KPFA: Pacifica Accepts Corporate Underwriting From Non-Existent Corporation

All sides in the KPFA/Pacifica internal struggle need to stop the sniping and rumor mongering. The cold war is taking down the station, one of the left's most valuable communication assets.

All the sides, and there are at least three, need to make sure that their struggle is conducted in a mature and principled way. If anyone on your side of this fight is spreading pernicious rumors, making personal attacks, or distorting facts (rather than interpreting what facts mean), it is the responsibility of their faction comrades to get them to stop.

While I direct my concern at all the factions, I have to say that I've seen more of this shit come from the "Save KPFA" folks than the others. This particular rumor also appears to emanate from them.

KNOCK IT OFF!

There have been some at KPFA who, rather than making cuts, have insisted on continuing with sustaining an over-bloated level of paid staff and spending spree, even though Listener contributions have dropped dramatically.

It's that old joke: "But we can't be out of money, there's still Checks in the book!"

Maybe these checks have the defunct "Merrill Lynch" printed on them-?

Go visit the "defunct and non-existant" company that is sending checks to Pacifica.

Merril Lynch

For someone so against corporatization, why is Tracy Rosenberg trying to convince people that one of the worst does not exist?

Watch this post get scrubbed, since Media Alliance pays the bills!

The KPFA News Department never verified the story of Bob Lederer, so they reported blindly the Merrill Lynch version. The New York funds came from Goldman Sachs.

I'll avoid the obvious you-don't report-on-it-unless-you-verify-it-first rant.

Disaffected stock broker who befriended a BAI producer at a grant writing workshop. He squeezed a little money out for BAI from the charitable arm of GS. No restrictions on the funds, no on-air announcement, no underwriting requirement, no content control, no nothing.

Just a gift from a bitter soon-to-be-ex-stockbroker who was trying to launder a little bad money into good. Apparently the guy was shooting some GS funds to Democracy Now and Vandana Shiva's organization as well.

The usual lousy reporting from KPFA News.

"Save KPFA" 2010-2011 is a group that stole its name from a group of longtime stewards of this amazing network, whose vision regarding KPFA is diametrically opposed to those now spewing out disinformation rapid-fire on all fronts. The 2010 group have managed cleverly to confuse listeners by using the fact that those using the name in 1999 did "save" the station and network from some within Pacifica who were destroying its independence. The 2010 group has money, relatively speaking at least, and it is very hard for overworked volunteers and intimidated if courageous staff members to keep up.

How are we supposed to counter outrageous lies except at times to try to call them what they are. Many of us have been, and continue to be quite diplomatic in the face of the most outrageous and blatant lies. It's true that focusing on Sarv's marriage status isn't the most effective thing that can be done. But many feel betrayed and actually shocked that Randawa, who did in fact masquerade as some type of progressive, has been giving money to the Republican Party. That's a longer story than I can go into. In all political movement there is struggle. You, Jonathan, of all people know this. Please will you also be careful not to fall into this more or less easy soundbite of saying "all sides" are doing it. Read some facts.

Tracy Rosenberg took the time to do the research after the latest disinformation blasted out to THOUSANDS multiple times over KPFA's air for the past 2 days. And their "correction" simply created more disinformation. The reporter continues to say there were strings attached. As Rosenberg makes clear, and as Engelhardt too does the day before, there were no strings. Yet the reporter continued his political hatchet job (or perhaps he was simply doing the bidding of his "union member" supervisor, department head Mark Mericle. Some of these people are quite openly calling for dismantling the network, and just at the time when we have ethical and effective (if not always in the P.R. realm), and accessible people, as administrators for Pacifica. "Save KPFA" 2010 are working overtime to bankrupt the network. Check it out.

If you'd like to suppose for one brief moment that "Concerned Listeners/SaveKPFA" only want to wrest KPFA from bad managers, why are they so afraid of open dialog as called for in the bylaws? They obviously have much more money and resources than Pacifica and those supporters of it not yet driven away by the slick propaganda of "SaveKPFA." In most debates in America, they'd win hands down. But if they would put themselves onto a fair platform with the facts, in KPFA-land, a realm where listeners are often a bit more accustomed to being open-minded than is typical, they know they would lose. The latest Local Station board show was stacked with 5 of them to one who was not there to disinform, and he had to wave his hands from a separate room two rooms away from the control room to be recognized. "Save KPFA" set up a forum in Berkeley with two of them and it would have been no one else but that Tracy Rosenberg found out about it and asked to have two, including a staff member, with a differing viewpoint. Instead, only she was allowed to speak, and not given equal time and I mean not even a third of the time. And they planted the audience with folks who joined the organization so they could speak, and no one else was allowed to say a thing until all of them had spoken. For some reason they let Max Blanchet give a 2-minute comment from the floor -- I think they thought he was a member. So, in 2 hours, their side got over 1 and 1/2 hours, and any other viewpoint got 20 minutes. Tracy is very good, but the sheer quantity of disinformation they've amassed could not be addressed by her alone in that time. And try to think of the pressure she was under. They were also lobbing personal insults at her. That is typical of the way they have been working. Sure the Alameda County Central Labor Council endorsed them -- they were presented only with disinformation and nothing to counter it. Because the Berkeley public doggedly attended agenda meetings and worked very hard to get some facts to the Berkeley City Council, it did NOT pass their disinforming "where-as"-filled resolution. HOWEVER, "Save KPFA" quickly went into plan B mode and simply made up the story (on the air and still on their multiple websites) that the resolution that was passed somehow supported them, which it certainly went out of its way NOT to do. And so it goes.

We could lose this network, and right now it's being safeguarded with some very hardworking few but determined listeners without much resource. So I would respectfully ask YOU to "knock it off" and stop saying "all sides" and instead read up damn it and ask how you can help. I respect you -- please respect us.

Thank you.
http://www.danielborgstrom.blogspot.com , http://acrossthegreatdivide.org , http://www.supportkpfa.org

Andrew Phillips said it to the LSB before this Goldman flap ever broke. He has said he finds Lew Hill's listener members ideas outdated.

Put your anger where it belongs: calling for Andrew Phillips' resignation.

I probably disagree with new Interim General Manager Andrew Phillips on this, though I wouldn't know for sure without trying to better understand what he means. He has already said he doesn't mean corporate underwriting. Many in the know feel it is a slippery slope. Others feel criteria can be set that limits such. Almost all non-profits take grant money from organizations that are not always clean. In order for a media org or a non-profit to remain independent, there need to be no strings attached. Is it a "string" for Bonnie Simmons, SAVEKPFA/CL stalwart, to benefit in her music promotion/concert production business from the contacts and PR she gives to musicians on KPFA? What about authors who promote their books?

I said, maybe I disagree with Phillips, but why don't you talk to him -- at least he isn't spending most of his time coming up with carefully-framed and placed fake news stories to promote his cause like the people I am crititiquing here -- and which behavior you do not address at all.