Saturday, March 15, 2014


This was posted yesterday to other forums—first in a clipped version by Rodrigo Argueta, then by Tracy Rosenberg in the following unabridged version. I post it here FYI—it does not reflect my personal thoughts on this matter, but the more we see, the better we can formulate our own thoughts.

An Open Letter to Pacifica Executive Director Summer Reece
Dear Summer,
You are the Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation and you have a three year contract to perform on. This attack on you by the illegitimate PNB populated by infiltrators and enemies of the Pacifica Foundation is wrong in so many ways I do not know where to begin, so I will leave the enumeration of details to others. I am sure many will step up to the plate here. Except that I will point out that the three ersatz “directors” sent to the PNB by the KPFK LSB have no legitimacy or authority, except as caretakers, to enact such an attack on the Foundation.

I call them the “Tres Amigos” an all Hispanic faction representing nobody but themselves. The “staff candidate” Rodrigo Argueta is universally disliked by staff, and after this I am sure, fervently hated. Lydia Brazon hates you, is behind this, and is acting out a personal vendetta, and the hapless clown, Lawrence Reyes, was not elected to anything but was an alternate so far down in the election of four years ago that I do not think he received any votes at all in that LSB election, like me. These three changed the balance on the PNB and I am unwilling to let them grab the tiller, throw you overboard, the careen Pacifica onto the rocks drunk with illegitimate power. And, Summer, I am unwilling to permit you to capitulate to this. You signed a three year contract with the Foundation and I expect you to honor it, first by defending the Foundation from this midnight assault.

The last election of the KPFK LSB elicited so little interest by the listeners that it failed to reach quorum and was not seated. Due to a serious flaw in the bylaws the old LSB was permitted to continue with many members exceeding the term limits imposed by those very same bylaws. Over the intervening four years many board members resigned for a variety of reasons, and alternates were advanced from the list. Now most of the board is comprised of these alternates going so far down the list as to even include me. Their entire claim to the LSB is based on their attending a nominating petition party at the station four years ago and getting 25 signatures on a nominating petition, bypassing the very purpose of a nominating petition, i.e. that you have some real support. These alternates got no votes in the election. I did not run, quit KPFK in disgust, that’s my excuse, but these folks did run and got no votes. Like the now ersatz PNB director Lawrence Reyes. These unelected alternates changed the composition of the KPFK LSB allowing them to send the “Tres Amigos” to the PNB.

I predicted what they would do earlier in writing, in my nomination of the only responsible PNB member Kim Kaufman. This LSB is the lowest quality LSB that I have seen in the history of the institution, has no sense of responsibility to the Foundation, and seems to be exclusively concerned with private hidden agendas and “ethnic” issues like preventing an honest evaluation of Spanish Language programming, and protecting the permanently interim Program Director Alan Minsky who protects them and the CIA directed National Security programming that we all must endure. Plus a majority of members are just plain stupid; and we have a chair that has serious cognitive problems which displays any time she has to write more than a dozen words in sequence. This LSB actually elected her again, perhaps based on the qualification that she knows nothing about Robert’s rules.
In short, this KPFK LSB has no legitimacy, and the members that it sent to the PNB similarly have no legitimacy. So they took this action all on their own without any authority to do so. Now, Summer, let them enforce it. I want you to do the following:

1.      Do not surrender your office or your position.
2.      Do not surrender the checkbook or control over the bank account.
3.      Do not permit members of this faction into the Pacifica building or into your     office. If you want to meet with them do so at some other place.
4.      Change the locks on your office immediately, get a 24 hour security camera.
5.      Keep your supporters and allies nearby, working in your office, do not ever be there alone.
6.      Immediately hire an armed security guard. If anyone in this faction shows aggression or violence towards you requiring self-defense, shoot them. Not to kill; but a 38 hollow point in the knee cap, obliging the recipient to spend the rest of their life in a wheel chair, should have a salutary effect on the rest of them. Or call the police.
7.      Understand that they are not your friends, or friends of Pacifica, and you cannot work with them.
8.      Fire the WBAI General Manager and the KPFK Program Director tomorrow, you were remiss in not already doing so. They are your enemies. Appoint Christine Blosdale KPFK Program Director.
9.      In short, fire the PNB. If they think they can enforce their bogus decision let them try to get a court order. But make sure they have to fund it on their dime. Your defense, of course, should be conducted by the Pacifica Foundation. You should also:
10.  Withhold distribution of the $350,000 in severance pay to the fired WBAI employees (good riddance) until this is resolved.
11.  You should place in a suspense account under your control the amount due you under your three year contract. There is no reason that you should have to sue to be paid what the foundation owes you, better you should already have it under your control subject to a court’s disposition.

God bless you Summer, you are the first intelligent and competent ED the Pacifica Foundation has had in my memory. Do not let them drive you out. I will be back from Asia in one month and will stand beside you. Do not let me down.

Christopher Bayard Condon
KPFK LSB member (but not elected)

11 comments:

  1. Number 10 on the list confirms exactly what I suspected: Her firing was orchestrated to tie up the money that was supposed to be the severance pay for laid-off BAI staffers.

    Who is this "but not elected" KPFK LSB member Condon, anyway?

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    1. I don't know Mr. Condon (which is probably good) and I am still trying to figure out if it is possible to purchase a LSB membership, as opposed to being elected to it. Pacifica's rules seem to be of an odd free-form variety. :)

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  2. Say, Chris, are you aware of the Radio Forum at http://www.musicradio77.com/wwwboard/ -- it currently has a couple of threads about WBAI.

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    1. Yes, the New York Radio Message Board—II posted a part of its administrator's podcast here yesterday. Thanks for mentioning it.

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  3. This is a call for arms to civil war by a lunatic ! The man was accused of trying to purge from Pacifica those broadcasters who did not agree with the 9/11 conspiracy theorists. He bashes Kevin Trudeau, some convicted fraudster, and takes Gary Null as Gospel. More of an indication from what faction Reese hails.

    WBAI is currently in business of taking listeners money to afford a middle class lifestyle to its remaining paid staffers, who seem to be trolling for free laborers to exploit. They are looking for SIX WEEK COMMITTMENTS OF TWELVE HOURS PER WEEK Volunteer Work. How can it be Volunteer if they want a Commitment? Tony Ryan of the Sledgehammer Fame was pitching, sounding like an older and more polished version of Haskins. I've seen too much of true life tragedy, I am glad this is true life COMEDY for a change!

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    1. I am told that Null yesterday declare the Reese firing as heralding the death of Pacifica. Apparently, those remarks were later deleted from the program's archived version. If/when WBAI-Pacifica goes under, Null can expect to be given prominent mention, and it won't be positive.

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  4. Don't know how I missed seeing that podcast...just listened -- Sniffen's comments were spot on. But, if they sell the station, how is Null going to continue to get all of that free advertising?

    Another thing -- that Condon letter reeks of the conspiracy smell which permeates BAI. And, isn't #6 -- the gun advice -- just so typical of so many on the left (while of course being totally pro-gun control when it comes to others, I'm sure).

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    1. Pacifism gave birth to the Foundation and KPFA, so it is sadly ironic that Pacifica now is an appalling example of the very mindset it was meant to contrast.

      The WBAI and Pacifica that attracted me in 1960 and drew me in the following year, is the antithesis of what we see and hear today. Few people within the organization know the depth to which Lew Hill's concept has sunk, and nowhere is that deterioration more in evidence than in the Pacifica Archive. One should think that the occasional airing of archived broadcasts might serve as a wakeup call, but most of the producers and management see these
      excellent programs only as a means to support their own mediocrity when the bills pile up.

      The concept that was WBAI/Pacifica deserves to live, the dung it has become does not.

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  5. Well said, Chris, and I couldn't agree more.

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  6. Chris Condon is a conspiracy nut who was closely allied with former PNB chair Grace Aaron (a scientologist) and Tracy Rosenberg.

    http://polizeros.com/2010/04/28/pacifica-may-launch-inquisition-against-truther-non-believers/

    He's famous for accusing Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! of being funded by the CIA.

    http://911blogger.com/news/2009-10-12/amy-goodman-cia-agent

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    1. I know how that goes. I heard Robert Knight tell Bob Fass on the air that I was a secret agent for the U.S. Military and that this is how I acquired my immigration visa! This is a man who bills himself as an "investigative reporter"!

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