This was published, with very minor alterations, Tu23July, by the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay), part of the worldwide Indymedia project: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/07/23/18824944.php
Maxie threw her the football & she promptly dropped it. Where’s the surprise? At this evening’s PNB Strategic Planning Cttee, Grace Aaron, Chair of the Board & now Executive Director, leaked to the public the name of her successor. It’s John Farneal (spelling).
Then, person or persons unknown at Pacifica attempted a coverup – but it failed. By law, decision-making meetings of charities have to be public, but because Pacifica use national conference calls they post the proceedings online. This recording was available within an hour or so at the Pacifica meetings archive, https://kpftx.org/archive.php – but as two audiofiles. You’ve guessed it, the most interesting part of the meeting had spilt all over the cutting-room floor. But don’t worry . . . it’s now in the clouds. For ever. The coverup failed.
Guess Grace is so used to private meetings, rarely speaking to the public, that she was in default secrecy mode. The Pacifica secrecy culture really is that entrenched & pervasive. The public are simply an inconvenient, annoying intrusion – except when they’re to be milked for cash.
Audioclip of the leak, the pre-censored portion of the public broadcast: https://upload.cat/b7d888611c2d5295 (1:43, 2.2 MB)
And for comparison, the adulterated posting: https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnbstratcomm/190722/pnbstratcomm190722a.mp3 (58:07) & https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/pnbstratcomm/190722/pnbstratcomm190722b.mp3 (38:52)
Obviously the Federal Communications Commission will have to be informed, more so given the systemic unaccountability & the stymying of reform within Pacifica. This is a serious attempt to prevent the public hearing a meeting that they’re entitled, by law, to hear in full – to hear without censorship. It’s imperative that those doing work for Pacifica can be trusted, trusted to post recordings unadulterated – especially as they never have the integrity, & good manners, to explicitly explain on the archive website instances of the contrary.
The Pacifica National Board must open an inquiry conducted by lay members into this serious attempted coverup. The Pacifica members, staff, & listeners deserve to know who was practising non-Pacifica values. Censorship by the powerful must be opposed wherever it raises its ugly head. Those in Pacifica too, must be held to account.
It’s unusual for Pacifica to splice such a short recording, here 1:36:59. For example, Grace Aaron is a delegate to her Local Station Board, that of KPFK in LA. Their latest publicly available recording is Su23June, & it lasted 3:03:26 and it’s on the website, in all its glory – as a single audiofile. https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/kpfk/190623/kpfk190623a.mp3 (Maxie Jackson gave them a fascinating presentation and Q&A, his last recorded LSB appearance, just after 1:38:00; nine days later he supposedly resigned: bunkum)
PacificaWatch 