[lbo-talk] KPFA Staff Open Letter to the Local Station Board

[Doug Henwood]

The atmosphere around WBAI is also turning poisonous. It would 
require immersing myself far more than I want to in station politics 
to sort it all out, but there's a highly racialized battle going on 
between members of the local station board, complaining about "black 
racism" on the airwaves, and the existing station leadership, which 
is allied with forces alleging a conspiracy to purge the "Africans" 
at WBAI. It's very sad and destructive, and as was the case during 
the Pacifica civil wars of several years ago, it's very difficult to 
take sides. Pacifica is a very precious resource - five radio 
licenses in New York, Washington, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Houston 
- and it's not being managed very well. I'm tempted to say that if 
you listen, or might listen, or care about left institutions in the 
U.S., you should pay attention, but there's really no good 
disinterested source of information on the problem. And it's a big 
problem.

Joseph Wanzala would dissent. He sent a 30k post on the topic earlier 
today, which I rejected for length. If he can get it down to a more 
manageable level, he's welcome to air his side of things. As readers 
might guess, I'm with Sasha Lilley on this.

Doug