New Charges Filed Against Pacifica with California Attorney General

Whistleblower on Pacifica National Board Exposes Years of Fraud and Violations of FTC Rules at Pacifica Stations Across the Country.

by Ed Murray

Dateline: Sacramento, California

On February 20, 2016, Steve Brown, a member of the Pacifica National Board, filed a very serious complaint with the State of California Registry of Charitable Trusts. In his complaint, Mr. Brown asserts that there has been ” a continuing pattern of serious criminal activities at Pacifica (still going on) that has been condoned, abetted, and/or committed by members of Pacifica management and its board of directors during (at least) the past three years.”

Mr. Brown, after much agonizing, has decided to become a whistleblower, and expose the mail – order practices of several of the Pacifica radio stations and its management, who have chosen to look the other way and ignore Mr. Brown’s frequent demands that the practices stop. He outlines a consistant pattern of fraud at Los Angeles station KPFK, station WPFW in Washington D.C., and at WBAI in New York City.

The charges put forth by Mr. Brown relate to the millions of dollars these stations took in while promising the donors they would receive “premiums” in the mail, often they would be DVDs, or CDs. These charges have been ongoing in the internet media for some time. Other websites, such as www.PacificaInExile.com have also reported the anger of donors who did not receive product that they had ordered. These violations have amounted to thousands of dollars over the years, leaving angry donors.

Here is the complete text of the charges filed with the California Attorney General’s Office.

Julianne Mossler

Deputy Attorney General

State of California

Department of Justice

Registry of Charitable Trusts

P.O. Box 903447

Sacramento CA 94203-4470

February 20, 2016

Re: Pacifica Foundation Radio Complaint # CT011303

Dear Ms. Mossler:

I write to inform you of new and even more serious violations of civil and criminal statutes by the persons originally named in Complaint # CT011303. They make intervention by your office more critical than ever. It may be the last chance to save the Pacifica Foundation.

Complaint # CT011303 was filed by 8 former Pacifica board directors (with my approval and support as a current director) because the foundation’s executive director, Margy Wilkinson (and her successors) – together with the foundation’s corporate counsel, Dan Siegel, and the board majority faction they control – had been colluding in a pattern of illegal activities that could not be blocked by normal internal controls.

However, now the situation has worsened. Because your office has not yet taken action (perhaps because our foundation is too small?), those persons have been emboldened to behave even more recklessly – and illegally – thereby placing the assets and safety of the Pacifica Foundation at even greater risk.

For example, a lawsuit (civil action no: 1:16-cv-241, united states district court, eastern district of new york) has just been filed by Gary Null against the foundation and three of its executive directors for violations of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435) and violations of federal criminal statutes dealing with intellectual property theft.

Although the current and former executive director, and the majority board members of their faction, had been put on notice, numerous times, by myself and other minority directors, that illegal violations were occurring (and had been occurring for at least 2 years), they refused to stop these activities or fire those responsible, apparently because the violations increased foundation revenue. If the above-referenced lawsuit against the foundation and its officers and directors prevails (as I believe it will, because its causes of action are valid), the statutory fines and penalties that can be imposed on the foundation – especially by the FTC, Justice Department, and US Postal Service – could amount to tens of millions of dollars. This would absolutely destroy the foundation. That it is why it is so important that your office intervene.

Here are only a few recent violations of law that have been abetted and/or committed by Pacifica’s management and controlling board faction, which neither I nor the foundation’s minority directors have been able to block or roll back.

1. Violations of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435)

by Pacifica Radio Station KPFK

In a recent fund drive, Pacifica Radio Station KPFK solicited on-air donations of approximately $800,000 from about 7,500 California residents by promising to send them a variety of merchandise (value: $50 to $300) in return for their donations. The FTC Mail Order Rule https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/mail-internet-or-telephone-order requires that such merchandise be delivered within 30 days of receiving payment, unless otherwise stated in the solicitation; or, if it is known that delivery will take longer (but not more than 60 days), a specifically worded notice specifying when delivery will take place, or offering a refund, must be sent to each recipient.

However, the station did not deliver any of the merchandise within 30 or 60 days, nor did it send the required delay notices. Instead, the station manager privately informed her staff – and also let it be known to the foundation’s executive director and board – that she had already spent the money intended for acquisition of the promised (and paid-for) merchandise, and therefore would not deliver that merchandise until a year(!) past the order date (with a good chance that it would not be delivered at all). This violates 16 CFR Part 435 in numerous ways, for which the station can be fined as much as $16,000 per violation. These statutory fines apply even if the merchandise is eventually delivered. And each late and/or undelivered item of merchandise counts as a single violation, making Pacifica’s possible exposure $16,000 x 7,500 = $120,000,000.)

2. Violation of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435)

by Pacifica Radio Station WPFW

In a recent fund drive, Pacifica Radio Station WPFW solicited on-air donations of between $300-$400,000 from approximately 4,000 Washington, DC, resident by promising to deliver a variety of merchandise (value $50-$300) in return for their donations. In this case, it is my understanding that — not only was no merchandise delivered and no notices sent — but station management knew, in advance of solicitation, that it did not have the money to acquire that merchandise, and would probably never deliver it to any of those who had paid for it. Because this is a “knowing violation,” in addition to the statutory fines (of up to $64,000,000), the matter could be referred to the Justice Department for further prosecution and penalties.

3. Violation of the FTC Mail Order Rule (16 CFR Part 435)

by Pacifica Radio Station WBAI

In a recent fund drive, Pacifica Radio Station WBAI solicited approximately $500,000 in donations by promising to deliver a variety of merchandise (value $50-$300) to approximately 5,000 New York City Metro Area residents in return for their donations. However, only a fraction this merchandise was delivered, and that was long after the 30- or 60-day limit allowed by the FTC. Moreover, no FTC-mandated delay notices were sent, and the balance of the merchandise has not, to my knowledge, been delivered, and may not ever be.

Hundreds of complaints about non-delivery of merchandise by this station have been received personally by me and others, after the donors were unable to elicit a response from the station. To verify for myself the station’s illegal delivery practices, I sent $200 to WBAI on February 2, 2015, in response to one of its numerous on-air fundraising solicitations; in return for my donation it was promised that I would receive a book and a DVD by Webster Tarpley (approximate value $50). It is now one year later, but I have not received this merchandise, nor do I expect that I ever will.

I estimate that, in the last 12 months, at least 5,000 orders have been unfulfilled by this station, and many more fulfilled late, in violation of FTC regulations. Those 5,000 orders alone risk statutory fines of up to $16,000 x 5,000 = $80,000,000. If solicitations from the past 36 months are included, the number of unfilled orders – merely at WBAI alone — could rise to 15,000 or more, risking statutory fines of up to $240,000,000.

The only way to determine the exact number of delinquent orders is to examine the records at all 5 Pacifica stations. However, when I requested these records at WBAI – and by law, as a director, I am entitled to examine all foundation records without exception – my requests were ignored and the records withheld. Absent action by your office, these records will remain hidden, and the defrauding of tens of thousands of residents in the foundation’s five broadcasting areas – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington DC, and New York – will continue.

4. Violation of federal criminal statutes against intellectual

property theft by Pacifica Radio Station WBAI

Much of the merchandise used by Pacifica radio stations to solicit donations consists of commercially produced CDs and DVDs, mostly feature-length films, documentaries, and self-help videos. Normally, the stations would purchase these items from reputable vendors at wholesale prices ranging from about $10-$20 each, and then deliver them to donors. But at Radio Station WBAI, in some cases (I do not know how many, because records have been withheld) the station manager would purchase only a few copies from vendors, then illegally duplicate tens or hundreds or thousands more to fulfill the balance of orders. This has been going on at WBAI and other Pacifica stations for many years. Because the practice can save the foundation up to $100,000 or more a year, it is not stopped by the foundation’s officers or the board faction in control, no matter how often the practice is brought to their notice and protested. Not only does this break the law; it also cheats the donors by sending them fraudulent substandard copies instead of the genuine merchandise they were promised in return for their money.

I and two other minority directors have first-hand personal knowledge of illegal CD and DVD duplication at WBAI. I collected some of these fraudulent copies myself, and know of two specific vendors whose copyrighted products have been illegally duplicated in this way. One of them, Gary Null (whose lawsuit I referenced at the beginning of this letter), has acquired some of these illegal copies on his own and identified them as fakes. Intellectual property theft is one of the causes of action in his lawsuit. I understand that statutory fines for theft of intellectual property are $250,000 per violation, and include prison terms of 5 years for first offenders.

I do not know how many vendors have been defrauded, or how many illegal copies have been made. The documents and records that would reveal these numbers have, as I noted, been withheld from me — either with the acquiescence of foundation officers and board members, or their active cooperation.

5. Pacifica’s attorney provides deceptive and destructive

advice to management and staff members

In response to one of my frequent protests against Pacifica’s ongoing FTC violations and illegal duplication of copyrighted material, a staff member at KPFK said she would cease to solicit donations for the station because of the risk of civil or criminal penalties against her and/or the foundation. In response, the foundation’s attorney, Dan Siegel, issued an email announcement saying that she should continue her solicitations, because Pacifica was exempt from punishment under the FTC Mail Order Rule. This was false and misleading advice, which Siegel had reason to know – as an attorney – since the statute explicitly states that non-profits and charities such as Pacifica are not exempt.

Siegel is not an FTC lawyer; he is an employment lawyer. Had he exercised reasonable fiduciary diligence and called the FTC for a Staff Opinion, he would have quickly been told that Pacifica is not exempt, and that its practices are indeed actionable violations of FTC law. Nor is there any exemption for Pacifica from federal criminal statutes that prohibit the theft of copyrighted material.

Sadly, Dan Siegel’s deceptive and (what I must regard as) self-serving advice to foundation staff members carried great weight, because Siegel, in addition to being the foundation’s attorney, has also served as its executive director. This willingness to wink at or deliberately violate state and federal law seems to be just one example of the recklessness with which Siegel and his faction have been running (and running down) the foundation.

In the earlier filing of this complaint, it was noted that the goal of Dan Siegel and his faction was apparently to bankrupt the foundation, so that its licenses and assets (estimated to be worth $100 million or more) could be acquired by a shadow corporation named “KPFA Foundation,” which Siegel and another board member had created for this purpose 27 months ago. This shadow corporation, I might add, was created in secret, its existence deliberately withheld from the foundation’s executive director and board of directors. However, as our corporate attorney, was not Siegel legally obligated to disclose to the board (1) the existence of that corporation, (2) its purpose, which was inherently antithetical to the welfare of Pacifica, and (3) his controlling interest in that corporation? But he never did so, until its existence was uncovered, accidentally, 4 months ago, by the secretary of the Pacifica board, to her great astonishment.

After its discovery, Siegel then admitted that the purpose of his shadow corporation, whose legal address is that of the law firm he owns, was indeed to acquire the licenses and assets of the Pacifica Foundation, in the event that it went bankrupt (an event that he and his faction were uniquely placed to engineer, and towards which they have apparently been working). Therefore, the only way Siegel’s secret corporation could succeed, is if Pacifica were to fail. Is this not an unacceptable conflict of interest for Pacifica’s attorney, and a reason for him to be severed from the foundation? Yet because his faction controls the board, he is impossible to remove, and therefore continues to exert what seems to be a deliberately destabilizing influence on the health of the foundation.

Summary

Although I am not an attorney, I would think that if a corporation’s officers and board of directors are made aware of illegal activities under their control, but refuse to use their authority to stop those activities, they are in effect abetting those activities – and are therefore accessories after the fact. As such, do you think they are appropriate custodians in whom to entrust the care of such a valued public asset as Pacifica?

The fines and penalties that Pacifica might suffer due to the reckless and illegal behavior of its management would be a number with so many zeroes that it could not fit on the output screen of my calculator. It would mean the death of Pacifica. I hope your office will not stand by and allow the current management faction to wreck our foundation. I hope, as well, that if you decide to act, it will not be too late.

Sincerely,

Stephen M Brown

sbrown13@nyc.rr.com

Director, Pacifica National Board

*************

When contacted about this story Rachele Huennekens, Press Secretary of the Office of Attorney General Kamala D. Harris stated “We don’t comment on any potential or ongoing investigation, as a matter of law and policy.”

edmurray1955@aol.com

The Los Angeles Times – The Shameful Showboat of a Powerful Press Monopoly May Be For Sale

An Historic Mouthpiece for Downtown Financial Interests, its Monopoly Status Has Led To Unnoticed Corruption in Local Southland Cities, The Tragedy of Bunker Hill, The Chavez Ravine Scandal, Secret Deals, and Suppression of Big Stories. Now in the Hands of Out of State Business Interests, the Local Pols and the Wealthy Elites Want it Back in Their Hands.

by Ed Murray

Dateline: Los Angeles

Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch says the Los Angeles Times may be sold soon to some local wealthy investors. The Tribune Company denied it, but Mr. Murdoch may be right, he knows a lot of important people, and he hears things: the whispers of the high and mighty, the beeping digital sounds of huge amounts of cash flowing into investment accounts, the rustling of papers as they are being readied by high powered lawyers. Mere mortals can’t hear things like that. Only a demi-god, only The Murdoch can detect these things.

Since achieving near monopoly status in the City of Los Angeles in the 1950’s, the Los Angeles Times has used its influence to push the agendas of the City’s wealthiest players, and also to push around poor people, Hispanics, and anyone else who got in their way. The tale of social destruction spans through the last six decades, and it is now an opportune time to explore a little of the sordid history of this once-powerful media giant, now that rumors are floating around that the paper might once again be sold to some interested wealthy elites and brought back under control of the downtown Moguls of Business and Real Estate.

The Destruction of Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill, just west of City Hall, used to be a stronghold of working class people in the 1940’s. The City bigwigs hated the area, they saw it as having a blockade effect, preventing them from expanding westward. They thought that Bunker Hill was, well, too damned big and way too tall. So Mayor Fletcher Bowron and the Los Angeles Times started a campaign to “clear the slums” from Bunker Hill. Having poor and working class people living up there on the Hill was just not right. Why, all those poor folks were literally looking down on the rich Moguls and Real Estate Kings who headquarted out of the L.A. City Hall. What would be next, having some of them run for City Council?

The plan that was eventually put out was to launch the largest “redevelopment” project in the nation. Everything up on that damned hill was to go: The people, the buildings, even the Hill itself was to be cut way down. Millions upon millions were to be spent. It was a tough fight. There were around 10,000 people living up on the Hill, and they did not want to move. Many worked in the downtown area, and were quite happy up there. Things really heated up in the 1952 City elections. Norris Poulson ran for Mayor against incumbent Fletcher Bowren. Looking back on it, both men wanted to say “bye bye” to Bunker Hill, so one wonders what all the fuss was about. Probably over spoils, but who keeps track of that in this City? Not the L.A. Times. In fact, incumbent Fletcher Bowren claimed that the Times wanted to control City government and have their own puppet in the Mayor’s office by supporting rival Norris Poulson. It turns out Bowren was a psychic, as well as a politician.

The owner of the Los Angeles Times in those days was Norman Chandler. He championed the Bunker Hill “slum clearance”, and also pushed for folks to vote for proposition bonds to get the money to do it. The downtown bankers liked that a lot, Bonds are a good business. In 1959 the Bunker Hill Project was approved. The only long-faces were the thousands of ordinary working-class people who were pushed out of their homes and apartments, not to speak of the many businesses, shops, hotels and other commercial entities.

With the coming of the 1960’s the destruction began. It also marked a change in leadership at the Times – Otis Chandler took over. To get the feel of what Bunker Hill was like, here’s a great video of author Jim Dawson, with an illustrated lecture on the Lost Realm of Bunker Hill, which was at Book Soup in 2012. It’s a wonderful history lesson.

And just in case you are wondering, yes, the “redevelopment” project was still chugging along last year, 2015. The Hill is now dotted with massive condo projects, office buildings and other monuments, including the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion (yep, Norman Chandler’s wife), the Disney Music Center, art museums and churches, and super rich guy Eli Broad’s Museum, one of the men whispered about as a possible buyer of the Times. In addition, we have the huge occult Aztec type layout of Grand Park which runs westward from City Hall, and is lined with City and County Offices and Courts. It has more than a symbolic reference to the Aztec pyramid and sacrificial grounds. It’s where the working and poor people sacrifice their hard earned wages to pay the fines and tributaries to the various courts and government buildings. The centerpiece, the Los Angeles City Hall, with its Egyptian style pyramid atop it, was designed by John Austin, a 33rd Degree Mason.

Bait and Switch Tactic Wiped Hispanics out of Chavez Ravine and Built Dodger Stadium.

Another pet project of the Times and Norman Chandler was Chavez Ravine. In the 1940s and 1950s it was home to several thousand working class hispanics and whites. The “slum clearance” slogan was pushed here also during the Bowren regime. Some progressive folks in the Los Angeles Department of Housing had a plan to spend over 100 million dollars to build a series of public housing structures in Chavez Ravine. This was the excuse to move in and buy up the housing from the working class who lived there. The City acquired most of the property on the cheap, promising the folks the grand new public housing they were going to get.

After Poulson took over as Mayor in 1953, the Times and the Elites decided to put an end to the socialist virus called public housing. They accused a few housing department employees of being “reds”, and having communist affiliations. These accusations caused a big uproar and a surge of anti-communist feeling. So in 1957 the City gave a shout out to Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, inviting him to come to Los Angeles, where the City would build him a swell ball park. This was a much better solution – who would want some public housing full of Mexicans and communists? A major league baseball team would be so much better, and bring more cash into the pockets of the wealthy moguls, so the bait and switch worked, and on May 8, 1959 an army of County Sheriffs forcefully removed the remaining Hispanic hold-outs and a convoy of bulldozers flattened the houses and quaint farms that had dotted the hillsides in Chavez Ravine. A big win for the Times. A big loss for the 3,800 folks who were pushed out of their homes with nowhere to go.

Here’s a video that tells the truth of this ugly incident. One wag said that maybe the Chavez Ravine operation is what Donald Trump is referring to when he wants to “make America great AGAIN”.

L.A. Times Monopoly

Although the Times did not become the “official” monopoly newspaper in Los Angeles until the Herald-Examiner went out of business in 1989, it was basically the defacto monopoly by the mid 1970s. What happened was a devastating strike hit the Herald in the late 1960s and lasted until 1977, but by this time the Hearst owned paper was in dire straits, with circulation plunging to around 350,000 daily. The Times took full advantage of the Hearld’s woes, and boosted its ad revenue and circulation. With power and money, the paper went on a binge, buying up competition papers in small towns in the early 1990s.

The Times bought the Glendale News-Press and the Burbank Leader, both local Southland papers, and merged them into a once a week couple pages of the Times local editions. They purchased other Southern California papers as well. The effect of this was not only to increase their monopoly on news, but the merged papers carried little more than local puff and news-release type stories. Gone were the good old days free-swinging local papers investigating scandals and keeping their eyes on City Halls and corrupt influences. When the Tribune Company bought both the Times and later the San Diego Union it just made the situation worse. Not only were the reporting staffs cut back for economic reasons, but only the biggest national scandals can barely be covered, the local wrong-doing in City Halls and Redevelopment Agencies across the Southland are hardly ever mentioned.

The Underground Press Bursts Forth

About the time of the Herald strike in the late 1960s a counter-culture revolution developed in the big cities across America. Fueled by the peace movement against the war in Indochina, and a general rejection of the status quo values, the youth and a big chunk of the working class wanted something different, the truth in news reporting for a start. Pot smoking and mind-altering drugs came into general use. This cultural revolution also give birth to an array of alternative newspapers and comix. Most big cities eventually had so-called “underground” newspapers, publishing stories that the young generation really wanted to read, not only in politics, but also music, art, poetry and human psychological exploration. An arts and crafts movement began, packaged food was rejected for fresh, healthy vegetarian fare, and suddenly folks wanted to grow their own food and their own dope.

Art Kunkin, founder of the L.A. Free Press

Los Angeles became a cultural battleground, and a small fledgling underground called The Los Angeles Free Press, exploded on the streets. The stories were all the things that the Los Angeles Times refused to print or just ignored. In the alternative world view the cops weren’t always so good, the Black Panthers were heroes, pot was almost necessary to deal with the lies of the establishment, and rock n’roll electrified the soul. The Freep, as it was usually referred to, fielded armies of hippies to sell the weekly paper on major corners, supplying the long-haired vendors with some extra money to live on, and greatly increasing the status of the Freep and other undergrounds, like Open City, The Staff, and the Los Angeles Star.

Did all this bother the Times? Sure it did. They had lost a big portion of the young generation as readers. This is the generation that later piled into the internet. The hippies hated the Times, and carried those feelings forward as they aged. The working class never trusted the Times, and the Herald was in a decades long strike on its own road to oblivion, so no support from labor on that front. The effects on the Times was really felt 15 -20 years later as their once loyal readership finally started to age and wane. No fresh blood to replace them, partly because of the memories of the youth of the 1970s. The Times also got caught in a moral vice of its own making. Because it was so opposed to the counter-culture revolution, it missed out on millions of dollars of advertising revenue. A big part of that revolution was the sexual awakening, when “free love” ruled the day. Massage Parlors opened everywhere, many actually nothing more than low level cat houses, but their ads were refused by the Times. The Freep, on the other hand, had a different policy, called the “show me the money” policy, and soon the massage parlor and personal sex ads were fueling the growth of not only the Freep, but many of the undergrounds. The money was enough to sustain the entire movement for years. And the Times never got a dime of it.

The Times Fails to Defend Real Freedom of the Press

Ships restaurant sign in mid-city Los Angeles.

Freedom of the Press had exploded onto the streets of Los Angeles by the early 1970s. Scores of new alternative papers were published and distributed in metal newsracks that were placed on busy corners. Some of the hippy Freep distributors got into newsrack distribution, flogging sexual freedom newspapers like Swing, Saturday Night Swinger, Impulse, His and Hers, and many others. Hemp related and a stunning array of other odd political and religious newspapers appeared out of nowhere. Rolling Stone started its life as a newsrack paper selling for 25 cents. In front of the old Ships Restaurant in Westwood, for instance, there were somewhere around 50 newsracks at one time, making it difficult to even get on the bus at the corner. This was a huge burst of actual freedom of the press, but neither the Herald or the Times liked it one bit. The phalanx of alternative papers were cutting into the big boys, and that had to end.

Cities across the Southland started to pass ordinances, coincidentally all alike, limiting newsracks to only 2 per corner. Many cities demanded that the owner register the newsrack and pay a yearly fee. Since the Herald and the Times held most of the good spots and were thus protected they had no interest in joining any lawsuits to defend freedom of the press and fight these laws. Many of the newsrack dealers in fact suspected that the Times was somehow pushing these laws, using its power and influence behind the scenes with various city officials, something never proven. Times and Herald newsrack dealers put many of their racks on private property locations, where the sometimes controversial, and often randy alternatives could not go. Denny’s and Bob’s Big Boy coming to mind. These ordinances killed freedom of the press as far as newspapers go. Yes, you can PRINT a newspaper, but you can’t realistically DISTRIBUTE it, thus nullifying true freedom of the press as far as distributed newspapers go. The Times failed to protect and fight for that freedom, a shameful stance that may someday come back to bite them.

Times Secret Loans to Control Newspaper Market

A little known episode in 1998 sheds light on how the Times has striven to keep control of the Los Angeles newspaper market. When the Daily News came up for sale, the Times was afraid that the Orange Counter Register would buy it and give the Times some tough competition that it didn’t want. Really, just how much “conservative” news can there be? It would have been like Cheech and Chong fighting over a doobie, whoever wins, the doobie goes up in smoke.

So the Times did the only thing that true gentlemen of the wealthy elite always do, they financed another media group to buy the Daily News on the condition that they wouldn’t give the Times a lot of grief. A secret $50 million dollar loan helped the other group buy the paper, and to make sure the new owners didn’t get too full of themselves and think they could move in on the Times main territory, the Times got an option to buy the Daily News, as reported by Editor and Publisher and by the Times itself in a special edition published years later when snoopy accountants found out about it.

Things have since become even stranger, when the Orange County Register filed for bankruptcy late last year. The same company also owns the Riverside Press Telegram. So here comes the Tribune, now owner of the Times and San Diego Union, offering a 3 million dollar loan at zero interest rate to the company that owns the Register and Press-Telegram. This would give them a crack at buying the two papers out of bankruptcy, and thus increase their monopoly over all of Southern California. If that works out, the Tribune will own the Times, the San Diego Union, The Riverside Press-Telegram and the Orange County Register. Any beginning psychic can see more layoffs, consolidated printing, consolidated news, and immense power over the entire Southland. Oh, and the big hurt on real freedom of the press.

The Dawn of a New Monopoly?

If this big business deal plays out in favor of the Tribune Co., then they could really ask a high price for the group if they indeed want to sell. On the other hand, maybe the money losing papers will drag the whole mass of their Empire down the drain, including all the local newspapers they also own. The Dawn of a New Monopoly or the Black Hole of all Southland Newspapers? Only the Times will tell.

edmurray1955@aol.com

Gary Null Slams Pacifica With Massive Lawsuit

Charges Include: Trademark Counterfeiting, Trademark Infringement, Copyright Infringement, False Advertising and Fraud.

by Ed Murray

Dateline: New York

Making good on his previous warnings, on January 15, 2016 Gary Null & Associates started off the New Year by filing a massive lawsuit against the Pacifica Foundation, Bertold Reimers, Lydia Brazon, Margy Wilkinson and two other individuals. The civil suit was filed in the United States District Court Eastern District of New York. The Lawsuit charges the defendants with 13 separate causes of action, the copyright and trademark infringements being very serious. Click Here to read the lawsuit, which was posted on the blog WBAI NowThen.

Ian Masters, KFPK programmer who was warned he would be fired for mentioning the name of the acting director of Pacifica, Lydia Brazon, can rest assured that her name has now been mentioned, as a defendant in a federal lawsuit.

Null said he had provided somewhere around 20,000 premiums to Pacifica over the years, but his reputation was damaged because the defendants not only failed to send out many premiums to subscribers, but actually made spurious copies of his copyrighted and trademarked material, including multimedia on which the defendants pasted on false labels, making it seem the product was original from Gary Null.

Null, not only seeks to stop the defendants from any future fraud of counterfeiting his products, but asked the court to force Pacifica to keep any fund drive funds in a separate trust fund until such time as the premium is mailed to the donor or subscriber. This would be music to the ears of the many folks who have complained about donating to various Pacifica radio stations and not receiving their premium as promised. After supplying Pacifica stations with the hottest premiums for 39 years, Null has had enough of this behavior, and has discussed many of these issues on his Progressive Radio Show.

It remains to be seen what action Pacifica will take on this matter. Defending against these charges will cost many thousands of dollars, money that needs to go to pay other bills. Huge deficits are looming over some of the stations, including WBAI in New York, where a lot of the alleged illegal activity took place. WBAI also allegedly owes around $700,000 to the Empire State building for transmitter rental. Pacifica is in a state of turmoil, with contending factions in open warfare. Many fear that the entire network is doomed because of bad management, which has led to the loss of thousands of supporters and listeners. A lawsuit like this could be the beginning of the end to the once grand and admired anti-War network.

America’s Forgotten Cold War Hero: Bobby Fischer

Dateline: Reykjavik, Iceland

On The Eighth Anniversary of His Death, Remember How Fischer Destroyed the Soviet Chess Empire and His Single Handed Victory Over Soviet Culture

By Ed Murray

His Reward From the American Government: Jailed, Choked, Kept Naked in Cell, Persecuted By President George H.W. Bush, Indicted By Grand Jury for Playing Chess, All His Possessions Stolen and Auctioned Off, U.S. Visa Pulled, Jailed in Japan, Vilified By The Obnoxious Media and Became A Man Without A Country Pursued by American Authorities Around the World. One of the Most Disgraceful Stories of American History Ever Perpetrated on one of its Own True Heroes.

His Single-Handed Victory Against the Soviet Chess Colossus Was a Staggering Loss to the Soviets.

The Cold War, 1972. The Americans and the Soviets were pretty much at a standstill. Neither side could risk a major military adventure that could escalate into mutual atomic destruction. Vietnam was winding down, ending in a loss for the Americans. Things were looking bleak, with a cultural revolution in the United States. In fact, cultural warfare was the only battleground left to fight in. Capitalism vs Socialism was a deadlock. The Soviets had launched an athletic offensive. They also ruled the cultural intellect with their mighty chess empire. Then along came a lone American, a young man who grew up in poverty, was socially inept for the most part, and had no real support from the institutions in his own country. He, alone, clawed his way to the top and challenged the Soviets in mid 1972 for the title of World Chess Champion in Reykjavik, Iceland. The lone kid from Brooklyn beat the Russian Boris Spassky and the entire Soviet apparatus. He cracked their psyche, and basically humiliated them, accomplishing something that no one had thought possible. The Soviet cultural colossus was shown to be vulnerable, and to be defeated after the decades of effort that they had put into it meant a staggering psychological loss. Bobby Fischer had become America’s hero, and the Cold War took a turn against the Soviets.

To get some idea of the tremendous task that faced Fischer, here’s a few quotes from the time of his victory:

Burt Hochberg, writing in one of the leading chess magazines put it this way: ” By fulfilling his lifelong ambition, Bobby Fischer has made History. His struggle to reach his goal was strewn with obstacles. He had to overcome the apathy of his countrymen while talented Soviet players have been conscientiously trained, financially aided, and hero -worshipped by the citizenry. The political power wielded by the Soviets in various chess bodies seemed aimed to frustrate Bobby at every turn. In the match itself, Bobby’s solitary preparation was pitted against a massive, concerted effort by the high-powered Soviet chess hierarchy.

Yet he won. And this is only the beginning!”

Chess master Kasparov remarked, “Fischer fits ideologically into the context of the Cold War era: a lone American genius challenges the Soviet chess machine and defeats it”.

Dutch grandmaster Jan Timmen calls Fischer’s victory “the story of a lonely hero who overcomes an entire empire”.

Fischer’s sister observed, “Bobby did all this in a country almost totally without a chess culture. It was as if an Eskimo had cleared a tennis court in the snow and gone on to win the world championship”.

David Friedman, in Best Ever Sports Talk: “The top Soviet players were provided with
state stipends and worked together in an organized fashion in order to maximize the chance that one of their number would always retain the world title; the Soviet Union could not compete with the West
economically, scientifically or in many other ways but chess and Olympic sports were two areas that the Soviets sought to dominate in order to “prove” the superiority of communism over capitalism. It is
no exaggeration to say that one lone American genius, by virtue of his talent, willpower and tenacity, overcame the collective efforts of the Soviets and wrested the World Championship from them after they controlled it for a quarter century.”

His win had also led to a chess boom in the United States. The U.S. Chess Federation had about 5,000 members. At the end of 1972, after Fischer beat Soviet Boris Spassky, membership had swelled to over 70,000. Suddenly, intellectual pursuits were back in style. America’s normal promotion of militarism and athletics took a back-seat when it’s youth took up chess.

Fischer a Member of Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena, California

About the time of his ascendancy to the top of the chess world, Fischer was noted to having joined a Pasadena religious group called the Worldwide Church of God. Their somewhat controversial leader was Herbert W. Armstrong, who generally preached a version of British Israelism,, that the British people and some other Europeans were the true Israelites, not the Jews, and therefore they were the ones chosen and blessed by God. Among other things, Armstrong started Ambassador College and built the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, both great achievements.

Bobby Fischer was a high-profile member of the Church. He also was a big donor, giving over $100,000 to the Church at that time (1970s) according to an interview with Church leader Stanley Rader published in the Wordwide News in 1979. Because of his celebrity, Fischer was given an apartment on Church property and was often cared for by Church officials. He didn’t drive, so the Church often provided him with a car and a driver. The “chauffeur” told me that he was designated to take Bobby around, mainly on shopping trips. “Bobby was pretty eccentric, and because he grew up alone without much supervision from his mother, and with no father around, he was short on social mores and interactions with others. He didn’t mean anything about it, that’s just the way he was.”

Taking Bobby on a shopping trip for some new threads in Beverly Hills, the chauffeur shook his head, “He kind of rampaged in and out of these exclusive men’s shops, trying on things, making a big mess, and then on to the next store. He kept me busy, as I had to follow after him and apologize to the annoyed shopkeepers.”

“One time I was driving Bobby back to Pasadena from some event. It was night-time and I was going up the 110 freeway. Bobby was asleep in the back seat. Suddenly, I looked down at the gas gauge and saw that it was on empty, so I pulled off at the next off ramp, and as I sailed down the ramp I ran out of gas. I could see a gas station at the bottom and was able to make the light and barely pull in. Bobby woke up just at that moment and wanted to know what was wrong. ‘Just stopping for gas’ I said. I was really sweating, if I had run out of gas on the freeway with Bobby in the back seat I would have been fired as well as humiliated by everyone.”

Contrary to rumors, Bobby was fond of his mother, Regina. She didn’t drive either, so when Bobby was in Pasadena, he would send for her and being somewhat thrifty buy her a ticket on a Greyhound Bus. A long trip for mom, coming from the East Coast. The chauffeur would pick her up at the bus depot..

Bobby Fischer Tortured by Pasadena Police

The late 1970s and early 1980s were not kind to the Wordwide Church of God or to Bobby Fischer. On January 3, 1979 the California Attorney General sent armed deputies to seize the Pasadena H.Q. of the Church. This came about from a split in the Church, between Herbert W. Armstrong and his son Garner Ted Armstrong, and others, who reported financial mis-deeds to the Attorney General. At the time, the Church had assets of 100 million dollars. Stanley Rader, a Church leader and close to Herbert, led the fight against the Attorney General, and eventually beat him back in Court, but a lot of PR damage had been done, and the Church never fully recovered. Herbert Armstrong died in 1986 at the ripe old age of 93. Stanley Radar retired in 1981.

Meanwhile, in May of 1981 Bobby Fischer was arrested walking down the street in broad daylight in Pasadena. The charge was bank robbery, an absurd charge as Fischer was very wealthy at the time. It was and still is common for cops to stop people who didn’t “look right” to them, using any phony excuse they could think up. Were the cops in Pasadena just stupid or were orders sent from the top to hassle the Worldwide Church of God’s number one celebrity? Bobby published a pamphlet about this event in 1982, called “I Was Tortured in The Pasadena Jailhouse!” This is now a somewhat rare booklet, selling on the internet at times for over $300. The good news is that has been posted on a web site for all to read. It is a horrifying story, but not an unusual event, even after nearly 30 years of so-called advancement of our civilization, we see nation-wide on-going crimes and murders of civilians by cops. It seems that every day there is some new video footage of a citizen being unlawfully killed. So going back to 1981, before video cameras and cell phones, a lot of police misconduct was unreported. The fact that Fischer had the money to print a booklet on the event and distribute it, is something that most citizens would not be able to do.

Fischer charges in his booklet, that he was abused, choked, thrown into a cell naked, denied food and water, denied a phone call, and more. You can read if for yourself, click here. It is a very sad commentary on the Pasadena Police Department. Fischer’s story is totally believable. Pasadena is a very wealthy community, sometimes called Beverly Hills North. The main job of the Police is to protect the elites and wealthy people and businesses. Homeless people are not treated well. There is no parking anywhere on any street in Pasadena after 10pm at night. So was Fischer just mistaken for a homeless guy? It seems unlikely, and the attitude and statements of the cops would make one think that orders came down from someone high up in the City Government.

But what a thing to do! This was America’s hero, the World Chess Champion. The guy who single-handedly turned the Cold War in our favor. Unfortunately, this was not all that Fischer was to suffer from an ungrateful and at times criminal government.

Persecuted For Playing A Chess Game in Yugoslavia

In 1992 Fischer went to Yugoslavia to play in the World Chess Champion Tournament, billed as the Revenge Match of the Century where he again beat Soviet champion Boris Spassky. Bobby won this, despite a long time away from the tournament circuit, once again an unbelievable feat. Unfortunately, this was a time that the United States and its neo-con government, along with NATO was starting to break up the country of Yugoslavia, using a process of “regime change” that continues to this day, especially in the middle east. U.S. President George H.W. Bush retaliated against Fischer by putting out an “Executive Order” No. 12810 on June 5, 1992, prohibiting transactions with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This led to a Grand Jury Indictment against Bobby, and for over the next decade he was a man without a country. He was threatened with imprisonment if he returned to America, and U.S. authorities attempted to seize his passport and confiscate his money. This was his “thank you” for his part in winning the Cold War against the Soviets, beating them not once, but twice.

Robbed of His Lifetime Collection of Memorabilia

On January 14, 1999 Bobby Fisher called a radio station in the Philippine Islands where he vented his anger on a number of things, primarily that he had lost all of his memorabilia that was stored in a Bekins Storage Company facility in Pasadena, California. He claimed he had paid thousands of dollars to keep his personal items safe, but his agent, Bob Ellsworth, who he called a “secret Jew” had failed to pay the storage rent and his stuff was auctioned off. His collection comprised of rare books, magazines, and even records of his winning chess games, as well as personal books signed to Fischer by former President Richard Nixon.

Fischer, angry that all his personal effects had been sold off by Bekins Storage in Pasadena, because of an oversight in payment by Fischer’s agent Bob Ellsworth, to whom he had been giving $5,000 per year to take of those matters, blamed Jews, not only for the loss of his stuff, but for various business deals that he felt ended up swindling him. Unable to come to the U.S. to get his belongings, or confront the alleged theft of monies owed to him, his only outlet was a radio program on a station in the Philippines, which no one in the West listened to or even knew existed. Years later, tapes of these broadcasts surfaced on the Internet. Meanwhile, about all Bobby could do was to stew about it, occasionally calling this radio program to vent his anger. You can read the transcript of the radio show Click Here, but be aware that Fischer uses explicit language and his rant contains wild charges against “the Jews”. You can google search more of his rants, in one call right after the attacks on the World Trade Center, he made some heavy anti-American statements that were in extremely bad taste, considering how many innocent folks died as a result. To many who have heard these rants, Fischer comes across at this time as completely unhinged.

His agent, Bob Ellsworth claimed that he went to the auction and used his own money to personally buy back 80 percent of the material, all of the best stuff, to pay for his mistake in not making Bobby’s payment to Bekins. He further claimed he later delivered the material back to Fischer in Hungary, yet Fischer seemed to have a disconnect, and still continued to talk about the loss of his memorabilia.

Why Was Bobby So Angry with the Jews?

But why all the anger at “the Jews”? Bobby’s mother Regina was said to be Jewish. It is now almost a certainty that his real father was Paul Nemenyi, a brilliant physicist, who was also Jewish, and fled Europe and the Nazis to the U.S. Many of his friends throughout his life were Jewish. By this time, had he been pushed over the edge mentally? All his accomplishments ignored, all his memorabilia stolen, his indictment and persecution by Bush and the U.S. government, now a man without a country, all this must have affected him. And what was the source of his rage against Jews? Was it subconscious anger at his father, who was rarely around? When he was growing up, did his mother tell him who his real father was? Or was that only a part of it? And how could such a brilliant man blame everything bad that happened to him on “Jews”, when a majority of his real trouble was caused by George H.W. Bush, certainly not a Jew, but a self-proclaimed Christian?

A glimpse of it could be from his years spent in Pasadena, California, and the Los Angeles area. This is all speculative, of course, but may lead to some understanding. Start with Bobby’s immense ego. His brilliant accomplishments in the world of chess, and the feedback given to him served to balloon his ego. Statements that he made, and statements from his friends lean to this. Every once in a while, we hear of some famous person who secretly worships Hitler because of the power he held. This fascination in complete power is represented by Hitler, although the facts of the German Third Reich show that Hitler was not nearly as powerful as outsiders thought. But image is everything.

In Pasadena, Bobby supposedly had a picture of Adolf Hitler over his bed. He attended the Worldwide Church of God, whose British-Israelite message excluded some Jews as the “chosen” people, and said that white Britons and other European folks were the true descendants of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and hence God’s special, chosen ones. He was reading anti-Jewish pamphlets like “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion“. How strongly did these things affect him, along with his own self-imposed isolated living habits that started when he was a child in Brooklyn? Did he turn even more inward, carrying this angst that slowly built up whenever someone who was Jewish did him wrong, and ignoring the outside world and the good things his many Jewish friends did to help him along the way? His few really close friends describe him as being a simple man, and a very kind person. But his high I.Q. would point to a much more complicated person. What was going on inside the Fischer skull? Even the mighty Soviets were baffled. Unless Bobby left a manuscript somewhere that explains his behavior, we will probably never know the root cause of this and the hurtful things he said about Jews, including many of his former friends who did a lot to help him during his rough times.

The Final Years

For a time his final years were spent in exile in Japan. He married a Japanese woman who was a chess champion of Japan. However, his U.S. passport was revoked and he was imprisoned in Japan, and threatened with deportation back to the United States. His chess friends intervened, and in March, 2005 he was granted full citizenship in Iceland. He moved to Reykjavik, the scene of his victory over Spassky, and moved into the same building as his friend Gardar Sverrisson. Iceland was loyal to Fischer – he had put the country on the map during the chess match, and they were happy to give him sanctuary. This is where he spent his final years. When he died, as his request, he was quietly buried in a local church, with only a few people present. It was so quiet that even the pastor of the church did not know about it, until after he was buried.

There was a big legal struggle for his estate. Bobby’s sister, Joan, had married Russsell Targ, who is familiar to many as a “Remote Viewer” and co-founder of the Stanford Research Center, an intelligence operation to investigate paranormal and parapsychology for military and intel purposes. How much did Bobby know about his brother-in-law’s operations? At any rate, Bobby’s wife, Targ’s sons, and a woman in the Philippines all laid claim to Bobby’s millions. The woman from the Philippines claimed Bobby was the father of her daughter, so the authorities dug up Bobby and took DNA samples, which proved he was not the father. Targ’s sons lost and got stuck with a large legal bill. The Japanese wife was the winner.

Since then, Bobby’s friend Gardar Sverrisson has written a book called Bobby Fischer’s Final Years, which is only published presently in Icelandic. We hope to see it in English at some future time.

The Final Words

“Look what I have done for the U.S., Nobody has single-handedly done more for the U.S. than me. When I won the world championship, in 1972, the United States had an image of, you know, a football country, a baseball country, but nobody thought of it as an intellectual country. I turned all that around single-handedly, right? But I was useful then because there was the Cold War, right? But now I’m not useful anymore. You see, the Cold War is over and now they want to wipe me out, steal everything I have, and put me in prison.”

Rest In Peace Bobby Fisher, America’s Forgotten Cold War Hero.

edmurray1955@aol.com

RIP Bobby Fischer, died January 17, 2008. America’s Forgotten Cold War Hero.

Did Media Frenzy in Terrorist Case Break California Law?

Dateline: Redlands

Media Mob Storms Into Private Home Revealing Disturbing Questions

by Ed Murray

Embed from Getty Images

As the above images from Getty’s top award-winning photographer Justin Sullivan show the media mob storming the house rented by the Farook family. Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik are the accused shooters who gunned down 36 innocent people in a terror attack in San Bernardino, leaving 14 dead.

On December 4, the property owner, Doyle Miller, 81, decided to have a look inside the premises. He said the FBI was done with their investigation and had turned it back to him, and he was curious to look inside. He had some trouble prying off the boards that had sealed the front door, but no problem, British journalist and Sunday Times (London) editor Toby Harnden lent a hand with a large screwdriver to pry off the offending board, allowing the huge crowd of media vultures to storm the house and rampage through the rooms.

Toby Hardin Prying Open Door — Toby Harnden Prying Open Door

Harnden, interviewed on a Fox News segment, the Greg Gutfeld show, said “I wished I had worn a better shirt” to be photographed in. He claimed that owner Doyle Miller had invited the media inside, a claim that was echoed by others from the other news agencies. He said it is in the public interest to see what was in the house. He also said that “it was an absolute gold mine of information.” But what is the actual legal status, and what right does Mr. Miller have to be in the premises himself, and what legal right did he have to break into the property and let in not only the media, but neighbors and others who just floated in?

What California Law Says

The interesting thing in this case is that some reports are saying that Farook’s mother rented the house. If indeed she signed the rental agreement or lease with Mr. Miller, then she is the tenant and it is her sole authority over it until she moves or is evicted. The police authorities and FBI, of course, in a criminal case, can get a warrant and search the home where the alleged killers lived. They can keep this as a crime scene for some time, and it is astounding they “released” the home back to the owner so soon, after 2 days, especially with the breaking story of the next door neighbor being involved in what is now looking like a terrorist cell. The neighbor, Enrique Marquez, allegedly bought the weapons used in the attack, and had planned other, more sophisticated operations with Farook. Did the Sheriff’s Department get a chance to examine the crime scene carefully? Did the FBI “take over” the whole operation? The FBI left a four page list of evidence that they seized on a table inside the house. At lease one page was published in the press.

Mr. Miller possibly had no legal authority to enter the premises without permission from his tenant, especially since there was no obvious emergency, like a burst pipe or flood. And even if he was just checking on the plumbing or something, what legal right did he have to invite in a mob of about 100 reporters and others, mostly unidentified, into the house? Could this be considered breaking and entering? Or Burglary? Or invasion of privacy? And how about Mr. Harnden, a respected British Journalist, wielding a screwdriver to pry off the door? Mr. Harnden claimed he found some interesting intel in the house, including some phone numbers from a middle eastern country, that he is checking out, pointing out that maybe the FBI search was not so thorough, a disturbing thought in itself. Harnden said he found a notebook with numbers in Dubai and other numbers from the Middle East. Possibly good leads now that it is becoming evident that this was the work of a terrorist cell. On December 19th, Farook’s mother Rafia, with other family members, showed up with a U-haul and loaded all the possessions from the Redlands house and drove off. If there was indeed any evidence left, it may now be gone forever.

Garages of Death

According to reports, Farook was making bombs in his garage at the Redlands house. These situations are dangerous to everyone involved, both to law enforcement and a mob of press members. Remember back to February 8, 1986 in North Hollywood. LAPD was investigating a Hollywood make-up artist named Donnell Morse, for shooting a make-up artist union official. Pipe bombs were found in his garage, and the LAPD Bomb Squad was called. Two veteran experts from the Bomb Squad, Detective Arleigh McCree and officer Ronald Ball, arrived and determined that the bombs were booby-trapped. The area was evacuated, but in attempting to disarm the bombs both McCree and Ball were killed when one of the bombs went off. Det. McCree received an award for heroism, and he was known by many in Los Angeles. He had saved lives on Hollywood Boulevard in another incident where an extremist zionist group had allegedly planted a bomb at an Arab Information Office located in a building facing the busy street. Old time reporters remember Det. McCree, he was a great guy and he was much respected for his work in keeping us safe. The point of this is to illustrate how dangerous these situations can be. Could Farook have planted booby-trapped bombs? Probably not in the house where he lived with his family, but the possibility exists in the secretive garage where he had ammunition and pipe bombs. How soon we forget about the past events that has sadly resulted in the deaths of police officers.

Legal Issues

According to the book “When Someone Dies in California” by Amelia Pohl and California attorney Bruce Feder, there are strict procedures to follow when someone dies. These would include methods of probate, determining the heirs, finding a will, and many legal issues regarding the transfer of the decedents property. Basically, there are rules of estate administration. Depending on various circumstances regarding the death of someone in California, there are legal rules. The Farook family has attorneys who have given press conferences, so it can be assumed that they are taking care of things. But in reading through the book, it still poses the question as to what authority the landlord had to break into the house and let in a mob of press and others to rampage through the house. A friend of mine who is a property manager, said that if someone dies in one of the apartments, it is sealed off by the police. The County Administrator will try to find a will and to find any relatives, but until things are resolved legally, the apartment is sealed off. The landlord cannot go in. The authorities may keep it locked up for months while they investigate the situation. This is for a normal death, not one of the biggest crime scenes in California history, much less that this could be the home for a murderous terrorist cell. It looks like a chain of incredible blunders have been made by FBI, law enforcement, the landlord, the press, and others. Another crazy media circus, where, as the old adage goes, nothing lost save honor for all parties involved.

edmurray1955@aol.com

Charges That KPFK is on the “Verge” of Committing Mail Fraud

Dateline: Studio City

Do KPFK’s Statements Regarding $70,000 in Unfulfilled Premiums Put Programmers at Risk Legally as Fund Drive “Pitching” Continues Unabated?

by Ed Murray

A recent posting on the Pacifica watchdog website, PacificaInExile.org turned up a nightmare issue that came from KPFK’s General Manager, Leslie Radford. Here’s the paragraph from Pacifica In Exile:

“At the same meeting, Radford stated her intention was not to pay for past-due premium gifts for subscribers unless compelled to by “legal action”. KPFT treasurer Bill Crosier pointed out subscribers are unlikely to donate again if they still haven’t received gifts from previous drives, but Radford stuck to her guns about not paying past due premium bills. She described the unpaid bills as totaling $70,000, which loosely represents about half a million dollars in pledges from 3,000 people. Radford’s statement verges on a declaration of intent to commit mail fraud and may compel the legal action mentioned”.

These statements took place at a Pacifica National Finance Committee meeting on December 14, 2015. You can listen or download the audio of the meeting, click here.

A problem that has been occurring at several of the Pacifica network stations over the last few years is that promises of “premiums” to donors for making pledges have in many instances not been sent to the donors. This, of course, infuriates the donors or subscribers, who have pledged, say, $75 – $300 and are waiting for a dvd or some other gift that never arrives. The question is if this is a continuing pattern of behavior by the station, does it constitute a fraud, possibly mail fraud? The further question is how far down the chain of command the fraud charge would apply? All programmers are expected to participate in the fund drive “pitching” . If the station announces, or it becomes clear after several years of this nonsense, that because of lack of funds to mail out the premiums, or indeed pay for them, that the station is just “blowing them off” to save money, are the programmers also guilty of participating in the scheme?

Ms. Radford, during the Pacifica National Finance Committee meeting, seemed to be saying that KPFK is mainly interested in paying bills that might result in legal or court actions if not paid, and that she wasn’t worried much about the past due premiums of $70,000 ending up in court, so no rush to take care of it? She mentioned that the $70,000 was much less than it was in a previous statement, hopefully meaning that KPFK is trying to “catch up” on the premium mess, but she did not expand on the comment, or give any indication of when, if ever, all the back premiums would be sent out.

WBAI in New York has also had an on-going problem with premiums. It’s actually worse there, as Progressive Radio’s Gary Null has intimated that past personnel at the station may have been involved in a conspiracy of sorts to bootleg Null’s documentaries and offer them as premiums without paying for them. He has threatened a “major” legal action if his demands are not met, and it is possible that the turn of the new year may see this legal action filed against Pacifica and/or WBAI. This would possibly be for a much more serious charge of copyright violations, a Federal crime. Click here to go to Gary Null’s Progressive Commentary Hour archives, check out the three shows of 9-22, 9-29, and 10-6 on Pacifica’s Problems.

Another bombshell was dropped by Ms. Radford at the same Finance meeting, which took place via skype or telephone, was that she had a letter in her hand from someone who was interested in buying KPFK’s building and would then be willing to “lease it back to us”. The property on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City is considered a prime parcel, and any big real estate investment group would be interested in buying it, knowing that there would be a possibility that KPFK would default on the lease in the future, leaving the new owner free to get the high going rents after that. This shocking announcement would dispose of a great capital asset, bring in a pile of cash now, but would be very costly in the long run. It will be interesting to see how this idea goes forward. The looming black holes of debt and mismanagement are pressing in on Pacifica, and disposing of real estate assets may now be on the table.

edmurray1955@aol.com

Say What? No More Nudes In Playboy?

Ed Murray Channels Al Goldstein Looking For Answers

by Ed Murray

Dateline: Holmby Hills

Please don’t say you aren’t shocked. Playboy Magazine has announced a big make-over of the magazine, including the removal of pictures of nude ladies from the pages of the famous man’s mag. These changes are set to take place in the March, 2016 issue. Since Playboy began, it made its mark on society, and made founder Hugh Hefner a fortune. The big thing that attracted a following over the years has been the nude centerfold. If you think that millions of men bought the magazine just to read the articles, then you are seriously deluded. The probable reason that Hefner put some articles and written material in the magazine was that he had to. In the 1950′s publishing “porn” or magazines with only nudes was risky. Various state and local authorities were prosecuting publishers for publishing magazines that “had no socially redeeming value.” Hence the publishers covered themselves with news, fiction, fashion, or other articles. Things are different now, a lot of porn has moved to the internet or dvd rentals.

Click Here to read the rest of the story on CartoonBazooka.com

Free Speech Radio Takes A Hit

No Free Speech For Ian Masters at KPFK

by Ed Murray

Dateline: Los Angeles

An interesting conversation occurred on Ian Masters’ Background Briefing yesterday, Sunday October 11, 2015. Program Director Alan Minsky was on Ian’s show to pitch for money and support for the latest KPFK fund drive and Masters mentioned that during the recent period when he was ill “a group of people tried to take me off the air.” As the conversation progressed, he asked “Why should I raise funds for people who are trying to get me off the air?” Actually, a relevant question in the light of all the award winning show hosts who have either been cut, or have resigned recently. The feeling among many of the hosts is that the new faction that has taken over Pacifica has some kind of secret hit list for shows they want removed. Some off-the-record talk at some past LSB meetings indicated that Alan Minsky might also be on that list. This could all be written off as just run of the mill criticism that has existed among the different factions. Or it could be real.

Some snippets from the show:

Masters: “…so I could be taken off the air for mentioning the name of the person who runs Pacifica?”

“Here we are, Free Speech Radio and we can’t even mention the name of the person who runs Pacifica?”

Minsky: “You could be taken off the air if you continue this kind of conversation depending on the words you say.”

Masters: “These people don’t appreciate anything I do. They are clearly in a different universe.”…….

“The idea that you could be taken off the air for mentioning the name of the head of Pacifica is so insane.”

Alan Minsky and Ian Masters have been friends for a long time. Minsky said he was a free speech purist, but that Pacifica had rules about disparaging any other program hosts or station officials. The pressure on many of the hosts lately has been intense, especially with an on-going union action and the very survival of the network at stake. Most of us out here in the radio listening audience wouldn’t mind hearing from the hosts on air as to what is happening at KPFK and Pacifica, and what the feelings and opinions of the staff are at this time. After all, we are listening to real-live people, not robots, so anyone who has listened to a particular host for years would want to know their views on the current crises. Possibly there should be a round-table discussion on air, with members of the staff voicing their opinions as to what’s wrong at Pacific and some proposed solutions. From the look of things, the new ruling faction is having a lot of trouble in correct decision-making and maybe some input from the staff would be helpful. Anyone stepping into the leadership of Pacifica is a public figure, and should be ready to receive some body blows from the public for bad decisions. Be ready to take responsibility for your bad or ineffective actions is the rule in business and politics.

What is known, without a shadow of a doubt, that the present ruling faction, going back several years, has made some disastrous decisions. Right now, the most important task is to get the business end of Pacifica in order: the financial mess, the audits, the premiums, the accounting. A station can survive a while with unpopular programming, but blowing the money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, failure to keep up with F.C.C rules, and the State of California rules, could be a death-blow. Not even to mention what will come of the fiasco with the union.

edmurray1955@aol.com

KCET Torpedoes “Democracy Now”

Dateline: Los Angeles

Democracy Now 9:00 a.m. Morning-Time Show Replaced With Cartoons

by Ed Murray

KCET, a Los Angeles Public Television station has replaced the 9:00 a.m. broadcast of Democracy Now with cartoon shows, starting today, Monday October 5. The show is still broadcast at the early 7:00 a.m. time-slot, but the second re-broadcast on the main KCET channel is gone. KCET has shoved the program to its secondary station KCET-LInk at noon. If you are watching over the air, you should be able to get KCET Link as 28-2 on your television set. The digital revolution in radio and television allows the station to divide its bandwidth into 4 station slots, 28-1 through 28-4.

Attempts to get a statement from KCET PR folks has been unsuccessful so far, maybe they are in meetings this morning trying to figure out which cartoons to show next week.

So instead of getting some real news, politics, and alternative views, its viewers will be able to improve their understanding of world affairs by watching “Wunderkind Little Amadius”, “Bali”, and “Peep and the Big Wide World” cartoon shows. KCET, which used to have a lot of relevant programming, continues to slide down the cultural mountain. When they blew off the PBS shows a couple years ago, the station took a big dip in viewers, according to former KCET President Al Jerome. Now, its schedule has a lot of travel shows, cooking shows, and gardening shows, and almost nothing concerning what’s happening in the Los Angeles community other than mainstream pablum. Their digital 28-4 has a lot of cultural shows about Japan, well-produced by professional Japanese news and documentary film makers. But when it comes to the homeland, there must not be any homies here in L.A. who can make any culturally relevant documentaries for the main 28-1 station. L.A. must be dead-land now. Or is it the station’s management and programmers who are brain-dead?

This might be a revealing moment, however. The question that has to be asked is who is pouring money into KCET to keep the network sloshing out brain-deadening, mind-numbing drivel? The executives working at the station aren’t working for free as far as known; they need donors to pump in enough money to keep the operation going. Is the viewing audience of L.A. so dull-witted that they now would rather watch cartoons than something on world affairs? Or is the money train only coming down the tracks from foundations and big corporate sponsors? Or is there any large chunk of money at all coming in? Maybe they’re living off the big bucks they got selling their great 300,000 sq. ft. studio in Hollywood to the Church of Scientology in 2011?

edmurray1955@aol.com

Click Here for DemocracyNow.org

Clict Here for KCET Shows regarding Democracy Now

Click Here for details of sale of KCET’s studio to Scientology

KPFK’s New Model — Part 3 — Where Did All The Pets Go?

Buildings Bursting With Angry Employees Is a Dangerous Thing

by Ed Murray

Dateline Los Angeles:

It’s a perfectly natural behavior pattern. As the entire Pacifica network surges toward complete disintegration, everyone is angry. There’s so much tension at the KPFK building that sometimes it seems that the whole place is just going to start spinning around and take off into outer space. Most of this is caused by the new ruling clique and their actions. Getting rid of a bunch of people and cutting the staff salaries has everyone on edge, especially those who might like to pay their rent next month and maybe have enough left over for a taco at Poquito Mas. Last week it was reported that not only were the staff union members put on half salary, but the union dues that were deducted from their wages had not been remitted to the union in months. Nice. Now the question is will the union continue to represent members who haven’t paid their dues, through no fault of their own? Tensions run high.

There is, however, a solution to all this. As KPFK slips and morphs its way into the business model of Revolution Radio, these kinds of problems will melt away. As reported on previously, no one is paid at Revolution Radio, except maybe the owner, The NnightHawkk. Or “Mr. Nnight Hawkk”, as he is sometimes called. If nobody is paid, and the entire staff and all the hosts are working for free, then nobody gets mad when the pay is cut in half, or cut completely. Problem solved.

There is also the Pet Factor as it is called. The Nnight Hawkk knows that pets have a calming effect on humans. At Revolution Radio, you will see a big old hound dog lounging around, and a lot of cats. This technique should be immediately applied at KPFK, and in fact throughout the entire Pacifica organization. Pets should be mandatory at all stations.

How nice it would be if everybody could bring their real best friend to work with them. Imagine a menagerie of doggies and kitties at KPFK, and maybe a nice canary singing in his window cage at the front entrance. This would have a calming effect on the employees who are now bursting with anger. It’s hard to get upset at anything when there’s a purring kitten nestled in your lap. And if some barking dog sounds float out over the air during a show, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. It would remind the subscribers that they are listening to a radio station made up of real people. And lets face it, dogs have important things to say too.

How To Throw A Big Bash And Raise Funds. The Story of Hawk Fest

Anyone who’s been listening to KPFK the last few years has heard the sound: a near constant, shrill, whinning sound. No, nothing is wrong with your radio or the KPFK Transmitter. It’s the ever-present begging-for-money sound that drones on day after day. Down south in Louiville, at Revolution Radio, they know things. And one of them is how to bring in a few bucks and have some fun.

Once a year, The NnightHawkk gears up for a big bash, which of course, is appropriately called Hawk Fest. It’s a shindig that KPFK should pay close attention to. Mr. Mike Ringley, The NnightHawkk, clears the decks for action a few weeks before the Labor Day holiday and organizes the event, which took place this year on part of his farm, which is called Hawk’s Nest. Being thrifty, like most southern folk, Mr. NnightHawkk has a do-it-yourself attitude. He even built his own stage this year for the night-time music show. It looks cool at night with the color lights on it, and the performers and bands appear to be floating in the trees. A few sips of some Kentucky white lightning will help to bring that image home.

The NnightHawkk's costume ready for action — The NnightHawkk’s costume ready for action

The Hawk Fest is a fabulous event. It only costs $25 bucks for a ticket, which comes with a camping spot. Or you could bring your own RV. In that case the fee is only $20 bucks, which is really a bargain on many levels. The food plates cost extra, but are very reasonable, like about 25% of what you would pay in L.A. From the youtube videos, it’s obvious that the food is fantastic. The pre-fest video walk around showed the NnightHawkk’s gardens, he and his wife grow their own food. A lot of the listeners at KPFK are always talking about going to an expensive market to buy “organic” food, which costs a lot more than just regular food. At the Hawk’s Nest farm, they GROW their own food. How many KPFK folks actually grow their own food? Some are even a little snobby about eating only organic (the wealthy folks). But down at the Hawk Fest, real, home-grown food is served, and lots of it. KPFK should take note of this – there’s plenty of room on the roof of their building to start a big garden. This is a very sheikh thing to do, nowadays in urban areas, and a roof-top food garden could supply all the future non-paid volunteers with some good, healthy grub, since eating at fancy-pants restaurants will be a thing of the past for them.

And no big bash is complete without some entertainment. The NnightHawkk is no stranger to music. His bio says he studied music at UC Berkeley. He had his own band and is killer at rock-and-roll. There is a problem, sometimes, living in a rural area, in getting some musicians together. A recent Facebook post by Mr. NnightHawkk brings his frustration to the surface: ” i may be a musician but i fucking hate musicians UN trustworthy distracted lot nu reliable put off people that have no clue that this a business behind all this this is why i quit music.” (sic) Also on hand at this year’s Hawk Fest was stand up comedienne Tere Joyce, and the master of ceremonies was the beloved Sean David Morton. Click here to see Tere Joyces’ impromptu interview with Sean David, and get a glimpse of the famous white lightning.

KPFK could certainly learn a lesson here and put on its own bash. Get some of the “work in kind” contractors to build a simple stage at the end of the parking lot. Get out the folding chairs and tables and have the local restaurants cater the food, like they used to do for the phone volunteers in the old days of fund raising. Tickets for the event could include a meal. Get a few bands, or if nobody will pitch in, how about forming your own group? A monthly night -time Progressive Radio Bash should bring in enough money to buy seeds for the roof garden.

One warning should be stated, and this is from the Hawk Fest official rules of engagement: Leave your firearms stowed in your vehicle trunk or safe. Anyone giving adult beverages to anyone under 21 will be violently ejected from the event. This event is family friendly will be many kids around. Anyone that imbibes to the point where they become a nuisance will need to go to their tent or be ejected form the event. (sic) Suggest KPFK also post these rules in large print, especially since there are so many angry employees and staff members.