FAIR News Release
April 19, 1999

For Immediate Release:

FAIR's Radio Program Pulled From Pacifica's KPFK
Show Featured Interview With Fired Pacifica Broadcaster Larry Bensky

CounterSpin, the nationally syndicated radio show produced by the media watch group FAIR, was pulled from its scheduled 3:00pm airing on Friday, April 16th by station KPFK, the Los Angeles-based Pacifica network affiliate. Phone calls by CounterSpin to KPFK management to determine why KPFK did not air the show were not returned.

FAIR believes the show was suppressed because it featured an interview with the recently fired Pacifica network host Larry Bensky. Bensky, one of the Pacifica network's most recognizable voices, was fired on April 9th following the airing of his network show, Sunday Salon, which featured a segment discussing the dismissal of Nicole Sawaya, a popular station manager at KPFA, the Pacifica affiliate in Berkeley, California.

CounterSpin invited Bensky to discuss his firing, the Sawaya dismissal, and overlying issues of Pacifica accountability. The Sawaya and Bensky dismissals have stirred public concern, resulting in an April 15th
demonstration at KPFA which reportedly drew between 700 and 1,000 protestors. (Archived editions of CounterSpin can be heard on the FAIR web site at: www.fair.org)

A Pacifica representative was invited to appear on a future show to present the network's point of view. Pacifica declined the invitation.

"As a show concerned with censorship, CounterSpin relies on the atmosphere of openness and critical thinking provided by non-commercial radio," says CounterSpin producer and host Janine Jackson. "It would be a distressing commentary on the state of free speech at the Pacifica network if CounterSpin was pulled from their airwaves for doing just the kind of work we've always done, raising just the kinds of questions we regularly raise about media."

Contact: Steve Rendall