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WEFT: more resistance to the hijackers 8-25-01 ( hijacker responds below ) |
Dear Pacifica Board Members, I failed to mention in my note below, that we have replaced Pacifica Network News with Free Speech Radio News. This has been the case ever since Free Speech Radio News became available as a daily newscast. Tonight, our Board of Directors will decide if WEFT will renew our Pacifica Contract beginning in October. Your lack of communication, ill treatment of us as an affiliate, and your attempts to destroy the Pacifica Foundation make this very unlikely. If I know the members of our Board at all, I would say the only thing that will make the decision to cancel our contract difficult is the fact that we would lose Democracy Now! in October. Our listeners would be greatly disappointed. Me, too.
Sincerely,
========================= Saturday, August 25, 2001 Dear Members of the Pacifica Board, I write to you from Champaign, Il where I am Chair of the Programming Committee at community radio station, WEFT, 90.1 FM. We have been following the struggle over control of the Pacifica Foundation and its radio stations, especially the crisis at WBAI and Democracy Now! specifically. First, as programming chair of a Pacifica affiliate station, I request that you stop feeding archived editions of Democracy Now! and uplink the daily live versions of the program that Amy Goodman and her staff have been producing from a remote and safe studio. If you do not, we will continue to inform our listeners that you are blocking the daily, live broadcasts of Democracy Now! We have been making such on-air announcements to listeners since August 14th, when you first fed us an archived edition of the program. And, since Agusut 21st, we have been providing our DN! listeners with the live daily program downloaded from the Internet. As long as Ms. Goodman and her staff produce a daily live program, WEFT will carry it and not the archived editions you feed to us. And, we will continue to inform our listeners daily of the crisis. Secondly, I respectfully request that you resign from the Pacifica National Board. It has become clear to me that you do not represent or understand the mission of progressive, listener supported noncommercial radio. Your silence in the wake of the bannings and firings and hostile work environment at WBAI are immoral. Your failure to remove Uttrice Leid as interim station manager and Steven Yasko as national program director clearly indicate that you have a vested interest in the destruction of the Pacifica Network. The resistance to you, Ms. Leid and Mr. Yasko is swelling around the country, even in little old Champaign, IL.
Sincerely,
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From: Stephen Yasko syasko@pacifica.org
Kimberly, You should know that Mick Wolfe has had extensive, some times exhaustive, conversations with Pacifica staff from time to time over a variety of issues including Democracy Now! With all due respect, I find the tone of your email more of a political statement than a programming decision. Pacifica is not blocking Democracy Now! as the staff is on an unauthorized leave of absence and Democracy Now! is not being produced. Live versions of Democracy Now! will resume when the staff returns to work. Any statements you are airing accusing Pacifica of blocking these broadcasts and any representation by your station that this unauthorized version that this program is the property of the Pacifica Foundation is untrue. The staff is acting without the permission or authorization of their employer. This program is not our program to distribute. If you have been following the dispatches we have been sending out to affiliates (please contact Brian Gibbons at bgibbons@pacifica.org to make sure you are personally on the list), then you know that the broadcast you are running is unauthorized by the Pacifica Foundation. If the broadcast you are running is using the name Democracy Now! or Pacifica, it does so without our permission and is an unauthorized use of name and trademarks. The name Democracy Now! is the property of the Pacifica Foundation, not the staff who is on an unauthorized leave of absence. Since it is not a Pacifica Foundation broadcast, any indemnifications or other protections our affiliate agreements do not apply to this broadcast. I am sorry you have chosen not to air Pacifica Network News. Your listeners will not hear the best progressive journalism and commentators available. PNN believes the key to Progressive Journalism is a commitment to the highest journalistic ethics and policies. We have received much praise from listeners in the past few months and we are continuing to raise the bar every day. Stephen Yasko ----------------------------------
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