July 26, 1999
Pacifica's Crackdown:
An Inside Account
By Kellia Ramares
Pacifica finally took over on July 13th.
I was a reporter for KPFA Evening News that
night. In fact, I
was waiting in the news control room, ready to go into the studio
to read my copy on the Pacifica story when Dennis Bernstein came
in, pursued by Lynn Chadwick's carpetbagging "special assistant,"
Garland Ganter, and three "goons with guns," as some
of us call
them. Here is what happened:
1) Media Alliance, a Bay Area media advocacy
and education group,
received an email purporting to be from Micheal Palmer, a Houston
realtor and Pacfica National board member, reporting to Dr. Mary
Frances Berry, the Pacifica National Chair about his discussions
with a radio broker over how much KPFA would be worth, and also
suggesting the sale of WBAI in NYC. I received a copy of the
press release from Mark Mericle, co-director of KPFA News. Here
are some excerpts.
"Hello Dr. Berry,
I salute your fortitude in scheduling a news
conference opportunity
in the beloved Bay Area regarding one of the most pressing issues
of our time............ [NB: The press conference was originally
"invitation-only" and certain journalists were originally
excluded
because they were not on the list. This included the San Jose
Mercury News. San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area. Dr.
Berry opened the conference to everyone upon her arrival at the
conference site.--Kellia].
But seriously, I was under the impression
there was support in
the proper quarters, and a definite majority, for shutting down
that unit and re-programming immediately. Has that changed? Is
there concensus among the national staff that any other than
that is acceptable/bearable?
As an update for you and Lynn [Chadwick, Executive
Director of
Pacifica and the person who fired Nicole Sawaya, Larry Bensky,
and Robbie Osman and imposed the gag order--Kellia] I spoke with
the only radio broker I know last week...This is the best radio
market in history and while public companies might see a dilutive
effect from a sale (due to the approximate 12 month repositioning
effort needed), they would still be aggressive for such a signal.
Private media companies would be the most agressive in terms
of price, which he things could me in the $65-75m range depending
on various other aspects of a deal....Even with this data my
feeling is that a more beneficial disposition would be of the
New York signal [WBAI - Kellia] as there is a smaller subscriber
base without the long and emotional history as the Bay Area.
[F]ar more associated value, a similarly dysfunctional staff
though far less effective and an overall better opportunity to
redefine Pacifica going forward. It is simply the more strategic
asset.
....The Executive Committe, at a minimum,
should have access
to experts (whether from Wall Street, NPR/CPB, Microsoft or otherwise)
to get a strong reality check (me included) about radio and Pacfica's
position in it so that informed decisions can be made. My feeling
is that we are experiencing a slow financial death which is having
the normal emotional outbursts commensurate with such a disease...."
Reports of our financial death have been greatly
exaggerated.
KPFA recently finished a record breaking fund drive. Our goal
was $400,000. We raised $605,000 and 6 out of 7 pledged "under
protest," which meant they were supporting the demands of
the
staff for the return of Sawaya and Bensky, repeal of all disciplinary
action against other staffers, and mediation of the underlying
dispute.
2) Media Alliance called a press conference
for 1:30 PM outside
the Alameda County Municipal courthouse in Berkeley just two
blocks from KPFA. Scheduled speakers included Andrea Buffa, executive
director of Media Alliance, Dan Siegel, an Oakland attorney about
to file suit against the Pacifica National Board on behalf of
the Pacifica Foundation and 18 local board members from several
of the Pacifica network stations, and Robbie Osman, fired KPFA
programmer. At 2:00pm, 13 of the 14 demonstrators arrested three
weeks ago for staging a peaceful civil disobedience in front
of the Pacifica National offices, which are next door to KPFA,
were scheduled to be arraigned.
You should know that the arrests made in connection
with that
action were entirely peaceful and not made until Lynn Chadwick
made citizen's arrests on each of the demonstrators. The police
required this of her because the police did not see any crimes
being committed and the demonstrators were on private property.
Later, Mary Frances Berry, who is chair of the US Commission
on Civil Rights and Chair of Pacifica's national board, called
the Justice Department(the original report from Justice was that
she called Janet Reno herself, but later they backpedalled on
that) and Justice got the No. 3 guy, Joe Brann, who personally
knows the Berkeley police chief, Dash Butler to call "friend
to friend" to inquire about the police handling of the matter.
Joe Brann is the one in charge of giving out money to localities
so that they can put more cops on the street. (One wishes that
Justice would spend more time on the LAPD and the New York Street
Crimes Unit and stop wasting time with civilized police conduct).
3) At 11:30 am, news director Mark Mericle
assigned me to cover
the press conference and the arraignment for the Evening News..
4) At 1:15, Lynn Chadwick, with one hour's
notice, held a meeting
with senior editorial staff, including Mark Mericle and Dennis
Bernstein, co-host/producer of Flashpoints, the investigative
news show that airs during the hour preceeding the evening news.
I heard from participants at that meeting that Chadwick introduced
Garland Ganter, of sister station KPFT in Houston, and Mark Torres,
from sister station KPFK in LA. Chadwick said that Ganter would
be her "Special Assistant" and that Torres would be
assisting
Ganter. She also re-introduced the gag rule, now in an even sterner
form. (It was under Ganter than KPFT was stripped of its local
news and public affairs programming as well as all its foreign
language programming. This in a city that is, among other things,
one-third Latino.)
Here is the "toothy" portion of
Chadwick's memo:
" In the event that we continue to experience
the type of problems
we previously have, Pacifica is committed to enforcing its policies
and my previous directives prohibiting on ar or in-the-media
disucssion of matters pertaining to Pacifica or KPFA management
decisions or any internal or external grievances or personnel
or labor relations-type matters involving KPFA or Pacifica. [Definitely
sounds like she got a lawyer's input on the language--Kellia].
This direction [sic] applies to all KPFA or Pacifica personnel,
including employees and volunteers alike, is without exception
and also applies to all news broadcasts and programming. Any
violation of this direction [sic] will be dealt with as a serious
act of insubordination as well as a violation of an important
Pacifica policy and will result in disciplinary action, including
immediate termination. We hope that those of you who have previously
engaged in inappropriate conduct will understand the nature of
this final warning and will comply with it...."
However, aware that there would be a press
conference that afternoon,
Dennis Bernstein asked if it would be permissible to cover Pacifica
if mainstream media was on the same story. According to Bernstein,
Ganter indicated that this would be permissible.
5) At about 1:20, I left for the press conference
in the company
of Leslie Kean, co produced/host of Flashpoints. We each covered
the press conference, entered the courtroom and witnessed the
arraignment and interviewed the attorney for the demonstrators
and some of the demonstrators themselves. I returned to the news
room at about 3 and Leslie followed soon thereafter. Contrary
to public comments by Elan Fabbri, spokesperson for Pacifica,
Dennis Bernstein was NOT at the press conference. Fired KPFA
programmer Robbie Osman was there, but Dennis was not. If Elan
cannot tell the difference between Osman's voice and Bernstein's,
that just goes to show you how out of touch with the staff Pacifica
management is.
At the press conference, Andrea Buffa of Media
Alliance noted
that MA had contacted its Internet Service Provider to trace
the source of the email. To the ISP's knowledge, it came from
Palmer's email account. Buffa called for Palmer or Berry to confirm
or deny the authenticity of the email.
6) At approximately 3:30pm Mark Mericle presented
me with the
Chadwick memo quoted above, for my information. He said nothing
to encourage or discourage me from proceeding with the story.
I elected to proceed with my story despite the threat of termination.
(I had joined the News Department as an intern on March 2nd.)
7). Flashpoints began airing at 5:00pm with
40 mins on a recent
"Unity" convention of minority journalists held in
Seattle. (The
next day, Elan Fabbri would be quoted in local newspapers as
claiming that Bernstein had spent his entire hour's show complaining
about Pacifica. She later admitted that she had only heard 10
mins of the show.) Then Leslie Kean, NOT Dennis Bernstein, introduced
a 14 minute cut of the press conference, stating that the listeners
would hear three speakers. She noted that this press conference
was also covered by commercial press. She later said that she
made this announcement because Ganter said it would be permissible
to cover Pacifica stories covered by the mainstream press. (The
SF Examiner and several other reporters from print journals,
someone with a video camera, and I was told, KQED radio, the
NPR outlet in the Bay Area). There was no commentary, just the
clip of the conference. After that two short statements in support
of the staff at KPFA were aired, one by Mumia Abu Jamal, the
other by Skoop Nisker.
8) At about 5:30 pm, Mark Mericle received
a phone call from
Dr. Berry authenticating the Palmer email, denying that the station
was for sale and claiming that Palmer was "an idiot on the
question."
A summary of that phone called, including her reference to Palmer,
which Mericle got specific permission to use--I heard him ask--was
inserted into my copy on the Pacifica story and would have been
read had the Evening News been broadcast as usual.
9) At 6:00 pm, Flashpoints ended normally
and the Evening News
began normally. Mark Mericle was anchoring for the moment and
began reading headlines. My story was scheduled to run second,
after a story on the Senate vote on the patients' bill fo rights.
Just as the news cast began, Ganter summoned Dennis Bernstein
into "his" office and informed Dennis that he was being
placed
on indefinite administrative leave, effective immediately and
that he was to leave the building. Dennis made his way to the
news control room followed by Ganter (a beefy man taller than
Dennis) and three of the armed guards from the firm Pacifica
had hired, a firm that specialized in "hostile terminations."
Please note that Pacifica's mission is to promote peace and social
justice. The staff of KPFA regards the bringing of weapons into
the station as an obscenity.
There was a bit of pushing and shoving at
the entrance to the
control room. I witnessed this because I was geting ready to
enter the studio to voice my copy on the press conference/arraignment.
Dennis got into the control room and Aileen Alfandary, the news
co director and co anchor that evening, tried to get Dennnis
into the studio with Mark. They were prevented by the armed guards.
Dennis, in vehement, but nonviolent verbal terms, refused to
leave and asked if the guards were armed (they were silent) and
would they hurt him if he refused to leave. He kept identifying
himself as a reporter who had just broadcast a public press conference.
On three occasions, Dennis was backed by the guards into the
tape recorder that was running Mark's story on the patient's
bill of rights, three times Mark left the studio to restart the
tape, then he gave up. He directed the engineer to put on the
control room mike. Then he got back into the studio and did running
commentary over the guards' confrontation with Dennis. After
about 4 minutes, Ganter and Torres took over a downstairs production
room--KPFA operations director,Jim Bennett, told me this--and
knocked the news cast off the air. After a few minutes of dead
air, they replaced it with, of all things, tapes of Marxist-Maoist
analysis of capitalism. My story on the press conference/arraignment
was never aired.
10) Fairly soon the demonstrators started
arriving. Dennis stayed
on the floor of the news control room. Various other people on
staff, including Wendell Harper, our main Evening News reporter,
taped the goins on. Leslie Kean got some of it on video. During
the course of the night we contacted and fielded calls from various
media. Berkeley City council people and the city manager arrived.
More demonstrators arrived, more police, this time in riot helmets
arrived. Arrests were made downstairs in the lobby and outside.
Some people tried to block the police vans by laying down in
from of them, etc.
11) At about 11:35pm, after being ordered
by Ganter to leave,
and warned that any paid staff arrested would be immediately
terminated, Berkeley police peaceably arrested News Directors
Mark Mericle and Aileen Alfandary, Flashpoints coproducers Dennis
Bernstein and Leslie Kean, Robbie Osman, me, and three KPFA
listener/supporters. We were handcuffed and taken in the black
mariah to
Berkeley police station three blocks away, where we were booked
on
misdemeanor trespass, cited and released.
The management called the rest of the staff,
said that they were
being put on paid administrative leave and the station has been
broadcasting archival tapes ever since. Ironically, they are
tapes of people such as Angela Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich and
Michael Parenti, who are on our side and ever critical of type
of corporatist conduct Pacfica is now engaged in. [NB 7/27: Several
days later, the Pacifica Radio Archive indicated that it would
no longer supply tapes, because several interviewees had called
to object to being being used as scabs by having the tapes of
their interviews used this way.--Kellia]
So there you have it. A Foundation which holds
an FCC license
as a public trust, which has a mission dedicating it to peace
and social justice, and giving voice to the voiceless, and which
is headed by an African American law professor who currently
chairs the US Commission on Civil Rights, has imposed censorship,
backed by armed guards, and taken over the oldest listener-supported
radio station in the nation. Again, I must emphasize that contrary
to earlier reports in some media, Dennis Bernstein's show was
not pulled off the air, it was the Evening News that was pulled.
And Dennis was not forceably dragged from the studio. In a great
triumph for those who believe in the power of nonviolent action,
he faced down 4 men taller and heavier than he, three of whom
were probably armed. His courage enabled himself and other journalists
in the newsroom that night to continue to function as journalists,
to get this frightening story of corporatist (and possibly government)
censorship out to the world.
I have recently read the statute under which
we in the newsroom
were arrested. It is part of the California Penal Code governing
trespass for refusal to leave when asked. The statute specifically
states, " ... this subdivision shall not aply to persons
on the
premises who are engaging in activities protected by the California
or United States Constitutions..." We were there as journalists.
They don't have a case.
Kellia Ramares
Kellia@pacbell.net
For more information see http://www.savepacifica.net
To scope out the security force Pacifica has
hired (using listener
donations, perhaps?) check out their website at http://www.ipsaintl.com
Dennis Bernstein's web site is http://www.flashpoints.net
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