Lisa Davis Candidate Statement
As a current member of the WBAI Local Station Board and the
Pacifica National Board, I have proudly served my term as part of
the Justice and Unity Campaign (www.justiceunity.org) with
courage, integrity, and conviction. It's an honor for me and our slate
to be endorsed by such strong human rights activists as Amina
Baraka, Amiri Baraka, Evelyn Warren, Michael Tarif Warren, and
Larry Hamm. I ask that you join them in voting for me and all my
fellow Justice & Unity candidates:
Omowale Clay
Tibby Brooks
Sara Flounders
Marianela Tricoche
Marian Borenstein
Wellington Echegaray
Bok-keem Nyerere
Tibby Brooks
Sara Flounders
Marianela Tricoche
Marian Borenstein
Wellington Echegaray
Bok-keem Nyerere
As a New Jersey-based African American grassroots activist with over 20 years experience on the front lines of such issues as reparations, ending police brutality, and fighting for socio-economic parity, I’ve held steadfast to my principles of ending racism, empowering communities of color, and ensuring that underrepresented communities have access to the airwaves. I’m co-founder of the Tri-State Save “Like It Is” Support Coalition, established to support the work of highly esteemed journalist Gil Noble and now also challenging the license renewals of major NYC TV stations for unfairly representing communities of color. Through my community activism, I also support the work of Creative Spirits, dedicated to youth enrichment, Waset Komuniversity, the Millions More Movement, and the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), among others.
As I firmly believe the political face of Pacifica as an institution is as important as what it broadcasts, I have authored and helped pass motions on the local and national boards condemning police brutality and the death penalty. I’ve also supported motions showing solidarity with the NY transit strike, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other political prisoners.
Because of the conduct of certain WBAI board members, my work on the National Board has also included helping establish the Committee to Investigate Allegations of Racism and Sexism, which I currently chair. I've also help institute anti-racism training for board members. Serving on Pacifica’s Programming, Audit and Technology Committees, I've helped pass a national programming policy, contributed to finalizing standardized Pacifica-wide financial policies and procedures, and supported digital distribution of our programming and the integration of various multimedia technologies. (I must also thank the many hard workers on these committees with whom I’ve collaborated.) I’ll continue working on technology issues -- Pacifica faces increasing fundraising challenges as more and more people, especially youth, get their information from digital downloads.
But the board work that gives me the most pleasure is making WBAI a living, breathing institution within my community. I’ve brought their concerns to the station and have worked hard to show community organizations such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition, POP, and the Clinton Hill Improvement Association how to use WBAI as an organizing tool via public service announcements.
Please vote for the entire Justice and Unity slate so that we can expand our board majority to ensure that WBAI remains in the vanguard of the social justice movement.
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joey: ...
October 27, 2007
Carol Spooner: ...
If you haven't already received it, you soon will receive your ballot for the WBAI Local Station Board (LSB) 2007 election. Please don't lose your ballot -- vote!
I'm endorsing --
#1 - James Ross
#2 - Seth Goldberg
and, in alphabetical order,
Carla Cubit, Robert Gold, Jennifer Jager, Ken Laufer, Pat Logan, Don Mathiesen,
Lee McClure, Stefan Neustatder, Bernardo Palombo.
I hope you will rank James #1 and Seth #2 on your ballot, and then go on to rank the others listed above in order of your preference. James Ross is the only encumbent who deserves re-election this year. He has worked diligently to uncover and understand the station finances and to make recommendations to deal with the problems. Unfortunately, his efforts have been blocked by the current majority on the LSB (the "Justice & Unity" faction). Seth Goldberg has the financial and business skills that WBAI so desperately needs at this time. All of the above-named candidates are sincerely committed to helping to right the station by hiring station management that will strengthen & revitalize programming, restore the listener-base and rebuild financial stability. They can be the seeds of sanity at a very troubled institution if you elect them to serve this very important community resource.
This is a critical election for WBAI. I believe it is absolutely essential that NON "Justice & Unity" slate candidates take a majority of the seats on the Local Board if WBAI is to survive, and perhaps even Pacifica itself. As I wrote to you a few weeks ago, WBAI is bankrupt. It is paying its bills by borrowing money from the Pacifica National Office which is borrowing the money from other Pacifica stations. This whole house of cards could come down if the problems at WBAI are not solved quickly. There have been very serious financial irregularities at WBAI, including use of "restricted" grant monies for unauthorized purposes. In addition, when WBAI terminated Gary Null's program it also terminated a major source of listener-support for the station. Regardless of what you think of Gary Null's program, the station needed a realistic plan to replace that income or to reduce its expenses to live within its reduced income. It did neither, and that is one of the causes of the current bankruptcy. Other causes are overall mis-management, waste, poor staff morale, not enough good programming, and competition from other alternative media sources, both on the radio and on the internet.
The "Justice & Unity" faction has held the majority on the LSB for the past three years and has been blocking necessary management changes and other changes at the station. In addition, the LSB majority elects 3 of the 4 WBAI seats on the Pacifica National Board and they have been blocking necessary action by the Pacifica Executive Director and National Board. For this to change, at least 5 of the 9 listener seats , and 2 of the 3 staff seats on the LSB must be won by independents who are not part of the "Justice & Unity" slate. I honestly don't know why the "Justice & Unity" slate has been so destructive to WBAI, they have good "political" credentials and you would think they would want the station to grow and thrive. However, they have not acted that way, and if they are permitted to continue to control the Local board and to confuse and mislead the national board, then I am very very pessimistic about the future of WBAI and Pacifica. This is tragic in a time of national crisis where EVERY form of alternative media
Again, please vote -- Every vote matters. With "ranked choice" voting just one vote can determine who wins the last seat on the board.
Thanks, and best regards,
Carol Spooner
Pacifica National Board Member - Jan 2002-Jan 2005
Lead Plaintiff - Listeners' Lawsuit to remove the old Pacifica Board - 1999-Dec 2001
1
October 28, 2007
Lisa Davis: ...
MY RESPONSE TO MITCHEL COHEN:
Firstly, I must say that the irony is not lost that Mitchel Cohen, who had relatives murdered in the concentration camp, has no problem with someone "sieg heiling" and giving the nazi salute to someone like me (or any of my allies for that matter).
The irony is also not lost that Mitchel Cohen has no problem with someone yelling "Open the Gulags and Ovens" when it is being directed at someone like me.
The irony is not lost that Mitch is offended that I would dare find someone yelling sieg heil and giving nazi salutes anti semitic when he had relatives killed in Nazi Germany, but that he then mocks my fight against racism , with no thought at all about all of my African ancestors that were killed and tortured in this country for hundreds of years. (And it is still going on.)
I don't want to see words or gestures like "Sieg Heil," the nazi salute, the "N" word, nooses, KKK or any other words or symbols with such a history of violence and racism being used against anyone, under any circumstances -- ever! There are no circumstances under which a nazi salute should ever be used.
I invite everyone to please go to the links below and view Paul DeRienzo's behavior for yourself (the videos will take a few minutes to load, so please have patience)
28 minute video show DeRienzo's offensive behavior
http://www.justiceunity.org/video-battle for progressive/20050314/bcat derienzo qt.mp4
Paul DeRienzo's Behavior on 2/16/05
http://www.justiceunity.org/video-battle for progressive/20050314/exerpts/feb15lsb.mov
Moreover, the motion that passed called for a 6 month suspension for DeRienzo and that upon returning to the Board he would have to issue a written apology. Had he issued that apology at the end of 6 months, he would have had over a year and half to finish serving on the Board. But DeRienzo refused to apologize.
To review the motion go to: http://www.justiceunity.org/ne...otion.html
FOOTNOTE: note that last year Mitch also endorsed Albert Solomon.
http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList/read/message.html?mid=913419719&sort=d&start=20069
Also, please see his rationale for Albert Solomon's statement this year. http://www.listenerforums.net/...read=73499
More postings from are forthcoming.
Lisa V. Davis
Firstly, I must say that the irony is not lost that Mitchel Cohen, who had relatives murdered in the concentration camp, has no problem with someone "sieg heiling" and giving the nazi salute to someone like me (or any of my allies for that matter).
The irony is also not lost that Mitchel Cohen has no problem with someone yelling "Open the Gulags and Ovens" when it is being directed at someone like me.
The irony is not lost that Mitch is offended that I would dare find someone yelling sieg heil and giving nazi salutes anti semitic when he had relatives killed in Nazi Germany, but that he then mocks my fight against racism , with no thought at all about all of my African ancestors that were killed and tortured in this country for hundreds of years. (And it is still going on.)
I don't want to see words or gestures like "Sieg Heil," the nazi salute, the "N" word, nooses, KKK or any other words or symbols with such a history of violence and racism being used against anyone, under any circumstances -- ever! There are no circumstances under which a nazi salute should ever be used.
I invite everyone to please go to the links below and view Paul DeRienzo's behavior for yourself (the videos will take a few minutes to load, so please have patience)
28 minute video show DeRienzo's offensive behavior
http://www.justiceunity.org/video-battle for progressive/20050314/bcat derienzo qt.mp4
Paul DeRienzo's Behavior on 2/16/05
http://www.justiceunity.org/video-battle for progressive/20050314/exerpts/feb15lsb.mov
Moreover, the motion that passed called for a 6 month suspension for DeRienzo and that upon returning to the Board he would have to issue a written apology. Had he issued that apology at the end of 6 months, he would have had over a year and half to finish serving on the Board. But DeRienzo refused to apologize.
To review the motion go to: http://www.justiceunity.org/ne...otion.html
FOOTNOTE: note that last year Mitch also endorsed Albert Solomon.
http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList/read/message.html?mid=913419719&sort=d&start=20069
Also, please see his rationale for Albert Solomon's statement this year. http://www.listenerforums.net/...read=73499
More postings from are forthcoming.
Lisa V. Davis
2
October 27, 2007
fflefever: Not just "a remark" I was personally attacked in racial terms; standard J&U "defense" against criticism. http://www.friendsofwbai.org
I had the temerity to criticize Nia Bediako (LSB delegate, chair of the Programming Committee, and wife of the J&U appointed LSB Treasurer) for her mishandling of the planning for an abortive "Town Hall" meeting. Ed Marshall (failed J&U candidate for LSB) posted a message attributing my criticism to my age and other characteristics ("inane OMF"), including my "melanin deficiency" disease. Lisa Davis, who interprets every criticism as racist even when race is not mentioned, voted against disapproving such EXPLICITLY racial attacks in the Programming Committee's official listserve.
Subsequently, in a patently discriminatory way, I was deprived of my voting membership in the committee.
I had been a member from the beginning, had seen initial progress (towards surveying the staff to ascertain their knowledge of procedures for initiating new programs and evaluating current programs) disrupted by what can only be described as mob tactics. After J&U achieved complete control, it spent the next couple of years doing nothing at all.
As a member of the Membership, Outreach, & Fundraising committee I have seen negligible fundraising and pathetic neglect of outreach and membership.
As a member of the management Evaluation Comittee, I have seen initial efforts to evaluate the General manager and the program Director disrupted, and the (bylaws mandated) annual evaluations shirked for the next 2 or 3 years. I saw the PD's personal assistant given control of an eventual sham evaluation of the PD [I can give details as to its shoddy methodology]; a process not yet formally reviewed by the complete LSB so far as I know.
As a member of the Finance Committee, I have seen stonewalling (management in collusion with J&U) when independent members asked who were the "consultants" that drove consultant expenditures far over what had been budgeted, and asked what they did for their money. Stonewalling when we asked what happened to the proceeds of a fundraiser at Riverside Church (J&U exists primarily to protect the man who diverted the funds to his own use). Stonewalling and derisive retorts when we asked to see explanations of specific budget lines in an effort to find alternatives to staff cuts. Their preference was to ignore continued deterioration of membership and listener support and to adopt absurdly inflated projections of IMPROVED listener support, year after year, in proposed budgets that this year even the national office and the PNB had to condemn. WBAI is bankrupt and our bills are being paid by other Pacifica stations.
I could cite a few more examples, but the basic facts are that (1) J&U exists to protect the status quo, (2) every criticism of them or of management is attributed to our being white (not true, as some of us are black) and their being black (not true, as some of their operatives are white), and (3)participants in any interpersonal or governmental exchange are routinely identified by race in J&U descriptions.
This tactic has had an impact on programming. Some WBAI producers take this model as an indication of what is acceptable, and many listeners have complained about what they perceive as a pervasive tone of anti-white and anti-semitic undercurrents (and sometimes explicit rhetoric). Some complain in public forums, others vote with their feet. I know. I have done my own outreach (tabling at various demonstrations, handing out home-made leaflets at marches, etc.) and I have met many FORMER members and FORMER listeners that way.
--Frank LeFever
Subsequently, in a patently discriminatory way, I was deprived of my voting membership in the committee.
I had been a member from the beginning, had seen initial progress (towards surveying the staff to ascertain their knowledge of procedures for initiating new programs and evaluating current programs) disrupted by what can only be described as mob tactics. After J&U achieved complete control, it spent the next couple of years doing nothing at all.
As a member of the Membership, Outreach, & Fundraising committee I have seen negligible fundraising and pathetic neglect of outreach and membership.
As a member of the management Evaluation Comittee, I have seen initial efforts to evaluate the General manager and the program Director disrupted, and the (bylaws mandated) annual evaluations shirked for the next 2 or 3 years. I saw the PD's personal assistant given control of an eventual sham evaluation of the PD [I can give details as to its shoddy methodology]; a process not yet formally reviewed by the complete LSB so far as I know.
As a member of the Finance Committee, I have seen stonewalling (management in collusion with J&U) when independent members asked who were the "consultants" that drove consultant expenditures far over what had been budgeted, and asked what they did for their money. Stonewalling when we asked what happened to the proceeds of a fundraiser at Riverside Church (J&U exists primarily to protect the man who diverted the funds to his own use). Stonewalling and derisive retorts when we asked to see explanations of specific budget lines in an effort to find alternatives to staff cuts. Their preference was to ignore continued deterioration of membership and listener support and to adopt absurdly inflated projections of IMPROVED listener support, year after year, in proposed budgets that this year even the national office and the PNB had to condemn. WBAI is bankrupt and our bills are being paid by other Pacifica stations.
I could cite a few more examples, but the basic facts are that (1) J&U exists to protect the status quo, (2) every criticism of them or of management is attributed to our being white (not true, as some of us are black) and their being black (not true, as some of their operatives are white), and (3)participants in any interpersonal or governmental exchange are routinely identified by race in J&U descriptions.
This tactic has had an impact on programming. Some WBAI producers take this model as an indication of what is acceptable, and many listeners have complained about what they perceive as a pervasive tone of anti-white and anti-semitic undercurrents (and sometimes explicit rhetoric). Some complain in public forums, others vote with their feet. I know. I have done my own outreach (tabling at various demonstrations, handing out home-made leaflets at marches, etc.) and I have met many FORMER members and FORMER listeners that way.
--Frank LeFever
3
October 27, 2007
edix: Talk about liars!
First of all, as Mitchel Cohen is a sitting board member of the WBAI LSB, his attacks on candidate Lisa Davis are completely out of line and below the standards that should be upheld in order to sit on the LSB.
Secondly, in Mitchel Cohen's attack campaigns in order to get his friends from the Greens elected, he has recently accused the Justice and Unity Coalition of being infiltrated by COINTELPRO, which was a government snitch and disruption policy during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. Cohen offers no evidence that any member of the JUC is a paid government informant or paid government disruptor. He has no facts to back up this claim, even when asked several times to produce evidence, he simply falls silent.
It is obvious that Cohen is desperate to get his friends elected, to the point of mudslinging, engaging in rampant hyperbole and outright lies that undermine activism as a result.
Please do not vote for anyone that Mitchel Cohen supports and look closely at who he attacks, since if he chooses to be so low down in his efforts, anything associated with him will be low down, too, as a result.
Don't believe the hype!
Secondly, in Mitchel Cohen's attack campaigns in order to get his friends from the Greens elected, he has recently accused the Justice and Unity Coalition of being infiltrated by COINTELPRO, which was a government snitch and disruption policy during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. Cohen offers no evidence that any member of the JUC is a paid government informant or paid government disruptor. He has no facts to back up this claim, even when asked several times to produce evidence, he simply falls silent.
It is obvious that Cohen is desperate to get his friends elected, to the point of mudslinging, engaging in rampant hyperbole and outright lies that undermine activism as a result.
Please do not vote for anyone that Mitchel Cohen supports and look closely at who he attacks, since if he chooses to be so low down in his efforts, anything associated with him will be low down, too, as a result.
Don't believe the hype!
4
October 27, 2007
Mitchel Cohen: ...
Don't believe a word that Lisa Davis and her Just-Us cronies write.
Lisa Davis has spent her few years on the Local Station Board race-baiting any and everyone who disagrees with her on anything at all. I was no fan of Paul DeRienzo's, but for Lisa Davis to call him an "Anti-Semite" because he sieg-heiled her, and then orchestrated his removal from the Board by the "Just-Us" faction, is typical of her lies. Yea, lecture me, Lisa Davis, about anti-Semitism, who had relatives murdered in the concentration camps and who grew up with neighbors and relatives who were Holocaust survivors, and who got beat up every day in the Marlboro Projects where I grew up by anti-semites and racists. Just HOW, Lisa Davis, is someone who calls you a "fascist" engaged in "anti-Semitic" behavior? What crap.
This preposterous claim by Lisa Davis -- and it wasn't just words, her faction actually REMOVED Paul from his elected seat, just as they supported removing Robert Knight from the station -- goes to the heart of everything wrong at WBAI. Lisa and the thought-police (now there's a good name for a punk-rock group, eh?) invent whatever stories they want, smear anyone they need to to gain votes from unsuspecting listeners, using race-baiting as their main weapon to cow people into silence. Just watch how they play it, in this election. And don't believe a word of it.
Meanwhile the station is now $250,000 in debt under Lisa's and her "Just-Us" crew's control;
Lisa and Just-Us refuse to investigate the $60,000 in missing equipment;
Another "Just-Us" honcho, Omowale Clay, dared to call me a "racist" on the air for bringing up the missing equipment, because "Black people now run the station."
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BLACK OR WHITE - IT HAS TO DO WITH MANAGEMENT'S INCOMPETENCE (AT BEST),
- bad programming,
- missing equipment,
- the authoritarian firing of Robert Knight and Gary Null,
- the loss of over 4,000 members during the last 3 years that Lisa and "Just-Us" have run the station and the Board,
- and Lisa and the "Just-Us" crew's vote to cut staff pay (while verbally denying she was doing so as she was voting to do so). Is this person in denial, or what?
The station needs to be saved as our voice against fascism, airing the thought, art, music, resistance of the progressive communities. These Just-Us cutthroats and race-baiters like Lisa Davis are doing the Bush administration's work in destroying this critical resource.
Don't vote for a single member of the Just-Us crew. Vote for the independents, and only the independents.
Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party,
coordinator, No Spray Coalition, and
elected representative to the WBAI Local Station Board
Race-Baiting Quotes from Lisa Davis:
Thursday, January 26, 2006
"...the fact that she is White and I am Black makes this statement even more egregious..."
"...When I came back home and went to my computer I found the
following very insulting message from xxxx, a White member
of the LSB, who did not show up at the LSB meeting in Newark..."
"...in the three years I've been sitting on the Board I have
frequently witnessed White men and White women scream and argue at the LSB meetings ... The LSB has even witnessed a White man publicly curse a woman out..."
AND, Lisa voted to allow racist remarks from a member of her Just-Us faction to be posted to the official listserve of one of the LSB committees. As R. Paul Martin (independent staff candidate) wrote at the time:
The arguments against the motion were interesting. Ed Marshall went on about how those with melanin deficiency have caused genocide and all sorts of bad things, and he said it has to be a disease. I thought he made quite a self-indictment. Cerene Roberts said that melanin deficiency was "a condition," and it was all right to have such slurs on the committee's E-mail list. Ayo Harrington agreed and said that if people feel insecure about references to melanin deficiency then that's their problem."
When racial slurs were made, R. Paul Martin objected. Lisa's buddy Ed Marshall retorted with more racial slurs. When R. Paul tried to get the full committee to go on record as opposing such language, the motion was initially blocked, then allowed but defeated.
Those voting against banning racial slurs on the listserve included Lisa Davis, Cerene Roberts, Ayo Harrington, William Heerwagon; as chair, Nia Bediako abstained.
VOTE THESE CREEPS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lisa Davis has spent her few years on the Local Station Board race-baiting any and everyone who disagrees with her on anything at all. I was no fan of Paul DeRienzo's, but for Lisa Davis to call him an "Anti-Semite" because he sieg-heiled her, and then orchestrated his removal from the Board by the "Just-Us" faction, is typical of her lies. Yea, lecture me, Lisa Davis, about anti-Semitism, who had relatives murdered in the concentration camps and who grew up with neighbors and relatives who were Holocaust survivors, and who got beat up every day in the Marlboro Projects where I grew up by anti-semites and racists. Just HOW, Lisa Davis, is someone who calls you a "fascist" engaged in "anti-Semitic" behavior? What crap.
This preposterous claim by Lisa Davis -- and it wasn't just words, her faction actually REMOVED Paul from his elected seat, just as they supported removing Robert Knight from the station -- goes to the heart of everything wrong at WBAI. Lisa and the thought-police (now there's a good name for a punk-rock group, eh?) invent whatever stories they want, smear anyone they need to to gain votes from unsuspecting listeners, using race-baiting as their main weapon to cow people into silence. Just watch how they play it, in this election. And don't believe a word of it.
Meanwhile the station is now $250,000 in debt under Lisa's and her "Just-Us" crew's control;
Lisa and Just-Us refuse to investigate the $60,000 in missing equipment;
Another "Just-Us" honcho, Omowale Clay, dared to call me a "racist" on the air for bringing up the missing equipment, because "Black people now run the station."
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BLACK OR WHITE - IT HAS TO DO WITH MANAGEMENT'S INCOMPETENCE (AT BEST),
- bad programming,
- missing equipment,
- the authoritarian firing of Robert Knight and Gary Null,
- the loss of over 4,000 members during the last 3 years that Lisa and "Just-Us" have run the station and the Board,
- and Lisa and the "Just-Us" crew's vote to cut staff pay (while verbally denying she was doing so as she was voting to do so). Is this person in denial, or what?
The station needs to be saved as our voice against fascism, airing the thought, art, music, resistance of the progressive communities. These Just-Us cutthroats and race-baiters like Lisa Davis are doing the Bush administration's work in destroying this critical resource.
Don't vote for a single member of the Just-Us crew. Vote for the independents, and only the independents.
Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party,
coordinator, No Spray Coalition, and
elected representative to the WBAI Local Station Board
Race-Baiting Quotes from Lisa Davis:
Thursday, January 26, 2006
"...the fact that she is White and I am Black makes this statement even more egregious..."
"...When I came back home and went to my computer I found the
following very insulting message from xxxx, a White member
of the LSB, who did not show up at the LSB meeting in Newark..."
"...in the three years I've been sitting on the Board I have
frequently witnessed White men and White women scream and argue at the LSB meetings ... The LSB has even witnessed a White man publicly curse a woman out..."
AND, Lisa voted to allow racist remarks from a member of her Just-Us faction to be posted to the official listserve of one of the LSB committees. As R. Paul Martin (independent staff candidate) wrote at the time:
The arguments against the motion were interesting. Ed Marshall went on about how those with melanin deficiency have caused genocide and all sorts of bad things, and he said it has to be a disease. I thought he made quite a self-indictment. Cerene Roberts said that melanin deficiency was "a condition," and it was all right to have such slurs on the committee's E-mail list. Ayo Harrington agreed and said that if people feel insecure about references to melanin deficiency then that's their problem."
When racial slurs were made, R. Paul Martin objected. Lisa's buddy Ed Marshall retorted with more racial slurs. When R. Paul tried to get the full committee to go on record as opposing such language, the motion was initially blocked, then allowed but defeated.
Those voting against banning racial slurs on the listserve included Lisa Davis, Cerene Roberts, Ayo Harrington, William Heerwagon; as chair, Nia Bediako abstained.
VOTE THESE CREEPS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5
October 27, 2007
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