"Community" Radio Favors Peace, Not Justice

“Community” Radio Favors Peace, Not Justice; Rejects
Ousted Black Host’s 2nd Appeal

On Monday, February 14th the Personnel Committee of
WMNF, a listener-sponsored radio station in Tampa,
Florida, upheld the staff’s decision to cancel
“Straight Talk”, the weekly talk show hosted by black
community activist Connie Burton. (see
http://www.defendstraighttalk.com)

Burton is known for her impassioned critique of police
brutality, discriminatory imprisonment and economic
exploitation of poor and working class African people.
For over 10 years, she has been the elected president
of the Robles Park housing project Resident Council
and has opposed HUD’s “HOPE IV” projects to dismantle
poor black neighborhoods, while advocating for
resident ownership and management of neglected public
housing complexes.

Burton went to Monday night’s Personnel Committee
meeting expecting to present her grievance that WMNF
Public Affairs Director Rob Lorei violated station
policy requiring a 30-day notice for program changes.
She also intended to argue that the station’s new rule
against organizations controlling shows was
custom-made to target her program and the Uhuru group
of which she is a member, was not defined or made
available to her prior to the cancellation, and has
been selectively enforced against “Straight Talk’,
while many programmers at the “community” station
promote campaigns and activities of the groups with
which they are associated.

Instead, Burton was barraged with questioning by the
Committee reminiscent of the McCarthy hearings. “Are
you paid by the African People’s Socialist Party? Do
you adhere to the philosophy of Yeshitelism? Are you a
centralist?” In response to the charge that her show
only presented guests who are members of the Uhuru
movement, Burton read a partial list of past guests
and topics featured on her show, including:

-- Mohammed Aldouri – Iraqi Ambassador to the U.N.,
shortly before the U.S. invasion.
-- Counselor Zhang Yuanyuan, head of the Chinese
embassy press office in D.C.
-- Dorothy Lewis, National Coalition of Blacks for
Reparations in America
-- Deadria Farmer-Paellman, organizer of multiple
lawsuits against private companies, including Aetna,
for reparations for direct profit from slavery
-- Guy Burns, local attorney in class action suit
charging the Pinellas County School Board with
violating a Florida constitutional guarantee of
equality in education
-- Abe Bonowitz, Floridians against the Death Penalty
-- Charles Barron, NYC Councilman and former Black
Panther
-- Connie Tucker of the Southern Organizing Committee
in Atlanta
-- Lawrence Hamm, People Organized for Progress re:
police brutality in New Jersey
-- Eric Kearney, publisher of Cinncinati Herald and
vice president of Cincinnati NAACP on police killings
of blacks in Ohio
-- Rev. Curtis Gatewood, NAACP chairman in Durham NC
re: his statements against the war and censure by
national NAACP leadership
-- Ernesto Bustillo, Chairman of Union del Barrio, San
Diego-based Mexican national liberation organization
-- Anna Yanez, League of United Latin American
Citizens, on frame-ups of Africans and Mexicans in
Texas
-- Rev. Higginbottom, Justice for Lionel Tate, from
Miami
-- Maria Teresa, Pan-African women's association,
Angolan activist in London
-- Dr. Sami Al-Arian, Palestinian activist currently
facing terrorism charges

Burton and her supporters have been pressing the
station to comply with its Mission Statement, which
reads that it is “committed to equality, peace and
social and economic justice”. The station’s new $2
million dollar studio building is located in the midst
of an impoverished African and Latino neighborhood,
yet 14 of the station’s 16-member paid staff are
white. The 2 individuals with authority over
programming content are white men. The great majority
of programmers are white. Two years ago, the station
cut back its Latino programming and has refused offers
by Muslim and Arab community leaders to provide
programming reflecting the views and interests of
those communities.

Statements made and letters distributed by some WMNF
staff, board members and volunteers have argued that
“peace” is the station’s primary mission, with
“equality and social and economic justice” falling
secondary. Listeners and supporters of “Straight
Talk”, who have contributed at least $100,000 to the
station’s operations and new building construction
in the bi-annual fundraising marathons are demanding
their money back, charging that station management has
betrayed it's mission and raised funds under false
premises.

“WMNF is run by the ‘loyal opposition’ to the excesses
of the U.S. government and society. As white people
who live comfortably at the expense of the rest of us,
they want us to protest politely, without disturbing
their peace on the plantation,” says Burton. “My
people are demanding reparations and the return of our
rights to determine our own destiny and control our
own resources and the product of our own labor. We
demand the right to speak the truth as we experience
it. They don't mind if we just talk about how bad
things are for us. But when we start coming up with
solutions and strategies of our own, they want to shut
us up.”

The final step in the radio station’s internal
grievance process will occur with an appeal to the
Board of Directors on Monday, February 21st. A large
turn-out is expected at this 7pm public meeting at
1210 E. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Tampa, Florida.

For more information, contact the Committee to Promote
Racial and Social Justice at WMNF at 813-298-8162 or
727-698-3092.