For those of you following the censorship of Community Business on Flashpoints by KPFA and the finances of KPFA and Pacifica Foundation including their tax-exempt status, federal government funding, banking and endowment investments, I thought I would post recent developments.

The person who wrote a letter accusing me of of self-dealing has written a letter retracting his statement and apologizing for — among other things — not knowing my name. See his letter posted near the bottom of comments at Censored.

KPFA management has not returned my calls, so I have not spoken with them. However, I have been informed by Flashpoints staff that KPFA still will not let me return to the show.

My understanding is that Flashpoints may only have academics and not-for-profits to discuss economic issues. Small business people are not permitted to discuss economic matters on the show.

Stay tuned….

25 Comments

  1. I just listened to a fascinating interview that was broadcast on KPFA radio on July 31, 2008 of Vincent Bugliosi about his new book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.” During the interview, Bugliosi, the highly respected prosecutor who prosecuted Charles Manson, describes his evidence for prosecuting George W. Bush for murder and offers his services to any state or local prosecutor who will take on the case. He also discussed the evidence for Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney to also be indited and convicted for murder.

    Bugliosi did not discuss the money that they have stolen or how we could get the legal system to get it back.

    If he had, would he have been censored?

  2. > From: Mitchel Cohen
    > Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:54:30 -0400
    > To:
    > Subject: Re: Censored: Catherine Austin Fitts Kicked Off KPFA
    >
    > Catherine Austin Fitts is an *Analyzer* of what’s
    > happening on Wall Street, and has many powerful
    > insights, much more than the investment advisers
    > on WOR radio here in NYC and elsewhere. I have
    > never heard Catherine Austin Fitts ask people to
    > send money to her company, Solari, to invest it for them in gold futures.
    >
    > Seems to me that *IF* Catherine Austin Fitts is a
    > gold broker, as claimed by Peter Byrne, then that
    > should be easy enough to check out. And IF she is
    > promoting on air that people buy gold *through
    > her company* (which she adamently denies — see
    > below), then and only then does that become a
    > problem and potential conflict of interest.
    >
    > If she’s simply giving her opinion that buying
    > gold in some circles is the way to go, that’s her
    > prerogative. Why should she be censored for that?
    >
    > HOWEVER, this can be remedied easily enough:
    >
    > 1) Find out whether Byrne’s charges are accurate.
    > That should have been done first, before
    > censoring her and blacklisting her from KPFA. In
    > reading his letters, below, it seems to me that
    > he’s sending out a warning for something that
    > he’s concerned about but hasn’t specifically investigated.
    >
    > 2) Make a general rule that no one can advertise
    > their products or services on the air (this means
    > that musicians cannot advertise their upcoming
    > shows, health experts can’t advertise their
    > vitamins or books, psychotherapists can’t give
    > out contact information, etc.); it’s not fair to
    > single out one individual for giving her opinion
    > on what is or is not a way to respond to the
    > current collapse of Wall Street. If you think
    > she’s wrong, engage her in debate.
    >
    > 3) Put a disclaimer at the beginning and end of
    > the show, and on the website — IF and ONLY if
    > the charges made by Peter Byrne against Fitts are true.
    >
    > All of this can be done in 10 minutes with a few phone calls.
    >
    > Much better than censoring the show and causing
    > this enormous screw-up and bad feeling.
    >
    > *** Mitchel’s disclaimer: Please note that I
    > interviewed Southern California attorney and
    > author Ellen Brown (WebOfDebt.com) on my
    > non-Pacifica radio show yesterday, covering some
    > of these same areas, including JP Morgan’s
    > confiscation of Bear Stearns (with the assistance
    > of the Federal Reserve), and her fascinating
    > book, Web of Debt. My show will be broadcast over
    > the internet, only, on Thursday at 11 a.m. and
    > repeated next Tuesday at 6 p.m. on
    > http://www.tribecaradio.net . Click on “Listen Live”.
    >
    > Mitchel Cohen
    > Chair, WBAI Local Station Board

  3. Bravo Mitchel Cohen ! I hope your letter gets sent to KPFA. They need to read your simple yet eloquent logic.

  4. Catherine Austin Fitts wrote-

    “Aug 10th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    I just listened to a fascinating interview that was broadcast on KPFA radio on July 31, 2008 of Vincent Bugliosi about his new book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.” During the interview, Bugliosi, the highly respected prosecutor who….”

    …Bugliosi?!!?..Ouch. I listen to KPFA constantly and I have to follow up on this mention of Bugliosi since CAFitts has done amazing work outing how the CIA and Wall Street loot this country while destroying it with drugs and war.
    …The people at KPFA are, in my judgement, uncharacteristically ignorant about infowar and the REAL CIA disinformationists like Vincent Bugliosi who in 2007 published a huge $50 book reinforcing the Warren Commission’s nonsense about Lee Harvey Oswald as a lone gunman killing President Kennedy. A large community of honest researchers have cracked that nut and exposed the media shills paid to muddy the waters, too. THAT is an education in itself, how spook media can cover up evidence and lead pack journalism into affirming the cover story. (See ‘9/11.)
    Obviously, Bugliosi fronted for this massive glossy book generated by psyops experts at Langley.
    …During his JFK disinfo book tour, Bugliosi was booked by someone onto KPFA’s Morning Show where Andrea Lewis just let him spew lies without any challenge by her until a few callers-in spilled the beans about what Bugliosi was trying to pull off. Once a caller mentioned that Bugliosi had written the forward to a Mark Fuhrman book (famous LAPD racist), then Andrea Lewis (a woman of color) started to notice just who she was “interviewing.” But that’s what it took for her to get a clue.
    So both the Morning Show’s booker and the host seems to have had ZERO knowledge of the most important CIA Cold War history (domestic political assassinations-JFK/MLK/RFK) and their counterpropaganda disinformation tactics and players. I think the booker is young but Lewis is old enough to know better, a former editor at Mother Jones.
    So KPFA unwittingly provided a platform to the CIA to perpetuate the cover-up with younger naive progressives in their radio audience just in time for the 2008 45th anniversary of the crime. (Signpost years get more haystack around the needles due to increased visibility.)
    …KPFA also promoted a local appearance by New Yorker author, Jane Mayer, who has a book which nobody apparently read because it was loaded with disinformation ranging from grotesque to subtle on topics from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and even IranContra. All in the guise of being about torture, the bone tossed to get attention.
    …And all of that is to point out both how careless about sources and how little knowledge about the CIA the on-air people display (except Bonnie Faulkner and Dennis Bernstein) AND exactly why Vincent Bugliosi is theatrically ingratiating himself and stocking up creds with the anti-war/anti-Bush people – to gain traction for his all-important JFK disinformation. Because once one cover-up is out of the bag, it’s easier to see through all the others.
    …It’s ugly but there’s a method to spook madness.
    …CIA specializes in controlling cultural norms through mainstream media and this was exposed by Carl Bernstein (among others) way back in 1977 when he wrote up suppressed material leaked from the [Frank] Church Senate subcommittee hearings on CIA abuses. Read it on his own website, CarlBernstein.com. Bernstein belatedly found out he’d been suckered by a spook named Bob Woodward.
    …Bob Woodward has been exposed (‘Silent Coup’ 1991) as a high-ranking Naval Intelligence officer who was helping run top-secret communication systems in the Vietnam War shortly before his role in the coup called ‘Watergate.’ Yes, media is a miltary-intelligence zone and woe to those who don’t learn how psychological operations work. Or it will use you.
    …And CAFitts has written a precious history of Narcodollars and Wall Street’s hand in the game that all at KPFA (and Peter Byrne) would do well to LEARN FROM.
    Thanks for keeping at it, Ms. Fitts.
    Now if KPFA employees will just do their homework, their audience will have a better chance of catching on to the Big Game, too. *end rant*

  6. Dear Catherine,

    I do not know if you remember me, but we met about four years ago when you toured with Caroline Casey at the First Congregational Church in Oakland, California. Like you, I am a recovering Republican and a former Marine ( Semper Fi!), and also enjoyed our all too brief conversation.

    From reading this blog,and with the chain of events that have culminated with the election of Barack Obama, It appears that there is a concerted effort by mangement and paid staff which does indeed have a purpose, and its basis is financial. There is a desire among certain influential people to make KPFA and Pacifica into a major national broadcast network. Indeed, the so-called “Concerned Listeners” have said so in their literature. Thats a very expensive proposition, and would require massive ammounts of funding to accomplish. I’ll make an educated guess here and say that there is a concerted effort on behalf this faction to rid the station of certain types of programming that potential affluent funding sources would find offensive. And with the economy being the way it is, the inner circle that run Pacifica will use this as an excuse to cut back or otherwise eliminate personnel and programs which would challenge the economic status quo.

    Its also interesting that during this last election, there was a concerted effort by KPFA to push the Obama candidicy hard, and all but ignore Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. It is also an interesting coincidence that many of the unpaid staff who have been banned, fired, or otherwise silenced have tended to be critical of Obama and the Democrats in general. With Obama this week showing his true corporate sellout Democrat colors, there is still a campaign of massive denial on the part of Pacifica and other “progressive” media. About the only reason why I still listen to KPFA are the great music programs that still have a semblance of free form and spontaneity, which 90% of the public affairs programs sadly lack.

    We shall see what happens when their annointed in the White House really takes charge.
    Thank you again for a wonderful website.

    Regards,
    John F.

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