KPFA Public Discussion

Other Perspectives on the KPFA/Pacifica Crisis

Everyone knows there has been a lot of talk on the KPFA airwaves regarding the financial and personnel issues at KPFA.
How did we get here? There are alternative views on these issues that have not been heard on the air.

You are invited to come, share your perspective and engage in discussion
following the presentations at this community forum.

Monday, December 13th, 7:00 - 9:30 pm
BFUU, 1924 Cedar St, Berkeley, at Bonita

SPONSORED BY PROJECT CENSORED AND SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE OF BFUU


Peter Franck

Pacifica: "What is it and Why Do We Need it."
The history of the relationship between Pacifica and KPFA and the underlying tension about control, nature, and strength of each. What is the nature of the relationship of Pacifica to KPFA today?

Peter Franck was first interviewed on KPFA during his student activist days, circa 1955, in 1966-67 he, along with Tom Hayden, Casper Weinberger and others, did a weekly 15 minute commentary on KPFA after the evening newscast, he was asked to join the local kpfa board in 1973 and represented KPFA on the Pacifica board from 1975 to 1984, he was President of the Pacifica Foundation 1980-1984. During the 80s he served on the board of Media Alliance, and founded the National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications (CDC), which defended Stephen Dunifer, Free Radio Berkeley, and San Francisco Liberation Radio (among others) from the FCC 's attempts to silence so called pirate radio. More recently he chaired Media Action Marin which successfully lobbied for the founding of the Community Media Center of Marin with a $3M grant extracted from Comcast. Peter Practices media and entertainment law with the Oakland firm of Lee, Lawless & Blyth. Among his current clients are the Center for Asian American Media, the Center for Socialist History and El Cerrito's Down Home Music.

Carol Spooner

The purpose and vision of Pacifica's by-laws and the idea behind the establishment of listener elected local station boards and a national board elected by the local boards.

Carol Spooner is a semi-retired lawyer. She was the lead plaintiff in the "listeners lawsuit" filed in 1999 that resulted in the resignation of the old self-selecting Pacifica Board in December 2001 and the adoption of new Pacifica bylaws requiring elected local and national boards. She served on the Pacifica National Board from January 2002-January 2005 and the KPFA Local Station Board from April 2000-April 2005.

Tracy Rosenberg

Pacifica's 2010-2011 budget process - what happened and how did we get to where we are now? What are the challenges we are facing in community media generally and with KPFA specifically? What are next steps to maintain a strong, justice-oriented, alternative and grounded radical media outlet at KPFA in these difficult times?

Tracy Rosenberg has been the Executive Director of Media Alliance since 2007. She has organized and advocated for a free, accountable and accessible media system, focusing on the protection and sustainability of alternative media outlets from Pacifica Radio to low-power FM and Indymedia, monitored the mainstream media for accuracy and fair representation and facilitated the training of numerous nonprofit organizations and citizen's groups in effective communications. She also worked at Pacifica Radio as a program coordinator, facilitator and community election supervisor. She currently sits on the boards of the Media and Democracy Coalition, the Alliance for Community Media Western Region and the Pacifica Foundation.



Moderator: Mickey Huff
Director of Project Censored/Media Freedom Foundation; associate professor of history, Diablo Valley College; co-editor of "Censored 2011" with Dr, Peter Phillips; host of the Empire, Power, and Propaganda Lecture Series each semester in Berkeley. Mickey designed and teaches classes on "History of U.S. Media" at Berkeley City College, Critical Reasoning in History, "America, 9/11, and the War on Terror: Media Myth Making and the Propaganda of Historical Construction," and "American Popular Culture and Mass Media in Historical Perspectives" at colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mickey has co-organized and presented at numerous national academic conferences on media and recent historical events.

Project Censored is planning a debate on these issues to be held in January.