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Why no access TV for Election 2015?
By Joe Viglione
At Community Day on Sunday, September
13, 2015, I asked candidates their thoughts on no access television for the
2015 election, fifty-one days away from Community Day. With
such a wide field and so many new faces running for school committee, city
council and mayor, Medford does not have the same opportunity people living in
Malden, Somerville, Woburn, Boston, Cambridge and other cities have. For
their elections there is public access TV yet in Medford, where cable
subscribers pay a fee, the lame-duck Mayor, Michael J. McGlynn, has thumbed his
nose at constituents, as he has done for the better part of 28 years.
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On March 26th, 2015, the Mayor requested proposals. The proposal outline was strict and scared away potential bidders. I submitted the sole propose after the Mayor’s request, and made a strong offer, which included giving the title of “issuing authority” to the City Council.
On March 26th, 2015, the Mayor requested proposals. The proposal outline was strict and scared away potential bidders. I submitted the sole propose after the Mayor’s request, and made a strong offer, which included giving the title of “issuing authority” to the City Council.
The “issuing authority” is the entity
that oversees public, educational and governmental TV. In Winchester, for
example, the Selectmen – not Richard
Howard, Town Manager – oversees the cable TV operations. In Medford there is only one person who makes
that decision, the same individual who rammed “pay-to-park” through without
proper public input.
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Who benefits from the “McGlynn Media Blackout” you may ask? Michael J. McGlynn.
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Who benefits from the “McGlynn Media Blackout” you may ask? Michael J. McGlynn.
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Now you ask yourself, why would a
Mayor not running for re-election be so opposed to the First Amendment? It’s a rhetorical question, all the more
glaring when one reads what the City Solicitor said to retired judge Marie O.
Jackson-Thompson on or about November 15, 2008 when the TV3 insanity was
spinning out of control.“The one sentiment that I have heard
that I take great exception to is that the city is trying to limit speech,”
said Rumley. “The notion the city would censor or squelch free speech is
baseless and as city solicitor I would find any such effort repugnant.”
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It is now seven years later and in seven years this Administration under McGlynn has lied to the public and failed to install an access TV station in our city, despite McGlynn having received my proposal – a golden opportunity for us to have a station up and running as far back as April of 2015.
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It is now seven years later and in seven years this Administration under McGlynn has lied to the public and failed to install an access TV station in our city, despite McGlynn having received my proposal – a golden opportunity for us to have a station up and running as far back as April of 2015.
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You pay for access TV, cable TV
subscribers and three salaries at the high school get paid with those
monies. 3/5ths of the monies go to the “general
fund,” while another fifth pays the salaries of Lisa Dunphy, Jack Dempsey and
Allison Goldsberry while the final 1/5th is locked away ostensibly
in a bank account gathering dust.
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If you look at the low-grade videos published
by the Medford Community Coalition on YouTube http://tinyurl.com/mccvideos
you will see candidates who do not have a comfortable setting in a studio with
a lavalier microphone to give clear audio, without proper lighting, putting the
individuals in these videos at a disadvantage.
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On
May 7th City Hall had an “ascertainment” hearing for Comcast, a
month and eleven days after my Community Media Medford access television
proposal. Only one candidate showed up
to fight for the rights of citizens, Mayoral candidate Robert M. Penta.
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Where
was Stephanie Muccini-Burke to fight for the rights of citizens to have access
television? To have education on how to
operate a camera, computer programs, a tripod and more. Mrs. Burke was not there fighting for your
rights. Mrs. Burke has been silent on
the issue of access television that you pay for and do not have. Is it because Mrs. Burke is afraid of being
seen on television? Is she afraid that
candidates who aren’t running around endorsing and supporting her, like Adam
Knight and Fred Dello Russo, Jr., are not the skilled in debate and in speaking
on camera?
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Mark
Rumley tells a retired judge that the city is not “squelching” free speech,
when the city is most certainly stomping on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
If McGlynn has found a legal loophole, what the lame-duck Mayor is doing is
still morally reprehensible, underhanded, and serves only McGlynn’s purposes,
not yours.
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The
office of the Attorney General is in touch with this journalist about the old
Medford Community Cablevision, Inc. That
501c3 requested dissolution which was denied them. The AG’s office cannot fully
respond as it might impeded “law enforcement.”
Meanwhile Mark Rumley was reported in the Transcript as issuing an
ultimatum to MCC TV3 back in July of 2014. Sixteen months later we have no
access, no response from City Hall on that supposed “ultimatum,” and an
election about six weeks away.
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Candidates
Michael Marks, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Neal McSweeney, David McKillop, Neil
Osborne, Mea Mustone, Kathy Kreatz, John
Falco, John Amirault and many others have expressed to me their desire to have
a functioning TV station. Bob Penta has
fought hard for it. Other cities and
towns are flooded with campaign speech and videos, which makes for a more
informed citizenry. In Medford it has
been denied you, though the Mayor knows that this resident is skilled in access
TV, and has the ability to put a station together immediately.
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Michael
J. McGlynn has to step down now. He can’t run for office as the deadline has
past. So why is he doing exactly the opposite of what his, not your, City
Solicitor promised a judge and our community that they, the Mayor and City Solicitor,
would not do: squelch your free speech rights.
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Your
children can’t learn computers. Your
seniors aren’t being taught as Stoneham’s seniors are being taught – at senior
housing – by the Executive Director of Steonham TV. Your grandma can’t do a
cooking show as my beautiful nana did. Your non-profits, like Kitty Connection,
cannot save more homeless animals because of McGlynn’s Media Blackout.
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This goes way beyond denying the new candidates what is rightfully theirs; this is a community resource that a respected source told this reporter that McGlynn stated that he, the Mayor, the issuing authority, “hated.”
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That’s right. McGlynn allegedly came right out and said that he didn’t want access TV, while showboating and throwing the residents false promises and distractions, like his three person cable committee chock full of people who knew nothing about public access TV. Meanwhile the Mayor ignored them anyway when they told him to make it centrally located, and he is now attempting to put it at the high school...after he leaves office.
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This goes way beyond denying the new candidates what is rightfully theirs; this is a community resource that a respected source told this reporter that McGlynn stated that he, the Mayor, the issuing authority, “hated.”
__________________________________________
That’s right. McGlynn allegedly came right out and said that he didn’t want access TV, while showboating and throwing the residents false promises and distractions, like his three person cable committee chock full of people who knew nothing about public access TV. Meanwhile the Mayor ignored them anyway when they told him to make it centrally located, and he is now attempting to put it at the high school...after he leaves office.
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Let’s
petition the Attorney General and force McGlynn’s hand with enough time before
this election, before it is too late.
Sincerely,
Joe
Viglione
Owner,
Community Media Medford
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Joe Viglione is on the board of directors of a local radio station. He started hosting on access TV in 1979 and currently produces Visual Radio.
Joe Viglione is on the board of directors of a local radio station. He started hosting on access TV in 1979 and currently produces Visual Radio.
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NOTES
Medford Community Coalition Videos
