Censorship on KPFA - your action truly NEEDED

[Jude Iam]

Dear fellow Wacco progressives, We've all been noticing the steady erosion of civil liberties around us and the decline of availability of 'uncommercialized' news. THIS is perhaps the most egregious shut-down yet.
Guns and Butter covers areas that no one else does and that we need to know.

Personally, I emailed and left phone messages about a year or two ago, regarding the cancellation of a show on KPFA and asking about the process by which this was decided.
After several inquiries to BOTH the program director AND the general manager, WITHOUT A SINGLE REPLY, I let them know that, as a 40 year supporter of Pacifica stations, I would not be sending any more money until I had a response. I still never heard back.

Yet this radio station is really all we have as our true peoples' media, so we cannot give up. We must use our collective power to keep this vestige of the free press free.

Please let KPFA know your response, now.
Thank you, Jude

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Guns and Butter has been banned and removed from the KPFA Radio station. Find out more on why it happened and what you can do.



Dear Guns and Butter Supporters and Listeners,

Guns and Butter has been taken off the KPFA airwaves by the General Manager of the station.

I received on Wednesday, August 8th, before Guns and Butter would have aired on KPFA, the following email from the General Manager:

Bonnie,

KPFA will cease broadcasting “Guns and Butter” effective immediately.

We’ve received an avalanche of negative calls and emails from listeners about your uncritically airing of views by a holocaust denier, climate denial and casting the Parkland mass shooting survivors as crisis actors. As steward of our airways, we can’t defend this content to our listeners.

Sincerely,
Quincy McCoy Kevin Cartwright
General Manager Program Director

This was followed by removal of the entire KPFA broadcast archives of Guns and Butter, down the memory hole.

KPFA defines itself as "Free Speech Radio" and this reaction is a form of censorship. There was no discussion of these claims, nor any provision for due process or community involvement before these actions were taken. If you are as taken aback as we are, as many of our listeners have already expressed to us by email, you can have your voice heard in this matter.

In person comments at last Saturday's Board meeting were massive and strongly in favor of Guns and Butter staying on air and against this autocratic move by the General Manager.

You are encouraged to make your voice heard:
General Manager: [email protected]
General Inquiries: [email protected]
KPFA Local Station Board: [email protected]
Feel free to copy us on any emails ([email protected]) you send in and let us know if you attended the Local Station Board Meeting.

And please forward this to others you know who have the same concerns. With the recent move of censorship by many companies, it is more important than ever to make your voice heard.

Read more on the Guns and Butter Blog

[Damage]

Umm, this IS California and free speach only extends to Democrats and their army of Antifa hoodlums.

[Dogenzip]

Message sent to KPFA: As a 40+ year supported of KPFA I am stunned and dismayed by the arbitrary manner in which Guns and Butter was eliminated from KPFA’s broadcasts.Although I often disagree with the content of this program, my concern is based on HOW KPFA made this decision: no community or listener input or consultations were made. It was an arbitrary decision made by the General Manager. This is not how community radio stations should be run. It is the process which has been followed by KPFA that is abhorrent.

At a minimum the producers of this program should have been told of the serious problems with their program and found ways to accommodate listener concerns. There is no place for claims of holocaust denier, climate denial and casting the Parkland mass shooting survivors as crisis actors on KPFA, or at a minimum a solid rebuttal of these views should have be aired at the same time.

[podfish]

I'm not the zealot listener and supporter I once was but I can say that I don't tune into the station or onto Bonnie's show to hear a climate denier, a holocaust denier, and a skanky bit on the Parkland survivors. Removing all of the shows doesn't seem right to me, though. Another KPFA crisis, feeling a bit manufactured to me right now.

I agree - I don't think it's much of a loss to the airwaves, but it's poor form for them to fail to at least give you a pro-forma response. I can understand them feeling that the show's too sketchy for them to be associated with, but since they were associated with it before, to wipe its history seems wrong as well. Though I haven't looked -- if they put up a comment, even better with a link to a place the blogs can be found, I think they've met any obligations for "fairness and balance" they might have.

[rossmen]

Have listened to gb in past and appreciated. Looking at your blog link, looks like they ran afoul of the Israeli lobby. Israel on a roll with trump. Has always been an edge for kpfa. News is always biased, to form a true opinion of the world, we need to experience it.

...Guns and Butter has been banned and removed from the KPFA Radio station. Find out more on why it happened and what you can do.
...
Read more on the Guns and Butter Blog

[rekarp]

I doubt it has anything to do with Israel or Trump. Flashpoints every day at 5pm is most often intensely focused on Israel and their suppression of the Palestinians, and that show continues on.

Everyone here seems to be making a lot of assumptions about this decision without giving management the benefit of the doubt. The general manager may not be able to discuss details due to legal implications.

Have listened to gb in past and appreciated. Looking at your blog link, looks like they ran afoul of the Israeli lobby. Israel on a roll with trump. Has always been an edge for kpfa. News is always biased, to form a true opinion of the world, we need to experience it.

[Jude Iam]

A bit more information: the first time I emailed, called, left messages was regarding the long-standing weekday show Music of the World. That show had gone from 3 hours daily, to 2 hours, to 1 hour, to nothing. (Oh, yeah - on Saturday morning.)

A friend who'd been the programmer/DJ of one of those morning shows for about 15 years said that he was notified the day before his last show that it was cancelled. Like. That. By the general manager.

If we support this 'listener sponsored' public station, I figure we have the right to know how decisions are made, if not to actually partake in making them. What do you think?

I've called a few times in the last day or two. Not only could I not get through to GM Quincy McCoy, but the phone system doesn't even allow a message to be left. Clear statement here...

Try it yourself: 510 848 6767 X 203
Let us know your experience - and thoughts.

[rekarp]

I called this morning and was able to get through to her voicemail. You might try again.

KPFA seems to always either be in crisis or recovering from crisis. I used to live in San Francisco and found that the level of venom in the political and non-profit realms was often out of control. I agree that there should be transparency in decision making, or when not possible, at minimum an explanation of why that is the case.

I value the role of KPFA and wish the endless problems would lessen.

Ron

...If we support this 'listener sponsored' public station, I figure we have the right to know how decisions are made, if not to actually partake in making them. What do you think?

I've called a few times in the last day or two. Not only could I not get through to GM Quincy McCoy, but the phone system doesn't even allow a message to be left. Clear statement here...

Try it yourself: 510 848 6767 X 203
Let us know your experience - and thoughts.

[Jude Iam]

I called again, just now, and got the same error message, precluding even leaving a message.

And just a little more background:

I first met Bonnie Faulkner in early November 2001.
I had already begun to produce events with Michael Ruppert, questioning the official story about 9/11 of just 6 weeks earlier. The first of these events was in a high school auditorium in San Francisco, and a few days before the event, I got a call from someone asking if they could set up a table and sell tapes about similar topics. I said yes and she showed up - that was Bonnie.

Bonnie is always going to lectures and conferences that are little publicized but of great insight, often focused on revealing seamy economic-political alliances, taping them and then offering us these insights by airing them on Guns and Butter and archiving them for reference.

She's interviewed innumerable brilliant researchers and authors on her show, nearly none of which I've ever heard anywhere else. I personally know a bit about the affront and burden of being called a "conspiracy theorist" and Bonnie has had to bear this all the while doing her great work.

She's been doing this totally unpaid for many, many years and now to be dismissed like this is totally unacceptable.

I suggest we email - since phone is useless, from my attempts at any rate - and see if the power of the listeners/purse holds some sway over the autocracy which is running the station. (I've been told that several long-time station volunteers and paid staff have quit as a result of this General Manager.) Onwards:

• Quincy McCoy – General Manager, [email protected], Ext 203 (510) 848 6767
• Kevin Cartwright – Program Director, [email protected], Ext 201
• Brian David – Chief Engineer/Chief Operator, [email protected], Ext 218
• Maria Negret – Business Manager, [email protected], Ext 208

Send copies to Bonnie at [email protected] and please let us know here any results.

For keeping/regaining freedom, now and always, Jude

[american dream]

I e-mailed the general manager at kpfa about this. I've gotten a lot of stimulating discussion out of the G and B show over the years - the fact that this was done in such a rude and arbitrary manner makes it all the more disturbing. Progressive radio people should know better!!!

[markwjam]

though I've listened only sporadically, I find Guns and Butter to be a very valuable show...the autocratic manner in which it is removed, pisses me off..

[rossmen]

Your assumption is just as valid as mine. Yes flashpoints does have interesting news on israel. And real reporting on the zionist state is hard to get in the us. Kpfa and pacifica are struggling financially. The most likely explanation for these programming decisions are member donations.

I doubt it has anything to do with Israel or Trump. Flashpoints every day at 5pm is most often intensely focused on Israel and their suppression of the Palestinians, and that show continues on.

Everyone here seems to be making a lot of assumptions about this decision without giving management the benefit of the doubt. The general manager may not be able to discuss details due to legal implications.

[Skywords]

Umm, this IS California and free speach only extends to Democrats and their army of Antifa hoodlums.

I'm quite outraged @ this Quincy McCoy for ejecting Guns And Butter. Two thoughts come immediately to my mind:

1. McCoy was forced to perform this heinous act by the same shadow government authorities that instructed Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social media, to eject Alex Jones and so many other alternative media voices: All @ the same time, with one broad sweep.

2. It would be good to inquire and expose just how McCoy was threatened ~ by doing some Greg Palast type investigative reporting. This would give us the perspective we need, so that we aren't fumbling around in the dark.

The trouble, as I see it, is that we can complain all we want, but it's all futile if we don't know whether we're actually just a tempest in a tea cup, or an actual force to be reckoned with. Effective action requires some kind of radar mechanism that gages its own effectiveness. And if we don't even know what we're contending with, we might as well be just crying in the wind.

I'd welcome any input on just how McCoy is being manipulated and by whom. Only then might we surmise as to exactly what we/he can do to escape those nefarious clutches. If it is even possible. What, exactly, is the nature of this strangle hold? Is it, ultimately, just the military industrial complex over which we simply have no sway? Or are we to resign to just flying by the seat of our pants?

Any clarity would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks for any contributions to my albeit myopic perspective.

Most Earnestly

~ Sky