Nearly a week after canceling a speaking event by investigative journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, Lannan Foundation founder Patrick Lannan publicly attributed the decision to poor ticket sales — and not censorship.

On Wednesday, Pilger called his statement "ridiculous."

The U.K.-based journalist was scheduled to have an onstage dialogue with Alternative Radio's David Barsamian on Wednesday as part of the Lannan Foundation's Readings & Conversations series.

"There was not the slightest hint from Lannan right up to last week that this reason was in any way valid," Pilger wrote in an email to The New Mexican castigating Lannan. "On the contrary, I was told my two events had been 'proving very popular' ...

"Do you ignore repeated personal appeals for an explanation?" he continued. "The e-mail traffic on this between Lannan and me makes a fool of Patrick Lannan's current attempt to cover his outrageous act. But he is not a fool. He canceled my event as only a rich and powerful individual can, for a reason he is not saying.

"What he is saying, at the very least, is that his wealth and power give him the capricious license to do what he wants when he wants without explanation and regardless of the consequences. For him to now claim a self-regarding mantle as a patron of dissenters is disingenuous and absurd."

In his statement Tuesday explaining the decision, Lannan said, "Last week we learned from the Lensic that only 152 tickets had been sold, despite extensive full-page advertising. (The Lensic has 820 seats.) It became apparent to us that the Lensic event was not viable. In our opinion, to have Mr. Pilger travel thousands of miles from London to Santa Fe to face such a low turn-out would have been embarrassing to him."

Lannan Foundation staff emailed their boss's statement to local newspapers and to Pilger.

Barsamian said last Friday that the reasons were "a total mystery" to him.

"I was just there a couple weeks ago ... and Patrick said, 'Wow, looking forward to this. It's going to be great.' I didn't have a hint of any dis-ease."

The founder and director of Alternative Radio, based in Boulder, Colo., said the deletion of this event from Lannan's calendar was a bad business move.

"I don't think it's because Bernie Madoff was found in the foundation accounts or something. I presume they've lost the Lensic rent, or part of it. It's bewildering. There's something here that we're not seeing."

Besides the talk at the Lensic, Pilger was scheduled to introduce the U.S. premiere of his newest documentary film, The War You Don't See, tonight at The Screen. A question-and-answer session was planned to follow the screening.

Proceeds for ticket sales from both events were to go to the two venues, the Lensic and The Screen, so lack of profit was clearly not the issue for Lannan.

"It's not the cost, it's the principle," said Christie Mazuera Davis, director of the foundation's contemporary art and public programs, in an interview at Lannan's Read Street office. "This doesn't reflect that great on John, whom we were trying to protect, but he's turned it into this situation. ... He could have very graciously taken his check and said, 'I'm sorry it didn't work out.'

"This was not censorship of John Pilger's talk or the film," Mazuera Davis stressed. "The film actually I sent out as part of our community outreach program ... and we were paying him an honorarium in addition to the one he was getting for his appearance at the Lensic. He has been paid the full amount. I don't know why he hasn't mentioned that."

She said even Lannan-presented readings by esoteric poets draw audiences of 400 — the organization's bottom line for events at the Lensic.

In letters to the editor and phone calls, people have proposed all kinds of theories about the cancellation, including that the U.S. government is pressuring Lannan to block Pilger's messages.

"It's so false and unjustified," Mazuera Davis said. "There is a reason that it was canceled that we thought was an internal matter. ... With a man of John Pilger's stature, we should have sold a lot more tickets. It is strange, but in the meantime, he has made this all about the film, and we don't even do films. ... We're not capable of 'banning' a film. The stance he has taken has not been very kind.

"Also, it's interesting that people have so much energy to be mad that we canceled it, but they weren't going to go to the event," she added.

Barsamian (who also has been paid his honorarium for the canceled talk) said the idea that Patrick Lannan's decision was based on timidity just doesn't ring true. He cited previous talks by himself as well as by Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and Robert Fisk, to name a few outspoken democracy activists.

"The list is extraordinary. There is no other organization in the country doing work like this, at this level," Barsamian said. "Pilger is no threat to the American state or capitalism. He's not well-known here at all, compared to some of the other voices Lannan has had. ... Lannan has a record of fearlessness."

Barsamian predicted that, "Something is going to surface. They can't keep a lid on this."

In his June 14 statement to the public, Patrick Lannan also offered an apology: "The Foundation regrets that the reason for the cancellation was not explained to Mr. Pilger or to the public at the time the decision was made."

He concluded, "Lannan Foundation's record of supporting outspoken writers and social justice activists speaks for itself. Upcoming speakers for our public events include Richard Wolff, Tariq Ali, and Norman Finkelstein.

"The Foundation will have no further comment on this issue."

Pilger isn't currently scheduled to appear in person in Santa Fe, but he will hold a question-and-answer session — by Skype — with the audience at the country's first screening of The War You Don't See. That takes place at 7 p.m. June 23 at The Screen. For information, call 473-6494.

Contact Paul Weideman at 986-3043 or pweideman@sfnewmexican.com.