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KPFK Elections Start to Heat Up With Statements and Endorsements
KPFK elections are underway. These elections, along with elections for the other four stations in the Pacifica National Network marks Pacifica as the first non-profit radio network in the nation to elect it's leadership by a direct vote of it's contributing members.
This after a hard won battle of listener activists against a self-appointed National Board determined to streamline the long time community based stations into an NPR type organization controlled from the top down.
These elections mark the first time listeners will have actual control over on-air content as well as organizational policies of the network through their elected representatives to the Local Station Board. Of the 18 Listener-Sponsor Delegates elected by the KPFK Community and the six Staff-Delegates elected by the Staff, two Delegates will be chosen to sit on the National Board, along with Delegates from the other five stations, making Pacifica the only Democratically run radio network in existence.
This experiment in Democratic media is a wonderful opportunity for everyone in the community to participate in shaping this powerful medium into an even stronger tool for education and the creation of true change.
None of this has come without great struggle and much debate between listener activists. There is, as in every other aspect of the movement for social justice, almost as much diversity of ideas as there are participants and large disagreements over people's ideas of how this battle should be waged. These ideas need to be looked at with care, as these elections, as previously stated, will have great impact in the future policies of this very important and powerful medium. Please take the time to study these ideas and please participate in the KPFK community.
For election information: http://www.kpfk.org/elections.php
01/06/2004
The California Voting Systems Panel Public Hearing is on the 15th in Sacramento. People interested in commenting should submit written comments ASAP. Follow this link for more information. Interested people are encouraged to sign up to speak immediately.
12/14/2003
Media behemoth ABC News, owned by Disney, pulled reporters covering the campaigns of Al Sharpton, Carol Mosely Braun, and Dennis Kucinich. Particularly surpising was the planned silence on the Kucinich campaign, whose volunteers have been a constant presence at liberal, progressive, and labor events in the Southland throughout the year.
A cartoon from Michael Shaw
An AZ Indymedia writer comments on the silence.
Related ideas: Media in the Venezuelan Coup, Green Candidate Peter Camejo Excluded from LA Times Debates. Is the mass media the "fourth estate," propaganda, a hegemonic expression of the capitalist superstructure, or subject to popular challenges? Consider an academic overview of media theory, and the relationship between media and politics.
Indymedia fights Diebold's legal attempt to silence discussions about e-voting
Documents are publicly available that detail vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines manufactured by the Diebold Corporation. Diebold has been sending cease and desist letters to internet service providers (ISPs) that host the documents or links to them. Numerous Indymedia servers have been targeted by Diebold in its campaign to suppress this critical information.
Indymedia will defend its right to link to memos and documents detailing vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines manufactured by the Diebold Corporation. The documents were made publicly available, and subsequently reported by writer Bev Harris on her websites
blackboxvoting.com and
blackboxvoting.org.
The vast information contained in these documents is still being investigated by top computer scientists and researchers, but a set of widely circulated internal memos detail Diebold's flippant disregard of test runs, accuracy audits, and security for its voting machines. System tests (much like a dress rehearsal) are often required by local election laws--Diebold memos mention how they simply changed the name "memory test" to "***System Test Passed***" as if the machine performed a self audit. The memos also say how Diebold installed new versions of the voting software that were left untested.
Their election results are not secure, as evidenced by this comment in one email regarding the "contents" (i.e. the votes) of the e-voting machines: "Now, where the perception comes in is that its right now very *easy* to change the contents. Double click the .mdb file." Diebold's Republican executives have touted e-voting as a solution to the punchcard voting systems that scandalized Florida in 2000. In fact, this evidence of security and reliability flaws raises serious questions about this "solution" to election woes in the US.
Read Entire Feature
Related Information:
Why-war.com is targeting Diebold with electronic civil disobedience: updates and mirror sites
Truthout.org has put together a comprehensive analysis on the potential for voting fraud to occur with touch screen voting machines made by Diebold: How to rig an election in the United States
Elections:
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