On August 14th, 2001, the program "Democracy Now!" became unavailable as a live, daily program from Pacifica. For this reason, the WORT Board of Directors voted to immediately cease all payments to Pacifica. Since that day, the Democracy Now! staff has produced an "exile" version of the show daily from the studios of Downtown Community Television in Manhattan.

Since WORT continues to provide this program to our listeners, and in recognition and support of the excellent programming the Democracy Now! Team has provided live from the evacuation zone in New York since the events of September 11th, the WORT Board of Directors now resolves, until further notice, to send "Democracy Now! In Exile" an amount equivalent to WORT's former Pacifica carriage fees.

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August 15, 2001

Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash
Pacifica National Program Director Steve Yasko
Copy via Fax: 202-588-0561
Original via surface mail:
Pacifica Foundation National Office
2390 Champlain St. NW
Washington, DC 20009

Dear Ms. Wash and Mr. Yasko:

As a Pacifica Affiliate, WORT-FM Community Radio has been airing the excellent program Democracy Now!, hosted by Amy Goodman. This is the only Pacifica-produced program that we air in Madison, Wisconsin. As a live, daily version of that program is no longer available, we are ceasing, effective immediately, our payments to Pacifica.

If Democracy Now! is again able to broadcast a live, daily show from suitable and safe studios with its current team of dedicated producers and committed journalist/host Amy Goodman, we will consider resuming our payments to Pacifica.

This decision was reached by unanimous decision of our full Board of Directors at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday August 15th, 2001. Please direct any correspondence on this issue to Operations Coordinator, Norman Stockwell, who will share it with all members of our Board.

Sincerely,
DeEtte Tomlinson
President

Cc: Mariana Berkovich, Pacifica Finance Office

http://www.netphoria.com/wort/

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At 11:29 AM 9/13/01 -0600, Marty Durlin wrote:
KGNU BECOMES "AFFILIATE IN EXILE"

The KGNU Program Committee recommended this week that KGNU suspend its Pacifica affiliation until Amy Goodman's efforts and her program Democracy Now! are fully supported by Pacifica management and board.

The KGNU Board of Directors at its regular meeting, Tuesday, September 11, affirmed the committee recommendation with this resolution: "KGNU will suspend its Pacifica affiliation and payments effective October 1, 2001. This decision may be reconsidered in the future when and if Pacifica's board and management behave more responsibly toward their staff, contracting stations and listeners; and fully support Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! with appropriate budget, safe facilities and adequate administrative assistance."

As of October 1, KGNU will become an "Affiliate in Exile," and we invite other stations considering similar suspensions of affiliation to join us in a coordinated effort to communicate our concerns to Pacifica management and board.

http://www.kgnu.org/

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