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KCMU Management Violated Volunteers' Civil Rights

A decision has been reached in the legal case brought against the University of WA by former KCMU volunteer staff and listeners.
Under the ruling of United States District Judge Thomas S. Zilly, six of the 11 remaining plaintiffs' First Amendment rights were violated when station manager Chris Knab fired them in back in the Fall of 1992. The court has ordered the station to reinstate DJs Alexis Edwards, Julie Wroble and Michael Fuller to their former positions. News Department volunteers Alice Fisher, Irwin Pollack, and Alan Posewitz must also be allowed to return.
In the case of Alexis Edwards, her constitutional rights were violated to such a degree that Judge Zilly is allowing her to pursue damages if she chooses to. Knab intercepted a draft of a letter she was writing about the situation at KCMU. The letter was never distributed, but Knab fired her anyway. Knab and Wayne Roth, Director of UW Broadcast Services, were denied qualified immunity in this case and, if Edwards pursues damages, would have to pay any reward themselves.
The five plaintiffs who did not win their case were DJs Julie Carter, Russell Craig, Todd Reeves, David Whedbee. Richard Burton, a News Dept. volunteer also had his claim turned down. Zilly ruled four of these volunteers' civil rights were not violated and their conduct, prior to dismisal, did disrupt operation of the station. Julie Carter was ruled to have left on her own, under no pressure.
When the cases against KCMU and the University were first filed, there were a total of fourteen plaintiffs. One dropped out at the beginning and the other two, A. Newell Aldrich and Stuart Bramhall, were listeners, not volunteers. Since the school lost and the station policy was declared unconstitutional, it can be said these two also won their cases although they will be awarded no prizes.
As in all civil rights cases, the violator, in this case the University of Washington, picks up the entire legal tab of those plaintiffs who won their cases.
The University is debating whether or not to appeal Zilly's ruling.
Judge Zilly's final rulings were made public on July 25, 1994 at a press conference in downtown Seattle. Whereas small local media institutions such as the Free Press, CURSE, The Stranger, The Rocket, UW Daily, and Seattle Weekly were all represented, the big boys were not. Oddly enough, no reporters from the Seattle Times or the Post Intelligencer bothered to attend the press conference. This seems odd when one considers how this decision could prove to be the judicially influential ruling community radio stations nationwide have been waiting for.

What's Next For Curse?
CURSE, the impetus of the year and half old strike against KCMU, has announced its support of Judge Zilly's decision that the station's 'no criticism' policy is unconstitutional. The group, however, has no immediate plans to call off the strike for, as stated by CURSE spokesman Mike Fuller in a recent press release, "(our) call for a democratic decision-making structure and broad-based community Advisory Council has gone unheeded by the Univeristy of Washington."

In an effort to divert funds from KCMU, CURSE established and maintained an escrow account throughout the strike with the intention of turning the money it contains over to the station when the strike ends. The current balance of that account is $8,000.
Susan Ward of CURSE says the group will be watching KCMU closely for the remainder of August. She says CURSE is trying to set up a casual meeting with Tom Mara and Don Yates and also wants to meet with the new era of KCMU volunteers who have spent the past year hearing from station management how awful CURSE and the strikers are. Ward hopes such meetings can ease tensions between these two warring factions.
On August 28, CURSE will hold an open meeting (7PM, 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle) to make a final decision on whether or not to call off the strike.
-Matt Robesch


Michael Moore Goes Network - And Doesn't Sell Out

Hopefully, many of you have checked out TV Nation, a brainchild of brainy, childlike media terrorist Michael Moore. Moore is the former Mother Jones editor who gained national prominance with his anti-corporate video anthem, Roger & Me.
TV Nation isn't quite as in-your-face as Roger & Me - no doubt because Moore is now working for NBC, which is owned by General Electric. Still, we find ourselves rubbing our eyes and pinching ourselves every Tuesday night at 8 when Moore's spongy visage comes into our living room. (Good thing we didn't blow up our television!)
So far, Moore has taken on NAFTA, the Persian Gulf War, Prozac, the new-look Ku Klux Klan, hazardous-waste dumping in Texas, influence-peddling inside the Beltway, and racist cab drivers in New York City. Unfortunately, Moore has filled out the hour-long show with humorous but nonsensical pieces, such as an examination of why South Dakota is the least-visited state in the country and a picnic with Dr. Kervorkian. Whether Moore himself chose to soften the program with bits like this is unclear, though we have a hunch ...
Moore has landed a seven-week deal with NBC, and it'll take viewer support to keep him and TV Nation on the air longer than that. If you like the show, we recommend calling NBC in New York and letting the network know. It might be worth mentioning that television programming needn't avoid politics in order to achieve mass appeal.
NBC's number is (212) 664-4444. (Ask for the "viewer comment line.")


Cockburn In the Times?

Although we sincerely miss The Seattle Times' weekly presentation of Media Beat, it would appear the paper is indeed experimenting with "new" progressive voices. The paper now knows its subscibers want to read views from the left, thanks to the onslaught of reader letters they were bombarded with after they yanked Solomon & Cohen. Since then Media Beat has appeared again and Alexander Cockburn, well-known writer for The Nation, also turned up in the paper. Write the Times and encourage this kind of behavior, maybe we can get them to run some Chomsky while they're at it.


More Progressive Radiowaves

The future of KING 1090 AM may be in doubt now that KVI has bought them out, but you can still catch decent progressive radio when you tune in, for the time being at least. Aside from Jerry Brown's weekday evening shows, KING recently added The Jim Hightower Show to its roster. Hightower is an outspoken Texas populist who loves to jibe centrist-liberal types by pointing out, "There ain't nothin' in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos." Imagine Ross Perot with a brain and a soul. Columnist Molly Ivins put it this way, "If Will Rogers and Mother Jones had a baby, Hightower would be that rambunctious child." Catch the show Saturdays and Sundays 10AM to 1PM.


Extra! Extra! By the Way, Have You Considered a Subscription?

Lately The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly and Puget Sound Business Journal have been hawking subscriptions on the sidewalks of Downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill. Young newspaper couriers have been offering complimentary issues and sales pitches to unsuspecting pedestrians. Is this a feeble attempt by these papers to connect with the "grass roots" of Seattle? or some inter-office plan allowing employees to get out and enjoy the weather?


New Views

-A labor-oriented public TV series, Shoptalk, now airs weekly on Tacoma's public television station, KBTC. In Seattle you'll need cable to tune the show in well, or you can call KCTS and encourage them to air the program locally. Call 281-8901 for more info.
-Vagrom Video, the grassroots group with a portable multimedia kiosk, will have kiosk and cameras at the Broadway Market on Sundays August 21st and 28th from 3pm to 5pm. Check it out, especially if you've never seen Noam Chomsky on the sidewalk.


Widows and Orphans

Month Magazine has folded, their phone has been disconnected, and an undisclosed amount of money is unaccounted for and might possibly be in the hands of Jim and Judy Madigan, the magazine's co-publishers. All of this is according to C.O.S., a "Messenger" at The Arm's Extent, an art and literary magazine from Seattle. C.O.S. claims Arm's Extent purchased an ad space in the July issue of Month and wasn't able to get in touch with the Madigans when the July issue of Month never materialized.


Is "Wise Use" a Family Value?

In its July 20 issue, the Seattle Weekly ran a bizarre story by freelancer Peter Staten arguing that the city of Seattle's proposed comprehensive plan is "anti-family." Staten makes this contention primarily on the basis of what he views as aggressive density and population "targets" set out by city planners. Here's the key subtlety that Staten withholds from Weekly readers. These so-called targets - an additional 2,100 people living in the U-District by 2010, and so on - are merely estimates. They are not goals that city planners think the city should actually work to achieve. (In fact, we would dare say, city officials would just as soon prefer to not have to deal with delivering public services to droves of new arrivals.)
These figures are merely growth projections for which the city feels Seattle at large and its individual communities must plan. And instead of permitting the influx of newcomers and babies to result in the further destruction of the region's precious greenspace, the city has taken the courageous and progressive step of trying to channel that growth primarily to where the people already are - rather than where the trees and wildlife are.
By the end of his article, Staten sounds like a Wise User who would rather see every inch of the Earth used to its fullest extent by humans. Staten also couldn't resist attacking pending plans to build a rapid-transit system - a project which has long been anathema to Staten and Weekly publisher David Brewster.



Do you have a tasty media morsel for Spike? Do you know of censorship, bias, or other derisive behavior in the print, radio, television or computer media? Send it to the WFP WAfreepress@gmail.com and get it off your chest.

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Contents on this page were published in the August/September, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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