-----Original Message----- From: fulcrumsofchange-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:fulcrumsofchange-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Henry Norr Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 3:37 AM To: Fulcrums of Change; alliance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [Fulcrumsofchange] Nora Barrows-Friedman: An open letter toPacifica and its listeners Nora Barrows-Friedman is senior producer of Flashpoints. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nora Barrows-Friedman <nora@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 10:34 PM Subject: An open letter to Pacifica and its listeners To: nora@xxxxxxxxxx ** PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY ** An Open Letter to Pacifica and Its Listeners August 28, 2008 As a programmer, listener and staff member at KPFA, Pacifica's flagship station, I have to publicly denounce the national coverage that was forced upon our listenership during the DNC. It is our duty as a so-called "alternative" media network to monitor the centers of power; instead, what we heard was overt cheerleading for the Democratic party and its Presidential candidate. As former VP Al Gore prepared to take the stage this evening, thousands of people in New Orleans were preparing to take shelter and once again brace for the worst as a new storm brewed overhead. A KPFA reporter brought us the voice of Malik Rahim who demanded that the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and its respective candidates stop what they were doing and come down and protect the people in New Orleans. After this passionate report, the kind of segment that KPFA should be proud of, the DNC anchors barely segued into a breathless excitement of Al Gore's moment in the spotlight at the Pepsi Center. What a shame. Lou Hill did not establish Pacifica so that voices of poor people would be overshadowed by corporate politicians' quadrannual beauty pageants. If we were truly the "alternative network," providing "unconventional coverage" of the political conventions, then we would have heard more from New Orleans, we would have been out in the streets, we would have stopped the regular programming to go be the voice of those who are truly voiceless. We should have been reporting from the trenches, not from within the fully-secured and sanctioned establishment of the DNC. We should have been marching with the poor, with the anarchists being beaten by riot squad paramilitary police forces, with the activists at the Food Not Bombs table. That's more the voice of the people than anyone inside the Pepsi Center, certainly more than the nominated head of the Democratic Party. We have more in common with the people in the streets than we do with the corporate politicians who send our people to fight their wars, consume their chemicals, and swallow their foreign policies as our children remain uneducated, without healthcare, and bracing for the next shoe to drop. There is a disturbing trend happening within the network that must be addressed and challenged. More often than ever before, programmers and station managers are tending to lean toward NPR-style programming and news structure; moving away from the original mission of Pacifica in favor of mainstream "liberal" content. During the DNC, anchors offered challenges to the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates' positions that were tepid at best, and sounded tokenized. Democracy Now! produced some very good, hard-hitting segments (Jeremy Scahill dissecting Joe Biden's interests in bombing Afghanistan and the larger Democratic party's abysmal foreign policies; Iraq Vets Against the War speaking out and leading protests; protesters getting pepper-sprayed, etc.). I had hoped to hear similar analysis and truly alternative coverage, and was really disappointed at the lack of creativity and follow-through that the Pacifica National coverage presented to our listeners. At KPFA in particular, we still do not have a show that addresses and serves the Black community. Managers have decided to keep Youth Radio off the air. At fundraising meetings, programmers and staff have exalted the KQED style of fund drives. The KPFA News department still uses Associated Press and Reuters wire copy verbatim, without reference or context -- an expensive "service" that listeners looking for an alternative pay for, and do not deserve. Listening to the Pacifica cheerleading section on-air in Denver, a few days after the horrific and unprecedented police attack inside the KPFA building -- KPFA management is responsible for calling on Berkeley Police to come inside our so-called community radio station, which resulted in an unpaid programmer, a pregnant Black single mom, being beaten, hog-tied and arrested for "trespassing" -- I am ashamed to be an employee of Pacifica Radio. This is not what we come to work, every day, with our without pay, to be a part of. As not only a programmer, but a lifetime listener (my parents met at KPFA in the late 1960's as unpaid programmers themselves), I demand a full investigation and challenge to the Pacifica programming management. Take a good look in the mirror, and let's start the revolution already. In real, uncorporatized and sustained struggle, Nora Barrows-Friedman Senior Producer and co-host, Flashpoints -- --------------------------------------------- Henry Norr henry@xxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Fulcrumsofchange mailing list Fulcrumsofchange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.pacificana.org/listinfo.cgi/fulcrumsofchange-pacificana.org No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.6.12/1640 - Release Date: 8/28/2008 6:58 PM