ACT UP: WBAI- AIDS Journalist Fired Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Bob Lederer FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 10, 2001 Contact: John Riley, ACT UP/New York, 917-653-7267 Background: www.savepacifica.net; www.wbaiaction.org AIDS Journalist Fired for Political Coverage in Shake-Up at Embattled Community Radio Station NEW YORK - Bob Lederer, an 11-year veteran broadcaster on AIDS and other health issues at embattled WBAI, 99.5 FM, was summarily dismissed Aug. 6, becoming the latest victim of the ongoing political purge at what had been New York's premier noncommercial, free-speech alternative radio station. Twenty-three of WBAI's most progressive and activist programmers and staffers have now been fired, banned or removed from programs by interim general manager Utrice Leid since she was installed by management of the Pacifica Foundation (which owns the license to WBAI) in the so-called "Christmas coup" of last December. In a memo placed in Lederer's station mailbox, Leid informed the unpaid producer that he had been removed as one of three rotating hosts of the long-running Tuesday afternoon show "Health Action" and barred from appearing on any other WBAI program. She accused him of "using the program as a soapbox for other than public interest reasons" and producing "one-sided" and "unfair" programs. Without stating any justification, Leid also banned Lederer from the premises, warning that any appearance by him at the station "will be considered trespassing." Since the December coup, Lederer has been an active member of Concerned Friends of WBAI, a coalition of listeners and producers fighting to restore WBAI and Pacifica to their traditional progressive roots. Lederer has helped organize many demonstrations, rallies, mass meetings and email/phone pressure campaigns that have mobilized thousands of angry Pacifica listeners nationwide and activist groups such as ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)/New York. Lederer's "Health Action" program has at times covered the health-related aspects of the Pacifica controversies, and some of his guests invited to speak on other health issues have criticized the actions of WBAI management. Lederer's colleague as "Health Action" host, Kathy Davis, was also removed from the program after six years, with no reason given. In a separate memo, Leid told Davis -- who never discussed the radio crisis on "Health Action" but has supported the resistance movement off-air -- that she could only continue her Monday night spirituality program "Heart of Mind" if she makes several self-censorship pledges. Those included not discussing anything "extraneous" to the "mission" of her program, particularly allowing any statements with "the intent to inspire listeners to go against the will of current management." (Leid has enforced a harsh "gag rule" that prevents producers from discussing the Pacifica-WBAI crisis on the air unless they support management's position.) The program's third producer, gay psychotherapist Nicholas Cimorelli, who has expressed no public position on the station's crisis, was named sole host of "Health Action." "The removal of Kathy and myself is merely the latest act in the continuing purge by Pacifica management of those who oppose their campaign to 'mainstream' the five-station network," Lederer said. "They have consistently targeted those who bring to the airwaves voices of progressive activism. In my case, it means AIDS advocates will no longer have a regular radio outlet for information, analysis, and announcements of campaigns - a result that must please the members of the Pacifica National Board majority who are well-connected in government and corporate circles." "Health Action" was devoted to a mix of practical self-help and political analysis and activism on local, national and global health issues. For months, Lederer had covered the international campaign for access to affordable, generic AIDS drugs, a movement which he helped found in 1999 as a member of ACT UP/New York. The program had also repeatedly covered the severe health effects (cancers, heart problems, injuries and deaths) resulting from the U.S. Navy's bombing practice on the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques, prompting Leid to question Lederer in May about the issue's relevance to the program's health focus. In recent weeks, Lederer also covered protests by disability rights activists against anti-accessibility lobbying by the National Association of Home Builders, of which Pacifica Board vice-chair Ken Ford is a manager. Lederer, a longtime investigative journalist specializing in the politics of AIDS science, cofounded a weekly AIDS program at WBAI in 1990 called "AIDS: Paths to Self-Empowerment and Living," focusing on critiques of the mainstream medical model, information on alternative treatments, and updates on AIDS activism. The program earned a "community heroes" award from the New York Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In 1995, at the request of WBAI management, the AIDS program collective broadened its scope to overall health, giving birth to "Health Action." Since then, Lederer's installments of the program have frequently included coverage of AIDS issues. Lederer was an active member of ACT UP/NY from 1988 to 2000, and has also been a longtime anti-racist and gay liberation activist, most recently helping organize a large New York City-based movement that protested anti-gay violence after the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard and participating in two civil disobedience actions to protest the planned execution of Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal in Pennsylvania. Over the years, Lederer has written for Gay Community News, Outweek, and QW. From 1995 to 2000, he was Senior Editor at POZ, a national magazine about living with HIV/AIDS, where he became known for writing and commissioning articles critical of drug company practices and supportive of alternative medicine. Concerned Friends of WBAI is part of a broad, national movement to reclaim and democratize Pacifica Radio via ongoing lawsuits and grassroots direct-action against the pro-corporate/pro-government members of the National Board. The resistance movement also organized a successful boycott of WBAI's Spring fund-raising marathon, and aims to repeat that success with the station's upcoming August "mini-marathon." The activists have pledged to redouble their efforts in the face of Leid's stepped-up campaign to root out WBAI's few remaining progressive voices. Along with the removal of Lederer and Davis, that includes the recent firing of Polk Award-winner Robert Knight, one of Pacifica's most celebrated journalists, and mounting management harassment against Amy Goodman, the host of Pacifica's award-winning, nationally syndicated daily investigative news program "Democracy Now!," and a steadfast resister of the purges at the network. Listeners stand ready to stage mass protests if, as feared, Goodman is next in the firing line. Many say Pacifica's moves against the historically autonomous WBAI are a slow-motion replay of the spring, 1999 lockout of producers at Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, when thousands took to the streets, finally winning the station back a measure of independence. The actions against WBAI amount to the fifth take-over by the Foundation since October 1993, when management shut down Pacifica station WPFW in Washington, D.C. for ten days and seized control. Critics say the New York lockdown is part of a five-year program to mainstream the network and remove voices of political dissent. The Washington-based, community-sponsored Pacifica radio network has been a bastion of free speech for over 50 years--from broadcasting Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," to defying the McCarthyite congressional witchhunts, to airing the commentaries of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Stations at the network aired the first gay programming, provided early coverage of the movement against the war in Vietnam, and offered pioneering reporting and analysis of the emerging field of alternative medicine. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytsxp-08.19.01-20:41:45-23960