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KPFA: Report on Claims of Corporate Underwriting by Merrill Lynch
This is being provided in the fulfillment of my duties as the board treasurer of the Pacifica Foundation. Any reports to the contrary issued by foundation spokespeople or broadcasted should be retracted.
Here are the facts regarding the claims of corporate underwriting from Merrill Lynch that have been erroneously reported by (sequentially), the WBAI LSB, the KPFA News Department and the Save KPFA organization. Please feel free to forward this report.
The issuer of the checks in question is Goldman Sachs Gives. Goldman Sachs Gives is the working name of the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund, a Delaware non-stock corporation, including its UK branch, The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund UK, a company limited by guarantee # 6314343, registered in England and Wales under charity #1120148 and as a charitable institution with Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department with a registered office at Peterborough Court 133 Fleet Street, London EC4 2BB.
This is a donor-advised gift by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous and who is located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The donor has advised a gift via the Goldman Sachs Gives Annual Giving Fund, The funds are payable to the Pacifica Foundation and the donor recommends the funds be used to support the WBAI News Department and a possible special series on Hydro-Fracking.
The terms of the gift are as follows.
"After considering the above recommendation, Goldman Sachs Gives has approved a grant to your organization. This grant is being made from the GS Gives Annual Giving Fund, an account within Goldman Sachs Gives. It is not necessary to issue a letter of acknowledgment to Goldman Sachs Gives for this donation. By accepting this check, your organization is deemed to certify to Goldman Sachs Gives that 1) no tangible benefit, goods or services were or will be received by an individual or entities connected with The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. or Goldman Sachs Gives and 2) you will not use this grant to satisfy the payment of any pledge or other personal financial obligation on behalf of the person(s) recommending this grant or any person or entity connected to the recommenders."
***
This is a major donor gift from an individual to the Pacifica Foundation accompanied by a recommendation from the donor on how he would "like" the gift to be used that has no binding force of law. There is no grant report due to the entity Goldman Sachs Gives and no constraints on the Pacifica Foundation to use the funds in any way, except that they should not pay the donor's personal bills with it.
Please reclassify the funds as an unrestricted major donor gift so it is recorded correctly on the Foundation books.
Documentation available on request with thanks to WBAI and Goldman Sachs Gives for their assistance.
Tracy Rosenberg
Treasurer, Pacifica Foundation Board of Directors
KPFA -FM, Listener Representative
The issuer of the checks in question is Goldman Sachs Gives. Goldman Sachs Gives is the working name of the Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund, a Delaware non-stock corporation, including its UK branch, The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund UK, a company limited by guarantee # 6314343, registered in England and Wales under charity #1120148 and as a charitable institution with Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department with a registered office at Peterborough Court 133 Fleet Street, London EC4 2BB.
This is a donor-advised gift by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous and who is located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The donor has advised a gift via the Goldman Sachs Gives Annual Giving Fund, The funds are payable to the Pacifica Foundation and the donor recommends the funds be used to support the WBAI News Department and a possible special series on Hydro-Fracking.
The terms of the gift are as follows.
"After considering the above recommendation, Goldman Sachs Gives has approved a grant to your organization. This grant is being made from the GS Gives Annual Giving Fund, an account within Goldman Sachs Gives. It is not necessary to issue a letter of acknowledgment to Goldman Sachs Gives for this donation. By accepting this check, your organization is deemed to certify to Goldman Sachs Gives that 1) no tangible benefit, goods or services were or will be received by an individual or entities connected with The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. or Goldman Sachs Gives and 2) you will not use this grant to satisfy the payment of any pledge or other personal financial obligation on behalf of the person(s) recommending this grant or any person or entity connected to the recommenders."
***
This is a major donor gift from an individual to the Pacifica Foundation accompanied by a recommendation from the donor on how he would "like" the gift to be used that has no binding force of law. There is no grant report due to the entity Goldman Sachs Gives and no constraints on the Pacifica Foundation to use the funds in any way, except that they should not pay the donor's personal bills with it.
Please reclassify the funds as an unrestricted major donor gift so it is recorded correctly on the Foundation books.
Documentation available on request with thanks to WBAI and Goldman Sachs Gives for their assistance.
Tracy Rosenberg
Treasurer, Pacifica Foundation Board of Directors
KPFA -FM, Listener Representative
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http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/69266
A basic rule of journalism is that you check your facts and get the documentation BEFORE you make the news report!
This same newscast deliberate omitted the story of the ILWU rally of April to oppose the PMA's lawsuit against the ILWU for shutting down the ports on April 4 in support of Wisconsin labor on April 25, although it was announced by ILWU supporters and members on the Morning Mix on April 25. For more on this anti-labor scandal, see:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/04/26/18678093.php
As to the snot-nosed comments from the Hate Pacifica gang, only 11% of American workers are unionized; we all benefit from labor unions. This writer, a non-union clerical worker, was at the rally and heard excellent female speakers. It does not matter if they are union members; they had lots of good things to say. Perhaps the most rousing message came from a Code Pink member, calling for a general strike, as did many other speakers. This writer, soon retired, was most struck by the difference in demographics between those of us who work in the Financial District and the workers in the ILWU jackets. Shamefully, the Financial District is still mostly lily white, in contrast to the predominately African-American ILWU members. And also shamefully, the young workers in the Financial District showed no interest in stopping to listen just to find out what was going on. They will have to join us in the inevitable general strike that is coming as it is their future that they must fight for.
On Tuesday, April 26, 2011, the KPFA evening news report on Mumia Abu-Jamal introduced him as a former Black Panther. What does that mean to these young reactionaries on the Hate Pacifica team? For your information, the Black Panther Party existed from 1966 to 1974 as part of our anti-Vietnam War movement, with a focus on providing for the needs of the workingclass black community in terms of food, clothing, medicine, education and legal support. Yes, they supported the Second Amendment's right to self defense, and so does the National Rifle Association. In other words, it was basically a charity. Mumia joined at age 15 for a couple years. He was a journalist, president of the Black Journalists Association at the time of his frame-up, which the whole world knows is a frame-up because of his political opposition to police brutality and murder in Philadelphia. What we heard on KPFA could easily be heard on CBS. The Hate Pacifica gang must go.
The Morning Mix just announced that the May fundraiser starts next week, after which there will be no Morning Mix as Flashpoints is moving to the 8 a.m. slot. I can hardly wait for all the Hate Pacifica messages during the fundraiser, as the Hate Pacifica gang did for most of the last fundraiser, and got the warning notices they deserved. Perhaps this time their foot-in-mouth routine will be so bad that they will have to be terminated!
On the one hand, she argues that it is a private donation administered by Goldman Sachs. That means no harm, no foul, right? On the other hand, her own post says this: "Goldman Sachs Gives has approved a grant to your organization." That sounds like a whole lot more than administering a fund if Goldman has jurisdiction over whether the gifts are made or not!
Next, she says it is a suggested use of the gift to use it for a specific on-air purpose. The gifts were used for that purpose. If that is not underwriting, then what is?
Lastly, regardless of the merits of this donation, however, we now know that KPFA iGM Andrew Phillips thinks such corporate underwriting is the wave of the future, and that Lew Hill's vision of a network free from corporate influence is "outdated." Rosenberg also appears to endorse this view. This is why both should resign from Pacifica immediately.