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Saturday, September 14, 2013

51 Days to Election Day. 30,000 voters needed to denounce TV3

Fifty-One Days to Election 2013, November 5


http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20131105T00&p0=43&msg=Election+Day+2013+McGlynn+Removal


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Fifty-One Days to Election 2013, November 5


http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20131105T00&p0=43&msg=Election+Day+2013+McGlynn+Removal


     On September 24, 2013 at the City Council I urge all candidates for elected office, Anthony D'Antonio for Mayor and the seven new faces vying for a seat on the City Council, to speak on issues that matter to them.

     Right now the only game in town is the City Council meeting broadcast on the Government channel.  I heard that Verizon didn't cablecast the September 10 meeting live.  If this is true than more citizens are being kept in the dark, not getting information, on a vital election that can re-shape the city of Medford.
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     Boston Red Sox 5 vs  NY Yankees 1 as I write this at 3:04 PM on Saturday
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http://www.medford.org/pages/MedfordMA_Council/index
Summer meetings:
July 9, August 6, September 10, September 24, October 1, 2013
Meeting will be in the Council Chambers 7:00 PM

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     I like many of the candidates as people.  As I told both Neil Osborne and Jeanne Martin, they both have to find another 5,000 votes out there to ensure victory if they want to assure themselves their efforts aren't wasted. 

     No disrespect to Mark Crowley or Jimmy Morse intended, I'm sure they are working hard.  My point is: no candidate appears to be making the political statement and having that statement heard that can deliver a victory come the evening of November 5.
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     I encountered Martha Coakley in 1998 when she was leaving TV3 at 40 Canal Street back when the Louise Woodward/British nanny case was on the news.  Coakley was utilizing public access television to get her message out.  You can't do that in 2013 in the city of Medford.
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     Around the same time politicians were flocking around Somerville's SCAT in Union Square.  You could see them chatting outside the station awaiting their turn for air time, facetime on the cable TV station in their city.
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     The arts community in Medford, the Chevalier Theater, the library, there are so many organizations and groups that lose out when access television is ripped away from a community.  Interaction, the creation of intellectual property, the sharing of ideas.   This is my argument to Carl Sciortino, Sean Garballey, Pat Jehlen, Paul Donato and members of the school committee and the city council.  Now had all these groups listened to me prior to the Judge Jackson-Thompson evaluation in 2008, had people not fragmented and failed to focus on the problem with our access TV station, the residents AND the politicians would be better informed today as there wouldn't be a cabal controlling - and failing to program - a channel that belongs to us, not to them.
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     This is a huge mistake on the part of Michael J. McGlynn, yet McGlynn benefits from it.  By silencing opposing points of view, by not giving the residents what they pay for (indeed, the Mayor pours our monies into his "General Fund" while we don't get what we are buying), McGlynn gets his message out via the news media, and his opponent is at a BIGGER disadvantage than he was in 2011, except for one thing.  In 2011 the Mayor wrongfully aired his Comcast commercial day in and day out while Anthony D'Antonio was told the superb DVD had "audio difficulties."  Yes, audio difficulties if a child just out of the playpen listens to it and doesn't like what he hears, perhaps, but not to the outraged residents getting ripped off by individuals who are not qualified to promote Free Speech.
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       When Neil Osborne and Adam Knight and Jimmy Morse and Jeanne Martin and Bob Fitzpatrick and Robert Cappuci and Mark Crowley all storm the Mayor's office and demand that they will file an injunction on the Mayor unless he opens up the access television airwaves; until Anthony D'Antonio does the same, they can tell me they are campaigning full speed ahead all they want.  The fact of the matter is, you reach more people via the television than you do licking postage stamps (toss in circular file) or pounding the pavement.  You state your case on TV, let the news media pick it up and THEN you get the repeat spins on YouTube via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or however else you re-promote your appearance.
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   McGlynn already has the advantage.  He can say "Oh, it's an ongoing police investigation" or he can say "IN 2015 we'll fix it" - but will McGlynn still be in power in 2015?  And why should he be.
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   The other point about TV3 is this: it is the Mayor's fault.  The Mayor could have pulled the plug after the Melanson Heath audit and the Judge Jackson Thompson and Rumley reports.  He chose not to.  And it has backfired on McGlynn in an elegant and most telling way.  The Mayor - the Issuing Authority - is totally at fault on this one and he BENEFITS by you not having what you pay for.
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   Now for the anonymous poster who keeps - falsely - claiming there is no use for cable access programming, here's the reality.  We pay for it.  If we pay for too much bread or too much milk we are still ENTITLED to that bread or milk that we purchase.  Until those contracts are changed we are paying for something we are not getting and that should fill the consumer with rage.
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   I challenge Anthony D'Antonio, Mark Crowley and the other candidates to put something - your point of view - on the agenda on September 24, October 1, October 8, October 15, October 22 and October 29th.  LET THE RESIDENTS KNOW WHAT YOU STAND FOR!  You have six council meetings left.  I intend to speak at each and every one of them about voter apathy, about the need for Medford civic groups to band together and fight for what is ours, about the crosswalks and potholes and empty storefronts and the lack of access TV in our city.  No one will silence me.  This is the MOST PROTECTED RIGHT according to State Rep Donato and you are listening to a man who HAS been censored and who has fought back and won.
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   Medford residents need to be heard on November 5th.  The candidates need to speak to us over the next 52 days.  Because there are 51 days up to November 5, 52 days left to get as many votes as you can, candidates.    Thirty thousand residents need to come out and vote. Have you really reached out to all those voters, have you candidates reached those voters, and are you sure they are going to do their civic duty come November 5th?



http://medford.patch.com/groups/rock-journalist-joe-vig-/p/51-days-to-nov-5--thirty-thousand-voters-need-to-turn-out