So a bunch of people managed to make the trek out to Secaucus, NJ for the honor of spending an hour in the presence of the Pacifica National Board. Those of us who signed up were given two minutes to say something to the National Board.
Shawn Rhodes ceded one of his two minutes to me so that I cold make the following 3 minute statement in full.
Here's the text of what I said:
In the past few days it's been discovered that New York's Mayor Giuliani is constructing a bunker on the 23rd floor of a building in the World Trade Center. He's spending $15.1 million to build it and $1.4 million a year for rent. Meanwhile the Mayor has threatened to cut funding for senior citizens' centers, city hospitals and services for the poor.
The Mayor's coming in for a lot of ridicule over his bunker in
the sky, its telecommunications equipment supposedly could operate even
after a nuclear blast, although there wouldn't be any people left alive
to operate it nor many people left in the city to communicate with.
This
bunker will be bullet proof, bomb resistant and will have its own power
and water supplies. People are complaining that the mayor has this expenditure
hidden on page 995 of the City's capital budget.
And yet Mayor Giuliani is more forthright and open than the Pacifica
National Board. He hid his figures in a large budget, but at least
he published his figures.
The only cure for what ails the Pacifica Foundation is sunlight.
The Pacifica Foundation calls itself "Radio with Vision." That vision
now includes gag rules not only on broadcasters,
but also on Local Advisory Board members; that vision includes attempts
at Union busting, violations of Contract
and Unfair Labor Practices. If you want to be before the public,
you're going to be confronted with these dichotomies, and even your spin
doctor won't be able to help you.
--------
Dr. Mary Frances Berry made a sort of rebuttal statement after everyone
was done. She was not held to a 2 minute limit. In her statement
she said that the information on legal fees was published by Pacifica.
So after everything was over I went up and asked her where I might find
this published information. She said that Pacifica put out its budget.
I told her that this information was not broken out there. She asked
if I'd seen the audit. I said no, I hadn't. She said the information
would be in there.
So I'm going to demand a copy of this audit from Valerie Van Isler and
see if 1) I get it, and 2) if the answers to the above questions are in
there. I'll report to the world on the results of this adventure.
--
|
