Duane,
I believe these are all the narratives of people at the station who either witnessed, or were close to, Bob Buzanco's behavior while the Jewish Voices program was broadcasting and his alleged statement immediately afterwards.
George
From: "merriman"
To:
Subject: Fw: Jewish Voices Incident
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 09:40:41 -0500
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George, let me add a postscript:
Donna, Rabbi Ben Ora and Bob Epstein, in telephone conversations the day or
two following April 17; they all described the heavy, bushing haired fellow
with the black hair and gotee who came into the control room while their
show was in progress, they recalled twice, during their show, glared at them
disapprovingly and shook his head in disagreement with statements they were
making. This was Buzzanco. The telephone room door was open during part of
the time I was taking calls and I saw Buzz on at least one of those two
occasions walk into the control room while the show was in progress. Prior
to the show, Buzz passed through the conference room where we were preparing
and exhibited what I would call "unfriendly body language", did not
acknowledge any of our presences, talked loudly to those he was with, Janice
Blue included; I took this as a continuation of the personal abuse he has
direct toward me over the past several months. Stan Merriman
----- Original Message -----
From: "merriman"
To:
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 9:28 AM
Subject: Jewish Voices Incident
> I simply cannot find my written report to Duane. So here is a recap:
>
> On April 17, following the completion of the Jewish Voices Show at noon, I
> joined the entourage from Jewish Voices in the hallway outside the
telephone
> room where I had been working; I was right behind Consul Dan Shahan, who
led
> the narrow line of people out through the door into the conference room;
> behind me were Rabbi Ben Ora, Bob Epstein and Donna DeLaPaz who, I believe
> was last or near last in the line. As we came into the conference room,
> Shahan was immediately confronted by a screaming "Emilio" from La
> Resistencia, who was immediately in his face shouting words like "killer,
> nazi, murderer".....I immediately stepped between them; I believe the
> entourage behind me were still in the hallway, not yet through the
doorway;
> in stepping between them I said "they are trying to run a radio station
> here; let's take this outside"; I think John Jordan and Edwin Johnston
> witnessed this attack in that room. Emilio, on my words, immediately
turned
> and literally ran out the front door through the reception room. I was
> still in the conference room and heard a voice behind me at the hall
> doorway-turned and Donna DeLaPaz said " you have some antisemites here"; I
> was just called 'you jew' by the big guy with the black bushy hair and
> gotee". I asked Donna to repeat what was said to her and she repeated
this
> and asked if he was an employee. I explained that he was a volunteer like
> me and tried to assure her that I was sure it was not personal as I had
had
> some internal conflict with Bob Buzzanco, the person she described and I
was
> sure it was a result of that conflict (trying frankly, in embarrassment
for
> KPFT to fade the heat to minimize the damage). I had an appointment so
I
> had to thank everyone and leave right away. The next day, to reassure
> myself that the incident happened, before reporting to Duane Bradley,
> station manager, I called Donna and asked her to repeat the incident; she
> described it exactly as it happened again. I repeated my apology that she
> experienced this, repeating that I felt Buzzanco's and my conflict was to
be
> blamed and not KPFT. I reported this in the same exact detail to Duane
> Bradley and requested that for the good of KPFT and our frayed
relationship
> with the Jewish community, Buzzanco be asked to direct private letters of
> apology of each of the 4 Jewish Voices participants. Stan Merriman
>
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 07:03:48 -0500
From: greg gieselman
Reply-To: aachen@firstnethou.com
Organization: The Aachen Group
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To: gbarnstone@pdq.net
Subject: Jewish Voices follow-up
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TRANSMMITTAL
TO: George Barnstone
FR: Greg Gieselman
DA: 11th May 2002
RE: Jewish Voices Broadcast
George:
On Wednesday, 17th April 2002, KPFT broadcast a special one-hour program
entitled
The featured on-air guests that day were Donna De La Paz, representing
the American Jewish Committee; Dan Shaham, the Israeli Consol in
Houston; Eve Benora, a local rabbi; and Bob Epstein,
whose professional affiliations I do not know, but who was introduced to
me as a local gentlemen,
who is an avid historian of Middle East Affairs. If I have misspelled
anyone's name or misspoken anyone's affiliation, please forgive me.
Stan Merriman was the originator/organizer of the program and produced
it. During the Q + A portion of the program, he also handled the
in-bound calls [he was the stacker, if you will]. I thought
the program was a good idea--still do--and assisted Stan in any way I
could.
. . . . .
During the second part of the program [the Q + A], Bob Buzzanco--one of
KPFT's programmers [among other things, he co-hosts a show on Thursday
evenings]--came into the sound board room of
the sound studio. There was a brief conversation. Among the things
discussed, he asked if we were
aware that we were running late, and that we would likely run into his
time. [Bob was doing the show immediately following ours.] I told
him that we were aware of it; that it was a reasonable complaint; that
it should not have happened; and we were sorry it had happened, but that
it would
be only a few more minutes. I apologized again.
As we stood there waiting for the program to end--there were four of us
in the sound board room;
the four guests in the sound studio; and Stan in the small news
room--there was more conversation
between Bob and me. We tried to keep it pleasant, but under the
circumstances, some of it was
disputatious, although there was no profanity that I remember. Simply
put, Buzz had let us know in
no uncertain terms--from the moment he walked in--that he objected
strenuously 1) to the presence
of the guests in the studio, and 2) to the very premise of the program
itself. He appeared to be angry. Bob said he was of the opinion that
we should not have aired a program which advanced the Israeli point of
view of recent events in the Middle East. We discussed the matter. We
continued to
disagree. There were other things discussed as we stood there.
As the program ended, Bob asked that we get the guests out of the sound
studio so that he could
start his show. He crossed in front of us--but behind the engineer at
the board--to leave the sound
board room. The guests from the sound studio were filing out of the
room. I believe the Israeli Consul was first, followed by the rabbi,
but I cannot be certain. I think Donna De La Paz was the last out of
the studio, but again, I am not certain as to the order in which they
left the room. They were in a bit of hurry [the rabbi, for example,
left her daily agenda in the studio, and we had go back
later that day and get it for her. They proceeded past the doorway to
the small news room and
turned rightinto the conference room. As you know, the total distance
is only a few feet. Bob
followed them out of the studio and into the conference room.
Sometime during the few seconds that it took for the above events to
occur--while the guests and
Buzz were filing out of the studio and into the conference room--I heard
Bob say "You Jew." I was
not looking at him, nor did I see his face. His back was to me. I was
surprised at what I had heard,
and thought to myself for an instant,
For the record, by now, Emilio [sp?] had arrived and was literally
shaking his finger in the face of the
Israeli Consul, and speaking loudly and animatedly to him. They were
standing near the foyer double doors and to the right of Donna and Stan.
Anyway, Donna and Stan asked me if I had heard what Buzz said to her,
and I replied that I had
heard him say it to someone, but that I had not seen to whom he had said
it, since his back was to me and he was walking away from me.
. . . . .
Shortly thereafter, Duane [Bradley] asked me what had happened. I told
him that in my opinion, Buzz had gotten angry about the content of the
program and the featured guests--and perhaps that we had run over into
his program's air-time--and may have said some thing or things he
regretted;
that everyone gets angry from time to time, and says something he/she
regrets; and that I thought that
such was likely the case with this incident. I told Duane I doubted Bob
had meant to offend anyone.
Later that afternoon, Buzz came back to the station. He was no longer
angry...or so it appeared. He
was pleasant and polite, although we continued to disagree strongly
about whether or not the program ever should have aired. We discussed
the situation further, and it was clear that we were
never going to agree on the matter.
I hope the above helps.
Submitted per your request.
gg
From: RE10SBH@aol.com
Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 15:47:01 EDT
Subject: Incident at KPFT
To: gbarnstone@pdq.net
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Dear George: In response to your request that I furnish you with my
observation regarding the incident at KPFT Radio Pacifica Station in Houston
on the occasion of the broadcast representing the Jewish point of view of the
Middle East crisis, I forward this recollection.
We assembled in the KPFT conference room about 10:30 AM on the morning of the
broadcast for an 11:00 program. The participants straggled in over about a
20 minute time span with the Rabbi the last to arrive, naturally. We were
given surprisingly sparse instructions as if we had done this every day and
no one seemed to realize that I, the moderator, had never done this before.
Nevertheless, we were all educated people, professional in some field or
other, used to having to do quick studies and at precisely 11:00 we received
the "On the Air" signal from the program director and we began. I presented
a concise 2 minute introduction of the problem, followed by Donna de la Paz,
Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee in Houston, Danny
Shechem, Israeli vice Consul in Houston, and Rabbi Eva ben Hora, of the JCC.
, each of whom gave a brief statement of the crisis from their own particular
vantage point. We then began to take calls from the listening audience and I
selected the calls from a screen which indicated how long the caller had been
holding. I tried to give preference to those who had been holding the
longest. In my opinion, although the large majority came from Palestinian
sympathizers, they were surprisingly calm and well organized and I hope that
we fielded those questions properly. There were no "hate" messages or
hostile questions. Most were even toned and respectful. I was later advised
that the calls were screened, so perhaps some of the unpleasantness was
eliminated in the screening.
During the broadcast an gentleman entered the control booth, seemed agitated,
but it had no effect upon me and did not disturb me or the other
participants. He was referred to later on as Bizenko (?sp) and was the same
person who seemed to be in conflict with the others later on. When we
emerged from the broadcast booth into the conference room there was a small
man highly agitated screaming that we had no told the truth and making the
usual charges that are made when the other side of anything has the floor. I
was told that he was a Palestinian and often appeared at KPFT in his
Arafat-like head scarf.
As I turned back to visit with my fellow participants, Donna de la Paz spoke
to one of the station people and said, "You have anti-Semites working here".
I heard no statement because I had been on the other side of the room, but
apparently the rest of the group was accosted by a person, not in agreement
with our presentation. One of the station people said, "Those people do not
work here" Since I am unfamiliar with the personnel, regular employees,
volunteers, I could not evaluate what had happened. One of the group was
later identified to me as this person Bizenko. he, with others disappeared
into the broadcast booth from whence we had emerged. There was some other
unrest and attempts to quiet things down and we were then advised by Mr.
Merriman not to venture outside until some of the people who had come into
the radio station had entered their cars and left. We soon followed and left
the station. Robert A. Epstein
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Date: Thu, 02 May 2002 13:00:40 -0500
Subject: Where I was...at KPFT
From: Janice Blue
To:
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To Whom It May Concern:
Two weeks ago yesterday, around noon, I was in the KPFT control room,
standing in the doorway between the recording studio and the control room.
I was facing the west (Montrose) wall of the room when a programmer, Bob
Buzzanco, walked into the control room from the hallway and stood directly
in front of me. He handed an engineer, I believe, named Mike, a hand
written time script for the show he was about to do.
I turned around and noticed some activity in the control room. The four
guests from the previous show, Jewish Voices, were starting to get up, take
off their earphones and walk out of the room. I kind of leaned into the
narrow doorframe to give them more room.
As they started walking out of the recording studio and into the control
room, a LAB member now known to me now as Greg Geiselman, walked into the
control room and Bob Buzzanco expressed his angry feelings about the station
giving airtime to the previous show, "Jewish Voices," and criticized Greg
Geiselman for bringing in these guests, who in his view were "Sharon
government apologists."
Bob said something like. "That's what we're hearing on CNN and FOX." It got
more verbally colorful and I was starting to feel the discomfort you feel
when two people are arguing and you are in hearing range.
During this time, I am still facing the west wall. Greg, to my left, closer
to the hallway door, and Bob, to my right, closer to the window. While I
was standing there and while Bob and Greg were arguing, all four guests
walked past my left side and went out through the hallway door.
Two of the guests were women and I could sense they, like me, felt
uncomfortable but they left the room while Bob and Greg were still
exchanging remarks. It was a brusque exchange...one or two minutes... after
which Bob walked into the recording studio and went on the air. I heard him
make a quick apologetic remark about the previous program...I think he said
something like, "You may have thought you were listening to CNN or FOX but
you're still listening to KPFT."
So, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, the guest from "Jewish
Voices," known as Donna de la Paz, left the recording studio while Bob and
Greg were arguing and left the building while he was interviewing the
consul of Venezuela on the air.
It is my hope this will be resolved in a fair and peaceful manner. We need
100% of our talent, energy and dedication for the betterment of Pacifica.
Thank you,
Janice Blue
Reply-To:
From: "Donna De La Paz"
To: "George Barnstone"
Subject: KPFT
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:06:34 -0500
Organization: American Jewish Committee
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Thank you for calling this morning. Per our telephone conversation, I will briefly update you on what happened at KPFT on Wednesday, April 17th. Stan Merriman greeted us as we entered the building and was very cordial in getting us water and making us feel most comfortable.
When we entered the room to broadcast our show, everyone was very polite and explained to Bob Epstein, as we listened, how the calls would come up on the screen in front of him. During the show, I believe Mr. Epstein became flustered. This does not mean that he did not do his homework; he was well-prepared. By stating he became flustered, I felt he did not know how to handle some of the callers and cut them off, before they could make a statement. He told them they could ask a question, but that it wasn’t a forum to make statements. I feel by cutting off the callers, he made the public more upset and we (the three left) felt helpless.
In the future, I would recommend that the moderator be someone who can handle callers and take comments from us. Too many times, he cut us off also.
Now to the item in which you called, during the show, a gentleman, who was heavy set with curly hair, paced the floor of the engineering room and was throwing his hands up in the air yelling. We couldn’t hear what he was saying, but knew he was upset. When we left the room, I was the last one out. He looked at us and said in a derogatory fashion “You Jews.” I was shocked and immediately told Stan, who assured me that he would take care of the situation.
I do believe that KPFT needs to show both sides of the coin and that our show added some information. If the show is repeated, I definitely would suggest making some changes. Let me know if you are interested.
Donna De La Paz
Executive Director
American Jewish Committee
Houston Chapter
houston@ajc.org