At this past weekend’s Pacifica National Board meeting the new board majority of reformers made more progress in restoring the progressive radio network as a packed house audience looked on and participated. Amongst the resolutions made during the meeting, the board decided to appoint fired former Pacifica news director Dan Couglin as the interim executive director of Pacifica, it endorsed a recommendation to fire the current station manager of Pacifica’s NYC station WBAI which has seen mass firings of staff and volunteers in the last year, while deciding to rehire those who had been axed, and the majority decided to fire the law firm retained by the former Pacifica Board majority. For more coverage:
Savepacifica has a complete run-down of the meeting’s happenings. Democracy Now covered the weekend’s events extensively — click to listen in Real Audio. Free Speech Radio News aired a report on these decisions on today’s program. Free Speech Radio News is the daily national news program produced by former Pacifica reporters and stringers who are on strike from the network over allegations of censorship by the network.
An interesting element of this weekend’s meeting is that several members appointed by the previous board majority–those whose mismanagement is widely believed to have imperiled the network–were not in attendance, which was a decisive factor in so many radical resolutions being passed. What’s also interesting is the role the general public was allowed to play in the meeting, being allowed to speak extensively and even clap and cheer, whereas previously the public was denied all but a symbolic role resulting in frequent tensions between the Pacifica National Board and listeners during meetings.
I’ll be curious to see how well these resolutions hold up if the board minority decides to challenge them in front of the Judge overseeing Pacifica’s reconciliation. Unfortunately, it may not yet be smooth sailing for these needed changes. There is still a great deal of contention between the new board majority of reformers and the current board minority, as well as with the management of the Pacifica stations in Los Angeles, Washington and New York. These stations’ management was put in place by the former Pacifica administration–whose major players have all resigned in the last few month–and who were generally loyal and in sync with that administration’s program. This continuing animosity is evident in that WBAI initially refused to air Pacifica’s daily one-hour public affairs program Democracy Now, which returned to the Pacifica airwaves on Jan. 7, despite the fact that the program originates from the WBAI’s studios. The program has since returned to the air in NYC.
Previously: Democracy Now Returns to Pacifica 1/6/01
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