No subject

Anthony Sloan has just announced on Radio4Houston that there will be no live 
show produced as the Democracy Now crew will be meeting with management in the 
morning. Anthony said that attendees at the meeting will be : Yasko, Leid, a 
lawyer representing "Pacifica", an AFTRA representative and the Democracy Now 
crew.

Please attend the demo at WBAI 120 Wall Street at 7 am if you can. Yasko 
should see a large and vocal crowd.

Lyn

http://savewbai.tao.ca
***********

Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 17:13:49 -0400
From: Shebar Windstone <shebar at inch.com
Subject: Bessie Wash (Mis)Statement / Disinformation / Lie

As we who've been following the situation know, this morning WBAI refused the 
audio feed offered by Democracy Now from its independent & harassment-free 
production studios outside the station. But it seems Pacifica is continuing 
its usual pattern. Note Wash's wording: "...Amy Goodman has chosen not to 
host..." This appears to leave an opening for Pacifica to install a stooge in 
her place. I'll refrain from commenting on their "commitment" to the program's 
-- & Amy's -- devoted listeners.

Undoubtedly many of us will be outside the station tomorrow morning from 
7:00-10:00 am & many more hours in the coming days & nights. Please write or 
call Pacifica to urge that Amy Goodman & other Democracy Now producers be 
given unimpeded & unharassed access to WBAI's main production studio & to 
their office & that the program be broadcast free of censorship. Meanwhile, 
look for more info at savepacifica.net, pacificacampaign.org, wbix.org, 
flashpoints.net, democracynow.org, goodlight.net/wbai/, & other free speech 
websites.
- Shebar

The following file was uploaded/updated at
Tuesday, August 14, 2001 3:49:16 PM Local time
[from the Pacifica website]

http://www.pacifica.org/info/prgnws8_14.html


*******
STATEMENT OF BESSIE WASH,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE
PACIFICA FOUNDATION

AUGUST 14, 2001
We are disappointed that Amy Goodman has chosen not to host the
award-winning Democracy Now! from the studios of WBAI. This is an
unfortunate situation that serves only to deprive the show's listeners of
programming important to them.

While we maintain a policy that prevents us from publicly discussing internal
disputes and personnel matters, we will continue to try to bridge any
differences and find a suitable arrangement for those involved. Whatever our
differences are, we feel that the devoted listeners of the show should not be
penalized. Pacifica apologizes to the listeners of Democracy Now! and is
committed to returning the show to the air as soon as possible.


*******
 ..friends, I repost here some very useful information on Amy Goodman which 
ran at the back of one of Bob Lederer's emails earlier today and may have been 
missed.

--efs

==================================

This was posted on the WBAI Goodlights Message Board this morning, and appears 
to be an accurate rendering of Amy's comments, generally confirmed by other 
sources.

Anonymous
Amy calls in to WBIX and explains what happened
Tue Aug 14 10:33:27 2001

Democracy Now! broadcast from Downtown Community Television today. Amy [called 
into WBIX afterwards and] talked about what happened and why they have 
relocated.

"Even after we closed our door, they used a super master key to break into our 
office. We had closed the door to stop them from shouting at us. Even the 
Morning Show anchor Santiago Nieves had to come out and tell them to stop 
because it could be heard on the broadcast. It is a tremendously hate-filled 
and hostile workplace. We let the Board and Management know yesterday that we 
had found a safe harbor in a place on the outskirts of Chinatown. Some amazing 
people helped us out - Jason, Andy, John Alpert - they have made it possible 
for us to be in a space where we can feel safe."

WBIX told Amy they were playing a tape on John Lennon and Amy said "Oh then 
they're
playing Lennon's Imagining Peace. We didn't want to just imagine it, we wanted 
to experience it! Management was not giving us any relief from the tremendous 
hostility against us, which culminated in physical violence. We told 
Washington that we had relocated and that it was available on satellite, and 
so it's their choice whether to broadcast Democracy Now! Management has said 
that they will meet with us to discuss these issues. The hostility is
tremendous, and it's not just against us of course, but the many who have been 
driven out, the banned and the fired."

Note: if the signal stations, affiliates and Pacifica stations decide to carry 
the program it will be heard. Check KPFA at noon to see they broadcast it 
[they do live streaming at

www.kpfa.org]. There was an air check today and if they decide to put those 
air checks up on webactive, we'll be able to listen on the Democracy Now! 
archives.

****************

Much of the above was also reported by Pamela Somers on NewPacifica, plus the 
following:

From: Pamela Somers <psomers at n...>
Date: Tue Aug 14, 2001 3:04 pm
Subject: Amy and Dan Coughlin call in to WBIX

[snip]

I should note that Amy called in and spoke with Listener Joyce on WBIX,
followed by Dan Coughlin calling in with the latest info from the
Pacifica Campaign, where they are monitoring the situation very closely. Dan
said that Amy was in fact physically accosted on Friday afternoon by
WBAI General Manager Utrice Leid, who attacked Amy for taking a picture
of WBAI staffers who were rifling through the effects of fired Program
Director Bernard White.

He said Amy complained formally to Pacifica about the assault and the
hate-filled work environment at WBAI, but Pacifica did absolutley
nothing. They did not respond to her or acknowledge her complaints. He
said "Many of us have heard the diatribes, and the encitements to
violence by the tyrannical Utrice Leid and her followers on the air, and
it's reprehensible and disgusting."

Pacifica Campaign is calling on listeners around the country to protest
by calling and writing to Pacifca Headquarters in Washington D.C. to
protest this attack on Democracy Now!
Call Executive Director Bessie Wash: 202-588-0999 ext 348
Call National Program Director Steve Yasko: 202-841-2059
Check the website for more fax and email addresses:
http://www.pacificacampaign.org
Feel free to call the Pacifica Campaign for updates: 646-230-9588
And stay tuned to http://www.wbix.org

******************
Anonymous
KPFA WILL BROADCAST DEM. NOW from new location at noon
Tue Aug 14 11:20:17 2001

KPFA News just announced that Amy and Co. have moved out of the WBAI studios 
because of escalating harassment and that Pacifica has refused to distribute 
the program from the new location on their satellite. KPFA WILL BE 
BROADCASTING THE 'RELOCATED' SHOW this morning (noon Eastern time) and 
presumably as long as it continues to be produced outside the toxic waste dump 
that WBAI has become.

***************************************
Note on the following: Today's broadcast is not up yet; keep checking to see 
if it's put up later.

Roger M
Democracy Now! audio url
Tue Aug 14 10:36:37 2001

The place to hear today's (and past) Democracy Now! audio is:
http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow.html

Roger M.
www.wbai.net

***************************

To: Pacifica-Affiliates <Pacifica-Affiliates at yahoogroups.com>
From: Christine Ahern <wjff at catskill.net>
Date sent: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 09:51:35 -0400
Send reply to: Pacifica-Affiliates at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Pacifica-Affiliates] Democracy Now Status

Amy Goodman and her staff are broadcasting today from a remote location,
to ensure their safety and better working conditions, but Pacifica
National is NOT uplinking the ISDN feed. Instead, we are hearing an
archive program. When I called WBAI about it and asked where Amy was,
they replied "We don't know, she never called or came in." Please make
your concern known to all Pacifica staff and Board members - the list is
below.
Christine Ahern
WJFF

CONTACT INFO

Please call, fax and/or e-mail the following individuals. Please
contact as many times as you feel necessary for your voice to be heard.
You can make one phone call a day over the next five days or five
today. Your phone calls are important. Keep the message simple and
straightforward.

WBAI Interim GM Utrice Leid
Tel: 212-209-2800/2820
Fax: 212-747-1698
E-mail: uleid at escape.com

Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash
Tel: 202-588-0999 x 348 or 888-770-4944 x348
Fax: 202-588-0561
E-mail: bmwpacifica at aol.com

Pacifica Board Vice Chair Ken Ford
Tel: 202-822-0228
Fax: 202-822-0369
E-mail: kenfordpacifica at aol.com, kford at nahb.com

Pacifica Board member Valrie Chambers
Tel: 361-825-6012
Fax: 281-655-0266
E-mail: Valrie.Chambers at mail.tamucc.edu, valriechambers at aol.com

Pacifica Board member Wendell L. Johns
Tel: 202-752-5355
Fax: 202-752-4281
E-mail: wendell_L_johns at fanniemae.com

Cut the below list of email addresses, paste it into the To: line of
your email composition form. Also go to:
http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/pacifica/resign/

Bmwpacifica at aol.com, uleid at escape.com, kford at nahb.com,
KenFordPacifica at aol.com, jmurdock at ebglaw.com,
wendell_L_johns at fanniemae.com, Alfigo at aol.com, valriechambers at aol.com,
Valrie.Chambers at mail.tamucc.edu, jhoward at nahb.com,
bsmith at nahbofficer.com, pacificacampaign at yahoo.com

THIS MEMO WAS SENT ON AUGUST 14

***********************************
To: Pacifica National Board and Management
From: Democracy Now! Staff

This morning we produced and broadcast Democracy Now! from Downtown Community 
Television, a respected and fully equipped local broadcast facility. We even 
invited Pacifica Management to join us. It was a live program on the 
anti-globalization movement from Genoa to Kenya to Washington DC, and on an 
important UN report regarding racism in the US. As we do everyday, we linked 
by ISDN to the Ku satellite for the appointed hour, but Pacifica blocked our 
broadcast.

We have been retaliated against simply because we took
steps to protect our physical safety and the integrity
of the program by broadcasting from a safe space.

As we told Pacifica yesterday, we do not feel safe at WBAI.

Yesterday we wrote to the Pacifica National Board,
Steve Yasko, Bessie Wash and others describing in
detail the months-long campaign of harassment,
discrimination and abuse to which the Democracy Now!
staff have been subjected. This culminated last
Friday in the physical assault against Amy Goodman by
WBAI Station Manager Utrice Leid, and again on Monday
morning when a WBAI producer and staff member used a
master key to open the locked door to our office and
verbally harass us as we were attempting to prepare
for the morning's show.

Pacifica Management, through its outright refusal to
substantively address a single one of our complaints,
has made it clear they are unwilling to guarantee our
physical safety or protect us from this outrageous
abuse.

Yet this morning we were told by Pacifica that we had to continue
broadcasting from WBAI, and that National
Program Director Steve Yasko would guarantee
our safety. This is absurd, since it is Mr. Yasko,
through his refusal to address any of our complaints,
who has sent a green light to WBAI management and
employees that they can physically and verbally harass
us, even assault us, without fear of consequences.

Yasko has shown absolutely no good faith in this
matter and his assurances to us are meaningless.

It is outrageous that Pacifica chose to air a rerun of Democracy Now. We 
produced a fully prepared live program with guests in the studio and a clean 
technical link-up. In fact the technical conditions
were superior to those in the substandard editing
studios WBAI Station Manager Utrice Leid has forced
Democracy Now!, and no other program, to broadcast from in recent days.

We cannot be expected to broadcast from WBAI unless
steps are immediately taken to create an environment
in which we feel our physical safety is not
threatened. In addition, WBAI management and staff
must immediately halt their verbal, physical, and
technical harassment of the program and us on and off
the air. Finally, we demand immediate steps to hold Pacifica managers 
accountable for these egregious actions.

Signed,
Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now!"
Kris Abrams, producer of "Democracy Now!"
Brad Simpson, producer of "Democracy Now!"
Anthony Sloan, engineer of "Democracy Now

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 19:58:26 -0400
From: FAIR-L <FAIR-L at FAIR.ORG>
Reply-To: fair-l-request at listserv.american.edu
To: FAIR-L at LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Subject: [FAIR-L] Pacifica Refuses to Distribute Democracy Now!

FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports

ACTION ALERT:
PACIFICA REFUSES TO DISTRIBUTE DEMOCRACY NOW!
Harassment of Host Amy Goodman Continues

August 14, 2001

This morning, the Pacifica Radio Network refused to distribute the regularly
scheduled broadcast of Amy Goodman's award-winning news show, Democracy Now!
Instead, most listeners heard an old show with no explanation for the
irregularity.

For over a year, Goodman has faced continuing harassment-- including racist
and sexist slurs and physical intimidation-- at WBAI, the New York station
Democracy Now! usually broadcasts from. Goodman and the Democracy Now! team
showed remarkable dedication in continuing to produce their high-quality
show in such a hostile environment, but over the last few weeks the
harassment intensified to the point where it became impossible for them to
continue working in WBAI's studios.

Accordingly, Goodman arranged to do the show from the studios of Downtown
Community Television in lower Manhattan until Pacifica management could
provide her a safe working environment. Democracy Now! was available for
broadcast as usual, but Pacifica chose not to distribute it, though a few
individual stations-- including Pacifica's KPFA in Berkeley and Pacifica
affiliate WMNF in Tampa-- did pick up the show on their own initiative.

The crisis at Pacifica is ongoing, but this most recent interference with
Democracy Now! began on August 2 when Pacifica's director of national
programming, Steve Yasko, ordered Goodman to stop ending the show with the
sign-off she has used since last year's "Christmas Coup" firings at WBAI:
"From the embattled studios of WBAI, from the studios of the banned and the
fired, from the studios of our listeners, I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for
listening to another edition of Democracy Now!"

When Goodman asserted her journalistic integrity and continued to use the
sign-off, Yasko accused her in writing of "deliberate insubordination."
Shortly thereafter, WBAI Interim General Manager Utrice Leid ordered the
Democracy Now! staff out of the station's main studio, forcing them to
produce the technically complex, live program from a poorly equipped
sub-studio.

On August 10, according to the listeners' group Pacifica Campaign, Leid's
harassment of Goodman escalated and became physical. The group reports that
"according to eyewitnesses, Amy came upon two WBAI staffers rifling through
the personal possessions of fired WBAI Program Director Bernard White."
Goodman asked them to stop, and when they refused, Goodman got her camera
and began taking photos to document the incident.

Leid arrived at that point, reports Pacifica Campaign, and "ripped the
camera out of Amy's hands and stalked into an adjacent office." When Goodman
demanded her camera back, Leid reportedly "laughed in Amy's face" and told
her she would have the film developed herself. Leid then "physically shoved
Amy out of the way and marched down the hallway to her own office" and shut
the door. Goodman remained outside Leid's office until Leid returned the
camera.

Pacifica Campaign also reports that due to an expensive new security and
surveillance system installed by Leid, "the work environment at WBAI today
more resembles the Pentagon and the CIA than a radical, community radio
station." Every employee now needs a card key to enter the building; at
Leid's discretion, each key can be programmed to provide only for approved
time periods, such as one hour before a show begins and one hour after it
concludes.

Pacifica Radio is precious because for most of its 50-year history, it has
been one of the progressive community's most vital and vibrant resources, a
listener-sponsored free speech radio network. Recently, however, a
self-selected board majority has put that tradition at risk by disempowering
listeners and local station workers and watering down the network's
tradition of critical, independent programming.

FAIR is appalled by Pacifica and WBAI's harassment of Goodman and the
Democracy Now! team, and we support the efforts being made by listener
groups, as well as staff at some stations, to make Pacifica into a
democratic, accountable and diverse network. As we have stated before, FAIR
calls for Pacifica's National Board to resign in order to make way for
positive change.

ACTION: There are many ways to help.

1) Rallies in support of Democracy Now! are scheduled in several cities:
Los Angeles: Wednesday, August 15, 7-10 AM at KPFK, 3729 Cahuenga Blvd.,
North Hollywood.
New York City: Wednesday, August 15, 7 - 10 AM, at WBAI, 120 Wall Street.
Washington D.C.: Wednesday, August 15, 9:00 AM, at WPFW, 2390 Champlain St.
NW. (See http:

www.wpfw.net for more information about WPFW organizing.)

2) Listeners across the country are supporting Democracy Now! by calling and
writing to Pacifica. If you listen to one of the five main Pacifica
stations, you can contact your local station directly and urge them to air
current broadcasts of Democracy Now! (Berkeley's KPFA: 510-848-6767;
Houston's KPFT: 713-526-4000; Los Angeles' KPFK: 818-985-2711; New York
City's WBAI: 212-209-2800; Washington, D.C.'s WPFW: 202-588-0999).

3) You can also contact Utrice Leid, along with members of Pacifica's
National Board (see below).

As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if
you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair at fair.org with your
correspondence.

CONTACT:
Utrice Leid, WBAI Interim General Manager
Tel: 212-209-2800/2820; Fax: 212-747-1698
uleid at escape.com

Bessie Wash, Pacifica Executive Director
Tel: 202-588-0999 x 348 or 888-770-4944 x348; Fax: 202-588-0561
bmwpacifica at aol.com

Ken Ford, Pacifica Board Vice Chair
Tel: 202-822-0228; Fax: 202-822-0369
kenfordpacifica at aol.com

Valrie Chambers, Pacifica Board member
Tel: 361-825-6012; Fax: 281-655-0266
Valrie.Chambers at mail.tamucc.edu

Wendell L. Johns, Pacifica Board member
Tel: 202-752-5355; Fax: 202-752-4281
wendell_L_johns at fanniemae.com

For convenience, you can cut and paste these email addresses into your
message:
uleid at escape.com, bmwpacifica at aol.com, kenfordpacifica at aol.com,
Valrie.Chambers at mail.tamucc.edu, wendell_L_johns at fanniemae.com;
fair at fair.org

For more information on the Pacifica crisis, please visit:
FAIR's Pacifica resources,
http://www.fair.org/activism/pacifica-history.html
The Pacifica Campaign, http://www.pacificacampaign.org

To listen to Democracy Now! online, tune in to:
WBAI Radio in Exile, http://www.wbix.org

----------

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