Resist the Repression of Democracy Now!

My political education, like that of all people of conscience, good faith, and curiosity, is an ongoing project. One teacher from whom I've learned a great deal is Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez's Democracy Now! daily radio program.

For the first month or so, most of Monkeyfist.com's political items came directly from topics I or others heard Amy and Juan dissecting. We've often taken a different approach to analysis, but Democracy Now! is an indispensable weapon in the fight for justice.

But now DemoNow! is under serious attack by The Pacifica Foundation. Goodman has written recently:

I'm being subjected to a concerted campaign of abuse and harassment by Pacifica management. Despite repeated appeals to Executive Director Bessie Wash, there has been no redress. Yasko regularly makes new demands on me and Democracy Now! with wild outbursts of unprofessional yelling and screaming. This has happened during a period when Democracy Now! has been unique in radio by reporting extensively on the refusal of the Commission on Presidential Debates or many in the corporate media to provide fair coverage and inclusion of third parties. It has also happened during a time when Democracy Now! is growing in audience, in media coverage, and in fundraising from both listeners and foundations. That is, we are growing in all the areas the Pacifica board says it is concerned with.

Just as the presidential campaign reaches its climax, we are confronted with new restrictions and threats. Among those new work rules are a requirement to provide Yasko each Friday "a list of possible shows the following week and a short status report on each," adding we must "determine the topics of at least three shows the preceding week." Yasko notes that "the Administrative Council (of Pacifica) stated that the show does not sound like breaking news either to the station staffs or the listeners." Are we living in the same world? Our show breaks more national news, as measured by actual press coverage in the mainstream media, than perhaps any show in Pacifica history, e.g., Chevron in Nigeria, the Lori Berenson interview, Seattle WTO coverage, Nader at the Republican convention, Tulia, Texas, East Timor, etc. etc.

But instead of congratulations and kudos for our many accomplishments, Pacifica has clamped down and threatens me at every turn with dismissal!

I thought the Pacifica board had learned from the bitter battle in Berkeley last year that attempts to silence free speech are the last things this network wants to revisit. But apparently not. Maybe the stakes are too high in this presidential election year to permit too free a press -- even at Pacifica. I truly hope that is not the case.

I plead with those of you on the board who still remain dedicated to the grand mission of Lew Hill to reject this poorly disguised attempt at censorship of Democracy Now! and of me personally. Please direct Steve Yasko to cease his harassment and retaliation against me immediately, and Pacifica's attempts to exert political control and undermine the editorial independence of this hardhitting grassroots program.

I know that I am not the only person who relies on DemoNow! daily for those qualities that are so rare in corporate meda: independence, passionate commitment to justice, and the courage to tell uncomforting truths. I urge all Monkeyfist.com readers to contact Pacifica and demand "hands off Democracy Now!" and, if you don't already, support Goodman and Gonzalez in their struggle to do what they do so very well.