| Steve Brown is a current candidate for the WBAI local board whose conduct during his previous stint on the board was found by an outside attorney retained by the Pacifica National Board to warrant the 2009 recall petition mounted by more than 400 WBAI members, a sufficient number to qualify for ballot status. (His allies on the national board stalled the petition until Brown was off the local board due to term limits.)
Brown is the creator of the “Alliance for Community Elections” (ACE) which this year endorsed 11 candidates, all but one of whom are apparently European-American. He is also the purveyor, with board candidate Carolyn Birden, of the myth of a violent WBAI filled with out-of-control Black people. ACE’s campaign mailings to voters, like his mass emails sent to thousands of listeners, have been filled with unfounded, unsubstantiated allegations against political opponents in management and staff. The ACE mailers have also used highly deceptive tactics, such as showing the faces of respected progressives misleadingly implying their endorsement of the ACE slate. For an earlier, but still relevant account of Steve Brown’s history, go to http://whoisstevebrown.info Excerpt: Steve Brown is also a multi-millionaire with a history of being one of the biggest direct mail marketers in the US. According to the Seattle Times, at one point Steve Brown claimed to be responsible for four percent of all the junk mail in the country. According to the New York Times, in 1986 alone he earned $500,000 in salary and up to $13 million in dividends. The businesses Steve Brown owned engaged in questionable practices that caused the Attorneys General of seven states, including New York, to step in. They “investigated, filed suit or forced the company to halt various business practices.” (NYT) The Times notes that “The F.T.C. in 1986 issued a consent decree under which Raffoler [one of Brown’s business names], without admitting guilt, paid a $150,000 penalty and agreed not to violate mail order rules.” ******************************************************************************** Don’t Be Bamboozled! ACE (Alliance for Community Elections), whose expensive, deceptive mailings in three board elections helped elect the current board majority, is the creation of multimillionaire junk-mail marketer, former board member, and current candidate Steve Brown. In brief (details at www.whoisstevebrown.info): • In the 1980s and ’90s, after thousands of complaints about deceptive practices, Brown’s huge trinket-marketing company was subject to legal actions by seven states’ attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission. • From 2003 to 2009, Brown engaged in a relentless defamatory campaign of unsubstantiated allegations, using racist language and stereotypes, against Bernard White and other WBAI employees, laying the groundwork for the 2009 coup. • In 2007, Pacifica’s National Election Supervisor found Brown/ACE guilty of both “improper and misleading statements” and improper marketing of merchandise in its mailer. • Brown’s latest mailer shamelessly resurrects the false charge that a J&U member once used racial epithets against the newest interim station manager. Starting in 2004, Justice & Unity was forced to send its own mailing to try to level the playing field. All our efforts to remove the money from Pacifica elections have been blocked by the strident opposition of Brown and his allies. The Pacifica by-laws should be amended to eliminate the corrupting influence of campaign spending. |
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