by Jan Goodman for New Day Pacifica
In this message, I want to address the myths and falsehoods that have been circulated about me and New Day Pacifica. I’ll provide detailed explanations, including references to the New Day Bylaws, to dispel the misinformation that has been perpetuated.
Myth: New Day and its supporters are Pro-War, Corporate Democrats.
Fact: All New Day-endorsed candidates for the KPFK LSB, were/are Bernie Sanders supporters. If supporting Bernie and his platform makes us pro-war, corporate Democrats, then so be it.
Myth: New Day and its endorsed candidates attempted to shut down WBAI in 2019 and still want to shut down WBAI and/or WPFW.
Fact: In 2018, WBAI and Pacifica were slapped with a judgment by the Empire State Building related to WBAI’s non-payment of transmitter rent. I, Jan Goodman, fought against Bankruptcy and helped create a bridge loan to save WBAI and Pacifica. At that time, I (& others) put our own retirement money up to save WBAI & Pacifica. If anyone wanted to shut down WBAI, that would have been the moment, but we fought for network solidarity. In 2019 New Day wasn’t even in existence. New Day Pacifica was formed in 2020, when/because the related $3 Million loan was coming due and there was no plan on how to pay it back.
Myth: The New Day Bylaws are undemocratic with un-elected top-down leadership.
Fact: Under the New Day Bylaws, Pacifica members, for the first time, will democratically elect their Station’s National Board Member, directly, and every member, democratically and directly, will vote for and elect the National Officers. As opposed to the present, electoral college type system in which members only get to vote for Local Board Members, and then the Local Board Members vote for the National Board Members, and then the National Board members vote for the Officers.
This change aligns with the trend in progressive organizations and unions to move towards direct elections of leaders. (1)
Myth: LSBs are eliminated under the New Day Bylaws.
Fact: Local Station Boards continue to play a vital role under the New Day Bylaws. Reinvigorated Local Station Boards will actively support their stations with fundraising, community feedback on the station’s programming, and help doubling the station’s membership. They will no longer elect the PNB because listeners will do that directly. This allows LSBs to qualify as “Community Advisory Councils.” Plus, helping Pacifica obtain grants. The New Day Pacifica Bylaws have an entire section (Article 6) dedicated to Local Station Boards – see the New Day Bylaws.
Myth: Non-Profit Community Radio means non-professional sounding radio.
Fact: Pacifica has a history of professional, high-quality radio. Program quality has declined, but New Day aims to restore Pacifica’s quality, content and professionalism.
Myth: New Day has tried to destroy Pacifica by lawsuits.
Fact: It was Pacifica which initiated litigation against New Day Pacifica to block the implementation of the New Day Bylaws, which 55% of Pacifica members voted in favor of.
Our beloved Pacifica is facing serious challenges, including financial instability and declining program quality. It’s time for a change to save our network from further decline. Please support New Day-endorsed candidates in the Delegate/LSB elections and cast your ballots before the voting deadline (see newdaypacifica.org).
Myth: Under New Day, four officers would be running Pacifica without a board and would probably shut down WBAI.
Fact: The four officers would never serve alone. The first board meeting, would take place within 2 weeks of the New Day Bylaws being implemented and in attendance would be both 5 elected Directors from each station and the four officers. (See New Day Bylaws Proviso 2B P. 54 and Proviso 3 p. 58)
FOR A DEEPER DIVE, READ ON
[1] Guide to New Day Bylaws: Under the New Day Bylaws, the listener members at each station directly elect their Directors to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) – See NDP Bylaws, Art. 4 Sec. 3D, and nationally, the staff elects two Directors directly to the National board Art. 4, Sec. 3C.
In addition, all members directly elect the National Leadership (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) – Art. 4 Sec. 3B. But under the present bylaws, the election of the National Board Members is “2 generations” removed from the members, and the election National Officers is “3 generations” removed from the members.
It should be noted that there is a trend among progressive organizations labor unions (e.g. UAW & Steel Workers) to go from the “delegate” model to the Direct Election vs. Delegate Model, with the thinking that the directly elected Directors and officers will be more responsive to the membership who elects them. In fact, the election of the current very independent and reform oriented President and leader of the current UAW strike is credited to the fact that he was the first directly elected President of UAW, as opposed to previously elected Presidents, who were elected by delegates—typically entrenched “leadership”.
The New Day Bylaws in which the President, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer follows this democratic/direct election trend. Representatives of the Affiliates also directly elect their own Director to the PNB, Art .4 Sec. 3E. All 12 of these Directors then elect 3 “At Large” Directors, Art. 4 Sec 15, to bring in expertise and other perspectives the Directors feel are missing (For example – labor, community organizing, social media, fundraising expertise, racial or gender balance or etc.) creating a Pacifica National Board of 15 members. NDP Bylaws, Art. 4, Sec. 3. Pacifica members voted for officers during the same election that the New Day Bylaws were voted upon.
Fact: Under the present regime, there are 120 people involved in elected governance – a number which our own auditors (and common sense) state is too large and too dysfunctional. This 120 people, each of 5 Local Station Boards (LSB) consists of 24 members. Listener members at each station elect 18 LSB Member/delegates, and Staff Elects 6 Staff LSB members. (Note: Virtually no one knows even 9 candidates running for the LSB at any one time. Voters report that they feel lucky if they know someone who knows someone who can make recommendations about who to vote for in LSB elections).
Those 24 LSB member/delegates from each station elect, from among themselves, 3 Listener Directors and 1 Staff Director from each station to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) (Note: It might be noted that since Listeners comprise 75% of each LSB, the Staff Directors are essentially elected to the Pacifica National Board (PNB) by the 75% Listener/Delegates, not by the staff, thus making the PNB even more non-democratic.
To recap: The LSBs at 5 stations each elect 4 Directors. For a total of 20 PNB members.
These 20 PNB members elect 2 Affiliate representatives.
These 22 PNB Directors then elect the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secy & Treasurer of the National Board.
To Recap: Members elect the 120 LSB members, who elect the 22 PNB members who elect the 4 Officers. Thus the leadership of Pacifica is currently “3 generations” away from the members – as opposed to the New Day proposal whereby the members directly elect the leadership. QUERY: WHICH IS MORE DEMOCRATIC?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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