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Paul Odekirk's misstatements about us
Paul Odekirk's misstatements about us
After we sent out a letter to KOOP's membership calling for a general membership meeting to discuss recalling the board of trustees, Paul Odekirk (a board supporter) sent out an email letter making a number of wild claims about us.
When we first put up this website we predicted in the Judging Credibility section that Paul would likely serve as a PR machine for the board, and we further predicted that he would make broad claims without backing them up with actual evidence. And this is exactly what he has done with this letter. Well, at least it wasn't a surprise.
Paul
Odekirk's accusations against Friends of KOOP
From: Grassroots News Network
<grassroots@tao.ca>
Subject: Letter of support for CB & BoT of KOOP
Date: 7-29-98
Hi,
As you may or may not know, KOOP is going through some rough times. There is a small group of programmers who are petitioning the membership and attempting to recall and disolve [sic] the Community Board and recall the Board of Trustees. They are asking to purge the Mission Statement of any reference to underserved communities including women, gay & lesbians, latina/os and working people.
The Community Board is the only true link we have with community organizations and communities. To do away with the Community Board would create a station who's [sic] concerns would be to our general listeners and not to the groups and organizations that have always made KOOP a station rooted in the struggles of the communities.
The purge of the Mission Statement would leave KOOP in the hands of the group that has always dominated media in the US. Without some inclusion of people of color, gays and lesbians, and women, KOOP would soon end up being controlled by middle to upper class straight white men. Our Mission Statement is designed to accompany our purpose and goals. White males are not included because straight white males are not an underserved population. This does not mean that we do not welcome straight white males to become a part of KOOP. KOOP has several straight white males.
The current petition and attemped [sic] recall of KOOP's Board of Trustees is one way that this small group is useing [sic] to transform KOOP into a club or clic [sic]. These programmers claim that the Community Board and the Board of Trustees are power grabbing. For the first time in 5 years KOOP has a Board of Trustees and Community Board that is active and not under the control of the General Manager and is really listening to the communities and to their struggles.
We feel that a person or group should be judged by their work and their actions. Many individuals involved with "Friends of KOOP" and this attempted take over have demonstrated their lack of diversity and have shown their racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Examples:
We are asking you to please sign your name to the letter below and help support real diversity and community in KOOP Radio
Thanks
---------------------------------------------
We the undersigned community groups, individuals, and businesses are concerned with the current petition for a membership meeting and the attempts to change the structure of KOOP Radio.
Any change in the structure or dissolvement [sic] of the Community Board and current Board of Trustees would sever any ties with communities and community organizations and would ultimatly [sic] change KOOP from being a community oriented radio station where the voices of the underserved are heard to a radio station run as a club or clic [sic]. We also feel that any alteration or discarding of the current Mission Statement will change KOOP from a station where people from the underserved communities have a voice to a station lacking in diversity and community.
We feel this is a very serious situation and call for more community involvement and participation from underserved groups and individuals. We support the current Board of Trustees and Community Board and feel that they have the interest of the communities at heart and have worked very hard to create a sound structure and an atmosphere of security for people in the communities.
We therefore do not support the current attempts at recalling KOOP's Board of Trustees and/or Community Board. We ask all individuals, community groups, and businesses to sign on to this letter and help protect the voice of the underserved. Help protect KOOP Radio.
Our
reply to Paul's letter
"There is a small group of programmers who are petitioning the membership and attempting to recall and disolve [sic] the Community Board and recall the Board of Trustees.... The current petition and attemped recall of KOOP's Board of Trustees is one way that this small group is useing to transform KOOP into a club or clic [sic]."
Throughout this struggle, the board and their supporters have sought to belittle our concerns by characterizing us as a "small" group of disgruntled volunteers. The truth of the matter is that we represent the overwhelming majority of active volunteer members! At a station meeting last year, 95% of the attendees who were not current or former members of the board voted on a resolution expressing their objection to the board's action. (Even counting current and former board members in the total, 82% of the attendees voted to express their objection.)
The reality is that it's the other way around: Paul and the board are the small group. Looking at the list of individual signers of his letter, I recognize only three as volunteer members at the station. In contrast, the letter that we sent out to the membership was signed by *43* volunteer members. (It's possible that some of the other people Paul listed are involved with the station, but if so, Paul certainly didn't identify them as such.) We are hardly a "small group" at the station, and it's time for Paul and board members to stop saying so.
And looking further at the list of signers, of the organizations listed, at least five are controlled by Paul, Eduardo, or the Board of Trustees.
And looking still yet further, although Paul lists the Paramount Theatre as a signer of his letter, the Paramount never gave their permission for their name to be used. Paul Beutel, Executive Director of the Paramount, told us:
I have just seen a copy of a letter/petition "Grassroots News Network" discussing the problems at KOOP concerning programmers, the Community Board and Board of Trustees. Much to my surprise the Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts' name was signed to the bottom of letter, along with several other groups. I wish to make it perfectly clear that the Paramount has NO POSITION on this issue and no endorsement of the letter was authorized by me. Whoever is claiming to speak for the Paramount on this issue DOES NOT SPEAK FOR THE PARAMOUNT. I regret any confusion this careless act may have caused.
--Paul Beutel, Paramount Executive Director, 8-7-98
But the Paramount is not the only group whom Paul listed without their permission:
The national organization Solidarity having no organized presence in Austin, I serve as its local contact and designated source of information about any intervention it may exercise locally. Absent a local organization, no one could legitimately speak in recent years on local questions in the name of an Austin unit of Solidarity. Furthermore, Paul Odekirk is in no way associated with Solidarity.
--Ran Moran, 5214 Duval St, Austin, TX 78751, 512-452-6245, Bernran@aol.comAs far as I know, I am one of a small group of people here in Austin who are associated with Solidarity in any way. We have no formal local group. I have never seen Paul Odekirk at any Solidarity discussion or at any event associated with Solidarity. I believe that I know all the Solidarity interest group in Austin and I have never met Paul Odekirk. I do not believe that it was proper for him to have attached the name of Solidarity to his message. -- Doug Zachary
Further, Paul told John Hitzfelder at a board meeting in early August that he was a paid member of Solidarity, but Hitzfelder reports that Solidarity's national office says that Paul never joined Solidarity.
If Friends of KOOP is just a "small" group of people and most people support the board, then why does Paul have to invent support for his statement by listing organizations without their permission? And when he does so, note that he STILL doesn't have nearly as many signers as Friends of KOOP! And WE'RE supposed to be the "small group" at the station?
"They are asking to purge the Mission Statement of any reference to underserved communities including women, gay & lesbians, latina/os and working people...."
This is absolutely untrue. We have no intention of touching the Mission Statement. This is absolutely NOT part of our agenda. Paul is just saying this because what better way is there to discredit us than by claiming that we're trying to do away with diversity? In point of fact, we support diversity at the station. We are Friends of Diversity as much as we are Friends of KOOP.
"We feel that a person or group should be judged by their work and their actions."
We wholeheartedly agree! Here are some good examples of the actions of Paul and the board:
"Many individuals involved with "Friends of KOOP" and this attempted take over have demonstrated their lack of diversity and have shown their racism, sexism, and homophobia."
We would not have made a big deal about this otherwise, but in point of fact, Friends of KOOP has prominent members who are gay, women, and people of color. We deplore Paul's attempts to label us as racists, sexists, and homophobes. As we have stated before, we fully support a diverse KOOP.
As for the specific examples Paul provided, note that Paul failed to specify who allegedly did the things he claimed. We predicted in our Judging Credibility section that he would do this sort of thing.
Let's take his examples one at a time:
"Another member of 'Friends of KOOP' is quoted as saying 'All gays are sinners'."
Paul typically didn't mention who supposedly made this statement. I caught up with him after a board of trustees meeting and asked him, and he said it was Steven Green. We don't know whether Steven Green made this comment or not, but what's important is that Steven Green is not a member of Friends of KOOP! He didn't sign the letter that we sent out to the membership, and he has never attended a Friends of KOOP meeting. It's also worth pointing out that although Paul is critical of Steven Green in his letter, Paul allowed Steven to host Paul's radio show while Paul was on hiatus. And for the record, if Steven Green (or anyone) said that all gays are sinners, then we absolutely CONDEMN and not CONDONE that statement.
"Two members of this group stated at a Board of Trustees meeting that 'the white man is the most dicriminated [sic] on [sic] person in society' and have been trying to have white men included in the Mission Statement as an underserved group."
Paul again typically didn't mention who supposedly made this statement. I caught up with him after a board of trustees meeting and asked him, and he told me it was Ricardo Guerrero and Scott Gardner. Ricardo and Scott emphatically did NOT make this statement, and did NOT try to have "white males" included in KOOP's Mission Statement as an underserved group."
As for the "racist letter to a Latina woman", here's our response about that. I'm working on a response to Paul's last remaining charge.
In conclusion,