Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 09:35:39 -0800
From: "Lyn Gerry"
Subject: {FP} Cooper/Schubb attack the Pacifica Board
Here is the latest "update" from Marc Cooper and Mark Schubb of KPFK in their contra war against network reform.
While a fairly poor effort to rally support for their failed cause, this, along with the abuse of the airwaves, should be grounds for immediate dismissal for serious misconduct.
Like the announcements being read in rotation by KPFK personnel at the direction of the management, this reflects a planned campaign by the station managers to willfully distort the actions, motivations, history and causes of the Pacifica Crisis in order to maintain control over their rather lucrative and prestigious fiefdoms, while continuing to ban and fire others who wish to provide information to the listeners contradicting their version of events.
There is a big difference between an opinion and a lie: the difference is the ingredient of cynicism. While a judge, steeped in the societal norm of hierarchies of command, would probably consider the mere fact that a manager had criticized his bosses on the air or refused to follow their directives reason enough for a dismissal based on serious misconduct - my objections are on different grounds - Pacifica mission grounds.
One of the central issues of the conflict at Pacifica, and of the "Healthy Station" broadcasting model, is whether the programming is a media product sold to consumers who choose to purchase it or not (in the form of contributions) or whether those listeners are participants in a project of public education and dialog designed to impact the world in which we live in a particular way.
Pacifica's on-air fundraising has always solicited donations from the community based not on just whether one liked the "product" but on the premise that Pacifica broadcasting generally was dedicated to getting at the truth, and that if nothing else, the views broadcast, no matter how outre or even repugnant, would at least be believed to be true by those expressing them, and that those expressions would be made in sincerity for the purpose of contributing to the welfare of the community, not with the intent of deceit or manipulation.
On these grounds, the announcements being read on the air at KPFK, and the parallel campaigns at WBAI, KPFT and WPFW - planned since November when settlement talks first came up - willfully fail to provide facts, and distort or obfuscate facts, as well as tell outright untruths. Documentation exists - most particular the timeline, particpants and their own past actions - which are in their possession of those managements concerning finances and policies and sequence of events. Yet, these facts are not presented in the full knowledge that their disclosure would alienate the allegiance of the listeners who they are trying to manipulate. Lying on the air to the listener-sponsors is serious misconduct and should be dealt with as such.
Lyn