-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Michael Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: ZNet Commmentary Aug 3 Herman and Bonpane Date sent: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 21:58:46 +0100 [This time two commentaries -- neither of which were actually written as commentaries but both of which are so timely and excellent that I have commandeered them to the cause, so to speak. Thus:] Here are today's ZNet Commentary Deliveries from Blase Bonpane and Ed Herman. They will appear shortly online, as well, in the ZNet section devoted to the Pacifica Struggle. To pass this comment along to friends, relatives, etc. please note that the Commentaries are a premium sent to Sustainer Donors of Z/ZNet and that to learn more about the project folks can consult ZNet (http://www.zmag.org) and specifically the Sustainer Pages (http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm) which include lists of writers, writer biographies, and other features of the Z Sustainer Program. Here then are today's ZNet Commentaries... ------------------------------------------ Letter from Blase Bonpane re his Pacifica involvement and stance: Dear Web Master Allard and so very many interested KPFK listeners who have asked me about my self-imposed silence on the air. First of all some clarification regarding the correspondence you have had with the station. My tenure with KPFK began in 1969. I was a Professor of Latin American Studies and History at California State University Los Angeles at that time. My program was called LATIN AMERICAN NEWS. I took a break from KPFK in the early 1970's and went to UFW Headquarters to work as Editor for Cesar Chavez, reestablishing the UFW Newspaper EL MALCRIADO. Returning to academia in late 1973, this time at California State University Northridge, I also returned to KPFK with FOCUS ON THE AMERICAS, a weekly half-hour program. This program continued at prime time during the 70's and into the 80's. When Mark Cooper arrived as News and Public Affairs Director in 1981, the program was not initiated, it was simply changed in scheduling and format. It remained at prime-time. And such was the case throughout the 80's and into the 90's. In late 1995 I received an insipid message on my answering machine from Station Manager Mark Schubb saying that my program had been cancelled. The message was so unclear that I had to ask exactly when this went into effect. There was some comment about Jerry Brown coming on but Jerry's program was never scheduled at the same time as mine. Curious? Surely after 26 years of prime time programming one might expect some level of professionalism not to mention basic courtesy. I began to smell the same rat which Pacifica programmers throughout the country were smelling. The Pacifica Board had a clear agenda. This did not represent the thinking of conspiracy theorists, it represented a conspiracy. The purges began in earnest. In a direct attack on the Pacifica Mission Statement, programs began to be evaluated by "cost effectiveness". Monetarist policy in sync with the New Economic Order was set in place by people who were well trained and badly educated. The Reign of Terror had begun. Station Managers could comply with the mediocrity of the Board or get out. Dissolution of the Mission Statement at the top was protected by gag orders below. How could there be any money in programs which focused on the rape of small nations by our country? Asian, African and Latin American programming was decimated. "The Other Side" was to be given a voice! The board forgot that Pacifica was established to give the "other side" of the one side of corporate capital which is heard 24 hours a day and seven days a week on the corporate media. We are the other side. Let the money making programming come in! Past lives, curing cancer with a happy face and sundry new age babble was money making. How about reading the National Enquirer on the air? As the senior programmer at KPFK I did not want to let the station go into the La Brea Tar Pits. I suggested to the Program Director that in lieu of my prime time program of many decades I would volunteer to do news commentary. I had never received a penny for my years of programming. On the contrary, my programs were very costly to me in time and money. The Manager did not seem terribly animated by this suggestion and simply said that I should talk to the News Director. Frank Stoltz was enthusiastic and I commented on the news at KPFK from January 2, 1996 until April 7, 1998. My work was plagued by the failures of volunteer "helpers", unexpected preemptions, airing of out-takes rather than the actual commentary etc.. These things, while annoying, are part of the give and take of a community radio station. My air time was five minutes cut to four minutes... and declining. At the end of each commentary I would say, "For a free copy of this commentary, call the Office of the Americas at 323/852-9808." The Program Director informed me that I could not give the phone number on the air (something I had been doing for 30 years). I was told I could give the phone number of KPFK. Knowing the overburdened condition of the KPFK switchboard, however, it was clear to me that the only way to effectively fulfill such requests was by calls directly to OOA. I subsequently made it clear to the News Director that the mention of OOA was not important. I would conclude the program by saying, "For a free copy of this commentary call 323/852-9808." My going on strike is a case of the straw that broke the camel's back. The arbitrary and unnecessary jerking around about the phone number seemed to represent just another annoyance. Such numbers have been given and are given by news and public affairs programs both nationally and locally. I hope it is understood that my strike is even more profoundly related to the monetarist policies of the Pacifica Board. These policies have no place in the history, tradition and Mission Statement of Pacifica. The phone number thing was simply the occasion when I determined that action on my part was necessary. As for the future I will do everything possible to end the efforts to make Pacifica a Second Class NPR. I believe the Board is guilty of malfeasance of office. They must be replaced by people who will carry out the Mission Statement and give autonomous local control to these community stations. Station Managers should show allegiance to the Mission Statement by refusing to comply with a deviant Board. Speaking personally I will agree to return to KPFK with a Contract including: -- No Monetary Compensation. -- Competent engineering assistance. -- A minimum of four minutes of commentary or 1/2 hour of programming per week. -- No preemptions without prior notice -- Any substantive matters from the Station Manager or the Program Director to be in writing. No voice mail mandates. Final outro, "For a free copy of this commentary call 323/852-9808." That's right, friends. I believe in workers rights. I do not believe in exploitation. I will not sit quietly by while a great institution is destroyed from within. We must Save Pacifica. On behalf of the Pacifica Mission Statement, Blase Bonpane AND... PACIFICA: NOTES ON MANAGERIAL DYSFUNCTIONALITY Edward S. Herman The operations of the Pacifica management call to mind the anti- stalinist classic poem of the 1950s by Bertolt Brecht, "The Solution," in which the worker uprising in Berlin caused the government to "lose confidence in the People," leading to the question: "Would it not be easier in that case--for the government to dissolve the People--and elect another?" The Pacifica management has been very dissatisfied with KPFA's (and the other stations') audience (the protesters mainly whites over 50, according to Berry), and its "dysfunctional" staff (Palmer letter to Berry), so it moved rapidly in the direction of dissolving both. A sale to a commercial operator would have consummated this neo-stalinist objective of essentially "dissolving the People." What is breathtaking about this management's using words like "dysfunctional" is that nothing could exceed the management's own dysfunctional quality. Completely out of step with the Pacifica stations' original goals and their audiences' devotion to their stations; lacking any sympathy with the democratic tradition of the workforces involved; and under the pretence of financial crisis (to which "consultants fees" and security expenses contributed) and interest in "diversity" (which has declined under their policy of mainstreaming) this management has bungled continuously and ended up contemplating a sale to commercial interests for whom diversity and public interest are completely irrelevant. When Coca Cola Company delayed by one week its response to the crisis engendered by the sale of contaminated Coke in Belgium and France, this was treated in the business press as a case of managerial ineptitude. The Pacifica management, by contrast, has made a series of managerial blunders extending over several years that has aggravated the crisis to a bursting point, apparently incapable of learning, of understanding the forces involved, and of moving in any way toward a constructive resolution. It is ironic that a management that is so out of tune with the ethos of a nonprofit operation, and that flirts with growth, market share, and station market value issues, has survived only because it operates in a non-market environment where serious ineptitude is protected by a system of managerial insulation from accountability to anybody. In a market world, stockholders and bankers would have thrown this management out on their ears long ago for incompetence and dysfunctionality. Pacifica management has repeatedly expressed a desire to increase market share, arguing that the audiences of KPFA (et al.) are small given the potential of station power, etc. They are undoubtedly impressed with the market value of broadcast licenses, that reflect a potentially larger audience than KPFA (et al.) have established. But that market value represents the advertising potential of a signal when all other values are ignored, including the positive externalities of cultivating the public sphere, of providing quality children's programs, and of serving minority and local community interests; and the avoidance of negative externalities like excessive violence and exploitation of sex. Also ignored is the value of the extensive local programming, local participation, and audience involvement at the Pacifica stations. These values represent the very rationale for their creation, so that criticizing them for their restricted audiences and modest market share reflects an abandonment of those values. KPFA and its allied stations serve sizable and exceptionally devoted niche audiences, whose commitment is ignored by measures of audience size, although made evident in the outpouring of support at the recent managerial threats to station integrity and survival. Also ignored is the fact that if these stations were displaced by commercial operators, the new commercial stations would simply draw audiences from other commercial stations, and the KFFA (et al.) audiences would be left stranded without any options. The market value of the Pacifica stations is thus highly misleading, but it would only mislead those whose commitment to the nonmarket values sustained by those stations did not rank high. The Pacifica management includes leaders who claim a long involvement and devotion to public radio, but the commercial spirit long ago infiltrated public radio under the pressure of the deliberate financial crunch imposed by the enemies of nonprofit media. In the 1980s a leader with a market share ethos was brought in to manage the University of Pennsylvania's FM station, WXPN, and he succeeded in enlarging the station's audience with more mainstream and light programming and a sharp diminution in controversial public affairs material. Interestingly, he terminated Pacifica News, substituting for it "All Things Considered" even though the latter was already available in Philadelphia, whereas Pacifica News was heard only on WXPN. (In his mission statement he indicated that news and public affairs should elicit "a positive response," calling to mind "happy hour" news on commercial broadcasting. All Things Considered met this standard better than Pacifica.) WXPN's market-oriented leader quickly became a popular consultant to other stations eager to increase market share. An important place has been carved out for such "realists" who are "practical" and are prepared to compromise on matters like admission of advertising and the need to attract larger audiences and tone down controversial programming in order to facilitate fund raising. When combined with a contempt for those over 50 white folks who listen and protest, and for free speech and the democratic rights and traditions of the workforce, this can lead to a desire to "dissolve the People"--and to a seriously dysfunctional management. _ A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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