This is (obviously) a shallow, superficial article written by someone interested only in yet more sensationalist material about (the usual suspect) KPFA.
I also spoke to Will Harper to confirm his information about the chair throwing incident, but told him off the record that he would be doing a better service to himself and the community if he took the time to get a more subtle understanding of the situation at KPFA. Most readers not familiar with the situation at KPFA will just roll their eyes at this article, while those of us who work around KPFA issues will groan at the extent to which Will Harper's wry 'hit and run' style only succeeds in creating a distorted picture of a complex situation.
To be fair to Harper, he did express (to me) frustration that no-one would speak to him at all, or if they did, it was all off the record. I suspect that if people he spoke to (including myself) had been or were in a position to be, more forthcoming, he might have written a more nuanced article. As it was, he did not have much nuance to work with - other than his own apparently limited reserves.
>From my perspective, what needs to be understood about KPFA right now
is that over the last decade (at least) a culture of 'mutually ensured
impunity' has developed at the station whereby some key station staff
have an informal understanding of 'the way things work around here'
which trumps policy initiatives or decisions made by governance (the
LSB). It is also resistant to any attempt to create a system or
structure that is transparent, and is most certainly resistant to any
manager who does not quickly figure out how things work. This, in my
opinion has been the problem faced by the last two General Managers at
KPFA. Their attempts to do their job have been hamstrung by the
perception that they are 'outsiders'. It is also true that both these
GM's had (have) their respective shortcomings, but this should not be
allowed to obscure what is to me the fundamental problem: A culture
has developed at the station that is insular and resistant to any
'outside interference'.
I have been a critic of Roy Campanella from the first day I had any meaningful interaction with him. All those criticisms stand. However, the station staff, and those others in the community who have resolved to get rid of Roy Campanella are making him a scapegoat for deeper problems at the station. There are many people at the station whose behaviour, from what I understand, is in general as problematic as Mr. Campanella's (e.g. Weylan Southon who was the other party in the incident and has taken to the airwaves twice during the past week attacking the GM). I believe the fundamental problem iwth Roy is not his behavior, but the fact that he is not 'playing ball' 100%. In other words, he is too 'independent'. If Campanella is forced to leave under the current circumstances, any future General Manager who does not do the bidding of the staff will suffer the same fate - and that is assuming that the staff will not insert 'one of their own' to replace Roy and make it all the more difficult for the LSB (at least the community representatives) to have any meaningful role at the station.
I deeply sympathize with those at the station who find Roy difficult to work with. But at this juncture I am more interested in preserving a meaningful role for any GM and the LSB than in capitulating to short term concerns.
An interesting dynamic is developing at the LSB around the Campanella question. Heretofore, there have been two factions, broadly speaking - a pro-listener faction, and a pro-staff/pro-management faction. However, to the extent the pro-staff faction is anti the current GM, the pro-staff/management faction has split or certainly frayed and the staff agenda has been somewhat triangulated. Beyond the Campanella question, not too much can be read into this, since people within the pro-management and pro-listener factions are hardly of one mind on this.
What is clear to me is that Roy Campanella is being scapegoated and the real problem at the station is being obscured - and needs to be addressed.
Joe W.
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