Bonnie Faulkner's Guns & Butter Radio Program BANNED AND REMOVED from KPFA radio! LETS COMPLAIN!

For a long time now I have loved KPFA radio, the ORIGINAL "public radio" station, long out of the hands of corporate control and therefore a truly unbiased source of superb programming, and in the modern era, it can be live-streamed from anywhere in the world! For decades, KPFA, and her sister stations in Pacifica Radio Network have been the lone gemstones in broadcast media for broadcasting truth.

HOWEVER on August 8th, 2018, just over a month ago, KPFA's management dropped one of my most favorite programs, Guns & Butter, a staunchly anti-war program that's always enlightening. And they didn't just block one show, they ceased all further broadcasting and removed the entire archive from their site. This is a very big deal.

To understand something about the show they now refuse to carry, here's an apt description by P. Joseph Potocki:

On the very first anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, KPFA 94.1-FM radio in Berkeley launched Guns and Butter, a locally produced, regionally broadcast weekly show that is possibly progressive radio's most subversive. The program features muckraking intelligentsia from the fringe looking in and those from the geopolitical eye of the storm looking out. It's The X-Files for real--minus any little green men.

As I said, it's my favorite radio program!

The station's management's excuse was that the show's creator and radio host, Bonnie Faulkner, had a guest on that apparently has views KPFA doesn't want to support, claiming his views management objects to include, "holocaust denial," "climate denial" (whatever that is), and questioning the Parkland mass shooting's main-stream description. Here's their actual letter, sent via email:

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 of our airways, we can't defend this content to our listeners.

Sincerely,

Quincy McCoy Kevin Cartwright
General Manager Program Director

The topic that was aired that got their panties in a bunch was titled, Zionism - Deconstructing the Power Paradigm, Part Two - Alan Sabrosky, #391. It can be listened to here. It's about an hour long.

Bonnie told me last night that her personal focus, and the reason for the discussion with Sabrosky, was on potential war between the USA and Iran. I had missed the original broadcast but listened to it from archive and I didn't hear a damned thing in it that was anti-Semitic in the classical sense, but Sabrosky does describe a more modern version of that term and, indeed, his comments are critical of the state of Israel and for many that makes such things anti-Semitic.I say that's preposterous, but unfortunately not a lot of the world cares what I think about it!

It's true that Sabrosky touches on what other people have said about the holocaust, suggesting the number of Jews murdered was in the hundreds of thousands in stead of 6 million, but he takes no particular stand on that, merely mentions that some have questioned the numbers. Having been to three of the concentration camps myself personally in the last few decades, I can say that they're fairly small, though the "showers" could certainly have cycled through a heck of a lot of people in short time. I don't know, I wasn't there, and I'm saying that we do know what the Nazis did was horrific, no matter what the exact count was. And nobody on this program, not Sabrosky, and not Bonnie, said otherwise. There was NO DENIAL of the holocaust, only criticism of the state of Israel. And, very well justified criticisms, tool!

It would appear that KPFA General Manager, Quincy McCoy, and Program Director, Kevin Cartwright threw in the Parkland mass shooting and "climate denial" as red herrings.

I personally am outraged at this and if they don't rescind this decision, I will personally work hard to get these two people removed from their positions at KPFA. KPFA is supposed to be run by the people, the listenership and members, and these two disgraceful managers have broken the trust we've given them, deciding by fiat they don't want Israel criticized, even when it deserves it. If you agree with me, here are some things you can do:

You can make in-person comments at the next KPFA Local Station Board Meeting this Saturday, September 15, 2018:

KPFA Local Station Board Meeting
Saturday, August 18th, 11:00AM
Town Hall Meeting, 1:00PM.
Public comments will be taken.
North Berkeley Senior Center
1901 Hearst Avenue
Berkeley, California
This is at Hearst Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way
The facility is Wheel Chair Accessible.

Or, (AND!) you can make Online Comments:

General Manager: gm@kpfa.org
General Inquiries: comments@kpfa.org
KPFA Local Station Board: kpfalsb@googlegroups.com
Interim Executive Director Tom Livingston: ed@pacifica.org
Pacifica National Board (PNB): pnb@pacifica.org

Please copy Guns And Butter on any emails, (gunsandbutter@startmail.com) and let them know if you attend the Local Station Board Meeting.

You can read the Guns and Butter block where this same topic is discussed in more detail.

Here's a partial archive.

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