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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Pacifica Board Member Micheal Palmer Resigns |
Current rating: 0 |
by Juan Gonzalez
Email: pacificacampaign (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!)
Phone: (646) 230-9588
Address: The Pacifica Campaign, 51 MacDougal St., #80 New York, NY 10012 |
16 May 2001
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Micheal Palmer, treasurer of the Pacifica Foundation, has resigned. He was one of the key figures in the group of Pacifica directors who illegally changed the Foundation's by-laws to reduce democratic accountability to listeners and who sought to stamp out dissident voices and free speech among staff. He is also the board member who proposed in a 1999 e-mail to former chairwoman Mary Frances Berry the sale of KPFA and/or WBAI. |
Micheal Palmer, treasurer of the Pacifica Foundation, has resigned.
Palmer, a vice-president in the Houston, Texas, office of CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate firm, was one of the key figures in the group of Pacifica directors who illegally changed the Foundation's by-laws to reduce democratic accountability to listeners and who sought to stamp out dissident voices and free speech among staff. He is also the board member who proposed in a 1999 e-mail to former chairwoman Mary Frances Berry the sale of KPFA and/or WBAI.
The resignation comes just a few days after members of the Pacifica Campaign in Los Angeles visited the corporate headquarters of CB Richard Ellis and spoke with a top assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of the company about Palmer's role in Pacifica. We also mentioned to the CEO the upcoming national day of action against CB Richard Ellis, slated for May 24.
After that meeting, we were informed that the office was flooded with calls and e-mails. Yesterday, Denis Moynihan of the Pacifica Campaign, spoke with Palmer by telephone, reminding him that the Pacifica reform movement was preparing protests at CB Richard Ellis offices around the country. (Previously, the Pacifica Campaign and other groups had picketing CB Richard Ellis offices in Houston and Long Island, NY.)
Clearly, Palmer decided that his continued presence on the Pacifica Board in the face of such widespread listener opposition was no longer tenable. We applaud his decision and wish him well in his future endeavors. At the same time, we reject his contention in his resignation letter that he was being hounded by a violent "blackmail" movement. Ours is a peaceful movement to restore Pacifica to its original mission.
While Palmer's resignation is an important victory, there are still several other members on the board who stubbornly cling to power. We urge them to listen to reason and to the pleas of thousands of listeners. All those responsible for the anti-labor policies, the censorship, the climate of fear and hostility in the network, must now step aside. It is time for new leadership, one committed to Pacifica¹s historic mission and one democratically accountable to staff, listeners and community.
Meanwhile, he listener boycott moves into high gear this week. On May 18, the five-day a week Free Speech Radio News will begin broadcasting. This will be financed in part by the generous donations many of you have made to the Pacifica Campaign. Already, 17 community radio stations have agreed to drop the Pacifica Network News (PNN) and to replace it with Free Speech Radio News. Verna Avery-Brown, the former PNN anchor, will now be the anchor of Free Speech Radio News.
Our movement is growing. We urge Pacifica Chairman David Acosta, Vice Chair Ken Ford, John Murdock and others on the board to do the right thing -- resign now! The Pacifica Campaign will not rest until ALL the hijackers have resigned from the National Board.
Please be sure and join actively in the boycott movement and protests outside the Pacifica stations. Let us redouble our efforts. And don't give a penny to Pacifica until the rest of the board has resigned.
In struggle,
Juan
- /*This message comes via the freepac list. */ |
See also:
http://www.pacificacampaign.org
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More Repressive Reaction at WBAI and KPFK |
by Juan Gonzalez
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
16 May 2001
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-------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pacifica Campaign <pacificacampaign (at) yahoo.com>
To: Juan Gonzalez <pacificacampaign (at) yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 16:06:11 -0400
Subject: Action Alert: Democracy Now! Thrown Off the Air
Message-ID: pacificacampaign (at) yahoo.com>
Pacifica Campaign Action Alert Democracy Now! Thrown Off the Air
Amy Goodman was yanked off the air today (Wednesday) at Pacifica station KPFK in Los Angeles and WBAI in New York. At WBAI, Democracy Now! was preempted entirely. At KPFK, an old edition of the program was aired.
PROTEST THE ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY NOW!
CALL THE FUND-DRIVE TALLY ROOMS
Call KPFK at 1-818-985-KPFK (5735)
Call WBAI at 1-212-209-2950
Protest Pacifica management¹s harassment of Amy and Democracy Now! and ask that the editorial integrity of the program be respected. Call for Democracy Now! to be played in full, every day. Ask for the real deal, no fakes and no frauds. That day's version of Democracy Now! only.
Let your voice be heard!
Please be polite and patient. You will be speaking with tally room volunteers. Let them know what is happening. Please call as many times as you feel necessary to get your message across.
Background:
Democracy Now! was canceled in the wake of yesterday¹s Congressional hearing on the Pacifica crisis before the Progressive Caucus. Also yesterday, Board Treasurer Micheal Palmer resigned. Pacifica managers were clearly worried about whether Democracy Now! would cover the story, which The Washington Post, among others, reported on today.
KPFK management, in an attempt to discredit Amy, provided listeners with the flimsy excuse that Amy supposedly refused to provide fund drive programming to the station. Even if this charge were true, which it is not, that is hardly a reason to run an old edition of the program. KPFK could have easily played today¹s version.
Amy is pitching normally at Pacifica stations WPFW and KPFA.
At WBAI, as tri-state area listeners know, Amy is being harassed on a daily basis by General Manager Utrice Leid. On-air and off-air, she has called Amy a racist, a liar, unethical, and publicly claimed that Amy "defecates" and "vomits" on the air.
Twice this week, and only minutes before air-time, the station manager kicked Amy and the Democracy Now! production team out of WBAI¹s main broadcast studio and forced them into a small, sub-standard production studio. Democracy Now! is the only program that has been relegated to the space -- a clear demonstration of Pacifica management's consistent campaign of harrassment and censorship of Amy Goodman and Democracy Now!
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