Happy Fourth of July: Pacifica Radio Talked Communism With Pete Seeger

Pacifica Radio defines the idea of ideological pork barrel. Every year, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting offers community-service grants in the area of about $1 million to Pacifica stations like WPFW in Washington, DC and KPFK in Los Angeles to spew their radical politics. Their flagship show "Democracy Now" celebrated the Fourth of July with an hour with Pete Seeger, the radical socialist folk singer. In this passage, they discussed how Pete's dad was a communist (Pete was a member of the CPUSA after Daddy):

But he, in those early days, linked up with the Communist movement. He and Aaron Copland and Henry Cowell and Marc Blitzstein. They had a thing they called the Composers' Collective. After all, in Russia they had collectives this and collective that. And there, they decided, as skilled musicians, they would compose the new music for the new society. Well, their attempts were laughable. Aaron Copland put music to a poem by Alfred Hayes, same man who wrote "Joe Hill" -- "Into the Streets May 1st." But only a very expert singer could sing it, tremendous range, and only a very expert pianist could accompany it properly. Of course, no proletariat ever sang him.

Amy Goodman's whole interview had the reverent tone of interviewing Grandpa on all his radical exploits. One thing that's great about America is that it's free enough to allow people who completely disagree with America's founding principles to have a right to speak their communist or socialist bilge. One thing that's not great about America is that taxpayers who actually do believe in America's founding principles see their tax dollars sunk into public broadcasting outlets that see no need for objectivity and balance on the taxpayer dime.