In a  further,  apparent violation of the "gag-rule," the KPFA News tonight headlined(!}at the top of the hour, then aired,  a story billed as something like "staff member who  risks being  fired speaks out." In the story, anchor Mark Mericle, a paid staff member and union steward, interviewed  Public Affairs co-director Philip Maldari, one of six staff disciplined for reading a statement opposing the firing  of station manager Nicole Sawaya. Mericle introduced the piece  by correcting  last night's story on the conflict  at the urging of Pacifica head Lynn Chadwick et al. Contrary to that report, Pacifica claims it never asserted
that Sawaya's termination was a "non-story", but instead it was Pacifica's disciplinary action against angry staff that was not news. Mericle said, however, that Pacifica refused to comment on whether or not Sawaya's termination was "news".

When asked whether he thought he was breaking the breaking the gag-rule , Maldari said "No...this is public.." and said that Sawaya, who  was "on budget" and  had "universal support," was fired without any reason given.

Mericle then said that the mainstream media is fond of characterizing KPFA and other Pacifica outlets as being prone to "infighting." Was this just another squabble at an alternative media outlet? Maldari said under Sawaya's management, infighting at KPFA had in fact  been reduced,  that this confrontation was "different, "   that "we must defend ourselves, our outspokeness"  and that the station's staff should not  "live in fear."

Did Sawaya bring about her own firing, asked Mericle? No, said Maldari. Sawaya just did not want to be a "yes" person,  apparently referring to her differences with Pacifica's upper echelons over the changes on governance reducing even further the network's accountabilty and Larry Bensky's  firing a few months ago.
 

Maldari then defended Program Director Andrea Kissack, who read the verbal warning to Maldari and other union staff in the presence of a shop steward. He said McKissack, who has no union protection, was visibly upset with being ordered to enforce the gag-rule.

Finally  Maldari was asked whether his job was at risk "Who knows?," he said. Sawaya's firing  "is only one week ld....Everyone's jobs are at stake...our independence and our jobs."

Mericle closed the story by saying that Chadwick had been offered equal time on tomorrow night's  news broadcast. Guess what? Even if she doesn't accept, the news will still have a story,  her ducking out. ---Nicolas Alexander

Following is my transcription of tonight's (4-8-99) story about KPFA, broadcast about 6:43p PDT on the KPFA News, consisting of an interview by KPFA co-News Director Mark Mericle with KPFA Morning Show co-host Philip Maldari.  Since their last names begin with the same letter, I will identify them with "M:" for Mericle and "P:" for Maldari.  Andrea Kissack, who is mentioned later in the story, was the producer for the KPFA Morning Show until she was recently
appointed Program Director.

Bob Bergstresser

M:  A clarification of our news story last night which reported the beginning of disciplinary action against KPFA staff: Pacifica spokesperson Elan Fabri says she was referring specifically to the disciplinary action, and not to Nicole Sawaya's termination as Station Manager, when she told KPFA reporter David Rosenberg that it "wasn't a news story and no one else was reporting it".  When questioned whether she now considers Sawaya's termination a news
story, Fabri said she wasn't going to get into that.

KPFA Morning Show host Philip Maldari is one of at least six staff members who *have* been disciplined with a verbal warning for violating Pacifica's so-called "gag rule", and has spoken on the airwaves about the dismissal of KPFA Station Manager Sawaya;  today I asked Maldari why he had decided to defy the gag rule order.

P:  Well I haven't violated the gag rule over the years, I in fact thought there was a reason for it, because I didnt want petty backbiting on the air, and programmers advancing their own program at the expense of other people's programs, but that wasn't what this was about.  This was not about internal business of KPFA, this was a *public* controversy, this was the fact that the manager of KPFA was fired, and fired for a reason that none of us understand and for,
for us it's never been explained to us.  And this is a manager that was on budget, this was a manager that united the staff, the listenership, the board, supporters, this was a manager that -- in my memory no manager has had this kind of support, universal support, from everyone;  and consequently, I don't feel I violated the gag rule, I feel like I did what had to be done.

M:  There are people out there who will say, "There they go again, that Pacifica is always in turmoil, there's always political infighting."

P:  Well there has been political infighting over the years, and I guess you'd have to expect that.  In the meantime, we haven't been doing that over and over and over again, particularly with Nicole Sawaya being our manager for the past year and three months, this station has been united, we are not backstabbing, we are not disunited, we are in fact going forward together, at least we were until she was fired.  Now everything is up for grabs.

M:  Well I guess my question is, is this current crisis qualitatively different from previous disputes?

P:  I think it is.  It strikes at the heart of the unity that this station has, and essentially we're in the positioin of defending
ourselves.  If we in fact say, sure, whatever you want, you know, fire whoever you please, there goes our unity, there goes our ability to put forward the mission of Pacifica, our job to be a progressive source of independent news and information and culture. You're not going to find that in the station when everybody's in fear, and when everybody is scared of what's going to happen to them next.

M:  Everybody's got a boss, everybody's got a supervisor, and Nicole Sawaya was frankly known for being outspoken about Pacifica matters that her superiors apparently disagreed with her about.  Isn't it plausible that Nicole Sawaya brought here dismissal on herself?

P:  I dont know of a good boss or a good executive director that wants to be surrounded by a bunch of "yes" people.  Nicole Sawaya was courageous and outspoken, but she always worked on behalf of KPFA and Pacifica, and she put forward her ideas forcefully as you would want one to do;  certainly there're enough people around in the world that will take a paycheck for just doing what they are told and kissing the behind of those above them on the ladder.

M:  Now last night the KPFA News reported that Andrea Kissack, the Program Director here at KPFA, was enforcing the gag rule and its penalties for its violation, at the behest of the Acting Station Manager, Pacifica Executive Director Lynn Chadwick.  What about Andrea's role in doing that?

P:  Andrea's been incredibly courageous through this whole process. She is a management employee, she's not protected by the union;  with the firing of Nicole Sawaya she becomes the top administrative/ managerial person in charge of programming.  She only entered into the process of discipline when she was ordered, absolutely ordered, to do so, and she was much more upset about giving me the warning I got than I was.

M:  Philip, is your job at risk?

P:  I think that ... who knows how this process is going to play out.  The process is one week old -- I think all of our jobs are at risk.  I think it's a very scary, frightening situation, and I think that the future of KPFA really is at stake, we're not crying "wolf" here.  And, my job isn't that important, I don't even think Nicole's job is that important;  it's not about a few individuals that might get fired.  It is about whether you want KPFA to continue to do its job to be an independent source of news and information that is courageous, and, yes, not just my job, the jobs of many people, all the people here at KPFA, are at stake.

M:  Thank you very much.  [Identified Maldari again, same as in intro.]  KPFA News has offered an equal amount of time in an interview to Pacifica Executive Director and Acting Station Manager Lynn Chadwick for a response tomorrow.