As this issue of MediaFile goes to press WBAI has been attacked by
Pacifica with firings, lockouts, and banning of production staff. Update
by Eileen Sutton 12/29/2000.
The struggle for control of Pacifica Radio rages on. In the protracted battle
for the network's political soul, Pacifica management has aimed its latest
salvo squarely at Pacifica's preeminent national program, Democracy Now!
Under the guise of "personnel issues," the management (which last
year tried to shut down flagship station KPFA) presented a list of onerous "workrules" to Democracy
Now! host Amy Goodman on October 16. These rules, Goodman says, would
make it impossible for her to produce what is hailed by many as the most
courageous and politically audacious news show in the country.
For years, Pacifica management has used Goodman's show to prove that ideological
changes in the network are illusory. Now Goodman, who has earned the industry's
top awards, is being pressured and threatened by management to tone down
coverage of topics such as torture in East Timor, police brutality in the
United States and the fate of Peruvian-jailed Lori Berenson. Should she disobey,
she could be fired.
On October 18, Goodman sent a memo to Pacifica's national board of directors
addressing what she calls the "crackdown" on her program and a
months-long campaign of harassment, gender harassment, and censorship. Once
the memo was leaked to the public, Pacifica responded by posting a statement
of its own on its website. Critics say Pacifica's statement is a further
attempt to smear Goodman.
Close on the heels of Goodman's challenge to the national board, both Media
Alliance and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) called for a national
day of protest to support the network and Goodman. On October 25, demonstrations
took place outside every Pacifica sister station. (Houston station KPFT summarily
fired George Reiter, producer of Thresholds, for demonstrating in
support of Goodman.) FAIR also initiated a letter-writing campaign targeting
Pacifica's national board members. At last count, board members had received
well over 1,000 emails from Goodman supporters.
Goodman has since filed a formal grievance through her union. In the coming
weeks, union locals across the country will be asked to support Goodman and
the larger struggle to save the network by passing resolutions that condemn
the anti-labor practices of Pacifica management. Resolutions can be sent
to Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash at 2390 Champlain Street N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20009.
In a parallel and potentially significant move, Wash visited WBAI in New
York at the end of November and gave station manager Valerie Van Isler two
choices: Accept a severance package, or take a position with Pacifica national.
(Since Pacifica seized financial control of WBAI, its listeners have been
engaged in various strategies of fight-back, including organizing community
forums, informational leafleting, and picketing.) Sources say Wash is attempting
to install an interim station manager until a formal search can be conducted.
Local WBAI management has asked for a meeting with Pacifica in response to
this latest assault on the station's independence.
Democracy When?
Pacifica has long been a bastion of free speech--from broadcasting Alan
Ginsberg's "Howl," to defying the House Un-American Activities
Committee witch hunts, to airing the commentaries of death-row journalist
Mumia Abu-Jamal. Always influential, the network has been denounced on the
floor of Congress and investigated by the FBI. But for some time now, Pacifica's
free speech mission has been under assault from its own management and board
of directors, which continue to arrogantly redefine the network's mission,
critics say. This celebrated nonprofit, community-based, listener-sponsored
radio foundation can now boast of maquiladora real estate brokers, media
entrepreneurs, and a lobbyist for the National Association of Home Builders
on its national board. If Executive Director Wash prevails, a Citicorp vice
president for international banking and a consultant for telecom deregulation
could be the next additions to the board.
Elected to the national board this past February was John Murdock, a corporate
attorney whose firm, Epstein Becker & Green, is known for "maintaining
a union-free workplace." Murdock has offered to rewrite the bylaws of
the Pacifica Foundation, and board-watchers expect these changes to be presented
at the March 2001 national board meeting. Murdock's firm is also representing
the Pacifica Foundation in three lawsuits it currently faces--one from national
board members Rob Robinson of Washington, D.C. and Rabbi Aaron Kriegel of
Los Angeles, one from listeners, and one from Local Advisory Board (LAB)
members.
The Robinson/Kriegel suit charges that the board has destroyed "any
semblance of democratic participation, lawful governance, accountability
and fiduciary stewardship." California's Attorney General also gave
several listeners, led by North Bay resident Carol Spooner, standing to sue
Pacifica. This suit charges the board with violating the network's mission.
Pacifica's lawyers have tried to move both the listener lawsuit and the Robinson/Kriegel
lawsuit to federal court in order, advocates say, to slow proceedings. The
hearing to move the suits back to state court will take place January 9,
2001 at the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco.
The third suit, brought by the network's LAB members, seeks to reverse what
many consider a veritable coup in the late '90s, which allowed the national
board to sever ties with the entire constellation of LABs, thus becoming
self-selecting and unaccountable. Unaffected by the delay in the other two
suits, former Pacifica Executive Director Lynn Chadwick was the first Pacifica
defendant forced to answer the LAB lawyers in a deposition on November 21.
By early February, attorneys for both sides in the LAB suit hope to have
completed over 35 depositions, including those of Former Board Chair, Mary
Frances Berry, and other past and current members of the national board.
Activist Pressure
Outside the courtroom, activists have stepped up the pressure. On November
16, the Grassroots Radio Coalition organized the second national one-day
boycott of Pacifica programming. A number of Pacifica affiliates and community
stations have aired programs to educate listeners about the battle within
the network.
Several affiliates are threatening to cancel their Pacifica contracts. Some
already have--in solidarity with the majority of Pacifica Network News stringers
who struck on January 31, 2000, to protest what they called rampant censorship
throughout the network. Thousands of unionists, artists, academics, and activists
across the country have supported the strike action and the strike fund,
and many continue to honor the strike line by refusing to give comment to
PNN. For the past 10 months, the striking reporters have produced Free
Speech Radio News, carried once weekly by 41 community radio stations
across the country.
Actions are also under way to get Murdock and treasurer Michael Palmer off
the national board. Last month a phone, fax, and email campaign targeted
these two members and a leaflet campaign was started in San Francisco outside
the offices of C.B. Richard Ellis, a multinational commercial realtor, where
Palmer works.
Free speech lovers continue to condemn the censorship at Pacifica. They
condemn the firing of staff and programmers of color, the suppression and
alteration of news, the threat of exclusion of progressive organizations,
and the mainstreaming and left-cleansing that is under way at Pacifica. They
protest the use of millions of dollars of listener funds for market research,
corporate credit cards, and "security" costs. They denounce a corrupt,
undemocratic governance process that involves the manipulation of by-laws,
the stacking of the national board, and the illegitimacy of Pacifica's current
leadership. And they continue to fight.
Eileen Sutton is a freelance reporter who helped organize
the stringers strike against the Pacifica Netowrk News. | 
