Wrong! Facts, even when true, are only selected pieces of truth. When there is a conflict, debate is necessary regarding which asserted facts are true and, even more, how they are selected from the infinite number of possible facts and what is their relevance to the issue(s) being discussed. Just piling a lot of 'facts' together is not a sign of journalistic integrity, but of journalistic laziness and incompetence, and a lack of historical perspective.

By the way, as the article that Guest hit-man refers to states, Hanrahan sued for sex discrimination, not sexual harassment. (I think a suit on the latter charge would have been laughed out of court.)

In any case, Dennis is spot-on about the politics of what's going on at KPFA. And I would suggest that if management wants to save money by bringing in a syndicated news show in the evening, the time to do it would be from 6 to 7 pm, in place of the mixture of Associated Press wire copy and repeats from (the generally pretty good) Free Speech Radio News that we get from the KPFA News Department. However much it would cost to retire Aileen Alfandary and Mark Mericle, it would be worth it. Or, when Democracy Now! is finally moved to 7 am, let AIleen and Mark do a 6 am Morning Show.

I'm still trying to figure out how a department with almost 40 employees looks at a department with 7 employees and calls them a vast bureaucracy.

It's so Orwellian. Surely "bureaucracy" and "bigger than" have some meaning in common, no?

Would KPFA be in this deficit were it not for Dennis Bernstein?

And past offers don't amount to much with respect to Nora's departure; all of the other programs at KPFA shared the cuts amongst the staff…except Flashpoints which cut a woman of color completely instead of sharing the pain.

As for news, most people realize that this was an election year when coverage is a bit more heavy than usual. Unless you can show someone's pay was increased, such an increase in funding is expected for journalistic action and coverage.

It is sad to see that you've dumped journalistic ethics for this power play, Dennis. Maybe this time the faction that wins will see how much you have cost KPFA and Pacifica, and let you try and make it on your own like Amy Goodman has managed to do.

p.s. no more responses for you, until you have the courage to show your face

Its already bad, too bad enough that poor people's voices are silenced, locally and globally. To have their voices displaced because of the above said categories brings light to "Gentrification Journalism" as Brother Jr. Valrey would say. My family of POOR Magazine/PNN cut off completely from the morning show, despite having given communities a voice for a very long time. Tragically, the main people who're going to suffer the most are the listeners.

It's hard to express how it feels to have such disrespect in an institution where you work. I think of the faces of so many unpaid staff members I know at KPFA. One of them, a host for La Raza Chronicles, celebrates her 50-year anniversary next year. I honor them all.

Larry Bensky apparently thought nothing of branding the unpaid staff and many listener media activists at KPFA with a broad brush. It shows the length he will go in his ongoing effort to sink the media democracy experiment Pacifica began in late 2001.

Michael Krasney’s program with Larry Bensky and Arlene Engelhardt was a two against one situation. Krasney knows that he would never be allowed to bring any complaints about KQED, much less his personal employment issues, to the air. He also knows how on-air negativity about a non-profit deeply damages its ability to fund raise. He repeated the rhetoric that these 2 lay offs (2 out of 9) could not be a legitimate budget cutting measure because the program where these two were assigned raises money for the station. The obvious question: If these hosts care so much about fund raising, why are they now on air tanking fundraising for months and years to come?

As I'm sure you can tell, it's my opinion that Aimee Allison and Brian Edwards-Tigart are simply two of the many hosts who do excellent radio on KPFA. Listen any day to Hard Knock Radio from 4-5 pm, for other examples.

I've been watching the budgets. KPFA needed to make these cuts and had shown it was unwilling. Pacifica had no choice. It's a very tough transition due to these public divisions within the station, but KPFA will survive. Who knows, with the help of its incredible listeners, it may even thrive.

A debate is done to sway opinion while facts are nothing more than truth. That you would demand debate instead of presenting fact also speaks volumes to your journalisric integrity as well as your historical perspective.

Did you refuse to cut your own hours and force Nora to leave?

Were you the subject of a sexual harrassment lawsuit at KPFA? Was there a second action on the same lawsuit because you allegedly violated the original terms of the settlement?

Did you procure several thousands of dollars of electronics for your operation at the New College using KPFA funds, bypassing management oversight or authorization? What happened to all of that equipment when the New College shut down?

How are these inquiries "debatable"? These are either true or false; so, on the record, which are these?

Aileen enjoys misusing her power to insult and humiliate, specifically, she routinely either ignored me or stood staring open mouthed at me, again, creating a hostile work enviroment. Early on when I explained that as a stroke survivor I had hidden disablities which would affect my ability to perform some computer related tasks and asked for assistance, she replied, "You look like you are doing alright to me". I knew that this was a violation of ADA state and federal law and reported her, again to Human Resources and asked that she be made to cease and desist, and she was again "retrained". After that her favorite method of targeting me was to "forget" or sabotage my assignments, delivering them in such a manner that I was unable to complete them, with or without assisistance. Her attempts to degrade me with covert and overt race and gender based comments, were continuous. Aileen is clever but intelligence without conscience only results in clever cruelty.

In addition, throughout my three year tenure with KPFA , Aileen made it clear that certain men received preferential seating in the KPFA news room, this isn't something she alluded to, she showed me which men sat in reserved seats, pointing to chairs belonging to Brian Edwards-Tiekert and beside him, Christopher Martinez. I was told not ever to sit there. This practice is not upheld by the station handbook, rather is contrary to equality of staff and community as stated in the KPFA handbook and mission statement. Despite this, the custom of ranked seating based not on supervisory position or seniority but on gender and then race, persists to this day. I defy any one to deny it. I did not complain, I complied.

Informed by some 35 years on the air in radio and television news, I responded then as I do now, by choosing my battles carefully, by refusing to respond in anger, by documenting my concerns in writing and submitting that documentation to proper authority, keeping copies of everything I wrote then and write now, and by writing here with the hope of someone seeing and knowing the truth. It was in such foul atmosphere that Nadra Foster was arrested, but I was not and am here to speak truth to power.

Aileen Alfandary every thing you allege to have been done by others you yourself, Aileen took sick pleasure in doing to me. I survived and am here to publicly call you an arrogant liar and a hypocrite, comfortable in the belief that you can get away with it. And you may well continue to lie with impunity and fool people for another 30 years. But you don't fool me. Between me and you, Aileen, we know the truth. What you fail to know is that despite knowing the truth you prove to be an exception, for the twisted truth you tell will never make you or what soul you have left, sane, much less free.

Maggie Kaigler
KPFA News Reporter 2005-08, Loyal Listener since 1990

As for Nora's departure, wasn't her "removal" actually due to your refusal to allow any cutbacks, except her? And, as with the sexual harrassment suits, isn't it interesting how only women seem to be affected?

None of us wants KPFA to bleed out, while proponents for the heart argue with proponents for the lungs over which should be transfused. And, from where I sit watching in helpless horror, that's what it looks like.