dave adelson (repost)
KPFK
Mon Jan 7 23:39:12 2002
For several days now KPFK has been airing an announcement regarding the current state of the station and the network. The statement describes a genuine financial crisis at Pacifica, but misleads listeners about recent events, which include the settlement of four lawsuits against Pacifica Foundation, which has led to the seating, less than two weeks ago, of a new Interim Pacifica National Board, whose job is to undo the mess created by the prior administration.
The KPFK announcement states:
"For the first time in the history of Pacifica, the Pacifica national board has decided to encroach on the editorial independence of out station and now intends to have the board itself make decisions about who or what you may hear on KPFK."
This statement is false, as well as misleading. First, please note that no specific example is given of this so called incursion on KPFK's editorial or programming independence.
In fact, what has occurred is that the newly seated Pacifica National Board of Directors has mandated an end to the Gag Rule that prohibits discussion of issues relating to Pacifica, its policies, finances, and governance, with you the listeners. Specifically, the Board ordered that:
In order to provide protection from abuse of the air and to protect against the unfair removal from air of programmers, for the two weeks between the seating of the new Pacifica Board and the in-person public Board meeting this weekend in New York City, no programmer may be taken off the air without a review process.
Further, the board mandated that: "Each station, in conjunction with the Local Advisory Board and signal area National Board representatives, to initiate a program, of at least 3 hours during drive time for an organized on-air discussion of the settlement agreement, which would include those who are critical of the settlement as well as those who support it."
The settlement agreement reached less than a month ago to the four lawsuits brought against the prior Pacifica Administration for a variety of illegal abuses of its power explicity mandate that you, the listener sponsors, will have voting rights for local boards at each of the Pacifica stations within one year. Further, the interim Pacifica National Board is committed to financial and operational transparency, and to a reversal of the centralization of decision-making and financial power at the network, returning control to local stations and communities.
It must be noted that the current management of KPFK was put in place by the prior Pacifica administration. We believe that these announcements are intended to confuse listeners about the distinction between the prior renegade National Administration that has centralized Pacifica's finances and put it millions of dollars in debt, and the newly seated interim Pacifica National Board which is attempting to rectify the damage and inform the listeners. We believe that the reason for this intentional attempt to confuse is that the current management is hostile to the reform National Board just seated, and is attempting to convince programmers and listeners that that board is hostile to their interests, in part by blaming it for the abuses of the prior board.
Lastly, it must be noted that station staff and management have known for months about the centralization of financial control and knew about and had complained about the failure of Pacifica to pay station bills PRIOR to the previous fund drive. Further, during their fund drive they accepted pledges for premiums that they had not yet purchased. It is thus an open question as to who actually was involved in knowingly bilking the listeners.
We hope that listeners will remain attentive to what is happening at your community radio station, and will choose to support the station not only with your donations, but with your time and effort. We recommend that you look into one of the many local neighborhood listeners groups that are forming around the city to be involved in the rejuvenation of Pacifica, as we work to undo the financial catastrophe wrought upon the network.