Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Access TV at CITY COUNCIL tonight - VERMONT REGULATORS HOLD COMCAST ACCOUNTABLE

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Issuing Authority OUT of Compliance

Dear Candidates:

On or about June 14th 2017 Mayor Stephanie Muccini-Burke pre-empted the city council meeting from airing live and, instead, during an election cycle, took advantage of the cable TV ratepayers by cablecasting herself.

Muccini-Burke being "Issuing Authority" as well as the sole person in charge of P/E/G is a huge conflict of interest, especially since:

---approximately $600k or 3/5ths of the franchise fee goes into the "general fund"
---approximately $200k goes to pay the salaries of Jack Dempsey, Lisa Dunphy and Allison Goldsberry
---Allegedly, the other 200k is clearly going to the Vocational/Technical school and not the public access, it is a charade, sleight of hand, and it is wrong.

Now Muccini-Burke wants all candidates as well as your nana's cooking show to have a CORI CHECK (?) even if they tape their show at home and mail it in electronically or by the U.S. Post Office, or have a student family member deliver it.

THEN there are outrageous legal aspects of the Producer Agreement designed to be the opposite of outreach and facilitating programming.

Now comes the news that in January of 2017 Comcast was ordered to put P/E/G Access shows in their program guide.

These are the Vermont State Regulators*


City Solicitor, Mark E. Rumley, the wolf in sheep's clothing, failed to retrieve the missing monies from Medford Community Cablevision, Inc.  Mr. Rumley, a member of the MCC TV3 board at least at one point in time, maybe more, allegedly was conflicted to take the case against MCC since former Mayor McGlynn APPOINTED him to the MCC board.

Mr. Rumley allegedly had his own law office at State Rep Donato's address on Spring St. and allegedly was acting as a bill collector at Somerville District Court on Thursdays.  How does the alleged conflict help the citizens of Medford that he is supposed to serve?   He also listed his city e mail address, paid for by taxpayers, on the Immaculate Conception Church website under the perpetual title of "Permanent Deacon."   He changed his e mail address to a Gmail account ONLY after this citizen called him out on his outrageous conduct mixing "church and state."  Purportedly he is now a deacon at Boston College on the Newton line - so why did the Immaculate Conception website say "permanent" when, clearly, that was not the case?

Mr. Rumley's appalling quote to Judge Jackson-Thompson (retired) was a promise and obligation to the citizens, yet NO CANDIDATES in 2017 were allowed on access television except for City Council meetings (and the government has its own auditorium to tape such events) and the mayor herself allegedly abusing her authority in an alleged conflict.


“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.”

Nine years later we find out that our city solicitor  is the alleged author of censorship in Medford

Where is State Rep Donato who calls free speech at an election time "THE MOST PROTECTED RIGHT."  He was screaming from the rooftops when TV 3 censored his political show (because they didn't like what Councilor  (at the time) Muccini-Burke said...

and where is our government regulation?

Can we call out Verizon and Comcast in this censorship? This MEDFORD MEDIA BLACKOUT?

And why are we paying so much money to Ben Brown as "station manager" whose disaster of a start - playing ugly PSAs, NASA and imported programming while avoiding Medford producers - is a slap in the face to the ratepayers AND the First Amendment to the US Constitution

__________________________________________________
The Vermont Access Network, which advocates for 25 public, education and government — or PEG — stations across the state, intervened in the case to establish the public access conditions. The network hailed the ruling as “a substantial victory for free speech, open government and community cohesion.”
Lisa Byer, the executive director of CAT-TV in Bennington, said the public access stations turned to the PSB when negotiations with Comcast over the past several years were unsuccessful. She said the board ruled in favor of solving public access issues that have been around “for 11 years, if not longer.”
• Comcast must build 550 miles of line extensions to reach Vermonters who currently don’t have access to cable television.
• The company must not only carry public access channels, but within one year it must list the programs being shown on each channel in its digital television guide.
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Breanna Lungo-Koehn has something on the agenda for tonight, Sept. 19, regarding access television.

Be there at the council to denounce the Medford Media Blackout, Ben Brown's censorship of programming, and Mark Rumley's lies to the citizens of Medford who pay him so handsomely.
Not alleged lies.  Mark Rumley's blatant and deceitful lies about freedom of speech as told to Judge Marie O. Jackson-Thompson  Nov. 16, 2008. There is no "statute of limitation" on this one, Mr. Rumley must resign and allow a more ethical and proactive lawyer to take his place and serve the citizens of this city.

We have no public access TV.  Your City Solicitor Rumley is a bald-faced liar, a bold-faced liar as well.

Unless citizens speak up instead of being afraid of these bullies, we will have no meeting place, no
exchange of ideas, they will continue to rip off this city with their ugly shenanigans, and we will continue to have fractured roads, physical assaults at City Hall and innocent people dragged into court by a drunk-with-power mayor and her vulgar husband who used an obscenity in front of dozens of citizens and seniors at the Chevalier Auditorium in October of 2015.


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