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Mac's on-air accusations against us

Not surprisingly, Board of Trustees member Mac McKaskle has made a number of outrageous claims about the Friends of KOOP movement, following our mailing of a letter to KOOP's membership calling for a special membership meeting. While this baseless attack was not unexpected, it is still disappointing.

Here you can listen to a RealAudio clip of Mac making wild claims about us on the air on his radio program on KOOP. We're sorry for Mac that he suffers from the paranoia evident in this clip, but that dramatically underscores why we believe that Mac is unfortunately not qualified to lead this radio station. Below is a discussion of Mac's claims and our response.

Another important point about this incident is that Mac violated station policy against talking about KOOP's "dirty laundry" on the air. Many of us have wanted to take our case to KOOP's members over the air, but have restrained ourselves specifically because of this station rule. And now we see a board member blatantly violating that rule! What's more, board supporters have tried to intimidate us about the ban about talking about KOOP business on the air. During Lupe Cedillos' program on 7-20-98, during which she was NOT talking about the current conflict at the station, board apologist Paul Odekirk called her at the studio and said, "I just want to let you know, WE'RE LISTENING!"

(FYI -- Now that Mac started talking about this issue on the air, some of us have followed suit, so that he doesn't have an unfair advantage on the air with listeners only hearing one side of the story. The overwhelming majority of Friends, however, avoid on-air discussions of the dispute, preferring to do our talking through this website, at official station meetings, and through mailings to the membership.)

"These people...". Throughout Mac's speech, he implies that Friends of KOOP is a small faction within the station. (At other times, he's gone much further, explicitly stating that opposition to the board came only from "a few" or "a handful" of people.) What Mac somehow still fails to understand is that the overwhelming majority of volunteer members who have an opinion about these issues are agreed that the board has been making very bad decisions and is completely unresponsive. Here's more information about the massive opposition to board policy.

"Friends of KOOP misquoted several people in the letter they sent out." We didn't misquote anyone. Of all the people quoted on our "What people are saying" page, nobody has contacted us to tell us they were misquoted.

Notice that Mac conveniently fails to name even one person of the "several" who was supposedly misquoted. Before Mac even made this claim, we warned you on this website that we fully expected the board to make exactly these kind of accusations without providing specific examples. (See Judging Credibility.) I guess they're nothing if not predictable. If Mac knows of specific people who feel they were misquoted, we sure wish he'd tell us.

One person, Susannah Erler, provided us a quote in support of Jenny Wong that we didn't use. However, Ms. Erler didn't wish to be listed as a signer to the letter we sent and we inadvertently listed her. We sincerely apologize for this honest mistake. The inadvertent listing aside, though, Ms. Erler did provide us with a quote which we didn't use -- we didn't misquote her.

Contrast this to what the board's supporters are doing: They've intentionally listed organizations on their own letter without the organizations' permission. Read about that here.

"They're trying to disrupt the station." There's some spin for you! We feel that the most disruptive thing for the station is to have a board of trustees that makes bad decisions and makes them over the objections of overwhelming numbers of active members. If trying to fix that problem is "disrupting the station", then you bet we're disrupting the station!

"Part of the reason they're trying to disrupt the station is because I'm gay." What's really sad about this is that Mac is so out of touch with reality that he probably believes this statement, rather than simply trying to discredit us by lying about us. Sure, we could tell you that one of our principal organizers is gay, but the board would find a way to dismiss that too. (After Eduardo Vera said that Michael Bluejay did not "dare to go to the East side", and Bluejay provided several specific examples to refute that charge, Paul Odekirk retorted, "So now Michael is using the 'some of my best friends are black' line.") Friends of KOOP is made up of progressives who want diverse programming for KOOP. Our criticisms of the board of trustees have nothing to do with sexual/social orientation, and everything to do with the fact that the board is at odds with the majority of active members.

"Their little game is based on racism and sexism and privilege... Gays, lesbians, blacks, and working people will have a voice in Austin." (implying that we oppose serving those communities) See our comments immediately preceding this one. We deplore this sort of "ism"-baiting by Mac. We emphatically support diverse programming, including, but not limited to, programs serving gay, lesbian, black, and working communities.

"This board has opened the station up." How have they opened the station up? By making bad decisions over the objections of volunteer members? By lashing out at anyone who dares to disagree with them? By stacking the election of the programming committee? The board of trustees is closing the station, not opening it.

"Not one of these people would sit down for mediation." Oh, the irony! The board has steadfastly refused to even acknowledge members' concerns, much less sit down with us to discuss matters. Read about Carol Teixeira's failed attempt to get the board to meet with her. Or listen to an audio clip of board member Aida Franco refusing to meet with Station Engineer Jerry Chamkis. Then of course there's the fact that we had professional facilitation from the Dispute Resolution Center at the July '98 station meeting! Typically, at this meeting huge numbers of active members expressed concern about the board's actions, and typically again, the board ignored those concerns. We tried to work with the board in good faith for months, to no avail.

After a long time, in the summer of 1998 the board finally agreed to mediate with us. (We had made the offer; the ball was in THEIR court, not the other way around.) We had a few mediation sessions with an indpendent mediator, but unfortunately we made little progress. As per our agreement with the board, we cannot disclose the details of the mediation session. All we can say is that we feel we made a good faith effort which was not reciprocated.

"You will not take us off the air." Another bizarre jab. Nobody is talking about taking anybody off the air. We're seeking a new board of trustees, not new programming. Our movement has absolutely nothing to do with KOOP's program schedule.

"You will not tell us not to use Spanish on the air." More racism-baiting. For the record, Friends of KOOP has absolutely no objection to Spanish-language broadcasts, and we never have. It's simply not what we're about. We SUPPORT Spanish-language programming on KOOP.

Here's the quote that Susannah Erler provided which we didn't use in our mailing:

"I met Jenny Wong in 1994, before KOOP was on the air, when she approached me about helping get the station broadcast ready. During the months I was involved with KOOP as chair of the station's first programming committee, I observed Jenny Wong's quick intelligence and found her to be an effective motivator with a self-sacrificing dedication to KOOP. She also lead meetings in an organized and cooperative manner. I saw Jenny's ability to perceive a volunteer's talents and find an effective place for that person, benefiting both that individual and the station. I have recently heard some discussions about KOOP's finances. What I have not heard is an acknowledgment that there are other equally essential resources necessary for keeping a volunteer run station alive and growing. Jenny Wong has the ability to cultivate and promote the growth of one of the most important resources available: people power."

Susannah Erler
Producer, Earth and Sky Radio Series, Byrd and Block Communications

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