Barbara Lee. Ada Edwards. Gordon Quan. KPFT?
One of These Things Just Doesn't Belong!
The Houston Peace and Justice Center is honoring Lee, Edwards and Quan--and KPFT--at a dinner at the UH Hilton on November 15th.
Why is the Peace and Justice community "honoring" KPFT?
KPFT and its Manager Duane Bradley have:
Given air time to bigoted, sexist and homophobic programmers.
Promoted an event by a group which wants to resettle American "negroes"
to Israel and proudly puts Ariel Sharon on the front page of its web site.
(http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/17487_comment.php#17494)
Rejected and mocked the urgings of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and
Ed Herman to resolve an ongoing Zionist smear campaign at the station,
and made them the object of public attack.
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/houstonpeaceroundtable/message/6247?source=1)
Pressured--both directly and subtly--the news team and programmers to not give airtime to stories or individuals that would expose KPFT's actions.
Instituted a new gag order, and are "writing up" programmers who are critical of Bradley's betrayal of the Pacifica mission--a clear repudiation of the free speech principles upon which Pacifica was founded.
Refused to air PSAs for community groups such as HGAC, did not cover the huge February 15th antiwar march, and did not cover recent October 20th actions by the Stop CAFTA Mobilization here in Houston. Also did not carry many national Pacifica events, like the April 2002 demonstrations in Washington DC, and instead aired music.
Continued to resist pressure from the community to run Democracy Now in drive-time, where its stories would be available to working people.
Fired long-time progressive employees without giving reasons,
while most of the paid positions and paid DJs continue to be holdovers
from the days of Garland Gantner, even though the activist community struggled
for years to change the station.
(http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/16298.php)
Permitted a "circus" atmosphere to permeate all public meetings.
(http://acksisofevil.org/audio/eddieagain.mp3)
Forsaken the Pacifica mission and continued giving the most and best airtime to popular music and irrelevant music product promotion.
Refused to act in the face of provocative and counterproductive actions by various troublemakers--including PNB and LAB members. The inmates are running amok at the KPFT asylum.
HPJC: 713.522.9850
Barbara Lee: Phone: 510.763.0370, Fax: 510.763.6538
or D.C. Office at
Phone: 202.225.2661, Fax: 202.225.9817
Ada Edwards: Phone: 713.247.2001, Fax:
713.247.2196
Gordon Quan: Phone: 713.247.2013,
Fax: 713.247.2580
KPFT: Phone: 713-526-4000, 713-526-5738, Fax: 713-526-5750