To: KPFA Program Council 
From: Kellia Ramares and Bonnie Faulkner 
Date: June 10, 2002 
Re: The Return of Guns & Butter: The Economics of Politics to the Schedule 
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In October of 2001, Guns & Butter first brought the issue of U.S. Government foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks to KPFA's air via an interview with Michael C. Ruppert, Editor and Publisher of From the Wilderness.  The interview, and all our subsequent work, which directly or indirectly pointed to foreknowledge, struck a strong chord with our audience. Despite the fact that GNB was irregularly programmed, our last appearance, during the February fund drive, garnered pledges that one staff member called "Amy Goodman numbers." In fact, on that particular day, during which we aired a small portion of Mike Ruppert's 9-11 lecture, we beat out Democracy Now! by a slim margin. To this day, we get inquiries about our return to the air. 

We have put up with a lot of guff from a few certain people in the KPFA community who have disparaged our editorial stance that the government knew,  and who have even attempted to persuade KPFA to disassociate itself from Ruppert's work. As the attached letter from our news colleague, Ed Rippy, states, even within the walls of the station, we and our few associates who think as we do on this issue have met with a silence unbecoming an institution that is supposedly striving to be: a) an alternative to corporate journalism, b) democratizing internally, and c) becoming more responsive to its listener-sponsors. 

Still, we persist because we have the facts, the courage of our convictions, and time on our side.  We have lived with this story for over eight months and at a deeper level than our detractors have done. And within the last few weeks, we have begun to see our position vindicated.  The Administration has moved from "no foreknowledge" to "some foreknowledge that was too vague to do anything about," to "the next attack is inevitable," which is really a claim that foreknowledge is irrelevant, to "we had some specific foreknowledge that was mishandled so let's let the FBI cruise the internet like any 12 year old"... in essence, an attempt to pin the blame on the lowest possible rungs on the ladder, while expanding the war, greed and tyranny agenda at the top.  

We hope that the tape you just listened to brings home the importance of not buying into the Administration's lies. As we chronicle the many people killed, both on Sept. 11th and in the subsequent war in Afghanistan, the promise of war that may not end in our lifetimes,  the continual shift of economic resources from the civilian economy to a war machine, and  the continual eroding of our civil liberties, we hope you see the importance of now focusing on 9-11 in a way no story has been focused on since Watergate...in a way we want to do but haven't been able to do because of a lack of time, resources and even moral support within KPFA. 

To that end, though we are grateful to Wendell Harper for making room for some of our work on What's the Verdict, we now make the proposal to bring back Guns & Butter as a weekly one-hour program where we can give the story the undivided attention we know  it deserves and we think the KPFA audience wants. We propose that the show run for at least as many weeks as the station devotes hours to coverage of the Congressional hearings on the subject, in effect, providing a counterbalance to the spectacle of the government investigating, or shall we say, whitewashing, itself. We suggest that the time come at an hour appropriate to public affairs, preferably by reallocating an hour from a show that is already 2 or more hours long, so that no one is kicked off the schedule entirely. 

Further, we request that we each be allocated 20 hours of pay per week. We know that typically only those
programmers associated with 5-day-a-week shows are paid, with the exception of Larry Bensky. But we think that this is a practice that must be changed if KPFA is to provide the high quality public affairs programming its listeners want and deserve. 

Currently, both of us are in financial peril. Bonnie is drawing unemployment and Kellia is subsisting inadequately on a few stories at KPFA and WINGS and charity from friends. And she has an outstanding tax liability at a time she's telling everyone she can that the government had foreknowledge of 9-11 and let the attacks happen.  The 9-11 story is incredibly complex: it is not an event that occurred in a historical vacuum. It has a geopolitical history we are just beginning to study. There is research to be done, people to interview, tape to edit, etc. As befits a show that we created to pursue economic issues, we are sitting on about one hundred pages, with more available, of highly sensitive documents relating to an explosive economic story that may be the explanation as to why the goverment allowed the attacks to occur. We need to find a way to authenticate these documents and more fully understand the transactions involved. And while we consider Mike Ruppert a dear friend and colleague, we want to move beyond merely translating his work from print to audio, into adding to the investigation of 9-11 on our own. We cannot accomplish this while worrying about the bills. When Carl Bernstein was assigned to Watergate, he no longer had to cover the Virginia legislature. Time spent covering the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter, or the Berkeley City Council, or the heavens forbid, temping in an office or flipping burgers, is time NOT spent on the most important story of all our lives. 

We know, that by asking to be paid, we are calling, not only for a new budget item during a time of financial crisis, but for a change in the whole Pacifica culture that has long relied on, and exalted, volunteerism. While there should always be a place for volunteers in Pacifica,  this culture of volunteerism arose at a time when the cost of living was significantly lower than it is today. Thus, more work is required to meet the same standard of living. When public affairs programmers can't make at least a basic living within Pacifica, they can't put forth the effort that is needed to do the best programming possible in this complicated Information Age.  With the enormous consolidation of media that has occurred in the 50-plus years since KPFA was founded, it is vital that alternative voices be able to sustain themselves in the work. The journalists and public affairs programmers who are doing the Administration's dirty work are thriving. No one is asking Brokaw, Jennings and Rather to volunteer. 

We have heard some people in the KFPA community attack paid staff, linking their paid status with work the critics deem unsatisfactory. But such people being unrealistic in this age and place to adhere to an obsolete culture that sees volunteerism as the way to produce the best work. We can do some work as volunteers, and some of that work can even be great work, as we have already demonstrated. But we can't do the amount we need to do, and sustain the quality standard we must in a story such as 9-11, without adequate resources. Since we are not independently wealthy, volunteerism imposes constraints on our ability to get to the bottom of this story. Ruppert, who we can testify is working himself to the brink of exhaustion,  can't do it all alone.  And if we don't give it all we've got, who will?  Certainly not the aforementioned Brokaw, Jennings and Rather. 

We consider ourselves to be professional journalists in the best sense of the word: we are dedicated to the work of speaking truth to power and truth with power. We wish to devote our time and energy to this pursuit, unencumbered by fear for our material survival. We shouldn't have to worry about making the rent or putting meat on the table as we struggle to get the goods on this theiving, traitorous, murderous, war-mongering bunch of usurpers who are occupying the White House.  

Pay for us is also a matter of equity on several fronts. We are aware that some of our paid colleagues do not agree with our editorial stance on 9-11.  This, in effect, puts the listeners who have pledged for GNB and for What's the Verdict in the May fund drive, when Kellia presented Lt. Vreeland, in the position of subsidizing views to which they are opposed. While we support the right of all programmers to make their own editorial choices, it is unfair that some points of view get supported with salaries and others do not. We don't know how this came about, but we can guess that it is the product of the fact that a few people are expected to be on the air five days a week, and it would not be possible for them to do that without pay. But it would be inaccurate to assume that only those who are on the air five days a week are working on their shows five days a week. Top notch public affairs programming and in-depth investigative reporting are full time jobs, not hobbies. Further, for some people to be able to make a living as public affairs programmers while others are flirting with homelessness is unconscionable in an institution that claims social justice as part of its mission.  We also note that if our request of one week of programming per hour of 9-11 Congressional hearing coverage is granted, GNB would likely run into the next fundraiser. (As it is, we would have 9 weeks coming to us from the coverage of the Judiciary Committee hearing). We've already demonstrated a fundraising capability that matches that of veteran paid staff. It is inequitable to expect to us to raise such sums in the future while our own most basic needs are going unmet. 

We hope KPFA's funding of GNB will set the precedent that will eventually lead to all public affairs programmers and eventually all programmers getting at least a part time salary. If progressive philosophy is truly something more than pie in the sky, it should be able to demonstrate its viablity in the material world by providing a sustainable living to its adherents. 

We suggest that funds for us can be obtained in several ways. One would be to reconsider how much help KPFA gives to the other Pacifica entities that have their own fundraising capability. Perhaps it is time to focus on taking care of the people under our own roof first, not only GNB, but other news reporters and programmers whose talents we will lose if they cannot support themselves in their work here. A second idea, more specific to GNB, would involve the station promoting outside events that would at least partially benefit GNB. One idea would be to bring Mike Ruppert to the East Bay to give his lecture in an event where the proceeds would be split between From the WIlderness and GNB.  The station could help by supplying publicity in the form of airing promotional carts, displaying (and perhaps even paying for the printing of) posters, arranging for recording, etc. The precedent for this was already set by Flashpoints last year, when several events "to help support investigative reporting at KPFA" were in fact efforts to raise a salary for Robert Knight.  

Kellia, who has been covering the financial woes of the Berkeley Unified School District for several months, often hears Superintendent Michelle Lawrence tell the School Board, "You can have anything you want. You just can't have everything." This means that the board has to prioritize. We hope the KPFA Program Council and management will make the 9-11 story a top priority by approving this proposal quickly, both as to its airtime and financial elements. 

KPFA should be leading the coverage of this story, not following the corporates.