Berkeley- After a brief interval of being able to conduct business due to the voluntary exit of the remnants of the Siegel/Brazon faction from the February 10 board meeting, the respite ended on Thursday February 16. Four hours of chaos ensued.
Despite the able chairing of newly-elected chair Jonathan Alexander, the angry former majority put on a show, displaying their ample ability to interrupt, bully, shout, scream and disrupt. The board took two votes of almost no consequence, one to revote on acceptance of the affiliate director vote tally that includes the votes of WBAI’s directors that had been excluded, and one to postpone discussion of a bylaws conflict. Not much for four hours of work. The comparison to the productive meeting on February 10 is striking.
A tentative count (don’t quote us on this) over the course of 4 hours and 17 minutes is: 78 points of order, 55 points of information, 38 points of personal privilege and 6 different challenges to the chair. While we would normally try to provide a more extensive summary reel, since it is a little hard to listen to, we are providing a five minute clip, which pretty much sounds like all the other 4 hours and 12 minutes. The full audio is available for streaming or download at kpftx.org. A Mozart sonata would have improved things immensely, but no such luck was to be had.
An executive director report was provided by new interim executive director Bill Crosier, but the national board couldn’t be bothered to hear it. You can read it here.
The new board majority will have to re-establish order at the next board meeting, which is currently scheduled for the evening of February 24.
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A timeline of the 35-month long coup by the Siegel/Brazon faction can be seen here.
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Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica’s storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases including the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin’s incendiary performances on WBAI. Pacifica Foundation Radio operates noncommercial radio stations in New York, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and syndicates content to over 180 affiliates. It invented listener-supported radio.
wow ! sure glad you are always there..to report to us…and we dont have to live thru turmoil & chaos…continuing….on and on.
thanks again [repeat msg to ya ]
The Disruptathoners have stolen a page from the Congressional GOP Playbook: divert, disrupt, delay, detain, deny.
It’s what happened to the Merrick Garland SCOTUS nomination. I knew we were in for the long haul when they refused to even contemplate Garland, and even before that the Mein Trumpf was getting about a trillion dollars of free face time, to the exclusion of everyone else alive, on every big screen at my gym, all of ’em.
Somebody asked me, “Fox?”
Hell no, ALL the channels. One day well over a year ago I saw that even ESPN was running the Orange Mug, and MSNBC and all the others, and I realized in one breath “0 S**t” that the fix was in, that it was the most massive and coordinated black op in CIA/MOBs history. It was so blatant, it was hard to imagine more folks didn’t see The Big Fix. They swooned at the ubiquitous alibi, “Well, that’s cuz he boosts ratings!”
And voilà, a prez who had a majority disapproval rating in 8 days, moral light years ahead of any other, living or dead.
So, the Pacifica Bandits & Pirates (they know who they are and so do we) have been given their marching papers, or sitting papers, to be as dilatory as their script requires.
But, nothing comes with a guarantee, for either side.
That’s why times like these can be in their yin and yang the most productive and constructive, as it is an elevation of hope and faith that is required, file it how we may.
I listened gleefully the other day as Cornel West rocked the House ? at Democracy Now, saying that at 64 he’s waited all his life in preparation for such times as these.
In terms of didruptathoners at large. I was lucky enough to find in my fortune cookie in October, “A strong challenge will bring out your finest qualities.”
There’s a great mandate. Ours.