blogs.
What follows are the actual emails as they came online:
INITIAL EMAIL ALERT OF FLYNT’S SUPPORT FOR NION ALERT!!! ALERT!!!
Larryflynt.com has just posted the NION call for a massive, public media campaign
to pressure Mayor Bloomberg to grant permits for Central Park demonstrations!!!
Check it out! (just dont look at the pictures) www.larryflynt.com
HUSTLER ISSUES CHALLENGE TO KPFK
Revealing both their true agenda of censorship as well as a hatred of heterosexual Anglo males that motivates much of their philosophy, the Fifth Column of Stalinists posing as Progressives at Pacifica’s KPFK radio in Los Angeles have again misled their listeners and outright lied about Hustler magazine and us, two of its editors.
During an email exchange that started on August 25th which pitted us against KPFK’s Aura Bogado and Jamie Lee over a proposed alliance between Not In Our Name (NION) and Hustler, we confronted Bogado in mass emails for making what we consider to be clear and undeniable racist and sexist attacks as well as employing ugly smears in an effort to exclude us from supporting NION.
On September 1st, KPFK host Sonali Kolhatkar dedicated her show to the issue of pornography and took the opportunity to again defend Bogado’s racist, sexist attack on Flynt, Hustler and heterosexual Anglo males. Since Kolhatkar refuses to deal with this debate truthfully, let’s again establish a few facts:
A) NION first approached Hustler and asked for support of their efforts in NYC. We repeat: NION FIRST APPROACHED HUSTLER and asked for support.
B) Hustler agreed to support a fellow progressive cause and posted the requested information on LarryFlynt.com.
C) Aura Bogado launched into a high-octane tirade at the news of Hustler’s support, called Flynt a “Pig,” essentially accused him of supporting rape and casually intimated a link bewteen Hustler and child pornography. In an ensuing mass email Bogado then decried that “it’s alright to be a white male” after Sept. 11th (as apparently it was not all right to be white, male and heterosexual before the terror attacks?)
D) After reading through a couple of her emails that were laced with anti-Anglo, anti-male heterosexual screeds, we responded forcefully, confronting the venom that Bogado apparently believes she is entitled to spew because she is a self-declared “oppressed woman of color.” (Does that make us “privileged non-gay males not-of-color?”)
Look, had Bogado simply fired off an email stating she doesn’t believe in what Hustler does or that she believes an alliance with a pornographer is wrong, we would have no problem with that—though we would wholeheartedly disagree.
But Bogado attacked us in a very racist, sexist manner and smeared us to boot.
Why is Larry a “Pig?” Because he publishes explicit depictions of consenting adults having sex that some people object to? How is it NOT ok to be a white, heterosexual male? How is publishing, editing or reading Hustler synonymous with rape and child pornography?
Since she made these statements, we call upon Bogado to elaborate on them. As she dismissively noted to Robert Corsini that she was “bothered that he felt entitled” to question her, it seems clear to us that Bogado is as arrogant as George W.—she doesn’t feel she has to explain herself or her positions.
This was borne out when we confronted Bogado in mass emails of our own, as she did what extremists often do—she hid. Her supporters, specifically Jamie Lee and Alan Minsky of KPFK, didn’t bother directly addressing the inherent racism and sexism in Bogado’s tirade, but instead Lee took the lead in asserting that our daring to question Bogado’s ideology and motives was “misogynistic” and “very dangerous.”
Minsky just shuffled around making excuses for Bogado.
We suppose our comments were very dangerous—to the extent that people who spread racist hate never like to be challenged and become frightened when confronted.
Kolhatkar’s show on Sept. 1st stooped to a new low by picking up the nonsense started by Jamie Lee and carrying that ball further, calling our emails confronting Bogado “abuse” and claiming we had “threatened” her. While we have never threatened anyone, one of Kolhatkar’s guests on Sept. 1st was the infamous Diana Russell, the Mills College ‘professor’ who as repeatedly come within a hair’s-breadth of publicly calling for the murder of Flynt. “How I wish that Flynt’s would-be murderer had been a better shot!”
Russell told the San Francisco Chronicle on March 11th of this year. “I hate and despise this man…”
As Larry is a heterosexual, Anglo male, this vitriol apparently is sanctioned by Kolhatkar, Bogado, Lee and, sadly, Minsky (who doesn’t seem able or willing to raise his voice against such blatant advocates for violent sexist racism).
But to state, as Kolhatkar and Lee have that we “threatened” Bogado is simply an outright lie.
And it’s a lie that was spoken to the listeners of KPFK without the benefit of a rebuttal. In fact, Kolhatkar had every opportunity to call us before the show and give us the chance to defend ourselves, but she chose not to—and this is progressive?
Accordingly, we challenge Aura Bogado, Sonali Kolhatkar and Jamie Lee to meet us in debate. We will open up five (5) pages in Hustler to feature the debate in print (edited only for space) and it must be broadcast on KPFK unedited, as well as streamed on both KPFK and LarryFlynt.com websites.
While the cadre of Stalinists who have wormed their way into KPFK may hope that we will fall silent in the face of their hate-based lies, to the contrary we intend to employ every asset at our disposal to continue to challenge them and their agenda, all the while building bridges with those in the true Progressive community who understand that alliances aren’t ideologically pure marriages that demand total fidelity to a single cause, but rather working relationships for a goal of the common good.
We haven’t and won’t back out of a movement we believe in or turn away from friends just because Aura Bogado may also be a member. At the same time, we’ll be damned if we let her own racist, sexist attacks keep us silent or force us out of the cause.
Sincerely,
Bruce David & Mark Cromer
Hustler
i though this was interesting because, as women of color, we are often placed in positions to have to choose between furthering an end that would benefit that API community but would compromise our values as a woman OR maintaining our intergrity by foregoing that path but also hurting the API community. how do you all feel about this?