THE MARC COOPER PETITION
Marc "RadioNation" Cooper, who is also paid to produce a daily public affairs program on KPFK, has recently taken a public role as an apologist for Pacifica's current malfeasant management. Beyond writing editorials in the Nation and elsewhere, signed and unsigned, which trivialize the opposition, misrepresent the facts and obfuscate the issues, Cooper is collaborating with KPFK station management to have some of the KPFK LAB's  members removed by Pacifica Chairperson Mary Frances Berry.

The petition below refers to a lawsuit filed on July 16, 1999 alleging violations of law in the February 1999 by-laws change that disenfranchised local boards and made the Pacifica Foundation Board a totally self-selecting body completely unaccountable to anyone but themselves, and, in the words of former Pacifica spin doctor Elan Fabbri "the CPB, the FCC and the IRS."  The suit also asks the court to enjoin the board from selling any Pacifica station or other assets of Pacifica, and also that the Pacifica Board be prevented from  spending subscriber funds on armed private police agencies, public relations firms and other inappropriate activities. One must assume that Marc Cooper and his staff allies, Marcos Frommer, Roy Hurst, Heidi Pickman, and Stacey Fancher to name a few, approve of these actions and expenditures by Pacifica's Board of Directors. (If not, they should state that they disapprove, and we will apologize for listing them in this hall of shame)

Futhermore, other staff members are being intimidated into signing this letter. Staff members had the draft of the letter below distributed in their mailboxes this week. They were notified by Marc Cooper's producer Heidi Pickman that if they disagreed with the petition, they would have to sign the letter stating that they disagree and return it to her, otherwise they would be considered "in compliance." Yes, her words, IN COMPLIANCE. With whom?

Aside from the obvious position taken that local advisory boards have no right to serve the public interest, and must be boosters of whatever the management wants, the letter contains outright inaccuracies. Barbara Perkins, the former Chair of  the KPFK LAB resigned more than two months before the lawsuit was filed. Barbara Perkins was invited to become a party to the lawsuit and chose not to. Barbara Perkins had been Chair, as well as a member of the KPFK Lab for less than a year, and had not been present for a large portion of that time as she was running  (unsuccessfully) for election to the Los Angeles City Council.

(typographical errors have been replicated from the original)
 

Date
Mary Frances Berry
Address

Dear Dr. Berry:
 

At our previous two staff meetings held on August 4 and 11, 1999, the
KPFK staff discussed the issue of the role of the Local Advisory Board
(hereafter LAB) and whether or not they are acting in accordance to (sic)
the Pacifica guidelines for LAB's.  The majority of the staff at KPFK
(hereafter KPFK staff) believe (sic) that our LAB is not acting in
accordance to the guidelines* 

Attached is a memorandum that the KPFK staff presented to the LAB at an
emergency board meeting on August 7, 1999.  The memorandum was "received and filed," but no further action was taken.  As noted in item (6) of the attached memorandum, if the certain members of the LAB did not resign
then the KPFK staff would ask the Chair of Pacifica's Governing Board to
remove them from the LAB.

We are asking you to remove the members of the LAB that are parties to a
lawsuit against Pacifica (David Adelson, Terry Guy, Jim Horowitz and
???.)  We feel that the these (sic) LAB members have acted outside of
their responsibilties as LAB members as follows:

1.  They have violated the trust against their own chairperson who
resigned (Barbara Perkins) because she did not know about the lawsuit
until after it was filed.

2.   They are in violation of their limits of authority according to the
Pacifica Foundation Policies Governing Local Station Advisory Boards
(3-1-98)

3.  David Adelson, Acting Board Chair, is party to negative publicity
campaign against KPFK being conducted by Vince Ivory of the Pacifica
Accountability Committee in that Adelson sits at the table with Ivory and
does not defend KPFK.  We believe this to be in conflict with his role on
the board..

4.  This negative publicity is costing the station money.  Already, a
major donor has been lost as a result of a conversation with David
Adelson.

Please use your authority to immediately remove these board members from
the LAB
 

Sincerely,
 

The KPFK Staff

*Note: the staff isnot unanimous on this, but these actions have the
support of an overwhelming majority of staf members (??/??)

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