Stop Rigging The Election At KPFA & Pacifica! Purged KPFA Candidates Speak out

Stop Rigging The Election At KPFA & Pacifica!
Purged KPFA Candidates Speak out: by Stop Rigging Elections At Pacifica & KPFA
There will be a speak out from candidates who were improperly removed from the Pacifica elections supposedly because they held an rally at Oracle against the Ellison's fascist take-over of the media and the need to defend democracy at Pacifica

Purged KPFA Candidates Speak out: Stop Rigging The Election At KPFA & Pacifica!
Wednesday August 26, 2026 12:00 pm noon
KPFA- 1929 MLK Jr. /University Avenue
Berkeley


“Free Speech” bastion, KPFA/Pacifica is conducting a rigged election for its National and Local Station Boards. Purged KPFA candidates and suspended LSB member speak out against election irregularities, unfair disqualifications and Free Speech violations as well as biased enforcement of Fair Campaign provisions.

Pacifica Foundation is a five station nationwide listener and staff sponsored radio network founded in 1948 by pacifist Lew Hill which has been the bastion of the free speech movement in the US. Pacifica owns and operates five stations: KPFA (Berkeley), KPFK (Los Angeles), KPFT (Houston), WPFW (Washington DC), and WBAI (NYC).
The purged KPFA candidates were unfairly disqualified after speaking at a rally on July 4, 2026 against fascist founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison and for emphasizing the urgent need to defend democracy at KPFA/Pacifica.
Pacifica has been applying McCarthyite “Fair Campaign” rules that prohibit the free speech of its candidates and any criticism of Pacifica or its improperly adopted 2025 by laws. These new Fair Campaign rules extend Pacifica’s reach beyond its own airwaves or websites and punishes candidates even for the speech of others at non-Pacifica events! Anyone who speaks up against the corporatization of KPFA and Pacifica is purged from the election.

The present majority on the Pacifica National Board adopted by laws in April of 2025 that created a winner-take-all election to consolidate its power. The handpicked National Election Supervisor has been under their guidance and direction: Constant censorship of candidate statements, publications, websites and speech, shady nomination procedures, purged voter rolls, unequal deadlines between listeners and staff, and serious double standards have become par for the course at KPFA/Pacifica. As an example: staff/volunteer team candidates are not allowed to even mention the election on the air, and no listener candidate is supposed to receive more airtime than any other, yet the present Chair of the Pacifica National Board, Susan Young, who is running for Chair of the PNB, is being given airtime in at least three of the five stations every day. At KPFA she is airing twice a day. Local Station Board Chair, Carol Wolfley, who is running for LSB Chair and Fred Dodsworth, running for PNB Treasurer, have practiced muting, outright bullying and holding politically-motivated sham “trials” to suspend LSB members.

Join purged Pacifica candidates KPFA LSB members Cheryl Davila, Steve Zeltzer and suspended KPFA LSB member Lisa Milos who will report about their purging from the election and their fight for free speech and democracy at Pacifica.

It is the right of all Pacifica and KPFA members to have a fair and democratic election.
Defend Democracy and Free Speech At KPFA & Pacifica!

The July 4th rally at Oracle that was used as a pretext to disqualify candidates: https://youtu.be/06cN29Oivb8


Transcript Of Rally Oracle Pacifica Rally At Oracle Headquarters Redwood Cit y 7/4/26


Oracle Pacifica Rally 7-4-26 TRANSCRIPT

SUMMARY
Overview

The Oracle Pacifica Rally on 7-4-26 highlighted concerns about the media takeover by Larry Ellison's Oracle, which is accused of funding the acquisition of major media companies and attacking democratic media outlets like KPFA and Pacifica. Speakers criticized the removal of democratic bylaws, the centralization of control, and the suppression of dissenting voices, including those advocating for Palestinian journalists and Julian Assange. They called for the reinstatement of democratic processes and local oversight, and emphasized the importance of community programming and independent media. The rally also addressed broader issues of fascism, corporatization, and the need for a democratic media landscape.

TRANSCRIPT
Oracle Pacifica Rally 7-4-26
Sun, Jul 12, 2026 3:05PM • 29:09

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Oracle takeover, media democracy, KPFA, Pacifica, Larry Ellison, fascist media, corporatization, programming control, Palestinian journalists, Julian Assange, Frank Sterling, Mission Coalition, surveillance technology, community programming, democratic rights.

SPEAKERS
Speaker 2, Speaker 4, Speaker 5, Speaker 3, Speaker 1


Speaker ALL: 00:00
No fascist takeover of the media. Ellison out. People in. This

Steve Zeltzer: 00:04
is Steve Zeltzer. I'm a member of KPFA in Pacifica, and we're in front of Oracle today, owned by Larry Ellison, and this Oracle company has been government funded, and it's part of the Oracle fascist empire, and what is Oracle doing? Oracle is the company that is funding the takeover of CBS, of Warner, of TikTok, Paramount, and and other media companies. And what we're saying here today is that we have to fight against this fascist takeover of the media. The removal of Colbert. There is even an attack on KGO TV taking away their license because they program the View on on KGO. So what we're saying here today is that there has to be a challenge to the fascists take over the media. And Larry Ellison and his son David are actually a threat to the people of this country. There's also a campaign at KPFA in Pacifica, and we're launching this campaign today around the issue of democracy and media democracy, and also against the corporatization of KPFA and Pacifica. They've gotten rid of the bylaws, democratic bylaws, and brought on corporate bylaws to take away the rights of local station boards. I'm running for the KPFA chair at KPFA in the Bay Area, and also one of the candidates for the national board is Donna Carter, who is also here today.

Donna Carter: 01:28
What we've been seeing is a centralization at Pacifica of control take over. The goal is to dumb down Pacifica's programming into a unified basis by issuing programming from the national level. This is all part of the plan to make KPFA and Pacifica irrelevant to the issues that are current today in America. I'm Donna Carter, and I'm running for secretary in the Pacifica National Elections for the Pacifica National Board. Please vote for me and all the slate there on at the Pacifica Foundation 2026 candidate list on the internet. Pacifica Mission Coalition.

Steve Zeltzer (introducing John Sheridan in 1st three sentences) 02:11
Our next speaker is John Sheridan. He's a active supporter and artist at KPFA. Welcome, John.

John Sheridan: Yeah, my name is John Sheridan. I'm a very very long KPFA listener and supporter, and I support the Mission Coalition. Everyone should vote for the Mission Coalition slate for the upcoming KPFA local and national board meetings. We're also here in front of Oracle in Redwood City to protest the media takeover of this one man, Larry Ellison, who is a huge supporter of Israel and who wants to take over all of these all of these companies if he has not already done so, including Paramount, in order to not only make more money than God but also to stop any mention of Israel on the media in the United States. This is intolerable. We have to fight at KPFA. We have to fight for more media openness and more democracy. So vote the Mission Coalition.

Steve Zeltzer: 03:15
Our next speaker is Lisa Milos. Lisa is a retired member of UPTE, and also she has been quite active in fighting at KPFA and Pacifica for Palestinian journalists and against the attack on Julian Assange. And one of the things that we find out members should learn about and supporters of KPFA is that the present board of KPFA voted down a resolution to defend Palestinian journalists, to defend Julian Assange, and they even voted down against a resolution to call for the dropping of charges against KPFA journalist and activist Frank Sterling at KPFA, who was charged by the Antioch police of violence attacking the police. He was attacked, and this board that is now running in this election, actually voted down a resolution to defend him, calling for the dropping of charges. What kind of media outfit would not even defend one of their reporters or journalists? So welcome, Lisa.

Elizabeth Milos: 04:11
I'm Elizabeth Milos, and I'm I am a suspended member of the KPFA local station board. My suspension was extended. This brings the issue to what is democracy in media, and that's something that apparently Pacifica has been violating the Pacifica Mission for a long time. That's why we call ourselves the Pacifica Mission Coalition, which is a multi multi station coalition of both programmers and listeners from throughout the five different stations throughout the country that are running a coalition, which has as PMB chair Julian Malveaux, PMB vice chair Perry Mama became McCary from Houston, KPFT. PMB Secretary Donna Carter and PMB Treasurer Kamau Harris. Hi, Cheryl. How you doing? And also we have Cheryl Davila. I would like to take the time to let Cheryl speak first because she's a candidate, and then I can come back.

Cheryl Davila: 05:19
I'm Cheryl Davila. I'm a former council member in the city of Berkeley, and I'm also the founder of the Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force. I'm on many boards: the Consider the Homeless Board, Interfaith Council of Alameda County, Friends of Adeline, a community group, Berkeley Equity Summit Alliance, which is also another Black community group, and I've been on the KPFALSB board for almost three years now, they decided to increase my two-year term to by a year without my knowledge or consent, and I'm running for the Pacifica National Board KPFA listener representative director. I've been listening to Pacifica radio since I was a teenager, about 15 years old. I've been in Berkeley for 45 years, and I've been listening to KPFA for that entire time. We listen to all the all the different shows on the in our listening audience. Gospel, the talk shows, Democracy Now, Law and Disorder, all these different shows. So I pay attention. I listen to the music shows, and you know I'm not happy with how I've been treated on the local station board. It's been actually a traumatic experience. I'm grateful for it, of course, because we have to know the truth about these things, but it's been a trying time, and I know we can do better. And I see how the programming across the board, literally, is not exactly what it used to be, and now that I'm running for the Pacifica National Board and been in touch with all the different stations, I see that the same shenanigans is happening all across the board, literally and otherwise. So we need to make a change. We're in the time of fascism. We're in the time of 47. Racism has never left this world, and it's just getting worse right now. So we have to stand up, speak up, and be a part of the change. And currently, it seems it's getting too much like what we've seen out of the not my White House, but the Black House, born you know, made from slaves, and it's happening in KPFA, and now I hear from the other stations, it's actually happening at the national board level as well. We're here in front of Oracle, one of the worst offenders of all the atrocities that are going on in this world today, and we need to make sure that people know the truth. Some of the truth is being swayed by the choices that are being made at the local stations and the board, national board as well. We don't need people like Ian Masters. Luckily, they took off Tom Hartmann, and at least KPFA world, but we need to make sure that those types of voices aren't heard because they're not telling you the truth. They're also being part of the problem. There, we I hear more fascism, fascistic ideology. Coming through the airwaves that I've been listening to for 45 years now, and that's not okay. So, vote for the Pacifica Mission Coalition, which we are a part of, and go. and vote for everyone on that slate, including myself as the KPFA listener representative director. But also vote for the entire slate. You'll hit every station if you do that. Malveaux, Harris, Carter, myself, Zeltzer, Woods, PK, McCary. and Julianne Malveaux for chair. So please, don't be discouraged. Have courage and vote for the Pacifica. Mission Coalition. Thank you.

Steve Zeltzer: 11:25
As as speakers have said, we face fascism in this country, and Pacifica KPFA are going to be targets. If they're going after ABC and these big companies, we're a little flea in this country as far as the media. But we are independent, and we have to keep it independent. We have to keep it democratic, and we cannot have a corporatized Pacifica run by a small group of people. That's why we're for reinstituting the old bylaws and putting oversight on the local boards. Right now, the local boards have should have control of the budget. They should have control of what's happening at KPFA. But under these new bylaws, it's going to be all at the top, the national board. So there won't be the local oversight and also the local input for programming. We need a programming council at KPFA. New programs are being brought in, and also that are not from our communities in Northern California, and also they're rerunning Ian Masters and other programs, hours and hours and hours. We have to get away from reruns. Have local community programming. Have the voices of people. There's no program on housing. There's no programming on seniors. There's not even a programming on labor. Think about that. No programming on labor at KPFA. Also, there's no programming on the Arab American community since Voices from the Middle East and North Africa was taken down. Also, Lisa Milos, who has been a longtime struggler for democracy at KPFA, and also to get Chris Hedges on the air, which we fought for, is going to speak.

Elizabeth Milos: 12:52
I mentioned previously that I was suspended from the KPFA LSB. Both Steve and I actually were suspended. My suspension was extended to September, so that made it practically impossible for me to run. The reason why we were suspended primarily was because we were exposing the hypocrisy, the blatant hypocrisy that the people who control the KPFA local station board have conducted themselves with one of the issues that another reason why I decided not to run as well was because they have instituted fair campaign provision rules where it won't allow the candidates to actually criticize Pacifica or the bylaws or using the Pacifica resources to do so, which would mean any kind of debate that comes forward. There's going to be some very strict guidelines, and if we really believe in free speech radio, then we can't tolerate that. The hypocrisy that I'm mentioning is, for example, Cheryl Davila's opponent Zach Kaldevier, he voted down a resolution on Palestine that we presented both times in January 2024 and March 2024. He, the entire majority of the KPFA LSB, voted it down, and then they put Cheryl Davila into a waiting room because she called them for what they were Zionists, basically, or Zionist enablers. Prior to that, excuse me. Also, we have the only Palestinian local station board member that ran with us on our slate, Dr. Rabab Al Duhadi, was was not able to be part of the these next meetings of the change of date that they made from Saturday to Wednesdays because Wednesday she has class and they all knew that and they changed it anyways, basically sidelining her completely. What he mentioned was Frank Sterling. He was he was a member of the KPFA local station board staff as well as a host of a program. He's Native American, and he had been he has been part of a police watch group in Antioch where he was attacked by police and there were videos and he was they put trumped up charges on him, and we have somebody like excuse me, like the first it was Sharon Adams during the first time we presented that resolution, and then the year later when we brought evidence that these same police had been charged by the FBI for racist texts and were being investigated for their behavior and their and their complicity in basically attacking people of color in Antioch and being racist, so we demanded that the KPFALSB majority, who voted down the resolution to support him, give Frank Sterling an apology. And instead of that, we have somebody that's running for PMB treasurer, Fred Dodsworth, our opponent from Pacifica Forward, who not only did they again attack, Fred attack Frank Sterling, but also made implications of his guilt, which is something that happened a year prior with Sharon Adams saying that they had seen the so-called video, and even after his Frank Sterling's case had already been dismissed, so they applied those same kind of tactics to attack both Steve and I when we went in front of KPFA radio to do a rally, and we were not and never have damaged any property. We have never attacked anybody, and they accused me and Steve of having attacked the business manager, who went outside to instigate and to take away our posters that we had put up, which, as you can see, do not cause any kind of damage to any property whatsoever. And all we did was take the posters back so that she wouldn't take it from us. Now the reason why she went out was because she knew that she also and KPFA would be called out on their hypocrisy, their blatant hypocrisy. If you remember, in 2019, WBAI was closed by John Vernil, illegally closed. Not only did they take out all the staff, but they also took the equipment. It was a management lockout, an illegal management lockout. So we have people from KPFA, such as Sabrina Jacobs, who has a program, who served as interim Pacifica National Board direct chair, who did not allow the WBAI directors to even vote to bring back WBAI, and they did this because they said they didn't have any money, which actually was proven wrong. And they did this with these continuing allegations against the sister station WBAI.

Elizabeth Milos 18:01
And and on top of it, then we have somebody like Carol Wolfley, who is the opponent of Steve Zeltser, who is running for chair of the W of the KPFA local station board, who wrote a letter in 2019 to the Federal Communications Commission, complaining about WBAI, and then we had somebody like Sherri Gendelman, who was actually suspended for her for this for what she did, which was to file a petition against a sister station, and when she was suspended at the PNB level, Carol Wolfley brought her in as so-called local station board counsel and continue to have her on the board. Somebody who had violated the fiduciary duty also had somebody like Donald Goldmacher also violating his fiduciary duty by trying to lobby people from WBAI signal area to try to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission. This is pre-Trump, but everybody knew that it was a very dangerous thing. Anybody who has any inkling as to what Pacifica stands for knows that Pacifica has been the targeting targeted by the federal government of the United States for decades. And so, to try to get the Federal Communications Commission to put in danger the renewal of a license of a sister station could have cost Pacifica $50 million which would be the broadcast license. Now, I'm going to go only one more step here. They have made these these instituted these new bylaws, 2025 bylaws, which by settlement, by collusion, the group that was suing Pacifica at the time was trying to sue to try to pretend like the amendments that had been voted down had passed, and a judge ruled that no, it had not passed because the staff voted against it. Specifically, more staff from


Elizabeth Milos 25:00
To rally people in this country to defend our democratic rights, to to oppose racism, oppose the genocide that's going on, the trillions for war when people are going hungry, when people can't get health care in this country, people can't get housing, and we have an unlimited budget for the for the war. Pacifica needs to get those voices out, needs to oppose this, and we also need (there is a break in the transcript here).

Steve Zeltzer: ….in the Bay Area regional meetings, town hall meetings in the South Bay, in the North Bay, in the East Bay, in the Central Valley, where people can speak out about their issues and what KPFA should be covering. They're afraid of having town hall meetings, although it was in the bylaws. They don't want to hear voices from the community, but that's precisely why KPFA was formed to get the voices out from the community, not the top down from the bottom up. So let's rally together. We're going to have a meeting in Berkeley and in the South Bay in San Jose, and we have to get the voices out of people. This may be, hopefully, not the last election at Pacifica. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about a cabal that don't want to have elections, and that's something we have to change. The last point is the unions. The unions in this country are under attack as well. The shutdown of the Colbert show, the attack on media, the intimidation and threat of any journalist, any media person who supports the Palestinians-they're gone. They're fired, and this is another example of a fascist movement, a fascist dictator. This Larry Ellison, who wants total control. He's a fascist ideologically. He doesn't believe the people of this country are entitled to democracy. He believes Israel should tell the United States what to do. That is what Air Larry Ellison is about. So let's stand up together and let's defend democracy. Vote the Pacifica Mission Coalition, and let's fight together to build a democratic media and a democratic country, and and really take up this struggle. Because if we don't have time, we've got to build a movement.

Cheryl Davila: 26:55
It's a beautiful day out here in this disgusting Oracle Parkway beast of buildings, but we have to stand strong. We have to be in solidarity, and we have to to unite to ensure that KPFA and the Pacifica National Board, our local station boards thrive and listen to the people and put the news, the real truth, out on the airwaves, and not be complicit with the fascist ideology that is impacting all of us. So stay strong, be healthy, drink water, and and vote for the Pacifica Mission Coalition. Thank you. I

Elizabeth Milos: 27:54
think we should mention. Well, John probably has more information, but the role of of surveillance technology is much more dangerous than we had ever imagined. Snowden had given us information regarding this. Julian Assange, Julian Assange also warned us as well. And the surveillance technology that's being used is being used against immigrants in this country. But it's the same. Also, the same kind of technology that is used was has been used to track and follow journalists in Gaza all the way to their home to bomb them and their entire family line,

Speaker 5 28:34
generations,

Speaker 1 28:35
generations of their families in one sitting with one bomb, and also the bombs that come after that attack the paramedics that go and try to save them. No fascist takeover of media. Elsin

Speaker 5 28:52
out, people in, elephant out, people in.

Additional Media:
What's Happening At Pacifica?
https://youtu.be/6VdYdckbGfU
KPFA Pacifica Press Conf On Suspension Of Pacifica's Non-Profit Status & Trump Like Purge
https://youtu.be/iGAJLMs4Fpc
Fight At KPFA & Pacifica Radio Network For Democracy & Transparency
https://youtu.be/_-uuWZpFwpU
Ian Masters CIA Operative Protested At KPFA Pacifica In Berkeley
https://youtu.be/DzzoEnzvJPE
Shut Up Or Speak Out! KPFA Press Conference For Democracy & Transparency
https://youtu.be/hbHUrLR9Wy0
lThe KPFA Local Station Candidate Debates On the Air! Youtube Won't Do & Stop Rigging Elections!
https://youtu.be/95PHBEWymrQ
KPFA Business Maria Negret Report To Staff On Failure to Pay Property Taxes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AhKX...
KPFA Bylaw Referendum Debate July 2, 2021
https://kpfa.org/archives/2021/7/2/
KPFA Pacifica Local Station Board/Public Discuss On Financial Crisis, Bankruptcy & Governance
https://youtu.be/WsN9lZPQrJs