|
|
The Clinton era version of book burning
Germany - May 10, 1933. Nazis stage the burning of 'subversive' books
July 15, 1999 The WHOLE Story: Pacifica, KPFA, and the burning of 50 years of history "...to get any real art or any significant communication, one must rely entirely on individuals, and must resign himself to accept not only their uniqueness but the possibility that the individual may at any time fail. By suppressing the individual, the unique, the industry reduces the risk of failure (abnormality) and assures itself a standard product for mass consumption." - Lewis Hill. Founder of Pacifica. Some facts for the confused: 1. The Pacifica Board does not own KPFA. The Pacifica Foundations does. The board are mere custodians who are supposed to be serving the interests of the foundation which includes the pursuit of its highest ideals. 2. The Pacifica Foundation was founded by Lewis Hill in 1949. Hill, a pacifist who registered as a conscientious objector at the outbreak of World War II, worked as a Washington DC correspondent before moving to California where he founded KPFA. He served as Pacifica's head until his death in 1957. He stated his intentions for the form Pacifica stations should take very clearly. More on this later. 3. Pacifica is the oldest listener supported radio system in the US and was a pioneer of the "talk radio" format which invited live listener call ins. 4. For the last 50 years, Pacifica radio has been one of the very few broadcast outlets that accurately reports on the war-based economy of the United States and its effects both at home and abroad. In exchange for providing this unique reporting, listeners have funded the operation of Pacifica stations with donations as well as substantial amounts of volunteer labor - for 50 unbroken years. Pacifica stations have also widely reported on the details of government corruption including but not limited to the sponsor of terror in the Third World and the tolerance of drug trafficking by US allies and in some cases government employees. The rampant criminality of the Clinton administration has been covered at length and in depth as well. 5. The current Board of Trustees - headed by Clinton's appointee to the US Civil Rights Commission - has decided that the system that has produced this uninterupted stream of information for the past 50 years is theirs to be manipulated in any way they see fit without answering to anybody: the staff, the volunteers, or the listener-supporters. When people talk about Pacifica being "corporatized" or refer to the current conflict as a "labor dispute" they are greatly understating what is taking place. The correct term is "censorship." Programs, reporters, producers, and an entire culture of ethical, listener sponsored journalism, is, at the hands of the current board, in the process of being gutted station by station. The destruction of these stations is a public disaster of serious proportions for all Americans who value free speech. The past 50 years clearly indicate the nature of Pacifica and what its overall goals and methods are. Only a mob lawyer - or Clinton appointee - would propose that the station's board has leave to destroy the fruit of 50 years of labor in order to replace it with their personal "vision" of public broadcasting, one that, not so coincidentally, is less diligent in pursuit of information about the misdeeds of the administration to which the board's chair belongs. Not only are 50 years of history against the destructive actions of this board, so are the clearly stated intentions of Pacifica's founder who was quite explicit about how he believed Pacifica-owned stations should be run. Hill intended not only that individual hosts and commentators be free to speak their mind, but that the very structure of the stations be designed to insure that they are free to do so. "The answer of the KPFA project on this point is not necessarily the only good answer, but it is explicit. It requires that the people who actually do the broadcasting should also be responsible for what and why they broadcast. In short, they must control the policy which determines their actions... " "The (KPFA) The schedule has two sources in almost equal balance as to their importance and influence. On the one hand, these happen to be subjects of primary interest to people working at KPFA. On the other hand, they happen also to represent the articulate interests of well-defined minorities in the audience of the San Francisco Bay Area." - Lewis Hill To systematically undermine these values, established over 50 years, and then attempt to portray the current conflict as a "labor dispute" is gutter politics in a silk suit. It's a cynical, dishonest strategy worthy of a member of the Clinton administration. The board does not own Pacifica. At best, they are custodians. But Mary Frances Berry, an appointee to the most indicted administration in US history, has decided that she has the right, by virtue of her chairmanship, to destroy the decades long effort of thousands people, producers and listeners, to create, as Lewis Hill so clearly stated: "a radio station fully supported by subscribers who have not responded to a special gift offer, who are not participating in a lottery, who have not ventured an investment at 3 per cent, but who use this means of supporting values that seem to them of basic and lasting importance."
Copyright notice: Any information on this page may be freely distributed as long as it is accompanied by the URL (web address) of this site which is http://www.brasscheck.com/pacifica |