Pacifica host Verna Avery Brown, the only African-American national news anchor in public broadcasting, has not appeared on the air since Coughlin's abrupt removal on November 1."Upholding a news
director's right to make independent editorial decisions is a fundamental journalistic principle," said local news staff at Pacifica's two largest public affairs stations, KPFA in Berkeley and WBAI in
New York, in a November 5 statement to the Pacifica board of directors. "That a Pacifica news producer could be terminated for running a story that might be embarrassing to Pacifica is deplorable."
"What has transpired over the last few days has shaken our confidence in Pacifica to the core," noted a November 4 letter to the board from Pacifica national programming staff, including Verna
Avery Brown and Democracy Now! anchors Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. "The chain of events could come straight out of a George Orwell novel."
The Pacifica Network News (PNN) is a daily, half-hour
newscast that airs on over 60 stations. Sixteen of Pacifica's largest affiliates launched a one-day boycott of the network on Wednesday, October 27, to express their concern about Pacifica's handling
of staff and community protests at KPFA, the country's oldest listener-supported radio station. PNN carried a 30-second news brief of the boycott that day. Following the October 29-31 board meeting in
Houston, Coughlin was suddenly removed on November 1 without explanation. Anchor Verna Avery Brown has been absent from the newsroom since then, a move widely seen as a protest of the shake-up.
Staff and
supporters throughout Pacifica have expressed their dismay that in addition to tolerating censorship, Pacifica board chair Mary Frances Berry, who heads the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, may be willing to
sacrifice widely respected journalist and anchor Avery Brown. A signature voice at Pacifica for 11 years, Avery Brown is known for cutting-edge reporting on criminal justice, civil liberties and
African-American politics.
Pacifica Foundation executive director Lynn Chadwick now claims that Coughlin has been "reassigned" to a newly created Task Force on Programming and Governance. But the
very existence of the task force is in dispute. Pacifica has made no public statement about Avery Brown.
FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) called on Pacifica management to immediately reinstate Dan
Coughlin to his position and restore Verna Avery Brown to the airwaves, and urged the Pacifica board to promptly convene a public hearing focusing on the importance of avoiding retaliatory personnel moves
that undermine the network's mission.
"Pacifica News has long been known as a free speech oasis in an arid media desert, reporting on stories and issues that other outlets would not," commented
FAIR founder Jeff Cohen. "Recent censorial actions are doing untold damage to Pacifica's reputation."
Here's the text of the October 27 item that prompted the ouster of Pacifica's news director:
"Sixteen affiliates of the Pacifica Radio network today boycotted Pacifica programming to show their concern about the handling of a labor-management dispute at Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley.
This summer more than 100 people were arrested and thousands took to the streets at the oldest listener sponsored station in the country to protest Pacifica staffing decisions. Hurt during the dispute was
Pacifica satellite distribution system which provides programming to some 63 stations nationwide. The 16 Pacifica affiliates in 11 states called for the network to adopt new open accountable governance, and
to continue to support community-based journalism which, they said, had made Pacifica great."
