KPFK Interim Director's Side of her story, to be fair and equal here at least

this is a repost from an Indymedia comment, as a response to all the infighting of fractionalized Pacifica and it's directorship[s] for further elucidation and education and to show more than one side of every accusation and published article.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/231987.php

'the other side to be read also, no ?
by a repeater of what I read Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 at 2:30 PM

There has been a letter written by the just-prior iED Grace Aaron to this author of the primary article above disclaiming some of the statements he made so grandiosely. Since it is always easy to accuse and make any claims, would it not be just as interesting to also read what 'the other side' has to say too ?

Can there be more than one version of whatever Truth one CHOOSES to utilize for whatever reasons of one's own? Let's try to be fair and equal opportunized here.

To be OPEN minded instead of taking extremist factionary positions of hate and vengeance and in competition trying to "kill off" those who someone doesn't like or want in any position of relevance ?

Here is what can be found via Google and Yahoo , no less.

[another version, another voice, another side of this heated political playing world of Pacifica ]

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Reply to Mr. Iain Boal Regarding His October 6th Article in CounterPunch Entitled
"From Farce to Tragedy, The New Crisis at Pacifica"

October 12, 2009

Dear Mr. Boal,

I would like to request a formal retraction of your article in CounterPunch entitled "From Farce to Tragedy, The New Crisis at Pacifica"

http://www.counterpunch.org/boal10062009.html

as it contains libelous statements about me, personally, and distortions, half-truths and false information about Pacifica.

In paragraph 1 of your article you reference a motion that was made by Chris Condon, a KPFK Local Station Board member, in a Pacifica National Governance Committee meeting, of which he is also a member. It passed that committee by a 5-4 vote. It has not yet been considered by the Pacifica National Board. I have copied that motion below my signature in this email and hope that you will include it in a retraction so that CounterPunch readers can make their own judgement about its merits.

In paragraph 2 of your article you state that: "Condon’s campaign for reelection to the KPFK Local Station Board in Los Angeles is endorsed by the current interim Executive Director of Pacifica and chair of the Pacifica National Board, Grace Aaron." This is false. I have not endorsed any candidate at any station in this election.

In paragraph 2 you also say: "Despite being thrown out of the Church of Scientology, Aaron still publicly identifies herself as “a follower of the teachings of L Ron Hubbard”." To set the record straight, I don't consider myself a follower of anyone or any one religion, ideology, group or subject. I consider myself an independent thinker. I pick and choose what I find valuable from a wide variety of sources.

Are you aware that CounterPunch Editor, Alexander Cockburn, defended Scientology on a number of issues in articles in the Nation magazine as well as other publications?

Later on in your article you state: "the last election cost upward of $700,000, including the inevitable attendant lawsuits." This is a gross exaggeration. The election cost less than half that amount, including lawsuits.

You further state: "Since Aaron’s cabal has come to power, the financial situation has markedly deteriorated. Spending on salaries and consultants at the Pacifica National Office has jumped by 40 per cent," This statement is also partly incorrect and partly misleading. The absence of a paid Executive Director for about 6 months from October 2008 to February 2009 did, indeed, mean less was spent on salaries at the National Office level, but this lack of senior management exacerbated an already dire financial situation. Fund drives were failing, membership and listenership declining and virtually nothing was being done to resolve a host of legal suits mainly related to human resources.

Should current management be faulted for hiring a very qualified interim HR Director to investigate and handle complaints? Knowing that hundreds of thousands have been paid out by Pacifica to settle such cases? Should we continue to allow stations to operate in the red without senior management in order to save money at the National Office? Don't forget, when I assumed the role of interim ED on Feb. 2, 2009, and Ms. LaVarn Williams became the interim CFO, our NY station WBAI was $1.2 million in debt to the National Office, was spending over $30,000 per month more than it was bringing in in income and was 4 months in arrears on its office rent and 2 months in arrears on its rent to the Tower that houses its transmitter. In fact, that rent owed came to almost $300,000.

WBAI has since seen a tremendous resurgence in fund drive performance, is now able to pay its bills, is current on its rent and will be able to pay its Central Services fees to the National Office after its Fall fund drive for the first time in over a year. KPFK (Los Angeles) and KPFT (Houston) are holding their own in a very tough economic climate and are paying their Central Services. KPFA (Berkeley) failed to make budgeted cuts that had been scheduled for fall 2008, months before my and Ms. William's tenures, and they are consequently faced with a 2009 budget shortfall. WPFW (Washington, D.C.) is recovering from senior management neglect which allowed that station to decline over a 2 year period.

WPFW now is in the hands of very competent, new management and should also perform much better in its fall fund drive.

Fall fund drives at KPFK and KPFA have not only met their budgeted goals, but KPFK's drive came in $62,728 over its goal and, in fact, raised $1,212,728, which is the highest amount ever raised in a KPFK fund drive.

I will not comment at this time on how we raise money in our fund drives except to say that it is easy to take pot shots without deep analysis. I have not pushed certain types of premiums on any station nor suggested any. We have, however, utilized the successful, tried and true fund drive techniques at one station, including sharing staff support between stations, to improve fund drive performance.

Criticism of any one premium in a drive should be specifically made so that the exact premium can be investigated.

The statement that "she is reported to fulminate against “pro-Palestinian, pro-immigrant” public affairs programming on the network" is untrue. I have a long track record as a peace activist on those issues and I consider this an unfounded smear on my reputation.

I have been a board member of the Los Angeles Branch of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, agree with that organization's strong and wise stand about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have helped put on symposia highly critical of the treatment of Palestinians for WILPF

http://losangeles.wilpf.org/documents/WILPF_Bulletin_10.06.pdf,

http://losangeles.wilpf.org/documents/WILPFBulletin05.07.pdf,

http://losangeles.wilpf.org/documents/WILPF_Bulletin_02.07.pdf,

http://losangeles.wilpf.org/documents/WILPFBulletin12.06.pdf. I have also produced cable TV programs on the subject that can be viewed at

www.SocialUplift.org. See especially the video Israel & Palestine: An Insider's Perspective that can be viewed there or at

http://www.lajewsforpeace.org/Essays.html.

I have also worked on this subject as the Board Chair of Peace Action of Southern California in the mid-80s and early '90s and agree with Peace Action's public statements about that conflict. I also participated in efforts to bring peace to that region with such groups as the American Friends Service Committee, Pax Christi, New Jewish Agenda, the Muslim Public Affairs Center, Women in Black

http://www.afsc.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/52516/pid/16705,

and other activist groups. To repeat, this is an unfair slur on my past activities and character. A couple of years ago as a member of a local Amnesty International Group I strongly supported the publication of Israeli human rights abuses by Amnesty.

I do agree with you, Mr. Boals, when you say "Pacifica is worth fighting for." There is little else I agree with in your article. Your efforts to identify me with past personalities and events in Pacifica that are not similar to the present situation as a way to denigrate me by guilt through association is unfair.

I have a deep and abiding love for Pacifica that grew out of my young adult years listening to WBAI as a Vietnam War protester. And yet you try to portray me as ignorant of Pacifica's past by identifying me with someone else.

Your journalism regarding Pacifica is very flawed. You have only to peruse our website at www.Pacifica.org to see clear evidence that our listenership and finances had been declining for at least 4-5 years, well before I was even on the Pacifica National Board, let alone in my present position. Our current National Board, senior management team and radio station staffs should be highly commended for having the courage and tenacity to turn this network around. I request that you examine the facts more closely and write a retraction of your article.

In Peace,

Grace Aaron
Chair of the Pacifica National Board
Interim Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation"

- - - - - -

Plus a bit of New News included....

Arlene Engelhardt is the new PNB Director now

Will this person be as maligned, attacked, hated and competed with to bring that Director Down Down Down too or is this a preferred person now ? What does it to take to be accepted just long enough to accomplish some necessary work, make some practical decisions, and take much time from one's good life to dedicate to this forever tottering Pacifica empire ?

dont tell me. I know. Anyone who has power is first smiled at and quickly thrown back to the mad dogs to be eaten up alive for being imperfect, the wrong color or gender or having a different point of view and a more convenient ally pushed into the position instead. Is this what Pacifica does repeatedly and most often [hopefully not all ways] ????

May Pacifica and KPFK survive the hate filled world that currently cant tolerate anyone for longer than a quick moment. Scary world created by fear and greed. And this is not even the USA govt, but a non-profit corporation here !

[and obviously this writer too is actually afraid of revealing their birth name for fear of retaliation, exclusion, exile, hate mail and harrassment from those who disagree with whatever they write, reveal, think, or want. How bad has it become when most posters on Indymedia are usinig such strange made-up names in order to protect themselves from others who will act-out maybe if the writer is actually known ? another scary world here too] '

Another unsubstantiated article of accusations against Pacifica staff...why now ?

"Wow, some [ article of which this is a comment to ] tinged with angry words [t]here ...but where are the substantiating sources for that info ?"

[= no references, no apparent fact checking noted in article, so is th is just another smear campaign? And why is this written anyhow ? & why now ? ]

Thursday, Oct. 08, 2009 reposted here from http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/230955_comment.php#230978

these are some quotes of much written above to address here : [snipped from much more malignments and claims that remain unsubstantiated in that article ]

"Under the revised governance structure and bye law changes, a small number of listener-subscribers and staff elect biannually a 25 member Local Station Board. The logic of such “democracy” entails a tiny fraction of listeners electing a board with a great deal of power."

"...led by an unwilling reject of the Church of Scientology,"

"Since Aaron’s cabal has come to power, the financial situation has markedly deteriorated."
"...these positions have mostly gone to board cronies without even a pro forma gesture towards open hiring"

"Notwithstanding elements of farce and a descent into snake oil peddling, there is an enormous amount at stake in the struggle for the soul of Pacifica."

So here are our Questions and concerns from that article [too long to be reproduced here, but can seen on link above - that also contains others' comments as well ] :

" electing a board with a great deal of power."

There has been a big to-do about the LSB, getting voted on, or who gets to represent [no one anyone can name as] a legitimate KPFK group, and hoping to affect the programming or get a program of one's very own...

but it has also been questioned just how much "power" is given or available to the whole LSB, and how ineffective that group is, maybe mostly because of the intense factionalization, continual distractions, the rebellious outbursts that often interrupt any work presented. And all theo bstructions that keep it's own members from provoking dramas for their own image making rather than dedicating their energies to producing benefits for the station and it's management.


So the question of how "powerful" other than in name is to be explored, investigated and surely questioned seriously.

Then repeated references to the iED Aaron attempting to malign her by some extraneous label and describe her work as "led by an unwilling reject of the Church of Scientology". Does this mean she is not even qualified for that unpopular organization and it's believers ? Or that if she is a Scientologist, she certainly cannot belong or be rational and effective working for the stations ?

Or what does that reference intend anyhow ? And who is going to verify that this is current, or what the prior circumstances of her life was that now makes her unqualified or inept ?

Another great declaration: " Since Aaron’s cabal has come to power, the financial situation has markedly deteriorated."

Who has determined that she is in any way a cause or contributor to Pacifica's continual money troubles and not a solver or working to improve that forever-impoverished condition ? And is the word "cabal" a negative implication or a description of whom and what ?

It appears to be another attempt to demean, discredit and allude to Ms. Aaron's person and colleagues also.

Is that statement verified somewhere that was not included in the historical article above ? Does the public information of the financial condition mean it is to be kept secret from it's stakeholders and those concerned about the stations' stability ?

Or does this big implication only mean that the iED has so much power now, more than any ED just prior to her becoming a temporary one, that she alone can make and break Pacifica's banks? Huh ? Explain please, with actual direct causal facts, not just hearsay and rumor or deliberate malignments.

Let's get real here. Indymedia is hopefully not just a place to vent and rant and rage and hope someone else might agree and then act in your behalf.

Another statement : "these positions have mostly gone to board cronies without even a pro forma gesture towards open hiring"

Can this be shown, proved, verified ?
What are the rules for open-hiring at Pacifica ?
What does a manager do when there is no one yet visible who is qualified or hire-able permantly and the work needs to be done ?
Use a temp agency maybe ?
Or put up an ad on Monster Board ?
Or find someone to fill in until all can be done properly, knowing everyone who is not "in" will accuse and complain for sure, and loudly so.

The competition for any of these stressful positions is strong, and the in-fighting with accompanying stress must surely deter many qualified individuals from joining such wildly buffeted organizations.

And while there is much more to question and answer for above, this quote :

"notwithstanding elements of farce and a descent into snake oil peddling, there is an enormous amount at stake in the struggle for the soul of Pacifica."

So where can one find the "soul" of a non-profit NGO like Pacifica ?
How did a soul [however defined even in Wiki if need be] ever get into such a changing of leadership corporation ?
And how did it then evaporate or escape from it's cubby hole?
And the farce that is an eternal Pacifica drama - yes, that many enjoy without even paying their pledges to support this theater of the absurd- continues.

Here some of us agree that "farce.... struggle... " are more useful descriptions, meaning there is more drama and theatrics than actual working towards a goal in LSB and maybe other board or committee meetings. Many love and make provocations and shout-matches to produce these intense and involving theatrical experience.

Just like the old Greek dramas but in an odder modern version with ' any minority defined as victim to get an immediate defense' and so the next power-struggle for poorest victim to be saved' forms the basis for the next diversion from managing business that must get done.
To be sure, the battle for Pacifica is being fought on a ground not of our own choosing. The entire landscape of internal communications , in Pacifica and it's station, and from the author above, needs to be clarified, and made more factual. Or else everything said and written must be contested and questioned.

Some phrases above are well said and there is some agreement about the concerns of how and by whom all is handled.

Oh, yes, and thanks to author for not being hidden behind a pseudo-name, tho some of us who live locally and try to help affect and improve our local Pacifica station do NOT TRUST the individuals who fractionalize and vent and act-out in some angry ways those who do not just 'agree' and defer to their righteous views. [self-righteous to enhance some demanding very smart people who dedicate enormous amounts of time and energy to doing something for or against their preferred station

(c) 2009 akpfker

Pacifica's interim Exe Director is blamed some more...

this is a reposting from a comment on

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/10/230802.php [the full article to which this comment is addressed is " How Grace Aaron Came to Run Pacifica by Wachale Sunday, Oct. 04, 2009 An untold chapter on the tactics used by Aaron and her CTSK to win the 2007 election at KPFK that propelled her climb to controlling Pacifica Radio"] comment title = "this IS 2009, but some enjoying rehashing past history for ....their own benefits & glory ? "

When KFPK elections come around, accusations and past grudges explode into any available space, include or especially this one.

It seems that the hope here in this article is to malign, execute and remove those of a different political alignment and to then be able to coalesce and get-in their allies to win the elections - a way to get the friends of those of the writer to be elected, and give back favors to those who loves to malign others. What a stupid but very very common political ploy.

Maybe someone will hint that Grace Aaron, or Ken Aaron, or whomever is unwanted is having a sexual affair or a monetary problem too ? = that would be ideal to make a ruckus on extraneous innuendos to then be able to squeeze in the other "preferred" and selected people to the LSB, or PNB or staff position.

It is all about bad mouthing and accusing and finding fault and blasting it everywhere possible for the effect.

Make the black hole big so someone the malicious writer then can fill with their own [equally tainted but not yet revealed ] choice.

Why are there continuous accusations and hate articles on a person who was democratically elected by those who were her peers on the PNB to be a temporary positioned iEd ?

Why are there no articles providing any information about her qualifications, past relevant experiences, actual work performance currently at PNB or Pacifica, that could then provide actual info about her capacities... and surely there must be some positive comments to say of her. Does everyone else at PNB or KPFK agree that she is the main powerful destroyer and usurper of all the problems in these stations ?

Or is there a taint found in her gender, her racial coloring, her calm and mostly unprovokable demeanor that causes more meanness and bad words to be blown around about her ?

Surely, she is not perfect, nor even close to it. The question may be who else is actually of equal or similar qualifications available for that low price and that also has had the loyalty and willingness to work hard and responsibly with all the turmoils of Pacifica ....and stay stable in all it's multi-conflictual competitor-runnings for that temporary position.. and also what qualifies the detractors and personal attackers to judge her or anyone else they happen to chose ?

There is no sense of any justice, fairness, or equality ever present in most articles on this website - as extreme views and malicious accusations and threatening implications predominant. And when an article refers to a particular person, not a whole organization or movement, it seems to be to intentionally intend to destroy that person. For another purpose of course. Maybe even a competitive reason.

No, the iED does not need anyone in particular to defend her honor, as if anyone who has actually seen her ability to decipher what is going on in meetings that are or not according to Pacifica's bylaws or Roberts' Rules... or her abilities and behavior to note and comment on what is occurring in the argumentative board processes. So one may even be glad to have someone with her clarity and presence there to help move the process along and get some work done, aside from all the objections, divergings, and self-glorifiying gestures that prevail in those meetings.

The people who have currently produced chaos and left the LSB meetings in utter decimation and disruption are again running... to be able to do more ....of their outrage, their self-righteous provocations, and their disturbing the work that needs to be accomplished.

And no one outside these meetings who has NOT seen these actions would know what happens 'inside'...so they then might even vote for those that make the meetings highly dramatic but unproductive events.. Everyone wanting to be re-elected tries to sound so sweet and politically correct on the radio air blurbs. But they are not all helpful to Pacifica, to KPFK, or to the LSB. Not to improving what has turned into a negative falling-apart structure that may crumble our favorite station .For sure.

And no one running is stating WHO THEY ACTUALLY REPRESENT on the LSB besides themselves, personally, or not w/o big generalizations t of groups that cannot be verified. Why is this so prevalent ?
Why are Board members just speaking for themselves and an amorphous group that is not localized or meeting to form informed opinions and agreements ?

So with the freedom of anonymity, the ariters here, those who want to bring up 2007, 2003, 2000 or 1960 history and find only the bad & bad & bad things that maybe happened as They describe....and reades believe that the same surely MUST happen again, then all those connections made are of questionable validity. It is not his-story that must tell us all we need to know. It is our learning from current real life and participation and observation that would help us see and understand what is wrong, right, and where changes should be going to help the station.

Where is the proof of truth to the blaming of all the others who also were actually involved and actively participated in making whatever has been described that was not successful in the past ?

Why is only one main person blamed for it all, as if she or he were so over-all powerful, all by themselves.
This is unlikely and and an easy cheap shot.

Who do we believe and why bother voting at all if this is what happens at KFPK and Pacifica ? If it is all rigged up to the few "elites" of either 'side', and no one else has a chance, why is there so much conflict, turmoil, disturbances, changes in staff and positions, and so poor funding?

Is this a solicitatiion for a "coup"?
Or just a bad mouthing of whoever is the current person in authority, whomever gets there for another minute, then shift and it becomes someone else. Of course.

can it be that the fuller story that is hidden or not being told, here or elsewhere ?

why did Sean Heitkemper leave KPFK as GM after only 1 year ? What are the facts ?

Who was the GM when all the bad thing happened at KPFK in 2007 ? Who was the ED at Pacifica ? Who ELSE is responsible besides the one being accused above ?

narrow mindedness is also called......stu.......y.
How can anyone believe a one-sided limited blame-game story ?

(c) 2009 akpfker

if WBAI - KPFK's affiliate station in NY - cant fiinancially make it on it's own....

[this is an edited reposting from http://la.indymedia.org/news/2009/04/225945.php ]

if WBAI cant fiinancially make it on it's own....

Indymedia in LA had a rather informative article but slanted, as usual.It had lots of detail, and also seemed intended to eliminate Grace Aaron, the interim Executive Director of Pacifica, and straining to defeat any actions she may even think of trying to keep this NY failed station going.

Ok, "JUC " [article's author? with a website listed as 'justice unity'] so you dont like her, nor agree with her methods, and you question her qualifications, keep finding any fault with her in so many ways [except her pink skin so far] and want more power to do whatever....

have not the management and staff and Pacifica National Board already attempted to assist WBAI's stabilization and been unsuccessful ?

Was not the prior CFO [comptroller] part of the team that wanted to use LA's KPFK building as mortgage for a loan that could also fail and endanger that station's survival ?

Was not the prior CFO noted to be not sharing his accounting information to all management that could /should have access to oversight and thus he left the impression to many that he was perhaps hiding 'some things' or not being transparent as necessary?

Did the prior CFO not use his power to eliminate prior iED's and keep / contain his sole power [the one over money, a big one when others cannot audit or have up to date numbers as needed for proper management and allocations] ?

The history of lawsuits within the Pacifica stations is strangely profuse, frequent and apparently profitable.Shenanigans, games, shrewd moves intended to get capture hold More Power and Positions seems to be the main ploys within all the stations and their national overseers as well. Can this be changed ?

How can any positive moves be made when everyone is busy maligning and accusing and hating 'the other' who may take or change or make a different move ?

Has Grace Aaron, who needs no one to defend her, tho many love to shout and declaim and defame her, possibly because she remains calm, cool, reasonable, active and helpful...has this iED been so harmful and neglectful or acted stupidly so far ?Or is the fear of any woman, especially, white secondly, older thirdly, is this fear based on not wanting her to have any power to help any part of Pacifica ?
not even WBAI in it's financial collapse ?

Where are the other 'facts' and stories about what has occurred to get WBAI in such a sad and sick state anyhow ?

Let's not just accuse and malign. Let's give more than one story, as there are even more than merely 2 sides.What else is happening and who is trying to HOLD ON to whatever small space/ power/ position/ attention they can grab or hoard ? It always seems easy to warn and accuse and threaten havoc. How difficult it is to allow or help make changes that are actually needed.

Nothing is ever guaranteed. No one is a hero or savior. Especially not at Pacifica or it's crews. They are all wannabees and dedicated passionate 'helpers' who think they can do more than they actually can. But if there are some people with management skills, with temperaments that can handle all the hate and implied insults constantly thrown at them, then they need to be allowed to try, to experiment, to in good-faith improve what has been fast falling DOWN DOWN DOWN...

Each station must hold up their own end and expenses. No Bail Outs here either No station can afford to support another sliding down entity. This dysfunctional family of Pacifica stations cannot and has not been positively allied with their own so far, and in this financial climate, how could they do more now ?

No More Bail Outs. Not even for WBAI.