Here are two false claims of assault by Pacifica Foundation on their national network website:
Protesters Attack Pacifica Foundation Employees (3/26/01)
 http://www.pacifica.org/info/releases/pfst_0326.html

Detailed coverage of assault and false arrest of Pacifica protester
Violence from KPFT/Pacifica Houston
 http://www.hal-pc.org/~edi/kpft.html

I thought I read some were that Ben Laddin was funding the IMC. I think it was that CISS report of last year.

So I'm confussed.

If the rumer is correct....? that would mean IMC's have bridged the financial gap. You see, most media gets their funding from only one side of the spectrum. (can we say "Main-Stream-Media".)

If IMC's do get their funds from both (Ladin-Soros) then does that mean their coverage is balanced...?

That maybe what is needed.... balance with the "Objective" being pay.

I am really hopping that Amy Goodman interviews the soros orginization for their criterium for funding.

George doesn't give out money for nothing.... He expect something in return, "what is it."...?

Any ways.... isn't george on Pacifica's doners list.?
(and for how much.?)

Just for clarity on the question of funding. The IMC did not receive Soros funding directly, it was applied for by one of the groups working on the IMC satellite feeds (Free Speech TV or Deep Dish) to cover costs associated with that project. There are dozens of progressive media organizations that receive funding from these grant pools (many of which are quite progressive in their scope). It's not always where the money comes from - it's what you do with it, and in that regard it would be hard to finger the IMC and collaborating groups for bad intentions.

Also, receiving funding from the Open Society Fund does not imply complicity with Soros or whatever you imagine his agenda to be, in fact, you would be hard pressed to find a media or documentary project in the U.S. that hasn't received or applied to this grant stream. Ironically, Open Society has been instrumental for many years in funding and creating community radio stations throughout South Africa (without strings attached) - something one would think WBAI producers would be better informed about.

Yes, there has been controversy in the left over the political correctness of accepting Soros funding, one could also apply the same reasoning to virtually any other foundation whose monies were accumulated through big business. But that is a different argument, at issue here is why a community radio station would so wrongly attack another grassroots media organization that in the past has worked closely with their producers in support of the station.

Of course all that has changes, the recent actions of WBAI have been shameful, the dismissal of long time producers, the ongoing actions of the acting station manager and the complete lack of public accountability are dismal evidence of a community media organization that has lost its way.

Michael Eisenmenger
Paper Tiger TV

and the man has serious mental problems. I used to work with him over two years ago at a magazine entitled Heads. I was looking him up on the web out of curiosity too see what trouble he might be getting himself into and I saw this piece. It doesn't surprise me at all because I found him to be extremely unstable with possible violent tendencies. It's been a year since this incident occurred so I am interested in hearing how it turned out. -JG

December 30, 2002

The Last Straw
The “Dissidents” and Anti-Semitism at Pacifica
By Paul DeRienzo

Background:

During the early morning hours of December 26th, 2002 listeners to a weekly radio show on Pacifica radio station WBAI in New York City were shocked to hear the host descend into an anti-Semitic rant that included some dangerous and slanderous comments. It would take more space than I have here to list the transcriptions of just the worst of the statements heard on that awful night. But one horrible lie stands out above the rest, at about one hour and 12 minutes into the program the host stated, “If I am not mistaken the term Jewry came out of jewelry.” Earlier, at about 16 minutes into the program, which is called “Under the Learning Tree” the same host had stated “In many quarters the Jewish community is the spoiled brat of America. They have been allowed for whatever reason to walk with free reign. The amount of money that Israel receives is criminal, not negative, not bad, it’s criminal.” Just moments before a caller to the same program had said to the agreement of the host that, “Most countries had sanctions against South Africa. The Jews were getting diamonds and gold out of there hand over fist.” The program continued for nearly three hours in the same vein. Numerous callers dialed in with shock to contest the racist statements they were hearing only to be met with the host’s absolute conviction in the righteousness of his statements.

This incident is of particular interest and concern for me because until February 20th, 2002 I had been the host of a program in the same timeslot called Let Them Talk, which I’d been hosting since 1991. However, soon after the Pacifica settlement agreement brought the former managers back into WBAI, the General Manager, Valerie Van Isler personally removed me from the air without reason. At the same time I was also fired without due process from my job as full time reporter for the WBAI Evening News. The American Federation of Television and Radios Employees (AFTRA) union currently is persuing a complaint on behalf of myself and other employees fired from WBAI. To learn more about the mission of Let Them Talk you can visit the website at  http://pdr.autono.net. (clicki here to read the rest of put the title or URL here - The Last Straw)

If You go to www.questionsquestions.net/ you'll get a glimpse of the linear, flow of Dead Presidents that seem to be a pre-requsite for inclusion in the "New Left", so what if Katrina Vanden Huval's father worked for "wild" Bill Casey of the OSS, which became the CIA, and that Casey ran his own foreign policy rouge group back when reagan couldn't find his tooth brush, and was still in the White House, you can't judge peole by who their father is or was, (unless your George W.Bush0 but please don't apply the same to Katrina! Does it amtter that Amy Goodman makes $90,000.00 per, not to me, this is America and that's what it's all about, I bet her stafff gets paid highly also right? Now if you doubt the connection between Amy Goodman and Soros and soros and the Carlyle group, do a Google seach and see how many hits you get George Soros Carlyle Group/ just like that, I'm still reading the connections,Now if you look at the Connections between the CIA and the Ford Foundation, and how the money funneled threw the Ford foundation they make those SUV things that Mrs. Hiffington is in such a Huff about, the Cia as had a long relationship withthe United way to, well know to the hip, and not recently, misguided often confused for such! Well does it matter if the CIA funneled money threw the SUV makers to, Fair and I'm being as fair and accurate as Jeff Cohen himself, Now money from Fair went to, Zmag and that Chomsky fellow who always talks about East timor but doesn't think, Cambodia was as bad as they say, instead of 2,000,000 it may have only been 800,000, a drop in the bucket, by Professor Chomsky's ethics, and Math, and it's all in the mathematics, and symantics,Now lets take Now., now is william saffire behind this now thing Now! Does Moyers Now have anything to do with Donahue Now, now that Donnahue is going back to the minor leagues of the menopause matinee now, now that Now is now hitting so well endowed now, now what about Democracy Now, now, now that Donahue now is now in the sink now, now that we addressed the whole now thing now , now what about this tj now that giving all these guys now tha tnow are now making such a killing now and now racking in the big bucks, now that they now have now such large collections now of now millions,now! Now does this count Amy's expenses being writtne off is her apartment now being now paid now by her now large salary now that she now is a recipent now of the now infamous carlyle group, does she now hav esome rumfeld long gun envy now that now sec.rumsfeld now decided noow not to now build the now defunct Crusader , is Soros's connection, and mutation now of the now reviled Carlyle group, now mena that now the administration now is no longer gonna rub elbow's with the Bin-laden family now that Osama has gone a bit to far, and embarrsed the family, now that it's well know that his brother runs the taxi's almost entirely in Boston , now what does, Mrs. Huffington due when in Boston faed with the choice of riding in an SUV or taking a cab, own by the brother of the World's most wanted "alleged " terroist as Professor Kovel would and has refered to Him, now does this mean Mrs. Huffington walks, now that, she can't differentiate between the lessor evil, and supporting of Terrorism and Bill Mahr is now on longer now in the lime light, wil Jeff Cohen stay with Donahue Now or now produe Mahr doing what he did for Donahue, Now produce Now with Moyers on pbs,now also is it true what they say about Moyers and hos Estrogen habit, now that would be to bad, no that he's got $54,000,000 in funding and Now has his son now on the Now band wagon now!! That 's all for Now , now you have a good day and life and don't forget there's millions in this anti Government left thing unlike the 60's when we got bashed and busted na dthrow out by our folks and no college lans and drafted and shot at and were right, I mean correct but at least very well read and educated and laid and hip, and Happy relatively with a reason to be pissed because they killed Jack Kennedy but then they Killed Bobby, and stole the future and we're still, paying for it, so just remember, this is the best place, and the best time, in all of History, that you could have been born, God must Really Love YOU, and so does your country, no matter what Amy and Soros and Kovel, and Jeff Cohen and Phil Donahue may say !!! TJ "The Spice Must Flow!" frank herbert/ Dune watch it,read it, it's all in their, it's not about , Oil it about who gets it, and who doesn't! Yours TJ Woodstock NY

 http://pdr.autono.net/pacifica.html

 
Is Black Washington Pacifica’s enemy? That was the question raised in an article by Askia Muhammad, long time broadcaster on Pacifica station WPFW in Washington DC. Muhammad referred to a “Berkeleyite faction” of broadcaster and their supporters associated with another Pacifica station, KPFA serving the Bay Area in Northern California, and the original station of the 50 year-old Pacifica Foundation. Pacifica also owns radio stations in Los Angeles, Houston and New York City. In his article Muhammad quotes interim Pacifica National Board member Jabari Zakiya as saying "It is the notion that a small group of people--primarily white Berkeleyites in this case--have a divisive ideology which is being seriously played out in the Bylaws, the Foundation restructuring vote, and the ‘Democracy Now!’ productions contract."

Democracy Now! is the daily national program produced by Amy Goodman, which recently received an indefinite multi million-dollar contract from Pacifica that has many of the Foundation’s supporters in a snit. The Board is also currently embroiled in a controversy over new Bylaws for the Foundation that has set former allies against each other arguing the role of government mandated Local Advisory Boards in the day-to-day running of the networks five stations. But it’s at DC’s WPFW where the internal conflicts over the direction of Pacifica and its “Mission” (the new leadership says they are committed to a “Mission” based role for Pacifica) are coming to a head. Some WPFW insiders say that the current Pacifica regime, spearheaded by Executive Director Dan Coughlin, iPNB chair Leslie Cagan, and their supporters is waging a desperate campaign to eliminate and harass employees, “cook the books” to justify firings, layoffs and generally make themselves look good, finance outside organizations and quietly pay off some creditors and ignoring others. Some say that Pacifica’s management may have broken the law and put the Foundations broadcast licenses in jeopardy.

The Pacifica Foundation has a complex and little known relationship with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The Foundation is funded primarily through individual donations and memberships, but a crucial 15% of the networks budget comes from the Federal government through grants made by the CPB. The CPB money comes annually in the form of five checks, one for each station. The checks come into WPFWs Washington offices (where the national office is located pending a move to Berkeley which was approved by the iPNB late last year.) The WPFW check is deposited to the stations bank account and WPFW employees send off the remaining CPB checks to the other four local stations. According to sources when the checks arrived in the mail a few weeks ago Yhasmine Bryan, who is the interim controller for Pacifica, demanded that “all CPB checks be given to Dan (Executive Director Dan Coughlin.)”

Despite Bryan’s orders WPFW deposited their check according to past procedure, but a WPFW employees says she “was accosted at her desk and made to call the woman (who brought the check to the bank) and tell her to bring back the check.” According to the source a WPFW manager told her to “hang up the phone” and ignore Pacifica’s order, causing to a “loud exchange” between the manager and Yashmin Bryan. The source described the incident as another example of why working at WPFW as “like “riding a psychotic horse.”

Dan Coughlin had briefly been Bureau Chief for the now defunct Pacifica Network News but was fired by then Executive Director Lynne Chadwick, who said at the time it was for “incompetence.” According to sources the real reason was because Coughlin “attacked a Black guy.” Joe Gill, a long time Pacifica technician was put in charge of the Ku Satellite transmitter, which serves national programming to Pacifica stations and affiliates and sources say Coughlin “didn’t like it.” Another source says Coughlin was “was trying to control things, to get Joe Gill to kowtow but Joe wouldn’t.” According to one account Coughlin “burst into a meeting with Lynne Chadwick and went off -- it was ugly. He didn’t appreciate that Joe Gill was promoted without his input.”

A source says the night Coughlin was fired he was seen along with now Deputy Executive Director Verna Avery Brown (who had resigned as a PNN news editor) taking equipment and documents from the Foundation’s offices in the middle of the night. According to a source who witnessed the incident Coughlin was spending time on a computer, “we though he was trying to get personnel records,” and Brown was seen carting away “at least 10 boxes” of review copies of books sent to the station. Carol Spooner, an iPNB board member from Northern California, was seen going through Pacifica financial records on multiple occasions. This happened despite the Foundation’s Bylaws, which forbid Board members from involving themselves in the day-to-day operations of the Foundation.

Although the Board is not supposed to be involved in day-to-day operations sources claim that Coughlin is currently telling the WPFW news department whom to hire. The source continues to assert that Verna Avery Brown regularly “steals supplies” from WPFW for use by her own Pacifica Peace Watch program. Although Brown is African American the source asserts the iPNB is “racist” because “They want to get everybody Black out of there.”

There are also charges that Pacifica is using WPFW as a “cash cow” to finance national office projects. According to witnesses Coughlin demanded WPFW give Pacifica $5,000 last November 15, another $5,000 on December 15 and $5,000 more on December 29 to pay for legal bills under the guise of the budget entry Central Services. Yet another $33,000 was demanded and paid by WPFW for Pacifica central services in one month. Then another $33,000 was demanded, $20,000 for legal alone, for total of $86,000 in a period of three months. Sources say Coughlin is “trying to get WPFW and all CPB money into Central Services because the national office has no revenue stream, its only revenue is from the stations.”

Part of the budget problem was Coughlin’s $50,000 phone bill and Verna Avery Brown $20,000 phone bill. The Quest long distance carrier bill was $6,000/month for conference calls alone. The Quest bill was charged to WPFW – Quest threatened that were going to cut off service until it was paid – so they switched to a new carrier, finally when Verizon, the new carrier said it wouldn’t switch unless the bill was paid Pacifica had to pay Quest, using money from central services.

There are also claims of a disturbing pattern of what’s called “plugging” of budget numbers to make them balance out in the system because the national office had already spent the CPB money (called deferred income in the budget) before the stations received it. Sources say Yashmin Bryan and Coughlin “were plugging numbers,” which at least one knowledgeable observer says is illegal, going in and changing numbers so Coughlin could say as he did on the Pacifica web page that WPFW only raised $770,000 during its October fundraiser when in fact WPFW raised $1.4 million allowing Coughlin to justify Pacifica’s criticisms of WPFWs staff.

Sources say that Pacifica is still wasting large sums of money. Former WBAI General Manager Valerie Van Isler was supposed to be promoted to the position of National Program Director but no one knows where she should go or what she should do. Coughlin can’t fire her without giving the appearance that Bessie Wash was correct when she originally (after offering her the same job as National Program Director) fired Van Isler in December 2000.

The source confirms that Democracy Now! producer Amy Goodman was paid $90,000 a year by Pacifica “under the table and she can’t deny it.” The source adds that the recent contract for Democracy Now is $600,000 a year, paid through Central Services. Yet, Pacifica continues to force WPFW to pay half and possibly all the salary for a reporter on Brown’s Peace Watch program amounting to more than $30,000 a year. Meanwhile more than $50,000 is owed to stringers for the Pacifica Network News including one former reporter currently undergoing cancer treatment.

In yet more serious problems for Pacifica, WPFW hasn’t had a certified engineer on the premises since August 2001, despite still having former senior engineer Bob Daughtry’s name and certificate up in the station, she adds that “it’s invalid.” WPFW has also failed to remain in compliance with the FCC’s Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules mandating logging regular monthly tests of the EAS system. Recent fines levied by the FCC for failing to maintain an EAS system have ranged from $6,000 to $10,000.

In related developments, former KPFK General Manager Mark Schubb is being stiffed for thousands of dollars owed him by Pacifica despite a decision in his favor by the National Labor Relations Board. The first settlement check received by Schubb from Pacifica actually bounced.

for supporting docs go to
 http://www.geocities.com/bwiti123/