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photographing what's left
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april
15, 1999
50th anniversary
kpfa/pacifica offices
martin luther king jr way
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should have been there |
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fotos dick wood dillwood@earthlink.net
Sacramento listeners and subscribers
are dismayed at the corporatization of the Pacifica network and we
condemn the midnight firing of Nicole Sawaya. Lynn Chadwick
is acting like the worst corporate CEO, firing employees under the
flimsy and disingenuous cover of terminating a contract. Not
only should Chadwick be removed, but the choice of her successor
should be put to a vote that includes representatives from the local
station communities. This is not specifically prohibited
by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the CPB rules
must no longer be used as an excuse to restructure Pacifica into a
centralized satrapy. Pat Scott was as bad as Chadwick, and the
policies begun under Scott must be changed.
To those of us listening and too far away to be directly
involved in the monthly meetings and intrigue at KPFA and Pacifica,
we thought that Pacifica and KPFA had finally come to their senses
when Nicole Sawaya was hired. She was at ease on the air, communicating
genuine enthusiasm for the challenge of managing an unwieldy organization
like KPFA, and answered listener questions with a straight forwardness
that had completely disappeared. The contrast with Lynn Chadwick's
prissy non-answers to listener comments on her two appearances since
March 31st, could not be more revealing. Chadwick has been defensive
and has acted like Bill Clinton or Kenneth Starr at a press conference.
She wraps herself in the rules and procedures, does not
explain what she is doing, and then patronizes us with her condescending
statements that she has the best interests of the organization at
heart.
Meanwhile, the Pacifica board remains in guilty silence,
obviously endorsing the evisceration of this progressive organization,
while upholding their credentials as civil rights defenders, members
of the progressive community, and anti-corporate fighters. But
like Margaret Thatcher, they throw their hands up and bleat There
Is No Alternative (TINA). And the KPFA staff, programmers, subscribers
and listeners, are turned out like the Liverpool dockworkers to subsist
on the meager offerings of commercializing NPR stations.
More is at stake in the recent firings than simply
personnel matters. Our radio station is being taken away
from us. The board is not exercising any creative thinking about
sustaining a genuine connection between the local stations, the listeners
and subscribers, and the national directorate. Being an alternative
radio network means also sustaining an organizational structure that
enables the alternatives to flourish, and that requires struggling
against narrow-minded bureaucratic rules promoted by CPB. It
means finding the language in the CPB rules that will accomodate this
alternative structure, one that does not remove control from
local communities at the same time that it allows Pacifica to build
on its strengths to create a powerful national presence.
End the Pacifica "occupation" of KPFA studios,
return Nicole Sawaya to her position as general manager, revoke
the firing of Larry Bensky, and revamp the undemocratic and
unrepresentative structure at Pacifica.
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