Planet Pacifica: Progressive Media’s Fragile Democracy

by Greg Guma

Since the Vietnam War, being a national voice of opposition has helped Pacifica Radio to expand its reach and revenues. Today it’s harder to stand out. Struggling in an increasingly diverse, digitally-driven world, Pacifica stations have lost both funding and listeners in recent years. But the difficulties began much earlier. Through much of its history, the original listener-supported network has been at war with itself, while sometimes hovering at the edge of insolvency. Greg Guma became CEO and Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation in 2006, after years of struggle that resulted in a new, more democratic structure. And although he presided over a brief era of stability, he could not alter the basic dynamics. This brief, personal and revealing book describes what he saw and experienced.

Pacifica’s original vision was to nurture an open exchange of ideas that could help people come to know each other as human beings, dialogue that demonstrated the possibility of peace in practice. But as Guma explains, it has gradually evolved into something else: a source of “alternative” news and viewpoints, a platform for underserved constituencies, and, unfortunately, the site of many bitter struggles over race, class and democracy. In Planet Pacifica, he takes a fresh look at how it happened and what it has cost.

41 pages, Paperback

Published July 9, 2021

About the author

Greg Guma has been a writer, editor, historian, and progressive manager for half a century, leading organizations and social justice campaigns in Vermont, New Mexico and California. His work with Bernie Sanders led to his acclaimed book, The People's Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution. Dons of Time was his second novel. His latest books are Fake News: Journalism in the Age of Deceptions and Restless Spirits & Popular Movements: A Vermont History. His journalism and essays have been published worldwide.

Greg’s tenure as CEO of Pacifica Radio highlights a wide-ranging career that began with his years as a daily newspaper reporter in the late 1960s. There he investigated a supermarket credit scheme and shamed Bennington into adopting housing codes. In 1978 Greg exposed an FBI disinformation campaign orchestrated to stoke a fake terrorist scare involving Kristina Berster. Two years later, he broke the news that Bureau agents posed as US Census workers. Other award-winning stories investigated military privatization and perception management.

Greg Guma's books include Vermont's Untold History (1976), Bread & Puppet: Stories of Struggle and Faith (1985, with Susan Green and Robin Lloyd), The People's Republic (1989), Passport to Freedom: A Guide for World Citizens (1992, with Garry Davis), Uneasy Empire: Repression, Globalization and What We Can Do (2002), Celia's Land (2004, with Georgia Davis Powers), Spirits of Desire (historical novel, 2005), Big Lies (essays, 2011), Progressive Eclipse (campaign chronicle, 2012), and Dons of Time (sci-fi/historical novel, 2013). He also wrote the 2003 play Inquisitions (and Other Un-American Activities), about Lucy Parsons and the Haymarket tragedy, and the 2002 audio documentary Nonviolent Warriors: Dave Dellinger and the Power of the People, available on CD.

Greg has also edited several books, including Reign of Error: A Cartoon Look at the State of the World (2005); periodicals including Public Occurrence (1975-76), The Vermont Vanguard Press (1978-83), Toward Freedom (1986-88; 1994-2004), and Vermont Guardian (2004-2005); and has written scripts for documentaries, including Haitian Pilgrimage, Journey Home: Accompaniment in Guatemala, No Longer Enemies: Healing Wounds in Vietnam, and a segment in Freedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie.