KPFK

[Nathan Newman]

When Marc first justified his position on the strike, one big example he gave
was that he was such a good fundraiser for the station, so his opponents who
could not raise similar funds were therefore less popular or deserving of
ratings respect.  Well, without Cooper, KPFK just had a record-setting
fundraising drive and we get this piece that talks endlessly about how
irrelevant the station is to its listeners ending with an unsources quote
that "now we (the employees) are just here for us."  Yet the nearly $1
million raised from listeners indicates that a lot of people disagree with
that assessment.

Now I've made no bones about my problems with some Pacifica programming, but
the most basic lack of honesty in the Cooper-Taylor argument is the refusal
to recognize that the existing listener public plus most grassroots
progressive groups overwhelmingly sided with the "dissident" group that just
took over, from the 10,000 folks who marched for them in Berkeley to those
who mobilized across the country for the last couple of years to the
listeners now emptying their wallets to support stations now.

There may be an argument that different programming might attract new
listeners, but any honest evaluation of this recent struggle has to admit
that present listeners of Pacifica were overwhelmingly with the new dissident
board.  And its that honesty that Goodman and Taylor lack.

-- Nathan Newman