Letters to the Folio -

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

By now, it should be clear to all but the terminally optimistic what the Pacifica Board and those within the Beltway plan to do to the network, and particularly to KPFA the perpetual thorn n their corporate side. For those pragmatists who have seized the network and packed its headquarters off the Washington, the nation’s two-decade move to the right is as ineluctable as continental drift, and we should just get with the program ourselves if we are not to be left behind like some no-account islands sparsely populated with blathering savages.. There is, needless to say, a lot of money and power in it for those who nudge the drift from what they perceive as irrelevant barbarism to lucrative Civilization.

For those who still harbor doubts about what Berry & Co. have in store for KPFA, may I propose the enclosed emblem of the old Overland Monthly magazine, established in San Francisco in 1868 with the motto "Devoted to the Development of the Country." It shows a California grizzly bear pausing on railroad tracks to look at the headlamp of its rapidly approaching manifest destiny. The grizzly is California’s state animal and it is, of course, extinct.

Perhaps we should get off the tracks.

Sincerely,

Gray Brechin, Berkeley

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KPFA 94.1 F.M. 50,000 watt SIGNAL!

Monday 6 March my radio "crashed," no KPFA. My Radio Shack F.M. has brought in KPFA for the past 15 years.

Art, manager of Radio Shack quote: "KPFA is licensed for a 25-mile radius. It is a miracle to hear it here, our radio is not at fault."

I phone Brenda at KPFA, Quote "KPFA is on the air." I point out that I am wiped out, have just mailed out my subscription!

Later in the day KPFA comes in loud and clear.

Gordon Yates, Santa Rosa, Miracle Worker

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

i eagerly devoured the recent issue this morning in the car before even driving away from the post office!!! muchisimos thanks.

aluta coninuo.... Steve Shain

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POINT OF VIEW

I have been a grateful listener of KPFA for 40 years. I am very aware that if I had not listened to the divergent views expressed on KPFA, I would have been very badly misinformed on a myriad of issues!

During these years, I have noticed that the station rarely presented the views found in the mainstream news media. This has been perfectly fine because I was bombarded with that point of view from T.V., newspapers, politicians, etc. I didn’t need to have KPFA waste their precious air-time reiterating those views.

Today I am in total agreement with the Folio’s point of view concerning the need for a listener sponsored and democratically governed radio station. However the mainstream news media is not reporting the views of the Pacifica Board and Mary Frances Berry so I am in fact getting only one point of view concerning this controversy.

Is it possible for the Folio to interview Ms. Berry or one of her allies, so that point of view (however deranged) can be heard?

Sincerely,

Margaret Shepard, Forestville

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GLUM FACES SPEAK

I’m writing to renew my Folio subscription for the rest of the year and to say what a great job I think you are doing. I especially enjoy the photos - the glum faces of Acosta, Berry and Chadwick speak volumes!

I’m rather confused as to what staff members are now at KPFA has a Music Director been appointed to replace Chuy? Does KPFA have a permanent station manger yet? Etc. I’d greatly appreciate a staff listing, if possible.

I think having a Folio independent of the station and Pacifica will make it truly Free Speech.

Alice Hall, Fresno

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STILL FIGHTING BACK

Yes I do think that the KPFA signal has deteriorated in the Sunset District of San Francisco over the past six months. I find I must orient my antenna more carefully in order to obtain a strong signal. Otherwise, it has "noise' or not really a clear sound. Also, other FM Stations are cutting in, especially KOIT, which may have increased its power (?). Another station broadcasting in Spanish also can cut into the KPFA signal, though not as often as KOIT, San Francisco, 96.1 I believe is the KOIT band.

I get the feeling that one way or another the owners of this country will get KPFA off the air. I am still fighting back.

Sincerely, Roy Jarl, San Francisco

(Roy lives in the Parkside District of the Sunset, near Sigmund Stern Grove, though the entire West side of San Francisco has problems receiving KPFA.)

FLESHING OUT ALLEGATIONS

My comment is that I do believe you, still, compromise is something that we may need to do in order to ensure the survival of KPFA. I don't know what you mean by "overly democratic." But positions of absolutely no compromise or bargaining seem to be counterproductive. The people we deal with are playing hardball as you have said, which means that we do not need to deceive ourselves in thinking that they are ethical. But they do have their weak places. Some of the people we deal with may be ethical. I have enought experience in this sort of "infiltration" situation that I have noticed that many recently involved folks are confused plus justifiably insecure about keeping their jobs etc. I would truly like to read Mr. Steiner fleshing out some "specific allegations" in the next folio. I worked for a non-profit at one point, and I saw the staff and clients rights systematically diluted. There are similarities.

Arden De Lu

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Response from Ralph Steiner:

Dear Arden,

Yes. This is a very complex situation, and the trouble at Pacifica has taken at least 12 years to develop. Many good people have gradually left the organization out of attrition or disillusionment. Others have been forced out by those who are currently in management positions and responsible for enforcing the regime of censorship now in effect at KPFT, KPFK, WPF and PNN.

No doubt there are a number of highly skilled and principled people who are hanging on to their Pacifica jobs at all cost because they feel that by doing so, they are forestalling or holding the line against the death of or a negative sea change in the organization. Among those are the remarkable Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzales, Errol Maitland at WBAI. PNN is another story; Don Rush, Mark Bevis, Laura Iyama all appear to have sided with Berry and Chadwick on the censorship issue, and have refused to back Dan Coughlin in his principled challenge against Chadwick's censorship. PNN news suffers today because those producing it, though competent technically, lack the courage to resist the imposition of corporate-style top-down management that is propelling a hidden politicized agenda. In all "infiltration" situations, there are very subtle dynamics at work; there are those who recognize it for what it is and assume a militant posture of resistance from the beginning, and there are those who are unclear as to what is happening and whose responses are less clearly defined. In the case of WPFW under Bessie Wash, a number of "volunteers" from VOA/Radio Marti have worked their way up the ladder to management and are now pushing that station toward the right. Those are the ones who have openly censored progressive callers and have frequently either interrupted or pulled Democracy Now off the air. All in all, perhaps a half a dozen key Governing Board members are responsible for instituting the current horrendous policies that are tearing Pacifica apart as a national organization: Mary Frances Berry; Lynn Chadwick; realtor Michael Palmer (advocates selling stations); music industry CPA David Acosta (backs Palmer); KPFT GM Garland Ganter, now "Acting" Pacifica National Program Director. I know from personal experience this man is a literal thug who rules KPFT with an iron fist. He was sent in by Chadwick to shut down KPFA by force; Ken Ford from Washington, D.C., who has shown open hostility and antipathy toward anybody representing Pacifica from Northern California. Throw in opportunistic bureaucrats like Bessie Wash who will replace Chadwick as Executive Director, and KPFK GM Mark Shubb who uses intimidation and firings to enforce censorship, and you can see how the deck is stacked. It doesn't take much to pull the house down. It is well known that Chadwick maintains deep alliances with CPB, Voice of America, PRI, these "less strident" members of the "public" radio community which serve corporate agendas and are recipients of corporate underwriting and US government support.

What is currently needed is a protracted dialogue about the people, their politics and their behavior over time in order to grasp what has actually taken place within Pacifica. The foxes are now ruling the hen house.

Sincerely, Ralph Steiner

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