November 26, 2007

Dear Lila and Other Friends of KPFK:

It always saddens me when someone I have great respect for does or says something with which I must take exception. Such is the case with your/Lila’s long e-mail accusing the station of tolerating anti-Semitism and losing audience and financial support.

As Lila well-knows, there is a world of difference (at least there is in my mind) between “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Zionism.” And while I am very aware that defenders of Israel often fail to note the difference; that they, in fact, sometimes promote the idea that the two are one-and-the-same, that does not make it so. Indeed, some defenders of Israel have been very effective in crying “anti-Semitism” whenever someone sharply criticizes Israel, or Israeli policy or practices. I can vouch for this fact because I have been called “anti-Semitic” on occasions when I have criticized Israel. In simple terms, it’s a “cheap shot.” Certainly there is room on KPFK for genuine, non-anti-Semitic criticism of Israel and Zionism.

Now, Lila has claimed to me, in person, on more than one occasion, that one programmer or another on KPFK has made anti-Semitic remarks on the air. And on the last occasion when she made this claim (once I was here in my new capacity as Interim General Manager of KPFK), I told her that: 1) I was, of course, completely opposed to there being any anti-Semitic programming/remarks on KPFK; 2) and, that if she would be good enough to point me to the actual show where the remarks claimed to be “anti-Semitic” were made (and we have transcripts of every show and so can easily check) I, and others, would listen to the show in question and if I/we thought the remarks were, indeed, anti-Semitic, I would immediately take corrective action and impose station-authorized discipline. To date, Lila has not done that.

Finally, on the matter of Lila’s claim that listenership has gone down at KPFK, as has our revenues. I have no idea why she would say that. Let me give you the facts: The peak number of listener/members during the tenure of the General Manager prior to Eva Georgia, who just left the station, was just under 14,000 (13,800). The number as of last May, under Eva Georgia, was 17,760…an increase of about 20%. Listener financial support is up from an annual amount of $1,745, 000 under the General Manager prior to Eva Georgia. Under Eva Georgia is has reached $3,120,000. That’s about an 80% increase! I am also informed that KPFK has increased listenership more than any other station in the Pacifica network. (Obviously, I take no credit for any of this since it all happened prior to my hire on November 1st of this year.)

A couple of final points. Certainly there were programming changes here at KPFK under Eva Georgia. No doubt some of those changes have worked out better than others. In this regard, some listeners have complained about the fact that we now carry Spanish language programming on KPFK. Frankly, I have never understood this complaint. After all, KPFK is a public radio station and one that prides itself on being a community-based public radio station. In a City like Los Angeles, with its now majority Spanish-origin population, doesn’t it seem only just and proper that we would have at least some Spanish language programming? I am proud of the fact that I am now employed by a station that does so, unlike any other public radio station in town!

Finally, Lila is certainly entitled to promote those candidates running for the Board she deems best qualified. Personally, although I deem it improper for me to actually endorse any of the candidates, I can say that as I look over the names on both slates and on the list of independent candidates, I find well-qualified candidates on all lists. Perhaps more to the point, I wish we could all get beyond name calling (and I agree with Lila in rightfully calling out others on this serious offense; I do the same), and recognize that our differences do not make us enemies. No, none of the fine people working and doing programming here at KPFK are “the enemy.” Our enemies are Corporate America and U.S. imperialism, and racism and sexism and…well, we all know the long and sorry list. Indeed, in all of the years that I have been associated with KPFK, I really cannot recall ever meeting anyone associated with the station that, no matter what political differences I might have with them, did not strike me as someone who loved the station as much as I and wanted only the best for it. Certainly, I know that this is true of my old friend Lila!

Regards,
Jim Lafferty,
Interim General Manager, KPFK

I agree with Jim.

Meanwhile, we have a local board election. We should be talking about that. The slate candidate people have said that they want to strengthen KPFK, but when people commenting on the various articles on la indymedia raise questions about the group and program of this group, the committee says nothing.

Stonewalling is not going to solve any problems at KPFK.

Grace and Lila: Answer the questions in the comments.

What this signals is that the whole platform of the Committee to "Strengthen" KPFK is sheer invented nonsense, invented for no other purpose than to "get" the former GM, Eva Georgia.

I am not an "Eva supporter" - mainly because she all-but sold her soul and sold out the interests of oppressed groups to keep these "Committee" people off her back and to keep power. She betrayed damn near everyone who might have been her authentic ally in a fool's errand of "going along to get along."

It was never enough. Even though she is from S. Africa, Eva Georgia apparently never understood the totalizing nature of racism, and the endless lengths her antagonists would go to to destroy her and any hope of authentic power or representation for L.A.'s communities of color.

Only now,as the lies of her enemies come unraveled in full public view, is their power apparently on the slide. Too late for Georgia. Her enemies and her advisors made for her a bed of nails, and she lay down in it, rather than wage an open, honest fight against sexism, racism and homophobia.

They finally lynched her with these three oppressions, all of which were involved, if not in the charges laid in the lawsuit against her, then certainly in the Committee to "Strengthen" KPFK taking the scandal to the LA Weekly and the LA TImes in a final effort to destroy her.

The best I can wish for the members of teh "Committee" is that they learn a deep lesson about the evil of scapegoating and about substituting scapegoating and slander for taking principled political and moral stands on real issues .

I doubt they will learn a damn thing. But may they have all the time they need to sit on their couches, with nothing to do but think about it, and with nothing to do with KPFK, at all.

Her abrasive, authoritarian methods (more suited to the military or corporate life than to a progressive radio station), her spending habits, and her widely alleged mistreatment of employees, including sexual harassment, had nothing to do with her downfall. Nah.

The fact is, you're not on staff; You spek without first hand knowledge, as nothing more than a mean spirited gossip monger.You're just a rabid defender of LIla Garrett, who was suspended in June from the airwaves for refusing to do fund raising, as part of the "get Eva" campaign the "Committee" waged for years

The fact is, you're not on staff; You speak without first hand knowledge, as nothing more than a mean spirited gossip monger.You're just a rabid defender of LIla Garrett, who was suspended in June from the airwaves for refusing to do fund raising, as part of the "get Eva" campaign the "Committee" waged for years

I don't think I have ever even mentioned Lila Garrett on LA IMC. That doesn't seem very rabid to me.
I do listen to her show sometimes. I have never heard her defend zionism on it. She did defend a liberal version of zionism when she was invited to be on the Middle East In Focus Show - that hardly seems like she is trying to force it down listeners' throats. In any event, there is no KPFK or Pacifica rule against defending the existence of a zionist state in the Middle East, just as there is no rule against calling for its abolition and replacement with a secular state that would have an Arab majority.

from your comments on the Indymedia post entitled"
KPFK Mgt Suspends Lila Garrett's Connect the Dots - Put Lila Back on the Air!"

following Garrett's suspension for refusing to raise funds for KPFK On the air, during find drive.

You wrote:

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/07/202306_comment.php#202396


meds
by Meyer London Monday, Jul. 02, 2007 at 5:34 PM

The poster who identifies himself or herself as Gotta luv it seems to have an overheated brain, to say the least. A staff member complains that her boss is sexually harassing her at KPFK and the only possible explanation is that she is trying to raise the spectre of "the oversexed out of control Black man mixed up with the insatiable, perverted lesbian"? And that all this can only be part of a "21st century recipe for hanging Blacks"? What group home are you posting from? Maybe you need some soothing tea, a cat to pet, or a combination of therapy and meds for your condition. The same goes for the alleged "veteran KPFK listener" who thinks that only someone "uncomfortable with minorities in power" would think of complaining about something like that or be against using the listeners' pledge money for the alleged harasser's legal expenses. Power? Is that what you think KPFK is all about - giving power to careerists, including perhaps the power to sexually harass the staff? That is sick. The role of the KPFK general manager is to serve the listeners and the staff, not to exercise power ala corporate ceos or Marine Corps officers.
By the way, I heard L.G. on the air this morning. Or was that a repeat?

Whether it's a defense of Lila Garrett or simply a generalized defense of white privilege, what you posted below is rabid.



from your comments on the Indymedia post entitled"
KPFK Mgt Suspends Lila Garrett's Connect the Dots - Put Lila Back on the Air!"

following Garrett's suspension for refusing to raise funds for KPFK On the air, during find drive.

You wrote:

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/07/202306_comment.php#202396


meds
by Meyer London Monday, Jul. 02, 2007 at 5:34 PM

The poster who identifies himself or herself as Gotta luv it seems to have an overheated brain, to say the least. A staff member complains that her boss is sexually harassing her at KPFK and the only possible explanation is that she is trying to raise the spectre of "the oversexed out of control Black man mixed up with the insatiable, perverted lesbian"? And that all this can only be part of a "21st century recipe for hanging Blacks"? What group home are you posting from? Maybe you need some soothing tea, a cat to pet, or a combination of therapy and meds for your condition. The same goes for the alleged "veteran KPFK listener" who thinks that only someone "uncomfortable with minorities in power" would think of complaining about something like that or be against using the listeners' pledge money for the alleged harasser's legal expenses. Power? Is that what you think KPFK is all about - giving power to careerists, including perhaps the power to sexually harass the staff? That is sick. The role of the KPFK general manager is to serve the listeners and the staff, not to exercise power ala corporate ceos or Marine Corps officers.
By the way, I heard L.G. on the air this morning. Or was that a repeat?

"I heard L.G. on the air this morning. Was that a repeat?" That is all you could come up with? The quote certainly seems like a passionate defense of L.G., zionism, and the plan by various dastards at KPFK to bring back the days of lynch mobs, slavery, the Dred Scott Decision, and the Presidency of Jefferson Davis. At least it seems that way if someone is off his or her rocker.

Claims by employees of any organization that they are being sexually harasssed by bosses or by people who believe that they are in "positions of power" always have to be taken seriously. To assume without an investigation that the person making the complaint is motivated by racial prejudice is both both sexist and moronic. Since you appear to have made such an assumption, perhaps that says a good deal about you.

since this post site is bringing up Eva's law suit, is there a result yet ? do we know who did what to whom and how much is coming out of the KFPK budget? huh? huh?

and while surprising to those of us not sexually attractive, the fact that there was enough to produce such a legal suit and be considered by any judge or legal staff as viable evidence or testimony , says something we dont want to know or hear.

All the insulting each other is never giving the rest of us readers information as to who is telling off the other for what reasons besides their posts here? are there OTHER HIDDEN AGENDAS and disagreements being vented here or are all of you who vent on each other strangers ? huh?

What a wild place to make sure you are read - with all your nasty words and bad intentions ! This is pure freedom...of
meanness and vengeance and showing-off-toughness perhaps ?

will someone clarify for the rest of whoever bothers to read these posts = because we do care about KPFK and no info is coming out of that place that reveals the war going on out here = please inform us why this hateful bantering is occurring about topics way out of important topics - KPFK, the legal irregularities, the funding, the management, the programming, the discriminations of any & all kinds = in reverse as in common [not only dark are discriminated against, not only minorities are hated and told-ff, not only the poor are innocent and pure, etc.]

why cant you share more honest, open, direct information about what you are trying to do here ? I dont get it, and yet I have dutifully read 'every word'. Call me dumb...
for trying to figure you all out.

There is nothing more sickening than reading a list of glowing accolades about "the Jews," especially when it is a lead-up to an apologist rewriting of history absolving Israel (note I didn't say "the Jews," for being Jewish is not synonymous with supporting Israel) of it's monumental crime of ethnic cleansing begun nearly 60 years ago and continuing today. Quoting various wise and famous persons proves nothing. If Tolstoy said the Jews were the lowest form of life, would Lila still place stock in their opinions? "Zionist" a "metaphor for dirty Jew?" Please!

Yes the world largely stood by while 6 million were wiped out, but:

"So the nations of the world decided once again to go out of 'their' way in order to find a stick to hit the Jews. The goal: to prove that Jews are as immoral and guilty of massacre and genocide as some of they themselves are. All this in order to hide and justify their own failure to even protest when six million Jews were brought to the slaughterhouses of Auschwitz and Dachau; so as to wipe out the moral conscience of which the Jews remind them, and they found a stick."

is a truly pathetic statement. Can no one criticize Israel honestly? Is it only "in order to hide and justify their own failure"? Is Israel not guilty of massacre and attempted genocide?

I was raised with the endless cry of "never forget." It is sad that many Jews have forgotten: they forgot what it means to be oppressed and tortured and murdered, and have instead chosen to inflict more suffering. Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Anti-Zionism is a principled and moral stance taken against an exclusionary, racist, repressive regime. If some people who in fact may be anti-Semites are anti-Zionist, it does not necessarily follow that one is the root of the other, nor does it negate the fact that Israel is an apartheid state. What are the ignorant rants of hate-filled people when compared with Israel's brutality?

One hears the cry of "anti-Semitism" more and more these days. It seems to me that whenever the actions and policies of Israel draw attention, and criticism (however tepid it may be) finds its way into the mainstream, charges of anti-Semitism abound. Or as Alexander Cockburn writes: “…there’s a quick way of figuring out how badly Israel is behaving. You see a brisk uptick in the number of articles accusing the left of anti-Semitism.”

The Jewish state is not a democratic state any more than the Christian state (or Muslim or white). Until Israel becomes a state of its actual citizens, and not of the world's Jews, it will never know peace. Pushing the Palestinians into larger open-air prisons and calling them a "state" will not fool anyone (except perhaps you), especially the people of Palestine.

If Lila wishes to defend Israel's atrocities she should do so by dealing with the facts, not by quoting glowing accolades about Judaism's gifts to the world. Isn't the whole "chosen people" things is just a tiny bit racist? "Yo - we're the best and don't you forget it!"

I was born into a Jewish household which supposedly makes me "Jewish." I'm not sure what that means, since race and religion are both social constructs. I hope, however, that I will die a human being.

I grew up taught and believeing that the Jewish people in general were a broad-minded people. I took their cry of "Never Again!" to heart with the belief in its meaning, that what happened to their people in the Holocaust should never happen again to anyone, ever.

As I have aged I have concluded that people are the same everywhere; good at times, fallible at others. When we forget this, and descend into dualistic thinking based along tribal lines we are most susceptible to missteps. This explains how the same two words have been distorted into a justification for repeating the same mistake. (Explain to me if you can the difference between Gaza today and the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw under Nazi occupied Poland.)

The challenge presented by the Holocaust makes it very understandable that some people might collectively conclude they would be safe or safer in their own nation. The actions that created the state of Israel, and what has taken place since, closely mirrors the nature of the creation of the United States, only condensed in time. Both could be described acurately as ethnic cleansing, if not genocide (perhaps more accurate in the case of the US).

Boycott, divestment and sanctions worked to turn the political tide in South Africa, and are I believe the most appropritate tools to help both the Jewish Israeli and Palestinian people. History cannot be buried. This country must have its reckoning as well.

We must reach the level of recognizing what unites us far exceeds our differences. Part of this process will be acknowledging misdeeds based upon supposed differences.

There are white, black, brown and yellow rascists, and there are Jewish and Arab anti-semites (Arabs are also a Semitic people). We all need to get together and move on—we don't have much time. Bickering over differences will lead to wars over resources, as the world burns. The holocaust was not unique, only different. There are several underway at present (Congo, Sudan, Bangladesh, Haiti, New Orleans) and many more even worse in the offing if we fail to get it right .

Create solutions, not roadblocks. This goes for the staff and listeners of KPFK as much as anybody.

When Zionist Jews are defended by rabid white supremacist racists like Lord Lockesley, it really says it all.

Israel, it seems was really made in the image of the United States, a white settler culture that invaded a land and wiped out the native, indigenous people they found there.

They are both very much like an invasive exotic introduced species of plant, that also takes over a patch of land for a time--say a southern oak woodland--and turns it in to a thorny brambles.

But rest assured that the native oaks will return. The climate, the soil, the rain, and the sun did not make this place for brambles--thats why oaks grew there before.

In nature its called succession and this gentle but relentless process is going on all the time.

You see, the earth will never stop striving to be what it once was--what it wants to be--what it must be--what it Is. And what it will be again. Call it the return of the native.

Why was the original hidden?

Was it a genuine post? Garrett is kind of liberal about Israel. Doesn't seem like a hard-core Zionist.

I assume the post was hidden because it was a racist, ethnocentric rant and because it made libelous- read that illegal- claims against candidates in the KPFK elections, accusing them of saying things they never said and calling them "anti-semites" on that basis. It also slurred and libeled others as anti-semites thru guilt by association.

If racism, ethnocentrism and libel aren't enough to get a post hidden on Indymedia, and if they aren't enough to convince you that the action was correct, then your own prejudices are speaking all too loudly.

In fact, this libelous, slanderous, racist and ethnocentric rant came from Lila Garrett. Violating the election rules, she used a KPFK computer to spread this crap with, and got suspended from the air for doing so.

Enough said

But it looks like Lila re-posted it. You can see it here.
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/12/211470_comment.php#211475

I know she didn't do fundraising before, too. What's up with that?

I'm glad to see that you are morally above the fray, peering down from your throne of sanctimonious moral superiority at people making angry statements and not behaving like they were at a tea party hosted by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Doubtless you are opposed to the extremists on both sides, the eternal safe place for professors looking for tenure and bureaucrats looking for job security.
One thing that troubles me, though, in view of your condemnation of angry exchanges is your tendency to use angry words and phrases like the following"

"OTHER HIDDEN AGENDAS"

"meanness and vengeance and showing off toughness"

"nasty words and bad intentions."

Maybe you should reflect on another phrase: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." And maybe you should stop assuming that people you don' t even know have "bad intentions."

wow.
Before the editors remove the two previous posts...
Jim Lafferty is a Jew Hating, Goose Stepping , Shill for Hamas
by Tellhassee Teezee Wednesday, Feb. 06, 2008 at 11:56 AM
and
Jim Lafferty is a Jew Hating, Goose Stepping , Shill for Hamas
by Tellhassee Teezee Wednesday, Feb. 06, 2008 at 11:56 AM
[ nervous fingers, perhaps?]
Please seek therapy.
Thank you for reading this.

Celia, many Germans in particular, whose fathers and mothers probably served in the SS as concentration camp guards, and who for some reason were spared by the Allied Occupation and never de Nazified, these people taught their little German children, that Jews were all communists and henchmen of Stalin and Lenin and that therefore Jews deserved to be murdered, as well as for killing Christ of course. And these German volk teach their children the same thing, that Jews are treating the Palestinians EVEN WORSE than Germans treated the Jews
as if what happens to the Palestinians in Gaza and the Nablus, is worse than what happened to Jews in Treblinka and Auschwitz. This is how anti semites pass the buck and try to justify the mass murders of Jews during WW2, and by the way the anti semites will generally throw in phrases to the effect the alleged Holocaust , etc. This is not a few German people but a vast percentage of the German baby boomers who were taught this way and who now teach their children this way. And this phraseology has spread out to the wider anti Jewish community ie Arabs and Iranians and fellow Jew haters such as Zbignew Brezinski, Walt, Mearsheimer, and KPFK dung beetles such as Ian Masters. I am surprised that you as someone who claims to be Jewish have never encountered this twisted logic before. By the way the far left going back to the time of John Reed and Jack London has been very very anti Jewish, blaming all Jews for the sins of capitalism and if you want to see some other pre WW2 examples of this sickening racism of the left, in particular the German socialist left , read B Traven's The Death Ship. Traven blames all Jews for the bad conditions on a tramp steamer that happens to be owned by a Jewish couple.

Celia, many Germans in particular, whose fathers and mothers probably served in the SS as concentration camp guards, and who for some reason were spared by the Allied Occupation and never de Nazified, these people taught their little German children, that Jews were all communists and henchmen of Stalin and Lenin and that therefore Jews deserved to be murdered, as well as for killing Christ of course. And these German volk teach their children the same thing, that Jews are treating the Palestinians EVEN WORSE than Germans treated the Jews
as if what happens to the Palestinians in Gaza and the Nablus, is worse than what happened to Jews in Treblinka and Auschwitz. This is how anti semites pass the buck and try to justify the mass murders of Jews during WW2, and by the way the anti semites will generally throw in phrases to the effect the alleged Holocaust , etc. This is not a few German people but a vast percentage of the German baby boomers who were taught this way and who now teach their children this way. And this phraseology has spread out to the wider anti Jewish community ie Arabs and Iranians and fellow Jew haters such as Zbignew Brezinski, Walt, Mearsheimer, and KPFK dung beetles such as Ian Masters. I am surprised that you as someone who claims to be Jewish have never encountered this twisted logic before. By the way the far left going back to the time of John Reed and Jack London has been very very anti Jewish, blaming all Jews for the sins of capitalism and if you want to see some other pre WW2 examples of this sickening racism of the left, in particular the German socialist left , read B Traven's The Death Ship. Traven blames all Jews for the bad conditions on a tramp steamer that happens to be owned by a Jewish couple.

yep, it has to be mental illness as no one else would keep trying to tell everyone what it is *not* when it so obviously *is*.
But an Is really spook, we *do* know it is.