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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Democracy Now Replaced By Tape Of Old Show |
Current rating: 0 |
by Juan Gonzalez, via counterpublic
(No verified email address) |
14 Aug 2001
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Today, Democracy Now! was cut off the air by WBAI, the NY Pacific Radio Station. The show featured interviews with Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network. See the article below for details and calls for action. |
Tuesday, August 14, 2001
Friends,
Today\'s live broadcast of Democracy Now! was yanked off the air by Pacifica and replaced by a tape of an old DN show.
This unprecedented action occurred after all-night negotiations between the management and Goodman broke down early this morning. Goodman notified Pacifica yesterday that she could no longer originate the show at WBAI in New York due to the continual intimidation and harassment she was experiencing at the hands of interim station manage Utrice Leid.
She offered instead to originate the program from Downtown Community Television (DCTV) in Lower Manhattan until management could assure her a safe working environment, and she proceeded to do just that this morning. The originating of programming - national and local -- from remote locations is not unheard of. Gary Null\'s Natural Living and Armand DiMele\'s Positive Mind show originate in other locations and are fed to WBAI for broadcast.
But Pacifica lawyers, who had not responded to numerous letters and complaints from Amy about the increasing harassment she had faced in recent weeks, refused yesterday to either guarantee her a safe work environment or agree to allow her to broadcast from someplace else.
The escalating harassment against Goodman included an incident last Friday where Leid physically shoved her during a heated discussion; the removal of Democracy Now! from the main production studio of WBAI, continued on-air personal attacks on Amy by staff members close to Leid, racist and sexist remarks by staff members that are not censured by management, even slanderous statements about Goodman that continue to appear on Pacifica\'s official web page.
No one should be forced to work under such conditions, and certainly not the host of the most popular news program in Pacifica\'s history.
Democracy Now! did air today in a few locations. Pacifica\'s KPFA in Berkeley aired it at 9:00 am Pacific time today and WMNF in Tampa aired it at noon. If you want to listen to the show, it will be posted to http://www.wbix.org
But hundreds of thousands of loyal Democracy Now! listeners were denied the show by a Pacifica management that is growing more irrational and desperate with each day.
Please take action today. If you are a listener in a Pacifica affiliate station, call the Pacifica headquarters to complain at 202-588-0999. If you are in one of the five Pacifica listening areas call your local station - WBAI at 212-209-2800, KPFK in Los Angeles at 818-985-2711, KPFT in Houston at 713-526-4000, WPFW in Washington DC at 202-588-0999, and KPFA in Berkeley at 510-848-6767.
Also, please contact the Pacifica bosses listed below.
Venceremos,
Juan Gonzalez
PS Many of you have asked how you might support our work. Tax deductible contributions to the Pacifica Campaign may be made to our fiscal sponsor, a 501 (c) (3) organization. Make checks payable to: Institute for Media Analysis-Pacifica Campaign. Our mailing address: The Pacifica Campaign, 51 MacDougal St., #80, New York, NY 10012. Thanks.
****************************
CONTACT INFO
Stop the Harassment of Democracy Now! Resign Now!
Please call, fax and/or e-mail the following individuals. Please contact as many times as you feel necessary for your voice to be heard. You can make one phone call a day over the next five days or five today. Your phone calls are important. Keep the message simple and straightforward.
WBAI Acting GM Utrice Leid Tel: 212-209-2800/2820 Fax: 212-747-1698 E-mail: uleid (at) escape.com
Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash Tel: 202-588-0999 x 348 or 888-770-4944 x348 Fax: 202-588-0561 E-mail: bmwpacifica (at) aol.com
Pacifica Board Vice Chair Ken Ford Tel: 202-822-0228 Fax: 202-822-0369 E-mail: kenfordpacifica (at) aol.com, kford (at) nahb.com
Pacifica Board member Wendell L. Johns Tel: 202-752-5355 Fax: 202-752-4281 E-mail: wendell_L_johns (at) fanniemae.com
Pacifica Board member Valrie Chambers Tel: 361-825-6012 Fax: 281-655-0266 E-mail: Valrie.Chambers (at) mail.tamucc.edu, valriechambers (at) aol.com
Cut the below list of email addresses, paste it into the To: line of your email composition form. Also go to: http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/pacifica/resign/
Bmwpacifica (at) aol.com, uleid (at) escape.com, kford (at) nahb.com, KenFordPacifica (at) aol.com, jmurdock (at) ebglaw.com, wendell_L_johns (at) fanniemae.com, Alfigo (at) aol.com, valriechambers (at) aol.com, Valrie.Chambers (at) mail.tamucc.edu, jhoward (at) nahb.com, bsmith (at) nahbofficer.com, pacificacampaign (at) yahoo.com
********************* The Pacifica Campaign is a grass-roots organization representing listeners and staff alike, fighting to preserve Pacifica\'s 50-year tradition of progressive, community-based radio. Our mailing address: The Pacifica Campaign, 51 MacDougal St., #80, New York, NY 10012.
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See also:
http://www.wbix.org
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Comments
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Memo To Pacifica Management By DN |
by ML via DW
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Aug 2001
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Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 22:27:19 -0400
To: grc (at) PEAK.ORG, pma-l (at) lightlink.com
Subject: [grc] 8/14/2001 Democracy Now! Memo to Pacifica Management
THIS MEMO WAS SENT ON AUGUST 14
***********************************
To: Pacifica National Board and Management
From: Democracy Now! Staff
This morning we produced and broadcast Democracy Now! from Downtown
Community Television, a respected and fully equipped local broadcast
facility. We even invited Pacifica Management to join us. It was a
live program on the anti-globalization movement from Genoa to Kenya
to Washington DC, and on an important UN report regarding racism in
the US. As we do everyday, we linked by ISDN to the Ku satellite for
the appointed hour, but Pacifica blocked our broadcast.
We have been retaliated against simply because we took
steps to protect our physical safety and the integrity
of the program by broadcasting from a safe space.
As we told Pacifica yesterday, we do not feel safe at WBAI.
Yesterday we wrote to the Pacifica National Board,
Steve Yasko, Bessie Wash and others describing in
detail the months-long campaign of harassment,
discrimination and abuse to which the Democracy Now!
staff have been subjected. This culminated last
Friday in the physical assault against Amy Goodman by
WBAI Station Manager Utrice Leid, and again on Monday
morning when a WBAI producer and staff member used a
master key to open the locked door to our office and
verbally harass us as we were attempting to prepare
for the morning's show.
Pacifica Management, through its outright refusal to
substantively address a single one of our complaints,
has made it clear they are unwilling to guarantee our
physical safety or protect us from this outrageous
abuse.
Yet this morning we were told by Pacifica that we had to continue
broadcasting from WBAI, and that National
Program Director Steve Yasko would guarantee
our safety. This is absurd, since it is Mr. Yasko,
through his refusal to address any of our complaints,
who has sent a green light to WBAI management and
employees that they can physically and verbally harass
us, even assault us, without fear of consequences.
Yasko has shown absolutely no good faith in this
matter and his assurances to us are meaningless.
It is outrageous that Pacifica chose to air a rerun of Democracy Now.
We produced a fully prepared live program with guests in the studio
and a clean technical link-up. In fact the technical conditions
were superior to those in the substandard editing
studios WBAI Station Manager Utrice Leid has forced
Democracy Now!, and no other program, to broadcast from in recent days.
We cannot be expected to broadcast from WBAI unless
steps are immediately taken to create an environment
in which we feel our physical safety is not
threatened. In addition, WBAI management and staff
must immediately halt their verbal, physical, and
technical harassment of the program and us on and off
the air. Finally, we demand immediate steps to hold Pacifica managers
accountable for these egregious actions.
Signed,
Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now!"
Kris Abrams, producer of "Democracy Now!"
Brad Simpson, producer of "Democracy Now!"
Anthony Sloan, engineer of "Democracy Now!"
------- End of forwarded message ------- |
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Late News-No News From DN Wednesday??? |
by ML via DW
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Aug 2001
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LATE NEWS>>>>>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 23:30:56 -0400
To: pma-l (at) lightlink.com, grc (at) PEAK.ORG
Subject: [grc] Democracy Now for Weds
Anthony Sloan has just announced on Radio4Houston that there will be no live show produced as the Democracy Now crew will be meeting with management in the morning.
Lyn @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Unwelcome Guests A radio program about wealth, power and resistance to the New World Order http://www.radio4all.org/unwelcome
on WEOS-FM Geneva, NY and WXXE-FM Syracuse Community Radio
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yesterday's DN today on WEFT |
by Paul R.
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
15 Aug 2001
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WEFT's Programming Commmittee announced today that today they'll play yesterday's edition of DN which did not get distributed to affiliates or aired on Pacifica stations. WEFT was unable to obtain a copy of that program in time for air yesterday, so the archive edition distributed by Pacifica aired on WEFT yesterday.
Democracy Now airs at 4:00pm on WEFT, 90.1 FM |
See also:
http://www.prairienet.org/weft
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