The interim world of Summer Reese

This interview took place on Roy Tuckman's KPFK show, "Something's Happening," after midnight on Tuesday of this week. I think you will find it illuminating, at the very least. I removed the rather long, bombastic opening production (you will find it linked to in the red text at the bottom) and a very dreary musical interlude, but the interview and the calls are untouched.

This should bring comments and I look forward to reading them and adding my own.

Click on this line for a trip to the BlueBoard, where I posted the atrocious opening to Roy Tuckman's show.

February drive...will it survive the Summer?

This (sans vulture) was posted on WBAI's site today. As far as premiums go, it is a step in the right direction, akin to an approach many of us have been advocating since Bates and Kathy toasted each other with that notorious "special" water. The question is, how enlightened is the station's remnant audience? Will it bite before Summer comes and blows it all away, again, or have people really had it with these hypocrites?  We'll see—remember, these people are still living in a dream world, one that had Haskins refer to his "tens of thousands of listeners" on this morning's show for the few.

CPB? What CPB??

Have you noticed that the station recently started airing government-supplied public service announcements? The first time I heard one, it occurred to me that WBAI's incompetent management was—at the last minute, of course—trying to make up for past failures to meet requirements. I also noted with interest that some of these spots contradict the "teachings" of Null and other station quacks.

Today, Andrea Katz, one of the salaried albatrosses, confirmed my assumption by posting a message to the "public affairs" hosts. Read it (below) and see if you agree that it bares a certain desperation and confirms a history of neglect. 

If the CPB attempts to verify whatever this woman sends them, the agency might just stumble across some interesting and more serious infractions. We can start with the selling of air time to labor unions, running a scam merchandizing operation, collecting money without delivering the products purchased, and that's just for starters. 

Null, anyone?

Here's Andrea Katz's note of January 22, 1014:
Hi - 

This email is for those of you who host public affairs shows - the rest of you can delete this now!

I am working on a report for the CPB but unfortunately I do not have the daily program descriptions from the archives to export the data from. It seems that there has not been a regular practice of posting them.

Bob Hennelly will be contacting you soon about updating this policy and getting anyone who does not have an account to enter them, access to do so. Please send me any and/or all program descriptions that you have from July 1, 2013 through to today. A single sentence is all that is needed.

It is urgent as we have a CPB deadline to meet and your effort to help out would be appreciated enormously, besides being critical to our compliance.

Stay Warm - 

Kind regards, 

Andrea Katz 

Interim Development Director

Andrew Phillips on WBAI and censor R. Paul on patrol

Presumably responding to Mitchel Cohen's clueless criticism of his resignation from WBAI last year, Andrew Phillips once again feels a need to explain what should have been obvious. He uses this opportunity to also set a couple of other things straight.

When Andrew's note was posted to the BlueBoard by Jim Dingeman, I responded. Of course I could not include Mitchel Cohen's name, because R. Paul Martin has included him on his list of the banished. I know, it is exceedingly stupid, but this is WBAI, where people who found a smidgeon of micropower are in a panic mode.

You will not find my offending post on the BlueBoard, for it has been removed by censor Martin, but it and his e-mail to me follow  this new letter from Andrew Phillips. Idiotic as his behavior is, I think it is symptomatic of what happens to the minds of little people who have clung on for years and now see it all slip away.

Regarding who controls WBAI programming.

I assume people understand that I resigned from WBAI because my program direction authority was undermined by Summer Reese and GM, Berthold Reimers when Reese informed me at 10pm on Monday night October 14th that Gary Null would be pitching during the 7-8am hour the following morning to pitch his "infomercials" in the fall fund drive. I disagreed with the strategy and resigned. Null went on to make very little money in morning drive in the fund drive at the same time exacerbating the premium fulfillment problem.

I told Reese and the GM I wanted WBAI drive-time Null and Blodsdale free to do authentic Pacifica programming and not repetitive informercials. Subsequently they also removed Ian Masters' Background Briefing from the 10am slot where I have no doubt he was building an audience. I knew that the only chance WBAI had to build audience was to improve drive time hence I imported some of the best of Pacifica program during those hours.

The premium I used was the 100 speaker pak produced by KPFA and which KPFA agreed to fulfill on WBAI's behalf. Unfortunately, to best of my knowledge, WBAI has not provided KPFA with information to permit this to happen so the premiums were not fulfilled. Permitting inexperienced personnel to intercede in programming has not helped WBAI.

Whilst I respect the efforts of the CAB, if and until programming is vastly improved, particularly in drive time, it's game over.

And finally, the on-air sound and technical competence at WBAI is a disgrace. The. Operation Director,Tony Ryan was asked repeatedly by me to deal with the poor on-air phone quality at the Harlem studio but to this day it's still not good. I asked him to seek assistance from Pacifica tech staff, Jon Almelah and Jake Glanz both of whom wanted to help.

And I asked Tony Ryan to create a Comrex link to enable broadcasting from 388 Atlantic Avenue to Harlem. In addition, Lara Flanders was ready to step up and contribute when a Comrex link between her and the studio was established. Again, Almelah and Glanz were ready to help but Tony Ryan was not able or willing to establish the link.

Respectfully,

Andrew Leslie Phillips.
ADDENDUM 

The post Big Brother did not want you to read:

Date: Thursday, 23 January 2014, at 2:00 pm
In Response To: message from andrew (jim dingeman)

Andrew is absolutely correct, and he did the only thing someone with integrity intact could do. Summer Reese is a bumbling fool who has no business dabbling in broadcast management. The former head of WBAI's dysfunctional LSB, whose name may not be mentioned in this forum without a stomp of approval—yes, I said stomp—has posted in Nalini's forum, criticizing Andrew for resigning and lauding Reese for bringing back the scam artists. It brought in money, he says, so it was the right thing to do.

There is something about extended association with the so-called "new" Pacifica that makes some people lose their senses.

This produced the following e-mail from R. Paul Martin:

I told you not to. You can post his name and when I get to it I'll pass the message. You know this is done to prevent attacks on people who can't defend themselves. And do not discuss the moderation of the board.

My final thoughts on this:
It appears to me that R. Paul Martin's need to assert himself and gain notice has seriously affected his concept of "free speech." We were never told why he banished Mitchel Cohen and other elected board members from the BlueBoard, a forum he volunteered to take over a couple of years ago, but you can be sure it's somehow political. Now the zero hour nears and WBAI's abusers may have to turn to rather than on each other.

Of course, this forum is not closed to R. Paul should he wish to experience free speech!  
What do you think?

Pacifica fatally Nullified...

The following was posted on the BlueBoard today. The poster is the same Steve who penned the post that started this segment. He is from the SF Bay area, and I think he nails a major problem that now characterizes Pacifica stations and is very much a part of the conflation to which we owe the impending obliteration of Lew Hill’s concept. Many of those who read this will be in denial—sadly, that is why the downward path has not had a u-turn, not even a fork in the road for decades.  —Chris [Albertson] 

Date: Sunday, 19 January 2014, at 1:52 pm

As Pacificans, we speak in accents familiar to our listeners... you see, it is far, far worse to allow people who nullify reason and science like "dr" Gary than it would be to have an add by (pick your most hated corporation here), say, Exxon (i like to use Exxon because of the pornographic "xx" in the middle of its name). the reason should be obvious, but I'll summarize: The corporations, whose money Pacifica, in all its viginal, Lew Hillian, monastic purity, refuses to accept are known entities. Their successes, their crimes, their achievements, their exploitations are known or at least knowable by the public at large. Profiles of them pointing out their evil are rampant, in every media format, for those who seek it out. Even those who don't seek it out are at least bathed somewhat in this info. Virtually everyone knows to look carefully at their claims, to view them and their motives with all the skepticism of "follow the money" and to look carefully for evil behind their products and their promises.

Not so with Null and the others like him who Pacifica not only showcases, but ceaselessly and relentlessly promotes. Not so with Null, to whose blood money (in the form of premiums) Pacifica is addicted. Must Pacifica answer to an evil corporation? Never. To Null? Always.

Did you know that Null is a corporation? Called Gary Null and Associates? What more evil corporation could their be than him. Did you know that he almost died as a result of consuming his own garbage supplements? Hate mainstream medicine all you want, but please, hate him too.:

******************************************

From Wikipedia:

Supplement incident

Null owns Gary Null & Associates, a company that markets dietary supplements, as well as a health food store in New York City.[18] In 2010, Null claimed that he was sickened and nearly killed by his own dietary supplements.[3][4][5] On 27 April 2010, The New York Daily News reported that Null had filed a $10 million lawsuit against Triarco Industries in Manhattan Supreme Court, accusing the manufacturer of "botching" its work on "Gary Null's Ultimate Power Meal" through inadequate manufacturing and safety testing, leading to the hospitalization of six consumers for severe kidney damage.[6] The suit alleges that the supplement contained 1,000 times the labelled dose of Vitamin D.[3] Null reportedly suffered severe pain and kidney damage from "Gary Null's Ultimate Power Meal", but continued consuming the supplement in the belief that it would relieve his symptoms.[3]

The Los Angeles Times wrote that Null's experience "should give pause to anyone lured by the extravagant claims of many supplements makers", and said that it was common for dietary supplements to contain doses "wildly different than those indicated on their label" as a result of weak regulation.[5] Null's attorney said the alleged vitamin poisoning was an isolated incident, adding: "We don't want anything to affect the physical well-being of anyone or the reputation of the company."[4]

********************************************

Null moves in on people with the slickness, smarminess and grace of a tv evangelist. From the quiet, I'm so mellow and healed voice that implies "you can be centered and serene like me, if only you'd follow me" to the selective quotation of garbage science, promotion of garbage guests etc. he insinuates himself into the minds of the sick, the worried, the hurt, the perplexed (i.e. all of us), those with symptoms that need to see a doctor, but are instead "mellow talked" into trying his cures instead, with obvious potential consequences in terms of delay of diagnosis and treatment, disability and death.

His message is all the more seductive because of the mellifluous, hypnotic voice he delivers his killer theories in. There are no breaks for ads (such as an ad for Exxon or pick your most hated corporation) during his presentations, making him seem all the more credible. Like a 75 year old pumping quarters into slot machines in Vegas, your listeners go "into the zone" while listening to him—and wind up health devastated instead of economically devastated.

Why honey , I heard him on Pacifica . . . He's on WBAI all the time . . .You know how evil mainstream medicine and big pharma is . . . Pacifica wouldn't have him if what he says isn't true . . .Why he sounds so credible, dear . . .his voice is so warm . . . i trust him because Pacifica/WBAI trusts him . ..Pacifica means peace, doesn't it honey? . . . . How could a corporation named Peace steer us wrong . . .i want to be just like him . . . he must be telling the truth . . . what harm would come by ordering his water and trying it . . .honey, cancel that appointment with Dr. Schwartz (MD) to evaluate my abdominal pain, Im trying Dr Null's herbs and water first and we'll see what happens. I can always get that persistent headache checked out later . . right honey?

An unchallenged, Pacifica-branded and approved, Null is thus tremendously more dirty, evil and toxic than an ad by an evil corporation, and all at Pacifica know this—that is why they feel guilty about being wedded to him because of the dirty green he gives the network. That is why Pacifica is beyond dirty. It is a whore for money, just like Exxon is. It's just that their john is named Gary.

And he is not alone on the Pacifica airwaves. Far from it. There are many more like him—errant herbalists, malignant mental health shysters, devilish "doctors" with credentials always in front of their names, never after. They proliferate like cancer throughout the network. Why? because they sell false hope, easy cures , you know the drill.

Pacifica has done much harm and continues to do it. For the crime of being a co-conspirator in the selling of false hope and false cures to the gullible, it deserves to be off the air. The blood and suffering of the sick and the gullible is on its hands for promoting this earworm called Null and his ilk.

People have a chance of understanding the push/pull, the good/evil of the corporations pacifica loves to hate and whose money they are oh so pure and unwilling to take. You don't want corporation money because it's dirty and bloody. What do you think is all over the money you get from Null—listener vomit, listener pain, listener pus.

Pacifica has exploited and hurt its listeners just as evil corporations have exploited workers with poor wages, unsafe conditions and the like. Pacifica has seduced its listeners and led them like sheep to the slaughter by these charlatans. And unlike the evil corporations, whose mixed record is well known, Pacifica has done so as a trojan horse into the minds of its ubergullible listeners.

Nothing Pacifica does could ever atone for this. 

With apologies to Cicero:

"A Pacifica listener can survive the fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive a treason emanating from within Pacifica. An enemy at the gates, such as Exxon, is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor such as Null and his copycats promoted by Pacifica move amongst those within the gate freely, his sly Null-like whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of Pacifica Governance itself. For the traitor like Null appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness, the sorrow, the hope for cure and healing, the desperation, that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a listenership, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of truth, he infects the body of the Pacifica listeners so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”   —Steve (not Brown)

PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE ADDED TWO JAN. 14, 2014 UPDATES AT THE END OF THE POST ON FINANCE COMMITTEE.

Pacifica's Finance Committee confusion...

A BlueBoard poster who signs in as Steve added the following to that forum this evening Hepointed to one segment as being particularly absorbing. I have extracted it and you can hear it by clicking on the audio bar below::

I posted the earlier thread about the firing of Raul Salvador, Pacifica's CFO—taken from part 1 of the Pacifica Finance Committee meeting of 1/14/14. Raul should change his first name to "Roll" as his appears to be the latest head to roll (although his head is rolling down the bowling lane neck and neck with bernard duncan, the monday-fired GM of KPFK).

if one goes a little further into the audio of part 1 of the Pacifica Finance Committee meeting of January 14 2014, you will hear a member named "Jim" from KPFT expressing a great deal of anxiety about whether the errors and ommissions policy premium is being paid. This policy is a liability policy that protects the PNB and ? the LSB members from liability due to their actions/errors and ommissions on these boards. Jim, the finance committe member, appears quite anxious that the premium will go unpaid, the policy will be allowed to lapse and that they will be doing their magic on the boards "bare." The discussion that ensues is a real nail biter. One can hear the gastric juice flowing as they speak.

Anxiety over whether the policy that covers these rascals from liability no doubt indicates that there is a whole lot more going on that we don't know about, that is shaking these directors at their core. One also gets this impression when the members of various cmtes lapse into a type of code talk in which they speak (on the public stream) of matters in a telegraphed and clipped fashion so as to be able to talk to each other without tipping to the public the full story. Partial sentences, veiled references, lots of pronouns—you get the picture.

To hear all this, go here to kpftx.org, find the Jan 14 2014 Finance Committee meeting, load up part one and begin your listening displeasure at 3 minutes and 10 seconds. I would have my seat back up and my tray table locked before listening.

After several Valium deficient minutes of discussion, a motion is produced and passed, that asks the pnb to tell the insurance company to notify the finance cmte members after the policy lapses—quite stupid since the notice to the members of the cmte needs to go out from the insurer when the premium payment is late, but before the policy is cancelled.

Rather like doing the sponge and needle count after the patient is closed up, extubated and on his way to the recovery room.

Passing a motion to let themselves know when the policy lapses, versus when it is about to, might partly explain how these neophytes and very unsophisticated folks have buried Pacifica in debt.

I guess we got what we paid for.

Steve

The end of Summer?

THIS JUST IN - January 13, 2014

Late word from the Coast has it that KPFA and KPFK now (as of Noon  NY time) have the same interim General Manager, Richard Pirodsky. The stations are not exactly in the same neighborhood—do they have an app for that?

Guess we'll soon hear what happened, but none of this bodes well—Pacifica is seeing a hell of a Summer, one might say!

AS I WAS SAYING...

The following note from Andrew Phillips may not surprise you, but it is illuminating and pertinent. I am not certain of the original posting spot, but the date has to me January 13 or 14 (today).

ahhh..the Pacifica infighting..

I understand that KPFA interim GM, Richard Pirodsky is now interim manager of both KPFA and KPFT; that yesterday (January 13th at 3pm) Bernard Duncan stepped down or was moved aside by Summer Reese and very likely given a pay-out to make way for Pirodsky. Yesterday Summer Reese turned up at KPFA with Pirodsky to take the reigns. The respected current iPD, Alan Minsky is also targeted for dismissal by Summer Reese. Minsky is a supporter of Ian Masters, Reese's nemesis (Minsky) meet Reese in the KPFA lobby yesterday by she refused to acknowledge him - would not even shake the guy's hand! So his future looks shaky. He was previously paid senior producer at KPFA but that position is now occupied by Christian Blodsdale (who is the highest paid producer at KPFK) but produces nothing. She pitches with Null (and others) flying around the network pushing sketchy infomercial-like product but has minimal radio experience. She is a PR flack - 

Need to know more on Blosdale?

Meanwhile the current PNB steps down at the end of this month and a new board steps up and apparently will insist that Summer Reese produce her heretofore withheld personal information - details of parts of her background are included in this message. But none of this information has been vetted by the PNB. Perhaps at last it will be. Pacifica is currently led by people who seem to have very little radio background about whom we know very little. How and why has this happened and why has the current PNB not done their job to protect our valuable network?

Ian Masters, who was suspended by Reese for bringing some of this to the air, says his job is also on the line. Anybody challenging Reese faces termination. I certainly know that from my own personal experience. Masters, with no premiums, consistently returns the most money per hour at KPFA. Masters pithches programming.

I understand his story is about to break on major media in LA and The Nation. As of now very few are aware of these shenanigans. It's time of staff with backbone and certainly the Pacifica membership take the time to learn what is happening behind the curtain and step up to save what's left of Pacifica's legitimacy.

Here is Ian Masters plea for a listener intervention including links to Summer Reese's background. This information has been forwarded by Masters to the PNB. But don't hold your breath for the PNB to step up unless "feet are held to fire".

January 3, 2014

Dear concerned KPFK listeners, 

Happy New Year and thanks to all of you who emailed me at savekpfk@gmail.com and who visited our new website at listenerpoweredradio.org or Googled save pacifica radio and offered to join in a listener intervention to save Pacifica and KPFK. We are moving ahead but I have been warned by many inside of Pacifica who support this effort that I will be immediately fired by Summer Reese and Gary Null if I post the following on the website...

As we begin this New Year, Pacifica’s future hangs in the balance and will be determined by a background check. And while I am under a strict gag order on “free speech” radio not to say a word about the dire situation we are in, I can share what I know with you even though it may be difficult to convey just how disastrous our new leadership is and for you to realize that on the inside, the “peoples radio” now operates along totally authoritarian lines.

These dysfunctional boards that represent barely 10% of our listener/members, that tend to attract the most extreme among Pacifica’s various factions, were never meant to be a conduit for the one-eyed person in the land of the blind to maneuver themselves into a paying job. We are supposed to recruit professional management from the outside and our Executive Directors are supposed to administer, not hand pick cronies and micro-manage programming.

The lunatics have indeed taken over the asylum and today the Pacifica foundation is already in the hands of someone with such a dubious background, who is so demonstrably unqualified for any job, let alone running a radio network, but yet has shown sufficient bureaucratic cunning that both Stalin and the Koch brothers would be impressed by her “stealth” right wing takeover of America’s only left wing media outlet.

Pending a background check, Summer Reese will be officially in the position she already occupies and, once approved, she will quickly erase any vestiges of journalism and credibility Pacifica has left. News and Public Affairs will become a joke and so-called “health and spirituality” will be elevated to prime time, meaning that conspiracy and quackery will become our brand, if it hasn’t already come to that. 

It is important to stress that I have no objection to “health and spirituality” programs and that many of my friends enjoy Lisa Garr and Nita Vallens and find their guests and ideas interesting and helpful. But just as Oprah is on during the day and not in prime time, so too should these programs be segregated from News and Public Affairs which listeners expect to hear in prime time.

A simple Google search reveals that Summer Reese’s only professional experience was as an office manager for a tax avoidance scam artist, Peymon Mottahedeh, who is not a lawyer but runs the Freedom Law School in the California desert that is neither a school or has anything to do with the law except for breaking it through tax avoidance.

As one of their “paralegals”, Ms. Reese’s job was to con people into believing that the $6,000 package they were buying from the Freedom Law School would immunize them against an oppressive and illegitimate government’s efforts to collect taxes they owed.

Like the “sovereign citizens” movement, these far right wing anti-government conspiracy peddlers don’t believe in paying taxes or having social security numbers. According to information gathered so far which sources inside have leaked to me so it is yet to be officially confirmed, Ms. Reese has not paid taxes and does not have a social security number and operates on false identities.

Her other claim at having a professional background is that she was a lawyer for Sirhan Sirhan. Apparently she impersonated a lawyer representing a client who happened to kill Bobby Kennedy and claimed to be one at public meetings where she billed herself as Sirhan’s lawyer before gatherings of RFK assassination conspiracy theorists. 

As for the merits of the case she falsely claimed to be presenting on Sirhan’s behalf, he was not responsible for killing RFK because the hapless assassin was a government-brainwashed “Manchurian Candidate”. Need I say more. 

With no clue how to address the network’s declining listenership and slide towards bankruptcy, and with total disregard for Pacifica’s 501-C3 non-profit status, Ms. Reese is now turning our airwaves over to “Doctor” Gary Null whose miracle cure “products” are unregulated and whose fraudulent credentials have been exposed as mail order diplomas by the independent consumer watchdog website run by medical professionals, Quackwatch.com.

Gary Null is a private corporation. His annual revenues are $12.2 million. Should Pacifica become Gary Null’s private Home Shopping Network offering dubious products over our airwaves under the guise of fund raising? His fraudulent claims have certainly turned away a lot of our thoughtful and ethical listeners and I am personally disgusted when desperate terminally ill people are conned into spending money on expensive and unproven vitamin cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s.

“Doctor” Null actually claimed Patrick Swayze would be alive today had he taken his products. And then there are the young men who died following the advice of this HIV denier that Gary Null’s products could cure AIDS. So much for the hollow claim made by the "peoples" radio that we don't take money from corporations. Meanwhile our non-profit foundation status is being placed in jeopardy from the FDA, the IRS and the FCC.

So I suppose it should be no surprise given Summer Reese’s and Gary Null’s similar backgrounds of scamming gullible folks by distracting them with right wing anti-government dogma as they fleece them, that these two are working hand in glove. And while Gary Null is already on all the other Pacifica stations except Berkeley, the reason he did not participate in KPFK’s latest fund drive was because he is leveraging his position to get on prime time at KPFK and to make a better deal in the next fund drive so that he will be in a position to control the network before it goes into bankruptcy.

The experienced professional Program Director at WBAI Andrew Phillips (who discovered Amy Goodman) resigned when Ms. Reese demanded he take “Background Briefing” off the air at 10 AM in New York City to have it replaced by guess who?…Gary Null!

And in cavalier disregard of a petition from KPFK programmers, she has maneuvered to remove Alan Minsky the current Program Director at KPFK to have him replaced by a loyal flunky from Berkeley who, rumor has it, will propose moving the Pacifica Evening News to 5 PM to get “Background Briefing” off the air.

The head of Pacifica’s Jurassic Jazz station in Washington DC has already been replaced by a person with no prior radio experience who comes from a moving company who helped with the relocation of WBAI. Now Ms. Reese is moving to replace the current General Manager at KPFK in the coming months with a compliant functionary who will unshackle the 9/11 “truthers”, the RFK, JFK, MLK assassination ambulance chasers and the “Chemtrails” proponents waiting in the wings with evangelical zeal to get the real truth out.

Meanwhile, based on its latest public audit, Pacifica Radio's working capital has declined from positive $2,835,309 in 2007 to negative $1,034,153 as of September 30, 2011. At this rate of decline the Pacifica network is probably already bankrupt, given the millions they owe Amy Goodman and the piles of unpaid bills and lawsuits to collect past dues.

While I am merely road-kill and collateral damage compared to the death of Pacifica, you might ask why is Summer Reese on a Jihad to get rid of me? Well apart from the sin of telling the truth on “free speech” radio, my only personal contact with Ms. Reese was when she strongly urged me to read a book about the Fluoride conspiracy.

As you know, four days a week and on Sunday’s I seek out the best experts to discuss domestic and international events and issues of importance. Iran, Syria, unemployment, the decline of the middle class and the downsizing of working Americans, corporate greed, declining education, etc. So I did not follow up on uncovering the government’s Fluoride plot and that’s apparently how I ended up on her enemies list. But therein lies the tragedy for Pacifica; we will soon be no different from Fox News in our denigration of science and our disregard for facts.

Fox propagates “birther” conspiracies; Pacifica mirrors them with “truther” conspiracies. It’s no accident that the Producer of the “truther” Bible, the movie “Loose Change”, is the far right wing sovereign citizen Alex Jones. By pandering to the anti-government sentiment of Pacifica’s left-leaning listeners, stressing the legalization of pot and opposition to foreign wars, “stealth” right wing libertarians like Alex Jones and Summer Reese count on gullible Pacifica listeners not to notice their real agenda. They are careful not to mention their obsession with government plans to take away their guns and that we can do away with government altogether and have the Koch brothers run America.

We have only days left to mobilize every listener, activist on the left, and every liberal and progressive voice in the land, as well as the few in our politics like my friend Bernie Sanders. We all have to wake up and rescue Pacifica from its impending suicidal implosion. If only for the sake of political diversity in America’s already right wing-dominated media. We are about to lose the country’s last tenuous outlet for bottom-up voices and alternative opinion.

I am embarrassed that we even have to talk about this and that I have to explain the grubby antics of these tawdry characters but, in the short term Summer Reese will accelerate Pacifica’s self-marginalization, and then as the network goes bankrupt, Gary Null will pick up the pieces. 

Sincerely,
Ian Masters

Andrew Phillips adds this note: 

What you can do now 

Sign up to be part of our first online organizing meeting. We will have an update a group of radio professionals who could oversee a real rescue package and attract experienced talent from the outside world who would revive the network and make it solvent.

UPDATE JANUARY 18, 2014 —TRACY ROSENBERG OF THE PACIFICA NATIONAL BOARD RESPONDS TO IAN MASTER'S LETTER:

An Open Letter From Tracy Rosenberg Regarding the Ian Masters Letter

The letter Ian Masters claimed to have sent to the Pacifica National Board (which he didn't actually send as of 1-18) contains a boatload of inaccuracies and mis-statements.

While I don't enjoy left-wing shooting matches, the Pacifica stations deserve, from their listening community, the boards that are drawn from them, and their staffers, one basic thing: factual and reality-based discussion.

This transmission is lacking. It degrades Mr. Masters to have presented it. It's disappointing when food fights cause people to lose their perspective and dishonor what they claim to be about. Ian Masters claims to provide thoughtful commentary about complex issues in a search for truth. Not this time.

The letter begins with Masters asserting, on the basis of a 2-day suspension, that he is about to lose his show, but that is not “a winning strategy”. It isn't clear what is to be won, but since the next two thoughts are about management jobs at KPFK - perhaps that is what he means.

He expresses concern about the departure of the general manager Bernard Duncan, although Duncan announced he would not be renewing his contract which expires in April. The reason Duncan is not renewing his contract is his intent to relocate back to New Zealand in the summer of 2014. Masters expresses concern about the arrival of Richard Pirodsky as interim general manager from Berkeley. Pirodsky is vacating the general manager position at KPFA, having not applied for it permanently, and has long expressed interest in possibly applying for the LA managerial position should it become vacant. One can develop sinister conspiracy theories, but sometimes the truth is simple. The manager is moving back to New Zealand and another guy is soon to be without a gig and interested in the job. So the obvious … happened.

Masters then shifts to the interim program director at KPFK, Alan Minsky, who may possibly have the distinction of being the interim employee of longest duration in Pacifica history, having held on to a position he was appointed to without process, for more than 3 years . While Masters indicates he thinks the hiring process comes down to who-likes-who, he fails to mention a serious issue that delayed the program director hire for a long time: namely the problematic behavior of the interim.

I've applied for a number of jobs in my life: in none of those processes did I confront members of whatever hiring committee there was in a public workspace and berate them claiming I knew they had not supported me for the position because someone on the hiring committee told me so. Water cooler gossip exists - it's all about what you do with it – and being unprofessional, immature and creating liability for your employer is not the right thing to do. Why are you leaving that part out, Ian, and do you endorse job candidates behaving that way?

Again, we avoid the straightforward by claiming Ms. Reese's background check was delayed in some way by her actions. What it was delayed by was an employer reference hospitalized with penumonia who did not return many calls from Employment Screening Services (ESS), the background check company, for more than three weeks until after his release from the hospital. The background check has since been certified as clean with all references checking out. I suppose it may be dubious to have worked for someone with bronchial problems, but that seems a bit on the judgmental side.

The primary gist of Master's complaints about the executive director seem to be the issue of war tax resistance and the business about Sirhan Sirhan. To take the second complaint first, there is no claim by Ms. Reese to be a lawyer. There is a claim to be a certified paralegal, which she is. The story Masters is quoting blindly from his Google search was reported in 2 original sources:

The first is the Pasadena Weekly which reported it correctly: Reese is described as a legal associate, not an attorney and as an aide to attorney William F. Pepper (who represented Martin Luther King's family after his assassination).

http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/a_tale_of_two_sirhans/6414/

The second reference is in an Orange Country Register blog, 5 days later, that incorrectly states Reese was, “one of Sirhan's lawyers”, a mistake that was uncritically picked up in the Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground when they re-ran the item (the sentence is the same in all 3– “a letter delivered to Reese, one of Sirhan's lawyers”)

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2008/09/rohrabacher_went_in_drag_to_so.php

If you look at them side-to-side, it's pretty clear the Pasadena Weekly wins the journalism award :)

The second complaint is an objection to war tax resistance and characterization of tax resistance as a right-wing activity. The People's Life Fund in Berkeley would beg to differ. http://nowartax.org/People's%20Life%20Fund.html

Whatever one thinks about the requirement to donate 20% of income to the maintenance of miltary bases around the world and US-backed coups and invasions in Iran, Chile, Cuba, Argentina, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Savador, Grenada, Panama, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Phillipines, Afghanistan, Iraq, whatever else you want to throw on the list...its a personal decision to resist. Just as it was a personal decision for Lew Hill to serve out the “Good War” in a prison camp where he was subjected to Army medical experiments, and just as it was a personal decision for Bill Mandel to treasonously tell HUAC to go to hell. A personal decision of some bravery and some sacrifice. The Pacifica I value has better things to do than belittle tax resistance.

Which brings us to Gary Null. Twenty five years after the fact. For twenty-five years, Gary Null has broadcasted on the Pacifica network. Before Summer Reese. Before Grace Aaron. Before Dan Coughlin. Perhaps you can blame Pat Scott.

You can even go back to 1993, when Andrew Phillips said this: .(from the pd/"Pacifica's Fading Vision" july 1993/august folio/phillips) 

I have been program director at WBAI since November, 1989. I am disappointed that I have not been able to increase our membership substantially, pleased that I have maintained peace within our station and created a deeper programming rationale which has helped WBAI's income substantially increase. After more than twenty years in broadcasting, I am establishing a radio consultancy. Andrew Leslie Phillips and Associates will produce and distribute programs nationally. We also want to assist the station's fundraising efforts. Our first client is Gary Null who goes national, once weekly this month, as The Gary Null Show. Gary will continue to be heard on WBAI five days a week”

Finally, it is absolutely true membership numbers at all 5 Pacifica stations have been in free-fall for a long time, most acutely in the period starting in 2007. It didn't start in 2012. Pointing to actions taken in the past year as causing something that happened six years ago is wildly illogical and completely inarticulate.

After four years on - and three years chairing - the national finance committee - nothing would have made me happier than, even once, to have gotten a budget from KPFK management that said: We're fundraising too much and too dependent on premiums. We need to ramp it back, take the temporary financial hit and try to rebuild a stronger base of support that is more programming-based and less premium-based. But it never happened. All we got were budgets proposing more fund drive days, bigger goals and increasing expense levels. Just like all Christine Blosdale got from Alan Minsky was longer and longer stretches of pre-emptions during fundraising, to the extent that some days contained more than 8 hours of her fundraising specials.

Tell me why the lack of courage from people inside KPFK, most especially the manager and the interim program director, who could have proposed a different approach to fundraising at any time and delivered a budget to match, is someone else's fault? Because I don't get it. What was stopping you?

It wasn't Summer Reese. It certainly wasn't the finance committee. All we did was say KPFK had too many fundraising days and was too premium-dependent for four long years.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves”.

Answer that question honestly, Ian, and we can talk.

Tracy Rosenberg, 

Pacifica National Board member (until the end of January)

An interesting response to the above letter from Tracy Rosenberg was posted anonymously on the BlueBoard. THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU THERE,

Betting on the snail?

The premiums mess was brought up on the Personal Computer Show tonight. Somebody who can penetrate Reimers' protective shield should tell him that all callers to his office are not "crazy"—as he told the Village Voice—then make him sit down and listen to WBAI. Among the things he needs to hear are the following two soundbites, which I have excerpted from this week's show, but left uncut. The first caller is a listener named Lamont whose e-mails are never answered. He is still waiting to receive a product he paid for a couple of marathons ago. The second caller finally got his premium, which impressed the PC hosts until they learned that it was a Gary Null product—then they pointed oiu that Null gets special treatment (which he does). Calls such as these are becoming more common, but most hosts haven't the spine to speak their mind. These call-ins say more than any of us can possibly convey in this forum. Note, too, the remarks regarding the appalling technical work by "Chief of Operations," Tony Ryan, which make call-ins difficult and downright embarrassing.

 

Regular caller, Anthony ("Tom from the Bronx") also chimed in. He, too is a victim of the ongoing incompetence, but a tolerant one who wants to see the station survive. Here, he makes a good observation re a possible BAI Buddy side effect:

 

Gary Null making it abundantly clear

Whatever we think of Gary Null and the wisdom of making WBAI's future hinge on his ability to raise funds, we can't escape the fact that he knows how to make himself "abundantly clear." He has on previous occasions voiced his displeasure with WBAI's management, but wounds were mended when Berthold Reimers made promises and heaped on the lies.

Well, this may be the final straw—Null has had it with these incompetent, delusional, lying people and—I suppose—their cronies. He was, for example, not told that they would be re-running his old infomercials—they did so, endlessly, and it made him come off very poorly, but what has Null more riled up than any of that is the station's (and Reimers' disregard for the listener, once he or she has parted with some money.

His show today began as usual with an oily "hello" and moved on to some quackery. There was also a guest, but Mr. Null paused for a message before introducing him. The message was for the listeners, but it was also a strong warning to Reimers, Reese, and the rest of the background scammers.

I could not adequately relate this message, so I have brought it here—not the entire program, just the part that really matters. I hope to see your comments after you have listened to this justifiable outburst.

Katz's last meow?

She also posted the following New Year's message to the staff. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether she is a shameless liar or just very loosely wrapped.  —Chris

Hi Producers + Staff -

I hate "group" emails but I really wanted to review for you why YOU  
all were so important to WBAI and me in 2013.

Because:
You created shows that were interesting and important

You kept pitching and fund raising when we thought all was lost

You created events, attended events, and made our air eventful

You contributed by communicating kvetches, kindness, and compliments

You schlepped up that hill to CUNY or out of your way to Brooklyn

You weathered enormous changes like the seasoned pros that you are

I am grateful to work for you all and the station that you make WBAI,  
doing what you do every day, or every week, or some of you, one  
significant day a month!

Peace and prosperity to you and yours in 2014.

Kind regards,
Andrea Katz