Thanks again to Pacifica in Exile and Tracy: “Let me help you out, Kevin. What you are saying is not what journalism experts actually think.  

The Times’s problem, Jarvis said, is that manufacturing conversation by ensuring different viewpoints are heard,, is overly simplistic and does a disservice to the newspaper’s readers.

“Again, what is The New York Times’ north star?,” Jarvis said. “Neutrality is a myth. Journalism cannot be objective but we must be transparent. We get in trouble all the time when we try to chase the god of objectivity to balance neutrality. I think that’s what happened at The Times.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/05/old-and-new-media-continue-to-be-dogged-by-both-sides-philosophy.html

“We’ve seen too many journalists confuse not taking sides with not calling out liars and frauds,” says MIT researcher and author.

https://news.mit.edu/2018/seth-mnookin-fallacy-of-both-sides-journalism-0112

The report found that several BBC shows fell victim to an “over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality,” resulting in far too much airtime for climate change deniers. A follow-up report published in 2014 concluded that this key conclusion “still resonates today”.

This situation, known as false balance, arises when journalists present opposing view-points as being more equal than the evidence allows. But when the evidence for a position is virtually incontrovertible, it is profoundly mistaken to treat a conflicting view as equal and opposite by default

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/nov/08/impartial-journalism-is-laudable-but-false-balance-is-dangerous

Allowing storytellers to center a perspective in news is not new, and in fact was commonplace in a great deal of news reporting throughout the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. The Muckrakers who exposed corruption in government, the work of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, which exposed the horrors of lynchings in America, these were not objective narratives. Wells-Barnett was not out to show some balanced perspective on why Black people were being murdered in the South without justification.

What are some of the problems that arise with both-sides reporting?

First, as mentioned, it centers perspective as opposed to truth telling. That in turn leads to the elevation of absurd ideas for the sake of balance, which is what we call the creation of false equivalencies.

https://nexus.jefferson.edu/science-and-technology/is-both-sides-journalism-truly-unbiased/

Virus-free. www.avg.com

On Sun, May 30, 2021 at 8:19 PM Kevin White <cuitlacoche1@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear “Journalist,”

Have your ever asked a supporter of New Day Pacifica a single question? You seem to just continually publish your own unsubstantiated opinions like some like some old political party hack. Let me teach you journalism. You’re opinion isn’t the story. The people and the happening are the story. Please ask both sides or just shut up.

Kevin White

On Sunday, May 30, 2021, 9:56:04 PM CDT, Ann Garrison <ann@kpfa.org> wrote:

Kevin, there’s no one I’d rather see endorsing New Day Pacifica.
On Sun, May 30, 2021 at 6:57 PM Kevin White <cuitlacoche1@yahoo.com> wrote:
Do you support New Day Pacifice? I do. I consider them them the real path out of this nonsense. Please streamline our governance.

Kevin White

On Sunday, May 30, 2021, 8:11:28 PM CDT, Pacifica Democracy Project <voting@non-profit-elections.org> wrote:

Excerpt ” . . . can be found later at http://www.somethingshappening.com and click on ‘what happened?’ Thanks to Sha Tahmasebi for redesigning and maintaining the website.
AUDIO ARCHIVES  “Something’s Happening!” (and the Sunday ‘Alan Watts’) are available for listening on demand for 60 days after broadcast. Go to www.kpfk.org and click on ‘Audio Archives.’ Be sure to use the handy search engine to list only the program (s) you are interested in listening to. “Something’s Happening!” and “Alan Watts” are not downloadable because they contain program material which is not owned by Pacifica (nor me).
BEHIND THE SCENES The fund drive will go on another week, until June 4. With a $650,000 original goal, we have just made $300,000 at the end of May – a problem we are sharing with other non profits.
“Something’s Happening!” Has maintained #1 position of all programs in the amount of pledges taken as well as the level of listenership. Buzz and I have brought in far beyond our salaries and program expense which should make the ongoing program good for the station’s budget but things haven’t seemed to be evaluated that way in current bookkeeping by the boards. And we certainly contribute excellently to the Pacifica Mission! (for over 70 years combined) And Buzz has served both on the national and the local boards. Our proposed layoffs reek of Qanon logic. . . . “
This page is from 2015:

The Fight for Independent, Non-Corporate Radio Flares Up Again

Excerpt: . . . “Pacifica stations but to be able to personally pocket some of the proceeds. That unaccountable National Board led to crises that culminated in the lockout of KPFA in 1999 and the Christmas Coup at WBAI in 2000, triggering a long struggle that culminated in the current democratic bylaws structure.

Flash forward to 2019, and a rogue minority faction on the National Board, intent on selling the New York station, WBAI, and use the proceeds to benefit the Western stations in the network, launched a coup. Farcically insisting they were attempting to “save” WBAI, coup mongers, led by since fired Interim Executive Director John Vernile (then on the job for all of two months!) and National Board Secretary Bill Crosier, removed WBAI from the air in the midst of a fund drive.

The fund drive was stopped, the web site at which listeners could make donations was disabled and all local programming was taken off the air, replaced with canned programming from California with no local content. The team led by Mr. Vernile that descended on WBAI the morning of October 7, 2019, dismantled the equipment, rendering it impossible to broadcast; immediately fired all employees; confiscated the station bank account; took checks left in the office; put padlocks on the doors; and told the station’s landlord she should find a new tenant while cutting off rent payments. The WBAI web site, including all archives of past shows, was wiped clean and replaced with a one-page site with a propaganda message justifying the coup. Not the actions of people with the interests of listeners at heart.

That coup would be reversed a month later, but the other half of the coup attempt, a referendum on bylaws proposed by those behind the WBAI shutdown, remained to be contested. It was defeated by a nearly 2-to-1 margin by both listeners and staff a year ago.

Nonetheless, we have to go through this again, instead of putting energy into tackling Pacifica’s problems. This time the proposed bylaws, while still . . . “

Ed. Note: KPFK would not, would never be a beneficiary or perpetrator of this, just KPFANationalOffice.

” https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/21/the-fight-for-independent-non-corporate-radio-flares-up-again/ “

A Tale of Two Frames

Traditional Authority	Egalitarian/Consultative
Situation: management sharing a decision
Members ask logistical clarifying questions to effectively implement the decision	Members ask questions to understand rationale, measure against mission, express concerns, and possibly co-create something better.
Asking management questions about decisions in private
Purpose: manager gets member “on board” with decision. Convincing through fallacy, seduction, or threat is allowed. Member’s questions not to be answered unless the answer gets them “on board”.	Member seeks to understand manager’s proposal, how it flows from and is related to common purpose (mission), and may raise concerns which are expected to be addressed, possibly resulting in a proposal modification.
Asking management questions about decisions in public
Threat to authority. Not being a team player. Management must re-establish authority or lose face and power.	Seek to understand proposal and assess how it matches the common purpose (mission), raising concerns about mismatches, propose possible modifications to address mismatches. Proposal will NOT go forward while significant unaddressed concerns persist.
Discussing and critiquing management decisions and edicts among members
Polarizing the organization. Threat to authority. Mutiny. Disrespectful to avoid using proper channels.	Benefitting from diversity’s wisdom. Safeguarding against decisions counter to mission. Combatting marginalization.
Failing to produce the membership list when requested by a member
Protection. Protecting members from harassment. Securing lines of authority and communication. Squashing divisiveness and pain. Possibly saving face.	Censorship. Free speech rights violation. Legal violation. Trying to avoid responsibility to answer relevent questions.

Please note that member lists cannot be accessed by members to get addresses etc., they go to Mailing House to have the messages be sent out to members.
https://rescuepacifica.net/

May 4, 2021, 5:29 AM (8 days ago)

On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 2:01 AM <> wrote:
> Your philosophy would have worked well when WBAI was financially supporting the whole network including the struggling CA stations, which I guess would have been sold off in the 70’s when they were flailing.

i’ve heard of such times, but haven’t seen documentation. pacifica did
sell a national office in 1981 to bail out WBAI and WPFW, so 1925 MLK
wasn’t the first casualty.

> I know divide and conquer is appealing to some, but cannabalism is what it is. The reality of paying the bills sometimes calls for belt tightening, but you always hold onto the stations and local broadcasting because
> that is Pacifica’s mission and delivering on what the mission demands is what controls the actions of nonprofit organizations. That’s the difference, by the way.

that is certainly the important difference. pacifica’s mission is
nonspecific as to location, and as i’m sure we all know, reads in
part: “To establish and operate for educational purposes, in such
manner that the facilities involved shall be *as nearly
self-sustaining as possible*, one or more radio broadcasting
stations…” if a station or facility chronically fails to sustain
itself, trying another market is an obvious idea.

pacifica foundation board meeting, 11/21/81:

…SALE OF THE VENICE BOULEVARD BUILDING
After a long discussion of needs and alternatives, a Resolution was
adopted, 16 for, 0 opposed, 1 abstention, as follows:

Moved (Mel Reich) Seconded (Alex Vavoulis), carried:

That the President be empowered, in consultation with the Executive
Director, Treasurer, KPFK Station Manager, and the Board of Directors
members in Los Angeles, to mortgage, sell or otherwise dispose of the
National Office building as quickly as possible; provided that
$216,000 shall be available in the first year for National Office debt
retirement, moving expense, retirement of first mortgage and real
estate commission.

The motion on use of the money that would become available was passed
14 for, 0 opposed, 1 abstention as follows:

That to the extent monies are available from the sale or other
disposition of the National Office Building, or financing relating to
the sale or other disposition of the National Office Building, the
monies shall be applied to the following matters:

1. Retirement of National Office debt of up to $120,000;
2. Moving expense of National Office of approximately $25,000;
3. Loan to WBAI of up to $60,000; and
4. Grant to WPFW of up to $60,400…

“The “Healthy Station project” comes to KPFA

16 viewsSubscribe

Lyn Gerry

unread,Jul 10, 1997, 3:00:00 AMto
Lynne Chadwick, co-founder of NFCB’s “Healthy Station
Project” named as new manager for KPFA
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

On July 3, 1997 KPFA management announced that Lynne Chadwick,
Director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, would
take over for outgoing KPFA GM Marci Lockwood. Chadwick is one of the
founders of the “Healthy Station Project” which pushed community
stations toward commercialization and “professionalization,” and
advocated the use of more paid staff and a reduced role for community
programmers and members in decision-making.

The Grassroots Radio Coalition, whose second annual conference will
take place at the end of this month in Boulder, Colorado, is composed
of a growing number of stations who have rejected the “Healthy
Station” premise. In many cases, these community stations have had to
fight long hard battles to take their stations back. Because of this,
the GRC conference attendees understood and were supportive of Free
Pacifica delegates who attended last years conference to publicize our
struggle.

This a further ominous step in the program of the current Pacifica
regime of Executive Director Pat Scott, whose “5-year Plan”
articulates a goal of re-creating Pacifica Stations as a “professional
broadcast organization.”

Jesse Walker, a community broadcaster and journalist, has provided the
following excerpt from a work- in -progress which explains the
“Healthy Station” project and the struggle against it. (WERU is one
of the co-founders and sponsors of the Grassroots Radio Coalition.)

For more info on the GRC, visit the GRC website:
http://www.kgnu.org/grassroots

In an excerpt from an early draft of a forthcoming paper, J . . . “

From Studio B, where most talk radio shows originate? With a toggle switch between B and Master Control?

“My question still is what plans do you and your allies on the Pacifica Board and elsewhere have to bring Pacifica into the current era and capture a younger audience.

form a task force to figure out what has driven the younger audience
from streaming and digital physical media to retro electromechanical
phonographs (ie, “vinyl”). then adapt that driver for the type of
sound pacifica creates, to facilitate easy migration of this younger
audience from streaming and audio podcast / download to pacifica’s
retro FM broadcasts.

maybe what pacifica needs are more music programs certified to source
all sound from vinyl. i think free radio berkeley had a program called
“vinyl time machine” which did just this. fortunately for KPFA, they
never acquired an FCC license. so let pacifica seize this opportunity!
pacifica could augment the audio broadcast with jacket and liner notes
images over the Internet, and more fully recreate an album experience
which would be new to this younger audience. make sure the task force
examines any necessary licensing for the images.

too bad the younger audience will most often have to appreciate a
seventeen inch image on a six inch screen, but maybe they’ll gather
around the iMac for a nicer and more social experience.”

My FB Group/Page- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1701795143478626