KPFA managers to remove critic Sonali Kolhatkar from the air

KPFA managers to remove critic Sonali Kolhatkar from the air

KPFA’s interim managers admitted this week that they intend to remove a program by Sonali Kolhatkar, a critic of management, replacing it with a show by management ally Steve Zeltzer.

Interim program director Carrie Core acknowledged plans to axe the weekly program Uprising, which originates from KPFA’s sister station KPFK. The program is hosted by Kolhatkar and includes weekly commentaries by Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report. Core has not yet announced when the change will take place. Uprising has aired on KPFA since 2009 every Saturday at 11 am.

Kolhatkar made a public stand of solidarity with KPFA’s union workers when Pacifica executive director Arlene Engelhardt removed the KPFA Morning Show in November, laid off its hosts, and — against Kolhatkar’s wishes — ran the daily version of Uprising in place of the Morning Show. Kolhatkar read a statement on KPFK’s and KPFA’s air saying that she was very unhappy about her program being used in that way by Pacifica management and that she stood with KPFA’s workers. Kolhatkar also wrote this solidarity letter, and interviewed laid-off KPFA worker Brian Edwards-Tiekert (whom Pacifica was later forced to reinstate), as well as Engelhardt on the program.

Kolhatkar, a long-time Pacifica journalist, has also done interviews critical of conspiracy theories, particularly about September 11th. Since parent network Pacifica’s installation of interim managers Andrew Phillips and Carrie Core, such 9/11 theories have been given increasing amounts of time of KPFA’s air.

“The official reason being given for Uprising’s removal is that other programs are already covering the issues we do,” Kolhatkar writes on the Uprising website. “This is strange given that all good journalistic enterprises are expected to cover the issues of the day.” She added that Uprising is one of the highest-rated programs on KPFK.

Along with hosting Uprising, Kolhatkar is the co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission, which works in solidarity with the Revolutionary Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and has brought Malalai Joya to the United States. She’s also the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence.