News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 23, 2000
Leigh Hauter (703) 732-7239 (mobile); (703) 703-754-4005 Andrea Buffa (415) 546-6334 x309
Pacifica Foundation Poised to Add Controversial DC Businessman Bertram Lee Sr. to its Board of Directors
Board of embattled radio network to meet this weekend near DC; Free-speech advocates, including fired Pacifica journalists, will hold teach-in on Pacifica censorship scandals.
Washington, DC-- Pacifica Radio will consider offering controversial DC businessman Bertram Lee a seat on its board of directors at a meeting this weekend in Arlington, VA. Critics of the progressive radio network, which has censored its journalists and locked out programmers in recent months, have raised alarms about Lee's suitability for the board.
"Pacifica, as the only progressive radio network in the U.S., should seek out progressive, fiscally prudent community leaders to pull it out of a spiraling crisis of censorship and turmoil," said Andrea Buffa, executive director of the media advocacy organization Media Alliance. "Instead, we find Pacifica's leaders nominating a wealthy sports franchise magnate with a history of unmet financial obligations in a secret meeting. This is not the way to build the trust and consensus we need to pull the network back together."
Lee is a Washington, DC businessman who was nominated for board membership at a Pacifica governance committee meeting this month. He was a co-owner of the Denver Nuggets, a CBS TV affiliate in Boston, WKYS FM in Washington, and served on the board of directors of Reebok. Staff at Lee's business phone in Washington refused to say what services his company, BML Associates, provides. Lee was described in an April 1999 Washington Post article as follows:
"His landlord is trying to evict him from his $4,750-a-month Foggy Bottom apartment for delinquent rent and bounced checks. He acknowledges he's behind on child-support payments to his ex-wife. He is under court order to pay more than $100,000 to a former business partner, and he briefly filed for personal bankruptcy last year."
The Pacifica Foundation is a nonprofit organization that controls the licenses of five radio stations: WPFW in DC, WBAI in NY, KPFA in Berkeley, KPFT in Houston, and KPFK in Los Angeles. Over 85% of its revenues come from listeners.
Pacifica's leaders have come under fire during the last year for using armed guards to close down Berkeley's KPFA and for censoring programmers throughout the network who report on its woes. Its freelance reporters are now on strike, demanding an end to censorship and a return to the network's progressive values. The chair of the Pacifica national board is Dr. Mary Frances Berry, who also chairs the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
The Pacifica Foundation board will meet Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27 at the Double Tree Hotel, 300 Army-Navy Drive, Arlington, VA. Although some committee meetings are open to the public on Saturday, the primary open segment of the board meeting is Sunday from 9:30 AM to noon.
A teach-in on the Pacifica scandals is planned for Saturday, February 26, at 7 PM, at the Universalist Memorial Church, 1810 16th Street, NW (at S Street). Speakers will include Verna Avery-Brown, former Pacifica Network News anchor, and Tomas Moran, Pacifica national board member.
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