-Caveat Lector-
Via Z-Mag.OrG
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
> CONTACT: July 13, 1999
> Belinda Griswold 415-546-6334 x313
> CONTROVERSIAL EMAIL RECEIVED DETAILING POSSIBLE CLOSURE OF KPFA
> AS LAWSUIT IS FILED TO FORCE ACCOUNTABILITY COMMUNITY LEADERS
> DECRY CRACKDOWN
>
> BERKELEY, CA - At a press conference at 1:30 p.m. today, Media
> Alliance Executive Director Andrea Buffa will release a
> controversial email she received yesterday that describes plans
> by Pacifica Radio to close KPFA and possibly sell another
> Pacifica station, WBAI in New York. The email appears to have
> come from Pacifica board of directors member Michael Palmer.
>
> "We are working to confirm the authenticity of this email and
> call on Michael Palmer and Pacifica Board Chair Dr. Mary Frances
> Berry to immediately publicly confirm or refute this email,"
> Buffa said.
>
> Phone calls by Media Alliance and several Pacifica board members
> to Palmer have not been returned. Local Internet service provider
> IGC was contacted about verifying the path by which the email was
> sent to Media Alliance. IGC's tech services department has stated
> that the email looks to have legitimately been sent from Palmer's
> account. The full text of the email is available at www.zmag.org
> or www.counterpunch.org.
>
> The press conference takes place immediately preceding a hearing
> at Berkeley Municipal Court at which charges will be filed
> against a group of peaceful protesters who blocked the entry to
> Pacifica Foundation's office in Berkeley last month. The
> demonstrators prevented Pacifica Foundation Executive Director
> Lynn Chadwick from entering her office on June 22. Chadwick
> initiated a citizen's arrest when Berkeley police refused to cite
> the activists. Local community leaders decried the decision,
> calling it a terrible contradiction.
>
> Meanwhile, a group of local stations' advisory board members from
> Los Angeles, Berkeley and New York is pressing ahead with a
> lawsuit intended to reverse Pacifica's recent governance changes
> that eliminated local say on the national board. Oakland attorney
> Dan Siegel will file suit within the next few days to restore the
> last shred of local control at Pacifica: the ability of local
> station boards to recommend members to the national board. Seigel
> will also attend the press conference. "Pacifica, when faced with
> the question of changing its method of choosing its leadership,
> opted for the least democratic option imaginable. It is time to
> revisit this issue, and it should be unnecesssary to require a
> court order to do so," Siegel said.
>
> Yesterday, Pacifica national board chair Dr. Mary Frances Berry
> arrived in Oakland, told neither staff nor listeners of her
> visit, and attempted to negotiate with KPFA's union leaders. Shop
> stewards met with Berry to remind her of her promise to meet with
> the KPFA steering committee, which both listeners and staff have
> designated as their representative, and refused to negotiate
> further.
>
> KPFA paid staff, volunteers, local advisory board members,
> subscribers, and listeners will continue to press Pacifica to:
>
>
>
> 1) Rehire respected KPFA station manager Nicole Sawaya, whose
> termination touched off massive protests in Berkeley and the
> firing of two veteran programmers because they violated
> Pacifica's on-air "gag rule";
>
> 2) Participate in mediation and allow for investigation of the
> dispute between local interests and the national bureaucracy; and
> 3) Reverse the disciplinary or adverse actions taken against KPFA
> and Pacifica staff since Sawaya's termination.
And the referenced lettre:
> Letter Regarding
> Proposed Pacifica SALE
>
>
>
>
> The following letter was sent to Andrea Buffa, the Executive
> Director of Media Alliance. As the header notes the intention was
> apparently for Michael Palmer of the Pacifica Board to send it to
> Mary Berry the chair of the board. Efforts to determine its
> veracity have been pursued by many actors through many
> avenues...as of yet final authenticity is not absolutely
> certain...the principals are not answering calls, but traces of
> the source do accord with this being a real letter...see: Related
> Press Release
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------
>
> From: Palmer, Micheal @ Houston Galleria,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Mary Francis Berry', [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Hello Dr. Berry,
>
> I salute your fortitude in scheduling a news conference
> opportunity in the beloved Bay Area regarding one of the most
> pressing issues of our time............
>
> But seriously, I was under the impression there was support in
> the proper quarters, and a definite majority, for shutting down
> that unit and re-programming immediately. Has that changed? Is
> there consensus among the national staff that anything other than
> that is acceptable/bearable? I recall Cheryl saying that the
> national staff wanted to know with certitude that they supported
> 100% by the Board in whatever direction was taken; what direction
> is being taken?
>
> As an update for you and Lynn I spoke with the only radio broker
> I know last week and his research shows $750,000-$1.25m for KPFB.
> There would be a very "shallow pool" of buyers for a repeater
> signal such as this and it would be difficult to do a marketing
> effort quietly due to the shortage of buyers. So there is no
> profound latent value to that asset. The primary signal would
> lend itself to a quiet marketing scenario of discreet
> presentation to logical and qualified buyers. This is the best
> radio market in history and while public companies may see a
> dilutive effect from a sale (due to the approximate 12 month
> repositioning effort needed), they would still be aggressive for
> such a signal. Private media companies would be the most
> aggressive in terms of price, which he thinks could be in the
> $65-75m range depending on various aspects of a deal. It would be
> possible to acquire other signals in the area, possibly more than
> one, to re-establish operations, but it could take a few years to
> complete if we want to maximize proceeds from the initial license
> transfer, or leave only $10-20m in arbitrage gain when
> purchase(s) is complete. None of this reflects tax consequences.
> This broker, just like any other that would undertake such an
> effort, would need certain agreements in place prior to starting.
>
> Mary I think any such transfer we would ever consider requires
> significant analysis, not so much regarding a decision to go
> forward, but how to best undertake the effort and to deploy the
> resulting capital with the least amount of tax, legal and social
> disruption. I believe the Finance Committee will undertake a
> close review of the Audigraphics data provided recently to
> determine what it is costing us per listener, per subscriber, per
> market, per hour of programming...in order give the Executive
> Director and the General Managers benchmarks for improvement.
> Even with that data my feeling is that a more beneficial
> disposition would be of the New York signal as there is a smaller
> subscriber base without the long and emotional history as the Bay
> Area, far more associated value, a similarly dysfunctional staff
> though far less effective and an overall better opportunity to
> redefine Pacifica going forward. It is simply the more strategic
> asset.
>
> With this in mind I would encourage frank description of the
> realities of the media enviornment we operate in and of
> Pacifica's available resources to participate and have impact in
> the evolving media world. The Executive Committee, at a minimum,
> should have access to experts (whether from Wall Street, NPR/CPB,
> Microsoft or otherwise) to get a strong reality check (me
> included) about radio and Pacifica's position in it so that
> informed decisions can be made. My feeling is that we are
> experiencing a slow financial death which is having the normal
> emotional outbursts commensurate with such a disease. We will
> continually experience similar events, in fact we have been
> experiencing similar events over the past several years,
> primarily because we are not self supporting through subscriber
> contributions and have a self imposed constraint on asset
> redeployment that leaves us cash starved at a time when our
> industry is being propelled in new directions, each requiring
> capital outlays of consequence. We're boxed in at our own will.
> This board needs to be educated, quickly, and to take action that
> will be far more controversial that the KPFA situation. How can
> we get there?
>
> So, now I've exhaled more than I should, but you know where I'm
> at. Let's do something.
>
>
>
> MDP
>From CounterPunch.OrG
> edited by alexander cockburn and jeffrey st. clair
>
>
>
> July 8, 1999
>
> RACE AND POWER AT PACIFICA RADIO:
>
> The Future and the stakes today
>
> by Rafael Renteria
> former programming and news director, KPFT Houston
>
> DIVERSITY AND POWER:
> THE POLITICS OF DISTORTION
>
> A storm has been unleashed in the struggle over the direction of
> Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, and the battle between
> rebellious staff and listener-sponsors there, on one hand, and
> the Pacifica hierarchy, on the other, has grave implications for
> the future of community broadcasting throughout the US
>
> It is time that the issues at stake receive a thorough
> examination, and , in particular, that the charges of racism
> being leveled at the KPFA group are examined in the actual
> context in which they occur. Indeed, as the Diversity Group (
> which supports Pacifica Executive Director Lynn Chadwick's
> position) suggests, the real issues pertain to Power and in whose
> interests that power will be exercised.
>
> What the Diversity Group consciously ignores, however, are the
> larger questions at play here with respect to the use of
> governmental power and issues of class. The Diversity Group
> shunts aside the fundamental issue at stake, which can be
> formulated as follows: Will Pacifica continue to serve the
> interests of the propertyless and the oppressed, or will its
> programming agenda be mainstreamed to serve the interests of the
> normal functioning of power through containing the content of
> programming within parameters that are acceptable to mainstream
> audiences, and thus to the elites that rule us?
>
> We don't see such fundamental issues formulated or addressed in
> the Diversity Groups paper, instead we encounter in their
> arguments certain buzzwords - like 'diversity' itself - that can
> be made to mean many things to many people - and that are used in
> the context of their communiquÈ to justify, ultimately,
> Pacifica's 'Five Year Plan,' a document that has guided Pacifica
> in the gutting of programs devoted to the constituencies in whose
> interests Pacifica and the Diversity Group claim to be acting.
> But before analyzing these matters in depth, allow me to present
> a very concrete example of what is meant by 'diversity' in the
> realpolitick of Pacifica today.
>
>
>
> THE DEATH OF DIVERSITY:
> THE PACIFICA AGENDA
>
> Mary Francis Berry, Chair of both the US Civil Rights Commission
> and of the Pacifica Board, held, in a talk at Columbia
> University, that Pacifica station KPFT represents the direction
> Pacifica should be moving with respect to diversity. As a former
> Program Director at that station, I have an intimate knowledge of
> just what she means by this. The record here speaks for itself
> and paints its own picture as to who and what is being served by
> Pacifca's Five Year Plan. This, then, is a partial record of the
> changes that have occurred at KPFT, Berry's 'model' of diversity.
>
> KPFT 's locally produced news programming has been completely
> eliminated.
>
> Mid-Day public affairs programming no longer exists.
>
> There is no longer a single public affairs program rooted in the
> Latino community - a community that makes up fully a third of
> Houston's population.
>
> The Persian Program - founded by anti-Shah/ anti-Khomeni
> activists - was eliminated at a time when there was imminent
> danger of war between Iran and US imperialism, as the US had
> warships in the Persian gulf.
>
> The Arabic Hour - one of the most intellectually respectable
> programs on KPFT, was eliminated. during Desert Shield - as the
> US prepared to go to war against Arab Iraq to seize strategic
> control of the world's oil supply.
>
> Gay programming has been significantly cut - its been
> depoliticized - it is no longer the force - or the threat - it
> was when KPFT volunteer programmer Fred Paez, a high profile gay
> activist, was murdered by Houston Police.
>
> Lesbian programming has been driven off the air - including
> Breakthrough - a hugely popular program that was one of the
> stations' highest revenue generators.
>
> There is now one hour of feminist programming each week.
>
> Peace, Pipes and Visions, the Native American program, is gone.
>
> The Atheist program is gone.
>
> The Viet Namese program is gone.
>
> The Chinese program is gone.
>
> The Pakistani program -gone.
>
> Only one Black program remains today at KPFT and an African music
> program.
>
> Variety in musical programming has been dramatically curtailed.
> (While there has been an increase in overall listenership for the
> station, what they are listening to is a homogenized blend of NPR
> style talk programs with a kind of country music format that
> bears no resemblance to the kind of programming the original
> Pacifica Mission statement required.)
>
> The Music of India program is gone after 19 years of service.
> There is not a single Asian program left on KPFT.
>
> Gary Coover's brilliantly produced Celtic music program,
> Shepherd's Hey has fallen, because Gary stood up and spoke out
> against the changes. Indeed, all organized opposition was
> crushed.
>
> KPFT once broadcasted in 8 languages. Today the trend is "English
> Only."
>
> Such, then, is the record. At KPFT, Berry's model for diversity,
> and throughout the network, diversity in programming is
> systematically being killed. These changes represent a protracted
> assault on and betrayal of the values that Pacifica has long
> embodied and represent the essence of Pacifica's Five Year Plan.
> That plan is, in its origin, its effect and as we shall see, in
> its very essence, racist and classist. Similar, though less
> drastic changes have occurred throughout the network, including
> the virtual elimination of Spanish language programming at
> Pacifica's Los Angeles station, KPFK and the elimination of the
> more radical Black programmers at KPFA in Berkeley.
>
> The open letter from the "Diversity Group" asserts the following:
>
> "The problems facing Pacifica and KPFA are not new ones. They
> have existed in various forms for the past 20 years. The
> underlying issue is about power; its overarching theme is about
> diversity and what that means for the future of Pacifica. The
> outcome, whatever that may be, is about how to bring about
> change. Pacifica has defined the change in its long-term vision
> statement as an attempt to make the Pacifica stations more
> relevant and more representative of the audiences that they
> should serve. However, on a local level, the KPFA staff have
> defined the issue as their ability to make programming and
> financial decisions without oversight. These are two completely
> different formulations of the same issue - the exercise of power.
> In the process of staking out these positions, what is lost is
> the common issues that unite Pacifica management, KPFA staff, and
> the community. It is important to remember that the current state
> of affairs at KPFA does not have to be viewed as an "us and them"
> situation, nor do possible solutions have to be limited to
> "either one or the other..."
>
> We can see that, indeed, ONE of the key issues at Pacifica is
> diversity. We can see what the Five Year Plan has meant in
> practice ( that plan is also referred to as the 'vision'
> document') and we can also see , in small part, what is meant -
> and what is not meant- by the term 'relevant and more
> representative of the audiences that they should serve.' It means
> Not serving those audiences, despite the rhetoric of the
> Diversity Group, Berry, Chadwick and Pacifica itself.
>
> THE CPB AND PACIFICA'S 'FIVE YEAR PLAN'
>
> What remains to be seen is the nature of Pacifica's 'vision' in
> the context of governmental string-pulling and pressure to
> mainstream programming throughout the world of public radio, how
> this pressure gave birth to the Five Year Plan and the drastic
> and antidemocratic results of all this in the entirety of the
> Pacifica network-- including the racist and sexist programming
> policies that engendered such heavy changes at KPFT, where the
> Pacifica vision has advanced farthest, union busting efforts on
> the part of Pacifica. Only then can we properly address the issue
> of the demands being raised by the KPFA staff. It is , contrary
> to the Diversity Group position, and 'us or them' situation. What
> follows is a brief sketch of the relationship between
> 'diversity,' Corporation for Public Broadcasting manipulation of
> the direction of programming in public radio, and its impact at
> Pacifica. Perhaps the sharpest and clearest way in which to
> illuminate this process will be to look at it through the lens of
> the allegations of racism leveled By Dr. Berry and the Diversity
> Group against the KPFA staff and supporters...
>
> Lynn Chadwick, Pacifica's Executive Director, comes to us from
> the NFCB ( the National Confederation of Community Broadcasters,)
> and also by way of having played a role in establishing new CPB
> standards for the eligibility of community radio stations to
> receive goevernment funding. These standards require of community
> radio stations a higher level of income from listener -sponsors
> if they are to qualify for government monies. Only those entities
> that can be shown to qualify as 'minority' groups can be exempted
> from these standards.
>
> Despite the admiration of some groups for Chadwick's commitment
> to diversity, these changes force community stations- if they
> have become dependent on CPB funds for staffing or other needs (
> real or perceived) to alter their programming schedules so as to
> appeal to a higher income bracket, White, and more mainstream
> audience than has been traditional at many community stations-
> most especially in the Pacifica network. This, as we have seen in
> the example of KPFT above, leads to the elimination of diversity
> at the stations effected, especially, as should be obvious by
> now, it leads to the elimination of programming for lower income,
> non-White groups and other audiences not in the mainstream of
> American culture and cash flow. In short, the CPB policies which
> Chadwick helped to create, are, in their essence, racist and
> classist. Of course the kind of radical politics that are at the
> heart of the Pacifca tradition - including some feminist
> programming- are being mainstreamed out of the schedules as well.
>
> Another result has been the tokenization of the Pacifica's
> national board. The presence of 'minority' representatives on the
> Board has little to do with serving the objective interests of
> their respective communities and everything to do with the 'need'
> to retain CPB funding, which, of course, is the linchpin in a
> schema that that squeezes out programming for the oppressed
> nationalities and propertyless and other non-mainstream
> audiences.
>
> All the talk in Pacifica's Five Year Plan about the
> professionalization of the air sound, the capturing of the
> mainstream news/ talk audience and the 'vision' concentrated
> therein of a Pacifica that is influential in Washington- all this
> reduces, in fact, to the elimination of the Pacifica tradition in
> programming. The simple fact that 'The New Pacifica' eliminated
> the original Mission Statement of the Foundation bears eloquent
> testimony to this point. A Board that promotes this agenda is
> hardly promoting an agenda of 'diversity,' the presence of a few
> 'minority' faces in high places notwithstanding.
>
> Yet these are the forces, Dr. MF Berry foremost among them, that,
> while falsely claiming the mantle of 'diversity,' attack their
> opponents with charges of 'racism.' That these charges are
> disingenuous, (even given the unsubstantiated likelihood that in
> a few instances racially motivated slurs may have occurred on the
> part of scattered individuals in what is a very broad based
> movement,) should be obvious by now.
>
> But to complete the picture, let's examine the record in light of
> the following comments by John Stauber of PR Watch on the
> measures taken by many corporate PR offices to discredit
> oppositional movements, bearing in mind as we do the recent
> charges by Pacifica and the Diversity Group of extremism,
> localism and racism on the part of their opponents at KPFA and
> their characterization of the broad based movement to free
> Pacifica as 'violent.'
>
> PACIFICA'S WAR ON TRUTH:
> SPIN CONTROL AND POLICE MEASURES
>
> From "War on Truth, The Secret Battle for the American Mind - an
> interview with John Stauber". Sentient Times, June 1999.
>
> "Some years ago, in a speech to clients in the cattle industry,
> Ron Duchin, senior vice-president of the PR firm Mongoven, Biscoe
> and Duchin (which probably represents a quarter of the largest
> corporations), outlined his firm's basic divide-and-conquer
> strategy for defeating any social change movement. Activists, he
> explained, fall into three basic categories: radicals, idealists,
> and realists. The first step in his strategy is to isolate and
> marginalize the radicals. They're the ones who see the inherent
> structural problems that need remedying if indeed a particular
> change is to occur. To isolate them, PR firms will try to create
> a perception in the public mind that people advocating
> fundamental solutions are terrorists, extremists, fear mongers,
> outsiders, communists, or whatever.
>
> After marginalizing the radicals, the PR firm then identifies and
> "educates" the idealists - concerned and sympathetic members of
> the public - by convincing them that the changes advocated by the
> radicals would hurt people. The goal is to sour the idealists on
> the idea of working with the radicals, and instead get them
> working with the realists.
>
> Realists, according to Duchin, are people who want reform but
> don't really want to upset the status quo; big public-interest
> organizations that rely on foundation grants and corporate
> contributions are a prime example. With the correct handling,
> Duchin says, realists can be counted on to cut a deal with
> industry that can be touted as a "win-win" solution, but that is
> actually an industry victory."
>
> That the Diversity Group and Pacifica intend to isolate and split
> the movement arrayed against them, painting it as racist and
> violent, that they intend to sour relations between the Berkeley
> groups and their progressive supporters nationally while serving
> up a 'solution' that would constitute a victory for the pro-CPB,
> pro- Five Year Plan and pro-government forces within Pacifica
> itself, cannot be denied.
>
> We will deal now with the Diversity Group's call for a 'win- win'
> solution to the Pacifica crisis in its proper context, that of
> the brutal conditions that face the KPFA staff in the workplace
> and the tactics most recently employed by Pacifica in its effort
> to divide and crush the Berkeley movement and its nationwide
> network of support.
>
> The KPFA staff operates under the daily oppression of fear- of
> loss of jobs, career, of livelihood. Pacifica was founded as a
> bastion of free speech- yet even the news staff lives under
> constant threat of firing if they report the events taking place
> within Pacifca as news.
>
> This pertains not only to the most immediate issues surrounding
> their own strike- but the larger issues as well of the merits or
> demerits of CPB funding, Pacifica's union busting activities -
> even the condemnation of Pacifica by the National Labor Relations
> Board for unfair labor practices at KPFA's sister station in New
> York, WBAI, to the finding of the CPB itself that Pacifica is in
> violation of regulations regarding open meetings, to say nothing
> of the overall direction represented by the Five Year Plan and to
> recent vote by Pacifica's national board to make its membership
> immune from all formal local input and to convert itself into a
> self-perpetuating entity.
>
> In the wake of recent protests which included a sit-in in the
> tradition of nonviolence, board chair Mary Berry placed a call to
> the US Justice Department, urging that agency to lean on the
> Berkeley police for not being more aggressive in arresting the
> protesters ( this from Berry as the head of the US Civil Rights
> Commission.) Pacifica has also placed a half-dozen armed guards
> within the station itself from an organization with close links
> to the Justice Department.
>
> Not content with these measures, Pacifica has also targeted its
> listeners for intimidation- recently ( within the last week)
> handing over to Berkeley Police all of the thousands of letters
> from KPFA staff supporters for investigation by a criminal
> psychologist.
>
> The justification for this investigation is that any one of these
> people may have been responsible for a suspicious shooting around
> the hour of midnight some two months ago that shattered a
> computer in the empty building that houses Pacifica's national
> offices. Pacifica public relations manager Elan Fabbri
> characterized this not as a gross violation of the civil rights
> of its listeners, but as an investigation for 'attempted murder'
> - a spin that is transparently false but that does great service
> in painting the movement to democratize Pacifica as 'violent' and
> in intimidating Pacifica's listener sponsors, who had just made
> the most recent KPFA fund drive the most successful in its 50
> year history by pledging some $610,000 - 85% of which was
> contributed under protest. In the meantime Dr. Berry has held
> forth a promise of federal 'conciliation' meetings to the staff
> and listener support groups in Berkeley. The results of these
> meeting, by definition are non-binding, and only the federal
> 'conciliator' can define what is to be discussed. The carrot to
> follow the big stick.
>
> As the movement to free Pacifica grows by leaps and bounds,
> garnering support and press at a national level, the moves by
> Pacifica headquarters to counter the movement grow increasingly
> extreme, harsh, and desperate.
>
> It is in this context that the Diversity Group holds forth its
> clichÈs regarding 'win / win' possibilities. Pacifica itself
> holds forth a different premise - negotiations on their terms- or
> else.
>
> PRINCIPLES, POWER AND PERSONALITIES:
> THE UNDERLYING ISSUES
>
> The Diversity Group asserts the following:
>
> 'The underlying issue is about power and its overarching theme is
> about diversity and what that means for the future of Pacifica.
> The outcome, whatever that may be, is about how to bring about
> change. Pacifica has defined the change in its long-term vision
> statement as an attempt to make the Pacifica stations more
> relevant and more representative of the audiences that they
> should serve. However, on a local level, the KPFA staff has
> defined the issue as their ability to make programming and
> financial decisions without oversight. These are two completely
> different formulations of the same issueó the exercise of power.'
>
> We have seen the meaning of 'diversity' in its current
> manifestations within Pacifca, and we have gotten a taste of what
> it means to live under Pacifica's power under the influence of
> federal agencies like the CPB and the power of the highly placed
> members of the federal government, like Dr. Berry, that run
> Pacifica today. Nonetheless, while localism does not equate with
> racism or moral and cultural backwardness (as the movements
> detractors attempt to suggest,) the current formal definition of
> the struggle by KPFA staff and supporters does not explicitly
> address many key issues - but instead makes the mistake of
> mutineers who still place unwarranted trust in their captain -
> leaving these matters undefined under a demand for negotiations
> on all of the underlying issues that have caused their rebellion.
>
>
> There is some truth in the Diversity Group's criticism of the
> movement for focusing on personalities - but not because
> Pacifica's Executive Director emobies justice and diversity, but
> because the movement has failed ,as is often the case in new
> movements against injustice, to grasp the political motives and
> guiding forces of the personalities involved and the class
> interests they represent.
>
> Popular perception in Berkeley defines these issues broadly as
> the need for democratic accountability on the part of a
> now-insulated and self perpetuating national board, the need for
> a restructuring of Pacifca's by-laws to reflect democratic
> concerns and the reinstatement of staff fired for breaking what
> is popularly known as the Pacifica 'Gag Rule.' But there is
> another, deeper agenda that has significant currency among KPFA
> staff and supporters, a set of comprehensive demands that gives
> lie to the effort by the Diversity Group to characterize the
> Berkeley position as localistic, narrow and without a larger
> vision of the role of Pacifica for the future. These demands,
> known as the '15 Demands' follow:
>
> 1) WE DEMAND the abolishment of the "Gag Rule"
>
> We demand the abolishment of the "dirty laundry" or gag rule and
> the initiation of a process of unscreened and uncensored
> discussion regarding these demands concerning Pacifica on the
> Pacifica airwaves and through other appropriate means that may be
> at Pacifica's disposal or under its control.
>
> 2) WE DEMAND the rehiring of any Pacifica staff person fired for
> violating the "Gag Rule"
>
> We demand the re-employment of any staff members fired for
> violating the gag rule and the replacement of any program removed
> from the air for violation of that rule. We demand the
> re-employment of any staff removed by Pacifica in retaliation for
> their opposition to the Pacifica policies under discussion in
> these demands. We demand that layoffs resulting from anticipated
> revenue shortfalls due to this strike begin in and remain
> concentrated among staff at Pacifica's National Offices.
>
> 3) WE DEMAND an end to political censorship
>
> 4) WE DEMAND the end of racist and sexist programming policies
>
> We demand an end to racist and sexist programming policies. We
> demand the cessation of attacks on and an end to the removal of
> programs devoted to Women, the Black and Latino communities and
> many other minority groups and a reversal of the wholesale
> removal of programs that Pacifica initiated against almost all
> programs with radical leftist content.
>
> 5) WE DEMAND that Pacifica's so-called 5 year plan be rescinded.
>
> 6) WE DEMAND the firing of all outside programming consultants.
>
> 7)WE DEMAND the immediate cessation of all union busting
> activities and the withdrawal of all legal action against unions
> associated with Pacifica.
>
> 8) WE DEMAND the re-unionization of all Pacifica stations on the
> basis of new contracts.
>
> 9) WE DEMAND the cessation of all CPB funding at Pacifica.
>
> This funding source threatens to compromise Pacifica's integrity
> in a way the founders believed they had made impossible. The CPB
> interference in Pacifica's internal affairs is no different than
> that of any other corporate or governmental sponsor, and
> accepting such funds violates the fundamental premises of the
> foundation.
>
> 10) WE DEMAND that Pacifica refuse grants from all foundations
> and other corporate entities and that it place complete reliance
> on its listener sponsors as the only safeguard of the
> foundation's integrity.
>
> 11) WE DEMAND that no Pacifica station shall be sold and that all
> plans for the sale of WBAI and /or KPFA and other stations be
> immediately abandoned.
>
> 12) WE DEMAND roll back of National Office management positions
> and of the National Office's level of centralized control to 1977
> levels ( as outlined in the Bensky proposal.) The return of
> decision making power to local stations and the sharp curtailment
> of the power of the executive director.
>
> 13) WE DEMAND the reconstitution of the Pacifica national and
> local boards based on democratic elections and the resignation of
> all national board members.
>
> 14) WE DEMAND the creation of a governance system for Pacifica
> that includes meaningful participation and binding decision
> making powers for Pacifica's listener-sponsors and its paid and
> unpaid workers.
>
> 15) WE DEMAND the popularization of the process of selecting
> general managers and program directors at all Pacifica stations
> and the emplacement of mechanisms of accountability to the staffs
> and listeners for those who hold those positions.
>
> This set of demands reflects the understanding of former Pacifica
> staff, programmers volunteers and listeners from across the
> nation who have done years of research into the underlying causes
> of what has now erupted as the crisis at KPFA. Among the hundreds
> of documents recorded and generated by these forces, are a
> redrafting of Pacifca's now-adulterated by-laws. These demands
> are designed to lay the groundwork for the restoration of
> Pacifica to its original Mission.
>
> It is an honor to be among those who have remained loyal to the
> vision and tradition of Pacifica's founders, and an honor to play
> some role, however small, in opposing those who have betrayed it,
> who dance to a tune called from the highest levels of power. The
> enemies of Pacifica have repeatedly attacked the network for its
> radicalism from the floor of the US House and Senate and
> elsewhere. They have an agenda of destroying the network's
> independence that dates back to the late 1970's and is a matter
> of public record, including the Congressional Record. Their
> ultimate agenda, of course, is to continue their record of
> imperial conquest and domination - without resistance from the
> legacy of radicalism embodied in the Pacifica tradition or the
> power of such a medium of mass comunication as a force for
> organizing resistance to their empire. Speaking for myself, my
> resistance to the New Pacifica is and will remain a part of my
> desire to be rid of the system into whose hands Pacifica is being
> betrayed.
>
> Amor y Lucha Hasta la Victoria!
>
> Rafael Renteria
And From the BostonGlobeOnline
(Look for the references to CPB)
> More swapping cited of WGBH donor lists
>
> By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 07/15/99
>
> <W>ASHINGTON - WGBH-TV, Boston's publicly funded station,
> has been swapping names of contributors with the Democratic Party
> since 1994, a party official said yesterday, handing over a total
> of more than 32,000 names despite clear prohibitions against
> tax-exempt groups engaging in political acts.
>
> Republican House members yesterday called for a criminal
> investigation of the station after learning of a single account
> of name-swapping between WGBH and Democrats this year. An
> official at WGBH initially downplayed the incident, saying it was
> a onetime mistake committed by new employees who did not
> understand the rules.
>
> But last night, Jenny Backus, spokeswoman for the Democratic
> National Committee, said the party has been sharing donor
> information with the public television station for years and to a
> much greater extent than WGBH officials had admitted.
>
> Even before that disclosure, a House subcommittee canceled
> yesterday's meeting to authorize an additional $525 million in
> funding for public broadcasters nationwide, saying the Boston
> incident was enough reason not to give blanket approval to the
> proposed increase.
>
> ''We've heard some troubling reports that this may not be an
> isolated case,'' said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Representative
> W.J. ''Billy'' Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the
> House telecommunications subcommittee.
>
> By last night, the entire system of public broadcasting had been
> thrown into jeopardy, as the allegations of wrongdoing appeared
> much worse than initially thought.
>
> WGBH vice president for communications Jeanne M. Hopkins said
> last night, ''There's never been any intent to do anything other
> than attract support. It is not partisan.''
>
> The disclosures occur at an inopportune time for public
> broadcasters. Republicans, once convinced the public broadcasting
> system was partial to the liberal cause, seemed to have largely
> changed their minds.
>
> This week a number of Republicans had said they hoped to increase
> funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the umbrella
> organization of the nation's public broadcasting stations,
> including the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public
> Radio.
>
> But with the report that WGBH was deeply connected to Democratic
> politics, the Battle of Big Bird broke out again. It appeared
> last night that Republicans would once again attempt to link
> national public broadcasting and liberal politics.
>
> WGBH, the 44-year-old television station that has built a
> national reputation around its educational and cultural
> programming, first approached the Democrats about name-swapping
> in 1993, Backus said.
>
> That first year station officials asked for and were given 5,000
> names of Democratic campaign donors whom they could approach for
> donations to WGBH, Backus said. The next year, WGBH brokered two
> deals, asking for a total of 7,800 names in June and July.
>
> Also in 1994, station officials began to ''pay for'' the names by
> giving names of their own contributors to the DNC - a swap that
> would be considered routine in a commercial business setting,
> Backus said.
>
> Hopkins said last night that WGBH did not implement a policy of
> refusing to swap names with political parties until 1994, one
> year after making its first deal with the DNC.
>
> At that point, WGBH was still ''in a position of needing to give
> names because of a prior commitment.''
>
> Backus denied the DNC had any knowledge WGBH was breaking
> internal and, possibly, federal rules when the exchange occurred.
> ''When you talk about the direct marketing industry, the mailing
> lists go back and forth all the time,'' she said.
>
> Between 1994 and February 1999, WGBH gave about 12,000 names to
> the Democratic Party, Backus said.
>
> When the Democratic Party began compiling a mailing list last
> February, the official in charge of the procedure - known as the
> ''list broker'' - approached 123 organizations. Of those, 62
> groups agreed to share lists.
>
> WGBH was among them - giving an additional 20,000 names in
> exchange for the names of 9,800 Democratic donors, plus the
> station received a financial payment for the equivalent of
> another 10,200 names. Backus did not know last night how much the
> DNC paid the station.
>
> ''They approved the request,'' Backus said. ''But if GBH had any
> internal restrictions or policies, we had no reason to be aware
> of them.''
>
> Republicans on the House subcommittee that oversees public
> broadcasting were outraged even before they learned that the
> level of cooperation between WGBH and the DNC was more extensive
> than had been known. Representative Paul E. Gillmor, a Republican
> from Ohio, called the incident a ''crass abuse of listeners and
> supporters,'' and he insisted on a full investigation.
>
> ''We expect public broadcasting to be nonpartisan, we expect it
> to be above-board, we expect it to be honest. This station is
> none of those,'' Gillmor said yesterday. ''This is a very serious
> breach of trust with the supporters of public broadcasting. And I
> think you will see an investigation to see how widespread this
> reprehensible practice is.''
>
> Hopkins said: ''It's not clear there's been a violation of the
> law, or anything illegal.''
>
> But Doug Fleming of Fleming & O'Neill, head of the Massachusetts
> Bar Association's tax section, said in May that as a legal
> matter, public television stations are not supposed to play
> political favorites. Such tax-exempt groups can face IRS
> sanctions if they do anything that appears to be lobbying or
> supporting a political party, he said.
>
> WGBH officials have for weeks been cooperating with the Internal
> Revenue Service, which will probably investigate whether WGBH
> still qualifies for its tax-free status after giving names to
> Democrats. But after the DNC provided more details last night,
> Republicans are expected to conduct a wide-reaching investigation
> into publicly funded stations nationwide to determine how common
> the practice is.
>
> Some Democrats said they suspected Republicans had hoped to block
> public broadcasting funds all along, and they accused the GOP of
> exaggerating any possible wrongdoing at WGBH.
>
> But even Representative Charles W. Pickering, a Republican from
> Mississippi who backs the funding increase for public
> broadcasting, said it was ''unfortunate the station did this.''
>
> This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 07/15/99. ©
> Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
A<>E<>R
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