Oh, Pacifica!

Laura Flanders - WorkingForChange.com

08.15.01 - The Pacifica Board may have bitten off more than they can chew. Tuesday's

move not to distribute the network's most valuable national program, Democracy Now!

hosted by Amy Goodman, has ignited a whirlwind of activity across the country.

To recap: the popular news magazine Democracy Now was broadcast from what

Goodman calls a "safe" location Tuesday instead of its usual home at New York's

WBAI, where for months Goodman has been subject to verbal and even physical

harassment. Tuesday's show was produced live and sent to Pacifica's headquarters in

Washington D.C. for distribution via satellite. Managers there refused to syndicate it,

airing a rerun instead.

Some stations, including KPFA in Berkeley and WMNF in Tampa, did figure out how to

broadcast Democracy Now! on their own initiative Tuesday. The show streamed on

WBIX, "WBAI in exile" a web-based station. On Wednesday, the airwaves were filled

with listener outrage. KPFA even aired an hour's discussion of the Democracy Now!

situation during the hour in which the show is normally heard. And protests took place

outside Pacifica's stations in Los Angeles, Washington and New York.

Dissident Pacifica Board member Leslie Cagan addressed the crowd in New York. "The

latest moves only further clarify how out of control the national staff is and how the

national board has abdicated responsibility, and in so doing, has given a green light to

the staff." The goal of a majority on the current board and of the national staff,

believes Cagan, is to "water down the network." It's a process that's been going on for

years. "If people didn't catch on as it happened in Washington, in Houston, maybe

they'll catch on now," she said. In Washington and Houston, Pacifica's stations have

changed radically, broadcasting mostly popular music instead of cutting-edge talk

radio.

Goodman and her team, meanwhile, were unable to produce a live show Wednesday

because they were in meetings with Pacifica lawyer Larry Drapkin, National Program

Director Steve Yasko and others about the conditions under which Goodman would

return to WBAI and, live, to Pacifica's satellite. Pacifica Executive Director Bessie

Wash, in a statement released Tuesday, declared that she was "disappointed that Amy

Goodman had chosen not to host the award-winning Democracy Now! from the studios

of WBAI," and that she is "trying to bridge any differences."

Pacifica handed Goodman a letter of insubordination Tuesday, charging her with

refusing to report to work. It is Goodman's understanding that her program will not be

aired live to network affiliates from the head office until she returns to WBAI.

But as Pacifica activist Denis Moynihan notes, there are several male programmers at

WBAI who have broadcast from remote locations for years, including psychologist

Armand DeMille and healthy living guru Gary Null. Says Moynihan: "Why does Amy

have to be the battered wife of WBAI?"

Goodman, for her part, is skeptical of Pacifica's offers. When told by management that

her supervisor, Steve Yasko, would guarantee her safety, she and her team said they

believed "this is absurd, since it is Mr. Yasko, through his refusal to address any of our

complaints who has sent a green light to WBAI management and employees that they

can physically and verbally harass us, even assault us, without fear of consequences."

Goodman is demanding immediate steps to hold Pacifica managers accountable for

their actions.

ActForChange action:

Urge Pacifica radio directors to resign