Pacifica Fightback is committed to media democracy, and situates the struggle to defend freedom of speech and freedom of the press against attacks like those in Project 2025 and in legislation like HR9495 in the last Congress, to the defense of human rights and solidarity with communities under attack, such as immigrants, women, labor, Black, Indigenous, Raza, and Asian-Pacific Islander people, Palestinians and other Arabs or Muslims, and LGBTQIA+ people.
Pacifica Fightback is working to build coalitions among Pacifica stations and affiliates and other public and community broadcasters, non-profit journalists, media and publications, podcasters, and people on various social media platforms. We are also working to engage with the communities we serve who are under attack, in a process of solidarity, resistance and liberation.
In unity, there is strength! The effort by the Trump regime and its “broligarch” backers to cow or control corporate media and social media, and to eliminate public media is designed to deny everyone the right to information, and to keep people in the dark about the attacks that are being carried out and the consequences of the policies and strategies being implemented. We are committed to a multi-factor campaign:
Defend whistle-blowers and truth-tellers
Defend public, non-commercial and non-profit media
Defend democracy and diversity within Pacifica and other media, overcoming racism & sexism
Resist attacks on human rights and the imposition of austerity, dictatorial methods of rule, and militarism
Develop new platforms for sharing content and promoting programs, cultural expression, and content providers that contribute to those efforts.
Join in these efforts, including by attending our upcoming virtual town halls and by joining one of our working groups that grew out of our last town hall, co-sponsored with the Friends of Community Media in Kansas City, Missouri. As one step in this process, we are calling on people to sign on to the below letter to Pacifica Executive Director Stephanie Wells:
Speaking Up for Press Freedom
Letter to Pacifica Executive Director Stephanie Wells
Dear Stephanie Wells,
We are members of the national Pacifica community who see a pressing need to form one cohesive media coalition to address the real, serious, and multiplying threats to our ability to inform and educate the public.
May 3 is celebrated every year as World Press Freedom Day, but the importance of practicing press freedom in a country surpasses just one annual occasion. The mass media has a powerful influence on political reality, as it shapes public opinion and lays the foundations of political beliefs – sometimes referred to as the fourth estate. In democratic countries the media plays a crucial role. The relationship between politics and the mass media is closely related to the debate about freedom of speech. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.” In the specific case at issue in the U.S., we are talking about freedom of the press, a component of the First Amendment and other guarantees.
The first weeks of Donald Trump’s second term as president have been tumultuous for journalism as his administration and political allies have conducted a rapid series of attacks on press freedom that constitute a ferocious assault on every American’s First Amendment rights. Donald Trump appointed Brendan Carr, author of the FCC chapter of Project 2025 – the conservative campaign plan to reshape the government – to serve as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has broad jurisdiction over broadcasting and telecommunications. Carr has wasted no time enacting a political campaign of investigations and explicit threats against media organizations. This has included attacking broadcast corporations that have Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. As Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González has written: “This is part of their desperate attempt to maintain white dominance. Let’s be clear-eyed about what attacks on DEI really are: an attempt to legitimize discrimination against people of color, women, people with disabilities, religious minorities, LGBTQIA+ people and others who have faced bigotry in the United States.”
To recognize the value of free press principles and honor the efforts of journalists, we are asking you to have the Pacifica Foundation join in coalition with other media outlets to defend the nonpartisan value of press freedom against an onslaught intended to vitiate the public’s First Amendment rights – to prevent repression and harassment of journalists, state monopoly, and censorship in the media. We seek to work with Management in drafting a letter to potential allies (including, but not limited to, NPR and PBS) to join Pacifica’s efforts to protect public and community media. This would be aimed at building a coalition with a broad range of media outlets and media advocacy organizations.
In democratic countries, the freedom of the press is guaranteed by law. The absence of interference from the state in the freedom of communication and expression is a mandatory aspect of democracy. We the below signatories urge Pacifica to no longer be a passive observer, but an active player. Press freedom is everyone’s freedom, because everyone needs access to reliable information from a plurality of transparent sources. That’s the essence of press freedom, and without it, democracy just doesn’t work. Donald Trump wants to make this about him versus the press. This fight is about Donald Trump versus every American’s First Amendment rights.
We offer you support in organizing a Pacifica network-wide plan toward remedying these recent developments.
Thank you for all that you do in the fight for justice.
In solidarity,
Ad Hoc Working Group to Defend Public and Community Media
(Note: Listed radio stations and organizations are for identification only; alphabetical by last name) List in Formation
Betty Davis, WBAI
Joan De Lorenzo, WBAI
Bella De Soto, KPFK
Eleanor Elizabeth Forman, WBAI
Sally Gellert, WBAI
Dr. Thomas Halle, KPFK
Sheila Hamanaka, WBAI
Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, Community Media Assistance Project; Modesto, CA
Bob Lederer, WBAI
Alejandrina Murphy, WBAI
Michael Novick, KPFK
John Riley, WBAI
Mimi Rosenberg, WBAI
Kirby Washington, KPFK
To add your name, visit: