Dead man endorses SaveKPFA

Dead man endorses SaveKPFA

by Daniel Borgström

Among SaveKPFA's most distinguished endorsers is Walter Johnson. According to an obituary in the SF Chronicle, the late Mr. Johnson was for many years the Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council. He died on January 12, 2012. Obituaries in several newspapers, and also the Labor Council's website, confirm that reports of his death were not exaggerated. The man is dead. He's been dead for over two and a half years.

Dead men supposedly tell no tales, but in Chicago they've been known to vote, and here at KPFA we find them endorsing candidates. Miracles happen, not just in Chicago, and at KPFA, but elsewhere as well. I'm reminded of a small precinct in Ohio where George W. Bush received 4,258 votes out of the 638 votes cast. Bush won that election because so many people loved him and trusted him and voted for him -- not because he cheated. Bush wouldn't cheat.

Members of the SaveKPFA slate, which represents KPFA's status quo and gatekeeper clique, win votes because the station's listeners love and trust them -- not because they cheat. SaveKPFA wouldn't ever cheat. Well, maybe just a wee bit, but only on rare occasions -- such as during every single KPFA board election of the last ten years: two of the best documented examples are the elections of 2007 and 2010. There's also their decade-long history of financial irresponsibility which has pushed the station to the edge of bankruptcy, and before that, their participation in the pre-1999 hijacker regime. Their very name "SaveKPFA" is one they stole from their opposites, a group of people who worked for listener democracy at the station. So yes, SaveKPFA does have some very minor flaws, but other than their very consistent track record of over a decade, they are really very good, which must be why even the dead are rising up to endorse them.

DANIEL BORGSTRÖM
August 15, 2015

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UPDATE (Aug 16, 2015)

Walter Johnson wasn't the only dead person on the SaveKPFA endorser's list. Another was musician Jon Fromer. Neither of the dead men complained. However, not all of SaveKPFA's wrongfully listed endorsers are dead. When Diana Bohn (a live person and active supporter of United for Community Radio) discovered her name on the list of SaveKPFA endorsers, she did not remain silent. "[T]ake everything you read on the SK website with a grain of salt," she wrote in an article posted at the UCR website.

This is not the first time SaveKPFA's use of wrongfully listed supporters has come up. On this occasion, however, they quietly took their list down; hopefully to make some changes.