Mitch Jeserich KPFA LSB Election Endorsements

Dan Siegel has quite a history at Pacifica Radio. Among other things, he helped manipulate the Pacifica elections of 2007, in which his group, the "Concerned Listeners," fraudulently won a majority of seats on the KPFA Board of Directors. Siegel's unethical acts are documented in a report by the former election supervisor, Casey Peters.

Please read about Dan Siegel at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/06/18621084.php

Mitch Jeserich is a news reporter promoting the debt-promoting utterly reactionary Concerned Listeners slate which is the majority of the current Local Station Board and which he lists above. NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND VOTES FOR INCUMBENTS WHO HAVE PUT KPFA INTO A $300,000 DEBT. That is sufficient mandate to kick any incumbent out of office. Currently, the 6 p.m. news program, on which Mitch Jeserich reports, is bearable only because it is the only daily news program I listen to; however, I read lots of news articles and could skip the 6 p.m. news. In fact, I tune out every few minutes from this news program when they have the speeches of O'BS, the current millionaire, warmonger, death penalty president, none of which are necessary and all of which are filler, and when they chew the cud on a news story for 15 minutes that needed only 5 minutes of reporting. There is nothing radical about the 6 p.m. evening news; it is just convenient. On KPFA, everything should be radical and have the perspective of the needs and interests of the workingclass.

STEVE ZELTZER IS THE BEST CANDIDATE, and the Peoples Radio slate is good too.
Steve's decades of labor journalism and knowledge of KPFA’s problems demonstrates his superior qualifications. He is running on a slate with JAIME CADER. See their website,
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/index.htm
and their statements at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/candidates.htm#JC

His statement on lack of labor programming at KPFA on Labor Day and all other times is at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/others/sashalilley.htm
and
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/08/18621303.php

At
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/07/18621104.php
there is more information, in particular, Steve Zeltzer speaks on a short video at:
http://www.blip.tv/file/2567220

The endorsers of the Voices for Justice slate are at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/endorsers.htm
and are
Cindy Sheehan, Anti-war activist
Matt Gonzalez, Former president SF Board of Supervisors
Cynthia McKinney, Former Congresswoman
Gayle McLaughlin, Mayor of City of Richmond, California
Peace and Freedom Party California
Green Party of Contra Costa County Council
San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
Mary And Willie Radcliff, Publisher, San Francisco Bayview Newspaper
Gray Brechin, UCB Geography Department and Author "Imperial San Francisco"
Genoveva Calloway, Vice-Mayor, City of San Pablo
Jovanka Beckles, The Richmond Planning Commission
Education Not Incarceration, SF Chapter
Idriss Stelley Action and Resource Center (ISARC)
Trent Willis, Vice President ILWU Local 10
Clarence Thomas, Former ILWU Local 10 Secretary Treasurer
Francisco De Costa, Executive Director of Enviromental Justice Advocacy San Francisco
Roger Scott, Past President AFT 2121, Professor San Francisco City College
Bill Carpenter, Professor, San Francisco City College, Videographer
Todd Davies, Lecturer, Stanford University (endorsing Steve Zeltzer only)
Rick Hauptman, Chair, North Mission Neighborhood Alliance
Mary Ellen Churchill, Videographer and media activist
Lotus Fong, Community Activist
Philip Santos, Musician, member of American Federation of Musicians
Ralph Schoenman, Co-Producer Taking Aim
Cynthia Servetnick, Member IFPTE Local 21, Save the Laguna Street Campus
Lisa Milos, UCSF CWA-UPTE Member
Mary Ann Ring, UCSF CUE 9 Delegate
Russ Miyashiro, ILWU Local 34 Assistant Dispatcher
Brad Wiedmaier, SEIU UHW, Architectural Historian, 113 Steuart St. Labor Center Project
Jemahl Ämen
Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, Physician, Environmental Activist
Charles Smith, AFSCME 444 Chief Steward
Diane Brown, Member of United Teachers of Richmond, CTA/NEA and Progressive Teachers Caucus of Richmond
Riva Enteen, former Chair KPFA Local Station Board
JR Valery, Producer of the Black Report (endorsing Steve Zeltzer only)
Skip Charbonneau, member SEIU 1000
Regina Carey, Community Activist Marin County
Organizations after the names are identification only

People’s Radio also has good candidates at:
http://peoplesradio.net/election2009.htm

People’s Radio candidates are GERALD SANDERS, STAN WOODS, RICHARD PHELPS AND JIM CURTIS
Their endorsers are
Michael Parenti – Author & lecturer
The Peace & Freedom Party of California
The Petaluma Progressives
The Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance
Tony Sustak - Treasurer of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), former Richmond Greens leader, community activist
Jack Heyman – ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member rank & file organizer
Clarence Thomas - ILWU Local 10 Executive Board member
Robert Knight - WBAI & KPFA newscaster, of the Knight Report on Flashpoints
Bonnie Faulkner - Host of Guns & Butter, KPFA
Miguel "Gavilan" Molina - Host of Flashpoints, La Honda Bajita
Francisco Herrera – Musician, KPFA Flashpoints contributor
David Janda - KBBF, member of Voces Cruzando Fronteras, photogapher
Daniel Borgstrom - Author, former Marine against the war, KPFA activist, author http://www.danielborgstrom.com
Anthony Fest - KPFA newscaster, staff rep to LSB -endorsing all People's Radio candidates individually
Henry Norr - KPFA LSB* -endorsing all People's Radio candidates individually
Joe Wanzala - vice chair of the PNB* -endorsing all People's Radio candidates individually

HENRY NORR is also a candidate and his statement, along with all other candidate statements may be found at
http://pacificafoundation.org/cand_list.php

Recap: Good candidates are STEVE ZELTZER, JAIME CADER, GERALD SANDERS, STAN WOODS, RICHARD PHELPS, JIM CURTIS, HENRY NORR.
If you allow Concerned Listeners to prevail as they do now on the Local Station Board, THERE WILL BE NO KPFA. We do not need another NPR, better known as National Petroleum Radio. Concerned Listeners have caused KPFA to be almost destroyed, with the following occurring:
1. $300,000 debt;
2. Police being allowed on the premises to viciously beat up, hot-tie and falsely arrest an outstanding African-American volunteer programmer of many years, Nadra Foster, for no good reason whatsoever;
3. No labor programming on Labor Day and the only labor programming otherwise is 20 minutes on Wednesday morning, grossly insufficient in this Great Depression;
4. Refusing to allow the excellent 9/11 Truth/capitalist crisis expose Guns & Butter alternate with Taking Aim, a similar program broadcast on WBAI although produced locally, as Guns & Butter wishes to have this arrangement;
5. Practically no local programming, the only way the station can have grassroots support.
6. Refusal to comply with the Voices for Justice 11 point program at
http://www.voicesforjusticeradio.org/program.htm
and the 10 point program of Peoples Radio at
http://peoplesradio.net/index.htm

Now is the time to get off the dime. The only reason Concerned Listeners won a majority last time is because not enough supporters of Voices for Justice and People's Radio voted. In these elections, there is always barely enough to constitute a quorum. If you are a subscriber, you obviously care, and voting is very easy. You have to act to get anything done; you cannot just sit there and do nothing. Here are the good candidates again:
STEVE ZELTZER, JAIME CADER, GERALD SANDERS, STAN WOODS, RICHARD PHELPS, JIM CURTIS, HENRY NORR

Pointing out what candidates and slates have done or not done is not an attack as Mitch says, trying to avoid accountability for his CL allies. It is their record and the best way to judge people is by what they have done not what they say they are going to do.

Of the candidates Mitch endorses only two of them showed up at the three election events this past weekend, North Bay, SF and Marin. Andrea Turner came late to two of them and left early in SF. Banafsheh Akhlaghi came to SF and left early. Peopleradio was the only group that had all of its candidates at each event for the entire event.


HAVING DAN SIEGEL AS THEIR PRIME NEW CANDIDIATE DEMONSTRATES EXACTLY WHERE CONCERNED LISTENERS ARE COMING FROM! Faction power before Foundation and Mission. “Our leadership elite may still want to believe in democratic principles—they certainly profess that they do—but in practice they have shown themselves all too willing to violate those principles in order to gain or retain power”, Cornel West from his book Democracy Matters, page 28. If democracy matters to you, it is time for a new majority on the KPFA LSB. Please do not vote for any Concerned Listener candidates for the reasons demonstrated below.


CL praises Dan Siegel on their web site for having served “… briefly as interim executive director in 2007 and 2008.” Let’s look at some of the things Siegel did while in this position to see if he is being praised by CL for the kind of work you want in democratic governance, or for factional bias in favor of CL.

It is a long-standing principle in Pacifica that Foundation and station management and staff may not use Foundation resources to campaign for or against candidates for listener delegate. This makes sense if you want fair elections and it is codified at Article Four, Section 6 of Pacifica’s Bylaws. It is also made clear in the Bylaws that the elections are to run by a National Election Supervisor who is independent of Foundation and station management, Article Four, Section 4 A.

In the 2007 election Peoplesradio wrote a political criticism of the Concerned Listener Management Group with their seven candidate statements in a serial fashion in an attempt to educate the voters as to what was going on behind the microphone at the station. Trying to stop this exposure of CL’s folks’ dirty laundry, Siegel, as Interim Executive Director, and close friend and ally of CL and now a candidate on their slate, took the PeoplesRadio statements off the web site and posted a letter condemning their criticism without quoting any specific statement that was defamatory or a personal attack. Siegel’s statement is attached along with his original Candidate Statement for 2009.

Gregory Wonderwheel, an attorney with a long history of Pacifica involvement and knowledge of the Bylaws, wrote a condemnation of Siegel’s action. Some of it is quoted here:

"Frankly by criticizing campaign statements and removing them form the website, I'm truly amazed that you would take a position so diametrically opposed to the First Amendment. As the Interim Executive Director (IED) of Pacifica Foundation with the grandest tradition of free speech in the United States, your anti-free speech attitude is shameful and demeaning to the Pacifica community and a stain on the Pacifica tradition.

You ask, "Is this type of rhetoric acceptable?" but you don't give even a single example of the rhetoric you are condemning. Thus you are not engaging in debate. You are attempting to stifle debate by presenting your opinion alone.

You allege that the KPFA candidate statements "contain little more than personal attacks on their opponents." By offering your personal conclusion and by not offering a single example, you are unduly attempting to influence the election…

Now, you allege that campaigning against opponents by pointing out the opponents words and deeds is a "personal attack." This Orwellian definition of personal attack is simply a Republican tactic at preventing debate. Nothing in the campaign statements that you object to contained personal attack.

Providing information to listeners that they would not be able to get otherwise is not a personal attack. Providing the electors with the text of an email that advocates, "dismantling the LSB" is not a personal attack. If anything is a personal attack it is your false characterization of political debate, which falsely attacks the character of the candidates.

Criticizing Sasha Lilly, the Interim Program Director, for telling programmers they couldn't encourage people to attend peace marches is not a personal attack. Criticizing Sherry Gendleman, an LSB member and candidate for reelection, for being against elected boards and against program council empowerment is not a personal attack. These are all fair political issues.

Additionally, your actions are a blatant example of prejudice and favoritism since you are attempting to support and defend particular candidates against political criticism. Your duty was and is to remain
neutral and to keep the appearance of impartiality in the election. You have violated this duty.

As a community and progressive organization that supports free speech we must ask ourselves whether your type of unilateral dictatorial censorship is acceptable. Pacifica has important challengers and it can only meet this challenge if robust political debate is allowed within the organization.

Free speech is established in our nation exactly to prevent petty tyrants from applying their personal definitions. What you label "toxic" debate is actually the first real debate in the new democratic structure of Pacifica. You may call the light of debate "toxic", but in this case it is only toxic to the infection that hides in the dark. "(Emphasis added.)


In February 2008 Carolyn Birden, a Pacifica Director, made arrangements with WBAI staff to do a Director’s Inspection on a regular business day during regular hours. She was exercising her fiduciary responsibility as a Director to try to understand and remedy the huge financial losses at WBAI. Her Inspection went along fine for the first 45 minutes until a Justice and Unity ally called Dan Siegel to tell him about the inspection. Siegel, as IED, called the station and ordered the staff to stop the inspection and escort Director Birden out of the station and not to allow her to keep copies of any documents. Siegel’s interfering with a Director’s Inspection was in direct violation of Pacifica’s Bylaws: Article 12, Section 3:

“Every Director, or his or her assigned agent, shall have the absolute right at any reasonable time to inspect and copy all of the Foundation’s books, records and documents of every kind and to inspect the physical properties of the Foundation.” (Emphasis added.)

This is also stated in the California Corporation Code, Section 6334. Siegel knew the law and the Bylaws. Siegel did just as he did with the 2007 election issues above, he intentional used and abused the power he had to protect and support his faction despite having a duty to protect and serve the Pacifica Foundation and to follow and enforce the Bylaws and the laws of California.

Do you want a person who has demonstrated that he will abuse his power and authority and put his faction above Pacifica and fair elections, to be making policy on the KPFA Local Station Board? Concerned Listeners claim to be for transparency and yet they didn’t condemn Siegel’s unlawful interference with a fundamental part of Foundation transparency, Director’s Inspections. Concerned Listeners claim to be for fair and inclusive elections and yet they actually defended Siegel’s 2007 attack on free political debate.

As a candidate this year, Siegel defamed the current Pacifica management in his initial Candidate Statement by accusing them of “ethnic cleansing” when in fact all the people of color that were replaced for failing to stop the red ink at WBAI and around the Foundation, were replaced by people of color. Why do Siegel and CL forget to mention this most important fact? Siegel was ordered to delete his defamatory, raced card comment by the National Election Supervisor.

Since it is proper to conclude that CL endorses Siegel’s unprincipled and unlawful conduct described above, by putting Siegel on their slate, in the upper left position on their mailer, thus ranking him first, I ask you not to vote for any CL candidates regardless of what they promise and who endorses them. Did they tell their endorses what Siegel did? It is most important to judge people by what they have done not what they say they will do. Talk is cheap and past actions are the true test of what people actually believe and are likely to do in the future.

PeoplesRadio has always fought for transparency, fair elections and real democratic process for KPFA/Pacifica governance. Check out our website, http://www.peopleradio.net , to see what we stand for and have worked for and why you should vote for me, Stan Woods, Gerald Sanders and Jim Curtis.

Richard Phelps, former Chair KPFA LSB. 9-12-09 (Labor donated.)
_______________________________________

An Open Letter to the Pacifica CommunityFrom Dan Siegel, Interim Executive DirectorOctober 24, 2007

Dear Friends,
Pacifica’s local station board elections have taken a particularly nasty turn. A group of candidates running for the KPFA local board have issued statements that contain little more than personal attacks on their opponents and station staff. A candidate at WBAI engages in blatant race-baiting.

As a community and a progressive organization we must ask ourselves whether this type of rhetoric is acceptable. Pacifica has important challenges. We live in a nation whose leaders wage unjust and unpopular wars around the globe, attack our civil rights and liberties, oppose efforts to achieve racial justice and equality for all people, and pursue policies that widen the gap between rich and poor. The often toxic debate within Pacifica restricts our ability to respond to these issues, saps the morale of our hard-working and underpaid staff, and discourages people of good will from participating in our organization.

Many people are now calling for administrative and legal responses to abusive candidate speech. We are reviewing our options, but libel laws, difficulties in distinguishing between reasonable criticism and “personal attacks” (as well as deciding who should be empowered to make such judgments), and Pacifica’s tradition of support for free speech make such measures problematic.

In the end, Pacifica’s members will decide whether hate speech and hateful speech will be tolerated in our community. We need leaders who will work to improve our programming, broaden our listener base, and attract needed financial support. I urge all of you to carefully review the candidate statements and to cast your ballots for candidates who reflect both your views on how this organization should be run and your values on how democratic debate should occur in a progressive organization that reflects the diversity of our society.

Dan Siegel Interim Executive DirectorPacifica Foundation

(Unfortunately, I don't have an electornic copy of his original Candidate statement wherein Siegel accused Pacifica Management of "ethnic cleansing"

Dennis Bernstein cost the station $300,000 for a harassment lawsuit. And these candidates here, Zeltzer, Phelps, Norr and the rest of the crazies support him? Crazy indeed!

Dan Siegel, who is running for the board, has cost Pacifica a lot more including this case which could have been settled a lot earlier for less.

The person who cost the Foundation is the one who DID THE HARASSING.

Who cried on the air and rounded up his supporters to picket the station and HARASS coworkers and management to keep from getting suspended.

And who is suing Pacifica to force it to pay HIM for his self-inflicted problems caused by being the HARASSER.

I don't care about Dan Siegel one way or another, but you people sure must be afraid of him. But what's really shameful is all these years later you circle the wagons around Dennis Bernstein as if HE were the victim. When you get to the bottom of the troubles at KPFA, it still comes down to Dennis Bernstein and his clique vs. everyone else. He is no victim.

Blame the HARASSER. Not the HARASSED.

I have listened to mich jesrick for a long time on the radio and I think that he is a great reporter. His reporting is spot on and he seems like an ethical person. If I was allowed to vote in this country I would use his slate without question or any other thought or research. I am over $700,000 in deb, does that mean that you shouldn't vote for me? These are hard times, if you based you decision on the financial condition of KPFA then you would vote for Coke and Pepsi ads on the station, why not rent the airwaves to right-wing evangelicals, they could make the station a lot of money. And to the guy who says stories should be 5 minutes instead of 15 -- this is what we call in depth reporting. If you want sound bites go to Fox news, they have very short and easy to understand stories, and I am sure that the female reporters at Fox are better looking than mitch.

Jeserich, says in a very transparent attempt at co-optation , says he also endorses three IndyRadio candidates .But this ''respect ''ain't mutual ! All three are solidly behind the reformers at the station, Peoples Radio as well as Indy Radio, and have correctly denounced the mgmt.'s handling of the Nadra Foster incident, the refusal of mgmt. to recognize UPSO and the sleazy alliance with the so called '' Justice and Unity '' group that has run New York's WBAI into the ground . So nice try Mitch but it will get you and your CL cronies nowhwhere .
Besides wouldn't a mainsteam liberal like yourself be happier at NPR ?