As much as even I try and try to find out "what the f...is going on anyhow ?", I only find it on INDYMEDIA and from LESLIE's discourses. thanks to both.

Volunteers who regularly go to KPFK to work for free do NOT know anything about what is occurring behind the front doors.

Not a whistle blower around the station.
Opacity.
Secret Agendas.
Hidden alliances.
Already Decided plans trotted out to be maybe discussed.
Committees that end in everyone yelling and arguing and leaving w/o accomplishing much.
LSB members representing no one but themselves, and maybe a partner or two only.

Listener-sponsor-payees left out completely with no inquiries about their feedback or opinions either.
Begging sessions with fear mongering included to raise funds for more of this secret conspiracy.

Yep. it is a SECRET CONSPIRING to not share information with anyone - outside of the very few who are 'in the know' - and only Leslie here makes some of it known to the rest of "us"....payees and dedicated to the original version of KPFK and what it 'could be'.

Yep. going down the money hole ...then into the [commecially] polluted drain ...and out to contaminate the rest of us...still at sea.... knowing nothing except because it is a paranoid-world-out-here and only the staff and LSB / PNB can be told what is actually happening to OUR STATION.

repeat. it is OUR [as shareholders w/o certificates] non--profit radio station...and if I am mistaken and it is not 'ours', then please let the shrill beggars during fund drive stop telling us it is.

OMG....down that drain hole some of us refuse to enter and be swallowed Down...financially....commercially...censored and not very "free" at all.

guess, some of us have to bail into another sea, that at least does not LIE TO US by admitting it is "sponsored by...."

KPFK is lying and hiding and ashamed to be known for what it has become - a facade and fake.

Thanks to the not-for-payola programmers that may or not exist and present on the station.

Even that is never discussed or admitted...do all the programmers who are chosen to air not have other monetary or infuential or political benefits from doing their programs on KPFK?

what is really going on ? a sell out ? another cookie crumbled ?

[[can you tell how upset and disappointed some of us out here are ? oh welll.....I am.]]

The problem is Lafferty & Co. And no one has the courage to take him on. He controls KPFK, ANSWER-LA and the LA Chapter of the NLG. He also has a lock on the parade permit process with the LAPD for the organizing of any large anti-war demonstrations that require street closure*. Some speculate that he is a government agent, but this has never been confirmed by any reliable sources. Agent or not, he has succeeded in stifling a considerable segment of LA activist scene.

ANSWER’s recent attempts to control the right to marry street actions and fiasco they created in Hollywood on November 8th (see: ANSWER rally saved by Gay and Lesbian community leaders) is a good example . Their current attempts to co-opt the genuine outrage of the local Palestinian community is another example. Their police controlled permit rally at the Westwood federal building scheduled for this Saturday is part of this move. Hopefully this community will see them for what they are, the same way the local LGBT community did.

The good news is that many LA activists are aware of the situation with him and ANSWER. And they are busy at work doing the non-partisan, community based, grass roots organizing that is the real face of activism in Los Angeles. The solution to the KPFK/ANSWER problem is really not that difficult. Don’t let these people get in front of your parade. Don’t let them hijack your movement. Organize your own demonstrations. Start your own radio station. And if you do choose to go to one of their events, use the event to flyer and do out reach or maybe even form a breakaway march with those who long to engage in authentic protest.

* Please see the attached document for an example of how he does this. Uploaded is the latest pending and approved street closure list from the LAPD. Notice how he and ANSWER have already grabbed the best times and locations for anti-war marches for the year 2009. On some dates they have grabbed two different prime locations at the same time. They can’t possibly plan on using both those permits that conflict with each other. This all so they can get a lock on it and shut out everyone else.

Lafferty talks a good line on Thursday night about openness and transpareney. However, it was no one less than Lafferty was was the acting GM who turned off the listener web forums and eliminated the possibility of a community wide forum where listeners could discuss and learn what was going on in KPFK and Pacifica. He has stonewalled the issue ever since.

Lafferty also defended the decision to cut the 9 a.m. broadcast of Amy Goodman during a fund drive. He may have made the decision himself.

After seeing Lafferty talk one line and act another one and stick his finger at people who question him, I have lost all respect for him. He is not what he thinks he is.

It always appalls me to see People who mean to be radical make a public statement about others being "agents." Here's what agents _do_. Agents put "snitch jackets" on activists in order to spread paranoia, infighting and dissension on the Left.

Even a little reading on COINTELPRO will prove the point..

I am no fan of ANSWER, but the problem at KPFK is _Not_ Lafferty. Lafferty has nothing to do with Pacifica governance, which is where all these decisions are being made - at a national - not local -level.

The _local_ problem is the "Committee to Strengthen KPFK," run by Grace Aaron.

Aaron was the main perspn locally spreading the untrue claim that Pacifica is near "bankruptcy." Bankruptcy is, of course, when your debts outweigh your assets, Pacifica is _NOWHERE_ near bankruptcy. Just on its face, the debts are a FEW MILLION - on the asset side of the ledger Pacifica station WBAI in NYC broadcasts on a signal on the commercial bandwidth that is worth a QUARTER BILLION DOLLARS.

All of this "bankruptcy" talk was promoted by Aaron, who sits on the Pacifica National Board's finance committee, And all of the bankruptcy talk is being used - Shock Doctrine style, in an effort to hire "CONSULTANTS" from outside the network, to promote corporate underwriting, and to nationalize and mainstream programming _across the network_.

It's also being used as an excuse to take out a LOAN AGAINST THE KPFK BUILDING, a loan, that, as negotiated, has a HUGE BALLOON PAYMENT of almost a million dollars written into it - a SUB-PRIME LOAN, to make it plain.

AARON PUSHED HARD FOR THE LOAN, then turned against it at the last minute, when it became clear that the political tide was against if - after the balloon payment had been exposed.

AARON ALSO PUSHED HARD for USING THE MONEY FOR THE LOAN TO HIRE "CONSULTANTS" AND FOR CORPORATE UNDERWRITING - the key link in MAINSTREAMING PROGRAMMING.

CALL IT THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: CALL IT THE NEW PACIFICA HIJACKING

CALL IT WHAT IT IS - The work of the COMMITTEE TO "STRENGTHEN KPFK - and their allies on the National Board, and those behind the scenes, like Carol Spooner, who hatched this plan originally.

But DON"t start talking uninformed nonsense about Lafferty and ANSWER; DON'T USE COINTELPRO STYLE SNITCH JACKETING WITH CLAIMS THAT HAVE NO BASIS IN FACT OR EVIDENCE.

Watchale said:

the problem at KPFK is _Not_ Lafferty

The title of the comment notwithstanding, I don't think the claim here is that Lafferty is "the problem" but rather "a problem," meaning that others exist too, such as ILila, Ian, and Grace, and with no suggestion that he is anywhere near the biggest.

Lafferty was manager the web listener fora got turned off.

He continues to stonewall people to this day over what he did. Like most lawyers, he has little concept of how to win friends and influence people. They apparently don't teach that in law school. His Nixon like stonewalling doesn't make people want to open their pocket books.

I hear he refuses to look at anything here on LA IndyMedia. I gather he feels the people here beneath him.

Given the importance to building a KPFK community with those fora and to protecting the Commmittee to Strengthen from dialog among members by turning them off, I cannot let Lafferty off the hook for what he has done.

ok, a few names thrown around are " Jim Laffery", "Grace Aaron", the European whites, the Democratic contingent, the ....duh......

oh, why not name some more of the people who have and still do work real hard to keep the station going and put in unpaid hours and effort to try to save us from the Pacifica national Comptroller and his cohorts and the WBAI staffers who have let their station sink into such debt and the others...who cant keep their own stations in financial balance....

anyone you want to name here is ok....let's kick it all around and see if they care ?

The ones in power are less than local, mostly, and the people who want to indebenture the KPFK mortgage are not from our LSB and I doubt they are KPFK staff either.

It is good to name names and discuss,= Dis-Cuss = them and reveal what FACTS we have and what else we can share about what They have actually done and said.

But to just diminish Them for having something to do with KPFK's governmance or staff sounds disingenous, doesnt it ?

Who said Lafferty had the sole power and decision to get rid of the website "listener forum" ? Did he ? who knows what here ? Did a committee talk about it ? Did the webmaster Ali have some say in that decision ?

Is Grace Aaron evil because she is on PNB and LSB and other committees and has her own opinions that may be less than 'colored' - for she has been openly here accused of being lighter whiter than all the people of color who want to claim that theirs is righteously the RIGHT opinion ? huh?

why is race and color so frequently mentioned - first as if it were not relevant - but then used when explaining why someone doesnt get whatever THEY WANT ?

why is factionalizing and infighting the main game in and around KPFK ? Isnt it - a "power of the people" place ? A "freedom of speech" outlet ? Is it really ? not.

Something is wrong with the claims vs. the actions and accusations and name-calling that permeates most heated discussions about OUR STATION, ....it is not people colored nor white or black nor brown, red, yellow, green,violet, chartreuse , pink.or blue.

{I can bet that someone will accuse me of being racist and project their own stuff outward righteously now..}

Can we all get off that kick ...[also read other articles that pertain to KPFK on indy and see how often racial strife is clearly implied and used as a weapon or insult.]

Let's try something new, for a 2009 change, shall we ?

Why the bloody fuck are there still people who listen to that radio station? You would think that intelligence would kick in and people would stop listening to it and stop trying to restore what it used to be.