KZYX isn't happy with me
This morning I talked with Belinda at KZYX after calling the station to talk to program manager Mary Aigner to congratulate her on her participation in my program last night on Measure B with Ross Liberty (Yes on B) and Keith Faulder (No on B) . Mary, I was told wasn't there but, boy, Belinda (Station Manager) wanted to talk to me. She said the folks at KZYX were very upset that I got involved in expressing my own opinions during the hour and that Mary had been suspended for speaking out on problems with commercial pot growing. As soon as Mary (who was running the board for me and there to do pledge drive breaks) started saying her own Anderson Valley neighborhood had been overtaken by pot growers the staff at KZYX went nuts, signaling to her over and over to shut up. She didn't.
Mary never said, "Vote for Measure B." She simply stated that problems with commercial pot growing were real and she'd seen them first hand. Suspending her for that, it seems to me, borders on a serious First Amendment violation. (I wonder, if Mary had said something like, "It's been my experience that medical marijuana patients really have a problem finding supplies" she would be under suspension right now.)
For some reason there was a real crowd at the station last night, I assume because they're in the middle of pledge drive. The crowd, I am told from someone standing among them, was also going crazy trying to get me to shut up too. One woman actually put a note to that effect up to the broadcast booth window, but I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see it.
Anyway I wouldn't have shut up. I said at the beginning of the broadcast that I was a fervent B supporter and that would be clear during the show. For some reason the folks at KZYX assumed I was simply hosting some kind of non-partisan debate on Measure B. I would never have agreed to that. First I am not unbiased about it. That is why I stepped aside from my usual role as moderator for the forum the Daily Journal is hosting May 8 with the American Association of University Women and the National Women's Political Caucus. Plus, I express my opinions on my monthly show all the time. Why would last night be any different?
Belinda (I am sorry but I don't know her last name and the staff isn't listed on the station Web site) told me that all programmers are forbidden from expressing opinions on anything on any up-coming ballot as they are officially representatives of the station when on the air. She said that's an IRS rule and an FCC rule.
I have to say I find this odd given the dedicated bias of KZYX, NPR and other public radio sources on any number of left of center issues. They defend it saying they are basically the voice of the non-mainstream and that's their mission.
Belinda said she would send me a copy of the rules.
She said I am suspended from KZYX too.
I said, let's just consider it my last show.
Comments
Your meltdown-with-Mary -- sorry to have missed it live, but "Trading Time", for the variety of voices, is the only show on there I've listened to in many a moon -- wasn't exactly the staff's FIRST foray into campaigning against marijuana, as many will no doubt be mentioning.
The sooner the FCC gets in here and finds out the who, how, and why of taking over public radio for a right-wing salary-mill, the better it will be. The end of the station began when then-Board President Johanna Cummings unilaterally changed the rules of operation from "Robert's Rules" (democratic) to "Roberta's Rules of Order" (a slender gender-bent volumen published by Wiley, amazingly enough, which instituted the unitary executive at "public" radio). Before THAT, the board elections procedure was cooked, just before the "gay" takeover some years ago.
The always-absent manager of previously-public radio is named Belinda Rawlins.
You've certainly had YOUR freedom of speech in multiple venues, K.C. I'd appreciate it if this comment doesn't get lost.
Posted by: Anna Taylor | April 11, 2008 04:41 PM
I am truly sorry if you decide that was your last show KC. Not for you, you'll do fine, but for the people of Mendocino County. I believe your participation & comments in the discussion on Thursday made for a more spirited and engaging debate. While I didn't know you were in favor of Measure B until you told me the air, it didn't matter to me. It didn't change my position, and I certainly didn't expect you to be a potted plant in the room. I knew that wasn't your style. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the debate.
I have always preferred content over form, and substance over process. It doesn't matter to me if a debate or discussion is in my livingroom or on KZYX, I want intelligent people to participate and share their ideas and experiences. I believe that is what you did. I am sure that a lot of people were talking about Measure B the next day. That was why I agreed to go on your show -to get people talking and thinking about an important local issue. If nothing else, I think we all, Ross Liberty, you and I, succeeded at that. I hope you will go back on the air, and soon.
Keith
Posted by: Keith Faulder | April 12, 2008 06:59 PM
Hmm: K.C., Keith Faulder's comment is kind of a head-scratcher -- he "didn't know you were in favor of Measure B until you told me the air"?
How could THAT possibly be? Not only has there been a plethora of editorials in the UDJ, but the UDJ's position, along with the suggestion that people use the UDJ's Topix comments, has been featured in communications from pot-promotion organizations with which he's been affiliated.
Posted by: Anna Taylor | April 14, 2008 08:35 AM
I liked Keith's comments. Dialouge among intelligent people is a powerful thing and a great example of what we need in our political arena in Mendocino county. BOS in particular. Thank you Keith for continuing to contribute to our beautiful county.
Posted by: Jacob | April 14, 2008 03:28 PM
The MODERATOR of a non-partisan forum is expected to restrain expression of their own personal opinions while performing that public service. It's not free speech to indulge in partisanship while "moderating".
KC knows the rules- and doesn't seem to accept that she needs to play by them like she wants others (pot growers) to do.
Posted by: Otto Diedacht | April 15, 2008 04:47 PM
While I think reasonable people can disagree over Measure B, KZYX's suspension of KC Meadows is a caricature of "MendoLib" political correctness worthy of Bruce Anderson and the AVA (can't wait to see his take on this). This episode is another outrageous example of the antics of the "counterculturalist" milieu of washed up hippie losers of Mendoland for whom pot smoking and frankenfoods trump the war in Iraq and real working class issues as a moral issue. Here's the bottom line: either they reinstate Meadows with an apology or we boycott this "lockstep" joke of an ultraleft station.
Posted by: Tom Cod | April 15, 2008 08:54 PM
KC - I think it's outrageous that KZYX reacted the way they did. I've never liked the station because they so incredibly biased (talk about expressing personal opinions! they do it all the time - and to the extreme left). I guess they don't like hearing the truth about the ill-effects of the pot industry in our county. I hope you and Mary will look into legal avenues because I think you've both been treated wrongfully.
Posted by: Merry | April 16, 2008 12:23 PM
As a newspaper editor, I'd think KC Meadows - of all people - would understand how vital it is that a representative of a media organization acting as a moderator remain neutral during a debate.
Remaining nonaligned as a mediator is the only way to ensure free and fair discussion on all sides.
As the host Meadows was free to bring in different parties of varying views and formulate questions to ensure a lively debate covering a range of opinion. The mediator has a lot of leverage in terms of shaping the discussion.
Much like a reporter who takes the trouble to interview people to show the range of feeling on an issue, rather than voicing their own opinion and calling it a day.
Whether Meadows is right that this is because she spoke out against pot, or KZYX Management is right and Meadows jeopardized the station with the FCC by her actions, the result is that there's no longer a radio program dedicated to media issues in the county, and that's a loss for everyone who lives here.
I would think that would matter to some of the people involved, but it doesn't seem to be a concern.
Posted by: Mason | April 17, 2008 12:29 PM
Mason writes:
"As a newspaper editor, I'd think KC Meadows - of all people - would understand how vital it is that a representative of a media organization acting as a moderator remain neutral during a debate."
Meadows most likely is familiar with the theoretical neutrality expected of a "moderator". But she -- in common with every OTHER "public affairs" programmer on previously-public radio -- has never been held to this standard, or held herself to it.
The nominally-"public" station hasn't been so neutral on other matters: when the Measure in question was Measure H, the "station" could hardly keep quiet about its preferences, even on the "news" -- the same was true in the Els Cooperrider candidacy for Fifth District Supervisor, and in the candidacies of Keith Faulder and Tom Allman.
This time around, the public station earlier pulled a "Mind-Body Health" interview with Laura Hamburg -- which was widely promoted as intending to discuss the psychological distress of an "unarmed single mother" intruded upon by the polizei.
The most peculiar part of the station's apparent "pro" position on Measure B is that Memo Parker -- who according to the UDJ is about to be run out of town in a plea deal occasioned by gardening-while-black in Ukiah -- is one of the few people who's kept up pro-democracy criticism of the previously-public station's privatizing of public radio.
Posted by: Anna Taylor | April 21, 2008 02:06 PM