>Did others hear Bessie Walsh's interruption of the Democracy Now broadcast
>this morning?
From: "Lyn Gerry" <redlyn at loop.com> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 11:31:48 -0500
Bessie Wash interrupts 3/26 Democracy Now Broadcast to portray activists as violent
------------
Pacifica executive director Bessie Wash, known as "the censor" for her repeated actions in removing programs covering the Pacifica crisis from the air, broke in on Democracy Now this morning, to make claims of violence by activists against "female" Pacifica management personnel.
This morning, Wash claimed that a female employee of KPFT was "attacked by a male demonstrator who jumped on her back while other demonstrators did nothing to stop him."
Here is the report on the incident sent in by activists in Houston the night of the incident for comparison
============
>--- Ursula Ruedenberg wrote:
>From: "Ursula Ruedenberg"
>To: <redlyn at loop.com>
>Subject: Garland Ganter, KPFT arrest listener on false charges
>Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 04:24:19 -0000
>
>Houston, Texas, Friday March 23. Edwin Johnston, of the Pacifica
>Listeners' Union is spending the night in the Houston jail after
>Garland Ganter, Station Manager of Houston Pacifica station KPFT had
>him arrested. Hewas falsely charged with assault.
>
>Johnston and three members of the Houston Committee for People's
>Radio and Pacifica Listeners' Union were handing out fliers from the
>Pacifica Campaign to Stop the Corporate Takeover, in front of KPFT,
>during a party in the station's back yard for large donors.Molly
>O'Brian, Development Director of KPFT and Garland Ganter's wife,
>approached them and accousted leafletter Sheila Harris, grabbing her
>fliers and knocking her off balance. Johnston followed Ms. O'Brian,
>demanding the fliers back, and reached for them. As he reached for
>thefliers, O'Brian shouted "Rape!" loudly, shocking everyone.
>
>After Ms. O'Brian shouted "Rape!", Mr. Ganter ran to the front yard
>of the building and pushed Johnston.He was joined by another
>unidentified man,andboth men pushed Johnston several times. Ganter
>called the police from a cell phone and Johnston was arrested for
>assault. There has been no word yet if there will bebond set or how
>long Johnston will be held in the Houston jail. Thefliers were not
>returned to Sheila Harris, although she asked both Ms. O'Brian and
>the Houston Police for them repeatedly.
>------ - End of forwarded message -------
Wash also claimed that Utried Leid was "attacked in her own studio" while trying to interview a congressman." Wash neither named the alleged attacker nor the congressman, nor when this was supposed to have occurred. It appears that Wash is attempting to rewrite the history of the censorship of Major Owens on Building Bridges, which has made national headlines.
The audio of today's Democracy Now is on line at http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=2847
Bessie Wash can be e-mailed at <bmwpacifica at aol.com>
False accusations of violence against activists trying to remove the Pacifica administration and return community control have been used repreatedly over the years since the takeover of Pacifica got underway in the mid-1990's.
In October 1995, when public criticism began to mount at the closing of Pacifica Board meetings to the public, then executive director Pat Scott issued the following press release in response to a letter from a first amendment organization condemning the exclusion of the public from the Pacifica Board in Houston.
Here is the release:
================
PACIFICA RADIO UNDER ATTACK KPFA RESPONDS TO LOCAL EFFORT TO DE-STABILIZE PROGRESSIVE RADIO NETWORK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, October 03, 1995
Contact: Pat Scott
Pacifica Radio
510-843-0130 - ext. 202
Berkeley - Physical and verbal attacks on managers of Pacifica Radio stations have caused the Pacifica Board and management to call upon listeners and supporters to reject these attacks and ensure the strength of KPFA by pledging support to the station during its current on-air fund drive.
Members of a group claiming to "take back Pacifica" confronted National Board members in Houston last weekend (September 30 - Oct. 1). After being provided open-ended time for public comment at two points during the meeting, they refused to leave an executive session so that the Board could discuss personnel and financial matters relating to specific employees. The group harassed Board members until hotel security was called to evict them from the premises.
The attacks seem to be in response to recent program changes at the five Pacifica stations. More than a year ago Pacifica began work on a program development plan designed to serve a more multicultural audience and increase the social impact of Pacifica programming. In an era in which right-wing talk radio show hosts have become the hot button in radio - with notable audiences here in the Bay Area -- Pacifica believes that the community broadcasting model has a bigger role to play. KPFA announced a new program schedule August 1 in an effort to compete effectively for audiences with strong, distinctive programming.
Marci Lockwood, manager of KPFA in Berkeley, reported receiving death threats in telephone calls. Unexplained recordings of repeated gunshots have been left on Pacifica Executive Director Pat Scott's answering machine. Garland Ganter, manager of KPFT in Houston, was assaulted last weekend during Pacifica Board meetings by a woman who threw an unidentified liquid in his face and damaged his car. Proprietary and confidential documents have been stolen from Pacifica offices in Berkeley, and employees have reported their cars vandalized. Unidentified callers have left messages on the voicemail of several managers threatening to take Pacifica stations off the air.
There is a right-wing crusade to cripple Pacifica, the only independent, non-commercial radio network in the country, and it has now been joined by a small band of local dissidents, calling upon subscribers to withdraw financial support from Northern California's alternative, multi-ethnic radio station. They are waging a deliberate dis-information campaign and are attempting to destroy our funding -- eighty percent of which comes directly from listeners. The financial demise that the right-wing has thus far failed to impose on Pacifica is now being pursued by a shrill group of critics who spout mutually contradictory demands, and seem to have in common only a desire to financially harm KPFA, the oldest and most respected listener-supported community radio station in America. We question the motives of these few claiming to 'take back Pacifica'.
Initially formed to press the cause of several longtime volunteers whose programs were discontinued in the recent KPFA schedule changes, the group includes many whose names have never been numbered among the paid subscribers to the station.
Pacifica, which has in the past had its transmitters bombed and its employees threatened by right wing groups, suspects the current attacks to be the work of a small network of extremists who are hoping to see the Foundation put out of business. Listeners around the country have received letters asking them not to support Pacifica if it attempts to expand is reach.
Pat Scott said, "People who have attended meetings of these dissidents report spokespersons have attacked the stations as being run by "Jewish lesbians and fascists". We are familiar with these tactics and this sort of hate-mongering will not deter us from our mission to expand our audience and make our stations more accessible to larger segments of the community."
At one meeting in Berkeley, Amina Hassan, KPFA's Development Director and an African-American woman, complained about racial overtones during the meeting and was shouted down by an angry crowd.
Cecelia McCall, Vice Chair of the Pacifica Board, said Pacifica will continue to meet the challenges of programming to an ever- changing urban community and will not yield to bullies who hide behind their concern for Pacifica while using undemocratic and reactionary tactics associated with the agent provocateurs of the 60's. ===============================
Scott was forced to issue a correction when Vice-Chair Ceclia McCall objected to Scott claiming she had made a statement she never made
===================
PACIFICA RADIO UNDER ATTACK KPFA RESPONDS TO LOCAL EFFORT TO DE-STABILIZE PROGRESSIVE RADIO NETWORK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * Wednesday, October 4, 1995
Contact: Pat Scott
Pacifica Radio
510-843-0130 - ext. 202
CORRECTION TO PRESS RELEASE DATED OCTOBER 3, 1995
BERKELEY: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE QUOTE ATTRIBUTED TO CECELIA MCCALL, VICE CHAIR OF THE PACIFICA BOARD IN YESTERDAY'S PRESS RELEASE WAS INCORRECT. THE QUOTE SHOULD BE ATTRIBUTED TO PAT SCOTT, PACIFICA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. THE MISTAKE WAS A CLERICAL ERROR. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY HAVE CAUSED.
THE PRESS RELEASE SHOULD READ: "PAT SCOTT, PACIFICA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SAID PACIFICA WILL CONTINUE TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF PROGRAMMING TO AN EVER- CHANGING URBAN COMMUNITY AND WILL NOT YIELD TO BULLIES WHO HIDE BEHIND THEIR CONCERN FOR PACIFICA WHILE USING UNDEMOCRATIC AND REACTIONARY TACTICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE AGENT PROVOCATEURS OF THE 60'S."
========================
What prompted the press release? A letter sent by Terry Francke of the CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT regarding Pacifica holding illegally closed meetings. Here is the letter he sent to Pacifica:
-----------------------
CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT 926 J St. Suite 1406 Sacramento, CA. 95814 Tel: (916) 447-2322 Fax: (916) 447-2328
October 3, 1995
Mr. Jack O'Dell Chair Pacifica Foundation
Dear Mr. O'Dell,
I am writing in behalf of a number of Californians, including but not limited to members of "Take Back KPFA!," concerned with the programming and management directions taken by the Pacifica Foundation and affecting member stations in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area.
Those members have been prejudiced in their efforts to monitor the Foundation board's leadership on these issues. The board has, I am informed, used closed sessions to discuss financial and other policy considerations at its most recent meetings, and has even prevented a representative of "Take Back KPFA!" from tape recording those public portions of the meeting held this past weekend on Houston.
I appreciate that you were not present at the meeting. Enclosed is a narrative of what occurred prepared by the person who was prevented from tape recording the gathering.
Although the author, Jeffrey Blankfort, understandably focuses on the taping question, and while we believe that issue to be a serious one. We are even more concerned with the board's apparent use of closed sessions for discussions of business matters which do not correspond to the recognized bases for confidential discussion in the regulations which bind recipients of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Pacifica Foundation, one would think, is second to no broadcasting institution in its moral and political commitment to the rights of dissenters and the full discussion of matters of public interest.
One would also suppose that an organization which subsists on the good will of some of the most enlightened and politically aware sector of the community, would not want to risk being perceived at the end of the day, as just another corporate entity as reflexively jealous of its information control as any industrial enterprise.
You do not need me or any other stranger lecturing you on the inconsistency of what occurred in Houston with the mission you have historically undertaken. But I am afraid the Foundation is inviting comments from far more voices than me, and consequences far more substantial than lecturing, if it persists in preventing visitors from taping its meetings and in taking policy matters behind closed doors despite 47 C.F.R. 379 (k) (4).
At this juncture we request the Board undo what has been done to the extent possible by suspending whatever decisions were made in the closed portion of the Houston meeting, by placing those matters back on the agenda of a future meeting for open discussion and deliberation, and by instructing its members and staff that tape recording is freely to be permitted at open meetings in the future.
Sincerely,
Terry Francke Executive Director
cc: John Crigler, Haley, Bader & Potts [Pacifica's law firm in Arlington, VA]
============== Ironically, the Scott press release led to an investigation by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for violations of open meetings. Two CPB investigators were fired on the eve of issuing critical reports of Pacifica conduct, and the final report that confirmed violations by the Scott administration was set aside by Clinton appointees on the CPB Board.
For the whole story on that see <http://www.radio4all.org/fp/cpb.htm>
In other specious claims of violence against free Pacifica movement people - Ganter accused activists of having set fire to a shed behind KPFT. The Houston PD later charged a homeless man, unconnected to our movement, who had been prevented from sleeping in the shed by Ganter, with setting the fire.
In Berkeley, when a delegation of community members went to see Chadwick to demand a meeting on the situation at KPFA, photographer Scott Braley, who documented the event, said that Chadwick threw her sweater over her head and ran out of the room, and later claimed that she had been threatened. Many of the members of this delegation were senior citizens, as well as respected members of the Berkeley community.
One should also consider that this may be a set-up, designed to justify the exclusion of the WBAI Advisory Board from the station. The LAB has called a meeting for tonight, and expressed its intentions to meet in the station. Last time, several members were arrested after being barred from the station by Utrice Leid.
Lyn