THE PACIFICA BYLAWS PROPOSAL–IT’S ABOUT PROGRAMMING
Like the bylaws proposal that was defeated last year, the “New Day” version would basically end democracy at Pacifica and hand the network over to a group of gatekeepers. This is a fight which has been going on since the 1980s, a fight which did not begin with the hijacking attempt of 1999 and certainly did not end with the current bylaws of 2003.
Issues in this struggle include: declining listenership, programming, democracy at Pacifica and the debt.
The debt gets the most attention. It was caused by multiple bad decisions made during the last three decades. One of those was an atrociously bad deal made with the Empire State Building for WBAI’s antenna. That was negotiated nearly two decades ago by a former Executive Director who has passed away, but the results live on and continue to haunt us. However, if Pacifica finances had otherwise been healthy, that debt would not be such a death threat. The New Day people are the protégés of the people who made many of the unwise decisions which led to the financial problems we’re seeing today. It has been suggested that putting the network in a risky financial situation is a customary and deliberate tactic in trying to gain total, undisputed control of our station.
Money is the hay that feeds the horse that pulls the wagon. We sometimes get so distracted by the look of the horse and so worried about feeding it enough good hay that we forget what’s in the wagon — the programming. Programming is what radio is all about. Programmers in the “New Day” camp have been echoing an increasing amount of security state propaganda from the corporate media, or feature guests who tell us the FBI and the CIA are there to protect us, and that the U.S. intervenes in elections of foreign countries to promote democracy. That is the direction in which KPFA programming has been sliding, and if “New Day” gains full control, the Pacifica network will slide a lot faster, till the last vestiges of independent, non-corporate news analysis are gone.
The eternal “infighting” at Pacifica is not about personalities who can’t get along. It’s about very differing visions for Pacifica. Although it often looks like a fight over finances, it’s really about programming.
This referendum is coming up soon, and April 7 is the very last day to subscribe in order to be eligible to vote. Here’s the KPFA link https://secure.kpfa.org/support/
Daniel Borgström, member of Rescue Pacifica
