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by Craig Sailor <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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(8-6-20) — Tacoma public radio station KNKX dropped weather commentator Cliff Mass on Thursday after the University of Washington meteorology professor compared recent violent incidents during Seattle civil rights protests to\u00a0Kristallnacht<\/a>, or the \u201cNight of Broken Glass,\u201d during the Nazi Germany era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass made the comparison on his immensely popular weather blog<\/a> Wednesday. Since then, outrage has bellowed across the social media landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KNKX announced Thursday evening it was ending its relationship with Mass immediately.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c … if a commentator, even on his own independent platform,<\/strong> delivers rhetoric that is offensive and inaccurate, we cannot support it,\u201d the station wrote on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nazi-organized Kristallnacht destroyed over 250 synagogues and 7,000 Jewish businesses, cemeteries and homes in 1938. Mass likened the graffiti, smashed windows and threats to public officials of recent Seattle Black Lives Matter protests to Kristallnacht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe abhor the comparison and find it sensationalized and misleading \u2014 it does not reflect who we are and what we stand for at KNKX,\u201d the station said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the blog post dealt with Mass\u2019s impressions on a recent walking tour of downtown Seattle where some businesses remain boarded up and where he witnessed an alleged drug transaction. He had harsh criticism for Seattle leadership and Gov. Jay Inslee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeattle citizens had every right to express strong views in public about their concerns for our nation\u2019s Black citizens,\u201d Mass said. \u201cBut many of the marches and gatherings turned violent and destructive, breaking windows, burning cars, looting stores, and deliberately harming police who tried to restore safety and order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass later removed the Kristallnacht comparison from the blog and said he was referring only to the violent aspects of the protests. There was some support of Mass\u2019s post but most comments were negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did not think that my UW colleague Cliff Mass could lower my opinion of my UW colleague Cliff Mass,\u201d wrote UW bilology professor Carl Bergstrom on Twitter. \u201cI was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass called KNKX\u2019s decision to remove him hasty and based on pressure from a social media \u201cmob.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s two types of mobs that will undermine civil society,\u201d Mass told The News Tribune Friday afternoon. \u201cOne of the mobs does physical violence. They destroy stores and hurt people. And that\u2019s what my blog was about. And then there\u2019s the other mob, a social media mob who cannot tolerate people with a different viewpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2016, Mass was a vocal supporter of KNKX\u2019s successful campaign<\/a> to buy its way out of Pacific Lutheran University, where it had broadcast for decades as KPLU. The station and its network of 12 broadcast signals across western Washington were coveted by the weaker signaled but better funded Seattle public radio station KUOW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before he started delivering his weekly weather segments, \u201cThe Weather With Cliff Mass,\u201d with KNKX\u2019s environmental reporter Bellamy Pailthorp<\/a>, Mass served the same role at KUOW for 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KUOW and Mass parted ways acrimoniously in 2011 after he veered off topic while on the air. He was complaining about a Seattle Times story on UW student-acceptance practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I got canned by KUOW, KPLU called the next day,\u201d Mass told The News Tribune in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass is no stranger to controversy. He has downplayed the threat of COVID-19<\/a> as media hype and government overreaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some accuse him of being a climate-change denier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass maintains the charge is unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c(Climate change is) real,\u201d he told The News Tribune in 2013. \u201cSome people exaggerated what\u2019s happened so far. That\u2019s been the big tension. Some people are so concerned about global warming they feel they have to hype what\u2019s already happened. Most of global warming is ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, Mass said those who oppose his views on climate change<\/a> almost got him removed from KNKX in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cActivists didn\u2019t like what I was saying on my blog, and they thought that that was a reason to kick me off of the radio station,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KNKX brought in an outside consultant to review Mass\u2019s on-air and off-air work as well as address complaints about him that had been raised in a petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do not find that Mass\u2019 KNKX weather segment consistently misrepresents climate science, as the petition claimed,\u201d Elizabeth Jensen, a public editor for National Public Radio, concluded in an analysis<\/a> she conducted for KNKX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The environmental organization 350 Tacoma celebrated Mass\u2019s dismissal on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been involved in coalition work over the past year \u2014 led by 350 Seattle with 350 Eastside, 350 Everett and 350 Tacoma \u2014 to petition KNKX to retire Cliff Mass because of his frequent statements minimizing the urgency of climate science,\u201d the group posted on its website. \u201cWe hope that the work we did collectively helped to lay the foundation for today\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass maintains it\u2019s his right to speak on whatever subject he wants to on his personal blog.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you see something that\u2019s profoundly wrong, you should act,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, it obviously would be easier for me to be Mr. Happy Weatherman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass pointed to the work he\u2019s done, including securing the installation of a crucial weather radar station on the Washington coast, as the good he\u2019s done for the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve worked very hard to improve society and that\u2019s what this is,\u201d he said of his recent blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mass, who is Jewish, said his background informs his take on society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll these terrible things we\u2019re done to my people … and German people stayed silent,\u201d Mass said. \u201cPeople were afraid to say anything. And no one would intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Craig Sailor (8-6-20) — Tacoma public radio station KNKX dropped weather commentator Cliff Mass on Thursday after the University of Washington meteorology professor compared recent violent incidents during Seattle civil rights protests to\u00a0Kristallnacht, or the \u201cNight of Broken Glass,\u201d … Continue reading
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