125,601
John Byers (a.k.a. "John from Medford" on WEEI 93.7 and the Sports
Hub 98.5) is one of the oldest volunteer television hosts / producers in
Medford history. Mr Byers feels he was pushed out of TV3 after the
staff created a program, “Dirty Talk Live: Sex Advice, Dirty Talk and Naughty Stories" when Byers, very popular with the sports insiders, was inviting A-list guests.
The soon to be defunct Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. (it's a
bit of a process to properly shut down a 501c3) lied to the news media,
the Medford City Council, the Mayor and the cable TV subscribers funding
the stunt claiming - falsely - some "mysterious producer" had a First
Amendment right to broadcast immature and raunchy buffoonery at an
inappropriate hour. As usual, the irresponsible board of directors
with an agenda made up every excuse in the book in an attempt to
perpetrate a fraud upon the public. Even WBZ's Dan Rea failed to do the
proper investigation into it, just jumping on the chance to have the
now-deposed TV3 president and the recently arrested TV3 webmaster on the
1030 AM airwaves to spin their "self crafted fictions" - to paraphrase
the City Solicitor.
WBZ's Rea was honored by the Massachusetts
Bar Association with its First Annual Excellence in Journalism award
for the Joe Salvati case. Dealing with TV3 got Rea egg on his face and a
big ink stain on his shirt for not properly looking into the false
claims of the failed private access station.
The
Friday October 4, 2013 edition of the Medford Transcript screams in
big, bold letters that the station is shut down. The Patch and the
weekly Transcript have similar loud headlines. Meanwhile a woman from
Malden, not even eligible to be on TV3 according to its now shuttered
"by-laws" - is hurling invective on the Patch when she should be hanging
her head in shame and doing something constructive with her life: like
issuing an apology to the residents of Medford that were scammed by
un-public station. One of the board members - while there is an
ongoing police investigation or two or three or four - is ranting the
usual misinformation, though his own actions while on the highly suspect
board are under scrutiny by cable TV subscribers with questions
for the issuing authority, Michael McGlynn, that need to be answered.
Many questions.
* * * * *
A former vice president of
the soon-to-be-defunct corporation called Mr. Byers today, 10/4/13, and
allegedly - now claims - that he was "defending" Joe Viglione (that
would be me) and the late Pat Fiorello from the attacks by the board of
directors. Nothing could be further from the truth. When TV3 dragged
the aforementioned senior citizen into court this writer (and some
people from Malden) were the only friends Pat could count on. I heard -
on the Monday night show hosted by the ex-VP - remarks that were
disparaging and aimed at me.
Mr. Byers received a second
call from a now-former TV3 member today. This was an individual from
Boston masquerading as a Medford resident. They all want to be back on
Medford TV before the new station even gets a chance to emerge,
incorporate and build a board of directors and hire employees. But they
not only didn't help the community - they worked in concert with the
embattled board of directors putting their own needs ahead of the needs
of the community.
* * * * *
Why is this important information
for the public? Because in order to reach the widest range of voices
and talents when a new station emerges, we can't have those who would
encourage harassment, banning, censorship, ridicule, pornography at an
inappropriate hour, bullying and hate speech in a creative environment.
* * * * *
The soon-to-be-defunct station utilized talking points straight out of the Karl Rove playbook:
---always go on the offensive
---always take things out of context
---always have a team of like-minded offenders beating down critics
from any angle - showing up at people's homes, at their places of
business, lying, and standing in the way of the First Amendment
The key thing that the ex-board of MCC did was to do the exact
opposite of the requirements of the contract that was supposed to be
signed in April of 2005 but - how - in a strange twist of events - was
dated August of 2005.
When the City Solicitor told me he
wanted the now-deposed president to fax the contract over for a fixed
date, he was, basically, being very blunt to this journalist that
something was not proper. The alleged idea was this: the cable
provider's contract was supposed to run parallel with Medford Community
Cablevision, Inc. The now-deposed president, having been in power for
about two decades or more, was clearly moving the goal posts. When the
cable provider's contract expired, he would still hold an agreement
hoping to grandfather him into the next ten years. Truly an
underhanded strategy until he ran into a brick wall: a reporter logging
every trick the now-deposed board of directors wanted to play on the
community.
* * * * *
The sole oversight, the Mayor (a.k.a. the "issuing authority")
In order to set up a new station the Mayor cannot have his way
anymore and allow unqualified and questionable characters who have no
passion for access television to get involved. Where they banned and
censored we intend to open the doors and allow Free Speech while holding
the offenders to "indefinite suspensions." They are going to have to
stay out of trouble (for example, not get arrested for those problematic
false bomb threats), take classes like they forced everyone else to do
(that will make them run! The board of directors - allegedly -
couldn't edit their way out of a cartoon!), and they will have to act
polite, not be offensive, and go out of their way to help other people.
You will quickly find that by playing by real rules, the former regime will simply not want to participate in our new station. We will not have
rules that a now-deposed, self-appointed president made up on a whim
with no quorum, with no input, even to the point of counteracting votes
when a quorum had voted and just changing the rules to please himself.
That is the reality of what we experienced inside that closed shop. It
was a torture chamber, it was a public safety issue, and it is the hope
of the community that the stake is finally driven into the hearts of the
infidels and that the bucket of water has truly melted the wicked witch
of Medford.