More Pacifica Woes: Nicole Sawaya Quits as Exec Director

[Very disappointing news. -SR]

LasarLetter - Dec 13, 2007
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/525

Nicole Sawaya quits [sigh]

by Matthew Lasar

LLFCC is dismayed and embarrassed to re****t that Nicole Sawaya has 
resigned, following a very brief tenure as Executive Director of the 
Pacifica radio network. 

What happened? Without going into all the details, Sawaya found the 
level of internecine dysfunction at Pacifica overwhelming, and fled 
her job.

LLFCC will not conceal its chagrin at this development. The author 
of this blog had high hopes for Sawaya, but they were obviously too 
high. Her quick departure reminds us that there are no saviors, no 
simple solutions to complex problems. And Pacifica radio is always a 
complex problem.

LLFCC also regrets not acknowledging something im****tant when Sawaya 
accepted the position: despite the unfortunate denouement, the 
Pacifica National Board (PNB) deserves great credit for having 
unanimously approved her hiring. Sawaya made it clear during her 
interviews that she wanted to do radio, not spend her days putting 
out office politics fires. That the board responded favorably to 
this stance gives LLFCC hope, even now.

Pacifica remains in a perilous situation, however. It is pursuing an 
ambitious experiment in media democracy in a hostile external 
environment, with inadequate resources, and without the help of 
significant forces that rhetorically sup****ted the Pacifica 
Revolution of 2001 but are now nowhere to be found.

And the organization is besieged by zealots whose vision of Pacifica 
boils down to a public access network that doles out air time to 
whoever screams the loudest at a four hour meeting.

But there are new voices entering into this debate at the various 
Pacifica stations; tough, smart people, not afraid of the mob. And 
somewhere out there is a creative, young someone, a leader who sees 
this merry mess as a op****tunity. Without holding out for yet 
another savior, LLFCC hopes that person arrives soon.

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