Action Alert on Pacifica's Democracy Now!
August 13, 2001
Last Friday afternoon, Amy Goodman was physically accosted by WBAI
Interim General Manger Utrice Leid. WBAI is one of five stations owned by
Pacifica Radio from which Amy broadcasts her award-winning program
Democracy Now!. As you may know, Amy has continually and passionately
covered East Timor and Indonesia on Pacifica. With Allan Nairn, she
survived the November 1991 Santa Cruz massacre ; an event that some now in
control at WBAI outrageously assert did not occur.
The incident described below is part of an ongoing campaign of
harassment of Amy and seems part of a determined effort to force Amy and
Democracy Now! from their air. Until now they have not risked firing Amy.
But over the course of last week, a number of steps were taken that
appeared to be directed toward that end. Please don't allow Amy's or
Democracy Now!'s voice to be stilled.
According to eyewitnesses, Amy came upon two WBAI staffers rifling
through the personal possessions of fired WBAI Program Director Bernard
White. Amy objected to the invasion of privacy, and when the two people
refused to stop, she went to her office, got her camera, and took a
picture of their illegal search.
WBAI manager Utrice Leid, who appeared on the scene at that point,
ripped the camera out of Amy's hands and stalked into an adjacent office.
Amy followed her and demanded her camera back. Leid simply laughed in
Amy's face, saying she would have the film developed herself. Leid, who is
much larger than Amy, then physically shoved her out of the way and
marched down the hallway to her own office whereupon she shut the door.
But Amy would not be intimidated. She stood outside Leid's office and
again demanded the camera back. Leid finally relented, opened the door and
handed it to Amy.
Amy reiterated that it was wrong to be going through Bernard White's
possessions. Leid asked her how she knew anyone was doing that. Amy
replied that she had witnessed the incident. "Just like you witnessed
the massacre in East Timor?" retorted Leid sarcastically, echoing a
common slander that has now been made by several WBAI staffers who are
followers of Leid: that the 1991 East Timor massacre that Amy witnessed
and reported about was fabricated by her.
For those who live in the WBAI listening area, this incident will come
as no surprise. We have heard numerous on-air diatribes by Leid and her
followers routinely vilifying Amy and other dissidents at the station. Amy
has been threatened with violence, made the object of racist and sexist
slurs, and denounced as a "criminal," a "saboteur" and
a "Svengali" who is responsible for the entire Pacifica crisis.
Leid has said that Amy's contribution to Pacifica is "vomit" and
"defecation" and her followers have at times used sexist
epithets to degrade Amy, even deriding her on the air as
"childless."
Amy has directed numerous complaints to interim executive director
Bessie Wash and to the Pacifica Board majority about the harassment and
slander, but they refuse to intercede. Are they waiting for Leid or one of
her stooges to physically assault Amy?
The campaign of harassment and pressure must stop now!
We urge you to act now.
August 14 UPDATE:
Tuesday, August 14, 2001
Friends,
Today's live broadcast of Democracy Now! was yanked off the air by
Pacifica and replaced by a tape of an old DN show.
This unprecedented action occurred after all-night negotiations between
the management and Goodman broke down early this morning. Goodman notified
Pacifica yesterday that she could no longer originate the show at WBAI in
New York due to the continual intimidation and harassment she was
experiencing at the hands of interim station manage Utrice Leid.
She offered instead to originate the program from Downtown Community
Television (DCTV) in Lower Manhattan until management could assure her a
safe working environment, and she proceeded to do just that this morning.
The originating of programming - national and local -- from remote
locations is not unheard of.
But Pacifica lawyers, who had not responded to numerous letters and
complaints from Amy about the increasing harassment she had faced in
recent weeks, refused yesterday to either guarantee her a safe work
environment or agree to allow her to broadcast from someplace else.
The escalating harassment against Goodman included an incident last
Friday where Leid physically shoved her during a heated discussion; the
removal of Democracy Now! from the main production studio of WBAI,
continued on-air personal attacks on Amy by staff members close to Leid,
racist and sexist remarks by staff members that are not censured by
management, even slanderous statements about Goodman that continue to
appear on Pacifica's official web page.
No one should be forced to work under such conditions, and certainly
not the host of the most popular news program in Pacifica's history.
--------
see ETAN's
Democracy Now! page
read ETAN's November 2000 letter
concerning Democracy Now! to the Pacifica Board
read ETAN's August 17, 2001 open
letter to WBAI and Pacifica on East Timor and Amy Goodman
General information and background can be found at: http://www.pacificacampaign.org
http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm
http://goodlight.net/wbai/ www.radio4all.org/freepacifica
www.savepacifica.net
P.S. If you would like to send a note of
support to Amy and the Democracy Now! crew, we would be happy to
forward it.
Stop the Harassment of Democracy Now! Resign Now!
1) Stop the threats, slander and physical intimidation against Amy
Goodman
2) Resign. Step aside and allow for new leadership to begin the
rebuilding process at Pacifica radio and WBAI.
Please call, fax and/or e-mail the following individuals. Your phone
calls are important.
Keep the message simple and straightforward.
No harassment of Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman and resign
now.
Cut the below list of email addresses, paste it into the To: line of
your email composition form.
Bmwpacifica@aol.com, uleid@escape.com, sypacifica@aol.com, kford@nahb.com,
KenFordPacifica@aol.com, jmurdock@ebglaw.com, wendell_L_johns@fanniemae.com,
Alfigo@aol.com, valriechambers@aol.com, Valrie.Chambers@mail.tamucc.edu,
jhoward@nahb.com, bsmith@nahbofficer.com, pacificacampaign@yahoo.com;
john@etan.org
WBAI Acting GM Utrice Leid Tel: 212-209-2800/2820; Fax: 212-747-1698
E-mail: uleid@escape.com
Pacifica Executive Director Bessie Wash Tel: 202-588-0999 x 348 or
888-770-4944 x348; Fax: 202-588-0561 E-mail: bmwpacifica@aol.com
Pacifica Board Vice Chair Ken Ford Tel: 202-822-0228; Fax: 202-822-0369
E-mail: kenfordpacifica@aol.com,
kford@nahb.com
Pacifica Board member Valrie Chambers Tel: 361-825-6012; Fax:
281-655-0266 E-mail: Valrie.Chambers@mail.tamucc.edu,
valriechambers@aol.com
Pacifica Board member Wendell L. Johns Tel: 202-752-5355; Fax:
202-752-4281 E-mail: wendell_L_johns@fanniemae.com
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