As I write this article,
10 days after that speech, I no longer want to get back into the building. Having seen how well the Internet has been used to inform world of the coup and to organize protest, I favor using
focused intent, and the many worldly activities it inspires, to rebuild KPFA on the Web.Contrary to many reports, the courageous Dennis Bernstein was not dragged out of the studio by armed guards. His
show, Flashpoints, ended normally, and he nonviolently faced down Lynn Chadwick's carpetbagging hatchet man, Garland Ganter, and three of Pacifica's hired guns in the news control room, as the Evening News
was in its first story. I know this because I was in the control room at the time.
Thanks to Dennis' successful resistance, we were able to spend the next 5.5 hours getting word of the takeover out to the
media and the public. Supported by the hundreds of protesters who started arriving within 5 minutes of the Evening News getting pulled off the air, we stood our ground as journalists in a newsroom in a
nation where freedom of the press is not a pipe dream, but a constitutional principle.
Pacifica had us arrested for trespassing... imagine that... journalists arrested as trespassers in their own newsroom!
By ordering the arrests, Pacifica betrayed its historic mission and aligned itself with the tinhorn dictatorships often covered by Flashpoints and the Evening News.
We did the right thing to take a stand
on July 13th. But now we are out of the building, which is boarded up and chained like a deserted crack house. Now the transmitter itself has been forcibly rigged for scab broadcasting.
What should be the
goal of KPFA's supporters? Many people have referred to KPFA in recent days as their home. Feeling unjustly evicted, they want back in. But sometimes, when a neighborhood goes bad, you move for the sake of
your children's safety.
As my mind replays the scenes of goons surrounding Dennis Bernstein, of Noelle Hanrahan being roughed up by a cop, of a dozen riot-helmeted, billy-club-bearing police walking
backward up University Avenue as a group of peaceful marchers advanced, I know that this broadcasting neighborhood is no longer safe for me, for KPFA's future listeners, or for KPFA's historic mission.
Fortunately, there is another neighborhood we can move to: the Internet.
Go to http://www.savepacifica.net and you will see printed speeches, reprints of newspaper and magazine articles, Real Audio files
of news reports and other past events, streaming audio of live events, video clips, still photos, links to other pro-KPFA sites, and even protest posters to print out. Yahoo! has set up links to sites
covering the KPFA crisis. The Internet is a much richer environment than an audio-only broadcast facility. Moreover, unlike the transmitter, which can only reach about the third of California, the Internet
is global. Dennis Bernstein has received messages of support from as far away as South Korea, no doubt with the help of the World Wide Web.
Were KPFA a webcasting facility, we could transcend the
programming limitations inherent in a broadcast station that can only transmit one program at a time. With audio-on-demand, some people could be listening to Roots Kommunikations while others are listening
to Flashpoints, while still others are listening to La Onda Bajita or Cover-to-Cover or something entirely new. KPFA's two-year backlog of new program proposals would disappear because there would be
room for everybody to create a program and link it to the Web. Most importantly, there would be no need for a foundation to hold an FCC license or to hold title or lease to studio facilities or the
transmitter, or the land on which they sit. And thus, no need for a national board that can betray the mission of KPFA and usurp community power for its own corporatist ends.
It is the fate of every
corporation--business, political, religious, whatever--eventually to have its founding purpose subordinated to the preservation of the power of its executives and administrators. The only way to free KPFA
from this fate is to free it from the corporate structure. The place where that is a practical possibility is the 'Net.
Yes, it is true that many people, especially people of color, are not yet wired. But
when KPFA was founded 50 years ago, FM radio was in its infancy and many people did not have FM receivers. KPFA's founders helped to put the technology into the hands of its potential audience by selling FM
receivers on the street. I am not suggesting that KPFA staffers start hawking laptops on the corner of University and MLK Way. And I know that webcasting, like television before it, will not entirely replace
radio broadcasting. However, technologically savvy people, who consider KPFA to be an important part of their lives and community, can help to bring the new technology to those who don't have it. They can
teach classes, develope free software, help a friend get comfortable with a new computer, or give high tech gear, books, or gift certificates for classes on birthdays, Christmas or other gift-giving
occasions.
The alternative to webcasting, as I see it--and this article is strictly my own opinion--is to spend months and maybe years fighting Pacifica over an old technology. Why do that when we can
spend our time, money and energy establishing a new, bigger and better homestead on the technological frontier?
Pacifica and KPFA are currently in mediation, but if our goal is to regain the building, what
is there to mediate? The building won't be enough. The entire national board will have to resign--we have no confidence in them--to be replaced by a board elected by the subscribers a la KQED. Lynn Chadwick
absolutely has to go. There is no way that we journalists at KPFA can ever again work with someone who censored us. The gag orders have to go. The armed guards have to go. All the staffers would have to be
able to come back, including fired station manager Nicole Sawaya.
I can think of nothing I wish to cede to Pacifica. I have heard of nothing others staffers wish to cede to Pacifica. And
Pacifica, with millions at stake from either luring corporate and foundation funding or selling KPFA outright, is not about to cede anything to us. If the point of contention is the station, there is nothing
to mediate.
However, if we are willing to let go of the physical station, we have room to maneuver. There is merit in Dan Siegel's class action lawsuit, which alleges that Pacifica violated the California
Corporations Code by unilaterally disenfranchising the local boards, and thus making the national board self-selecting and self-perpetuating. If the court issues the injunctions Siegel has requested,
especially the one prohibiting the sale of any Pacifica assets, including KPFA, Pacifica would find itself tied up in litigation for years, not a situation conducive to raking in the dough. At that
point, we could really bargain, and I would suggest that our mediation team propose the following:
We would request the court to dissolve the injunctions and we would drop the lawsuit IF AND ONLY IF:
1)
All staffers would be allowed back into the station, without escort or video surveillance, to retrieve every last reel, cassette, piece of paper, archived computer file, and Rolodex card pertaining to their
work at the station, even if it involves the current crisis. Considering what Pacifica stands to gain financially by corporatizing or selling the station, the loss of some reels and tape is not a great
financial setback. However, lack of access to this material could impair the livelihood of many staffers who stored their body of work at the station and need that material for future job searches and
projects.
2) Pacifica turns over a copy of the donor list to a union steward or other designated representative of the staffers, automatically refunds all the money pledged under protest in the most recent
fund-raiser, and refunds any other pledge if requested to do so in writing by the pledger. (Considering that Pacifica sent letters to protest pledgers virtually demanding that they request refunds, in its
vain attempt to scuttle our record-breaking fund-raiser, it should not balk at this idea now.)
3) Pacifica lays off all paid staffers in a manner consistent with the union contract or otherwise acceptable
to the union after consultation with the union. Terms of the layoff would include Pacifica's agreement not to contest any staffer's claim for unemployment compensation.
4) Pacifica agrees not to press
charges or testify against anyone arrested in connection with the protests inside or outside the building. (Let's have Dr. Berry get the Justice Department to suggest to the Alameda County prosecutor to drop
all the cases!)
If such an agreement could be reached, I would suggest the following plan as an initial blueprint for a new alternative for alternative radio:
1) The web sites savepacfica.net and
freepacfica.org can become the basis for a new webcasting facility. (For legal reasons, we might have to change the name, but for now let's call it KPFAOnline.)
2) Both Media Alliance and IGC, an ISP/web
host that has been highly supportive of KPFA and its staffers, would set up endowed funds. Donors who would have normally contributed to KPFA would be urged to redirect their refunded pledges to one or both
of these funds.
3) The purpose of the Media Alliance endowed fund would be to expand its computer lab and to offer free or very low cost classes in webcasting to people who would agree to produce at least
one half hour per week of music, news, public affairs, or drama and literature programming for six months for KPFAOnline. Any person or group willing to adhere to KPFA's traditional mission statement and to
refrain from using hate speech, advocating violence, violating copyrights or breaching any of IGC's terms of service would be eligible to participate, even if they are from outside the Bay Area. After the
initial six months, they could continue or discontinue programming, however they wish. The programs would stay available for 6 months after producers discontinue programming.
4) If it has not already done
so, Media Alliance, which uses Macs in its lab, would negotiate an educational discount on equipment and software purchases for programmers taking MA classes Since Apple is looking to expand its user base,
it should be amenable to such an arrangement without demanding any advertising space on our sites.
5) Media Alliance would also offer opportunities to Mark Mericle and Aileen Alfandary, (the KPFA news
co-directors) and Dennis Bernstein, Leslie Kean and CS Soong (the producers of Flashpoints) to teach basic news and investigative reporting. If any or all accept, money from the endowed fund would provide
their pay. They deserve something for putting their careers on the line to fight censorship.
6) The IGC endowed fund would be used to expand and upgrade overall connectivity and storage capacity, and to
provide free email and other technical support to the KPFAOnline programmers.
7) If microbroadcasting is legalized by the FCC, our allies can link their microbroadcast programming to the KPFAOnline
network.
Then let's see in three years who has the largest and most diverse audience, corporate Pacifica or a loose confederation of ingenious community webcasters.
