Given the Pacifica meltdown, I am issuing the following statement.
Please circulate widely
--MARC =
MARC
COOPER�S PUBLIC STATEMENT ON PACIFICA
&n=
bsp; SEPTEMBER
10, 2001
Several
individuals have attributed to me certain statements on the issue of the
situation known as the �Pacifica Crisis.� As I am quite capable of
speaking for myself without easy-chair interpretations, I have decided to
make this public comment.
More than
two years ago, when trouble was first brewing at KPFA, I wrote in The
Nation magazine that the entirety of the Pacifica network was at risk. I
stated at the time that the crisis had been precipitated by Pacifica
management�s clumsy and unexplained dismissal of KPFA�s manager, Nicole
Sawaya. I also called for the resignation of the Executive Director and
the reinstatement of Sawaya and accused the National Board and then
Chairwoman Mary Francis Berry of gross negligence.
But I also
strongly criticized the KPFA staff for abusing their on-air privileges. I
wrote that it was a mistake to take to the air to agitate and air
internal grievances. One hundred days later, I was proven correct when
the station descended into chaos.
Just as in
1999, I firmly believe today that both sides in this conflict bear heavy
responsibilities for the dire mess in which Pacifica now finds itself.
For taking this position, I have been called just about every vile name
invented in English and probably one or two other languages as well. But
my assertion stands. Today, we see that the zealots and bumblers at
the Pacifica National Board, the Pacifica National Staff, the WBAI
management, as well as the �dissident� Pacifica Campaign and many of
their political allies, including key staff of Democracy Now, have now
recklessly escalated this situation. As a result, it is only a matter of
days or weeks, at the most, before the network finally and
conclusively implodes. When the smoke clears and the perpetrators can
view the wreckage their handiwork has wrought in the glare of daylight,
perhaps then they realize with a guilty gulp that no one came out the
winner.
The
unfolding of Pacifica�s cheap trash radio drama is as predictable as
Jerry Springer, albeit less entertaining. Just when the scarce remaining
observers are convinced that Pacifica could not possibility stage yet
another vulgar display of self-abuse, a new outrage erupts from one side
or the other.
The latest
chapter is the dispute over National Program Manager Steve Yasko. For
those who idle away their lives wondering about these matters: yes, on
August 31 I wrote Steve Yasko a private email � not an �internal memo�=
�
demanding that he resign. This was not a new position. I told him the
same thing shortly after he was hired one year ago. I also repeated my
long-standing position that his boss, Bessie Wash, has no business
running a radio network. I told Yasko that he should quit because he was
an inept manager and that the current administration was driving the
network into the ground.
Now, I
learn that Yasko has indeed tendered his resignation effective September
15
th. Unfortunately, he is
resigning for all the wrong reasons. Much to my horror, shared mercifully
by some other decent human beings, Yasko was driven out by a smear
campaign mounted by Juan Gonzalez, his Pacifica Campaign and Amy Goodman,
constructed on the flimsy basis of links Yasko had maintained on his
gay-oriented website. Like a claque of Church Ladies, Gonzalez, Goodman
and friends have publicly turned Yasko into a tawdry porno king -- or was
it misogynist? Or was it a dangerous sexual fantasizer? Or maybe it was
just a plain old Pervert. That�s the nature of innuendo and smear� it�=
s
everything and nothing all at once.
Bad enough
that this information � the bulk of it wildly incorrect� was trawled and
slathered across the Internet. Worse yet, Amy Goodman shed all semblance
of decency and went on to Dennis Bernstein�s KPFA show for another
leisurely paw through the methane. This is a new low in Pacifica�s
already shocking history. This from a woman who is engaged in a gender
harassment suit against the same individual.
If Goodman
were really concerned about Yasko�s activities, she has a wide-open door
available to her in the form of a union grievance. But she preferred a
public trash job through the unilateral airing of her private opinions,
without the bother of any inconvenient rebuttal, all of which constitutes
a screeching conflict of interest.
The smear
against Yasko has stunned some of Pacifica Campaign�s allies. But even
this is disingenuous. The �dissidents� have liberally applied the
personal smear tactic from the very onset of this fight. Anyone who dared
to refuse to toe their line was branded as a �corporatist,� a
�highjacker,� a scab � or in some cases a fascist. Or in my case, a
Pinochetista. I have on file more than 75 emails from activists in the
Bay Area alleging that when I served as Salvador Allende�s translator, I
was in fact a CIA agent. Some added that I had had a hand in Allende�s
death. This sort of scabrous libel merits no reply, only a weary shake of
the head.
Likewise,
when Saul Landau � an intellectual with 40 years of unblemished radical
credentials� suggested a �truce� in the Pacifica wars last year, he wa=
s
publicly pilloried and slandered by the same people now in the forefront
of the Pacifica Campaign. There was no debate, no engagement, only
howling denunciations and wild accusations, too often from spoiled
youngsters who know nothing of their own history and ought to be ashamed
of themselves.
Furthermore,
when the Taliban cadre from the Pacifica Campaign targeted the Pacifica
National Board, it employed a strategy lifted directly from Operation
Rescue. The employers of the unpaid Board members were hounded
relentlessly, forcing them to either step down from Pacifica or risk
their outside jobs. But the most loathesome tactic, the same one employed
by the thug supporters of Megan�s Law, was to leaflet the neighbors of
these same board members to alert them that a �criminal� was living next
door.
The Left,
for the most part, remained silent as these personal destruction tactics
were played out. Regretably, even my own publication, The Nation,
couldn�t find its public voice on this issue and buckled to the moral
blackmail exerted by these Gambino-like tactics employed by Pacifica
dissidents.
The
sacrifice of Steve Yasko has, at least, broken that silence. It was about
time. Those who feel disgust at the way he was driven out with tactics
ripped from Ken Starr�s handbook should start to voice that sentiment.
But they should also take a moment to reflect on the previous �victories=
�
scored by the Pacifica Campaign and ask themselves if those were not, in
retrospect consistent with the latest repugnant developments.
For the
record, I would like to restate my opposition to the boycott of Pacifica.
I find it absurd that in the age of Bush and conglomerate corporate
media, these individuals can find no more formidable enemy and can
dedicate their nervous energies to choking the Pacifica Network, whatever
its real or imagined sins.
I also
find it rather disingenuous that this campaign is led by Juan Gonzalez, a
man who has no conflicts about accepting a huge salary as columnist from
the corporation of the right-wing Daily News while warring against the
hapless Pacifica. That contradiction truly tests the imagination.
Nevertheless,
I am peppered almost daily with impertinent emails demanding that I state
if I am now or have ever been a supporter of the Pacifica National Board.
The question is too absurd to merit a reply. But those who believe that
this collection of lost souls are either corporatists or pawns of the
Democratic Party give them too much credit. For the 25 years that I have
been aware of its consistently sad record, Pacifica�s Board has been
dominated for the most part not by evil conspiracy, corporate greed, or
bad faith, but simple mediocrity. Those responsible for Pacifica have
amply demonstrated their inability to build a mature, stable and
progressive network. The current majority emit some strong aromas of
arrogance and sillyness. But mostly of rank ineptitude, as did most of
their predecessors going back into the late 1970s.
As to the
�dissident minority,� the vaguely more political elements among their
bureaucratic colleagues in the majority, they distinguish themselves as
ideological zealots lacking a clue about management or quality
programming. Neither camp is representative of anyone in particular,
having never been elected but rather appointed to their posts by the same
majority they now decry as �criminal.�
Neither
side has a shred of political credibility. The majority is incapable of
articulating any vision� let alone a Democratic Party or corporate model,
whatever that means. The supposedly big, bad steamrolling, centralizing
National Pacifica juggernaut is, in fact, a bottomless black hole.
Pacifica�s malady stems not from roughshod management, but from no
management at all.
The
dissidents, meanwhile, can�t get their story straight. Read through their
blizzard of websites over the last two years, and the �issue� keeps
moving around: first it was Pacifica�s firing of KPFA Manager Sawaya;
then it was �governance� and the local boards -- no, the national baord
-- then it was the Democrats taking over, or was it the corporatists and
the commercializers; then briefly it was the FBI; soon after, Pacifica�s
supposed plan to move out of California; promptly, it morphed into a
�strike,� against PNN; and then recently the dastardly �Christmas Coup=
,�
which lasted only until the issue shifted to the National Association of
Homebuilders. As I write, the new flavor of the week is Democracy
Now.
The latest
crisis, indeed, flows directly from the chaotic bowels of WBAI. And
again, both sides bear the onus. Last Christmas Valerie Van Isler
and Bernard White were removed from station managment. Though Van Isler
was universally repudiated by the staff and White was an affable but
grossly ineffective program director, some sectors of the staff
opportunistically rebelled against their removal and began portraying
them as marytrs
Since
early January Amy Goodman as has signed off her Democracy Now show with a
torch song about broadcasting from �the studios of the fired and the
banned.� While Goodman has the right to her opinion, she has no place
using the public airwaves to broadcast her personal grievances day after
day. Such antics would be unthinkable in any serious journalistic
organization.
At the
same time, the new managment at WBAI has revealed itself to be as morally
bankrupt as its predecessors. The manager has let loose a bevy of on-air
bullies and helped forever tarnish what scrap of credibility the station
retained. Shame on Utrice Leid and Clayton Reilly.
But shame
on Amy Goodman and her Democracy Now staff as well. They have
consistently made themselves �the issue.� And that is not what good radi=
o
is about. Good radio is focused on the listener, not the programmer.
Wearing masks to work, claiming grand political conspiracies, distorting
and twisting even ordinary and sometimes necessary criticism directed at
them, the Democrcay Now staff has only poured gasoline onto the fire,
taking obvious delight in doing so like frenetic vandals. Goodman�s
on-air sexual smear of Yasko last week is entirely consistent and merely
the most egregious of these displays.
Since
mid-August when Goodman unilaterally decided to no longer report to her
workplace to do her show, she has held the future of the network
hostage. That was wrong. Initially, an agreement was reached
between her union (of which I am also a member) and Pacifica for her to
return to work. But, rather predictably, WBAI�s management allowed its
werewolves to go on the air and trash Goodman. The deal was sunk. And now
both sides, again, seem intent on pushing the whole mess over the
cliff. This could occur as early as next week when the Pacifica National
Board attempts to meet by phone.
Twenty
years ago there was talk about using our five stations and new satellite
technology to forge a strong, national, progressive voice. In 1981
Pacifica�s first national show, the Pacifica National News, went on the
air. Twenty years later, Pacifica has exactly one additional hour of
daily national programming to show for its efforts, a frankly pathetic
achievement, reflecting the consistent caving to individual station, or
more exactly individual programmer, interests. And that show, Democray
Now!, currently consists of on-air flames, thanks to the infantile
self-indulgence of its bosses and staff.
I have not
made a final decision, but I may soon decide to put an end to the
enormous financial sacrifice, which I estimate at approximatley $35,000
per year in refused writing assignments, that I incur by continuing to be
employed by KPFK in Los Angeles. I have stayed with the daily program
because it resonates with a large audience and because I enjoy the
interaction with my guests and listeners. I am proud of my work and stand
by it 100%, including the interviews with Pat Buchanan and Robert
McNamara that got so many pairs of knickers in knots. I owe my audience
the Greater Los Angeles Press Club�s Radio Journalist of the Year award
which I won last year. I have it on the wall.
Over the
last three years I have raised some $1 million for KPFK and Pacifica.
Ironically, a chunk of that funding helped finance the broadcast of
programs like Democracy Now! Perhaps I should feel guilty.
This war
was really touched off five or six years ago when a moderately
enlightened and short-lived Pacifica Executive Director sounded the
alarm. She was concerned that the network had ossified and grown insular
and was not effectively responding to the challenge of a right-wing
dominated media that had grown beyond anyone�s imagination. But no
sooner had she rung the bell, that a backlash by entrenched long-time
local programmers was unleashed who believed they had some enititlement
to the air.
It is no
accident, that KPFA, the Pacifica station that the so-called dissidents
so celebrate as the only �liberated� station, is in fact the most
ossified. Is it not passing strange that at a station which pays endless
lip service to �community� involvement, many of its key, paid staff are
people who have clung to those jobs literally for decades. Take a look at
the heart of the KPFA News and Public Affairs Departments: Aileen
Alfandary, Mark Mericle, Wendell Harper, Phillip Maldari, Kris Welch all
have held their positions for 20 or even 25 years. If that isn�t
entrenched stagnation, what is?
The crisis
of Pacifica has little or nothing to do with either the National Board,
or the Local Boards, or the By-Laws, or the CPB, or the Democratic Party
or Marc Cooper or Amy Goodman, for that matter. As John Dinges
insightfully pointed out in the pages of The Nation, the crisis of
Pacifica has been brewing and maturing for more than 20 years. Over those
two decades, Pacifica has stunted. Its national audience is an anemic 3/4
million. It has failed to produce compelling programming at either
the national or local level. At a moment in history in which
telecommunications has an explosive role in the lives of Americans,
Pacifica Radio emits only a death rattle.
The
current fight is between two entrenched bureaucracies � one at the
national level, and a collection of similar entities at the local level.
There�s plenty of hot air being blasted around about democracy,
community, representation, etc. But no one is talking about how to
produce thoughtful, responsive, agile, intelligent radio and how to bring
Pacifica�s mission to a wider audience. I am now convinced that this
necessary and primary discussion has been forever lost in a bloody,
pointless fight, a classic scramble for deck chairs on a rusted out and
severely listing Titanic. Or in Pacifica�s case, more like a
Tugboat Annie.
For my
part, I now have absolutely no interest in the actual denouement of this
tiresome remake of yet another Friday the
13
th. I don�t think it matters very much
to journalism, the so-called Left or what�s left of Pacifica�s
listenership. The historic project of Pacifica Radio as it was conceived
and nurtured over several decades is now dead. Bessie Wash, Amy Goodman,
Eutrice Leid, Juan Gonzalez, Dennis Bernstein, FAIR, John Murdoch and
Leslie Cagan alike will serve as pallbearers.
MARC COOPER
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