- The Folio Yellow Sheet -
THE GAG RULE AT PACIFICA -- or -- THE FINE ART OF INTIMIDATION
For decades there has been an understanding in the Pacifica National Network that it is inappropriate for program hosts, or anyone who has access to the air, to discuss personal disagreements that they might have with station management or with Pacifica Board Policies. This was known as the "dirty laundry rule".
This was well and good until the Corporation for Public Broadcasting entered the scene during the Reagan Administration. Slowly, forces that are difficult to understand to this day began to work to turn the radical free speech network into a more mainstream network in the image of National Public Radio. The relatively benign "dirty laundry rule" has become the malignant "gag rule".
Removal of the more radical and/or community-generated programming began in 1994 at WPFW in Washington D.C. In 1995 Pat Scott, at that time the acting Executive Director of Pacifica, fired the manager of KPFK in Los Angeles and the purging of programmers at KPFK began. By August of 1995 a massive purge of programmers, like Mama O’Shea and Bill Mandel, took place at KPFA in Berkeley. In February of 1996 Pacifica issued a "gag rule" saying that staff would be fired if they let callers criticize Pacifica on the air. By August of 1997 Pacifica was writing a "gag rule" clause into contracts for affiliate stations directed at disclaimers many of the stations had been running about union-busting at Pacifica. By April of 1998 more than 300 people had been removed from the five Pacifica stations.
In December of 1998, award winning Larry Bensky lost his Living Room show that had been broadcast nationally by Pacifica because he had the courage to mention the Pacifica controversy on the air. Due to public outcry, he was rehired but his show was turned into a once a week "Sunday Salon". The job of the universally loved and respected manager of KPFA, Nicole Sawaya, was next on the chopping block. She made the mistake of expressing a little too much interest in where the money raised from listener donations was going. Shortly after, Bensky was fired yet again when he came to the defense of Nicole. Neither Sawaya nor Bensky have been rehired.
In June, Robbie Osman, once a member of the Pacifica National Board himself, couldn’t keep his mouth shut and his integrity cost him his volunteer job as a popular Sunday morning KPFA show host. By July, Dennis Bernstein had pushed the gag rule limits well beyond Pacifica’s tolerance level and he was dragged off while live on the air, handcuffed and arrested. KPFA was locked and boarded up and the entire staff was informed that they were on "administrative leave".
Meanwhile, at KPFK in Los Angeles, award winning journalist and station host Robin Urevich wrote an article critical of Pacifica for a local newspaper and was promptly banned from the station. Also in September, Ruben Tapia, executive producer and host of Enfoque Latino, an important program for the Latino community in Los Angeles had his show canceled after 13 years for reporting on an anti Pacifica demonstration at the KPFK studios. Apparently these firings were too much for Pacifica to defend and both hosts have been rehired. In October, popular morning drive time host Marcos Frommer quit because of "serious disagreements with how the general manager and program director manage - some would say mismanage - the station." This is all the more interesting because Frommer was an early supporter of Marc Schubb and pressed for his appointment as KPFA manager. Frommer also assisted Pacifica Executive Director Pat Scott in purging KPFK's pre-1995 management. Frommer’s show had been on the air for ten years.
Apparently the gag rule applies all the way up the line. At the end of November Dan Coughlin, the Director of the Pacifica Network News, was "reassigned" by Lynn Chadwick to a "task force" that doesn’t even exist yet. His crime? -- Reporting on a one day boycott of Pacifica programming by some of the Pacifica affiliate stations. Verna Avery Brown, well-known network news anchor, stopped coming to work in apparent sympathy with Dan. Pacifica has replaced her with a sound alike. Reliable sources say that just last week Verna was offered a "copper parachute" that she couldn’t refuse, terminating her contract.
Today, Lynn Chadwick is still Executive Director of Pacifica, her close friend Karolyn Van Putten has been inserted onto the Pacifica Executive Board and an unpleasant fellow named Gene Edwards has taken roost like a vulture in the Pacifica offices right next door to KPFA. Edwards, who works for a world wide corporate management control firm, is self-described as being "here to hire and fire". Democracy is not part of this plan. Pacifica is looking for a new manager for KPFA and Edwards is here to help pick her/him. The listener community insists that KPFA already has an excellent station manager named Nicole Sawaya. Edwards is also here to cleanse the station of any who have the guts to object to the further dumbing down of the Pacifica Network. It is more than obvious what will happen to anyone who opens their mouth at KPFA. This is reflected in the self imposed censorship of the various shows broadcast on KPFA and the ever more repressed KPFA news. The other Pacifica stations have been tamed by the gag rule. It is only a matter of time before Pacifica attempts to neuter KPFA. Some feel this may happen very soon.
It is time for listener/sponsors to begin to express their feelings about this situation before there is no recognizable station left to defend.
Lynn Chadwick is in her Pacifica office daily, right next door to KPFA.
Karolyn Van Putten, one of three new members of the Pacifica Board, can be found in her office at:
Western Public Radio Fort Mason Center, Bldg. D San Francisco, CA 94123 415-771-1160Gene Edwards is associated with Lee Hecht Harrison, a consulting and management firm with offices around the world. They have a local San Francisco office at:
Lee Hecht Harrison 235 Pine Street, Suite 1400 San Francisco, CA 94104 415-434-0125.__________________________________
Written for the Yellow Sheet by: Michael Costello North Bay for KPFAReturn to NB4KPFA FOLIO Home Page