This morning, Wash claimed that a female employee of KPFT was "attacked by a male demonstrator who jumped on her back while other demonstrators did nothing to stop him." An important point - Bessie Wash was NOT an eyewitness to any of the alleged incidents she describes.
Here is the report on the incident sent in by activists in Houston the night of the incident for comparison
============
Ursula Ruedenberg wrote:
From: "Ursula Ruedenberg"
To: redlyn@loop.com
Subject: Garland Ganter, KPFT arrest listener on false
charges
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 04:24:19 -0000
Houston, Texas, Friday March 23. Edwin Johnston, of the Pacifica Listeners' Union is spending the night in the Houston jail after Garland Ganter, Station Manager of Houston Pacifica station KPFT had him arrested. He was falsely charged with assault.
Johnston and three members of the Houston Committee for People's Radio
and Pacifica Listeners' Union were handing out fliers from the Pacifica
Campaign to Stop the Corporate Takeover, in front of KPFT, during
a party in the station's back yard for large donors. Molly O'Brian,
Development Director of KPFT and Garland Ganter's wife, approached
them
and accousted leafletter Sheila Harris, grabbing her fliers and
knocking her off balance. Johnston followed Ms. O'Brian, demanding
the fliers back, and reached for them. As he reached for the fliers,
O'Brian shouted "Rape!" loudly, shocking everyone.
After Ms. O'Brian shouted "Rape!", Mr. Ganter ran to the front yard
of the building and pushed Johnston.He was joined by another unidentified
man, and both men pushed Johnston several times. Ganter called the
police from a cell phone and Johnston was arrested for assault. There
has been no word yet if there will be bond set or how long Johnston
will be
held in the Houston jail. The fliers were not returned to Sheila
Harris, although she asked both Ms. O'Brian and the Houston Police
for them repeatedly.
------ - End of forwarded message -------
Wash also claimed that Utried Leid was "attacked in her own studio" while trying to interview a congressman." Wash neither named the alleged attacker nor the congressman, nor when this was supposed to have occurred. It appears that Wash is attempting to rewrite the history of the censorship of Major Owens on Building Bridges, which has made national headlines.
Bessie Wash can be e-mailed at
<bmwpacifica@aol.com>
False accusations of violence against activists
trying to remove the Pacifica administration and return community control
have been used repeatedly over the years since the takeover of Pacifica
got underway in
the mid-1990's.
In October 1995, when public criticism began to mount at the closing of Pacifica Board meetings to the public, then executive director Pat Scott issued the following press release in response to a letter from a first amendment organization condemning the exclusion of the public from the Pacifica Board in Houston.
Here is the release:
================
PACIFICA RADIO UNDER ATTACK KPFA RESPONDS TO LOCAL EFFORT TO DE-STABILIZE PROGRESSIVE RADIO NETWORK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 03, 1995
Contact: Pat Scott
Pacifica Radio
510-843-0130 - ext. 202
Berkeley - Physical and verbal attacks on managers of Pacifica
Radio stations have caused the Pacifica Board and management to
call upon listeners and supporters to reject these attacks and
ensure the strength of KPFA by pledging support to the station
during its current on-air fund drive.
Members of a group claiming to "take back Pacifica" confronted
National Board members in Houston last weekend (September 30 -
Oct. 1). After being provided open-ended time for public comment
at two points during the meeting, they refused to leave an executive
session so that the Board could discuss personnel and financial matters
relating to specific employees. The group harassed Board members until
hotel security was called to evict them from the premises.
The attacks seem to be in response to recent program changes at
the five Pacifica stations. More than a year ago Pacifica began
work on a program development plan designed to serve a more
multicultural audience and increase the social impact of Pacifica
programming. In an era in which right-wing talk radio show hosts
have become the hot button in radio - with notable audiences here
in the Bay Area -- Pacifica believes that the community
broadcasting model has a bigger role to play. KPFA announced a
new program schedule August 1 in an effort to compete effectively
for audiences with strong, distinctive programming.
Marci Lockwood, manager of KPFA in Berkeley, reported receiving
death threats in telephone calls. Unexplained recordings of
repeated gunshots have been left on Pacifica Executive Director
Pat Scott's answering machine. Garland Ganter, manager of KPFT
in Houston, was assaulted last weekend during Pacifica Board
meetings by a woman who threw an unidentified liquid in his face
and damaged his car. Proprietary and confidential documents have
been stolen from Pacifica offices in Berkeley, and employees have
reported their cars vandalized. Unidentified callers have left
messages on the voicemail of several managers threatening to take
Pacifica stations off the air.
There is a right-wing crusade to cripple Pacifica, the only
independent, non-commercial radio network in the country, and it
has now been joined by a small band of local dissidents, calling
upon subscribers to withdraw financial support from Northern
California's alternative, multi-ethnic radio station. They are waging
a
deliberate dis-information campaign and are attempting to destroy our
funding -- eighty percent of which comes directly from listeners. The
financial demise that the right-wing has thus far failed to impose
on
Pacifica is now being pursued by a shrill group of critics who spout
mutually contradictory demands, and seem to have in common only a desire
to financially harm KPFA, the oldest and most respected listener-supported
community radio station in America. We question the motives of these
few
claiming to 'take back Pacifica'.
Initially formed to press the cause of several longtime volunteers
whose programs were discontinued in the recent KPFA schedule
changes, the group includes many whose names have never been
numbered among the paid subscribers to the station.
Pacifica, which has in the past had its transmitters bombed and its
employees threatened by right wing groups, suspects the current
attacks to be the work of a small network of extremists who are
hoping to see the Foundation put out of business. Listeners around
the country have received letters asking them not to support
Pacifica if it attempts to expand is reach.
Pat Scott said, "People who have attended meetings of these
dissidents report spokespersons have attacked the stations as
being run by "Jewish lesbians and fascists". We are familiar with
these tactics and this sort of hate-mongering will not deter us from
our
mission to expand our audience and make our stations more accessible
to
larger segments of the community."
At one meeting in Berkeley, Amina Hassan, KPFA's Development
Director and an African-American woman, complained about racial
overtones during the meeting and was shouted down by an angry
crowd.
Cecelia McCall, Vice Chair of the Pacifica Board, said Pacifica will
continue to meet the challenges of programming to an ever- changing
urban
community and will not yield to bullies who hide behind their concern
for
Pacifica while using undemocratic and reactionary tactics associated
with
the agent provocateurs of the 60's.
===============================
Scott was forced to issue a correction when Vice-Chair Ceclia McCall objected to Scott claiming she had made a statement she never made
===============================
PACIFICA RADIO UNDER ATTACK KPFA RESPONDS TO LOCAL EFFORT TO DE-STABILIZE PROGRESSIVE RADIO NETWORK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *
Wednesday, October 4, 1995
Contact: Pat Scott
Pacifica Radio
510-843-0130 - ext. 202
CORRECTION TO PRESS RELEASE DATED OCTOBER 3, 1995
BERKELEY: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE QUOTE ATTRIBUTED TO
CECELIA MCCALL, VICE CHAIR OF THE PACIFICA BOARD IN
YESTERDAY'S PRESS RELEASE WAS INCORRECT. THE
QUOTE SHOULD BE ATTRIBUTED TO PAT SCOTT, PACIFICA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. THE MISTAKE WAS A CLERICAL
ERROR. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS
MAY HAVE CAUSED.
THE PRESS RELEASE SHOULD READ: "PAT SCOTT, PACIFICA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SAID PACIFICA WILL CONTINUE TO
MEET THE CHALLENGES OF PROGRAMMING TO AN EVER-
CHANGING URBAN COMMUNITY AND WILL NOT YIELD TO
BULLIES WHO HIDE BEHIND THEIR CONCERN FOR PACIFICA
WHILE USING UNDEMOCRATIC AND REACTIONARY TACTICS
ASSOCIATED WITH THE AGENT PROVOCATEURS OF THE
60'S."
===============================
What prompted the press release? A letter sent by Terry Francke of the CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT regarding Pacifica holding illegally closed meetings. Here is the letter he sent to Pacifica:
===============================
CALIFORNIA COALITION FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT
926 J St. Suite 1406
Sacramento, CA. 95814
Tel: (916) 447-2322
Fax: (916) 447-2328
October 3, 1995
Mr. Jack O'Dell
Chair
Pacifica Foundation
Dear Mr. O'Dell,
I am writing in behalf of a number of Californians, including but not
limited to members of "Take Back KPFA!," concerned with the programming
and management directions taken by the Pacifica Foundation and affecting
member stations in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area.
Those members have been prejudiced in their efforts to monitor the
Foundation board's leadership on these issues. The board has,
I
am informed, used closed sessions to discuss financial and other
policy considerations at its most recent meetings, and has even
prevented a representative of "Take Back KPFA!" from tape
recording those public portions of the meeting held this past
weekend on Houston.
I appreciate that you were not present at the meeting. Enclosed
is
a narrative of what occurred prepared by the person who was
prevented from tape recording the gathering.
Although the author, Jeffrey Blankfort, understandably focuses on
the taping question, and while we believe that issue to be a serious
one.
We are even more concerned with the board's apparent use of closed
sessions for discussions of business matters which do not correspond
to
the recognized bases for confidential discussion in the regulations
which
bind recipients of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Pacifica Foundation, one would think, is second to no broadcasting
institution in its moral and political commitment to the rights of
dissenters and the full discussion of matters of public interest.
One would also suppose that an organization which subsists on
the good will of some of the most enlightened and politically aware
sector of the community, would not want to risk being perceived at
the end of the day, as just another corporate entity as reflexively
jealous of its information control as any industrial enterprise.
You do not need me or any other stranger lecturing you on the
inconsistency of what occurred in Houston with the mission you
have historically undertaken. But I am afraid the Foundation
is
inviting comments from far more voices than me, and
consequences far more substantial than lecturing, if it persists in
preventing visitors from taping its meetings and in taking policy
matters behind closed doors despite 47 C.F.R. 379 (k) (4).
At this juncture we request the Board undo what has been done to
the extent possible by suspending whatever decisions were made
in the closed portion of the Houston meeting, by placing those
matters back on the agenda of a future meeting for open
discussion and deliberation, and by instructing its members and
staff that tape recording is freely to be permitted at open meetings
in
the future.
Sincerely,
Terry Francke
Executive Director
cc: John Crigler, Haley, Bader & Potts [Pacifica's law firm in
Arlington, VA]
===============================
Ironically, the Scott press release led
to an investigation by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for violations
of open meetings. Two CPB investigators were fired on the eve of issuing
critical reports of
Pacifica conduct, and the final report
that confirmed violations by the Scott administration was set aside by
Clinton appointees on the CPB Board.
For the whole story on that see
<http://www.radio4all.org/fp/cpb.htm>
In other specious claims of violence against free Pacifica movement people - Ganter accused activists of having set fire to a shed behind KPFT. The Houston PD later charged a homeless man, unconnected to our movement, who had been prevented from sleeping in the shed by Ganter, with setting the fire.
In Berkeley, when a delegation of community
members went to see Chadwick to demand a meeting on the situation at KPFA,
photographer Scott Braley, who documented the event, said that Chadwick
threw her sweater over her head and ran out of the room, and later claimed
that she had been threatened. Many of the
members of this delegation were senior
citizens, as well as respected members of the Berkeley community.
######