The Pacifica HQ is waging war without pity on anything of radical or intellectually vivacious timbre. At San Francisco's KPFA, Bill Mandel, an immensely intelligent and courageous analyst of Russian affairs for forty years, has been treated with scarcely credible arrogance.

Inter-Office Memo
To: Bill Mandel
From : Ginny Z. Berson
Subject: The Morning Show

I have written to you and spoken to you several times (as has Andrea) about our requirements for the segment you do on the Morning Show:

Your cooperation has been inconsistent at best. Your attitude seems to be that this is "your" segment to do with as you please. This has never been the case. The segment is not working as planned. Therefore, effective immediately, I am canceling your appearance as a regular guest on the Morning Show. I hope will be able to call on you on an occasional basis as events in the former Soviet Union warrant.

cc: Andrea Kussack, Philip Maldari

Imagine the bureaucratic thrill Berson got with that phrase "effective immediately." What does she do with her life? When Bobby Hutton was murdered by the Oakland cops, Mandel and his wife has a reaction effective immediately. They went down to Panther HQ, which was expecting cop Armageddon, and slept the night across the doorway. As Mandel remarks," Berson is asking me to now double the time I give to preparation. Is she offering a salary? I think you know I never asked the station for money. At this point it's worth stating that my contribution over thirty-eight years is well over a million dollars in time, calculated at the lowest possible level."

Meanwhile, the totalitarian mindset pervades ever deeper into the remnant of Pacifica culture. I quote from the proposed Employee Handbook: "PERSONAL APPEARANCE: Dress, grooming and personal cleanliness standards contribute to the morale of all employees and visitors......Employees who appear for work inappropriately dressed will be sent home and directed to return to work in proper attire."

Then there's SECURITY INSPECTIONS, in the cause of maintaining a booze-and drug-free "working environment." Presumably. Pacifica is terrified that a drug bust will inflame the Newtians. "To facilitate enforcement of this policy, Pacifica or its representative may inspect not only desks and lockers but also persons entering and/or leaving the premises and any packages or other belongings."