Juan Gonzales Talk at Forum on Pacifica Crisis (March 23, 2001)

(transcribed by Eileen Goodman)
(additional editing by Vince Ivory & Lloyd Karch)

photo: Vince Ivory (March 23, 2001)

(applause)
Good evening, and thanks to all of you for coming out this evening and showing the enormous feeling that you have for KPFK and for the Pacifica Network and it's mission.

I don't think that there's a radio station in America, a television station in America, where the listeners would give two damns who the program director is, who the station manager is, (applause) what is happening internally within those stations. The reality is that there is perhaps no more loyal group of listeners of the mass media in the United States of America than the listeners of Pacifica Radio. (applause)

So, that anybody would consider a gathering of listeners, concerned and worried about what is the future of their radio station, or their network to be an anti-Pacifica rally; where it is just the opposite, it is a rally of deep, deep concern. A meeting of deep, deep concern, as we've seen them in Houston. Let me tell you, I've had e-mails, (in) New York City there are so many Pacifica reform groups in existence that it is hard to keep track of them. There's a, "Concerned Friends of WBAI of Rockland County." There's a, "Concerned Friends of WBAI of Westchester County." There's a, "Concerned Friends of WBAI of Nassau County." There's a, "Concerned Friends of WBAI of Connecticut." There's a, "Concerned Friends of WBAI of New Jersey," and they're even now breaking up into "Northern New Jersey" and "Central New Jersey." (applause) All of these groups are meeting on practically a weekly basis. Right, some of them have hundreds of people who come to their meetings. In New York City, the "Concerned Friends of WBAI," the first meeting that they had, a few days after the infamous Christmas coup, there were twelve hundred people who attended that meeting the week between Christmas and New Year's. (applause) So this shows that contrary to the belief of the Board, and the managers, and the news directors of Pacifica-- I'm not even getting into the corporate press: the articles that have appeared in the LA Times; in the Washington Post; in TIME magazine; in the New York Times; in Boulder, Colorado. There are front-page articles, in Boulder, Colorado about the crisis in Pacifica because one station there picks up a lot of Pacifica programming, including Democracy Now! So that, there is an enormous movement that has arisen in the past couple of years of progressive Americans that are deeply, deeply concerned about what is going on in Pacifica. And you see it being covered everywhere, except on the Pacifica evening news. (applause) All of the rest of the corporate media-- all of these groups that have sprung up all around the country-- they've got it wrong. They've blown this thing out of proportion. This personnel issue. This internal dirty laundry matter, they have it all wrong. The Pacifica evening news has it right; it's not a story.

Well, I think that you are showing, and many people around the country are showing, that it is a story of deep concern and it has important and valuable lessons for not only Pacifica listeners, but for Americans across the country who are concerned about the relationship between Democracy and the mass media. (applause) And, I think that this is part of a growing democracy movement in relationship to the mass media in America and it is at the cutting edge right now. And that is why I decided on January 29th, was to resign from Democracy Now! because I did not feel... It's interesting that we've had a couple of union statements from the AFTRA local in Washington, and here in Los Angeles, about this issue. Now, I resigned specifically because I did not believe that as an employee I could go out and try to organize a boycott against the Pacifica Board, to drive them out, because I understood that unions have contracts, and usually you have "no strike," "no economic attack" situations. And I did not want to be in a situation as an employee, to be involved in that, so actually the best thing for me to do is to get out and to do what I do best. (applause)

And, at the Daily News, I'm the chair of the Newspaper Guild unit so I know a little bit about labor issues. And to put the question to rest among the union members who are still inside, this is not a labor boycott, this is a listener boycott. (applause) It is a listener boycott. No one is talking about the people inside, in the collective bargaining units doing anything. This is about the listeners who sponsor this Network deciding (in) a national referendum what they believe is correct or incorrect about the policies of the Pacifica Board. Unfortunately, the limitations of the system only allow the listeners to express their viewpoint through either giving money or withholding money.

If the Pacifica Board was willing to hold a vote among all the listeners, (applause) there would be no need for a boycott. If there was some other structure that would allow all the listeners to be involved in passing judgment on what is occurring there would be no need for a boycott. But, given the reality that this is the only way that all-- of each individual listener can make a decision... That is why I felt (and others who join with me felt) that the only way that we could change things around, in an immediate sense, because we... I have given my money to the legal suits, many other people have because we believe that the legal suits eventually will win. However, we all know how the courts in the United States of America work. We know that if you can pay lawyers a lot of money you can drag things out for a long time and the more money you can put into it the longer you can drag cases out through appeals, through motions, move venues to different jurisdictions, and this is exactly what the Pacifica Board has been involved in and will continue to be involved in. So maybe it will take a year, eighteen months, two years and the cases will drag on. But, meanwhile very much as in the Israeli/Palestinian situation, the Pacifica Board while it to continues to drag things out is creating a reality on the ground. (applause) The reality that it is creating on the ground (is that) it has systematically, area of the Network by area of the Network, been conducting what can only be called purges. (applause) These are not, this is not a situation of a few employees. This is going from one station to another station rooting out anybody in the staff of these stations who disagree. Who not only disagree (because there are many others who disagree), who have the nerve to stand up. Because, you can disagree and keep quiet because you are afraid that you might lose your job or your might lose, if you're a volunteer, that valuable space that you have on a radio station. But, those who dare to stand up and say, "I don't agree with what's going on," these are the ones that get lopped-off. Now I want to read to you... I'm glad that Mark Schubb came, he had the best of both worlds, he was able to urge as many people as he could who he had influence over not to come to this event, he was able not to publicize it, and then when I think they realized there was going to be a big turnout he was able to come to it anyway and present his view. So he had the best of all worlds. (applause)

The problem is, if you already have a rule that these kind of issues cannot be discussed on the air, on the air waves that you control, why are you so upset about people discussing them in public meetings? (applause) Why are you trying to sabotage those efforts in public meetings? You not only want to control stuff on the air, you want to control it off the air. Let me read to you a memo that Schubb issued a couple of years ago. This is dated February 28th, 1996:

"Dear Programmers and Board Ops, we need your help in honoring KPFK's long standing policy against the airing of dirty laundry including quote 'event announcements for that purpose,' even if the offense is by a guest or a caller please remember that it is your responsibility to cut it off immediately and to move on. This is one of the few rules we have at KPFK that will absolutely lead to permanently being removed from the station. I appreciate the respect you have for our audience and for the professionalism that you bring to your work here. Thanks for your help in this matter, Mark Schubb, general manager." (boos)

So the question of airing dirty laundry does not just deal with the staff, it deals with the listeners or guests who might want to raise, on their own, their own questions and concerns about anything that is going on at Pacifica. The best example, as many of you may have heard a couple of weeks ago, a United States Congressman from Brooklyn was on the air (in a phone interviewm on the labor show in WBAI in New York discussing with Ken Nash, who has been running that show for many, many years along with Mimi Rosenberg. But, Mimi wasn't there because she had been banned a few weeks earlier from the station by the new station manager. And the Congressman, Major Owens, raised some criticisms that he had, or what he saw was going on with Pacifica. The general manager rushed into the studio, threw the host out, she threw Ken Nash out; and, then later informed his union that he is not to return to the station, and hung up the phone on the Congressman, and then proceeded to say, "only the truth will be broadcast over this radio station." Congressman Owens later went on the House of Congress and made a very eloquent speech about how he had never seen this kind of authoritarianism anywhere in the media in this country.

Now one of the things that is interesting: Mr. Murdock, Marc Cooper (in a recent letter that he sent over the Internet to me), and Patricia Guadalupe (the news director at PNN)- they've all said, 'well, this Juan Gonzales, he resigns from Pacifica and then he's still working at his corporate, right-wing newspaper, the Daily News.' That is true I've been working at the Daily News as a staff columnist for fourteen years. And,one of the things I try to make clear to folks about the Pacifica Board, it's not just a question that people work in corporations. The reality is most Americans end up having to work in a capitalist society for a capitalist company, or for government, or for a nonprofit- those are your choices. It's not that you happen to work at a corporation, it's what you do when you're there. (applause) And I think that my practice, in fourteen years, at the Daily News is pretty well known for people in New York City. Not only was I actively involved in the leadership of a five month strike at the Daily News against the 'then' owners, the Tribune Company. Not only did I sit-in, lead sit-ins, in the newspaper - twice against management, and was dragged out and arrested, and still managed to come back to get my job. (applause) Not only have I consistently written columns in opposition to the Newspaper's racist and right-wing policies; and, called the owner in columns a thug and a bully, and on television a racist to his face- (applause) and still managed to keep my job. But, the astounding thing to me is that Mort Zuckerman, the owner of the New York Daily News has had more tolerance of dissent than the Pacifica Network is now showing to it's own employees. (applause) And that to me is mind-boggling. (sustained applause)

Now, we chose to engage in this boycott because we felt it was the only way to get all the listeners involved in the battle. We've had an enormous response, and we totally respect that there are many people who love Pacifica, but still can't get themselves to stop giving money, and we respect that. And, there are many people who will say, 'well, the legal route will eventually win.' We respect all those viewpoints. But, we have come in the Pacifica campaign to believe that the only way that we're going to get the station back (and the fastest way possible), and the Network back (before it is taken apart piece by piece) is: as I say, "by cutting off the water, turning up the heat to the hijackers." Imagine the place is hijacked! They depend on your money to keep paying Epstein, Becker & Green. And it's really, it's the height of absurdity to think that an anti-union law firm, Epstein, Becker & Green, which boasts on it's website that it specializes in creating union-free environments, this is on the website (go to web, look up Epstein, Becker & Green) they boast on their website that they specialize in creating union-free environments. That this law firm, is the law firm of Pacifica, and I'm sure that it was involved in talking to some of these folks over at the PNN news about, 'wouldn't it be nice to get an AFTRA, a nice AFTRA letter condemning this boycott.' Because the amazing thing about that letter (and, I respect peoples' right to disagree); but, where was the concern (not about workers whose jobs had been threatened), where was the concern about all the workers whose jobs have already been taken? (applause) Where was the outcry when Larry Bensky was fired? When Nicole Sawaya was fired? What was done to Dennis Bernstein? What was done to Bernard, to Sharan, to Valerie, all (them) where was the outcry then? About actual jobs lost, not about jobs threatened, actual jobs lost. There was no outcry from the people now who are worried about the threats to jobs now for the employees.

Now, we believe:
Number one- That although Pacifica would like (that some people on the Pacifica Board would like) to sell the station, they will not be able to. That even if we're successful, and I think that we will be- especially in the next fund drive that starts in May, and that is where we are really targeting our efforts. Because we only got started in this last fund drive, we're just getting off the ground. But, in May, when we seriously put a dent in their fund raising (and, the cash and carry operation, the money comes in the money goes out)- there is no big reserve there.
Number two- Whereas, they cannot borrow money against their licenses, the FCC (no matter how much the licenses are worth), the FCC has a rule you cannot borrow money using a radio license as collateral. So, they can't borrow to get them over the problem. And, so any significant cash squeeze on the Pacifica Network will force them into a precarious position.

Should they try to sell a station, and use that as an excuse, we do not believe that they will be able to succeed. Why? Number one is- there's a long process of time that you must go through from the moment you announce the intention to sell. You must make announcements in the newspapers. You must notify the FCC- there's a period of public comment or reaction. If there is a challenge the FCC must hold a hearing. There are now three lawsuits in this State challenging the very legality of that Board, and the right of that Board to even make that sale. And, it would be very easy to move, to have a TRO on that potential sale, until the facts of the underlying legality of that Board are resolved in a court of law. So that battle could be tied up for months.

At the same time, they will still need money to operate. Now what about the threat to the employees? I'm not going to lie to you. When they start, when their money starts being cut. And, remember Pacifica still is largely volunteers, in many places. But, for the employees, when that money starts to go- they're not going to think about cutting the money they're paying Epstein, Becker & Green ($500 bucks an hour- whatever it is they're paying Epstein, Becker & Green). They're not going to think of to cut their executive staff. They're not going to think to cut the PNN news, which is the only part of Pacifica that doesn't raise money. Even the Leher news hour spends five or ten minutes every fund drive raising money. They're not going to cut the PNN news. They're going to try to make the local stations pay.

Now our position is that we are not only doing a boycott, we are doing constant pressure on the individual board members. Now I've been involved, as many of you have been involved, in popular community mass and labor struggles over the years. All institutions are run by human beings. And all human beings can be effected by pressure, by popular resistance and uprising. All human beings have a breaking point. When you are fighting for something you believe in, your ability to withstand the pressure is much greater. When you are fighting for a mercenary object, or cause with no principles behind it, your ability to withstand real heavy constant pressure is reduced. We believe we can drive those Board members out. We can convince them (as somebody here said, they're not getting paid right now for what they're doing), that we can convince them that they can use their time better someplace else....(applause) ....with a strong enough movement, with a strong enough movement. So we believe we will be able to prevent them from selling. And, for those employees who are worried about the possibility of being laid-off; well, we of the Pacifica Campaign, right now, make the promise that we will raise as much money as possible to adopt them (like we've adopted the others who have been fired), to help supplement their income until we take the Network back. (applause) Because, we care about those employees, we care about those employees. But, sometimes you just can't be worried about your own little job when you say you're in a Network that represents so much more to so many people. So we're going to win this fight, We're going to drive that Board out. We believe the only way to do that is a combination, in a short time (the legal suit may win long term but who knows what the Network will look like then). But, in a short period of time the way to win it is cut off their money, and put the maximum pressure on those board members to get the hell out of our radio network.
Thank you. (applause)

Bernard White Talk at Forum on Pacifica Crisis (March 23, 2001)

(transcribed by Eileen Goodman)
(additional editing by Vince Ivory & Lloyd Karch)

(applause)

This is incredible. When we came up to this... First of all, thank you all for coming out this evening. When we came into the sanctuary this afternoon and I looked around and saw all these seats, I said this place is entirely too large. And they said, no, no, no, we're going to fill it up. And I said OK. And sure enough, here it is. (applause)

As you know, my name is Bernard White. I'm from what Amy calls the embattled studios of WBAI, (applause) the studios of the fired and banned.

On December 22, which was a Friday evening, just a couple days before Christmas, we had a visit from the Executive Director of Pacifica, one Bessie Wash, who came in and began to change all of the locks on all of the doors at WBAI. When she came in, someone at the station called me and said, "Did you know that Bessie was here changing the locks?" So, I said, "No." So I called in and I spoke to Bessie Wash and I asked her, "Why were you changing the locks?" And she told me that, "Well, I'm changing the locks, Bernard, because I'm changing the locks." I said, "But that doesn't make sense. Why would you change the locks?" She said, "Because I'm changing the locks." I said, "Well, what about the producers, will they be allowed to come in and do their programs?" She said, "Yes, they will be allowed to come in." And I said, "Well, then why change the locks?" She said, "I told you, I'm changing the locks because I'm changing the locks."

Well, that was about 10:30 on a Friday evening. On Saturday morning at about 7 o'clock, I got someone who was just ringing my doorbell like crazy. So I- rather than run to the door because it was just abnormal for anybody to ring the doorbell- I thought something was wrong. So. I went to the window to find out who it was. And there was a messenger who said, "I got something for you that you have to sign." On the way downstairs I kind of figured out what was probably happening. And when I got to the door, he had a letter that had two checks inside plus another letter that was dated the 20th (this was the 22nd) saying that I was terminated from the position of Program Director; that my belongings would be sent to me at some point in the future. Now I served pretty much as the station's music library, because most of the music that was played- a lot of the music that was played on 'BAI- was my music, that I would just loan the producers. So I finally got it back about three weeks ago, by the way. I haven't gone through it yet, I don't know what's missing but I'm sure that it's all not there. It also said that if I am caught on the premises that it will be considered trespassing and, of course, that means that I would be arrested.

About 45 minutes later (I live in Brooklyn) 45 minutes later (if you know anything about New York and Manhattan) the producer of Wake Up Call, which is the morning program that we did, she was visited by the same person, who did the same thing to her. Now, I didn't sign my notice, neither did she. We passed them back to the person. When I left the house later on that day to go to a demonstration, that was being held down at WBAI, I saw that the checks had been slid back through the mail slot, but the letter stating... about my termination was not. This launched a real serious period at WBAI. The person who was named... by the way, not only was I terminated on that day but so was the Station Manager as well as Sharan Harper, the producer... and an interim Station Manager was put into place. An interim Station Manager who was a very popular talk show host; someone who had a lot of respect in the community; someone who... if it was not for them using that person, it would have been very clear what had happened at WBAI. But, things got very murky because it began to be characterized as some kind of personality conflict between me and that individual. But, I think Pacifica learned a lesson from when they went into KPFA and they recognized that one of the things that they had to do was divide the staff and then they could conquer it. Then they could begin to sow misinformation out to the community.

Today was a very important day for me, it's a very sad day, in many respects, because it marks the second anniversary of [the death of] my mentor at WBAI; the person who brought me in, the person who... we spent hours and hours and hours for years talking about radio... and that is Samori Marksman. (applause)

Samori Marksman understood very well what Lew Hill was talking about when he began to formulate KPFA: that one of the things you have to do if you want to make a radio station relevant is to bring in the people from the community, bring in the various activists, the artists, the thinkers, the folks who were doing things in the community. This is how you develop an organic linkage to the community and this is what he began to do. He, once he became Program Director, began to try and create at WBAI the mosaic that was New York City. So we had folks from the Asian community, from the Latino community, the African-American community and the African community and many other communities that make up the city of New York. And as a result, we were doing very well. Our community was responding. When we would ask for funds, the community would respond. We had a record-breaking fundraiser under Samori's tutelage. I think we might have been the first ones... Did you folks ever do a million dollar fundraiser on the air? We probably were the first community radio [station] to do a million dollar fundraiser. (applause) And we got pretty much all of the million dollars. Out of the folks that pledged, we pretty much got most of that money.

So, at the time that WBAI was taken over, as you've just heard, we had gotten over what had taken place at KPFA. That we had begun to convince our listeners that what happened at KPFA was in... if we were strong, if we could show that we were strong at WBAI, that it wouldn't happen to us. So we started out the year with a 200,000 dollar deficit. By the end of the year, we had met the 200,000 dollar deficit; we had increased our subscriber base; we had increased our listenership (even using the measurement tools that they use to measure audience participation and to determine who's listening). We had satisfied all of that, and still they moved in on WBAI.

We're at, as I said, a very important moment of the history of Pacifica, If we do not stand up right now and make sure that they hear us... I don't know how we can make sure that they hear us because our only link to them is the dollar. And if the dollars keep coming in, as they always did, I don't think that they're going to listen to anything else that we have to say. (applause) So, if we want to win this, we have to take away from them what gives them strength and then we can get them to sit down and talk to us at a bargaining table.

You know, one of the things that's really bothering me- I was talking to Juan about it- is that folks are saying that they want to sit down and come up with something that's going to satisfy both sides. You cannot satisfy both sides in this struggle. (applause) One side wants to destroy the institution, and the other side wants to build it. One side wants to depart from the vision of Lew Hill, the other side wants to maintain it. One side wants to build up the community and the other side just wants the money from the community. So you can't satisfy both of those they're a contradiction. You can't have it both ways. (applause)

So, we have to begin to determine what victory looks like, because we're going to win this struggle. I think victory here at KPFK will mean: that you have to begin to develop that mosaic reflective of the community in which KPFK broadcasts to; that people like Ron Wilkins have to be sat down and be talked to about coming back to KPFK; that the institutionalized thuggery that goes on at KPFK has to stop; that the way people are treated has to be curtailed. It is becoming what is happening at WBAI also. Where you would have no... maybe you have... maybe you've listened on the Internet to the kind of abuse that has been allowed to take place against Amy Goodman in the morning at WBAI, the name calling, the accusations. I too have been vilified as the whole vilification process is going on, that's trying to accuse me of all kinds of things- all verbal. I'm waiting for it to be documented somewhere, because I'm running out of money and I will take them to court (sustained applause) and try to get some money for it.

So, I'm going to be brief because it's 12 o'clock where I come from and I don't know how much longer this will make sense, but what I want to convey to you is that this can only happen with you. It will not happen because of the people inside of KPFK, it can only happen with you. You're the ones. You're the engine that makes this whole thing work, and it is your participation with KPFK that gives it it's strength. So at the moment that you determine that it's over, that's enough, we want our radio station back that's when it'll happen. (applause) Frederick Douglas said in one of his speeches that the limits of tyrants are prescribed by those whom they oppress. (sustained applause) So if you want it back, then you have to take it back. One last thing: there's going to be a demonstration tomorrow at KPFK at noon. So if you want your radio station back, you come there tomorrow in these kind of numbers and I'm telling you it will reverberate throughout the network. (sustained applause)

Thank you very much.

 Verna Avery-Brown Talk at Forum on Pacifica Crises (April 29, 2000)

(Transcribed by Eileen Goodman)

(applause)

Thank you, thank you very much, thank you, stop, please. I have to thank you very much, that's very generous but I have to be able to recognize myself when I leave here. (laughter) More importantly my four sons and my husband have to be able to recognize me when I, when they pick me up from the airport and not a whole lot of applause's coming from that group. (laughter) They do however, bring me flowers on occasion and usually some they plucked from the neighbor's yard, unfortunately, but they're learning, they mean well. I didn't really come here to talk about my role as a mother and as a wife although that's a very important role in my life.

I came to talk about my role as the former anchor of Pacifica Network News.... I'm going to talk about the reason I decided to resign my position.

We just heard Larry Bensky, well we just heard Don articulate Larry Bensky's reasons for staying and I feel as though I have to articulate my reasons for leaving because we all choose how we want to fight these struggles and these battles. So in doing so, I'm going to go back a little bit, to the beginning of my tenure at Pacifica Network News.

When I first walked through the doors of the Pacifica Network News room in 1988, I was coming straight out of a career in commercial radio news. Back then if I did happen to switch to a FM radio station it was by accident while I was really surfing the dial looking for the Motown sound or something. I was what you might call the epitome of political incorrectness. Politically I was clueless. If it wasn't the Republicans, the Democrats or the "mean ole communists" they had not registered on my political radar screen; the Green party, the Socialists, the Libertarians, you could have put what I knew about those parties in your eye and still not blinked. I'm just being honest here folks. The Chiapas Indians, East Timor, none of these things meant a thing to me. I may as well have landed on another planet when I stepped through that newsroom, in 1988. And as a general assignment reporter, I was expected to not only learn about these issues but to care about them and to portray them in such a way that others might hear and be informed and also learn to care about these issues and to become active. Over the years I was assigned to different stories every day, a different subject. And somewhere along the line I really began to hear these stories.

I heard the story of Julia Butterfly, the woman who made her home in a giant redwood tree for years in order to protect it from the loggers who were perfectly content with raping the old growth forest in order to increase their precious profits.

I heard the story of the 9, 10, 11 year old girls that lived in Bombay, India, who were forced or stolen away from their families and forced into sexual slavery; or in some cases given away by their fathers to help earn money for the families; forced to put on make up and perform sexual favors at these tender young ages; at the moment they reached puberty so their families wouldn't have to starve to death. And I began to realize that their stories of economic deprivation was not really so different from the stories of the young African American women and girls right here across the U.S. who because of their lack of resources and their lack of nurturing and lack of recreational opportunities and facilities are left to fend for themselves and to raise themselves and they wound up fighting and killing one another in after school skirmishes and fighting- for entertainment. The girls that I spoke to are now serving lengthy sentences for murder before they've even had a chance to live.

And so, over the years hearing those stories, I began to see the geopolitical, socioeconomic connections between the lives of the people of color across this continent, indeed around this world. The controlling forces of the IMF, and the World Bank, the impotency of the UN, the U.S. military industrial complex and for the first time I saw the puppets and the puppeteers.

And if I can just digress for a moment here. When the protesters came to Washington DC a couple of weeks ago, by the hundreds, and demonstrated in front of the World Bank and the IMF; and formed human chains, endured the tear gasing and the police beatings, to confront the powers that be and to try to prevent business as usual, I felt a little bit of pride, pride in knowing that Pacifica has been covering that story for years. And I wondered how many of those protesters out there had gotten their information from the stories that we had been doing at Pacifica for many years. That PNN has long been exposing the inhumane exploitive policies of the IMF and the World Bank and I could tell by the superficial coverage that the TV stations, the mainstream TV stations and radio stations were providing that not very many of those reporters were very well versed on the issues surrounding that controversy. Point of fact, I understand that the last of the protesters, the demonstrators, have been released from jail, after an extraordinary display of solidarity and tenacity and displaying grace under pressure, and I just wanted to give them a congratulations (applause) for a job well done. And those demonstrators were mostly young people. And so there is indeed hope for us in this struggle.

But back to my early years at Pacifica, when I began to hear the stories. I heard the plights of the African American farmers eloquently articulated and dramatized when they brought a caravan of tractors lead by a mule they named "Struggle" to the front of the White House. The institutional racism and injustices practiced against those farmers was so deeply rooted that it took court orders to get them what was rightfully theirs. I remember when the farmers' caravan came to D.C. and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and I was assigned to cover that story. I just could not resist the urge to climb up on that tractor with the leader and interview him as the caravan proceeded. I saw some of the other reporters saying, "who is that?" And then they found out, they said, "oh Pacifica," and kind of smirked. But you know, I really felt proud to have that distinction, to wear that distinction, to be a Pacifica reporter. I felt proud because I know the rich legacy of Pacifica.

I know Pacifica has been a constant refuge for great independent thinkers of this world. People like Paul Robeson, Alan Ginsberg, Malcolm X, Whoopi Goldberg before her pre-Hollywood days. I know the legacy of Pacifica and just looking out here today and seeing all of you and this just sort of completes the picture for me. It really does touch me in my heart in a very special way. There's so many other stories I could really go on for hours, I mean there's the story of Granny D, who I'm sure all of you know, who walked across the country to protest campaign finance reform, it's that spirit, well Pacifica covered her story even before she got to the end of her trip.

There was a young, white, or rather, Jewish guy who turned his skin black for a college experiment. He took some pills and he couldn't stand being black for more then a week, a week, because of the way people were responding to him. Nothing had changed about him except for the color of his skin. The lesson- racism is alive and well in America. He told me when he had decided to end his experiment and wanted to return his skin to the natural color, he scrubbed himself so hard his skin began to bleed.

There are countless stories, I'm not going to stand here and try to go over every one, I mean it was an eleven year career. But the one thing that made a major impression on me when I first walked through the doors over eleven years ago, were the people that I met in the newsroom. I was the only African American, of course, back then I think we were called Black at that time. But they, my white oh so liberal colleagues, were all just as sensitive to the issues of racism and ageism and sexism and all the other "isms" as I was. And in many cases were better informed. Yet we all understood that my perspective was unique and was entitled to be a part of a mix and the dialogue.

When I first got there, I wasn't exactly what you call homophobic, but lets just say I had a whole lot of questions about homosexuality. They all began with, "why." Why would anybody want to? Why are some people attracted to the same sex? Why this, why that? But through my work at Pacifica I came to understand why; but, more importantly I realized that the question is really not why, but why not? Why shouldn't people be allowed to express their sexual orientation however it manifests within them? Why shouldn't they have equal protection to pursue their own choice of lifestyles? Why shouldn't their beliefs carry just as much weight as anybody else's? Why not? And while I am still just as straight as the day I was when I walked through the door, and proud of it, I'd like to think I'm not narrow in my thinking. And I thank God and Pacifica for that deeper understanding of my fellow human beings. Yes I said God, ooh! Most of my white colleagues were/are atheists, agnostics, and of course that didn't sit well with me back then with my Baptist, middle-class upbringing. But while I heard them saying they didn't believe in God, their actions, their compassionate nature, their commitment sure seemed divine to me. Case in point, Amy Goodman, from WBAI, who was literally caught in the crossfire of the brutal military regime trying to protect the lives of East Timorese activists by giving voice and international attention to their cause. And I reached the point where I really didn't care whether my colleagues believed in God or not as long as they just kept doing what they were doing. It was all right with me, I was going to believe in God enough for all of them.

And when I met other African Americans and people of color within the network, people with that same fiery spirit and passion and commitment: People like Samori Marksman of WBAI and Dredd Scott Keys, Jose Santiago, Sheryl Flowers of KPFA and we just recently saw Errol Maitland of Democracy Now who is recovering as we speak (applause) from wounds ruthlessly inflicted on him by New York City police officers as he simply attempted to cover the funeral march of Patrick Dorsmon. And once again I had an opportunity to really feel proud, to be amongst this caliber of people called Pacifica.

And so when the confrontation at KPFA took place, it brought things to a head at PNN, the newsroom. For sometime there seemed to be a rift developing; two distinct political camps were forming. There were those who seem to carry with them a respect for the principles upon which Pacifica was founded and they remain committed to the struggle for equality and social justice and peace and seemed eager to do whatever it took, whatever was necessary to protect those rights. And then there were those who seemed to no longer fully embrace these ideals with the same amount of fervor that they had years ago. And moreover went out of their way to question the need to cover stories and certain angles. Things like affirmative action, they rolled their eyes when stories involving gay and lesbian rights were pitched during the morning news meetings. Issues concerning African Americans or other people of color were routinely placed at the bottom of the newscast on the days when these individuals were producing the show. And many of my story suggestions were just summarily dismissed as, "where's the news peg? Where's the news peg?" To which I would sometimes argue, "well, it's news because I say it's news, because not enough people realize this is a crisis, and this crisis is underway." Our standard of news cannot simply be whether ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and the rest of the corporate run media deem it to be news. But that was the majority mindset, prevalent in that news department at that time. Everything Democracy Now did, with it's award winning team of journalists, was suddenly frowned upon as unbalanced, knee-jerk, liberalism, or advocacy activism journalism. Professional jealousies were so heavy in the air you could see it. And the PNN news was often compromised out of pettiness on those occasions when these individuals were producing the newscast.

Dan Coughlin, a fair-minded, compassionate, intelligent, committed producer was ridiculed and undermined at every opportunity. He was made a target of their campaign to gain permanent control of the newsroom. And they went about this with the quiet endorsement of Lynn Chadwick and Dr. Mary Frances Berry, sort of like a wink and a nod.

On two occasions I spoke personally to Dr. Berry about the forces that were at play in the newsroom. Dan and I both met with Lynn Chadwick on a number of occasions, they listened, they made promises and then they acted in ways directly in contradiction, contrary to what we had discussed. They had aided and abetted in creating an extremely hostile environment for Dan and I in the newsroom.

Then, Dan's duties as producer were re-assigned. He was no longer to head up the news. He was given a "bogus assignment," which to this day had not been fully defined. The only thing that is clear is that he'll have nothing whatsoever to do with producing the PNN news.

Dr. Berry would no longer accept my phone calls. Now, here's a woman that I had long-respected, someone I considered to be among the icons of black civil rights leadership. My 15-year old son was portraying her profile, her work, as a subject for a history essay that he was doing in school. I was dumbfounded by her actions and you know, quite frankly, I was really hurt by the rejection.

Before I resigned, I made one final attempt to put into writing all of my concerns about the direction of the PNN news. I was the only African American journalist in that department at the time. Our engineer is African American but rarely ever participated in the actual content decisions that went into the show. My opinions, as anchor of that show, were completely and utterly disregarded. And the chairwoman of the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights was one of the people that was completely ignoring my concerns. To this day, I have not gotten so much as an e-mail from Dr. Berry. And we all know how long it takes to write an e-mail, hit that button "send," or at least most of us do. I could not and can not understand why she choose that course of action. But if this network is to ever return to the bold courageous outlet for peace and justice that it once stood for change has got to take place at the top and yes, I know, that Dr. Berry is for all intents and purposes out but I urge you to look closely at those left to carry out her agenda. Examine the role they play throughout this ordeal and ask yourself what these individuals might have done to gain the trust of Dr. Berry to be handed the mantle so to speak. And then decide whether you think there's been a genuine change at the top. If your answer is; "I don't think so," then remain vigilant of the management. Write, e-mail, telephone, let these new players know of your concerns. Demand that they do what's necessary to heal this institution. Let them know it's not over just because the players have changed but the game is still the same. Force them into dialogue about what they intend to take, what direction they intend to take this network into from here.

And so, when I explain why I left, I left because I could no longer do my work. Sure I could have continued to have performed my job as the "anchor," but I couldn't do my work. Those of you may understand there's a difference between work and a job. Work is the reason you get up in the morning, it pushes you out the door, it's your motivation, your drive, your passion. It's not just collecting a paycheck. Your work is when you make, oh let me make just one more phone call, one more phone call to get that source, just one more, just one more. That's your work. Your job is just something that you just show up, 5 o'clock I'm out of here. Your work gets you up early, keeps you there late, while your kids are at home, perhaps needing some attention. When I realized my work was being compromised, I knew that was unacceptable and there was no reason for me to stay. So we all fight our battles in our own way. While I've left Pacifica, I remain committed to the progressive cause and will until the day I die. And while, (applause) I pursue other avenues for this expression, I urge you all to fight for the station, the network, that we all have grown to love and cherish. And I'm a firm believer in the concept that all things work for good, all things work for good. And I would invite you, my friends, to just hold that thought in your consciousness as we examine the lessons of the tumultuous chapter in the history of this truly, truly precious institution all things work for good- peace and blessings.

Thank you all. (applause)

DanCoughlin Talk at Forum on Pacifica Crises (April 29, 2000)

(Transcribed by Elieen Goodman)

Thank you for that sunny southern California welcome. This is my first time here in Los Angeles and I'm moving. I can't wait to come here, from dreary old New York where it's still winter. Don, thank you, very much, for the introduction, I'm not so sure that writing for The Nation magazine is something very positive these days but so be it.

And I also want to thank the organizers of this event for inviting me and bringing so many different people from all around the country to talk about this crucial issue at Pacifica radio, arguably the most important issue facing the .... on behalf of the networks. I am expressing my own individual views. I am, as they say, exercising my First Amendment rights and I do not expect to be disciplined or punished for doing so.

(applause)

I don't want to get too much into the nitty-gritty of Pacifica today even though you're probably all waiting for that. I do want to put the events there, at the network over the last year into some kind of broader political context. And then what I'd like to try to do is offer some kind of vision of where and how Pacifica should move in the years ahead.

As most of you are aware in the last fifteen years and especially in the last four years we've seen a truly stunning process of media consolidation. This process has nowhere been more dramatic then in Radio broadcasting. Well, it's easy to see a San Francisco Examiner or a New York News Day disappear from the streets, it's less easy to see Westinghouse gobble up radio stations all across the country.

One effect of this process, of course, is that Pacifica's five FM licenses, which were once commercially worthless are now all of a sudden valued at probably more than $200, 000,000 dollars. And it is this commercial context, the increasing corporate pressure that is so profoundly affecting all of public broadcasting, just like corporate interests are affecting public telecommunications, public utilities, public health, public education, this is a worldwide process and it has a name and it's called globalization, or Thatcherism, or privatization. And Pacifica radio, as a public broadcaster, is not immune from these political currents. In fact, for all intents and purposes much of public broadcasting in this country today does not exist anymore. And I'm not just talking about the corporate underwriting of the Lehrer News Hour or public TV or radio shows now being tied to specific commercial sponsors like Archer Daniels Midland, GE or Merck. Public broadcasters have now unambiguously linked their futures with private capital. For instance, NPR has just joined with auto-giants like Ford and Daimler/Chrysler and telecommunications companies like Lorall and Lucent to develop satellite radio. A new radio receiver will soon be installed in your car that will link to a programming stream digitally broadcast from satellites. Daimler/Chrysler has invested $100,000,000 dollars in this project, the Blackstone Group, a very famous Wallstreet firm has invested $200,000,000 dollars; and I can tell you that Daimler/Chrysler is not investing a $100,000,000 dollars to hear stories about DaimlerBenz and the Nazi slave labor camps in Germany in the 30's and the 40's. Nor are they investing that kind of money to hear about the environmental record of Daimler/Chrysler's jeep plant in Toleto, Ohio. So you can see that this process of corporate involvement in public broadcasting will have a direct impact on the content that we hear. And now the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federal agency that funds public radio is now, in fact, funding NPR, providing NPR $1,000,000 dollars to create programming for this new private venture. And this is another example of how the public treasury is in the service of private industry. So public broadcasters have linked-up and linking their futures to Ford and Daimler/Chrysler and Lucent and Sony and not to local communities, not to the farm workers of the central valley, not to the new social movements against globalization or even the educational and religious and rural organizations that fought and created public broadcasting in the first place. This represents a fundamental shift in the very idea and practice of public broadcasting, away from serving the public interests to serving private profit. And that's important that we understand what is happening with public broadcasting and has been happening and place Pacifica within that context.

So as Pacifica News Director, last year, I found myself in meetings with representatives from Microsoft, from Public Radio International, a public broadcaster - a very large one; or from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federal agency, telling Pacifica about news coverage or how to restructure the network or how to sell stations or how to sub-contract out station management if a sale was not possible or why to receive corporate underwriting. This may be shocking since Pacifica's whole ethos is independent, non-commercial, listener-sponsor radio with a distinct civil libertarian and anti-corporate culture. But in fact, it is the federal government, corporate America and powerful broadcasters that were, and are, shaping many Pacifica policies. And this is not a secret, this is the context within which Pacifica is operating, this is the context within which the Pacifica crisis is occurring today. And I think it is important to see Pacifica in that broader mix.

Alongside this restructuring of public radio is also a dumbing down of content on both television and radio which you've all probably noticed and which has been widely commented on. That is, we don't have a lot of hard-news anymore and if you do have some hard-news there's nothing that is really said and it is very soft, coupled with those limited hard-news stories now are entertainment stories, business stories, sports stories, so that essentially what you're hearing is pretty vacuous. And again, Pacifica is not immune from these social and political forces that are operating out there. So there's tremendous pressure from CPB, public broadcasters, Congress, corporate America to conform, to tone it down, to be so called balanced, to keep Mumia Abu Jamal off the air. And their idea of balance, of course, is Coke versus Pepsi, Democrat versus Republican, it is not when you have General Wesley Clark on the air that you should balance it with a peace activist. And in fact, even the very liberal idea of the media as the "fourth estate." As another check and balance in the system of government is almost finished, you will never- even that notion- has very little currency today. And the pressure is very direct and unequivocal to become dishwater.

But there is an alternative for public broadcasters, for media workers and communities activists. We do not have to become allied with private corporations or government agencies and become Washington centric. We do not need to listen to the sirens and the finger wavers who are telling us to go mainstream and to abandon Pacifica's "anachronistic" mission of peace and social justice. Instead of inviserating community roots we need to deepen them. Instead of dumbing down, we need to smarten up. Instead of just trying to get into the castle we need to go to the cottage. And I say that purposely because it's like what Verna just mentioned when she says, the derision within the network, itself, for what Pacifica stands for is very deep and folks many people would prefer to be players, would prefer to be in the castle and not in the cottage, and that's an important distinction about where we start our work as journalists and our work as people involved in media organization. And we've seen very successful models of this approach within Pacifica itself. Take a look at Democracy Now, one of the reasons why it's relatively successful like it breaks stories is precisely because it comes from the bottom up. It has community roots and it's sustained by community journalists at a vibrant community radio station, WBAI in New York and 'BAI has reflected very successfully the social and political currents that are washing up on its doorstep, immigration, police brutality, the African Diaspora, student sweatshop activists, the International Human Rights Movement, globalization, the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. And this is true at other stations, less and less so now, but it has been true at other stations in the Pacifica system. Many of the finest work, the finest journalists are produced at the community level. Journalists like Verna, she walked in to WPFW in 1988, Laura Flanders comes out of WBAI, Larry Bensky comes out of KPFA, these people did not drop from the sky, they did not drop from CPB or Microsoft or NPR, they grew up with community radio nurturing them, training them, developing them and becoming some of the finest broadcasters in the country today.

WBAI under the leadership of Samori Marksman produced some of the best programming and programmers in community radio in recent years. WBAI did improve the quality of its shows. It won numerous awards. It sharply increased its audience over the last decade and it hit the first $1,000,000 dollar fund raiser in community radio history in the most competitive radio market in the world, and that's New York city. And it achieved these milestones, not by killing its community ties, or abandoning Pacifica's mission; but, by deepening them, by strengthening those community relations and by strengthening its commitment to the original founding message of people like Lew Hill.

Too often the debate at Pacifica is framed between those who supposedly want to improve programming and those who do not. That's not the issue. The issue is how we improve programming, strengthen our programs, build audience, and the issue is how we move forward as a network. And this is crucial to understand and it has important implications for how the network is organized and what kind of programming we do.

We can have, and need to have, a democratic media organization, one that starts from the bottom up. An organization that is accountable, a media that can deepen and grow through participation and representation, not by exclusion and repression. As an organization, Pacifica needs to have internal democracy and transparency at the highest levels. Pacifica also needs to find space for great broadcasters like Larry Bensky and Verna and Laura. Why are accomplished serious journalists being driven out, at all levels, of the network? Pacifica needs to be an organization where rules are followed, where positions are filled in an open hiring process and where journalistic integrity is respected and journalists are not fired for reporting the truth or for exercising editorial discretion. We don't want a network run on terror, it's unacceptable.

(applause)

Pacifica and Pacifica journalists need not be afraid of speaking truth to power, of tackling the controversial issues, of staying true to its mission of peace and social justice. We should say that we are not afraid of social change, that we believe in the need for a new society, that the present organization of society creates war and poverty and racism and like Lew Hill, we want to abolish these conditions of human life. And this is in fact how we can build a network by challenging, by taking on the establishment, by being critical, this is how we can distinguish ourselves. Again, take a look at Democracy Now, it has built audience, it has raised millions, it has broke/won journalism awards, I believe it's a model for how Pacifica can continue to provide a space for broad, diverse movements for social change and at the same time build audience and be successful. But for Pacifica to be able to air the voice of a journalist from death row and for Pacifica to be able to stand up to Daimler/Chrysler, to Microsoft, to NPR, and the CPB, for Pacifica to provide a real alternative it needs us. We have to organize ourselves. We are part of a growing media and democracy movement that is having a powerful effect, most recently in Seattle and in Washington DC; but, we still need to deepen and broaden our organic relations with communities to overcome divisions, to insure that our work is from the bottom up and not the top down and that is why we need groups like this Free Speech Coalition that came together here today and put on this program and why today....

(applause)

So thank you very much for coming and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak.

(applause)

Laura Flanders Talk at Forum on Crisis at Pacifica (April 29, 2000)

(Transcribed by Eileen Goodman)

(applause)

Thank you. It's really great, it's just great to see all of you here. Thank you. Thank you. I love that you took that moment Don, to remind us, that people do this work out of love. That we are here because of something that we believe in, that we care about.

The folks at FAIR and with CounterSpin, we encourage you to get into a very critical mindset: what's wrong with this coverage, what's wrong with this choice of sources, this selection of sources, what's wrong with this spectrum that goes from the very, very far right, to the little bit less far right and stops right there. We talk, very often, in critical terms about what's wrong and what's so exciting is to remember that we're here because of something that we believe is right.

We're here because we believe in the tradition of publicly owned media, of media that's independent from the corporations that Dan mentioned. In media that is accessible to us so that people like Verna can literally walk in a door. I still believe that's different from a Website. That actual people on their actual feet can walk into a door and meet other actual live, living, breathing people, I think is different.

This is really an exciting weekend to be having this event, I think. If you think about it, this is the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. A war that, I think, 25 years ago, on the verge of its end, a lot of people in the US would have thought this isn't going to happen. We're not going to win this argument. A lot of people in Vietnam were thinking, can we lose more people? Can we have more victims? Can this war go on and on? Well maybe. And what we saw 25 years ago was that a war was brought to an end by fighters in Vietnam, by peaceful fighters here, by a Civil Rights Movement here, that stood up against the racist and classist use of the draft and a policy of the powers that be (for heaven sake, when you think what their agenda was)- that we managed to stop that, to turn that around, to end that war with all of its legacy. It's a victory we need to be remembering this weekend.

Now where are you going to go to hear that victory? To be reminded of how that came about. Where are you going to go to hear that coalition of voices again 25 years later. Well I know in New York you could tune into WBAI tomorrow and they'll be airing a day long, I think they'll be airing, I believe deeply that they will be airing, I have confidence that they will be airing the day long Teach-In about how was that war ended. What did we learn and how can we move forward? It wasn't just white people that ended that war. It wasn't just Americans that ended that war. It was a coalition of interests and it was young people and it was old people and it was unexpected and we won something. And you can turn to 'BAI and hear that.

What else is happening this weekend? Well in London, does everybody know about May Day 2K? What did you hear about it? Probably on Pacifica radio, no? Or was it the web? Now the day was everybody would have heard about it on Pacifica radio, right? The day was you would have been hearing day after day on Pacifica Network News the preparation for what's going to happen in London this weekend. They have probably the largest mobilization of police in London history happening this weekend because a May Day event is going to take place in the same style and the same spirit as an anti-capitalist day of protest last June; when groups among them, many, many different groups, but among them reclaim the streets who were active in Seattle and also Washington, all reclaiming the streets of London and last year, do you remember the pictures? You had bricks through the bank windows, you had the police completely freaked out, you had the whole city of London shut down by people with bicycles and people with kids and people with every possible kind of tool of protest, well they're worried the same is going to happen, they are worried. We are excited the same might happen this weekend, May Day 2K. You can see it on the Web, Mayday 2k.org

Well, we want to know what's going to happen there right? And I know what's suppose to happen; today Saturday, is suppose to be a cycle through the city against pollution. Tomorrow, rumor has it there's going to be piles of manure dumped outside Buckingham Palace. Monday we're going to have a day long, we're going to have a daylong campaign of guerrilla gardening, know what that is? That's people saying listen we complain a lot about multinational corporations, we complain a lot about corporate control of our economy, well if we're going to reclaim, if we're going to complain we have to figure out how we're going to substitute for corporate control of our economy. Well, the first thing

we have to do is produce our own food. And the first thing we have to do is get access to land. Well we don't have very much access to land, so let's get some. So I can't tell you the details, not because I'm hiding them because I don't know them. Because it hasn't been reported, because we haven't been there covering everyday as this was developed; but, as far as I understand it ,guerrilla gardening is going to be taking place all over London, on Monday. People have been asked to bring seedlings, pickaxes, and spades. (applause) I think that's great news, right? That's exciting news and that's the kind of thing we want to be there. We want to hear it. We don't want to hear the ABC news version. We don't hear, heaven forbid, the BBC news version. We don't want to hear the feature story version, if you don't mind me saying so, that's the free lance stringers that PNN is using everyday now. We want to hear the sound of the spade going through that bit of concrete at Trafalga Square, don't we, outside the Houses of Parliament. We want to hear the person pouring the water into the soil to make that seedling grow outside the House of Commons or preferably inside the House of Commons. Wouldn't that be exciting? I mean that's what Pacifica was bringing us throughout the Vietnam war, they sent correspondence, actually to Hanoi and to Saigon to hear what was happening. That's what we heard.

If there had been a Pacifica in the nineteenth century we would have heard from Chicago when workers were shot fighting for their rights and we got the original May Day. If Pacifica would have been there with their microphones just like Errol Maitland was going down to the ground while the cops on his back. Have you all heard that tape? Pacifica Network News wouldn't play it. But we've all heard that tape of him saying, "we're reporting live on 'BAI they're on my back ,they're on my back, I'm on the ACK" That's chilling stuff, you're never going to hear that on BBC. Did you hear it on Pacifica finally? On Democracy Now, all right, well we need to distinguish, I need to distinguish more clearly between Pacifica Network News and Democracy Now, of course Democracy Now aired it. But isn't it an outrage that Pacifica Network News has not yet aired that news, that sound. Politics aside, yes we have a different agenda from the people that run the corporations; but, more then anything we have a different style we have a different sound, we want to give people the information not filtered through five thousands layers of calming devices but rather hear the sound of what happens. Again, I think that's why radio is powerful, we want to protect radio, it's wise because it has to do with sound. You want to hear the person; like Amy in East Timor, chanting as the AK47's (or whatever it was) come towards them, we want to hear Earl on the streets, we want to hear Verna on the tractor. We can get the other stuff in photographs, but radio, what's special about it is how close you get. How excited you can get. How many thoughts it provokes in your own mind while maybe you're cleaning the dishes or preparing the meal or putting out the laundry or cleaning your house. It's a little different from the newspaper where it's all ready flat on the page and you have to be focusing in that way. It's a little different from television where kind of mesmerized by that glowing rectangle. It's definitely different from the Web, where you can go just to where your interested and you might not see the other stuff that happens.

The thing about radio is that people turn that dial, all sorts of people, like Verna said she did. All sorts of people could catch the news just on the air. It flew through the air into their ear and could change their lives right then. So I think there's a lot of exciting stuff happening in independent media.

And, speaking of someone who has worked for years in media criticism of corporate media, we should never reduce our determination to get better from our corporate controlled press. But we need to, at the same time, understand what it is we're fighting for. And, when it comes to community radio: we're fighting for institutions that train new people, that develop expertise, that provoke questions, that get people excited, that sometimes get people furious (but it's right there in front of them, in their ears, they can have their thoughts, they can have their reactions), that get them out into the streets- because you say there's going to be a protest at six about this- go be there and people show up. Meetings like this one. I mean, when I worked at FAIR and we did all the criticism that we did and it was very important and after ten years and I just felt that people cannot live by criticism alone.

We have to also nurture our creativity, and celebrate our creativity, celebrate we ended the Vietnam war- all of us, that very big WE. Celebrate that we have May Day as an international holiday celebrated everywhere but this country. Celebrate that we own these airwaves, that we have this history of Pacifica where we not only own the airwaves but we actually own some licenses. And, that we're not the people, who are deviating from some traditions, we're not the ones who are out of touch marginal, irrelevant. We're the ones who are continuing to express a tradition in this country of speaking truth to power, of going where people hadn't gone yet, of being a mix of people, in a mix of issues all at once in the same room. So you don't just turn to the Discovery channel, you don't just turn to the science channel, you don't just turn to the stock exchange, you don't just hear the Black program, you don't just hear the Asian-Pacific program; but with any luck, you hear all of them, and you get some sense of this world and its connections and what's great about that, and what's difficult about that, and what's exciting about that. You maybe make friends you wouldn't have thought about making before. You go to events you wouldn't thought of going to before. We don't want block programming, like we're told by NPR that we should have. (applause) We don't want to niche-market ourselves just to the few people that we are sure are listening every night. We want to try to reach out to other people. We don't want to be guided solely by how many is it: ten, twenty, thirty thousand people listening in this hour, versus the next hour, and that's the only principle on which we guide our programming. Sure Arbitron ratings and how many people are listening is part of the information that we should have in our heads as we decide how to move forward and what programming to do; but, it shouldn't be the only information, shouldn't be the only thing that counts.

So what else?A-16? I was in Washington DC for the anti IMF anti-World Bank policy meetings, and it was great. There was an independent media center there, as there had been in Seattle, that was literally buzzing; not from all the micro electronic waves, radiation waves, although that too maybe. But, there was so many people and there and there were so many young people who were calling each other and saying, "the action is on this street," "there's tear gas on I&K," (or whatever it is)- 14th and K. "There's a protest outside the Treasury." "Whose got the sound from when the FCC broke down the micro radio station?" Whose has the photograph of when the fire department broke down the convergent center?" "Who has the flyer?" Yeah, I'll tell you about that in a minute. It was exciting they were putting it on the Web.

There were pictures and stories to be downloaded off the Web for free, for people who could do that. There was sound on the Web for people who could run that sound and a lot of community stations around the country ran that sound straight off the web site. There was press conferences with the press. There was a written newsletter that went out, either two days or three days. And, they had a crisis at one point where the Kinkos in the area of the independent media center, three Kinkos were shut down. Why? Well,because the people that ran them were told they were in danger of being in a riot area. There weren't any riots going on. This is your 24 hour printing house and they knew that was the standby for publishers all over, activists all over the country, where you go when your own Xerox machine breaks down, as they're made to do. You go to Kinkos. Well, they shut the three Kinkos around the nearest IMC so that those newsletters couldn't get out. But, they found some other place to get them out. So, anyway, you had this buzzing nerve center of independent media. Where was Pacifica Network News? Banned from it. Why? Because the people that ran it were standing on principle, in support of Dan, in support of Verna, in support of the Stringer Strike....

A lasting image of the A-16 march I was on, I can't remember what intersection it was, but as you heard, people closed down intersections with human chains. The idea was to stop traffic from passing through, you didn't want to let the buses go through that were carrying the delegates to go to the World Bank IMF meetings. Well, I saw one of our reporters at Pacifica Network News; post-purge Pacifica, as I refer to it- one of the post purge Pacifica reporters- screaming at an activist on the corner. I went up to the activist afterwards- she stomped off. What was that about? And, the activist said, I don't know who that was, but she was furious that we had a blockade here that was blocking her way. What is the whole point? The blockade here? This is what we're here for. This is what we're covering. And, that to me really epitomized the problem. That we have a Network that we own, ....with five licenses around the country, with affiliates in every community in these United States, with contacts all over the world. The rolodex of me, Verna and Dan could basically get us to anyone in the world we want to. And, we have this incredible tradition, this amazing resource; and, the people who are in charge of it right now are standing on the wrong side of the barricade.

(applause)

And, I really believe- and in the same way that there's a movement to, as oppose to when I started at FAIR, ten, whatever it was, twelve years ago now- now people are conscious about media control. Now people are very conscious about the power of corporate media, and conglomeratization, and what its doing, and it's great. There's activism around media all over the place. What we have to also maintain, are our independent media sources, our radio stations, where people can walk into the door, people could learn things. And,we have to be where Pacifica would have been years ago, which is at the center inspiring this new movement of independent media activists, on the Web, and on satellite radio, and so on, and so forth.

I'm excited that I'm working with Working Assets with their new radio network, it's not community radio, it's commercial radio. But, I'm excited, nonetheless, that good people are trying to compete for commercial radio space on the AM dial in fact, is where we are, or on the Web. Where was I going with this? Just simply to say, there is a movement going on that Pacifica should be at the heart of. I have to say if Pacifica doesn't catch up this train is leaving the station. These folks are going. It's multiracial, multiage, multiethnic, international, people are going to start turning to the Web for the information about May Day 2K in London, because they can't reliably get it on Pacifica Network News. Amy can't cover everything in one hour a day on Democracy Now, although we know she tries. Her position is always in need of protection et cetera, et cetera. So, just simply to say: there is a movement, we want to be part of it, we are part of it, we have a right to be part of it, and Pacifica better get on board- frankly.

Now an announcement: (applause) the independent media center, the people that brought us the IMC in Seattle and in Washington; are having a revival, are going to do their thing again, here in Los Angeles August 14th through 17th during the Democratic Party Convention. And, I recommend anybody to look up, INDY media, INDYmedia.org, on the Web, and figure out how you can be part of it. They had about a thousand volunteers in Washington DC in a little gallery, in a friendly disheveled part of town and not all the volunteers were media experts or media professionals. Indymedia.org, INDYMEDIA.org, there's a phone number here, flyers in the back, be part of it.

I say to Pacifica be there or be square.

Thank you

(applause)

Excerpts from Mary Frances Berry's Recent WBAI Interview (Wednesday, August 25th)

Courtesy of Gil Gilmore (freepacifica)

(First Listener call referred to Michael Palmer,s infamous email and asked how MFB had the gall to deny her interest in selling the station)

"Your ques