DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation, Inc. website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Foundation, Inc. Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, Inc., or any of the five Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff, or other listener members.
Elections always involve a choice. The Pacifica Mission Coalition and its members and affiliates at the several stations are committed to running a positive campaign focusing on what Pacifica needs to do to be an effective voice for peace, social and economic justice, and freedom of speech and of the press.
Everyone pays lip service to those lofty ideals, however. So as you make the decision about whom to vote for, you need to take into consideration the track record of the individuals and organizations involved.
Here’s one piece of evidence regarding how some within Pacifica have sought to dodge one of the most pressing moral, humanitarian and political issues of our time, the US-financed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. https://youtu.be/uWeACjMHcYk
Another dividing line issue has been support for local news and public affairs, vs. centralizing and nationalizing the programming and management. The same forces within Pacifica that imposed the current Bylaws and election process were previously involved in the shutdown of WBAI in New York, substituting “Pacifica Across America”, programming syndicated mainly from the west coast stations, for all the locally-produced and community-oriented public affairs and cultural programs on WBAI.
At KPFK, in the past year or so, a similar process was carried out, scrapping locally produced environmental, health-related, policing, Indigenous, veterans, disability rights and resources, and civic engagement programming and news with programs from KPFA, repeats, and nationally syndicated programming like Thom Hartmann. Yet all studies and media professionals attest to the fact that local news, cultural expression, and public affairs programming is what listeners are seeking, and where the future of independent media lies.
Furthermore, what national voices are heard is at issue. Peace-oriented voices and investigative reporting like Grayzone Radio, and pro-socialist analysis by commentators and educators like Richard Wolff were dropped at KPFK, along with programs featuring younger local voices from Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion LA and Stop LAPD Spying, groups that were not just talking about the news, but making news. Chris Hedges has raised funds for KPFA & KPFK, but his report does not air on KPFA.
Who really stands for diversity, and for a constructive and self-critical approach to overcoming institutional racism?
For over 75 years, Pacifica has had an expressed commitment in its Mission statement “to engage in any activity that shall contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors; to gather and disseminate information on the causes of conflict between any and all of such groups; and through any and all means compatible with the purposes of this corporation to promote the study of political and economic problems and of the causes of religious, philosophical and racial antagonisms.”
The Pacifica Mission Coalition is dedicated to the fulfillment of those ideals in practice, applied to ourselves as a progressive and democratic media institution as well as to society at large. We believe this requires a conscious commitment to anti-racism, and to providing opportunities on-air for communities facing oppression to express themselves.
The centralization and nationalization of governance and programming threatens both aspects, as evidenced by the segregation of programming from communities of color on KPFT’s secondary HD signal, the dropping of programming on KPFK from Black Lives Matter, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, hip-hop artivist/scholars, Indigenous environmentalists, and others, and the 2019 shutdown and takeover of WBAI that was reversed only through protest and legal action by local staff and listeners.
Pacifica Mission Coalition is the side standing up for financial transparency and accountability, for free speech at board meetings and community participation in the processes of governance and the tasks of audience- and membership-building. The elements who have imposed the current Bylaws that reduced staff representation on the LSBs and PNB, and that ended local financial oversight and management review, are the same ones silencing dissent, allowing only invited speakers to use the mandated public comment time, reducing the size of boards, the number of working committees, the powers of the elected delegates at each station, and the opportunities for listener and staff members to contribute to the discourse or to getting the work done that needs doing to rebuild our audience and our impact on current events.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an official Pacifica Foundation, Inc. website nor an official website of any of the five Pacifica Foundation, Inc. Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio). Opinions and facts alleged on this site belong to the author(s) of the website only and should NOT be assumed to be true or to reflect the editorial stance or policy of the Pacifica Foundation, Inc., or any of the five Radio Stations (KPFA Radio, KPFK Radio, KPFT Radio, WBAI Radio, WPFW Radio), or the opinions of its management, Pacifica National Board, station staff, or other listener members.