On November 10, 2015, supporters of the Berkeley wing of the Siegel/Brazon faction (Save KPFA) targeted an interview between Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein and Indypendent editor Arun Gupta.
Gupta, who writes for The Nation, The Progressive, Al-Jazeera America, and The UK Guardian and has been a Democracy Now correspondent, was accused by Save KPFA supporter Sheila Sexton of being anti-union. This was quickly echoed by SaveKPFA-affiliated local station board member Kate Gowen and former Pacifica IED Margy Wilkinson, who asked for complaints to be filed with KPFA’s general manager and program director over Gupta’s interview.
Gupta provided a measured critique of SEIU’s leadership of the Fight for $15 movement.
The full 13 minute interview can be heard below.
The exchange on Facebook is excerpted here. It reveals a poor understanding of current progressive discourse, intolerance for dissent, the instinct to censor prominent national journalists, and a reflex reaction to punish the Flashpoints program, even going so far as to say it should be eliminated on editorial grounds.
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Sheila Sexton
Was anyone else just listening to Dennis Bernstein’s anti union segment? I tried to call to complain but no one answered.
Kate Gowen likes this.
Comments
Kate Gowen What did he say?
Margy Wilkinson Sheila: You can send a message to the General Manager at [email protected] and to the Program Director at [email protected]
Barrie Ann Mason I think Dennis Bernstein needs to move on, he’s used up his good will at KPFA. I’m sure he has loyal supporters however.
When someone writes an piece of writing he/she retains the
image of a user in his/her brain that how a user can understand it.
So that’s why this paragraph is amazing. Thanks!
With SEIU’s leadership’s endorsement of Clinton, I am sure many of the union’s own members are now “anti-union.”