top
East Bay
East Bay
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Save KPFA: The Paranoia Patrol

by Mark Gollin
As usual, Save KPFA posts another angry screed with little to no relationship to reality
The motion in question was authored by the public affairs director at WBAI-FM in New York, Kathy Davis. It is a paid staff-originated motion. It has nothing to do with anyone thinking or saying anything. You can propose that the moon is made of swiss cheese, the earth is flat, all Pacifica stations should play reggae music all day long or the entire staff of KPFT in Houston should be fired immediately. It has nothing to do with dissent.

It restricts delegate service (i.e being on the boards) for 3 categories of people:

1) Those convicted in a court of violating the duties of a board member of a 501c3 not for profit mutual benefit charity

2) Former employees who were fired for cause. Fired for cause means for nonperformance of job duties. It does not cover employees who resign their positions or are laid off due to jobs ending or financial distress.

3) Individuals who have been cited for violence or making threats of violence that create an unsafe work environment for others.

Any decisions that an individual is not in good standing to serve as a board member has 3 levels of appeal including an independent arbitrator if desired, and the policy is not retroactive to current board terms underway.

by gena
http://www.savekpfa.org/banning-dissent-at-pacifica

Before votes in KPFA’s local board election are even counted, Tracy Rosenberg and her allies at the national level continue to do damage to Pacifica’s structure and mission. Earlier this week, Pacifica’s governance committee, which is dominated by Rosenberg and her allies, passed a measure that would, if adopted by the Pacifica National Board, prohibit those who dissent from Rosenberg’s agenda from serving on local or national boards.

“The resolution banning those deemed ‘disloyal’ which was presented to the committee by Tracy is pure McCarthy era,” notes Sasha Futran, KPFA’s Local Station Board vice chair. “The appeal process is a sham, as any appeals would go to the very people who took after them for political reasons in the first place. This is the kind of divisiveness that is tearing Pacifica apart. Tracy has a big hand, perhaps the biggest, in that process,” added Futran, who was a member of Rosenberg’s slate at one time, before leaving it to join SaveKPFA.

The measure is aimed squarely at 4 SaveKPFA members — Margy Wilkinson, Dan Siegel, Mal Burnstein and Conn Hallinan — for their role in collecting over $60,000 in pledges to restore the KPFA Morning Show and rehire its laid off co-hosts back in 2010-2011. They raised only pledges of support, not actual money. Nevertheless, the “Morning Show 4″ were slapped with a lawsuit by Rosenberg allies Richard Phelps and Daniel Borgstrom, who allege such fundraising activity was “disloyal” to Pacifica. Phelps and Borgstrom are demanding these four listeners pay Pacifica “damages” of $800,000.

The proposal from Pacifica’s governance committee would ban anyone whose actions have been declared by a court of law to be breaches of “loyalty,” “fiduciary duty,” or “duty of care” from holding any office in Pacifica. Rosenberg has been publicly predicting victory in the Morning Show 4 case, and it’s transparent her intent is to get rid of her political opponents.

“Do you have any conscience?” wrote one KFPA listener to Rosenberg recently when the lawsuit came up for public discussion recently. “You’re supporting a horrendous attack on 4 KPFA listeners who were simply trying, like generations before them, to support KPFA in a time of crisis.”

Rosenberg’s allies have been issuing gag rules against KPFA’s unpaid and paid staff; now they are going after listeners too. “Banning people, gag rules, anti-union law firms eating up the station’s cash — where have we heard this before?” asked KPFA listener Alison Davis. “In 1999, the last time the network was taken over.”

ACTION ALERT: IT’S TIME TO SPEAK UP! Please take a minute to send an email to Pacifica’s boardmembers demanding they reject this “loyalty” measure when it comes up for a vote this week. Send a sample email (or write your own): “Pacifica, ENOUGH! The loyalty measure doesn’t do a single thing to fix the many problems facing Pacifica. Stop misusing your power to go after political opponents. Listeners need you to build the network, not launch McCarthyite witch-hunts.”

http://www.savekpfa.org/what-you-can-do/stop-the-witch-hunt

This is about KPFA’s foundational principles of free speech and political dissent. “If a measure like this actually ends up being adopted, Pacifica’s founder Lew Hill would not even recognize the radio network he created,” added Futran.

KPFA’s Tracy Rosenberg circulated the “disloyalty” measure, which was written by WBAI delegates Kathy Davis and Alex Steinberg and KPFT delegate Bill Crosier.


by Gimme a break
So now Save KPFA is sticking up for the rights of fired employees, people who hit other people at board meetings and people who are found guilty in court of breaches of board member duties.

Great.

Meanwhile KPFA continues to bleed subscribers and produces more hate mail than it does decent radio programs.

Don't these people have anything better to do than desperately try to hang on to control of KPFA?

They've been in the minority for years on the national level and will remain that way, so all these screeds add up a big nothing in the end.

"We want violent boards". That's a hell of a rallying cry, Save KPFA.



by Richard Phelps, former Chair KPFA LSB
It is long standing law across the nation that elected members of corporate governance CAN NOT compete with the corporation, in this case Pacifica. It is also part of the Pacifica Bylaws:

Article Seven, Local Station Boards, Section 3: Specific Powers and Duties

Each LSB, acting as a standing committee of the Foundation's Board of Directors, shall have the following powers, duties and responsibilities related to its specific radio station, under the direction and supervision of the Foundation's Board of Directors:

M. To exercise all of its powers and duties with care, "loyalty", diligence and sound business judgment consistent with the manner in which those terms are generally defined under applicable California law. (Emphasis added.)

During a regular KPFA fund drive and after, SaveKPFA asked listeners to pledge to support SaveKPFA's desire to bring back the Morning Show. In their pitch posted on their web site they ended it by saying that "If Pacifica does the right thing" the pledges would be handed over. This was NOT unconditional fund raising for KPFA. This was competing with KPFA, putting SaveKPFA's goals first. That is fine for anybody except people that ran for election and were elected to seats in KPFA/Pacifica governance. And in typical sectarian manner SaveKPFA tries to cover their wrongful conduct by screaming we are "banning dissent".

By the way, during oral argument at the Court of Appeals, one of the Justices asked SaveKPFA's lawyer something to the affect of " Shouldn't your clients have resigned from governance if they wanted to do this campaign?"

For the record, Tracy Rosenberg had nothing to do with the lawsuit, and I think she supports it. The recall was just another tactic to win control as the quote below shows.

This is Brian Edwards-Tiekert's/SaveKPFA's philosophy, laid out by him in an email to his colleagues in collusion, working to control the station. BET said in 2005:

"...how do we make our enemies own the problems that are to come?" Alternatively, should we be "recalling LSB members/dismantling the LSB?" (Emphasis added.)

Long before Tracy Rosenberg was on the LSB, BET was discussing with his allies , RECALLING LSB members as a tactic, with no mention of good cause.

And of course when they cause a problem, like red ink at KPFA, by refusing to bring staff payroll in line with income they try to blame it on others by screaming "banning dissent" and "union busting", etc.

When SaveKPFA talks about "local control" it is more local than you think. SaveKPFA wants to run the station with no listener involvement except for their chosen few. SaveKPFA wants listeners to send in your money and let the "professionals" decide what you want/need to hear.

When Bensky and Mericle et al. fought against the "hijackers" in 1999, they didn't do it to bring in a democratic governance with listener involvement, they did it since they believed that the station was theirs to run and not for Mary Frances Berry and her crew. Sort of like two feudal lords fighting over a piece of land with no regard for the people that live there.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network