Pacifica has long been torn by charges that its national board, led by U.S. Civil Rights Commission chief Mary Frances Berry, is bent on taking the network in a more timid, ratings-driven, commercialized direction. Tensions mounted in February 1999, when the board completed a centralization of power that stripped away any governing role from the stations’ local advisory boards. Further protests were provoked on March 31, when popular KPFA station manager Nicole Sawaya was let go, and when long-time Pacifica host Larry Bensky was fired for discussing Sawaya’s ouster on-air, in apparent defiance of Pacifica‘s “dirty laundry” rule.

But perhaps the most damaging crisis at Pacifica was sparked by the accidental release of an email message from Pacifica board member (and Berry ally) Micheal Palmer–a message indicating that the sale of one or more stations might be on the Pacifica agenda. . . . ”