Protesting to Save "Democracy Now!"

By Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org. Posted October 24, 2000.

How many times have you heard someone say, "I am tired of hearing what you are against. Tell me what you are for."

Media critics hear this all the time, since by instinct and disposition, we are expected to be critical, to pick at the flaws, scabs and shortcomings of what passes for news and media programming. Journalists can be among the bitchiest people on earth, putting each other down with regularity.

Yet some situations compel more nuanced discussion. So permit me an exception to talk about a radio journalist who may soon be driven off the air by a "progressive" network and then catapulted into unwanted media martyrdom. Her name is Amy Goodman, and she hosts a daily "grassroots" radio program called "Democracy Now," (www.democracynow.org) which uniquely covers the world through the eyes of activists and advocates with radical outlooks. If conventional news broadcasting is the thesis, "Democracy Now" is its unconventional antithesis.

Amy works for Pacifica Radio, a network that has over the years nurtured some of the best radio journalists in this country. Her show is a daily, hour-long, syndicated, nationally distributed news magazine, the one show to cover international issues with depth and dimension. It is the most listened to and best-known show on the Pacifica airwaves.

But now the Pacifica brass are taking exception to Amy's upfront, politicized approach and her refusal to get along by going along. So Pacifica is trying to force her out. And they are doing it in a backhanded manner by imposing new rules and policies that are not applied to anyone else.

If you have ever heard Democracy Now, and want to save it, then it's time to speak out. An coalition of media organizations has called for nationwide demonstrations on the issue on /www.mediademocracynow.org/proposals/1025.html>Wednesday, October 25. These same organizations are urging concerned listeners to contact Pacifica's board of directors. And if you live in New York you can attend a briefing and discussion of the situation on Monday, October 30, 6:30 pm, at the offices of DC 1707, 75 Varick St., 14th floor.

Trouble Brewing

As most media watchers know, this isn't the first upheaval at the Pacifica network. Pacifica was founded after World War II by Lew Hill, a pacifist with a strong commitment to freedom of speech, by which he meant the freedom of on-air program hosts to do their own thing. He created KPFA in Berkeley with a vision of building a listener-sponsored community radio station with a diverse range of voices. His idea soon inspired a five-station network of autonomously run operations in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berkeley and later Houston, Texas.

Lew Hill's liberal ideas were challenged internally almost as soon as Pacifica went on the air in the late 1940s, by more radical radioheads with pronounced progressive agendas. (Hill committed suicide in 1959). They felt that in a country dominated by media outlets so tilted to the right, progressive perspectives and not just "free speech" deserve an outlet of their own. Over the years, ideological tensions between center and left, liberal and far left, men and women, white radicals and black nationalists, unions and management, have divided a network that was also always scrambling for money to survive. At the same time, it produced programming that built loyal audiences and spurred activist movements. At Pacifica, all too often, righteousness, not ratings, rules.

Pacifica blew earlier chances to compete effectively against the right-wing talk shows that dominate the medium. When Pacifica finally got around to producing a national talk show -- ten years after Rush Limbaugh debuted -- bickering about air time and a lack of marketing efforts by the poorly administered national office prevented it from reaching a wider audience, although "Living Room" with Larry Bensky quickly became the most popular program on two of the four Pacifica stations that carried it.

Pacifica began to change through a complicated chain of events including management shakeups at the local stations and a nationwide battle between those favoring local control and others pushing for centralized national direction. As the media environment shifted rightwards, progressives and an eclectic mix of personalities tried to cling to their sinecures.

As the political culture mellowed, the core audience aged and the programming often stayed static, with some time slots occasionally unlistenable and even loyal listeners beginning to tune out. Tolerance for dissenting views started to fray. Suffice it to say, there were and are as many internal problems and contradictions as one expects -- alas -- within underfunded alternative media institutions.

Sometimes I find it infuriatingly "politically correct" and even strident. When the rest of the media were into "all Monica all the time," Pacifica countered with "all Mumia all the time" (covering the movement to support Mumia Abu Jamal, the Philadelphia journalist on death row). I can't stand the frequent technical gaffes or the sometimes overzealous preaching to the converted.

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