RadioPoetics.org

To: "KPFA Staff List"
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 11:54 AM

KPFA's staff have a right to analyze, criticize, and discuss KPFA policy and politics in any forum they wish—from staff meetings to outside newspapers.

When it comes to the use of KPFA's airwaves to discuss internal issues, KPFA's producers and hosts are using a public resource and have a responsibility to ensure that their broadcasts advance principled discussions about station issues of significance to KPFA's greater audience. Remember, your first responsibility on air is to serve our audience. With that in mind, on air discussions must meet the following:

1. No personal attacks. Discussions must be kept to issues, not
people. When you make an on-air personal attack, you create
liability for KPFA. If your guest makes a personal attack, it's
your responsibility to cut them off.
2. Fairness. All sides must be given an opportunity to comment. If
one side declines to speak for broadcast, you must attempt to
fairly represent that side's position insofar as you understand it.
3. Relevance. As a custodian of a piece of KPFA's programming grid,
you have a responsibility to provide programming of value to the
public. Approach coverage of internal issues the same as coverage
of external issues: to be worth putting on the air, it must be
significant enough to be relevant to a general audience, and
important enough to be worth displacing the other issues you could
be covering that day. The time you devote to it should be
proportionate to its importance.
4. Full Disclosure. If you have a personal stake in an issue you're
discussing on-air—e.g., if you stand to benefit from a particular
resolution of an issue, or if you have personal involvement in an
issue, disclose it clearly to your listeners.
5. No lobbying. Do not use the airtime you have to lobby for
personal gain. The airwaves belong to the public, not to any
individual.

When in doubt about how to approach something, check the Pacifica Mission, which reads in part as follows:

[To] contribute to a lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors; to gather and disseminate information on the causes of conflict between any and all of such groups; and through any and all means compatible with the purposes of this Foundation to promote the study of political and economic problems and of the causes of religious, philosophical and racial antagonisms.

Please let me or your department heads know if you have any questions about this.

Sasha