The Coup d'etat at Pacifica - radio stations move from local to central control

One of the most crushing blows to both the left and democracy in the United States has been the gradual transformation of the five-station Pacifica Radio network from locally based and left-oriented into a centrally controlled, mainstream institution. Before 1990, all five stations in the network were locally oriented, locally managed with strong input from audiences and employees, and both highly political and progressive. During the 1990s, however, three of the stations--Houston, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles, California--were pushed into the mainstream by the Pacifica management, with only KPFA in Berkeley, California, and WBAI in New York City remaining as holdovers of the earlier tradition.

On December 22, 2000, however, the D.C. management seized control of WBAI, removing the long-time manager Valerie Van Isler, firing program director Bernard White and producer Sharan Harper without notice, changing the locks on the doors in the middle of the night, and installing, from within the WBAI staff, program host Utrice Leid as the new station manager. Only people on an approved list--which didn't include Pacifica Foundation board member Leslie Cagan--were admitted to the station on December 27.

Pacifica management tried several years ago to remake KPFA in Berkeley using similar actions: locking out the employees, firing many, and bringing in security forces and strikebreakers. However, that attempt met with great resistance, including 10,000 protesters in the streets and such negative publicity that the management had to retreat. The stalemate resulted in a tacit settlement that gave KPFA and WBAI temporary autonomy and led to the appointment to the Pacifica board of several new representatives of the audiences and stations.

But this settlement was only temporary, and the new board members quickly discovered that they weren't listened to and were kept outside decision-making processes, sometimes by questionable means (two of these board members currently are engaged in lawsuits against the board based on its practices).

That the central management was on the march again and that a takeover of WBAI might be in the works was suggested by the sustained campaign to censor Amy Goodman and her Democracy Now! program--efforts which escalated this past September and October. Goodman had long been criticized by the Pacifica top management for her lack of sympathy with Bill Clinton and general failure to stick with the "approved" media agenda. In September she was ordered to Washington and told quite clearly that her focus on East Timor, capital punishment, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lori Berenson, among other issues, was excessive. Former board chair Mary Frances Berry reportedly called Goodman "troublesome" and said she had "embarrassed" the network. In October Goodman was again ordered to Washington and threatened with termination unless she cleared her program content in advance with management and refrained from using volunteers. She immediately filed a grievance with the union for harassment and censorship.

A problem for the management is that Goodman's show heavily outdraws Pacifica's regular news programs, as well as most of its other features. This makes it awkward for the Pacifica management which claims to be reforming Pacifica in the interest of enlarging audience size, which they have been trying to do by substituting popular music for politics and softening any politics that remain. But Goodman's show and its success in drawing audiences suggests that critical politics can be quite popular if done well. That she is regarded negatively by the Pacifica brass reflects a specific political bias and a determination to defang and depoliticize the network in accordance with the ideologies of its top management and its constituency, which (unlike its local roots) now features Washington power brokers, officials of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and elites in the Democratic Party.

Jayson Blair, in the December 28, 2000, New York Times, notes that the Pacifica Foundation was initially based on "a lack of corporate control and its dedication to peace" and represented "grass roots, alternative broadcasting." But the "new Pacifica" has changed course and has abandoned this tradition. Its attack on Goodman and the current takeover of WBAI are examples of its trend toward de-democratization and political neutering. This process has resulted from the capture of the foundation by a small group of liberal technocrats and Democratic Party-linked officials who have added to their controlling board membership business-people in the real estate, construction, and corporate law fields to aid them in their remaking of Pacifica. The foundation's headquarters has even been moved from Berkeley to Washington, in keeping with the shift in its constituency from audiences and employees to Washington power brokers.

Given the importance of media in hegemonic processes, and in contesting those processes, what is happening to Pacifica and now WBAI is nothing short of a systematic destruction of a major progressive institution--and should be the first order of business for the left to address and of concern to all who value alternative media.

Ironically (and to the horror of many leftists), a portion of the left actually signed the 1999 letter circulated by Saul Landau (a well-known left expert on Cuba and Chile) which defended the Pacifica management's actions. Some of the signers are people trying, for example, to contest corporate globalization, a subject that would have engendered serious, critical examination by Goodman and the old WBAI but is likely to be ignored or treated perfunctorily by the "new Pacifica." (The Washington station WPFW has been notoriously uninterested in protests against not only the dominant political party conventions but those against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.) The lack of left solidarity is equaled only by the sheer shortsightedness and stupidity of helping to destroy a media institution that was a natural ally, if not part, of the left itself.

The battle over Pacifica and WBAI isn't over. It is encouraging to note that Blair's New York Times article addressed the WBAI takeover in a negative light for both the tactics employed and the implied violation of the foundation's organizational purpose. And as we go to press, protests are underway, lawsuits have been filed, and a court injunction is being sought to prevent Pacifica's board from amending the bylaws.

I urge all who share my belief in the necessity of maintaining diversity in broadcasting and a progressive voice to act now. So far 3,420 people have signed declarations supporting the suit filed by the Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board. You can add your support by logging onto the website home.pon.net/ wildrose/remove.htm and signing the declaration. Help preserve free speech on the airwaves.

Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and has written extensively on economics, political economy, foreign policy, and media analysis. This article is adapted from a piece published by ZNet Commentary on the Internet.

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