Friday, February 14, 2014

Overwhelming evidence in Public Records Request FOI act documents frrom City Hall provide a glimpse into the activities of the ostracized board of directors of the failed access TV station

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http://medford.patch.com/groups/joe-vigliones-blog/p/hockey-football-baseball-soccer-basketball-on-tv-in-medford




The conversation is now changing to what content will be on the new access television station. 

The moms and dads and brothers and sisters and cousins and fans of local sports will get to see their loved ones on TV and get to keep a DVD or other media file of it.   Citizens were denied a Medford hockey broadcast a few years back when those in control of the station went up to the City Council and said they were going to engage in censorship and not broadcast the hockey game (paraphrased.)

We saw Tony Bova's show disappear so my taping of Medford vs. Winthrop (author's note: I was the official cameraman for Winthrop football and hockey prior to moving my show to Winchester) couldn't possibly intrude on self-serving unimportant escapades like "Spotlight On City Hall" (which attacked Tom Lincoln, Dr. William Wood and myself,) "The Chumley Report" (which ridiculed and mocked the City Solicitor,) "Spotlight on Bullying" (where State Rep Paul Donato was blindsided by the self-appointed president and didn't even know he was cablecasting until sports host John Byers phoned in; Donato was "flabbergasted" and it makes one wonder if wiretap laws were violated since Donato was speaking, thinking he could approve it later, and revealing to me later (at a breakfast at a local restaurant) that he didn't even know his thoughts were being sent out to cable TV subscribers. 

Well, like Dunkin Donuts pulling its advertising off of WEEI and its sister stations after Gerry Callahan made some remark (see today's Boston Globe ...

Dunkin’ Donuts cancels ads on WEEI

By Taryn Luna

 |  Globe Correspondent      February 14, 2014
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/02/14/dunkin-donuts-cancels-ads-weei/bWCR8hmIx3CATFgrAsc38L...

...like Dunkin Dounts turning its back on WEEI, we cable TV subscribers have flexed our muscles with the Issuing Authority promising us that the bullying and censorship policies which sent Joe Fortunato, Tony Bova,  Johnny Byers, Daniel Hurley and so many other good, prolific producers and hosts packing are now dissolving like the Wicked Witch of the West, under a bucket of water

Residents know it is safe to come out of hiding and engage in public access TV.

To show how that protection of our residents is continuing, I have just filed a letter with the Chief of Police after discovering in a public records request that a frequent Patch poster intentionally violated Mass General Law 268 13b misleading a police officer.

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On this week's city council agenda a councilor is requesting the councilors speak about the Freedom of Information act, so it is perfect timing to deliver that document to each and every councilor as well as the City Clerk.  Some have already received it via e mail.
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What this means is that you, dear citizen, are going to be able to go to a new TV station where friendliness is the key word, not some gross policies and threats from a  juvenile delinquent with a foul-mouth and a dirty mind engaging in harassment tactics designed to keep everyone away so that "dance parties" and dirty talk live and a filth-fest operated by an individual now under arrest for charges and allegations of a False Bomb Threat can  fester.  Not anymore.

You will actually find professionals who aren't afraid to teach you computer programs because, golly gee, they aren't incompetent and actually KNOW how to teach. There will be classes on cameras, on tripods, on editing, on duplicating and on getting your show on the air.  Gee, what a novel approach!

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On Tuesday, May 4, 2010, about a week after the attack on a citizen at City Hall, a board member of the soon-to-be-defunct Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. wrote this e mail, obtained via public records request:

Date: Tuesday, May 4, 2010  1:25 PM

You know I have to say this about this whole situation.  Our conduct, not individually but collectively together has allowed people to believe that we can continue to threaten, scare, intimidate and harass each other.  We have led people to believe by our continuous public display of lies, manipulations and so much more that we encourage this type of behavior. People running back and forth to police and courts, laughing and making spectacles on cable TV, we seem to be saying, "It's ok." Our battles in using the television station as a weapon and a tool to fight for the power to be right has led people to believe that you must beat each other at any cost.  And now, that cost has become human life."

The letter also goes on to establish that the board member believes TV3 is "guilty."

Final paragraph:
Now, I will see you all Wed and I hope that you will think about what I have typed and really come to the table with some serious decisions and ready to do what it takes to have a working Board and not a schoolyard playground team."

YIKES!  Doesn't that reflect what the City Solicitor noted about board meetings reminding him of being back in ninth or tenth grade?
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Look, the public records requests go beyond revealing the opposite of what the comments from TV3 are posting on Patch to mislead the public.  We know they won't show meeting minutes, we know they won't show financial records, and we have a good idea why.  Anyone know where the equipment from the TV3 van ended up?  Yeah, I thought so. 
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What the Public Records Requests do other than provide the public with a glimpse of the nonsense of those board meetings, is to actually allow us to develop our own "Meeting Minutes" based on the times of the emails and the content in those emails.  Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. was not engaging in the facilitation of access television.  It was engaged in bullying.  You have seen it on Patch.  You have seen it on TV with absolutely no chance to respond if a loved one of yours was bullied on TV as a woman was when an individual stuck her tongue out and made a lewd and lascivious comment about a homosexual woman she was, clearly, jealous of.  With the TV3 Vice President Ron DeLucia egging it all on, and the host of the show under arrest for the allegation /charge of causing "serious public alarm."

It's been a tough battle, but the Public Records Requests show the content of the character (or lack thereof) of MCC TV3.  It is an excellent guide map to show the Cable TV Committee that wants to move forward. Move forward we will. 

The Public Records Requests are evidence that moving forward means not allowing the bad element that engaged in that conduct, four of those individuals showing up at the first meeting, to ever play hide and seek with the financial records and meeting minutes ever again. Moving forward means that ignoring the information in the public records requests will allow the old cronies to sabotage our new efforts.  Moving forward means not ignoring the bad practices and policies of the past station.

We must be vigilant to keep that from happening in this city ever again.

To be continued, Tuesday night, at the City Council of Medford.

We are building a new access TV station, and we deserve an opportunity to do so without being badgered by two cantankerous old vice presidents, a lunatic board member littering on Patch, and some pushy producer from a Monday night program thinking that the community is just going to absolve them of their sins (even if it is the sin of ignoring the wrongful conduct when they could have spoken out about it) and just forget what happened over the past decade and a half. 

Think of the humiliation exacted on Breanna Lungo Koehn and Stephanie Muccini Burke and their families in violation of the rules prohibiting a 501c3 from engaging in that sort of conduct if you pause and think the entrenched cronies should be allowed to infiltrate and sabotage ever again.

We haven't come this far just to open that door and say "OH, OK, we can't wait to be abused again."  No.  Absolutely not.

The time has come for a fresh start at public access TV, a fresh start means a good ten years before the old entrenched cronies try to infiltrate our brand new access TV station.