In an astonishing and outrageous attempt to silence New Day Pacifica’s right to reach Pacifica members and supporters, Pacifica is asking the court to prevent New Day from merely asking Pacifica members to help fund our legal work in Pacifica vs. New Day. Communicating with you and other Pacifica members is of course utterly essential. How can we unite to save the network if we’re not even allowed to let you know what’s happening?
Pacifica seems to be saying in its most recent complaint that the New Day list of members — who voluntarily went to our website and gave their contact info in order to join the fight to save Pacifica — is actually Pacifica’s list. And they want the judge to think that the money New Day has raised is Pacifica’s money.
In addition, Pacifica is also trying to prevent New Day from making negative comments about the management of Pacifica, calling the comments libelous and slanderous, and, in a jujitsu move that tries to turn the truth on its head, blaming New Day for Pacifica’s continuing downward financial spiral. In reality, the only reason New Day exists is that members like you are desperate to halt the financial hemorrhaging and loss of listeners that’s been going on for a decade.
Pacifica’s ex parte filing, which NDP learned about only two days ago, asks the judge to prohibit NDP from: “(1) using Pacifica’s mailing list to seek donations for its legal fees to challenge the results of the failed Bylaw Referendum and (2) making slanderous or libelous communications regarding Pacifica and/or this dispute.”
Pacifica’s legal filing is filled with misleading (or worse) statements, such as the ones above where it says the NDP Bylaws referendum “failed,” and implying that we may make “slanderous or libelous communications.” That may be Pacifica’s attorney’s claim, but NDP strongly disagrees, and the referendum issue is still to be decided by the court. It’s not libel to state the truth, unpleasant as it may be to Pacifica’s leadership or attorneys. Perhaps they did not like our recent letter that included “Fire the Pacifica legal team” (point 5 in the article in that link).
DONATE to New Day Pacifica today!
NDP is fortunate to have two volunteer attorneys who have literally worked night and day, spending hundreds of hours to support New Day’s efforts to change the governance structure to a smaller, functional, democratically elected one, responsive to the needs and wishes of the members. Neither has taken attorney’s fees. And although they are handling much of the litigation, they themselves have actually been paying outside counsel to assist. New Day donations have paid for only a portion of these outside fees to date, and there are large ongoing expenses because of Pacifica’s legal efforts to stop the reforms that the majority want.
So we need your help today to win — or, really, to win in court what we believe we’ve already won in the recent elections. WE CAN DO THIS, but only with your support. We, and the majority of Pacifica members, know we’re right, and we’re not inclined to give up no matter how low the Pacifica legal team stoops to suppress the will of the majority and free speech rights
| UPDATE: The court was “dark” the day the above ex parte motion was set to be heard, and the motion was withdrawn. When/if it will be reset is unknown. Pacifica’s motion to throw out New Day’s entire cross-complaint is still set for March 11th. The struggle continues. . . |
Why do we fight on? Because we must keep moving forward in turning our shared love of Pacifica into action, transforming the network and its member stations from a battered shell of their former glory into the left-media giant progressives desperately need to counter the now near-ubiquitous right-wing propaganda machine.
We cannot let the irreplaceable progressive assets of Pacifica be driven into the ground or bought out by corporate interests.
To save Pacifica and win this for you, we need:
- two of you to give $10,000 each
- at least three of you to give $2000 or more
- five of you to give $1000 or more
- 20 of you to give $500
- 100 of you to give $200, and
- 400 of you to give $50 or more.
Whether you can donate $5 or $25,000, please DONATE now to help New Day continue fighting for Pacifica’s survival.
Or mail a check to New Day Pacifica, 5627 Telegraph Ave., Suite 116, Oakland, CA 94609.
In desperation, some people have called for a boycott of Pacifica, but Jan Goodman, prospective Vice-Chair under the New Day Referendum, replied to that editorial: “PACIFICA IS OUR INSTITUTION. . . We cannot starve it to death. . . Everyone must make their own decisions about how much and to whom they donate money, but please continue to donate to Pacifica to keep it alive – since the purpose of New Day Pacifica is to help Pacifica flourish now and long into the future.”
California law guarantees the rights of members of Pacifica (and other non-profit corporations) to access the member list to communicate with other members about concerns they have with the organization, how it’s run, etc. Pacifica is clearly trying to interfere with that right, and doesn’t hesitate to use member donations to fund their efforts.
New Day Pacifica plans to continue communicating with members about critically important things you need to know about Pacifica’s dysfunctional governance, growing debt, home shopping network style programming (at KPFK and WBAI, where listener support is especially inadequate), deteriorating financial condition, loss of CPB funding, and more. And we’re not going to let Pacifica’s legal team silence us!
New Day does not want to roll over without a fight, but it takes money to fight in court. Will you join the more than 800 people who have supported New Day Pacifica (NDP) in the past? Your donations brought us over the election finish line last year, but we are now in higher stakes over-time because of Pacifica management’s unwillingness to recognize that the staff are treated equally to the listener members by the New Day Bylaws and that California law and the Pacifica Bylaws therefore require the recognition that the New Day Referendum passed.
We have done it before – with your help – and now’s the time to do it again!
Please contribute what you can. Give as if your station and your network depend on it, because they do.
DONATE to New Day Pacifica today!
We absolutely must keep moving forward in turning our shared love of Pacifica into action, transforming the network and its member stations from a battered shell of their former glory — remaking it into the Left Media giant progressives desperately need to counter the now near-ubiquitous right-wing propaganda machine. Pacifica has the power to remake our world via news, information, and analysis delivered from a fiercely fact-based, clear-eyed, independent progressive perspective. Pacifica needs to get back to providing independent news, pubic affairs, and music that other broadcasters won’t let you hear.
Pacifica, for 70 years, has been an amazing network. It has educated and kept us abreast of local demonstrations and actions as well as what’s going on in Africa, Central America, and elsewhere: around the world and around the block. But the network is on life support because current bylaws make it incredibly difficult to govern, to update the programming to give listeners what they want, and to do effective fundraising to make that possible.
Reforming the bylaws is critical, so Pacifica can survive, grow, and be more influential in crucial national and local discussions — a view that 55% of members participating in the most recent bylaws election agreed with and voted for. Yet our problems remain. Why?
New Day Pacifica’s reforms received a solid majority vote, but instead of respecting the democratic majority and relinquishing power in a peaceful transition, the board members opposed to reform have cited what we believe to be a non-relevant technicality to claim that the majority lost. We must now unlock our election victory by securing a court order recognizing the NDP victory, because the minority “powers that be” not only refuse to give up, but continue using member donations to pay attorneys to fight against the rights of members.
We are hopeful we will win, but we need your help, because courtroom fights can be quite expensive. The entrenched minority at Pacifica can simply divert the funds that listeners donate for their stations’ operations, to instead pay for lawyers to block change. But the funds to support what the majority of Pacifica members voted for have to come directly from those who support that change. In other words, from you and me and everyone who supports our cause.
We are hoping for significant donations. If a tax deduction would be meaningful to you, please let us know by writing to Info@NewDayPacifica.org but note that donations made directly to NDP are not tax-deductible.