THE  RAGE  OF  RILEY

Public comment from September 18, 2007 Meeting of WBAI Local Station Board

25 minutes 

SEE BELOW FOR ==PHOTO GALLERY== <>

This was the meeting where Justice and Unity tried to expel Stephen Brown from the Board-- they were not successful ==what happened in effect was instead of not discussing the budget =and= not having public comment we at least had public comment. 
Also, they are weakening while attacking-- the putsch to expel Steve was thwarted, and also Vajra listened to R. Paul more than she ever has. 








MARIANELA TRICOCHE - 00:00-02:55 

Her speech-- after which she left!-- was a furious rant but it was unclear whether it was directed to Justice and Unity or to the Resistance. 

02:55 - 11:08 we discussed whether the meeting was over or not.  What happened in effect was instead of not discussing the budget =and= not having public comment we at least had public comment.   Justice and Unity seems to be weakening even while they are attacking-- the putsch to expel Steve was thwarted, and also Vajra listened to R. Paul more than she ever has.  Further, the new attack on Steve Brown about having checks sent to him instead of to the Station is so weak that it has drawn condemnation not only from the Executive Director himself, but from parliamentarian Gregory Wonderwheel and the usually neutral Terry Goodman.  For heaven's sake, fundraising by Board members is something that is encouraged! 

BOB GOLDBERG - 11:08  

Defends Steve Brown and the Resistance movement, and especially the heroic and extraordinary Resistance efforts on the Radio Report Committee. 

PATRICIA LOGAN - 16:41  

After a feminist introduction where the Chair asked whether the other public speakers would "yield to a woman," Pat defends Steve and the Resistance members of the Radio Report Committee. 

ROLANDO BINI - 20:09 

Asked that something be done about the new building access policy where everyone has to call ahead and get their name put into a database before they can enter the Station, and are other tenants being treated the same way?   He asked that the Board look into this. 

STEVE SELTZER - 21:38 

Decries Steve Brown bringing nomination petitions with no names to this meeting (also a common practice), not for soliciting membership checks. 

JOHN RILEY - 22:19

Finally, the title piece!  We do apologize for cutting John off near the end of his speech, but we simply forgot to change the tape!  There was no more than a minute left and the meeting itself ended very soon afterwards.  Mr. Riley made it clear that he would like the entire Resistance membership of the Board to be removed (11 of the 24 members!), that Gary Null's expulsion was justified because he is an AIDS denier and in particular he should be condemned for his contention that "anal intercourse is not a risk factor for transmitting AIDS."  So much for the collegial standards of scientific investigation and free speech-- not to mention radio broadcasting and the Pacifica mission statement!  John did allow, however, that AIDS deniers could be guests, but not hosts.  Evidently Justice and Unity is applying similar standards to people who do not support Fanmi Lavalas in Haiti (e.g. Batay Ouvriye), people who disagree with the antizionist position on Israel, and people who are not black!  Thus this unprecedented outburst on John Riley's part seems to be revelatory of the entire Justice and Unity program.  Lest we fail to take him seriously, we should keep in mind that John is not only the producer at the public access cable company called Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) who makes an entirely onesided series on WBAI entitled "Board Crisis," he is also the Chair of the crucial General Manager Search Committee!  The velvet glove enclosing the mailed fist has been tattered and frayed for a long time, but finally the gleaming metal is completely revealed . . . 

THE DEFENDANT - Steve Brown Himself

BOB LEDERER

Yes - Yes - Yes - Yes - YES!

KATHY DAVIS - Looking Skeptical 

NIA BEDIAKO  

"Through the Looking-Glass Darkly"  The view through the wall-to-wall mirrors of the spacious Al Sharpton National Action Network Center on 145th Street in Manhattan 

VAJRA KILGOUR

VAJRA KILGOUR 

R. PAUL MARTIN

TIBBY BROOKS  

CERENE ROBERTS

EXTRA PICTURE CODE


EXTRA PICTURE CODE

And finally after all this preamble, here is the MOVIE itself, 25 minutes, followed by an introduction and a plug for the candidacy of-- guess who!-- Albert Baron Solomon; then the entire text of the Justice and Unity letter and Terry Goodman's reply (also a letter from Mitch Cohen).  Enjoy! 



The MOVIE itself - 25 minutes


Mr. Goodman's analysis is revelatory of the basic lie behind the Justice and Unity smear-and-red-herring campaign and efforts to blame essentially innocent people (Paul DeRienzo, Patty Heffley and now Steve Brown) for all of the failings of WBAI. Mr. Goodman's statements also clarify why it is absolutely necessary for Justice and Unity to suppress all balanced information, such as Mr. Goodman's post, from their membership in order to protect the fragile onesidedness of their pathetic position.

Note also that, elsewhere, the Executive Director himself and the other Pacifican parliamentarian, A. Gregory Wonderwheel (in spite of the hasty and embarrassing response of General Counsel Dan Siegel), have heartily joined in the rebuttal of J&U's desperate, bankrupt and totalitarian campaign against Mr. Brown. Hopefully if, as expected, the Resistance makes substantial gains this year as we did last year-- with two additional delegates to the National Board!-- this kind of mindless tyranny will begin to recede. It is high time.

That said, there is still little sign of unity, organization or leadership in the otherwise exemplary Resistance Movement. Accordingly, I offer myself as the only well-balanced, sufficiently disinterested person to lead us to victory and beyond. Also, being the only one who is retired, I have the time to devote to coordination, emotional support and oversight; they do not. Therefore the Subscribers would be well advised to vote for Albert Baron Solomon-- and rank him Number 1-- as the only candidate capable of providing such balanced leadership. Of course, as always, voting for any Justice and Unity candidate, even with a low ranking, is not a good idea, as even a few rankings can elect a closely contested candidate. Also, this year we need depth more than usual because several Resistance delegates will have to resign 15 months before the end of their 3-year terms because of the 6-year continuous-service limit (except in the unlikely event that the proposed revisions to the election rules should be enacted). 

Here is the LSB officers' letter with Mr. Goodman's writing interspersed. This devastating rebuttal in its dignity and impartiality should serve as a bastion of strength and a reservoir of talking points for all the Resistance candidates and their supporters:

The following detailed response is from Terry Goodman of KPFT, regarding the letter sent to Pacifica by the Just-Us and Unity faction officers of the WBAI local station board.

From: Terry Goodman

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007, Mitchel Cohen quoted the officers of the WBAI Local Station Board:

>LETTER TO THE PNB, GREG GUMA and OTHERS
>
>by Vajra Kilgour, Nia Bediako, Tibby Brooks, Baruti Bediako verbatim.
>
>
>Call for Action re: Harmful Actions of WBAI Local Station Board
>Member Steve Brown
>
>Dear Mr. Guma et al.:
>
>We are writing to convey our profound concern regarding the ongoing
>conduct of WBAI Local Station Board (LSB) member Steve Brown.

The "profound concern" of Steve Brown's opponents will come as no surprise to the Pacifica Executive Director. He is famililiar with the underlying events and has commented upon them already, with advice from Foundation Counsel.

>His behavior is injurious to the Pacifica Foundation and the reputation
>of WBAI employees - specifically, Program Director Bernard White.

This claim may be true, but injury to the Foundation is justified if it prevents greater injury, and injury to the reputation of an employee may be unavoidable when prompted by their own actions.

>Mr. Brown has made continuous, widespread, unsubstantiated claims that
>Mr. White is involved in the disappearance of listener funds and in
>concomitantly depriving listeners of their station membership and
>resultant privileges, such as voting for LSB candidates or becoming
>eligible for election to the LSB themselves.

Steve Brown has substantiated a number of his claims, a fact about which this communication pointedly avoids mention. The station and Foundation's failure to adequately respond to substantiated claims is of more legitimate concern than their failure to respond to the apparent opinion of the WBAI LSB officers that some of Steve Brown's claims may be unsubstantiated.

>Mr. Brown has also extended these allegations to other station
personnel - in effect, to
>anyone who he presumes has a collegial relationship with the
>station's Program Director.

Steve Brown has an overall theory about the way that WBAI operates and marshalls facts effectively in support of that general theory. The evidence is fairly overwhelming that his analysis is at least partially valid, and this communication from the officers of the WBAI LSB is further evidence consistent with Brown's general theory.

>Throughout the publication of these allegations, the Foundation has
>failed to accord Mr. White any due process - or indeed any process at
>all - for addressing and bringing a stop to these damaging allegations.

The Foundation has failed to use its existing processes to adequately respond to years of Steve Brown pointing out and demanding remedies for what he perceives as serious problems at WBAI. His identification of problems has regularly been less vulnerable to dispute than his identification of solutions, but he has been generally open and honest about his opinions and forthcoming with many supporting details. Steve Brown has been the victim of clear process abuse by the WBAI Local Station Board and the victim of others' unfair use of their broadcast access at WBAI. Mr. White and Mr. Brown have equal access to the civil courts for due process of their complaints and cross-complaints.

>It is our opinion that Mr. Brown's egregious conduct has
>breached his obligations of good-faith service to Pacifica, has
>violated his fiduciary responsibilities as delineated in the Pacifica
>bylaws, and has potentially subjected the network to litigation.

The same could be said of Mr. White and of the LSB Officers, whose opinion carries no more weight than that of Mr. Brown unless they have been empowered by the LSB or station management to speak on its behalf. That aside, the claim that Mr. Brown's conduct has been egregious, in breach, in bad-faith, or in any way inconsistent with the fiduciary responsibilities of a board member is an extraordinary stretch of the imagination, considering the care that Mr. Brown has taken in presenting his various complaints, in constantly advocating for improvements in management and governance, and in directly soliciting funds for the station.

>Moreover, Mr. Brown's actions have tarnished the reputation of WBAI,
>and have opened up the station to attention from mass media hostile
>to the character and purpose of Pacifica.

To whatever extent that Mr. Brown may accurately report events at WBAI, it is those responsible for the events reported, not the reporter, who have tarnished the station's reputation. Use of WBAI's website and airtime in attacks upon Steve Brown have done more to open the station up to civil litigation and hostile media attention than have Brown's mailings to his private list of supporters without use of station resources.

>Furthermore, Mr. Brown's rants have created an atmosphere of suspicion
>that seriously hinders the station's ability to raise funds.

The proper way to address suspicions regarding possible misuse of funds is to investigate claims promptly fairly and thoroughly, publish the findings of such investigations, establish and publish adequate financial control policies and procedures, and diligently maintain financial transparency and accountability. Financial and membership controls necessarily inconvenience those subject to oversight and accountability, but they help assure that all funds are used for their intended purposes and that organizational elections are fair. Mr. Brown has taken appropriate steps to insure that any station funds are properly handled while in his possession, while explaining why he cannot assure their proper handling after delivery to the station. WBAI station management needs to explain how its procedures now prevent the types of past problems that Mr. Brown and others have offered to document in detail.

>The generally widespread
>respect for Mr. White amongst our communities of listeners has been
>jeopardized, as has his stature as a public figure.

Listener respect for Mr. White is not universal, very much independent of Mr. Brown's obvious disrespect. Establishing and/or maintaining respect amongst communities and elected representatives is Mr. White's responsibility.

>Frankly, it is also important to raise the fact that Mr. Brown is
>placing Mr. White's employment in jeopardy, and tarnishing his
>reputation to such a degree that his future endeavors will surely be
>affected.

Public accountability for decision-making comes with the position of Program Director at a Pacifica station. Mr. White's future employment and future reputation are properly attached to his current job performance, which cannot properly be exempted from criticism by elected listener-sponsor representatives.

>Of course, Mr. White is an agent of and for the station,
>and disparaging him as Mr. Brown has done is not only extremely
>destructive to WBAI's fund-raising potential, but also tarnishes the
>entire station's reputation among its communities of listeners.

Establishing and/or maintaining a good reputation is the station's responsibility. Some tarnishment of reputation is to be expected during agitation by governance members for necessary remedy of faults. Inadequate or delayed application of proper remedy damages reputation more than this unavoidable agitation does.

>We were both astonished and disturbed by your apparent lack of
>consideration, or indeed of any involvement, with regard to
>addressing Mr. Brown's behavior in any meaningful way. As the
>Executive Director of our institution, you have not seemed to
>demonstrate any concern for the damage done to employees of
>WBAI, and have done nothing to institute a process for resolving
>the dilemma.

Management is or should be as restricted in its direct involvement in governance affairs as governance is or should be restricted in its direct involvement in management affairs. Mr. Guma, while in no way endorsing Mr. Brown's fund-raising methods, recognized that Brown is not a Foundation employee and that elected representatives do have a legitimate fund-raising role in the organization.

>You even refused to help mitigate the distrust and confusion spread
>by Mr. Brown in one of his latest email attacks on Mr. White by the
>simple means of arranging for the playing of a cart - as was advised
>by Foundation counsel - informing the WBAI public of the station's
>official mailing address, because you did not wish to raise "issues
>of judgment about an individual."

Simply playing a cart informing the WBAI public of the official mailing address would raise no "issues of judgement about an individual," so the ED's answer was more likely in response to a request for endorsement of a specific broadcast cart by Lisa Davis attacking Steve Brown's fund-raising campaign.

>However, you have continued to
>allow Mr. Brown to disparage Mr. White as a representative of the
>institution of Pacifica, in a way that harms that institution.

The Executive Director has no power to prevent elected delegates from criticizing their station's Program Director in email messages, absent libel or slander. The bylaws remedy in the event that a delegate's conduct is demonstably adverse to the interests of the Foundation is for the delegates of the local station to hold a fair hearing on specific charges calling for the delegate's removal from office.

>Your actions, coupled with the silence of WBAI Interim General
>Manager Robert Scott Adams, subject the Foundation to the possibility
>of even more litigation, inasmuch as it is arguable that Mr. Brown is
>an agent of the institution who is being allowed to continue to
>slander and libel Mr. White.

Libel against Mr. Brown published on the WBAI website or broadcast on its airwaves creates greater liability for the Foundation than does the public or private commentary of any elected delegate or delegate candidate. Provocative writing and speechifying is part of the proper role of elected representatives and of candidates. Libel and slander have specific definitions in law and the charge itself may be libelous. It would benefit the Foundation if other members of the WBAI Local Station Board were at least as careful to avoid libel and slander as Steve Brown has been. It would also benefit the Foundation if Steve Brown were a bit less provocative at times.

>There are also serious issues such as the racial nature of the
>attacks that Mr. Brown continues to level against Mr. White during
>the performance of his work responsibilities. Why should Mr. White,
>as an employee of Pacifica, continue to be subjected to
>discriminatory invective by a member of a local board of the
>Foundation? Certainly you bear some responsibility for permitting a
>local board member to repeatedly subject an employee to blistering
>racial attacks. Allowing an employee to be subjected to harassment
>and discrimination perpetrated by a board member is not by any
>standard an issue of free speech.

The employer does have responsibilities with respect to protecting employees and volunteers from racial harrassment by other employees and volunteers, but it is unclear whether Executive Director exercise of this particular responsibility would accrue to Mr. White's favor or to his disadvantage. Mr. Brown's so-called "discriminatory invective" has largely been claims of racial discrimination by Mr. White and his supporters, so ED intervention might just result in disciplinary action against those expecting protection or favor on this basis. Moreover, the PNB has established a Committee specifically to hear such claims as are made above regarding governance members, so it would seem that the allegations should properly be referred to that body rather than to the Executive Director.

>As officers of the WBAI LSB, we call upon the management of Pacifica
>to see to it that Steve Brown ceases and desists from his campaign of
>slander and libel, consisting of unsubstantiated claims of misconduct
>against Bernard White and other employees of the station.

If any slander or libel can be demonstrated, the ED can certainly order it to cease and desist and use the courts to enforce that demand and/or to recover damages; but the ED also has a responsibility to make sure that substantiated claims of apparent misconduct by employees are properly investigated.

>Additionally, we request that you also call upon Mr. Brown to do the
>following:
>
>a) immediately cease and desist from his call for listeners to send
>membership information and money intended for WBAI to his personal
>mailing address, or to any address that is not an official address of
>the station;
>
>b) immediately turn over all membership forms and money earmarked for
>WBAI he may have received to the Interim General Manager, and to
>continue to do so on a daily basis until such time that such monies
>are no longer being sent to his personal address;
>
>c) prepare a daily accounting of all of the membership forms and
>money he has received, and submit that information to the Interim
>General Manager with members' original envelopes, on a daily basis as well;
>
>d) inform all of the recipients of his solicitation requesting people
>to send checks for WBAI to his personal address of the correct
>address to which money and membership information should properly be sent.

The requested remedy might be reasonable if Mr. Brown's fund-raising was improper and there was a good basis to believe that the funds solicited by him for WBAI would not be promptly delivered, but the LSB officers have not demonstrated a sufficient basis to justify the remedy requested. The handling of station funds is a mangement responsibility and unless and until the WBAI iGM and Business Manager or the Foundation CFO establish and publish standards for LSB Member solicitation of funds, the financial controls published by Steve Brown for use in his current fund-raising campaign appear to be the best model for such activities that Pacifica has seen so far.

>We further request a formal response in writing.

This request is reasonable, though Greg is probably pretty fed-up with WBAI's factional political grandstanding and in-fighting by now.

Steve Brown has carefully integrated his long-standing criticism of WBAI Program Director Bernard White into a legitimate fund-raising campaign for the station, thereby out-maneuvering his many critics. The majority faction of the WBAI LSB cannot expect the Executive Director to come to their rescue in any manner that is patently unfair or partisan. Brown's implications and allegations must be answered directly and forthrightly by station management with appropriate facts and figures rather than avoided through diversionary attacks on Brown's character or methods by other members of local station governance. Station mangagement must make sure that it receives the funds that Brown collects for the station, but it need not take any extraordinary measures when there is absolutely no threat that such funds will be withheld.

>Respectfully submitted,
>
>Vajra Kilgour, WBAI Local Station Board Chair
>Nia Bediako, WBAI Local Station Board Vice Chair
>Tibby Brooks, WBAI Local Station Board Secretary
>Baruti Bediako, WBAI Local Station Board Treasurer

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007, Mitchel Cohen wrote:

>Dear Pacifica,
>
>I was shocked -- shocked, I say! -- to learn that unscrupulous
>officers of the WBAI Local Station Board have taken it upon
>themselves to denounce, on behalf of the Board, a fundraising project
>for WBAI by local board member Steve Brown, without first obtaining
>review by the Local Board as a whole.


>The Board, the ED, and Pacifica management and governance bodies
>should reject their letter, distance themselves from it, and suspend
>those individuals for misrepresenting themselves as speaking on
>behalf of the WBAI Local Station Board.
>
>Mitchel Cohen
>WBAI Local Station Board member

WBAI's LSB officers may properly identify themselves as such, just as Mitchel has identified himself as an LSB member. A body speaks through the resolutions it adopts not through the resolutions it rejects or the various statements of its unempowered members or officers, so there is no misrepresentation in the open letter from the WBAI officers beyond the misrepresentations in the body of the message itself. The LSB officers serve at the pleasure of the body and may be removed or not by majority vote of the LSB on the basis of their actions in this or any other incident. All are delegates who may be removed or not as delegates for conduct adverse to the interests of the Foundation, upon the presentation of specific charges and the affording of due process and a fair hearing. The vote required to remove a delegate is substantially larger than the vote required to remove an LSB officer from that position.

Under the rules of order, in an emergency situation, the officers of an LSB may take actions exceeding their authority and seek LSB ratification after the fact. In sending the above letter to the Executive Director, the WBAI officers do not claim to be acting with LSB authority and have signed as individuals, so no LSB ratification of their appeal for ED intervention need be sought. If LSB ratification is sought and obtained, the Executive Director is still constrained by the requirements of his role and the limitations of law, so his response would likely be the same regardless.

The defenders of the WBAI status-quo are understandably upset that Steve Brown criticizes the station forcefully and believably in his latest fund-raising scheme for the station, but the claim of "foul" is disingenuous absent appropriate and believable responses to his long-standing and well-articulated warnings and complaints. Steve Brown received far more first-round votes than needed to secure his delegate seat, and he must be assumed to be representing a significant membership constituency in his advocacy of change at WBAI. That Steve's latest campaign risks demonstrating to all that he continues to represent a significant membership constituency and will stick his neck out to make sure that their right to representation is protected is just too bad for his opponents. It's Steve Brown being Steve Brown, doing pretty much just what he was eleted [sic] to do.

--Terry Goodman, KPFK Delegate