Pacifica (CounterPunch)

rayrena rayrena at accesshub.net
Tue Feb 2 18:36:08 PST 1999



>THE NEUTERING OF PACIFICA
>from CounterPunch, January 16-31, 1999
>[CounterPunch, PO Box 18675, Washington DC 20036 - 202-986-3665]

Thanks for forwarding this. I had been hearing some scuttlebutt about Pacifica's recent less-than-democratic turn but had ignorantly chalked it up to a few disgruntled people. Z Magazine did an interview last year with Pacifica's director, but she seemed pretty nimble in evading several rough questions.

A local station (KOOP) in Austin, Texas, carried the Pacifica evening news for a while. A few years ago, when Pacifica was having some "labor problems," the station started issuing a little blurb before each newscast. The blurb was rather innocous, encouraging Pacifica to settle the matter to the benefit of the workers, etc., nothing really radical or remotely offensive. Apparently (and this happened after I left Austin), Pacifica asked (demanded?) that KOOP stop reading the warning. The station refused. Not sure what happened next, but the Pacifica news was no longer heard on that station. The rumor I heard (and I tend to believe it) is that Pacifica yanked the show from KOOP.

Eric Beck



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