[KFCF Friends] Pacifica Elections

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An Open Letter to the Pacifica Community

>From Dan Siegel, Interim Executive Director

October 24, 2007

Dear Friends,

Pacifica's local station board elections have taken a particularly nasty
turn. A group of candidates running for the KPFA local board have issued
statements that contain little more than personal attacks on their opponents
and station staff. A candidate at WBAI engages in blatant race-baiting.

As a community and a progressive organization we must ask ourselves whether
this type of rhetoric is acceptable. Pacifica has important challenges. We
live in a nation whose leaders wage unjust and unpopular wars around the
globe, attack our civil rights and liberties, oppose efforts to achieve
racial justice and equality for all people, and pursue policies that widen
the gap between rich and poor. The often toxic debate within Pacifica
restricts our ability to respond to these issues, saps the morale of our
hard-working and underpaid staff, and discourages people of good will from
participating in our organization.

Many people are now calling for administrative and legal responses to
abusive candidate speech. We are reviewing our options, but libel laws,
difficulties in distinguishing between reasonable criticism and personal
attacks (as well as deciding who should be empowered to make such
judgments), and Pacifica's tradition of support for free speech make such
measures problematic.

In the end, Pacifica's members will decide whether hate speech and hateful
speech will be tolerated in our community. We need leaders who will work to
improve our programming, broaden our listener base, and attract needed
financial support. I urge all of you to carefully review the candidate
statements and to cast your ballots for candidates who reflect both your
views on how this organization should be run and your values on how
democratic debate should occur in a progressive organization that reflects
the diversity of our society.

Dan Siegel

Interim Executive Director

Pacifica Foundation

This e-mail is only intended for members of the Board of Directors of the
Fresno Free College Foundation and the Executive Director. Any other use is
prohibited.

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