Pacifica turns to prior restraint

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Jul 21 08:40:57 PDT 1999


From: "Lyn Gerry" <redlyn at loop.com> Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 07:50:25 -0700 Reply-To: freepacifica at recordist.com

A member of WBAI's staff has informed us that Democracy Now Producer Amy Goodman has been told that she has to call Garland Ganter and Mark Schubb, every day at 2pm with the line- up for the next day's Democracy Now. In effect they are now the censors of Democracy Now. Amy asked for it in writing which was refused.

Garland Ganter is the Manager of Houston station KPFT and the man responsible for ordering the arrest of KPFA Producer Dennis Bernstein after armed guards attempted to Dennis from the KPFA studios following his Flashpoints broadcast which covered a press conference by arrested Pacifica protestors.

Mark "The Gagmaster" Schubb is the manager of KPFK in Los Angeles where segments of Democracy Now, PNN and Counterspin that covered the events at Pacifica have already been censored. Schubb has also expanded the gag rule to include private conversations between staff members, and even phone room fundraising volunteers are now prohibited from discussing Pacifica issues in the phone room. One longtime phone volunteer Lloyd Karch, was recently told he could no longer volunteer after he joined a picket line in front of KPFK to protest actions by Pacifica management. Mark Schubb is responsible for the banning of at least a dozen people, and has boasted that during his tenure from between 125-150 people have been removed from KPFK.

On another note, I understand that Amy and Bernard talked about the KPFA situation this morning, but I didn't hear it. I don't know if this was related to the censorship, or if that happened later in the day.

Lyn

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