KPFA staff continues siege of PacificaOriginally published in Current, July 5, 1999
By Jacqueline Conciatore
The Pacifica board of directors took small steps June 27 [1999] toward resolving the volatile conflict with staffers and supporters of KPFA, Berkeley. The conflict had peaked six days earlier when Pacifica Executive Director Lynn Chadwick made citizen's arrests of protesters blocking access to the network's offices adjacent to KPFA.
Though the board made ameliorating gestures during the Washington, D.C. meeting, there was a sign the crisis could deepen yet--Chadwick upon hearing rumors of a planned station takeover doubled to four the number of armed security guards inside KPFA.
The conflagration burst out when Chadwick fired popular KPFA General Manager Nicole Sawaya for undisclosed reasons; KPFA staff say Chadwick told Sawaya she wasn't a "team player." Pacifica says it didn't fire Sawaya, only failed to renew her contract. When veteran Pacifica journalist Larry Bensky criticized the firing on-air, violating Pacifica's prohibition against broadcast of internal matters, Chadwick fired him as well. (A third staffer was fired later for breaking the same rule.) Outside the station, community members have waged protests ever since; inside, mediation attempts collapsed.
The threat of violence surfaced early; on the night of March 31, hours after Chadwick dismissed Sawaya, someone fired a gun into Pacifica's offices, shattering the large storefront windows. The offices were empty, so no one was hurt. Pacifica says police are investigating the shooting as an attempted homicide. "For the safety and well-being of our staff, we must provide copies of threatening e-mail, letters and verbal threats to the Police Department for their ongoing investigation," Pacifica said in June 25 release.
The larger conflict is over the national network's ongoing push to increase audience and effectiveness. Despite relentless resistance from some staffers and volunteers, Pacifica has worked to centralize control of its five stations and professionalize their sound. Station managers have made program changes that many see as an assault on the network's commitment to alternativism and progressivism.
After talking with a delegation from Berkeley during the meeting in D.C., the board made three compromises. Most significantly, it slightly adjusted the controversial "gag" rule prohibiting on-air discussion of Pacifica matters: the board directed its five stations to start a monthly talk program addressing Pacifica policy and programming.
The board also tabled plans to appoint a slate of board candidates, a concession to the Berkeley delegation's unhappiness with one of the candidates, Karolyn van Putten, president of Western Public Radio.
And the board said it was willing for members of the community to sit at the negotiating table if a yet-to-be-selected mediator thinks it appropriate.
Pacifica critics including the Berkeley folks were underwhelmed by the compromises. Only one person applauded when board Chair Mary Frances Berry announced the Pacifica-issues show. And when new board member Jewell Taylor Gibbs turned to the audience, late in the meeting, and asked for some recognition of the board's progress, someone retorted, "Don't beg." Another said, "Give us back Nicole." Others simply chuckled--but no one said "thanks."
The delegation had asked the board for a good-faith gesture and suggested three possibilities: removing the security presence at KPFA and returning free access to the station, firing Chadwick, or lifting the gag rule.
Cornered in her office
The board says Pacifica will remove security guards when there is no longer a need for them. "Those who oppose the use of security forces have the power to remove it in their own hands," the board said in a written statement.
Some KPFA staffers complain bitterly about the four armed men who stand watch in their offices, and the fact they can enter the building only if a guard lets them pass. The relationship between the staff and the guards is not a comfortable one; KPFA reports and postings on the Internet suggest the men figuratively take up a lot of room. "It's unbearable for the people working there," says Barbara Lubin, community organizer and executive director of the Middle East Children's Alliance. "This radio station has been a gathering place for community. This is a place where people go in times of war, death. . . And now it is locked down."
The guards are necessary because of the shooting and the fact that 300 people recently stormed the station, in a possible "dress rehearsal" for a station takeover, says Pacifica spokeswoman Elan Fabbri. But Lubin and Take Back KPFA! member Jeffrey Blankfort say no such effort is planned.
The board also cited as reason for the guards an incident June 21 when, according to Chadwick, 30 or so protesters accompanied by KPFA reporters and other journalists, crashed into her office demanding to talk. "I was cornered in my office by these people," she says. "It was pretty intimidating." Protesters say the delegation was 8-10 strong, plus reporters. It was led by an 88-year-old city council woman and a priest--"prestigious community members," says Lubin. "I am not saying she wasn't in a horrendously uncomfortable position," she says, "but it's a position of her own making."
Chadwick says a circle of protesters also surrounded her more than once earlier that day, during the stand-off outside. "Several times I got surrounded. ... I was feeling extremely intimidated. ... I said, 'Just back off.' ... They said, 'We just want to talk to you.' I said, 'Nuh-uh. This is not the time or the place.'"
The Berkeley police required Chadwick to make citizens' arrests because the protesters were on private property, according to Pacifica. Backed by a police officer, Chadwick approached the individual blocking the door and asked to pass. When the person refused, she said, 'I place this person under citizens' arrest.' Another would move into the now-detained person's place and so on. Chadwick initiated nine arrests in the morning and five more when she left the building in the afternoon.
KPFA staff later aired a report that Berry, chair of the Civil Rights Commission, tried to get the Justice Department to clamp down on protesters. A local newspaper report quoted the police chief saying an old friend from Justice had inquired about the KPFA situation. Fabbri says the government official used to live in the area and was simply curious about goings-on at KPFA. "He called an old friend," she said.
Berry did find the citizens' arrests remarkable, according to Chadwick. Did Berry call the Justice Department? "She called a friend to say, 'What is this about?,'" Chadwick says. She wanted to confirm that having citizen's rather that police arrests was "standard procedure" and found it was "semi-standard" for Berkeley.
In another issue that surfaced at the D.C. board meeting, KPFA staff complained the protesters have hurled racist, misogynistic and homophobic remarks. They called one staff member--at the time trying to climb over people blocking Pacifica's doorway--"house Negro" and asked how it felt "to be the Oreo of the day," according to Pacifica. Organizers said they were unaware of the harassment and would seek to ensure it didn't happen again, though others on the Internet said the complaints were a familiar diversionary ploy by Pacifica management.
With the Berkeley protesters predicting a long fight, Chadwick says she's moving as fast as possible to get the warring parties together. "I have been trying to get to the negotiating table since April 1," she says. The first round of talks faltered, according to Chadwick, because the staff wouldn't allow the facilitator to speak or frame issues. "Everyone agreed, this one wasn't working," she said. Chadwick says she almost had shop stewards ready to get to the table when host Robbie Osman "derailed" the effort with an on-air statement that the talks should include community members, not just stewards. Chadwick fired Osman June 18, days after his long and impassioned statement. In protest, KPFA staff left dead air during Osman's regular two-hour time slot. Pacifica says KPFA was silent because management couldn't get anyone to fill the slot.
What happens next? Chadwick says she's spoken to and approved a mediator from the federal mediation service that the staff suggested. But the staff faction has yet to approve the mediator. The effort has been slowed because staff continually change factors, such as who sits at the table, Chadwick says. "It's tremendously frustrating for me. ... Pacifica is being portrayed as dragging our feet." Chadwick is spending 15 hours a day on KPFA, Fabbri says.
Lubin says the staff and community members are eager to resolve the fight as well. "We are totally committed now, we are all together and we're willing to work around the clock to try to resolve this."
Earlier news: Pacifica drops local elected reps from its national board, inciting protests, March 1999.
Outside links: Save Pacifica site and Pacifica Foundation site with June 27 statement by Pacifica Board.
Web page created July 3, 1999
Current
The newspaper about public television and radio
in the United States
A service of Current Publishing Committee, Takoma Park, Md.
E-mail: webcurrent.org
301-270-7240
Copyright 1999
To Current's home page