Pacifica Foundation

Pacifica Foundation
Formation	1946
Founder	•  Lewis Hill •  E. John Lewis
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California
Type	Public radio network
Interest of	Amy Goodman
Sponsor of	Democracy Now!
A progressive media foundation, generally anti-war, but also close to official narratives.

The Pacifica Foundation is an American non-profit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation:

• KPFT
• KPFA
• KPFK
• WBAI
• WPFW

History

Pacifica was founded in 1946 by pacifists E. John Lewis and Lewis Hill. During World War II, both of them had filed for conscientious objector status. After the war, Lewis, Hill and a small group of former conscientious objectors created the Pacifica Foundation in Pacifica, California. Their first station, KPFA in Berkeley, commenced broadcasting in 1949. By 1977, the network had added WBAI in New York City, KPFK in Los Angeles, WPFW in Washington, DC, and KPFT in Houston.

Criticism

Dissatisfied by the control of organised money over Pacifica, Lyn Gerry started Radio4All.net, the internet's first place where content producers could exchange MP3s for free.

In 2018, KPFA’s cancelled Guns and Butter, a public affairs show hosted by Bonnie Faulkner that had run weekly on KPFA-FM since 2001, after a presentation by Alan Sabrosky on The Impact of Zionist Influence in the U.S.. The management notification of cancellation gave the reason as "your uncritically airing of views by a holocaust denier, climate denial and casting the Parkland mass shooting survivors as crisis actors."

Funding

Full article: Foundation funding

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Foundation	“big establishment foundations are likely to seek out "alternative" media that is more bark than bite, which they can rely on to ignore and dismiss sensitive topics like those mentioned above — and many more — as "irrelevant distractions" or "conspiracy theory" [...] Recipients of funding will always protest that they are not swayed by any conflicts of interest and don't allow the sources of funding to affect their decisions, but whether or not these claims are actually true is already somewhat of a red herring. The more important question is, what sort of 'alternative' journalism garners the goodwill of the Ford Foundation corporate rogues gallery in the first place? Or the Rockefeller Foundation? Or Carnegie Foundation, Soros, and Schumann? Judging by the journalism being offered (and not offered) by Nation magazine, FAIR, Pacifica, Progressive magazine, IPA, Mother Jones, Alternet, and other recipients of their funding, the big establishment foundations are successfully sponsoring the kind of "opposition" that the US ruling elite can tolerate and live with.”	Brian Salter
Alan Sabrosky	“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 [sic.] of our airways, we can’t defend this content to our listeners. Sincerely, Quincy McCoy Kevin Cartwright General Manager Program Director”	Alan Sabrosky Quincy McCoy Kevin Cartwright	8 August 2018

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
File:What Happened to Pacifica.pdf	article	16 December 2019	Helen Buyniski	The story of Pacifica Radio is a cyclical saga of factional warfare, class and racial struggle, and the power of the self- preservation instinct.

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