On October 29, Diane Reinhardt spoke with Bob Hennelly, WBAI Station Manager and Pacifica National News Election Coverage Coordinator, about the programming plan–its structure, its logic and its necessity.
This interview has been edited for length and sequence.
Diane Reinhardt: Thank you, Bob, for making time to speak with me today. I know these are the broadcast’s final planning days.
Let’s start with that plan. I know there will be local reports from six different time zones. What can listeners expect to hear?
Bob Hennelly: We’re preparing for rolling coverage. We’re going to start at 5PM and go to 8PM Eastern Standard Time, go with Democracy Now from 8PM to Midnight, and then have KPFA in Berkeley carry the baton from Midnight to 3AM, all through master control at WBAI in New York. We’re going to hear from multiple local stations. We’re going to have this richness of diversity where we get hopefully three, four, five local reporters in the first hour or combinations of them, like North Carolina and Texas [can] have a conversation or Madison and Ohio because that’s the Midwest.
Diane: Do you know, in each time zone, what stations will be involved? Where the on-the-ground reporting will be?
Bob Hennelly: The reporting is going to follow the closing of the polls. But, here’s the thing about that. Who really knew that Alaska was going to be a hotbed a week ago? So there is roughly an arc [from east coast to west coast], while preserving the ability to be spontaneous.
- Beginning at 5PM (EST) on November 3 and running until at least 3AM (EST) on Nov. 4
- Pacifica National News will bring listeners 10-hours of midterm election news and analysis. Watch our homepage for LIVESTREAM COVERAGE
- Community reporters in 6 time zones–from the Eastern seaboard to Hawaii–will keep listeners up-to-date with events on the ground, while periodic key issue analyses–segments entitled “What’s at Stake”–will provide context.
Diane: In addition to on-site reporting, you’re also going to have hourly guests who provide context with commentary focused on different issues.
Bob Hennelly: These would be subject matter experts. The segments are called “What’s at Stake.” The arc of the program over the several hours is initially weighted towards field reports and getting the news of what’s playing on the ground. But, as we do that, we [also] start feathering in subject matter issues related to race, the environment, the economy, international affairs, issues of democracy, corruption.
Diane: And what plans have been made regarding responses to election day problems?
Bob Hennelly: We are preparing for the scenario where 3AM EST comes and goes, and there’s still news to be covered because we’re into some kind of unprecedented event.
You know, breaking news happens.
Events are going to present themselves that we don’t know about right now. It’s like contact improvisation, being able to mobilize around what events have unfolded that you did not plan for.
And that includes a January 6 scenario where something goes off the rails because the Trump Administration or some local actor does something that undermines the potential, the integrity of the election.
Diane: This broadcast is the most recent in a series of national news programs from the Pacifica Network, also an expansion of that programming. Can you talk about the logic of this larger design?
Bob Hennelly: This is part of an ongoing revival [of Pacifica Network News], with the deep bench of the affiliate network.
We have reporters who are ready to tell the audience how they know what they know. There is something in this world where journalism has now been conflated with propaganda, where people have an opinion, a worldview, a tape…but that’s not necessarily reporting news. News is a series of events, and then you need to footnote it and tell people how you know what you know. That’s the transparent part of journalism. That’s what makes journalism different than propaganda.
Diane So the balance of community on-the-ground reporting and national issues assessments with collective action will power this election night coverage.
Bob Hennelly: There is something too about the unique moments of where we are historically. It’s no accident that Pacifica is having a moment. Nobody in the mainstream press saw the issues that are defining this race coming. Who was saying two or three years ago, around a roundtable, ‘Well, I think, Chuck, that the data centers are really going to turn the tide, that America’s going to have a mass uprising because Texas ranchers have been known to kill for water and they won’t want 300 data centers built.’ And so Pacifica [is] closer to the ground. Community radio that’s informed and created by those community interests is specifically closer to the issues of the moment.
That’s what this [broadcast] reflects.