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KPFA rallies for suspended N.Y. radio host

By Judith Scherr Daily Planet staff
Friday August 24, 2001

KPFA-area listeners are planning a response to the suspension without pay of news magazine “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman and her staff at WBAI in New York by holding a rally at the Berkeley station Tuesday morning. 

KPFA and WBAI are both listener-sponsored radio stations, whose licenses are held by the Pacifica Foundation. The three other Pacifica stations are in Houston, Texas, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. 

Goodman has alleged that the WBAI station manager physically assaulted her by pushing her and grabbing a camera, according to Tracy Rosenberg, administrative director of Media Alliance in San Francisco, who is helping to organize the Tuesday rally. 

Claiming her workplace is dangerous and hostile, Goodman filed a grievance with her union, the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. The union directed Goodman to continue to work at the station, however, she declined to do so. 

“The ability of WBAI to maintain a safe working environment has not been demonstrated,” Rosenberg said. Instead, of producing her show at the station, Goodman has been hosting it from a nearby community television station. WBAI management has opted not to run these shows, but to air reruns. KPFA is the only Pacifica station airing the newly-produced programs. 

The allegations of physical harassment comes on the heels of the firing and banning from the station of a number of WBAI staff, whom Goodman has supported.  

Tension between Pacifica radio staff and its management erupted at KPFA in Berkeley in spring of 1999 and has spread across the country to other stations. At the heart of the conflict is activists’ demands for the Pacifica Board’s full financial disclosure, democratization of the board and the end to a policy directed toward moderating the stations’ political content in order to broaden their appeal. 

For its part, the KPFA staff union issued a declaration of solidarity with Goodman on Thursday, which said, in part: 

“We the Communication Workers of America, local 9415 KPFA Union staff, deplore the continued drumbeat of harassment and intimidation against the staff of Democracy Now! which now includes threatened and actual violence. We urge Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash to take immediate action to stop these attacks, create a safe working environment, reinstate the staff of Democracy Now! and immediately reinstitute distribution of the program nationally.” 

The rally, organized by Media Alliance, will be held Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. in front of the station at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr., Way. 

Calls for comment from Pacifica management in Washington, D.C., and to Pacifica spokesperson Michael Powell of Westhill Media Strategies were not returned.