More on Fair and Pacifica:
A REPORT FROM WORT-FM, MADISON
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Esty Dinur, a producer at WORT-FM in Madison, Wisconsin has been covering the Pacifica controversy. WORT is one of the grassroots community radio stations running informational disclaimers about the labor conflict at Pacifica. She filed the following report to the FreePacifica mailing list:

Jan 27, 1997
From: Esty Dinur

Janine Jackson of FAIR was the guest on today's A Public Affair call-in show on WORT. I asked her about FAIR's silence regarding the situation at Pacifica and suggested that perhaps the time has come for them to sound the alarm.

She responded that:

1) She is going to discuss the Pacifica issues in her upcoming workshop in this weekend's "Freeing the Media" conference in NY.

2) FAIR has been looking to hold debates between Pacifickers and Free Pacifickers but, according to her, there aren't takers on the Free Pacifica side. Kinda hard to believe considering that I ended up with three of your people when I looked for one as a guest on my show.

3) The email messages they've been getting from this group are too numerous and too extreme, with Pacifica managers titled "nazis" and such.

Another woman called later to say that it doesn't take a debate to see that things aren't going well in Pacifica and that FAIR, in order to keep its credibility, should treat Pacifica just as it would any other media. Unfortunately it was very close to the end of the show and Jackson didn't have time to add much to her previosu response, but she did say that they're interested in hearing from people about these issues. e-mail FAIR

Esty Dinur edinur@facstaff.wisc.edu

JEFF BLANKFORT REPLIES:
Jeff is a member of the Coordinating Council for The Committe to Take Back KPFA

Thank you Esty, for that report and calling in on the FAIR show. It is, of course, pure nonsense to assert that there is no one willing to debate from our side. The truth is that no one is willing to debate from the management side despite our efforts to have such a debate. At this point, Pacifica CEO Pat Scott will not even submit to interviews by the San Francisco Bay Guardian or the Portland Free Press. Moreover, despite the fact that she is a Berkeley resident, she does not deign to come to local advisory board meetings where others, who are following her dictates, are forced to take the brunt of listener criticism.

The allegation that FAIR has been turned off from our posting to them by describing the Pacifica folks as "nazis" is equally spurious. In all good faith that FAIR was, IN FACT, the media watchdog of the left, progressive community, I had been sending them on a regular basis documents from Pacifica, KPFA and KPFK headquarters showing what the management was up to. This included memos, meeting agendas, etc. There was very little that was sent to either Jeff Cohen or to Jim Naureckas at Extra! that was strictly an opinion piece by Pacifica's critics.

When I e-mailed Jeff Cohen and asked him to phone me to discuss the Pacifica situation, the response I received was an unsigned e-mail reuqesting that no more informational postings on Pacifica be sent to him or to Extra!. I said I would comply if I received a signed note to that effect. None was forthcoming until months later when Naureckas asked me to desist, which I did and have. This posting will be the firtst I have sent to FAIR since responding to a letter that Cohen sent to Maria Gilardin criticizing Pacifica's critics, and me, specifically, without actually naming me.

I am not sure you are aware of a very real conflict of interest that exists between FAIR and Pacifica. Mark Schubb the new GM of KPFK, who manages to sit next to CEO Pat Scott at the national board meetings, formerly worked for FAIR and one of the few remaining members of the KPFK advisory board, Jim Horwitz, is FAIR's rep in Los Angeles. As Kurt Vonnegut would put it, so it goes.

Jeffrey Blankfort