As only one listener to KPFA (and KPFK), I can say that Sasha is presenting one side of the story. On the other hand, my understanding is that many of the current problems at KPFA were caused by staff protection of turf. E.G., the fact that someone suggested the cardinal sin that the morning show start time move from 7 to 8 a.m. and extending the finish time until 10 a.m. so that two hours of Democracy Now could air from 6 to 8 a.m. Maybe that was (or wasn't) a dumb idea, but it didn't justify the hullabalo that ensued.
While it may well be that the listeners "empowered" at KPFA by the by laws and the LAB may only be the activist listeners, isn't that still better than having no imput at all and essentially letting the same programmers who have had shows for 30+ years keep doing and saying the same things over and over again without any input? At KPFA ( as opposed to KPFK), there was precious little diversity of political thought on the air before 1999 - (E.g. virtually no coverage of the Greens, even when they won a state legislative seat in the East Bay) There should be more substance to political discourse on KPFA than simply repeating the words "Isn't Barbara Lee great." and I fear that is what we will get tf we return to the old ways of doing things.
Admittedly, Sasha is an exception to that, I think she and C.S. have an excellent program. Steve
-------------- Original message --------------
.
>
> Can you honesty say that having an elected board is
> going to save KPFA and Pacifica from another takeover
> attempt? The actions of those on the LSBs –- engaging
> in bizarre parliamentary manipulations, sabotaging
> essential station business, creating an unsafe working
> environment for both staff and fellow board members,
> slandering staff and management (for which litigation
> may be in process) -- >
> Do the bylaws “empower the listeners” or just the very
> few that have the time and inclination to get
> involved? Is it the voice of all the listeners that
> are represented on the boards or just a small few who
> are harboring grudges dating back decades in some
> cases? about outreach
> all you like, but built into this system is the fact
> that, unlike those living on pensions, trust funds or
> SSI, the majority of working people don’t have the
> time to participate -- even if they wanted to, which
> itself is dubious from everything I’ve heard from
> listeners, excluding the grey haired 40 people who
> come to every LSB meeting with such regularity that
> you could save seats in advance for them all.
> > http://www.pacifica.org/documents/pdf/Pacifica_CFO_Board_Report_April_and_May_20
> 04.pdf
>
>
> Instead of helping raise money for the stations -– an
> essential part of the LSBs’ mandate -– the governing
> structure has become a big drain on them. As an
> underpaid worker, and someone who routinely has to
> deal with outdated equipment at the station as do 200
> other KPFA paid and unpaid staff, the costs of this
> (volunteer) bureaucratic stratum, intent on
> increasingly consolidating power, is really troubling.
>
>
>
> Joseph Wanzala wrote:
>
> >Clearly Pacifica has been lurching from one crisis to
> the next for
> >years. I have been intimately involved since the
> early 90s with the
> >group 'Take Back KPFA'. Sasha's perpective suffers
> from her being a
> >relative newcomer to the scene and not having had
> firsthand
> >experience of the history she references.
> >
> >Ironically, the people at WBAI that you talk about,
> those making
> >spurious charges of 'racism' and so forth are people
> I have been
> >doing battle with for years (and whose West Cost
> allies of the
> >so-called 'Unity Caucus' are allied with Sasha & Co
> on the question
> >of the role of the LSBs), and who are aligned with
> the Sasha Lilley
> >faction here in their efforts to undermine the
> authority of the
> >Pacifica bylaws.
>
> I find it interesting to learn that I’m an ally with
> the Unity Caucus at WBAI. That’s news to me, since I
> know no one at WBAI except Doug, Amy Goodman, the
> producers of Democracy Now and Free Speech Radio News.
>
>
> While on the KPFA LAB, I worked very intensely with
> >dozens of thoughful and committed people at all four
> Pacifica
> >stations to fashion these bylaws. The main people
> opposed to bylaws
> >that empowered the listeners in a meaningful way are
> by and large
> >the same people trying to undermine it now. Then
> their is the other
> >group - the signers of the Lilley letter, who
> remained aloof from
> >the process, never even showed up to a station board
> meeting ignored
> >or took for granted our efforts to save the station
> (indeed the
> >network) from the corporate raiders and now are
> coming forward
> >essentially to say - thank you very much for your
> help, now go away.
>
>
> =====
> Sasha Lilley
> Producer, Against the Grain
> Pacifica Radio's KPFA
> 510 848-6767 ext 209
> www.againstthegrain.org
>
>
>
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