James Rainey on L.A.'s Pacifica station KPFK also passes as a comment on local poetry.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES' media critic James Rainey had a column in yesterday's CALENDAR section; the column was essentially a moan about why KPFK-FM, the leftist Pacifica station, isn't capable of becoming more disciplined and safe-left like National Public Radio.

Here's a paragraph from that article, describing a split in the local KPFK board (highlighting by me):

"What remained was an elected board divided between two groups that I'll call the Liberal Pragmatists, who crave predictability, professionalism and bigger audiences, and the Ecumenical Fundamentalists, who want every subgroup given voice with public-access TV style purity."

With the exception of "bigger audiences" (something that local poetry doesn't really want due to fear of "the wrong people" attending/taking part), Rainey's statement can be taken out of its original context to describe local poetry.

Except that I'd use "Literary Poetry Fundamentalists" to substitute for "Liberal Pragmatists" and "Ecumenical Community Reading Amateurs" substituting for "Ecumenical Fundamentalists."