KPFA, part of the listener-supported Pacifica chain that includes WBAI in New York and KPFK in Los Angeles, is also now taking corporate money. Both these decisions were done with no input from listeners, local boards, or anyone else.
Democracy Now is a hugely popular show as well as major fundraiser for KPFA so this is a unsually nonsensical move, even by the lunatic standards of KPFA. Pacifica management has been jacked by a faction seemingly intent on destroying the chain, which is currently nearing insolvency.
The five stations in Pacifica could probably be sold for a few hundred million. Who would get the money if it sold? Current management? Yes this is a conspiracy theory. However such a plan would require rational long-term planning and calculation, something the shriekingly psychotic internal politics at Pacifica has never had much of. “Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.”
KPFAWorker has continuing coverage of the ongoing train wreck that is Pacifica.