The Maui News editorial of May 16-17 rightly calls the much-watched online video “Plandemic” untrue and discredited. It is also dangerous, as it serves up paranoid conspiracy lies that undermine the work of public health officials and health professionals. 

However, you don’t have to go online to get this kind of nonsense. Maui’s own KAKU Radio (88.5 FM) (a division of Akaku) has been serving up a steady stream of similar lies from the likes of religious extremist Pastor John Shuck, renegade physician Annie Bukacek, M.D., and Pastor Chuck Baldwin. These are all Mainland COVID-19 deniers or minimizers who oppose wearing masks, temporarily closing businesses and churches, and physical distancing. 

Baldwin says these measures are demonic attacks by socialists who are waging psychic warfare on religious people. Bukacek claims the pandemic is a lie concocted by profiteers who are making money by vastly overstating the dangers of COVID-19 and the number of deaths it has caused. Shuck amplifies these claims in interviews with Baldwin and Bukacek, which KAKU broadcasts.

I have repeatedly complained to Akaku about these broadcasts by email and requested rebuttal time, but I get no reply. It is not clear who is responsible for the material since the Akaku website does not provide the names of the programmers in charge. Akaku says it is “committed to being your community resource during these unprecedented times.” Unfortunately, the clique that runs the station is not providing the kind of resource Maui needs now or ever. 

Kurt Butler

Makawao