Gary Null Blows Lid off Sexual Harassment at Pacifica November 2, 2007
Posted by angryscientist in Feminism, Whistleblower Corner.trackback
This past Tuesday night Roy of Hollywood asked Gary Null for his opinions about the trouble KPFK, and Pacifica in general, is having raising funds. Gary has lots of opinions about that, having been kicked off the New York Pacifica station WBAI, despite being their top fund-raiser. One fact Gary revealed that I didn’t know, one of the network’s biggest expenses is paying off sexual harassment judgments and the associated legal fees! He said Pacifica has been trying to sweep this under the carpet, denying everything, promoting instead of firing the perpetrators! I did a little research and found this press release published at Indymedia from July this year. If you think Pacifica deserves its billing as free speech radio, you might want to read the whole thing, and weep.
Pacifica Radio Network – Rocked by Discrimination
by Its about time for change
Friday Jul 13th, 2007 5:00 PMProgressive Radio Network Rocked
By Violence, Discrimination, and Sexual HarassmentFive women in legal actions against radio stations in the progressive Pacifica Radio Network have encountered stunningly “un-progressive” practices in the network’s handling of women’s complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination.
Women at all five of Pacifica’s major market stations have fought to compel Pacifica Radio Foundation and its member stations, including Berkeley’s KPFA, to immediately end physical threats, harassment, discrimination, and sexual assaults against women, as well as their retaliation against the women who report the misconduct.
Recurring allegations are that Pacifica refused to investigate the women’s complaints, refused to discipline the perpetrators, fostered an environment of impunity, refused to prevent further harassment, hampered the women’s ability to perform their jobs, and subjected them to retaliation and, in some cases, termination.
Among those who claim they have been victimized are senior managers, investigative reporters, hosts, a station news director, and administrative employees. And these women all claim that they have found the disconnect between the network’s progressive rhetoric and its handling of discrimination within its own ranks to be startling.
For shame, Pacifica. For shame. No wonder many feminists are so suspicious of the male left.
Angry Scientist 
I don’t know why you should all be surprised by all of this.
I knew a radical lesbian feminist who once worked at Pacifica for years. She had an incredible feminist radio program, and also was a fundraiser. She said the male hostility was just in your face a lot of the time. There was a black nationalist show on before her’s was taped every week, and these African American “progressive men” would greet her with “white bitch” and more.
The America left is really not about feminism. You can tell by their programming — Iraqi war — mainstream political commentary, Noam Chompski, who was never ever a feminist, and their entire world view really is male centered.
Leftist men and Rightist men are really the same creatures.
Leftist men demand sexual access to women, and Rightist men demand “sexual purity before marriage” from women. But it’s all about telling women what to do.
If you starve the beast, you’ll cause them to reform. Women should flood Pacifica with demands for firing all male perpetrators, and women should not give one dime of money until they do.
The number of women controlled programs should be multiplied, and all programming should be equally divided into “male style” news and “feminist style” news.
Keep your eye on the prize — it’s about male supremacy s —–
paraphrasing a Clinton campaign slogan we’re all familiar with.
Thanks for this post. It was very eye opening and it clicked with my friend’s description of Pacifica’s woman hating atmopshere going back to 1997 or so.
Satsuma,
Who’s surprised? I’m not surprised this is going on at Pacifica, but I am surprised to see you here! Maybe I shouldn’t be. I’m not one of your gay male buddies, by the way. I’m one of those straight guys whom you think never can change. News to me! Did I misunderstand you? I realize the peril of taking things too personally, otherwise I’d not be able to read feminist blogs, but still, I did hesitate about approving your comment. I suppose I could engage you on some of your wild theories about heterosexuality, if you like. I could write a post about it, though generally I think, who’s going to be interested in a straight guy’s wild theories about heterosexuality? Since you seem to like a good fight, I’m asking, otherwise I’d assume you’d think the idea a waste of time.
KPFK has one hour a week called Feminist Magazine you might enjoy. They did a segment on Heart awhile back. You could listen at kpfk.org if you’re interested, but I think the archive of the Heart interview has expired by now.
You liberal/progressive kooks are so far removed from reality that you are going to ensure the collapse of this nation. Question: What good are you anyway? Has Nancy Pelosi stopped or even questioned the lunacy of Iraq? Have you protected Americans of all types jobs, from wage depression due to illegal immigration. No you have not. Afterall you bill yourselves as the party of the working people? I listened to KPFK one night and some activist was on who was openly advocating for illegal immigration and Mexico, and was openly, racistly, denigrating” white people”. He was allowed to go on and on. You people are hypocrits in the extreme. You aren’t open minded, but only represent your views. I don’t dig some of the BS that people like Shawn Hannity and Bill Reilly and Limbaugh spot off, but I will say this about them, anyone can call in liberals included and debate them. You never find a liberal station allowing people to debate. That is why essentially, in your main essence, you people are at heart communists.
Did you bother to read anything? I’m no great fan of KPFK. Gary Null has real issues with Pacifica, which kicked him off its New York affiliate for similar reasons to what you’re railing about! Your ire is misplaced, if directed at me or him.
However, your statements are riddled with other silliness. How does someone racistly denigrate the group in power? It doesn’t work that way. Racism is expressed by whites against nonwhites. In what way can nonwhites practice systematic discrimination against whites? They can say all kinds of inaccurate and hostile nonsense against whites, but that isn’t comparable to racism, because whites are the group in power. I’ve listened to some of the debates on Hannity’s show. They don’t deserve the name debate. I will say many people at Pacifica are socialists, a few Marxists, but to some extent, differences of views are tolerated. It’s not a haven for free speech as it bills itself, as Gary Null has observed many times over the years.
Anyway, I’ve no interest in defending Pacifica, liberals, progressives, or Democrats, and my intent in posting this story was by no means to defend Pacifica. I’m just pointing out that you shouldn’t be using the second person, clearly not understanding where I or Null stand on the issues you raised, and regardless, your conclusions stretch the truth big time.
Yes there is sexual harrasment in all the stations, but that would never occur on a Right Wing pro neo-conservative networks because they are holy.
Ho Ho Holy Bill O’Reilly? I assume your remark was a joke, Enzo, but I thought I’d remind you of him, just in case.
So what has happened now with Gary Null and KPFK? He seems to be gone from the airwaves. I’ve not heard nor received any explanation when I’ve asked. (Sorry tor the poor grammar. Editing does not seem to be working correctly on my phone.)
Gary Null resigned from Pacifica about three months ago. I’m not surprised KFPK doesn’t want to explain. I don’t know the specific reason. I’d guess the friction between him and the management got to be too much. Now you’d have to listen on the Internet (prn.fm) or the telephone. Archives are also at podbean.com; just search for Gary Null.
Thanks!
In case anyone is wondering, Gary Null isn’t on KPFK anymore because he is a CHARLATAN. Anyone who defends him is intellectually bankrupt.
I approved this comment to issue a challenge to you, Arbiter of Reality (aka quackbuster?). Back up your statement with some evidence. If you don’t, I’ll conclude you have nothing to back up your claim but your spite, and that you are the one who’s intellectually (and morally) bankrupt.
For anyone who is curious about the details of what transpired to compel Gary Null to disassociate from KPFK, read this.