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KPFA Election 2010: Vote to Save Progressive Radio
I've always tried to avoid writing about the internal politics of KPFA Radio. There are so many big issues that I'd rather spend my time covering - the wars, the economy, the November elections to name a few. But right now, KPFA is at a critical moment and I couldn't stay silent.
The station's board of directors is up for election this month and it's critically important that one slate of candidates prevail if the station is to remain relevant.
The battle here isn't between left and right. It's between competent, professional journalists who know how to dig up dirt and hold government and corporations accountable and a small group of gadflies who think following journalism ethics and protecting labor rights somehow constitute selling out.
One slate, Save KPFA, is made up of prominent academics, attorneys, labor and community advocates who understand how to get things done.
They understand that it takes experienced, professional journalists to break the big stories. They support important new programs like Letters to Washington, where host Mitch Jeserich breaks news on a daily basis. They supported the Winter Soldier broadcasts I hosted where dozens of veterans stepped forward and testified about atrocities they personally committed or witnessed while deployed overseas. And they support the hard work that KPFA's News Department does day in and day out to bring the best local, state, national and international information that you can get anywhere on the dial.
The candidates running under the banner of Save KPFA want to keep the station true to its founding goal of investigating the causes of conflict between people and nations, and to reach a broad audience--not by watering down its radical message, but by making well-crafted and intelligent programming that doesn't condescend to the listener. They believe that they can serve the station's mission, raise revenue, and weather hard times by producing smart programming for an expanding audience.
On the other side, are those who believe that "professionalism" is a dirty word. In a time when one expects to hear calls for austerity from the right, not the left, this group thinks that the unionized paid staff of the station should be dispensed with and replaced by a station of volunteers. If one were wondering what sort of content such a station might broadcast, these folks strongly support conspiracy programming, which they seem to forget is the province of the far right. (Their allies in the network have suggested that Amy Goodman, host of the award-winning Democracy Now!, is taking CIA money to cover up the "truth" about 9/11 and have been vigorously promoting the snake oil of various hucksters as a way of raising revenue for the stations).
It's not hyperbole to say that the future of this venerable and history-making institution hangs in the balance. Whichever side wins this election will determine whether KPFA will continue to put resources into high quality programming like Winter Soldier or whether it will go the way of the rest of the media towards gutted and lackluster programming, mass lay offs, and busted unions. If you're a KPFA subscriber, I strongly encourage you to vote for the ten SaveKPFA candidates for the Local Station Board: Matthew Hallinan, Dave Saldana, Tanya Russell, Margy Wilkinson, Mark Hernandez, Suzi Goldmacher, Terry Doran, Mal Burnstein, Jack Kurzweil, and Don Goldmacher.
Voting continues until September 30. You can find out more information on the SaveKPFA slate at http://www.SaveKPFA.org. The website of the competing slate, the Independents for Community Radio, is at http://bit.ly/awwRm0.
The battle here isn't between left and right. It's between competent, professional journalists who know how to dig up dirt and hold government and corporations accountable and a small group of gadflies who think following journalism ethics and protecting labor rights somehow constitute selling out.
One slate, Save KPFA, is made up of prominent academics, attorneys, labor and community advocates who understand how to get things done.
They understand that it takes experienced, professional journalists to break the big stories. They support important new programs like Letters to Washington, where host Mitch Jeserich breaks news on a daily basis. They supported the Winter Soldier broadcasts I hosted where dozens of veterans stepped forward and testified about atrocities they personally committed or witnessed while deployed overseas. And they support the hard work that KPFA's News Department does day in and day out to bring the best local, state, national and international information that you can get anywhere on the dial.
The candidates running under the banner of Save KPFA want to keep the station true to its founding goal of investigating the causes of conflict between people and nations, and to reach a broad audience--not by watering down its radical message, but by making well-crafted and intelligent programming that doesn't condescend to the listener. They believe that they can serve the station's mission, raise revenue, and weather hard times by producing smart programming for an expanding audience.
On the other side, are those who believe that "professionalism" is a dirty word. In a time when one expects to hear calls for austerity from the right, not the left, this group thinks that the unionized paid staff of the station should be dispensed with and replaced by a station of volunteers. If one were wondering what sort of content such a station might broadcast, these folks strongly support conspiracy programming, which they seem to forget is the province of the far right. (Their allies in the network have suggested that Amy Goodman, host of the award-winning Democracy Now!, is taking CIA money to cover up the "truth" about 9/11 and have been vigorously promoting the snake oil of various hucksters as a way of raising revenue for the stations).
It's not hyperbole to say that the future of this venerable and history-making institution hangs in the balance. Whichever side wins this election will determine whether KPFA will continue to put resources into high quality programming like Winter Soldier or whether it will go the way of the rest of the media towards gutted and lackluster programming, mass lay offs, and busted unions. If you're a KPFA subscriber, I strongly encourage you to vote for the ten SaveKPFA candidates for the Local Station Board: Matthew Hallinan, Dave Saldana, Tanya Russell, Margy Wilkinson, Mark Hernandez, Suzi Goldmacher, Terry Doran, Mal Burnstein, Jack Kurzweil, and Don Goldmacher.
Voting continues until September 30. You can find out more information on the SaveKPFA slate at http://www.SaveKPFA.org. The website of the competing slate, the Independents for Community Radio, is at http://bit.ly/awwRm0.
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KPFA Radio, the Northern California radio station that pioneered the idea of listener-sponsored community radio in 1949, is having board elections. Here is what at stake and what KPFA subscribers need to know.
At the heart of Pacifica's struggles and that of much of progressive media, is a split between two visions. The first calls for more professionalism, mainstreaming, providing a progressive alternative that is comfortable and not too challenging. Known by many names in the past, including the Healthy Station Project, it is represented in this election by the candidate group called “Save KPFA”, formerly “Concerned Listeners”.
The second, closer in spirit to the WWII pacifism of founder Lew Hill, seeks to feature radical voices ahead of their times, uncomfortable and challenging points of view, perspectives that are rarely if ever heard in media, and directly connect with communities that are the most deeply impacted by social and economic injustice, here and around the world. This point of view is represented by “Independents for Community Radio (ICR)”.
I am personally endorsing Independents for Community Radio. Visit their important website at http://www.voteindyradio.org.
Your vote will make a real difference to help make KPFA a place where news will be covered that won't be covered anywhere else.
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Professor Sociology—Sonoma State University,
President—Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored,
At the heart of Pacifica's struggles and that of much of progressive media, is a split between two visions. The first calls for more professionalism, mainstreaming, providing a progressive alternative that is comfortable and not too challenging. Known by many names in the past, including the Healthy Station Project, it is represented in this election by the candidate group called “Save KPFA”, formerly “Concerned Listeners”.
The second, closer in spirit to the WWII pacifism of founder Lew Hill, seeks to feature radical voices ahead of their times, uncomfortable and challenging points of view, perspectives that are rarely if ever heard in media, and directly connect with communities that are the most deeply impacted by social and economic injustice, here and around the world. This point of view is represented by “Independents for Community Radio (ICR)”.
I am personally endorsing Independents for Community Radio. Visit their important website at http://www.voteindyradio.org.
Your vote will make a real difference to help make KPFA a place where news will be covered that won't be covered anywhere else.
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Professor Sociology—Sonoma State University,
President—Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored,
Tracy Rosenberg - Executive Director, Media Alliance (Incumbent)
Hyun-Mi Kim – An anti-war, anti-rape feminist activist
Stephen Astourian - Professor of History UC Berkeley, Chair of
Armenian Studies
Gina Szeto - Director of Worker’s Rights Clinic, Boalt School of Law,
executive editor of the Asian-American Law Journal
Cynthia Johnson - Chair, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalist
Social Justice Committee
Kate Tanaka- Green Party of Alameda County, land-use (Oak-to-Ninth)
and anti-corporate activist
Janet Kobren – Retired teacher, Gaza Freedom Flotilla survivor
Monadel Herzallah – President/Founder of the Arab American Union
Members Council
Georgia Frazer - Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, former
VP Women in Radio and Television
Naeem Deskins - Western Regional President of the Association for the
Study of Classical Civilizations.
Hyun-Mi Kim – An anti-war, anti-rape feminist activist
Stephen Astourian - Professor of History UC Berkeley, Chair of
Armenian Studies
Gina Szeto - Director of Worker’s Rights Clinic, Boalt School of Law,
executive editor of the Asian-American Law Journal
Cynthia Johnson - Chair, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalist
Social Justice Committee
Kate Tanaka- Green Party of Alameda County, land-use (Oak-to-Ninth)
and anti-corporate activist
Janet Kobren – Retired teacher, Gaza Freedom Flotilla survivor
Monadel Herzallah – President/Founder of the Arab American Union
Members Council
Georgia Frazer - Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, former
VP Women in Radio and Television
Naeem Deskins - Western Regional President of the Association for the
Study of Classical Civilizations.
Tracy Rosenberg, Ann Garrison, and Aaron Aaron are of the few who have been allowed to see their responses to Glantz's disinformation printed in Huffington Post, one place this appears.
Glantz's article here is of course just made up propaganda -- such as the made-up story that ICR advocates an all-volunteer staff. But anything to keep the power for old-timers at KPFA such as Alfendary and Mericle, whose news wire stories could so often be written by someone from any corporate mill. If you DO have a scoop, critique, or anything else to add to the news, unless you keep at it like Ann Garrison and finally get one of the unpaid weekend news people to listen to you, you won't even get a response for your efforts by the 2 "news" gatekeepers at KPFA.
Below are some of the comments to Glantz's above article printed elsewhere, but of course not included in the hardcopy handouts now being circulated by "SaveKPFA" (the new ones, not the real ones)
--------------------
Tracy Rosenberg 03:44 PM on 9/19/2010
If anyone wants to read up a bit more on the intersection of journalism and professionalism with social change and working democracy, historically and in the present day: here are some references:
John Pilger - http://www.georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/real-journalism-versus-professional.html
Robert McChesney - http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2427/
James Owens: http://www.media-ocracy.com/?p=912
hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg: If anyone wants to read up a bit more on
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_60987317.html
--------------------
Aaron Aarons 20 hours ago (4:23 AM)
For the KPFA News Department and their lawyers* in the phony "SaveKPFA", "professionalism" means NOT treating the pronouncements of government and corporate officials as lies or, at best, half-truths to be exposed and analyzed, but as a legitimate viewpoint on the issue at hand. It also means that the only alternative views generally presented are those that don't go farther to the left than those of liberal or "Progressive" Democrats.
Of course, the Save-KPFA-for-the-Democratic-Party gang and the small clique of entrenched paid staff that recruited them, originally under the name 'KPFA Forward', can't admit that that's what they're defending, so they invent straw men (and women) who supposedly want KPFA to have NO paid staff and NO editorial control.
I can't speak for Tracy Rosenberg, ICR, or any of the other candidates, but I DO support editorial control -- control that would allow access to KPFA's precious 168 hours per week of airtime to diverse anti-establishment activists and analysts, but greatly limit access by ruling-class spokespersons and their apologists, including Obamabots. And, if I had the power, I would retire Mericle and Alfandary and turn over management of the News Department to competent, critical thinkers like Anthony Fest.
----------------------------
* Three of the Save-KPFA-for-the-Democratic-Party candidates, including Dave Saldana, are present or retired attorneys.
Aaron_Aarons: For the KPFA News Department and their lawyers* in the
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Aaron_Aarons/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_61714523.html
-----------------------------------------
Lets not Confuse "Professionalism" With Justice
There are two meaning of the word "professional" One is to do a good, thorough, skilled job at what one is trying to accomplish. The other is to create an "elite" who are accorded special privileges by the society they set themselves apart from. The use of the word professional is done to drive a wedge between us.
KPFA is too full of the latter - as is much of public media.
Public media elites offer us a “partnership” in which they’re the parents and we’re the children, anxiously waiting with our bibs on for our media to be spoon fed to us. Unless we change this power relationship, we will remain subject to the arbitrary dominance of wealthy, racist, militarists shaping new technologies to sustain their power.
Much as I love the work that many like Mitch J and Aaron G do, this time, I support ICR (http://www.voteindyradio.org).
Scholars911TJ: Lets not Confuse "Professionalism" With Justice There are two meaning
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Scholars911TJ/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_60893959.html
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Tracy Rosenberg 02:01 PM on 9/18/2010
I agree that the battle here isn't between left and right. Its between an old vision for media and a new one. Unsurprisingly, the old vision is being put forward by an older slate (Save KPFA) that is 70% white, 70% male and 80% older than 60. It describes a vision of journalism that has largely died out: strangled by the corporate chokehold on the mainstream media and the well-known failures of the body of professional journalists to speak truth to power and look behind the news releases. (Judy Miller, anyone?)
The new media has developed as a result. It says we're all journalists and communication rights belong to the people. not just the professionals. It acknowledges citizen media makes important contributions, the first voice chronicles of real people are important, and power dynamics between professional gatekeepers and a consumer audience hasn't served the interests of justice and the most disenfranchised. The new media is younger, multi-ethnic and language-diverse, and doesn't buy the distinction Aaron makes between "professionals" and "gadflies". In this view, we all get a press pass. This is what ICR (http://www.voteindyradio.org) is about.
I understand Aaron's lament of "what about me?". It's been the cry of the journalism workforce as layoffs have swept through the industry. KPFA;s professional journalistic staff are not exempt from the economic bloodbath the country is going through.
The old credo of "adapt or die" applies to progressive journalism just like it applies to everything else.
hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg: I agree that the battle here isn't between left and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_60882547.html
-----------------------------
Adrienne Lauby 11:43 AM on 9/18/2010
2 Fans
It's clear to me that KPFA and Pacifica needs people like both Mitch Jeserich and Shahram Aghamir. It needs the strength of everyone and all factions. The CL/Save KPFA folks have been in charge for a decade or so. The programming at KPFA is stagnant and there's serious money trouble. Now, it's time to give other people a chance to make the final decisions.
There's many checks and balances built into the system. Neither group is going to go away after this so-called crucial board election. But the station might go away due to two things
1) failure to live within it's budget, and
2) mean-spirited factional grudges.
I have endorsed the Independents for Community Radio and I support their philosophical stance about media. (see link below for more on that). I hope the people Aaron supports lose. And, I hope they will accept their minority status with grace. It won't be the end of KPFA. It could be the beginning of something very important and fun. It's up to every one of us.
What do you say, Aaron?
---------------------------------------
Ann Garrison 17 minutes ago (11:49 PM)
302 Fans
KPFA's recent and current management has not been "professional," if that is supposed to mean not only being paid but also being competent. They have so failed to understand the Web that KPFA is close to becoming an anachronism. People get more news from the Web than from any medium except television now and KPFA is barely there, rarely findable in Google Search, and barely on any of the social networks. I report KPFA Weekend News myself, usually about the Great Lakes Region of Africa, with emphasis on US and allied involvements, and every weekend that I do it, I download the whole show, clip the segment, give it a URL, and then put it out on the Web where people concerned with that news, from here to Africa, and all parts between, can listen, listen twice, share it, talk about it, and post to their blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Or add it and make it play in longer related articles. People in Rwanda, Uganda, and D.R. Congo have heard of KPFA as a result, and so have exiles all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
But this isn't possible with the rest of KPFA News, or with KPFA's other pubic affairs segments, which are not edited out of the longer broadcasts, tagged for subject, and given discreet URLs. KPFA is thus losing its chance to expand its audience, community, and subscriber base. I'm voting for ICR candidates because they're closest to action on this.
Ann_Garrison: KPFA's recent and current management has not been "professional," if
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Ann_Garrison/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_61779970.html
Aaron Aarons 06:20 PM on 9/22/2010
15 Fans
Let me make it clear from the start that I am a candidate in the KPFA Local Station Board election that Glantz is referring to. I am one of the three listener candidates who are not part of any of the three slates that the other 24 candidates are running on.
While I am not included in or endorsed by any slate, there is ONE slate I am running AGAINST, and that is the 'Save KPFA for the Democratic Party and let the entrenched staff clique run things without listener interference!' slate that Glantz endorses.
While the Concerned Listeners -- rebranded as 'Save KPFA' -- slate and its supporters try to identify themselves with the 1999 rebellion that PARTIALLY reversed the hijacking of KPFA and Pacifica by Clintonian Democrats like Mary Frances Berry, they ignore and implicitly endorse the massive purges of large numbers of ethnically and politically diverse (and generally clearly opposed to the ruling class) volunteer programmers, most of whom were never invited back! In fact, the same "professionalism" mantra that was used to justify the 1995 purges is being used now by Glantz and his buddies to defend the jobs and power of the insider clique and their friends that they hired in a time of budgetary deficits that they were and are responsible for.
KPFA Listener-Members: Please vote for me, Aaron Aarons, and EVERYBODY EXCEPT the 'Save KPFA' slate!
--------------------------------------
Margaret Kaigler 09:03 PM on 9/20/2010
I had to write up the author of this article, Aaron Glantz, KFPA Reporter Eric Klein and Max Pringle KPFA Labor Reporter, for behaving toward me in an a threatening manner which included racist isults and physical attacks and other intimidating behaviors, indicative of a pattern of harassment; which concerns I submitted to KPFA Human Resources and which sustained my documented concerns. Aaron, Eric and Max were cautioned and ordered to cease and desist.
Apparently these 'men" were sufficiently intimidated by my presence as a general assignment volunteer reporter at KPFA that they launched a failed attempt, using racist rhetoric and actions, to insult, intimidate and threaten me out of the KPFA newsroom. It did not work.
Aaron is a Concerned Listener advocate, this slate represents the entrenched elitist group that has taken over what used to be a progressive liberal station and converted it to tenured employment for a few mediocre snobs.
Aaron is not representative of someone or something whose opinion I would hold or who I will follow anywhere ever-
Margaret Kaigler-Armstead
Glantz's article here is of course just made up propaganda -- such as the made-up story that ICR advocates an all-volunteer staff. But anything to keep the power for old-timers at KPFA such as Alfendary and Mericle, whose news wire stories could so often be written by someone from any corporate mill. If you DO have a scoop, critique, or anything else to add to the news, unless you keep at it like Ann Garrison and finally get one of the unpaid weekend news people to listen to you, you won't even get a response for your efforts by the 2 "news" gatekeepers at KPFA.
Below are some of the comments to Glantz's above article printed elsewhere, but of course not included in the hardcopy handouts now being circulated by "SaveKPFA" (the new ones, not the real ones)
--------------------
Tracy Rosenberg 03:44 PM on 9/19/2010
If anyone wants to read up a bit more on the intersection of journalism and professionalism with social change and working democracy, historically and in the present day: here are some references:
John Pilger - http://www.georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/03/real-journalism-versus-professional.html
Robert McChesney - http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2427/
James Owens: http://www.media-ocracy.com/?p=912
hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg: If anyone wants to read up a bit more on
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_60987317.html
--------------------
Aaron Aarons 20 hours ago (4:23 AM)
For the KPFA News Department and their lawyers* in the phony "SaveKPFA", "professionalism" means NOT treating the pronouncements of government and corporate officials as lies or, at best, half-truths to be exposed and analyzed, but as a legitimate viewpoint on the issue at hand. It also means that the only alternative views generally presented are those that don't go farther to the left than those of liberal or "Progressive" Democrats.
Of course, the Save-KPFA-for-the-Democratic-Party gang and the small clique of entrenched paid staff that recruited them, originally under the name 'KPFA Forward', can't admit that that's what they're defending, so they invent straw men (and women) who supposedly want KPFA to have NO paid staff and NO editorial control.
I can't speak for Tracy Rosenberg, ICR, or any of the other candidates, but I DO support editorial control -- control that would allow access to KPFA's precious 168 hours per week of airtime to diverse anti-establishment activists and analysts, but greatly limit access by ruling-class spokespersons and their apologists, including Obamabots. And, if I had the power, I would retire Mericle and Alfandary and turn over management of the News Department to competent, critical thinkers like Anthony Fest.
----------------------------
* Three of the Save-KPFA-for-the-Democratic-Party candidates, including Dave Saldana, are present or retired attorneys.
Aaron_Aarons: For the KPFA News Department and their lawyers* in the
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Aaron_Aarons/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_61714523.html
-----------------------------------------
Lets not Confuse "Professionalism" With Justice
There are two meaning of the word "professional" One is to do a good, thorough, skilled job at what one is trying to accomplish. The other is to create an "elite" who are accorded special privileges by the society they set themselves apart from. The use of the word professional is done to drive a wedge between us.
KPFA is too full of the latter - as is much of public media.
Public media elites offer us a “partnership” in which they’re the parents and we’re the children, anxiously waiting with our bibs on for our media to be spoon fed to us. Unless we change this power relationship, we will remain subject to the arbitrary dominance of wealthy, racist, militarists shaping new technologies to sustain their power.
Much as I love the work that many like Mitch J and Aaron G do, this time, I support ICR (http://www.voteindyradio.org).
Scholars911TJ: Lets not Confuse "Professionalism" With Justice There are two meaning
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Scholars911TJ/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_60893959.html
HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Tracy Rosenberg 02:01 PM on 9/18/2010
I agree that the battle here isn't between left and right. Its between an old vision for media and a new one. Unsurprisingly, the old vision is being put forward by an older slate (Save KPFA) that is 70% white, 70% male and 80% older than 60. It describes a vision of journalism that has largely died out: strangled by the corporate chokehold on the mainstream media and the well-known failures of the body of professional journalists to speak truth to power and look behind the news releases. (Judy Miller, anyone?)
The new media has developed as a result. It says we're all journalists and communication rights belong to the people. not just the professionals. It acknowledges citizen media makes important contributions, the first voice chronicles of real people are important, and power dynamics between professional gatekeepers and a consumer audience hasn't served the interests of justice and the most disenfranchised. The new media is younger, multi-ethnic and language-diverse, and doesn't buy the distinction Aaron makes between "professionals" and "gadflies". In this view, we all get a press pass. This is what ICR (http://www.voteindyradio.org) is about.
I understand Aaron's lament of "what about me?". It's been the cry of the journalism workforce as layoffs have swept through the industry. KPFA;s professional journalistic staff are not exempt from the economic bloodbath the country is going through.
The old credo of "adapt or die" applies to progressive journalism just like it applies to everything else.
hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg: I agree that the battle here isn't between left and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hp_blogger_Tracy Rosenberg/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_60882547.html
-----------------------------
Adrienne Lauby 11:43 AM on 9/18/2010
2 Fans
It's clear to me that KPFA and Pacifica needs people like both Mitch Jeserich and Shahram Aghamir. It needs the strength of everyone and all factions. The CL/Save KPFA folks have been in charge for a decade or so. The programming at KPFA is stagnant and there's serious money trouble. Now, it's time to give other people a chance to make the final decisions.
There's many checks and balances built into the system. Neither group is going to go away after this so-called crucial board election. But the station might go away due to two things
1) failure to live within it's budget, and
2) mean-spirited factional grudges.
I have endorsed the Independents for Community Radio and I support their philosophical stance about media. (see link below for more on that). I hope the people Aaron supports lose. And, I hope they will accept their minority status with grace. It won't be the end of KPFA. It could be the beginning of something very important and fun. It's up to every one of us.
What do you say, Aaron?
---------------------------------------
Ann Garrison 17 minutes ago (11:49 PM)
302 Fans
KPFA's recent and current management has not been "professional," if that is supposed to mean not only being paid but also being competent. They have so failed to understand the Web that KPFA is close to becoming an anachronism. People get more news from the Web than from any medium except television now and KPFA is barely there, rarely findable in Google Search, and barely on any of the social networks. I report KPFA Weekend News myself, usually about the Great Lakes Region of Africa, with emphasis on US and allied involvements, and every weekend that I do it, I download the whole show, clip the segment, give it a URL, and then put it out on the Web where people concerned with that news, from here to Africa, and all parts between, can listen, listen twice, share it, talk about it, and post to their blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Or add it and make it play in longer related articles. People in Rwanda, Uganda, and D.R. Congo have heard of KPFA as a result, and so have exiles all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
But this isn't possible with the rest of KPFA News, or with KPFA's other pubic affairs segments, which are not edited out of the longer broadcasts, tagged for subject, and given discreet URLs. KPFA is thus losing its chance to expand its audience, community, and subscriber base. I'm voting for ICR candidates because they're closest to action on this.
Ann_Garrison: KPFA's recent and current management has not been "professional," if
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Ann_Garrison/vote-to-save-progressive_b_721740_61779970.html
Aaron Aarons 06:20 PM on 9/22/2010
15 Fans
Let me make it clear from the start that I am a candidate in the KPFA Local Station Board election that Glantz is referring to. I am one of the three listener candidates who are not part of any of the three slates that the other 24 candidates are running on.
While I am not included in or endorsed by any slate, there is ONE slate I am running AGAINST, and that is the 'Save KPFA for the Democratic Party and let the entrenched staff clique run things without listener interference!' slate that Glantz endorses.
While the Concerned Listeners -- rebranded as 'Save KPFA' -- slate and its supporters try to identify themselves with the 1999 rebellion that PARTIALLY reversed the hijacking of KPFA and Pacifica by Clintonian Democrats like Mary Frances Berry, they ignore and implicitly endorse the massive purges of large numbers of ethnically and politically diverse (and generally clearly opposed to the ruling class) volunteer programmers, most of whom were never invited back! In fact, the same "professionalism" mantra that was used to justify the 1995 purges is being used now by Glantz and his buddies to defend the jobs and power of the insider clique and their friends that they hired in a time of budgetary deficits that they were and are responsible for.
KPFA Listener-Members: Please vote for me, Aaron Aarons, and EVERYBODY EXCEPT the 'Save KPFA' slate!
--------------------------------------
Margaret Kaigler 09:03 PM on 9/20/2010
I had to write up the author of this article, Aaron Glantz, KFPA Reporter Eric Klein and Max Pringle KPFA Labor Reporter, for behaving toward me in an a threatening manner which included racist isults and physical attacks and other intimidating behaviors, indicative of a pattern of harassment; which concerns I submitted to KPFA Human Resources and which sustained my documented concerns. Aaron, Eric and Max were cautioned and ordered to cease and desist.
Apparently these 'men" were sufficiently intimidated by my presence as a general assignment volunteer reporter at KPFA that they launched a failed attempt, using racist rhetoric and actions, to insult, intimidate and threaten me out of the KPFA newsroom. It did not work.
Aaron is a Concerned Listener advocate, this slate represents the entrenched elitist group that has taken over what used to be a progressive liberal station and converted it to tenured employment for a few mediocre snobs.
Aaron is not representative of someone or something whose opinion I would hold or who I will follow anywhere ever-
Margaret Kaigler-Armstead
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