Pacifica Democracy Coalition

UPDATE - As of April 30, 2026

The good news is that we have successfully gotten past all the procedural challenges to our appeal. Of course, it took much longer than we had hoped. We will be filing our motion on the appeal in the coming week or two and the Appeals Court will finally be able to rule on our motion to reverse the dismissal of our motion by the trial court. Once that happens, we can move ahead to overturn the illegal imposition of a set of undemocratic bylaws that no one ever voted for. Given the war waged by the Trump Administration against freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, it is more urgent than ever to restore democratic governance to Pacifica, the only nationwide listener-supported media organization. We can't fight for free speech in the public sphere when free speech is being strangled by the New Day-aligned Pacifica National Board which has illegally silenced opposition voices and banished dissident members from the PNB. 

In addition to our legal challenge in the Appeals Court, we are planning a new series of initiatives to restore democracy to Pacifica and hold accountable those who have destroyed it. To that end, we are starting a new fundraising drive to raise an additional $10,000 more than the $34,000 we have already raised. Details of our plans will be announced shortly. Please donate!

UPDATE - As of September 5, 2025

We have filed a notice of appeal with the Los Angeles Superior Court.  We have good reason to believe that the judge made an error in denying our motion to intervene in the Pacifica vs New Day case and that the Appeals Court will reverse her order. Thank you everyone for the  progress we have made but our job is not finished. 

UPDATE - As of August 8, 2025

On July 3, 2025 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sarah Heidel denied our motion to be named as a party to the case Pacifica vs New Day after a perfunctory hearing that lasted all of 3 minutes.  

This means that the undemocratic, top-down New Day bylaws have been unilaterally imposed on Pacifica, violating the rights of tens of thousands of Pacifica members.

We will be filing an Appeal. This is our best chance to undo the damage caused by the New Day takeover of Pacifica.  

THEY'RE BACK!

Remember those folks who tried to overturn our democratic bylaws and were defeated in a referendum in 2021?  They called themselves “New Day Pacifica”  and wanted to replace our democratic bylaws with a top down structure around a self-selecting Board of Directors. Exactly what listeners fought against 25 years ago!  

Well guess what? Behind the scenes, a leader of the New Day campaign, Jan Goodman, has been prosecuting a case in the California courts for the last 4 years and now thanks to some back-door double-dealing between Ms. Goodman and a group on the Pacifica National Board sympathetic to New Day, they are about to force the New Day bylaws down our throat through a “court order”. 

How did Ms. Goodman snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat? With a great deal of help from a group of Directors who were supposed to defend Pacifica against the attempted takeover by New Day.  The group meeting with Jan Goodman and her legal representative consisted of the Chair of the PNB, Susan Young, the Vice Chair of the PNB, Minerva Sanders, the Secretary of the PNB, Julie Hewitt, and the Executive Director of Pacifica, Stephanie Wells.  This group came back with a so-called “Settlement Agreement” that gives New Day pretty much all they wanted behind the backs of the membership who has been kept in the dark about all these dealings. They are trying to force this bylaws rewrite on us through a Court Order.  

The Pacifica Democracy Coalition is dedicating to preserving Pacifica’s democratic structure and beat back this hostile takeover. We need your help. We need to defeat this hijacking of Pacifica in the Courts and among our listeners and staff.  Please DONATE NOW to our legal expenses fund drive!!  

What are some of the New Day bylaws about to be shoved down our throat?

1 Top-down centralized Pacifica National Board

2  PNB will be effectively self-perpetuating and self-selecting.

3  PNB composition heavily favoring West Coast

4  LSB’s and listeners lose all input into programming, management evaluation and station finances.

5.  Smaller staff representation on new PNB.

6.  Individual stations lose all local autonomy.

7.  Current Directors have given themselves an extra year on the Board without an election.

8. New bylaws planned in secret by PNB officers with Jan Goodman without any input from members or the LSB’s or other Directors.

All donations will be used for preparation and research to support a legal challenge to this takeover on behalf of retaining a democratic listener-run structure for America's first public media. Media Alliance will provide us with an administrative umbrella and we thank them for their assistance with our effort. All donations are tax-deductible. 

- Pacifica Democracy Coalition