The accomplishments, crises, and controversies that make up Media Alliance’s 25-year history are reflected in its eight very different executive directors. I thought it would be a fitting part of MA’s silver jubilee celebration to tap into their memories.
This is not meant to serve as an “official” history, but rather to give those who are new to MA a stronger sense of how we grew and survived, and for those who’ve been around for years, something to chew, argue, and reminisce over.
| 1977-1980 Ken McEldowney
1981-1984 Daniel Ben-Horin 1984-1985 Karen Wickre 1986-1988 Fred Stout 1988-1993 Micha X. Peled 1993-1995 Ann Wrixon 1995-1997 Erika Wudtke 1997-2001 Andrea Buffa |
The accomplishments, crises, and controversies that make up Media Alliance’s 25-year history are reflected in its eight very different executive directors. I thought it would be a fitting part of MA’s silver jubilee celebration to tap into their memories.
This is not meant to serve as an “official” history, but rather to give those who are new to MA a stronger sense of how we grew and survived, and for those who’ve been around for years, something to chew, argue, and reminisce over.
Most of the EDs agreed that finances and financial crises were the low points of their tenures. Ken McEldowney, MA’s first ED, cited “fundraising” as his hardest job. Karen Wickre recalled “having to beg board
Most of the EDs agreed that finances and financial crises were the low points of their tenures. Ken McEldowney, MA’s first ED, cited “fundraising” as his hardest job. Karen Wickre recalled “having to beg board members for emergency funds.” Micha Peled noted, ” I looked at the books shortly after I started the job and found out MA was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. It felt like having a bucket of cold water thrown over me.” Fred Stout still shudders about “coming into the office every day and receiving calls from collection agencies.” These recurring money problems are the result, according to Ann Wrixon, of “needing to raise money for progressive programs we want to carry out. The people most in need of the programs can least afford to pay.”
Daniel Ben-Horin’s low point was not money related. It was “the controversy between David Horowitz and Eve Pell over confidentiality and revealing of sources” in an article written by Horowitz. Their argument became very sharp and personal and created a rift between their supporters, leading to a lot of bitterness. On a lighter note, Andrea Buffa spoke of the moment just before “our reception for the opening of a Zapatista photo exhibit we were sponsoring. A mouse ran across the floor and I had to grab it, take it downstairs to release it into the street, and pray there wasn’t going to be another one that evening. That was a low point.”
The high points of their experiences often mirrored the lows. For example, Karen cited “sorting out our finances and getting our house in order,” while Micha noted that after he told an emergency meeting of the board executive committee about the financial crisis, “they all wrote checks for personal loans to pull us through. It was a great immediate hit on how much Media Alliance meant to everybody.”
Many high points had to do with carrying forward MA’s work. Ken talked of spearheading the defense of Lowell Bergman and Raul Ramirez in a libel suit brought against them by members of the SFPD for their reports in the Examiner. Daniel cited bringing over the famed leftist economist and historian E.P. Thompson from England for a series of appearances in the Bay Area. Andrea felt excited about “taking the new vision the board formulated in 1996 and turning it into concrete programs like Raising Our Voices” (media training for low-income and homeless people), while “bringing together a really committed, motivated, political staff.”
Ann spoke of “the expansion of services to members,” and Micha of founding the Community Action Group, which trained “more than 200 nonprofit and advocacy organizations in getting their message out in the media.”
Andrea added that her highest moment was participating in the powerful community support visible in the struggle for KPFA. “When we heard Dennis Bernstein get pulled off the air, we rushed over to the station. Within an hour it was filled with hundreds of listeners sitting-in, locking arms, and refusing to leave.”
Speaking of accomplishments the EDs are proud of, Ken’s was “building a solid foundation to assure future vitality and growth” with the creation of MediaFile and the JobFile, and the establishment of the first medical plan. Daniel’s was “developing internal and staff structures, setting up good staff-board relations, expanding MediaFile, and initiating the MAMAs (Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Awards).”
Fred and Micha both pointed to their work on the finances. “I reduced the budget deficit to almost zero and rebuilt the paid staff from two to six when I left,” said Fred. According to Micha: “By the time I left, MA had doubled its budget and eliminated its debt. Beyond that, we provided everyone on staff with health benefits, annual salary raises, and year-end bonuses.” Fred also mentioned bringing Larry Bensky onto the board, “where he belonged.” Micha cited launching Bay Area Censored, through which “we were able to point out good and bad journalism.”
Erica Wudtke, who worked at MA for four years before becoming E.D., remains proud “that we were able to keep it together after we moved from Fort Mason to the downtown location, despite all the things that were going wrong–the elevators didn’t stop on our floor, the toilets kept backing up, and we were constantly having problems with the front door code, setting off the alarms after hours. Our landlord was not very accommodating, and we were all pretty scared of him. He’d pull up in front of the building in a black car with tinted windows.”
Given MA’s history of working to create community, I asked what was the most fun each had as a director. Daniel recalls, “The parties were great, really hot! A high energy social scene. And we felt [throwing parties] was a good, strategic use of our time and resources to build constituencies.” Andrea loved “the times Mario (an MA staffer) dressed up in drag and lip-synched Madonna at our parties.”
Finally, I asked each former ED to recount some cherished memories. For Ken, it was the meetings “starting even before I was ED [at which] we thrashed out the name and bylaws, especially the discussions that led to our calling ourselves media workers, as opposed to journalists . . . discussions that provided the political underpinnings for what MA would become.” Daniel mentioned working with Annette Dornboos: “She was such a dynamic person and she taught me people-based organizing.” He also recalled a phone conversation between MediaFile editor Bernard Ohanian and Bay Guardian publisher Bruce Brugman. “I overhead Bernard’s end of the conversation, which was only, ‘but Bruce . . . but Bruce . . . but Bruce . . . ‘ I called it the ‘But Bruce’ talk.”
Ann and Micha both mentioned the MAMAs ceremonies. For Ann, the two she presided over “made me really proud of the community that was Media Alliance.” Micha spoke of “the honor I had [of] calling the recipients of the Golden Gadfly Life Achievement Awards, many of whom were people whose work I had admired for years. Being the one to tell them of their awards was very special.” He also added: “I’ll never forget those late night moments when I’d turned in my column for MediaFile that was going to press the next morning. San Francisco never looked prettier than in those AM hours [at Fort Mason].”
Andrea recounted the setting up of “an Independent Media Center (IMC) at the MA office during the National Association of Broadcasters convention protest. Coming into the office at five in the morning to find all sorts of people working on the IMC–editing, discussing, or just sleeping–and watching [MA staffers] Rebeka and Lisa become independent media leaders, taking over the whole thing and making it happen. I’ll always remember that.”
Any organization that’s been around for 25 years is bound to have a lot of sidelights alongside its main activities. MA’s history seems especially rich in interpersonal moments. Surely this is a result of the founders’ vision of a place where media workers could gather and share not only job-related issues and experiences, but also social and political ideas, because the goal, from the start, was to build a community.
Undoubtedly, there are other perspectives on how MA grew and survived into the new millennium than those expressed by its EDs. But these perspectives, I hope, will spark greater interaction and discussion among MA’s current generation of members and the veterans who remember our past.
Help initiate this dialogue, as well as celebrate MA’s first 25 years, Saturday, September 22. Part of the program will be a ceremony to honor MA’s past EDs, most of whom will be there. Please join us in honoring these key players in MA’s ongoing legacy.
Rich Yurman is a long-term Media Alliance member and former board member.