Dennis Bernstein is an American producer and co-host of the radio news program, Flashpoints Radio on Pacifica Radio. Flashpoints originates from Pacifica Radio's flagship radio station, KPFA, listener-sponsored, noncommercial FM radio that is also carried on the Internet.
Bernstein was arrested on July 13, 1999 after airing a report on Flashpoints revealing that a new board had been considering the sale of KPFA and Pacifica's sister station WBAI in New York City.
Four hours after the broadcast, and after a talk with then Berkeley Chief of Police, Butler Yeats, Bernstein was arrested. It is unclear what Bernstein was charged with and what was the outcome of that case. Cynthia Cotts, the media reporter at the Village Voice described the dispute with Mary Frances Berry who then chaired the Pacifica national board.
KPFA supporters Alice Walker, the late June Jordan, Joan Baez, Michael Franti, Michael Moore, the late Grace Paley, United Farm Workers of America founder Dolores Huerta, Ani DiFranco, and others rallied to oppose the sale of the listener-supported radio stations. KPFA listener-members removed the board that had considered the sale and the two radio stations were not sold.
Bernstein writes poetry, which has appeared in The Texas Observer, The Progressive, ZZYZYVA, and The New York Quarterly. Bernstein's poem, Getting Tough, appeared in The New York Quarterly best-of anthology, issue 26, edited by William Packard.
Bernstein worked with Packard to record most of Packard's plays, including Ty Cobb.