Olen Reid Ashe III is dead today. The 23-year-old son of O. Reid Ashe Jr., the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Media General in Richmond died on impact when his parachute failed to open while skydiving in Georgia this week.
According to news reports, the 23-year-old Georgia Tech student was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. from massive external and internal injuries at Skydive The Farm in Rockmart, Ga.
The senior Reid told Media General news services that his son became an infrequent skydiver after a friend’s death in a skydiving mishap about a year-and-a-half ago but had recently resumed jumping.
Our condolences and prayers are with the family.
For the full story CLICK HERE.
As a reader commented at the end of the story on the Register & Bee's web-site..."What does this have to do with Danville other than it is the son of the COO of Media General?" Good point. I'm posting the story here because I think it's sad for anyone to lose a child - even an evil Media General mogul. At our core we're all human and while I have no doubt Reid could care less about the rank and file of his company - moi' included, I'd like to think the tragic death of his son may have gotten his attention and showed him that not even money, status and fame shields any of us from tragedy or an accounting with God. Maybe Mr. Reid's hard heart will crack a bit now and he'll have a bit of compassion for the public...I wonder if the media was allowed out in the field to photograph the broken body....the grief-stricken friends...like Media General wants all of its reporters to do with everyone else...or because it WAS a Media General family did they stay away "out of respect" for one of their own? If it's good for the goose - then it should be good for the gander....So, hopefully Reid let and will let or encourage the reporters and photographers to have free reign. After all Mr. Reid....it DOES sell papers....
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Harbor Freight in Danville hiring
Maybe it's not making the big splashy news that the new mall has, but Harbor Freight, a hardware store with a national following - is also opening in Danville - right next to Schewel's furniture behind the Bojangles on Piedmont - across from Toys R' Us. If you can't find it with all those landmarks - you don't need to be handling tools anyway!
The "We're hiring signs" are now posted on the side of Piedmont Drive and the NEW Harbor Freight sign is up at the edge of the parking lot.
Wonder why that didn't get any coverage???
The "We're hiring signs" are now posted on the side of Piedmont Drive and the NEW Harbor Freight sign is up at the edge of the parking lot.
Wonder why that didn't get any coverage???
Danville's history all white
Danville, VA is the last city of the Confederacy - the last hold-out in a war to defend the right to own people like they were a commodity. While there were white slaves and Native American slaves, for the most part slaves were Black. And while African Americans have come a long way since the Confederacy surrendered (just half a mile from where I live now!!) in Danville, there's one nut they haven't cracked. Sure, our mayor, councilmen and women, businesses and local leaders and even on the Board of Supervisors African Americans are in positions of power. But who would know? The newspaper is all white. All male and all white. Women and Blacks (and old people, don't forget - Steve Kaylor doesn't want any "grandmothers" or old women involved in his latest production - "All About Her" -just young sexy chicks)....are pretty much left out of the mix. (Yes Steve, I taped the meeting where your comments were discussed and you were Dis'ed by all the women present...remember - you came in to meet them all and were confronted over the comment about no gran'ma's...But then again, you lied to the face of the woman who asked you what you were going to do about the reporter who videotaped her breasts without her consent...told her that was the first you'd heard about it. Too bad you didn't remember all the emails you and I had over that. I sent them to her. Everyone else can read a couple of them in this blog - they're near the beginning).
But I digress....
Even with the occasional Black reporter - where's the diversity in management? There's certainly a lot of sexual diversity - married, straight, gay, married and sleeping with other staffers, married and dating other staffers, gay and dating other staffers, gay and married, married and not sure....single and never dated - but where is the diversity when it comes to culture and news? White males are the ones deciding what Danville's history will be - because the daily newspaper IS the history. There's no news from the Black churches, or about the Black leadership in Danville. Why not?
Danville has a Black, female Fire Marshall Shelby Irvine. When I wrote my first story about Shelby the copy desk person changed her title to "Assistant Fire Marshall," because they said there was "no way" she could be THE Fire Inspector. Surprise boys. She is. At a celebration of the oldest fire station in Danville event last year one old-timer said there had been a lot of changes since he was a fire-fighter - one, that not only were there minorities on the department but a double minority as Fire Marshall - both Black and Female. I don't think his comment was made with the best of intentions, but he had a point.
Shelby's an incredible manager and good at what she does, but when I was at the paper, the Danville Register & Bee managers didn't think she'd be a good candidate for a story...white advertisers and all that...
So, not to drag anyone into the spotlight, but why is the African American community letting an all-white newspaper (except for the janitors, front desk, carriers and finance office) write their history, snub their leaders and limit mention of Blacks to stabbings, shootings, gangs and robberies? Women of all color suffer too. When's the last time you saw a female leader or business owner portrayed?
Just curious. But then, so are others. Danville may be racist - and is, but if you're a businessperson the only color that should matter is GREEN. Read here:
But I digress....
Even with the occasional Black reporter - where's the diversity in management? There's certainly a lot of sexual diversity - married, straight, gay, married and sleeping with other staffers, married and dating other staffers, gay and dating other staffers, gay and married, married and not sure....single and never dated - but where is the diversity when it comes to culture and news? White males are the ones deciding what Danville's history will be - because the daily newspaper IS the history. There's no news from the Black churches, or about the Black leadership in Danville. Why not?
Danville has a Black, female Fire Marshall Shelby Irvine. When I wrote my first story about Shelby the copy desk person changed her title to "Assistant Fire Marshall," because they said there was "no way" she could be THE Fire Inspector. Surprise boys. She is. At a celebration of the oldest fire station in Danville event last year one old-timer said there had been a lot of changes since he was a fire-fighter - one, that not only were there minorities on the department but a double minority as Fire Marshall - both Black and Female. I don't think his comment was made with the best of intentions, but he had a point.
Shelby's an incredible manager and good at what she does, but when I was at the paper, the Danville Register & Bee managers didn't think she'd be a good candidate for a story...white advertisers and all that...
So, not to drag anyone into the spotlight, but why is the African American community letting an all-white newspaper (except for the janitors, front desk, carriers and finance office) write their history, snub their leaders and limit mention of Blacks to stabbings, shootings, gangs and robberies? Women of all color suffer too. When's the last time you saw a female leader or business owner portrayed?
Just curious. But then, so are others. Danville may be racist - and is, but if you're a businessperson the only color that should matter is GREEN. Read here:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Newspaper carriers not allowed to use the bathroom....
If your newspaper carrier is delivering your paper with legs crossed, hoping up and down and grabbing their crotch - don't mistake that for the sexual antics at the Danville Register & Bee. The poor guy/gal probably has to use the bathroom - they're not allowed to use the ones at the newspaper now that the press room is closed.
Yup. Can't afford it. Paper carriers who often have to wait four to five hours for late papers being trucked in from Lynchburg must wait in their cars without access to a bathroom!!! While the management at The Danville Register & Bee considers the whole town as their private toilet and P*** on whomever they please - the carriers aren't so fortunate.
Danville Register & Bee publisher Steve Kaylor is now the "Toilet Nazi" too I suppose. May he grow old and incontinent...
Yup. Can't afford it. Paper carriers who often have to wait four to five hours for late papers being trucked in from Lynchburg must wait in their cars without access to a bathroom!!! While the management at The Danville Register & Bee considers the whole town as their private toilet and P*** on whomever they please - the carriers aren't so fortunate.
Danville Register & Bee publisher Steve Kaylor is now the "Toilet Nazi" too I suppose. May he grow old and incontinent...
Sidney Rudd are you listening?
Sidney Rudd is a Danville resident who wrote in to The Danville Register & Bee to urge subscribers to cancel their subscriptions until the 12 folks in the graphics department were rehired. Thanks Sidney. It will take advertisers withholding their ads - not just subscribers -to get the paper to change. Even this blog hasn't been able to wring an acknowledgment of wrongdoing out of the paper or Media General.
What Sidney Rudd and most of Danville may not know or realize is that at one time 30 to 40 people worked in pressroom alone. Those numbers have dwindled over the last couple of years as the paper began sending work to Lynchburg while it made plans to shut the pressroom down.
Sidney doesn't know about the nine jobs lost last Oct. in the composing room when those jobs were laid off as well. Those jobs are being done now by temps in Lynchburg who think that if they do a good enough job they'll be hired permanently!! NOT! Those temp jobs weren't announced to the public and neither were the Classified Department jobs which were terminated or laid off so the work could be sent to Lynchburg to more temps. Then there were the photographer's jobs. Folks, do you like seeing the photos that reporters (who are really writers - not photographers) are taking? Publisher Steve Kaylor acts like it's some sort of great thing that reporters are also having to take photos - but the fact is, unless you are, by training and ability, a natural born writer and photographer - it's very difficult to both effectively and efficiently. Such individuals - ones who do both well, the industry itself concedes - are rare. Publisher Steve Kaylor told local groups like the Rotary that it was part of an effort to do better journalism when in fact - it leads to worse journalism and poorer coverage. All it really does is save stockholders and the corporation money. There is no benefit to the community at all.
THEN..... [CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE THE LETTER SO YOU CAN READ IT]
Gotta love this letter from a reader regarding how one reporter covered a political event. Sorry readers - this young reporter is a self-proclaimed socialist who grew up down the street from Obama and who thinks he walks on water. She's also from Chicago, so don't expect her to understand or care about issues in the south side. She's here to start a career - not to set down roots. She's had little to no training at The Register & Bee and doesn't have any guidance - but she is good friends with and parties from time to time with Darren and Brandy (Remember them - the supervisor "dating" his employee - not a problem except he was married to a very nice woman who thought Brandy was her friend - not sleeping with her husband...). They don't do journalism at The Danville Register & Bee folks. So stop expecting it. They don't care how much you complain as long as you buy the paper and buy ads. They don't care what you think or what to know about politics...or accurate reporting. We're talking a youngster with NO prior experience other than taking photos and deciding she likes to write....You're better off with blogs or attending meetings yourself...or subscribing to The Star Tribune...[CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE THE LETTER SO YOU CAN READ IT]
How the media sells out to police, politicians, money
The media, especially the "mainstream media" regularly "sells out" to pressure from the police, politicians and advertisers. So what? You may shrug. If, like the bicycle riders who were assaulted this week in San Francisco, you become a victim of a crime - or this indifference, you may care. Brasscheck.com has a variety of information, manuals etc on how media works with agencies to "sit" on "confusing" footage...like Media General will "sit on" negative news.....it's all over. It's your "media." This from the link above. Click here to read more:
How to Stage a
"Picture Perfect" Media Op
- Part One
It takes cooperation :-) - Radio reporter ready to roll
Five common myths about
San Francisco Police Department media operations - Media Ops
Following on the smashing success of the July 25 Critical Mass ride, it's easy to fall under the incorrect assumption that media ops are easy to conduct successfully. On the contrary. Coordinating news people and police officers in order to achieve the desired media/political outcome is a significant logistical challenge.
# Myth: Great media ops "just happen"
Reality: Media ops require careful advanced planning. The training, deployment, and management of a dozen or so squads of riot equiped police officers is not a spur of moment decision.
# Myth: Media ops are foolproof
Reality: Things can and do go wrong on media ops.
Examples of things that can go wrong include: a) unauthorized cameras and eye witnesses distorting the SFPD version of events with photographic evidence and b) failure to give media proper time to set up their equipment and/or sufficient motivation to run the story.
# Myth: The media may "see through" a media op and report the mechanisms of media ops to the public
Reality: Not a realistic concern.
Long experience has shown that the likelihood of this happening is extremely remote. There's no single recorded incident of a responsible media outlet behaving in such an unprofessional way. Even an experienced press photographer in the middle of a situation that is less than "picture perfect" can usually be counted on to sit on "confusing" footage
# Myth: Media ops are a waste of city resources.
Reality: Nothing could be further from the truth!
Media ops such as the one we will be decribing in this tutorial kill two birds with one stone: the media op itself and the psycho-social impression made on onlookers, participants, and the police officers themselves. Think of it as a kind of guerilla theater, an opportunity to demonstrate through movement and costumes the atittude of our mayor towards the American tradition of democracy and free speech.
# Myth: Media ops are hazardous.
Reality: Yes and no.
Certainly hazardous to people on the wrong side of the police line, but rarely hazardous to police officers themselves or holders of police department-authorized press credentials. Given legal safeguards, liability consequences for individual officers are exceedingly rare and can be neutralized through any number of readily available means.
How to Stage a
"Picture Perfect" Media Op
- Part One
It takes cooperation :-) - Radio reporter ready to roll
Five common myths about
San Francisco Police Department media operations - Media Ops
Following on the smashing success of the July 25 Critical Mass ride, it's easy to fall under the incorrect assumption that media ops are easy to conduct successfully. On the contrary. Coordinating news people and police officers in order to achieve the desired media/political outcome is a significant logistical challenge.
# Myth: Great media ops "just happen"
Reality: Media ops require careful advanced planning. The training, deployment, and management of a dozen or so squads of riot equiped police officers is not a spur of moment decision.
# Myth: Media ops are foolproof
Reality: Things can and do go wrong on media ops.
Examples of things that can go wrong include: a) unauthorized cameras and eye witnesses distorting the SFPD version of events with photographic evidence and b) failure to give media proper time to set up their equipment and/or sufficient motivation to run the story.
# Myth: The media may "see through" a media op and report the mechanisms of media ops to the public
Reality: Not a realistic concern.
Long experience has shown that the likelihood of this happening is extremely remote. There's no single recorded incident of a responsible media outlet behaving in such an unprofessional way. Even an experienced press photographer in the middle of a situation that is less than "picture perfect" can usually be counted on to sit on "confusing" footage
# Myth: Media ops are a waste of city resources.
Reality: Nothing could be further from the truth!
Media ops such as the one we will be decribing in this tutorial kill two birds with one stone: the media op itself and the psycho-social impression made on onlookers, participants, and the police officers themselves. Think of it as a kind of guerilla theater, an opportunity to demonstrate through movement and costumes the atittude of our mayor towards the American tradition of democracy and free speech.
# Myth: Media ops are hazardous.
Reality: Yes and no.
Certainly hazardous to people on the wrong side of the police line, but rarely hazardous to police officers themselves or holders of police department-authorized press credentials. Given legal safeguards, liability consequences for individual officers are exceedingly rare and can be neutralized through any number of readily available means.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
When NY cops go looking for trouble they find it
Too bad this cop didn't realize his sorry butt was being videotaped. It's jerks like this that give good cops a bad name. Maybe he can get a job as a reporter with Media General after he gets out of the slammer:
http://gothamist.com/2008/07/28/cop_caught_on_video_assaulting_cycl.php
http://gothamist.com/2008/07/28/cop_caught_on_video_assaulting_cycl.php
All male, all white sports....
Well, at least the Register & Bee is in poor company - with Chicago newspapers.
A recent study as reported in Editor & Publisher says
"Newspaper Sports Departments Mostly Male, White"
Surprise...surprise...surprise...as Gomer Pyle would say....
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: June 26, 2008 4:10 PM ET
CHICAGO Newspaper sports departments remain nearly all white and male -- and progress towards diversity is painfully slow, concludes a "report card" on sports staffing released Thursday at the annual meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).
The report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) surveyed 378 APSE member newspapers and Web sites, and said they had earned a "C" for "racial hiring practices," and an "F" for gender hiring practices.
"This report shows that in 2008, 94% of the sports editors; 89% of the assistant sports editors; 88% of our columnists; 87% of our reporters; and 89% of our copy editors/designers are white, and those same positions are 94%, 90%, 94%, 91%, and 84% male," wrote Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES, which is housed at the University of Central Florida. MORE
A recent study as reported in Editor & Publisher says
"Newspaper Sports Departments Mostly Male, White"
Surprise...surprise...surprise...as Gomer Pyle would say....
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: June 26, 2008 4:10 PM ET
CHICAGO Newspaper sports departments remain nearly all white and male -- and progress towards diversity is painfully slow, concludes a "report card" on sports staffing released Thursday at the annual meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).
The report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) surveyed 378 APSE member newspapers and Web sites, and said they had earned a "C" for "racial hiring practices," and an "F" for gender hiring practices.
"This report shows that in 2008, 94% of the sports editors; 89% of the assistant sports editors; 88% of our columnists; 87% of our reporters; and 89% of our copy editors/designers are white, and those same positions are 94%, 90%, 94%, 91%, and 84% male," wrote Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES, which is housed at the University of Central Florida. MORE
Search engine launches
A new search engine launched yesterday....not great shakes yet but has potential...
www.cuil.com. Cuil (pronounced "Cool") was created by former Google engineers and is three times faster with three times the results as Google...just a few bugs to work out and sometimes it's hung up because of all the traffic since yesterday's launch. Things to search for:
Media General layoffs
Danville Register and Bee
Danville, VA.....
www.cuil.com. Cuil (pronounced "Cool") was created by former Google engineers and is three times faster with three times the results as Google...just a few bugs to work out and sometimes it's hung up because of all the traffic since yesterday's launch. Things to search for:
Media General layoffs
Danville Register and Bee
Danville, VA.....
How news is done...
Ever wonder how things like projects and news gets decided? While this little video is about "What if Stop signs were designed by committee," It reminds me a lot of how news gets done...especially here in Danville. Watch and enjoy.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Skype - Free phone calls guys
If you've been looking at the Feedjit map (to the right) you may have noticed that this blog has readers from all over the world!! Thanks guys! Hope you're enjoying it. Some folks emailed me to ask what my Skype name is. Those folks I sent it to! Anyway...
I was also reminded by my friends in London that Skype is FREE for everyone - since I do talk to London a couple of times a week (I have freelance clients all over the world). So I'm sharing my secret to FREE worldwide phone calls...see for yourself. No trail period...just free. No spam, no adware...just FREE VOIP for Skype to Skype users and about 2 cents a minute for calls to land lines. No contracts either.
If you have kids in college, are going overseas - whatever, calling is free. Skype also has cell phones (calls are free but phones aren't available in the US yet) and all kinds of things that make life easier and cheaper for anyone doing anything overseas..including video broadcasts. I use their record feature for phone calls...nice. They have business phones...the least expensive VOIP phones out there. Check them out. You can also get your own phone number and voice mail too! If you have internet and use a cell phone you can now get Skype desk phone and not have to pay insane amounts for a land line but get the same quality.
I upload a lot of large graphic files and transfer big files too - and their file transfer program associated with the instant messaging etc. is great. Anyway - that's my promo for the day - check out Skype!
I was also reminded by my friends in London that Skype is FREE for everyone - since I do talk to London a couple of times a week (I have freelance clients all over the world). So I'm sharing my secret to FREE worldwide phone calls...see for yourself. No trail period...just free. No spam, no adware...just FREE VOIP for Skype to Skype users and about 2 cents a minute for calls to land lines. No contracts either.
If you have kids in college, are going overseas - whatever, calling is free. Skype also has cell phones (calls are free but phones aren't available in the US yet) and all kinds of things that make life easier and cheaper for anyone doing anything overseas..including video broadcasts. I use their record feature for phone calls...nice. They have business phones...the least expensive VOIP phones out there. Check them out. You can also get your own phone number and voice mail too! If you have internet and use a cell phone you can now get Skype desk phone and not have to pay insane amounts for a land line but get the same quality.
I upload a lot of large graphic files and transfer big files too - and their file transfer program associated with the instant messaging etc. is great. Anyway - that's my promo for the day - check out Skype!
Send your toilet paper now!!
Thanks to the reader who sent this photo in. Yes...it is sad how Mrs. Grant's "Register & Bee" has become a mere shadow of what good news once was....
How much longer until the main building is closed? The basement (Unless Steve Kaylor has decided to rent out the rooms by the hour for the employees who think the newsroom is really a dating service) is empty. Other newspapers in the area have been "absorbed" and well...the Register & Bee can't really afford to keep the bathrooms open. They sent a memo around telling employees to use only the ONE bathroom for men/women so they could save on "cleaning and maintenance costs." How much does it cost to scrub a toilet? Hmmmm...please send the R&B a roll of toilet paper...or drop off a roll. Maybe if Danville covers the cost of their butt wiping they can afford another reporter! Seriously! At 75 cents a roll...who knows. We could rejuvenate the paper for less than a $1 per person!
Lies, lies, telling you sweet little lies....
A five-year-old boy is without a mother, a young husband is without a wife or his full-term baby this month. According to friends of the young widower Danville Regional Medical Center may be to blame.
The young woman, due to deliver her second child, went to the hospital and complained of not being able to breathe. She was told she was "having a panic attack" and then sent home where she and her unborn baby died. The autopsy is being conducted out of state at Duke because of fears of a cover-up.
Will we see the news of this in The Danville Register & Bee? Not likely. The paper has, according to Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisor Coy Harville, a "million-dollar contract" with the hospital. That usually translates into "no negative press." I know I was told not to write about any of the almost 50 cases of neglect, abuse and financial issues there. If there is any news it will be only that a lawsuit was filed.
I've had to deal with the financial screw-up of their billing system - which is still not fixed. And - Jennifer and Raymond Custer - the recent recipients of the Habitat House for Humanity (and both in wheelchairs), both long-term hospital volunteers, tell me the hospital has a new policy of not allowing the handicapped to volunteer. Hm....won't see that in the paper. And while individual doctors and some staff truly are wonderful and caring, you have to wonder what's really happening there. Staff tells me they will be fired or forced out if they express any dissatisfaction at all with the hospital. Sad. The whole point of finding and getting rid of waste, abuse, incompetence is so the majority of the community benefits - not the dunderhead causing all the problems.
Follow the money...the paper can be bought for the right amount of advertising....or if you know the right people...remember, the other media reported on the paper's drunken sports editor but Arnold Hendrix kept it out of the Register & Bee....until Bernard Baker had a long moment of ethical pressure and ran a story about a DUI, thus ensuring himself, as he told me, "On Arnold's sh*t list." Crossing Arnold by criticizing his very good friend John Coscia also earned photographer Richard Davis a place on the list. It's really sweet that Arnold cared so much for his friend, but really sour that he black-balled anyone who tried to bring reason to the situation. Still - Media General likes that in a person.
So, do you worry about what's being hidden in Danville? Not until it affects your family. Ask the paper why they pulled a reporter out of Richmond and opted against covering what our politicians were doing - in favor of having another reporter to cover car wrecks and fires - which sell more newspapers. Who cares if you know what legislation (uranium, dog and pet laws) and other things are being debated and decided without your knowledge or input - unless you choose to live in Richmond while the legislators are in session. Nope. Who cares what your leaders are doing! GOTTA sell those papers to money in the pockets of newspaper stock holders who mostly live outside Danville....
Do any of you belong to the Kiwanis? Rotary? Elks? Ask Publisher Steve Kaylor about that. Ask him how he justifies feeding you a steady diet of fires, car wrecks and stabbings rather than talking to the hunters and finding out about what's happening with efforts to make hunting with dogs illegal in the state, or giving PETA advocates the right to come into your homes for no reason other than they want to to inspect your homes if you have more than two dogs, breed dogs or adopt a pet from the local animal shelter?
Farmers make up the majority of the county's income. Why doesn't the paper have an ag page? No advertising. Doesn't matter what's important to the community. What matters is what is important to the newspapers' profit and loss statement.
Did Steve Kaylor tell you all that the paper wasn't going to move operations, that the paper was going to do this and do that...he lied didn't he? He has known for more than a year about the plans Media General had for layoffs, for moving money and operations out of the area. He lied to the woman who asked him point blank what he was going to do about the reporter who filmed her breasts without her consent or permission and then showed the video around the newsroom so Bernard Baker, Robert Benson and Arnold Hendrix - all managers, could come over and laugh at it and make rude comments. Maybe I'll post photos of all three men later so you can see how they "qualify" to make rude comments about a woman's body....
Wake up Danville. You're being denied access to information you need and that could help your businesses...all so the Register & Bee can make a dollar...
The young woman, due to deliver her second child, went to the hospital and complained of not being able to breathe. She was told she was "having a panic attack" and then sent home where she and her unborn baby died. The autopsy is being conducted out of state at Duke because of fears of a cover-up.
Will we see the news of this in The Danville Register & Bee? Not likely. The paper has, according to Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisor Coy Harville, a "million-dollar contract" with the hospital. That usually translates into "no negative press." I know I was told not to write about any of the almost 50 cases of neglect, abuse and financial issues there. If there is any news it will be only that a lawsuit was filed.
I've had to deal with the financial screw-up of their billing system - which is still not fixed. And - Jennifer and Raymond Custer - the recent recipients of the Habitat House for Humanity (and both in wheelchairs), both long-term hospital volunteers, tell me the hospital has a new policy of not allowing the handicapped to volunteer. Hm....won't see that in the paper. And while individual doctors and some staff truly are wonderful and caring, you have to wonder what's really happening there. Staff tells me they will be fired or forced out if they express any dissatisfaction at all with the hospital. Sad. The whole point of finding and getting rid of waste, abuse, incompetence is so the majority of the community benefits - not the dunderhead causing all the problems.
Follow the money...the paper can be bought for the right amount of advertising....or if you know the right people...remember, the other media reported on the paper's drunken sports editor but Arnold Hendrix kept it out of the Register & Bee....until Bernard Baker had a long moment of ethical pressure and ran a story about a DUI, thus ensuring himself, as he told me, "On Arnold's sh*t list." Crossing Arnold by criticizing his very good friend John Coscia also earned photographer Richard Davis a place on the list. It's really sweet that Arnold cared so much for his friend, but really sour that he black-balled anyone who tried to bring reason to the situation. Still - Media General likes that in a person.
So, do you worry about what's being hidden in Danville? Not until it affects your family. Ask the paper why they pulled a reporter out of Richmond and opted against covering what our politicians were doing - in favor of having another reporter to cover car wrecks and fires - which sell more newspapers. Who cares if you know what legislation (uranium, dog and pet laws) and other things are being debated and decided without your knowledge or input - unless you choose to live in Richmond while the legislators are in session. Nope. Who cares what your leaders are doing! GOTTA sell those papers to money in the pockets of newspaper stock holders who mostly live outside Danville....
Do any of you belong to the Kiwanis? Rotary? Elks? Ask Publisher Steve Kaylor about that. Ask him how he justifies feeding you a steady diet of fires, car wrecks and stabbings rather than talking to the hunters and finding out about what's happening with efforts to make hunting with dogs illegal in the state, or giving PETA advocates the right to come into your homes for no reason other than they want to to inspect your homes if you have more than two dogs, breed dogs or adopt a pet from the local animal shelter?
Farmers make up the majority of the county's income. Why doesn't the paper have an ag page? No advertising. Doesn't matter what's important to the community. What matters is what is important to the newspapers' profit and loss statement.
Did Steve Kaylor tell you all that the paper wasn't going to move operations, that the paper was going to do this and do that...he lied didn't he? He has known for more than a year about the plans Media General had for layoffs, for moving money and operations out of the area. He lied to the woman who asked him point blank what he was going to do about the reporter who filmed her breasts without her consent or permission and then showed the video around the newsroom so Bernard Baker, Robert Benson and Arnold Hendrix - all managers, could come over and laugh at it and make rude comments. Maybe I'll post photos of all three men later so you can see how they "qualify" to make rude comments about a woman's body....
Wake up Danville. You're being denied access to information you need and that could help your businesses...all so the Register & Bee can make a dollar...
Seven of 27 remain
A look back at a 2000 Christmas card shows the attrition rate at The Danville Register & Bee. Only seven of these 27 employees remain today. Armand "Mr. Hormone" Nardi, is front and center...The woman to Nardi's right has since died.. several have retired, a few went on to better jobs, the nightside staff wasn't pictured, others have quit because of ways they were being treated, five were terminated. Now, you have to ask yourself, WHY the high termination rate? Are they that poor at interviewing that they hire so many folks who need to be terminated? Or are those who are terminated unwilling to quit or be forced out?
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Discovery Channel interviews Edgar Mitchell
The Discovery Channel also interviewed Edgar Mitchell The man is either dead on truthful or a complete mental case. You decide. I suppose if Media General decides to cover this story a UFO would have to crash or burn or an alien would have to be stabbed or have breasts (for the intrepid chest video-taping reporters) to make it news. Since in general, Media General can't recognize what is newsworthy as opposed to what will sell newspapers, the stand-by definition of "put it on the front page if someone dies, gets seriously hurt, stabbed, shot, burned or murdered" wouldn't apply to the discovery of alien life....unless the aliens were stabbed, shot or crashed. Notice that even the first news reports of the UFO in Roswell, NM were of a crash!!! The tried and true formula holds - "If it bleeds it leads." Anyway, read the Discovery Channel's interview here:
Or below:
Apollo Astronaut Chats About UFO, Alien Belief
by Irene Klotz
Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell returned from his mission to the moon a changed man. He has spent the last 35 years trying to use the tools of science to figure out what happened. Along the way, he says that people knowledgeable about an alleged crash of an alien spaceship in Roswell, N.M., shared the information with him.
He's been speaking out ever since, most recently on a radio talk show that tripped off an unexpected wave of media attention. In a telephone interview with Irene Klotz, Mitchell sets the record straight -- as he sees it.
Irene Klotz: Hi Dr. Mitchell
Edgar Mitchell: Just a minute ... I'm sorry. My dog jumped in my lap and knocked over my coffee cup. It's OK. Go ahead.
IK: What's your dog's name?
EM: Oh, that's Cutie (Q.T.?)
IK: Cutie?
EM: Yup, I've got two of them and right now they're telling me that it's their suppertime and I must come in and fix their supper ... at least that's what they want.
IK: Well first of all thanks very much for making a little time. I wanted to ask you if there was anything about the radio interview you did that was different from what you've said in the past.
EM: No, there's nothing different. Several of (the reports of the interview) that I've seen come around have some flaws in them. Some of the reports pushed it or spun it incorrectly. NASA had nothing to do with anything I've done. I wasn't briefed by NASA. There haven't been any sightings as a result of my flight service there, so if that part of it comes out on anything you've seen it is just totally wrong.
IK: Yes, I did want to clarify that.
EM: My major knowledge comes from what I call the old-timers, people who were at Roswell and subsequent who wanted to clear the things up and tell somebody credible even though they were under severe threats and things -- this was back in the Roswell days. Having gone to the moon and being a local citizen out in the Roswell area some of them thought I would be a safe choice to tell their story to, which they did. Even though the government put real clamps on everybody, it got out anyhow.
Subsequent to that, I did take my story to the Pentagon -- not NASA, but the Pentagon -- and asked for a meeting with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and got it. And told them my story and what I know and eventually had that confirmed by the admiral that I spoke with, that indeed what I was saying was true.
IK: You mean what had been told to you was true?
EM: Yup, in other words. There was a UFO crash. There was an alien spacecraft. This gentleman tried his damndest to get me in and like so many others in the administration over the last 60 years, since JFK's time, was unable to. He was told 'Admiral, you don't have a need to know, and therefore go get lost,' essentially.
IK: Have you ever come out and said who this person was who briefed you?
EM: No, I have not.
IK: Would you at some point?
EM: No, it is out and around but I don't feel like I have the liberty to do that.
IK: When did you have your meeting at the Pentagon?
EM: It was in the late '90s in Washington when I was there working with The Disclosure Project, trying to get all those opened up with another Naval officer by the name of Will Miller and Steven Greer, who you probably heard of. Steven and I don't really work on this anymore together, but we did at that point and getting to the Pentagon and seeing what we could do there to try to get this opened up.
IK: Why do you think the government hasn't acknowledged that there is life outside of Earth? I thought that was sort of the point of NASA.
EM: Well most people in government don't know. The government is highly compartmentalized. You could work next door to somebody for 30 years not knowing what they're doing in certain areas. The whole point of all of this ... goes back to World War II. This Roswell incident took place right at the aftermath of World War II when the U.S. Army Air Corps was split off and became the Air Force and the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), which was the intelligence service of World War II, was disbanded and eventually became the CIA. At that point the Cold War was just starting to move under way and we were at odds with the Soviets.
The Air Force was brand new and supposedly in control of the skies and didn't know what they were doing, and the CIA didn't know what they were doing, so Pres. Truman was in a big problem here: Here people were telling him there were aliens around and nobody knew if they were hostile or what they were and what was he going to do about it?
So he formed a committee, a very high-level military and academic and intelligent people -- politically powerful people -- and said 'You guys work on this.' And that was called ... the MAJIC 12. And they did pass a National Security Act, or so I'm told, under highly classified auspices, that gave this committee virtually unlimited power to deal with this issue, which they have done for the last 60 years, slowly excluding everybody -- including presidents.
You may remember that Pres. Clinton tried to send (Webster) Hubbell to find out about this at Wright Patterson. He got rejected. And Barry Goldwater, back in the '60s when he was getting ready to run for the presidency and who was a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve tried to get information about it. He got rejected. And I'm told that Gerry Ford tried to do some finding out and he got rejected.
Jimmy Carter announced his observation of UFOs, but that never went anywhere so obviously he made no progress. Only in recent years has the public interest become acute enough and enough stories leaked out so that people are starting to believe that it's all real. And the fact of the matter is, it is.
They're still around and there's a lot of stuff going on.
Are you aware of the so-called Phoenix Lights Incident? That wasn't our stuff.
IK: I'm sorry. Can you say that again?
EM: Lights. Just a few years ago. Three humongous craft flew over Phoenix, very slowly in the middle of the night that clearly were not -- I happened to be on the phone with people out there when that happened and have had pictures of it -- clearly those were not, to those of us who know aviation and spacecraft, clearly those were not local stuff, home-grown stuff.
IK: So you're saying the incidences are becoming more prevalent among the general public? People are having their own sightings?
EM: Just several weeks ago, this so-called incident at Stephenville, in Stephenville, Texas. Another one. And naturally a lot of discounting and unfortunately the press, the giggle factor got up and the press tended to ignore it, but the fact of the matter is this is the real stuff we're dealing with. We're not alone in the universe. And it has nothing to do with NASA. As far as I know it has to do with what's going on and has been going on for a long time.
IK: As a man of science and engineering, how did you make this leap from doing what you needed to do to be an astronaut to what you're doing today?
EM: Because I was told by people who were utterly sworn to secrecy under severe penalty if they talked and because I'd been to the moon, because I was a local resident of Roswell when the so-called Roswell incident took place, some of them thought I was a safe person to tell before they passed on so that the knowledge didn't die. There are others like me, people out here who have done an enormous amount of investigation who have seen through the facade and seen through the cover-up and can talk chapter and verse, better than I can. We know it's real.
IK: Can you describe what changed you after you were in space? How did that happen?
EM: Well I've got a research foundation that has been working on that problem for 37 years.
I was coming back from the moon after completing a successful mission on the moon. My job was being responsible for the lunar spacecraft for the lunar surface activities. So on the way home, my successful job had been mostly completed and we were just coming home. We still had experiments and work to do, but the big stuff was done.
We were orientated such and rotating in order to keep the thermal balance of the spacecraft so that every two minutes you could see the Earth, the moon, the sun and a 360-degree panorama of the heavens came through the window every two minutes. That's powerful stuff, particularly since it's space. Without the atmosphere to block, the stars don't twinkle, and there's 10 times as many as you could possibly see on Earth because of the lack of interference and it's much closer to what you could see through the Hubble Telescope these days, with those pictures and I hope you've looked at some of those: it's overwhelming -- and I realized as that happened, because I do have a PhD from MIT and I studied astronomy at Harvard and MIT and knew that molecules of matter in my body and in the spacecraft and in my partners' bodies were made in some ancient generation of stars. That's where matter is created.
Suddenly I realized that the molecules in my body were created in an ancient generation of stars and suddenly that became personal and visceral, not intellectual and I had never had this experience. It was accompanied by bliss, an ecstasy I had never experienced.
Later -- and I'm making this long story short -- with some discovery and some help from scientists at Rice University in Houston, I discovered in ancient transcripts that this type of experience -- a transformational, transcendental experience where you see things as you perceive them but experience them viscerally and emotionally as one, as a part of it -- is called samadhi. In doing more research, I found that it has taken place in every culture on Earth. The political and cultural expression of that turns out to be religion.
The experience is the same -- a heady, overwhelming experience. But when it gets politicized, put into the culture, those things get lost on the people who had the experience and it becomes something else. So that's what it was: a deep, deep cultural experience that is in the culture of our civilization in hundreds of places.
IK: Is that what the Noetic Institute is for? To bring this consciousness ...
EM: I'm trying to use the tools of science to understand precisely these types of knowledge.
IK: Wow, that's quite a calling.
EM: That's exactly what I've spent the last 35 years doing.
IK: What's the tie-in between this pursuit and your experiences with understanding that there are other life forms that have come to Earth?
EM: Well it's just an extension of the cosmology of what's this whole universe about and what are we about and coming to the conclusion that we are not alone. That's some of the most important knowledge that we could discover.
Or below:
Apollo Astronaut Chats About UFO, Alien Belief
by Irene Klotz
Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell returned from his mission to the moon a changed man. He has spent the last 35 years trying to use the tools of science to figure out what happened. Along the way, he says that people knowledgeable about an alleged crash of an alien spaceship in Roswell, N.M., shared the information with him.
He's been speaking out ever since, most recently on a radio talk show that tripped off an unexpected wave of media attention. In a telephone interview with Irene Klotz, Mitchell sets the record straight -- as he sees it.
Irene Klotz: Hi Dr. Mitchell
Edgar Mitchell: Just a minute ... I'm sorry. My dog jumped in my lap and knocked over my coffee cup. It's OK. Go ahead.
IK: What's your dog's name?
EM: Oh, that's Cutie (Q.T.?)
IK: Cutie?
EM: Yup, I've got two of them and right now they're telling me that it's their suppertime and I must come in and fix their supper ... at least that's what they want.
IK: Well first of all thanks very much for making a little time. I wanted to ask you if there was anything about the radio interview you did that was different from what you've said in the past.
EM: No, there's nothing different. Several of (the reports of the interview) that I've seen come around have some flaws in them. Some of the reports pushed it or spun it incorrectly. NASA had nothing to do with anything I've done. I wasn't briefed by NASA. There haven't been any sightings as a result of my flight service there, so if that part of it comes out on anything you've seen it is just totally wrong.
IK: Yes, I did want to clarify that.
EM: My major knowledge comes from what I call the old-timers, people who were at Roswell and subsequent who wanted to clear the things up and tell somebody credible even though they were under severe threats and things -- this was back in the Roswell days. Having gone to the moon and being a local citizen out in the Roswell area some of them thought I would be a safe choice to tell their story to, which they did. Even though the government put real clamps on everybody, it got out anyhow.
Subsequent to that, I did take my story to the Pentagon -- not NASA, but the Pentagon -- and asked for a meeting with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and got it. And told them my story and what I know and eventually had that confirmed by the admiral that I spoke with, that indeed what I was saying was true.
IK: You mean what had been told to you was true?
EM: Yup, in other words. There was a UFO crash. There was an alien spacecraft. This gentleman tried his damndest to get me in and like so many others in the administration over the last 60 years, since JFK's time, was unable to. He was told 'Admiral, you don't have a need to know, and therefore go get lost,' essentially.
IK: Have you ever come out and said who this person was who briefed you?
EM: No, I have not.
IK: Would you at some point?
EM: No, it is out and around but I don't feel like I have the liberty to do that.
IK: When did you have your meeting at the Pentagon?
EM: It was in the late '90s in Washington when I was there working with The Disclosure Project, trying to get all those opened up with another Naval officer by the name of Will Miller and Steven Greer, who you probably heard of. Steven and I don't really work on this anymore together, but we did at that point and getting to the Pentagon and seeing what we could do there to try to get this opened up.
IK: Why do you think the government hasn't acknowledged that there is life outside of Earth? I thought that was sort of the point of NASA.
EM: Well most people in government don't know. The government is highly compartmentalized. You could work next door to somebody for 30 years not knowing what they're doing in certain areas. The whole point of all of this ... goes back to World War II. This Roswell incident took place right at the aftermath of World War II when the U.S. Army Air Corps was split off and became the Air Force and the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), which was the intelligence service of World War II, was disbanded and eventually became the CIA. At that point the Cold War was just starting to move under way and we were at odds with the Soviets.
The Air Force was brand new and supposedly in control of the skies and didn't know what they were doing, and the CIA didn't know what they were doing, so Pres. Truman was in a big problem here: Here people were telling him there were aliens around and nobody knew if they were hostile or what they were and what was he going to do about it?
So he formed a committee, a very high-level military and academic and intelligent people -- politically powerful people -- and said 'You guys work on this.' And that was called ... the MAJIC 12. And they did pass a National Security Act, or so I'm told, under highly classified auspices, that gave this committee virtually unlimited power to deal with this issue, which they have done for the last 60 years, slowly excluding everybody -- including presidents.
You may remember that Pres. Clinton tried to send (Webster) Hubbell to find out about this at Wright Patterson. He got rejected. And Barry Goldwater, back in the '60s when he was getting ready to run for the presidency and who was a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve tried to get information about it. He got rejected. And I'm told that Gerry Ford tried to do some finding out and he got rejected.
Jimmy Carter announced his observation of UFOs, but that never went anywhere so obviously he made no progress. Only in recent years has the public interest become acute enough and enough stories leaked out so that people are starting to believe that it's all real. And the fact of the matter is, it is.
They're still around and there's a lot of stuff going on.
Are you aware of the so-called Phoenix Lights Incident? That wasn't our stuff.
IK: I'm sorry. Can you say that again?
EM: Lights. Just a few years ago. Three humongous craft flew over Phoenix, very slowly in the middle of the night that clearly were not -- I happened to be on the phone with people out there when that happened and have had pictures of it -- clearly those were not, to those of us who know aviation and spacecraft, clearly those were not local stuff, home-grown stuff.
IK: So you're saying the incidences are becoming more prevalent among the general public? People are having their own sightings?
EM: Just several weeks ago, this so-called incident at Stephenville, in Stephenville, Texas. Another one. And naturally a lot of discounting and unfortunately the press, the giggle factor got up and the press tended to ignore it, but the fact of the matter is this is the real stuff we're dealing with. We're not alone in the universe. And it has nothing to do with NASA. As far as I know it has to do with what's going on and has been going on for a long time.
IK: As a man of science and engineering, how did you make this leap from doing what you needed to do to be an astronaut to what you're doing today?
EM: Because I was told by people who were utterly sworn to secrecy under severe penalty if they talked and because I'd been to the moon, because I was a local resident of Roswell when the so-called Roswell incident took place, some of them thought I was a safe person to tell before they passed on so that the knowledge didn't die. There are others like me, people out here who have done an enormous amount of investigation who have seen through the facade and seen through the cover-up and can talk chapter and verse, better than I can. We know it's real.
IK: Can you describe what changed you after you were in space? How did that happen?
EM: Well I've got a research foundation that has been working on that problem for 37 years.
I was coming back from the moon after completing a successful mission on the moon. My job was being responsible for the lunar spacecraft for the lunar surface activities. So on the way home, my successful job had been mostly completed and we were just coming home. We still had experiments and work to do, but the big stuff was done.
We were orientated such and rotating in order to keep the thermal balance of the spacecraft so that every two minutes you could see the Earth, the moon, the sun and a 360-degree panorama of the heavens came through the window every two minutes. That's powerful stuff, particularly since it's space. Without the atmosphere to block, the stars don't twinkle, and there's 10 times as many as you could possibly see on Earth because of the lack of interference and it's much closer to what you could see through the Hubble Telescope these days, with those pictures and I hope you've looked at some of those: it's overwhelming -- and I realized as that happened, because I do have a PhD from MIT and I studied astronomy at Harvard and MIT and knew that molecules of matter in my body and in the spacecraft and in my partners' bodies were made in some ancient generation of stars. That's where matter is created.
Suddenly I realized that the molecules in my body were created in an ancient generation of stars and suddenly that became personal and visceral, not intellectual and I had never had this experience. It was accompanied by bliss, an ecstasy I had never experienced.
Later -- and I'm making this long story short -- with some discovery and some help from scientists at Rice University in Houston, I discovered in ancient transcripts that this type of experience -- a transformational, transcendental experience where you see things as you perceive them but experience them viscerally and emotionally as one, as a part of it -- is called samadhi. In doing more research, I found that it has taken place in every culture on Earth. The political and cultural expression of that turns out to be religion.
The experience is the same -- a heady, overwhelming experience. But when it gets politicized, put into the culture, those things get lost on the people who had the experience and it becomes something else. So that's what it was: a deep, deep cultural experience that is in the culture of our civilization in hundreds of places.
IK: Is that what the Noetic Institute is for? To bring this consciousness ...
EM: I'm trying to use the tools of science to understand precisely these types of knowledge.
IK: Wow, that's quite a calling.
EM: That's exactly what I've spent the last 35 years doing.
IK: What's the tie-in between this pursuit and your experiences with understanding that there are other life forms that have come to Earth?
EM: Well it's just an extension of the cosmology of what's this whole universe about and what are we about and coming to the conclusion that we are not alone. That's some of the most important knowledge that we could discover.
Back to the aliens....
As a journalist - the idea that we're on the verge of a disclosure by NASA that aliens are real and the government has been covering all this up for years is news. Sorry. This story trumps the stupidity and juvenile attitude of Media General's staffers. Can you wrap your brain around the idea of alien life? Some can. In a book by a former NASA spaceflight controller - Dark Mission, the real history of NASA, by Richard C. Hoagland, the "real" story of NASA's moon missions is revealed...on this Amazon.com review by Dr. Ali Fant, the book's key points are highlighted. Fascinating stuff.
4.0 out of 5 stars Key Findings, December 12, 2007
By Dr. Ali Fant "Computer Science Ed.D."
Dark Mission by Richard C. Hoagland
Book Review by Dr. Ali Fant, WB5WAF, 12DE2007
This review is from the perspective of a former NASA Manned Spaceflight Controller, so it is more technical than expository. I first encountered Hoagland's claims through the NASA Technical Alert Briefing viewed by many controllers at the Johnson Space Center in 1989-90, found his claims creditable, and then discovered the briefing tape "disappeared" from the closed JSC Technical Library - from both the open card catalog and the closed shelf listing catalog. As a former university library page, I was shocked to find all references to the briefing tape we controllers viewed were gone two years later. When I began investigating the matter, I was told in no uncertain terms to cease any search for the missing library records.
Key Findings from Dark Mission:
1. NASA is a defense agency of the US Government per the original agency charter.
2. NASA withholds data of non-human intelligence for the good of human society per "Brookings."
3. Brookings Institution advised US in 1959 report "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs" to beware social-economic chaos resulting from alien artifacts found on the Moon or Mars as the 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast traumatized America.
4. Arthur C. Clarke based the 1968 novel/film "2001: A Space Odyssey" on the Brookings Report.
5. According to Clarke's 1968 Playboy Magazine interview, Stanley Kubrick quoted from Brookings in the film. The following movie dialog being based upon the "Brookings Report":
"I'm sure you're aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation contained in the present situation, if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning. Anyway, this is the view of the [Space] Council... there must be adequate time for a full study to be made of the situation before any thought can be given to making a public announcement. Oh yes ... as some of you know, the Council has requested that formal security oaths be obtained in writing from everyone who has any knowledge of this event." -- Dr. Heywood Floyd, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
6. As a Manned Spaceflight Controller for NASA's last publicly acknowledged military shuttle mission, I remember taking this formal security oath to safeguard information on such flights. However, unlike all other US Government security oaths I have had in my lifetime, the NASA oath was never "terminated." That is, I never went through a formal debriefing. I questioned this lack of a debrief with NASA Security at the time and was told the Security office was already disbanded and no debriefing would be held.
7. Hoagland's retelling of the "Monuments of Mars" matches the NASA Alert Briefing the controllers and I saw in 1989-90 in the now "non-existent" tape from the JSC Technical Library.
8. Hoagland's explanation of "hyperdimensional physics" is too complex to be included here. Suffice it to say that I have studied the data, examined the historical connections between Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925), James Maxwell (1831-1879), Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), Thomas E. Bearden (1930-), Bruce DePalma (1935-1997), and Harold E Puthoff (1936-); and found the evidence convincing.
9. The multiple-sourced, publicly available NASA photographs of the pyramids, buildings, and connecting roads between the structures on Mars demonstrate the presence of ancient peoples on the planet. This is old news to most space news junkies. Second Astronaut on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin even released a "fiction" book Encounter With Tiber (1996) incorporating many of these Mars details. Aldrin's book had a storyline about ancient lunar structures being discovered by Apollo Astronauts. Arthur C. Clarke (surprise!) even wrote the foreword to Aldrin's book. Because the story line is fiction, any revealed details would not violate Aldrin's formal security oath. This was the same approach Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) took with his book "proving" the revolution of the planets - the book was originally written as a work of fiction. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church did not appreciate the humor of Galileo putting the words of the Pope into the mouth of Simplico (the fool).
10. And, just in case you missed it, there is a connection between NASA's Werner Von Braun and the Disney World "Mission to the Moon" (later restaged as "Mission to Mars," and featured in the excellent Disney produced films "Forbidden Planet" and "Mission to Mars." The latter film's climax is the "Face On Mars." However, coincidences do not make conspiracies.
11. Hoagland does an excellent job detailing the "Operation Paper Clip" removal of Nazi Germany rocket scientists to Texas as detailed in the James Michener's book and 1985 mini-TV series "SPACE" - even including National Archives photographs of Von Braun in his black SS uniform alongside Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. The occult history of Hitler is well documented by other authors, but Hoagland claims the occult influence extended from the SS to Von Braun to even the selection of NASA Mission Patches.
12. Hoagland sees a connection between Freemasonry (33rd degree), Von Braun\Disney production film "Man in Space," and the "fiction" film's representation of an alien base on the farside of the Moon. It is just another coincidence that CIA Remote Viewer Ingo Swann saw an operational alien base in the same location prior to 1998.
13. The spiritual aspects of UFOlogy, Adolf Hitler's birthday (April 20), 19.5 degrees location of planetary "hotspots" (on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, etc), the number 33 (Launch Complex 33, Shuttle Runway 33, 333 degrees from Egypt's Great Pyramid at Giza leads to JPL in California), and more and more numbers are overwhelmingly discussed by Hoagland in detail.
14. Finally, the greatest surprises in Hoagland's book are in the last ninety pages. These last few pages contain the explosive description of Lunar ruins, mechanical artifacts, and even an (I kid you not) ancient robot head not unlike the one shown in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Mark Twain episode of "Time's Arrow" when Data discovers his death lies in the past of San Francisco. The color photographs Apollo 17 Astronauts Eugene Cernan (1934-) and Harrison Schmitt (1936-) took of the robot head in Crater Shorty have recently been released to Italian websites by NASA. Italy? Hey, the Catholic Church is headquartered in that nation ... just another coincidence. Hoagland postulates that the mechanical head could have easily been transported back to Earth.
15. Other NASA photographs show crystal domes once covered many of the Maria on the Moon. Apollo 10 photographed at least one unbroken crystal dome, blacked-out in the official NASA print catalog, but if ordered by anyone today shows the intact dome. Since the 1990s, many researchers are specifically ordering these "black-out" lunar catalog prints to be stunned by what actually arrives in the mail. Hoagland publishes many of the photographs.
16. Remember when Apollo 17 deliberately crashed the ascent stage into the Moon to measure the moonquakes using previously implanted seismic monitors? Such a moonquake map would show the placement of the newly revealed structures on the NASA photographs. However, after more than thirty years, the results still remain classified - on a civilian scientific Moon mission.
17. Hoagland's book is having an effect on NASA today. Last year, NASA engineers suddenly "found" high-quality TV recordings of the Apollo 11 mission in Australia. Then, high quality "close-to-the-original" Apollo photographs were released to international public websites detailing the shattered crystal domes on the Moon. Next, NASA began posting thousands of never-before-seen "best" scanned pictures. This year (2007), NASA released for the first time the truly spy-camera quality photographs of the "Face on Mars" - showing details down to 11 inches. The vehicle and wheel tracks of the Opportunity Rover are clearly visible, as is the Face.
18. Living astronauts refuse to comment on much of Hoagland's expose citing various reasons. Apparently, even the Coast-to-Coast Radio Show scheduled a "debate" between Hoagland and an astronaut, but the astronaut cancelled the engagement at the last minute.
19. Twice flown astronaut, war hero, and Senator John Glenn requested a March 2001 appearance on the television NBC comedy Frasier. In the unusual episode, Glenn makes some very-unfunny comments directly to the viewing audience (out of earshot of Frasier and Roz) that are significance enough to repeat here: "Back in those glory days, I was very uncomfortable when they asked, you know, were you alone out there? We never gave the real answer, and yet we see things out there, strange things, but we know what we saw out there. And we couldn't really say anything. The bosses were really afraid of this, they were afraid of the `War of the Worlds' type stuff, and about panic in the streets. So, we had to keep quiet. And now we only see these things in our nightmares, or maybe in the movies, and some of them are pretty close to being the truth."
20. Astronaut Neil Armstrong began his highly emotional address on 20JL1994 at the White House with the statement that he compared himself to a parrot - saying only what he had been told to say. Armstrong ended his strange remarks with the phrase "truth's protective layers."
21. Astronaut Alan Bean draws his colorful Moonscapes paintings with diagonal markings perhaps to show the presence of shattered glass domes fragments.
22. Don't be too hard on the astronauts. I know former NASA employees who have had their lives thrown into turmoil by losing retirement pensions or having unexpected deaths.
23. Dark Mission lacks an index and perhaps the second edition will include one. I am reminded of the United States Central Intelligence Agency selling their entire data collection on Remote Viewing (on CD-ROMS) without an index. An index would have made it too easy for someone, somewhere to censor Hoagland's book.
24. Recent Moon News: Japan SELENE arrived Moon 05OC2007, China CHANGLE arrived Moon 27NV2007, India CHANDRAAYAN to arrive Moon 2008, US LRO to arrive Moon 2008, Russia Lunar Rover to arrive Moon 2010, and US GRAIL to arrive Moon 2011.
25. After thirty years of no manned missions to the Moon, why the sudden race for governments to return there? Even in the midst of a major war in the Middle East, governments are making a decision to return to the Moon as soon as possible. Check out the recently released Apollo photographs on the web and decide for yourself.
4.0 out of 5 stars Key Findings, December 12, 2007
By Dr. Ali Fant "Computer Science Ed.D."
Dark Mission by Richard C. Hoagland
Book Review by Dr. Ali Fant, WB5WAF, 12DE2007
This review is from the perspective of a former NASA Manned Spaceflight Controller, so it is more technical than expository. I first encountered Hoagland's claims through the NASA Technical Alert Briefing viewed by many controllers at the Johnson Space Center in 1989-90, found his claims creditable, and then discovered the briefing tape "disappeared" from the closed JSC Technical Library - from both the open card catalog and the closed shelf listing catalog. As a former university library page, I was shocked to find all references to the briefing tape we controllers viewed were gone two years later. When I began investigating the matter, I was told in no uncertain terms to cease any search for the missing library records.
Key Findings from Dark Mission:
1. NASA is a defense agency of the US Government per the original agency charter.
2. NASA withholds data of non-human intelligence for the good of human society per "Brookings."
3. Brookings Institution advised US in 1959 report "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs" to beware social-economic chaos resulting from alien artifacts found on the Moon or Mars as the 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast traumatized America.
4. Arthur C. Clarke based the 1968 novel/film "2001: A Space Odyssey" on the Brookings Report.
5. According to Clarke's 1968 Playboy Magazine interview, Stanley Kubrick quoted from Brookings in the film. The following movie dialog being based upon the "Brookings Report":
"I'm sure you're aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation contained in the present situation, if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning. Anyway, this is the view of the [Space] Council... there must be adequate time for a full study to be made of the situation before any thought can be given to making a public announcement. Oh yes ... as some of you know, the Council has requested that formal security oaths be obtained in writing from everyone who has any knowledge of this event." -- Dr. Heywood Floyd, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
6. As a Manned Spaceflight Controller for NASA's last publicly acknowledged military shuttle mission, I remember taking this formal security oath to safeguard information on such flights. However, unlike all other US Government security oaths I have had in my lifetime, the NASA oath was never "terminated." That is, I never went through a formal debriefing. I questioned this lack of a debrief with NASA Security at the time and was told the Security office was already disbanded and no debriefing would be held.
7. Hoagland's retelling of the "Monuments of Mars" matches the NASA Alert Briefing the controllers and I saw in 1989-90 in the now "non-existent" tape from the JSC Technical Library.
8. Hoagland's explanation of "hyperdimensional physics" is too complex to be included here. Suffice it to say that I have studied the data, examined the historical connections between Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925), James Maxwell (1831-1879), Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), Thomas E. Bearden (1930-), Bruce DePalma (1935-1997), and Harold E Puthoff (1936-); and found the evidence convincing.
9. The multiple-sourced, publicly available NASA photographs of the pyramids, buildings, and connecting roads between the structures on Mars demonstrate the presence of ancient peoples on the planet. This is old news to most space news junkies. Second Astronaut on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin even released a "fiction" book Encounter With Tiber (1996) incorporating many of these Mars details. Aldrin's book had a storyline about ancient lunar structures being discovered by Apollo Astronauts. Arthur C. Clarke (surprise!) even wrote the foreword to Aldrin's book. Because the story line is fiction, any revealed details would not violate Aldrin's formal security oath. This was the same approach Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) took with his book "proving" the revolution of the planets - the book was originally written as a work of fiction. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church did not appreciate the humor of Galileo putting the words of the Pope into the mouth of Simplico (the fool).
10. And, just in case you missed it, there is a connection between NASA's Werner Von Braun and the Disney World "Mission to the Moon" (later restaged as "Mission to Mars," and featured in the excellent Disney produced films "Forbidden Planet" and "Mission to Mars." The latter film's climax is the "Face On Mars." However, coincidences do not make conspiracies.
11. Hoagland does an excellent job detailing the "Operation Paper Clip" removal of Nazi Germany rocket scientists to Texas as detailed in the James Michener's book and 1985 mini-TV series "SPACE" - even including National Archives photographs of Von Braun in his black SS uniform alongside Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. The occult history of Hitler is well documented by other authors, but Hoagland claims the occult influence extended from the SS to Von Braun to even the selection of NASA Mission Patches.
12. Hoagland sees a connection between Freemasonry (33rd degree), Von Braun\Disney production film "Man in Space," and the "fiction" film's representation of an alien base on the farside of the Moon. It is just another coincidence that CIA Remote Viewer Ingo Swann saw an operational alien base in the same location prior to 1998.
13. The spiritual aspects of UFOlogy, Adolf Hitler's birthday (April 20), 19.5 degrees location of planetary "hotspots" (on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, etc), the number 33 (Launch Complex 33, Shuttle Runway 33, 333 degrees from Egypt's Great Pyramid at Giza leads to JPL in California), and more and more numbers are overwhelmingly discussed by Hoagland in detail.
14. Finally, the greatest surprises in Hoagland's book are in the last ninety pages. These last few pages contain the explosive description of Lunar ruins, mechanical artifacts, and even an (I kid you not) ancient robot head not unlike the one shown in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Mark Twain episode of "Time's Arrow" when Data discovers his death lies in the past of San Francisco. The color photographs Apollo 17 Astronauts Eugene Cernan (1934-) and Harrison Schmitt (1936-) took of the robot head in Crater Shorty have recently been released to Italian websites by NASA. Italy? Hey, the Catholic Church is headquartered in that nation ... just another coincidence. Hoagland postulates that the mechanical head could have easily been transported back to Earth.
15. Other NASA photographs show crystal domes once covered many of the Maria on the Moon. Apollo 10 photographed at least one unbroken crystal dome, blacked-out in the official NASA print catalog, but if ordered by anyone today shows the intact dome. Since the 1990s, many researchers are specifically ordering these "black-out" lunar catalog prints to be stunned by what actually arrives in the mail. Hoagland publishes many of the photographs.
16. Remember when Apollo 17 deliberately crashed the ascent stage into the Moon to measure the moonquakes using previously implanted seismic monitors? Such a moonquake map would show the placement of the newly revealed structures on the NASA photographs. However, after more than thirty years, the results still remain classified - on a civilian scientific Moon mission.
17. Hoagland's book is having an effect on NASA today. Last year, NASA engineers suddenly "found" high-quality TV recordings of the Apollo 11 mission in Australia. Then, high quality "close-to-the-original" Apollo photographs were released to international public websites detailing the shattered crystal domes on the Moon. Next, NASA began posting thousands of never-before-seen "best" scanned pictures. This year (2007), NASA released for the first time the truly spy-camera quality photographs of the "Face on Mars" - showing details down to 11 inches. The vehicle and wheel tracks of the Opportunity Rover are clearly visible, as is the Face.
18. Living astronauts refuse to comment on much of Hoagland's expose citing various reasons. Apparently, even the Coast-to-Coast Radio Show scheduled a "debate" between Hoagland and an astronaut, but the astronaut cancelled the engagement at the last minute.
19. Twice flown astronaut, war hero, and Senator John Glenn requested a March 2001 appearance on the television NBC comedy Frasier. In the unusual episode, Glenn makes some very-unfunny comments directly to the viewing audience (out of earshot of Frasier and Roz) that are significance enough to repeat here: "Back in those glory days, I was very uncomfortable when they asked, you know, were you alone out there? We never gave the real answer, and yet we see things out there, strange things, but we know what we saw out there. And we couldn't really say anything. The bosses were really afraid of this, they were afraid of the `War of the Worlds' type stuff, and about panic in the streets. So, we had to keep quiet. And now we only see these things in our nightmares, or maybe in the movies, and some of them are pretty close to being the truth."
20. Astronaut Neil Armstrong began his highly emotional address on 20JL1994 at the White House with the statement that he compared himself to a parrot - saying only what he had been told to say. Armstrong ended his strange remarks with the phrase "truth's protective layers."
21. Astronaut Alan Bean draws his colorful Moonscapes paintings with diagonal markings perhaps to show the presence of shattered glass domes fragments.
22. Don't be too hard on the astronauts. I know former NASA employees who have had their lives thrown into turmoil by losing retirement pensions or having unexpected deaths.
23. Dark Mission lacks an index and perhaps the second edition will include one. I am reminded of the United States Central Intelligence Agency selling their entire data collection on Remote Viewing (on CD-ROMS) without an index. An index would have made it too easy for someone, somewhere to censor Hoagland's book.
24. Recent Moon News: Japan SELENE arrived Moon 05OC2007, China CHANGLE arrived Moon 27NV2007, India CHANDRAAYAN to arrive Moon 2008, US LRO to arrive Moon 2008, Russia Lunar Rover to arrive Moon 2010, and US GRAIL to arrive Moon 2011.
25. After thirty years of no manned missions to the Moon, why the sudden race for governments to return there? Even in the midst of a major war in the Middle East, governments are making a decision to return to the Moon as soon as possible. Check out the recently released Apollo photographs on the web and decide for yourself.
Media General hits NEW LOW!
The Editor and Publisher, a journal covering the newspaper industry, posted news today that any stockholder already knows. Media General stock is in the toilet and not likely to recover.
Media General hit a new 52-week low Thursday. According to E&P, the newspaper industry's stock slump generally outpaced even the Dow Jones Industrial Average sell-off of more than 3%. Media General was behind only Gannett in the top four media companies in LOSS.
Hitting new lows were Gannett Co. Inc.; Media General Inc.; The McClatchy Co.; and A.H. Belo, whose stock has lost 63% of its value since its spin-off as a newspaper pure-play just four months ago.
Media General (NYSE: MEG) hit a 52-week low of $12.95, trading off 83 cents, or 6.02%. It had traded in a range of $12.96 to $34.82.
A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC) fell 59 cents, or 8.93% from its open to end trading Thursday at $6.02. It had traded in a range of $6.03 to $16.35.
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) closed at $21.79, down 96 cents, or 4.22. Its previous low had been $21.89. In the past year, it has traded as high as $55.80.
McClatchy's (NYSE: MNI) loss of 25 cents, or 3.33%, established a new 52-week low of $7.25. It had traded as low as $7.35 and as high as $28.73.
Media General hit a new 52-week low Thursday. According to E&P, the newspaper industry's stock slump generally outpaced even the Dow Jones Industrial Average sell-off of more than 3%. Media General was behind only Gannett in the top four media companies in LOSS.
Hitting new lows were Gannett Co. Inc.; Media General Inc.; The McClatchy Co.; and A.H. Belo, whose stock has lost 63% of its value since its spin-off as a newspaper pure-play just four months ago.
Media General (NYSE: MEG) hit a 52-week low of $12.95, trading off 83 cents, or 6.02%. It had traded in a range of $12.96 to $34.82.
A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC) fell 59 cents, or 8.93% from its open to end trading Thursday at $6.02. It had traded in a range of $6.03 to $16.35.
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) closed at $21.79, down 96 cents, or 4.22. Its previous low had been $21.89. In the past year, it has traded as high as $55.80.
McClatchy's (NYSE: MNI) loss of 25 cents, or 3.33%, established a new 52-week low of $7.25. It had traded as low as $7.35 and as high as $28.73.
Media General in trouble AGAIN??!! Cheap news
Stop Big Media continues to hound Media General - as they should. Media General managed to slide in under a cross-ownership ban in 1975, and is now using that platform to combine news yet degrade quality. Stop Big Media focuses on Media General in Tampa: ‘Convergence’ Equals Layoffs in this latest post. Click here to read it at the Stop Big Media site. or here it is in its entirety.
Just in time for the FCC Tampa hearing, conglomerate Media General, which owns both the Tampa Tribune and WFLA Channel 8, has cut 70 newspaper staff from its payroll.
According to an Associated Press report, the cost-cutting measures include consolidation and outsourcing of certain “unspecified operations” and combining sections of the paper.
Media General’s ownership of the Tribune and WFLA was grandfathered under the 1975 cross-ownership ban, which prohibits a company from owning a daily newspaper and a television station or a radio station in the same market.
The Virginia-based conglomerate has put its Tampa newspaper in the same building with its television station and online operation, “the better to exchange stories and, ostensibly, resources.”
This inbred relationship between newsrooms has degraded both coverage and staffing. Spokespeople for the media giant like to sugar coat these sorts of cost cutting efforts with terms like “convergence” and “synergy.” In reality they translate to mean layoffs and cheapened news.
In 2003, WFLA was chastised in national media for its outrageous practice of charging guests $2,500 to appear with the program’s hosts on its news magazine show, “Daytime.” But the Tribune took a “kinder and gentler” approach to the story, rushing in to defend “Daytime” as an “advertiser-driven talk show” with “no journalism elements.”
The news conglomerate chose to ignore standing FCC statutes that prohibit such on-air shilling without disclosure — as evidenced by its decision in October 2006 to air a “video news release” (a prepackage corporate press release dressed up to look like local news) prepared by the American College of Physicians.
One Tribune TV critic reported that editors “forced him to lay off criticism of WFLA for nearly a year prior to the opening of the News Center [which is the name for the building that houses the Tribune and WFLA news operations], supposedly to avoid ill will between the staffs.”
Examples of the Media General’s approach to “convergence” in Tampa make a solid case for retaining the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule that prevents these types of abuses from occurring elsewhere.
Just in time for the FCC Tampa hearing, conglomerate Media General, which owns both the Tampa Tribune and WFLA Channel 8, has cut 70 newspaper staff from its payroll.
According to an Associated Press report, the cost-cutting measures include consolidation and outsourcing of certain “unspecified operations” and combining sections of the paper.
Media General’s ownership of the Tribune and WFLA was grandfathered under the 1975 cross-ownership ban, which prohibits a company from owning a daily newspaper and a television station or a radio station in the same market.
The Virginia-based conglomerate has put its Tampa newspaper in the same building with its television station and online operation, “the better to exchange stories and, ostensibly, resources.”
This inbred relationship between newsrooms has degraded both coverage and staffing. Spokespeople for the media giant like to sugar coat these sorts of cost cutting efforts with terms like “convergence” and “synergy.” In reality they translate to mean layoffs and cheapened news.
In 2003, WFLA was chastised in national media for its outrageous practice of charging guests $2,500 to appear with the program’s hosts on its news magazine show, “Daytime.” But the Tribune took a “kinder and gentler” approach to the story, rushing in to defend “Daytime” as an “advertiser-driven talk show” with “no journalism elements.”
The news conglomerate chose to ignore standing FCC statutes that prohibit such on-air shilling without disclosure — as evidenced by its decision in October 2006 to air a “video news release” (a prepackage corporate press release dressed up to look like local news) prepared by the American College of Physicians.
One Tribune TV critic reported that editors “forced him to lay off criticism of WFLA for nearly a year prior to the opening of the News Center [which is the name for the building that houses the Tribune and WFLA news operations], supposedly to avoid ill will between the staffs.”
Examples of the Media General’s approach to “convergence” in Tampa make a solid case for retaining the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule that prevents these types of abuses from occurring elsewhere.
NAACP resolves to stop bullying
"NAACP resolves to seek anti-bullying legislation – The 2008 Annual
Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
offers up the following resolution in their blog:
15. Workplace Bullying Resolved: That NAACP Units at all levels will
seek legislation at all appropriate levels to deem workplace bullying
illegal.”
If the NAACP can distinguish between racial discrimination and status-blind
workplace bullying, we may be starting to really get somewhere with this
movement. This is a very important symbolic step. This helps the anti-bullying movement to characterize itself as a civil rights cause.
To read the entire website blog, go to: http://www.wichitanaacpblog.com/2008/07/from-convention-complete-list-of-all.html
Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
offers up the following resolution in their blog:
15. Workplace Bullying Resolved: That NAACP Units at all levels will
seek legislation at all appropriate levels to deem workplace bullying
illegal.”
If the NAACP can distinguish between racial discrimination and status-blind
workplace bullying, we may be starting to really get somewhere with this
movement. This is a very important symbolic step. This helps the anti-bullying movement to characterize itself as a civil rights cause.
To read the entire website blog, go to: http://www.wichitanaacpblog.com/2008/07/from-convention-complete-list-of-all.html
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Fox News reported release of alien news in 2007
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, casually acknowledged recently that aliens are real (see post below), but Fox News reported last year on an affidavit opened after the death of a man who was actually at the Roswell, NM UFO crash site. Click here for Fox story.
In July, 2007 Fox News reported on the death and subsequent release of an affidavit by Lt. Walter Haut.
Lt. Walter Haut was the public-relations officer at the Roswell, NM base in 1947 and was the man who issued the original and subsequent press releases after the crash on the orders of the base commander, Col. William Blanchard.
Haut died in December 2005, but left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death.
Last week (July 2007), the text was released. It asserts that the weather-balloon claim was a cover story and that the real object had been recovered by the military and stored in a hangar.
He described seeing not just the craft, but alien bodies.
He wasn't the first Roswell witness to talk about alien bodies.
Local undertaker Glenn Dennis had long claimed that he was contacted by authorities at Roswell shortly after the crash and asked to provide a number of child-sized coffins.
When he arrived at the base, he was apparently told by a nurse (who later disappeared) that a UFO had crashed and that small humanoid extraterrestrials had been recovered.
But Haut is the only one of the original participants to claim to have seen alien bodies.... Read more
In July, 2007 Fox News reported on the death and subsequent release of an affidavit by Lt. Walter Haut.
Lt. Walter Haut was the public-relations officer at the Roswell, NM base in 1947 and was the man who issued the original and subsequent press releases after the crash on the orders of the base commander, Col. William Blanchard.
Haut died in December 2005, but left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death.
Last week (July 2007), the text was released. It asserts that the weather-balloon claim was a cover story and that the real object had been recovered by the military and stored in a hangar.
He described seeing not just the craft, but alien bodies.
He wasn't the first Roswell witness to talk about alien bodies.
Local undertaker Glenn Dennis had long claimed that he was contacted by authorities at Roswell shortly after the crash and asked to provide a number of child-sized coffins.
When he arrived at the base, he was apparently told by a nurse (who later disappeared) that a UFO had crashed and that small humanoid extraterrestrials had been recovered.
But Haut is the only one of the original participants to claim to have seen alien bodies.... Read more
It's official. Aliens are real...
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell has gone public to say that aliens are real. In an interview with Kerrang Radio Mitchell talks about the fact that governments around the world, including the United States, have covered up the fact that we have been contacted by beings from another world. Mitchell said he expects the U.S. government to admit to the cover-up in the next year. The radio announcer also called NASA and that interview is also on the website. CLICK HERE TO HEAR IT.
If you're a Christian and want to know about the verses in the Bible that talk about this phenomena....go here:
http://sherryshriner.blogspot.com/
www.sherryshriner.com.
For those who weren't aware of any of this....check out:
http://www.sherrytalkradio.com/
or
http://sherryshriner.blogspot.com/
If you're a Christian and want to know about the verses in the Bible that talk about this phenomena....go here:
http://sherryshriner.blogspot.com/
www.sherryshriner.com.
For those who weren't aware of any of this....check out:
http://www.sherrytalkradio.com/
or
http://sherryshriner.blogspot.com/
Obama the marxist, socialist, communist
There should be no doubt now that Obama is Socialist, Marxist, and Communist
This is a "GUEST BLOG" by the writer of thebobofiles.com, a conservative blog I read regularly. I'm sharing it here for all of you:
"Posted: 26 Jul 2008 03:24 PM CDT
I know I’m a little late here with my response to Obama’s speech - but - I haven’t heard anyone else saying what I’m saying.? I’m wondering if anyone even really paid attention to what he was really saying!? I’m not here to rip apart his speech - I’m here today to point out some of the subtleties within the speech that should be disturbing to everyone in this country!
The first thing to note is that he opened up his speech with a lie -
Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
Do any of you out there truly believe that as a regular Joe American that you could go to Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate or the Victory Column and give a speech to 200,000 Germans?! Is there anyone out there that as a regular Joe American would be able to get an audience with the German Chancellor?! He was obviously there as a candidate for President otherwise his campaign would not have financed this trip.! Also - pay particular attention to his use of “citizen.”! It pops up frequently throughout this speech.
Remember, the term “Good Citizen” was used in communist Russia to delineate those who supported the government versus those who did not.! Those who opposed the Russian government and Tsars were immediately sent to “re-education camps” because they were not good citizens and their speech against the government was politically incorrect (yes - this term originated in communist russia as well)."
***
From me to my readers again....
I don't usually "do" politics - and especially not in this race - but I admit I've been concerned about the national glazed eye support for Obama and the reluctance of the media to write anything negative about him. The blogger above is retired military intelligence person - a crytologist who has served in the middle east and the rest of his lengthy essay about Obama READ IT ALL BY CLICKING HERE: He makes some impressive points and I'd really like to see some answers to the points the guy raises about Obama. It's a departure from this blog's main purpose, but if Obama has his way then I wonder if any of us will have the freedom of such expression as we do now.
This is a "GUEST BLOG" by the writer of thebobofiles.com, a conservative blog I read regularly. I'm sharing it here for all of you:
"Posted: 26 Jul 2008 03:24 PM CDT
I know I’m a little late here with my response to Obama’s speech - but - I haven’t heard anyone else saying what I’m saying.? I’m wondering if anyone even really paid attention to what he was really saying!? I’m not here to rip apart his speech - I’m here today to point out some of the subtleties within the speech that should be disturbing to everyone in this country!
The first thing to note is that he opened up his speech with a lie -
Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
Do any of you out there truly believe that as a regular Joe American that you could go to Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate or the Victory Column and give a speech to 200,000 Germans?! Is there anyone out there that as a regular Joe American would be able to get an audience with the German Chancellor?! He was obviously there as a candidate for President otherwise his campaign would not have financed this trip.! Also - pay particular attention to his use of “citizen.”! It pops up frequently throughout this speech.
Remember, the term “Good Citizen” was used in communist Russia to delineate those who supported the government versus those who did not.! Those who opposed the Russian government and Tsars were immediately sent to “re-education camps” because they were not good citizens and their speech against the government was politically incorrect (yes - this term originated in communist russia as well)."
***
From me to my readers again....
I don't usually "do" politics - and especially not in this race - but I admit I've been concerned about the national glazed eye support for Obama and the reluctance of the media to write anything negative about him. The blogger above is retired military intelligence person - a crytologist who has served in the middle east and the rest of his lengthy essay about Obama READ IT ALL BY CLICKING HERE: He makes some impressive points and I'd really like to see some answers to the points the guy raises about Obama. It's a departure from this blog's main purpose, but if Obama has his way then I wonder if any of us will have the freedom of such expression as we do now.
Monday, July 21, 2008
12 more employees booted to the curb
Printing press employees have heard rumors for months about a move of the paper to Lynchburg although management denied that they knew if that would happen. Funny huh. Since your budget and planning for the year takes place in December...how could you NOT know you would be eliminating positions? I was right on target - late July, early August after the first round of moves with the Daily Progress. Sure helps to have some inside folks who hate Media General feeding me info.... 8^D
I just want to know if the employees got any notice or were just handed their pink slips and a "get out" like everyone else after they got Sunday's paper out. Monday's papers are so thin you can't even line a bird cage with them... And while the newspaper said Publisher Steve Kaylor thanked the crew for their hard work - why wasn't and isn't that being done daily? Why do people have to wait until they're laid off to be told what a good job they're doing?
Next on the list - copy editing going to India....pretty soon all your local advertising dollars will be supporting sweat shops and $1 an hour labor and not local shops.
I just want to know if the employees got any notice or were just handed their pink slips and a "get out" like everyone else after they got Sunday's paper out. Monday's papers are so thin you can't even line a bird cage with them... And while the newspaper said Publisher Steve Kaylor thanked the crew for their hard work - why wasn't and isn't that being done daily? Why do people have to wait until they're laid off to be told what a good job they're doing?
Next on the list - copy editing going to India....pretty soon all your local advertising dollars will be supporting sweat shops and $1 an hour labor and not local shops.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Leadership....and the lack of it...
I read a LOT of blogs. I just found this one: www.larrybitner.com and was looking at Friday's post...which says:
"Friday Business Builder…
#11. “Stand Tall & Accept Responsibility”
True leaders don’t place blame – they take ownership of problems, deal with them and move on! They acknowledge their mistakes, learn their lessons, look for new opportunities and make sure they don’t happen again.
When you let emotion cloud your view of the issues at hand, you can’t move forward. But once you put emotion aside and find yourself thinking logically the healing will begin and solutions will appear."
I thought - how true and how amazing that so many so-called "leaders" at The Danville Register and Bee and Media General are acting like Losers. No one has "owned" the problem(s) at the company. Their eternally hormone driven employees can do nothing but continue to attack and act like the animals in heat that they are...(Steve - have you ordered the beds for the basement yet? Your revenue is dropping and it seems like the only thing that is consistent at the paper is the manager's sex drive)...
Anyway - imagine how different things might be there if - instead of defending their bad actions, stupid decisions and hormone driven choices if they'd "manned up" and apologized, set things right and acted like leaders?? They wouldn't be famous in ten countries with a blog now approaching 10,000 readers - including Congressmen and national business leaders and competitors all over the world! They wouldn't be the laughing stock of the internet. They might even have gained some respect. But no - stock holders and bloggers are continuing to spread the news of what a pit The Danville Register and Bee is...how bad the manager are and so on. Advertisers are looking at alternatives and those who have suffered the shame, pain and humiliation of being bullied by short, desperate for sex old fat, arrogant and narcissistic balding guys (current and past) are now having the last laugh.
"Friday Business Builder…
#11. “Stand Tall & Accept Responsibility”
True leaders don’t place blame – they take ownership of problems, deal with them and move on! They acknowledge their mistakes, learn their lessons, look for new opportunities and make sure they don’t happen again.
When you let emotion cloud your view of the issues at hand, you can’t move forward. But once you put emotion aside and find yourself thinking logically the healing will begin and solutions will appear."
I thought - how true and how amazing that so many so-called "leaders" at The Danville Register and Bee and Media General are acting like Losers. No one has "owned" the problem(s) at the company. Their eternally hormone driven employees can do nothing but continue to attack and act like the animals in heat that they are...(Steve - have you ordered the beds for the basement yet? Your revenue is dropping and it seems like the only thing that is consistent at the paper is the manager's sex drive)...
Anyway - imagine how different things might be there if - instead of defending their bad actions, stupid decisions and hormone driven choices if they'd "manned up" and apologized, set things right and acted like leaders?? They wouldn't be famous in ten countries with a blog now approaching 10,000 readers - including Congressmen and national business leaders and competitors all over the world! They wouldn't be the laughing stock of the internet. They might even have gained some respect. But no - stock holders and bloggers are continuing to spread the news of what a pit The Danville Register and Bee is...how bad the manager are and so on. Advertisers are looking at alternatives and those who have suffered the shame, pain and humiliation of being bullied by short, desperate for sex old fat, arrogant and narcissistic balding guys (current and past) are now having the last laugh.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Know a soldier? You need to watch this video...
What happens when people don't speak out, don't object, don't point to wrong doing? We all suffer. Did you see any of this in the local media? No. Do you know a soldier? Have you been a soldier in Iraq. You need to watch this then you need to go to your doctor.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Worst insurance agencies in America - I think Sedgwick is one
You're in REALLY BAD HANDS with All-State. That's what the American Association for Justice (AAJ) says anyway. The AAJ recently released a comprehensive research report, "The Ten Worst Insurance Companies in America: How They Raise Premiums, Deny Claims, and Refuse Insurance to Those Who Need It Most."
To see how consumers can hold the insurance industry accountable and view a full copy of the study, visit http://www.justice.org/docs/TenWorstInsuranceCompanies.pdf."
The top ten list includes Allstate, UNUM, AIG, State Farm, Conseco, WellPoint, Farmers, UnitedHealth, Torchmark, and Liberty Mutual. AAJ's summary report is reproduced below in its entirety:
"ALLSTATE RANKS AS WORST INSURER FOR CONSUMERS"
Insurance Industry Employs "Deny, Delay, Defend" Strategy,
Puts Profits Over Policyholders
WASHINGTON, DC – Allstate ranks as the worst insurer for consumers, according to a comprehensive investigation of thousands of legal documents and financial filings.
The rankings show a distinct pattern of insurance industry greed amongst 10 companies that refuse to pay just claims, employ hardball tactics against policyholders, reward executives with extravagant salaries, and raise premiums while hoarding excessive profits.
"While Allstate publicly touts its 'good hands' approach, it has instead privately instructed its agents to employ a 'boxing gloves' strategy against its policyholders," said American Association for Justice CEO Jon Haber. "Allstate ducks, bobs and weaves to avoid paying claims to increase its profits."
Allstate (NYSE: ALL) set the standard for insurance company greed and placing profits over policyholders. Allstate contracted with consulting giant McKinsey & Co. in the mid-1990s to systematically force consumers to accept lowball claims or face its "boxing gloves," an aggressive strategy designed to deny claims at any cost. One Allstate employee reported that supervisors told agents to lie and blame fires on arson, and in turn, were rewarded with portable fridges.
Thousands of court documents, materials uncovered from litigation and discovery, testimony, complaints filed with state insurance departments, SEC and FBI records, and news accounts were reviewed to compile the rankings and statistics.
There's a complete list of all the atrocities that insurance companies commit against consumers. I looked and Sedgwick - the insurer that Media General uses, wasn't on the top ten - yet. Sedgwick DENIED my claim - saying they used my doctor's medical report to do so. Problem was - my doctor never sent them a report - the claim was denied in less than ten days - before she even had time to write and file the report!
EVIL SEDGWICK. EVIL MEDIA GENERAL.
To see how consumers can hold the insurance industry accountable and view a full copy of the study, visit http://www.justice.org/docs/TenWorstInsuranceCompanies.pdf."
The top ten list includes Allstate, UNUM, AIG, State Farm, Conseco, WellPoint, Farmers, UnitedHealth, Torchmark, and Liberty Mutual. AAJ's summary report is reproduced below in its entirety:
"ALLSTATE RANKS AS WORST INSURER FOR CONSUMERS"
Insurance Industry Employs "Deny, Delay, Defend" Strategy,
Puts Profits Over Policyholders
WASHINGTON, DC – Allstate ranks as the worst insurer for consumers, according to a comprehensive investigation of thousands of legal documents and financial filings.
The rankings show a distinct pattern of insurance industry greed amongst 10 companies that refuse to pay just claims, employ hardball tactics against policyholders, reward executives with extravagant salaries, and raise premiums while hoarding excessive profits.
"While Allstate publicly touts its 'good hands' approach, it has instead privately instructed its agents to employ a 'boxing gloves' strategy against its policyholders," said American Association for Justice CEO Jon Haber. "Allstate ducks, bobs and weaves to avoid paying claims to increase its profits."
Allstate (NYSE: ALL) set the standard for insurance company greed and placing profits over policyholders. Allstate contracted with consulting giant McKinsey & Co. in the mid-1990s to systematically force consumers to accept lowball claims or face its "boxing gloves," an aggressive strategy designed to deny claims at any cost. One Allstate employee reported that supervisors told agents to lie and blame fires on arson, and in turn, were rewarded with portable fridges.
Thousands of court documents, materials uncovered from litigation and discovery, testimony, complaints filed with state insurance departments, SEC and FBI records, and news accounts were reviewed to compile the rankings and statistics.
There's a complete list of all the atrocities that insurance companies commit against consumers. I looked and Sedgwick - the insurer that Media General uses, wasn't on the top ten - yet. Sedgwick DENIED my claim - saying they used my doctor's medical report to do so. Problem was - my doctor never sent them a report - the claim was denied in less than ten days - before she even had time to write and file the report!
EVIL SEDGWICK. EVIL MEDIA GENERAL.
Angry reader
Ah...just posted a comment from an angry reader....please check it out. I'll post it here in case you can't find it. He seems to think I won't post it. He's wrong. Unlike a lot of liberals I truly do believe in freedom of speech even if I DON'T agree with what the other guy is saying. Liberals want to have their say while shutting up conservatives. I say as long as it's not libelous or slanderous - have at it. So here is Doc's post. I want to ensure he has his say. Can you hear/see Doc frothing at the mouth? Yeah...me too:
On July 10th, you posted, "If you are gay Media General offers you and your same-sex partner full medical benefits. You don't even have to fly to California to get married first. There are several gay employees and the atmosphere is definitely supportive of alternative lifestyles. So, if you have a gay relative who wants to live and work openly - this is definitely an option for them (or you!) Seriously."
What is your freakin' problem lady? So you have it bad for Mac McLean and Steve Kaylor over the boobs fiasco-- okay. But what does being gay have ANYTHING to do with your plight against the establishment? You try to get sympathy for your cause, yet you're out to slam others -- people that may have taken your side -- but you hurl insults instead.
Before you get all huffy and say I work for The R&B or I'm sleeping with someone there, I'm not. I don't work for Media General either. So let me make that clear.
But to hurl your grade school insults and to post clips from "Deliverance" and whatnot -- you really don't help yourself.
No, you come across as someone who is much worse that McLean, Kaylor -- or anyone else. You're a bully, and in some instances, you're worse than those you loathe.
I don't expect to see this posted at all -- but I had to get this off my chest. I think you're pathetic really.
"Doc" seems to think I'm slamming gays. Not at all. Being gay is an advantage if you work at the R&B. How is that a slam? I have gay relatives and know a lot of gay people. One of my doctors is even gay. I have nothing against gay people. I was trying to point out one of what few advantages there are for working for Media General if you are a sexually active adult. While many jobs discriminate against homosexuals - the media, as a whole - does not. What I do have a problem with is gay people using their alternative lifestyle to gain promotions and favor
Grade school insults? Insults or not - they're not directed at you, so why do you care? Only people who have emotional connections to a situation get so angry. Even if you don't work at the Register & Bee or at Media General I'd say you know someone who does. So - don't distance yourself. There's an issue here that upsets you for some reason. If you don't know anyone who works at Media General then why bother? It's just another little online drama. And if you want to want to say "boobs" and treat the whole incident as "no big deal" then that shows the insensitivity you have. My guess is you're gay and upset over a perceived bias against homosexuals. Thus - the anger over the Deliverance clip. The only theme running through your angry clip is anger over homosexuality. And - this blog is not anti-gay so get over it. Or - maybe you're Mr. Hormone - posting under a different name.
This blog is about a corporation who has chosen to ignore the abuse of women, a corporation that tolerates bullying, that clearly and repeatedly ignores its own policies regarding a hostile work environment in order to protect, promote and praise men over women. You don't have a grasp of that obviously.
Am I a bully? No. I'm very open and direct and straight forward in my anger, my obvious and total disgust and disregard for The Register & Bee and its puppet management and misogyny. Perhaps you should go back and reread the information on bullying. By not speaking up and exposing Media General and The Register & Bee for what it is I do a disservice for those who want to work there. By posting this I also provide a readily accessible resource for those working at Media General properties who also have EEOC suits and need to realize they're not alone - that Media General does indeed tolerate and even encourage a hostile workplace. Because they do. They put incompetent people in jobs beyond their ability and let them wreak destruction and havoc and chaos wherever they operate and then allow them to use intimidation, rank and sexual aggression to secure their position.
Bullies aren't used to having their targets fight back. IF anyone is a bully - it's probably you. NON-bullies "get" this blog.
Whether a person is gay - or more accurately homosexual or lesbian, straight, transgendered, or whatever - sexual activity in the workplace - between supervisor and subordinate - or even among co-workers if the relationship disrupts the workplace or results in favoritism in terms of job assignments, promotions or other things that impact other workers is, if not outright illegal, is discrimination. "Mr. Hormone" as those at the paper referred to him...swept through several women - while he was married to another...causing emotional distress and upheaval to many. Apparently several of the men (as those around me there said repeatedly) "can't keep it in their pants." Should I be denied a job because I refuse to tolerate an atmosphere that in most other cases the courts have ruled illegal? No.
As a Christian and a conservative (I know that pisses you off even more I'm sure); I have a right to my lifestyle just as they have a right to theirs. If I were a supervisor and promoted and treated people in the newsroom based on their religious beliefs rather than their abilities I'd have been fried in oil! Yet it's okay to do so based on sexual activity and proclivity? I'm all for open discussion - just not intolerance and discrimination.
As far as managers with porn collections - sorry. Porn leads to all sorts of things - and supports the sex trade industry. Studies show that men who regularly watch porn are unable to establish normal relationships with women and tend to view women with scorn and disgust in general - objectifying them. Why would I want to work with managers who see women that way?
Childish? A grown man giggling and acting like a 12-year old and having to film women surreptitiously to get his jollies is childish. And management that sees nothing wrong in a newsroom acting like its their private dating pool is even worse.
Generally people who are engaging in this sort of behavior tend to disagree with me. People who are shamed, abused or suffer from this behavior tend to agree with me.
As far as the Deliverance clip? If you chose to watch it - your choice. It was posted with a warning. Remember, this is what Mac accused his "bumper" of saying he would do. Melvin Carrier denied saying it. Carrier said Todd Foster never even spoke with him to confirm he said that and the city recorder, Carrier said, said she never heard him say that either. Only Mac, amazingly enough, seems to have heard it. That's a pretty brutal accusation to make about someone and I wanted that to be clear. I think it was.
Foster's leaping to Mac's defense with a threat that any court in the land would see as "malice" if Carrier chose to sue Media General is downright stupid. If you're going to be sued - why not hand it to them on a silver platter. I think Foster should stick to contacting the company attorneys before threatening a public official in writing. Now that's pathetic.
Loathe me all you want Doc. I don't know you and don't care what you think. I'll say a prayer for you tonight. In the meantime, if you don't like what you're reading you don't have to read it. Find another blog. My guess is you won't because you are a part of all this drama in some way...so at least man up about it and admit it.
On July 10th, you posted, "If you are gay Media General offers you and your same-sex partner full medical benefits. You don't even have to fly to California to get married first. There are several gay employees and the atmosphere is definitely supportive of alternative lifestyles. So, if you have a gay relative who wants to live and work openly - this is definitely an option for them (or you!) Seriously."
What is your freakin' problem lady? So you have it bad for Mac McLean and Steve Kaylor over the boobs fiasco-- okay. But what does being gay have ANYTHING to do with your plight against the establishment? You try to get sympathy for your cause, yet you're out to slam others -- people that may have taken your side -- but you hurl insults instead.
Before you get all huffy and say I work for The R&B or I'm sleeping with someone there, I'm not. I don't work for Media General either. So let me make that clear.
But to hurl your grade school insults and to post clips from "Deliverance" and whatnot -- you really don't help yourself.
No, you come across as someone who is much worse that McLean, Kaylor -- or anyone else. You're a bully, and in some instances, you're worse than those you loathe.
I don't expect to see this posted at all -- but I had to get this off my chest. I think you're pathetic really.
"Doc" seems to think I'm slamming gays. Not at all. Being gay is an advantage if you work at the R&B. How is that a slam? I have gay relatives and know a lot of gay people. One of my doctors is even gay. I have nothing against gay people. I was trying to point out one of what few advantages there are for working for Media General if you are a sexually active adult. While many jobs discriminate against homosexuals - the media, as a whole - does not. What I do have a problem with is gay people using their alternative lifestyle to gain promotions and favor
Grade school insults? Insults or not - they're not directed at you, so why do you care? Only people who have emotional connections to a situation get so angry. Even if you don't work at the Register & Bee or at Media General I'd say you know someone who does. So - don't distance yourself. There's an issue here that upsets you for some reason. If you don't know anyone who works at Media General then why bother? It's just another little online drama. And if you want to want to say "boobs" and treat the whole incident as "no big deal" then that shows the insensitivity you have. My guess is you're gay and upset over a perceived bias against homosexuals. Thus - the anger over the Deliverance clip. The only theme running through your angry clip is anger over homosexuality. And - this blog is not anti-gay so get over it. Or - maybe you're Mr. Hormone - posting under a different name.
This blog is about a corporation who has chosen to ignore the abuse of women, a corporation that tolerates bullying, that clearly and repeatedly ignores its own policies regarding a hostile work environment in order to protect, promote and praise men over women. You don't have a grasp of that obviously.
Am I a bully? No. I'm very open and direct and straight forward in my anger, my obvious and total disgust and disregard for The Register & Bee and its puppet management and misogyny. Perhaps you should go back and reread the information on bullying. By not speaking up and exposing Media General and The Register & Bee for what it is I do a disservice for those who want to work there. By posting this I also provide a readily accessible resource for those working at Media General properties who also have EEOC suits and need to realize they're not alone - that Media General does indeed tolerate and even encourage a hostile workplace. Because they do. They put incompetent people in jobs beyond their ability and let them wreak destruction and havoc and chaos wherever they operate and then allow them to use intimidation, rank and sexual aggression to secure their position.
Bullies aren't used to having their targets fight back. IF anyone is a bully - it's probably you. NON-bullies "get" this blog.
Whether a person is gay - or more accurately homosexual or lesbian, straight, transgendered, or whatever - sexual activity in the workplace - between supervisor and subordinate - or even among co-workers if the relationship disrupts the workplace or results in favoritism in terms of job assignments, promotions or other things that impact other workers is, if not outright illegal, is discrimination. "Mr. Hormone" as those at the paper referred to him...swept through several women - while he was married to another...causing emotional distress and upheaval to many. Apparently several of the men (as those around me there said repeatedly) "can't keep it in their pants." Should I be denied a job because I refuse to tolerate an atmosphere that in most other cases the courts have ruled illegal? No.
As a Christian and a conservative (I know that pisses you off even more I'm sure); I have a right to my lifestyle just as they have a right to theirs. If I were a supervisor and promoted and treated people in the newsroom based on their religious beliefs rather than their abilities I'd have been fried in oil! Yet it's okay to do so based on sexual activity and proclivity? I'm all for open discussion - just not intolerance and discrimination.
As far as managers with porn collections - sorry. Porn leads to all sorts of things - and supports the sex trade industry. Studies show that men who regularly watch porn are unable to establish normal relationships with women and tend to view women with scorn and disgust in general - objectifying them. Why would I want to work with managers who see women that way?
Childish? A grown man giggling and acting like a 12-year old and having to film women surreptitiously to get his jollies is childish. And management that sees nothing wrong in a newsroom acting like its their private dating pool is even worse.
Generally people who are engaging in this sort of behavior tend to disagree with me. People who are shamed, abused or suffer from this behavior tend to agree with me.
As far as the Deliverance clip? If you chose to watch it - your choice. It was posted with a warning. Remember, this is what Mac accused his "bumper" of saying he would do. Melvin Carrier denied saying it. Carrier said Todd Foster never even spoke with him to confirm he said that and the city recorder, Carrier said, said she never heard him say that either. Only Mac, amazingly enough, seems to have heard it. That's a pretty brutal accusation to make about someone and I wanted that to be clear. I think it was.
Foster's leaping to Mac's defense with a threat that any court in the land would see as "malice" if Carrier chose to sue Media General is downright stupid. If you're going to be sued - why not hand it to them on a silver platter. I think Foster should stick to contacting the company attorneys before threatening a public official in writing. Now that's pathetic.
Loathe me all you want Doc. I don't know you and don't care what you think. I'll say a prayer for you tonight. In the meantime, if you don't like what you're reading you don't have to read it. Find another blog. My guess is you won't because you are a part of all this drama in some way...so at least man up about it and admit it.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Carrier guilty or innocent?
Hmmmm....letters to the editor in the Herald Courier claim Melvin Carrier is a foul-mouthed loser.
Seems like most of the folks there in Bluff City, if you read the newspaper anyway, don't care too much for him. I don't know and can't take sides. I just find it odd that the paper is so opposed to the behavior and mouth of a politician who reacted to a reporter who - at least when he was working in Danville, had a foul mouth and a foul attitude himself. Pot, meet kettle.
Seems like most of the folks there in Bluff City, if you read the newspaper anyway, don't care too much for him. I don't know and can't take sides. I just find it odd that the paper is so opposed to the behavior and mouth of a politician who reacted to a reporter who - at least when he was working in Danville, had a foul mouth and a foul attitude himself. Pot, meet kettle.
More Danville, Va Blogs....
A reader sent me this blog about Danville. Wow! As long as I worked at the paper I only knew about half this stuff. The other half we didn't have "time" to check into ....like which contractors are actually working on Coleman Market Place and why all the Swedwood Executives moved to be near Greensboro....which I understand is where Steve Kaylor lives - over the border. Why? What's wrong with Danville?
http://www.city-voice.blogspot.com/
Check it out!!
http://www.city-voice.blogspot.com/
Check it out!!
Carrier denies saying "Piss in your gut"...Mac lied?
Melvin Carrier's 93-year-old mother cried when she read Mac McLean's story about her son and Bluff City Alderman.
"I don't take the paper and she doesn't either," Carrier said in a telephone interview Monday night.
"Someone called and told her about it," he said. "And she cried. Then she got on my hind end," he explained.
Bluff City is a small town in East Tennessee, population about 1,500. It's a small enough town that neighbors know neighbors and remember each other's school history as well as the names of their neighbor's children and dogs. It's a town where something like a new parking lot light at the ramp to the put-in at the lake is a big deal. A town where things like a new recycling bin and junk cars are front-page news.
Carrier, now a politician in the town where he played high school football in the 50's, is proud of all he's helped accomplish there, and sorry that the cars he loved so much have caused so much of a ruckus.
"In 93 when I was on the board I helped get recycling bins down by the lake," he said, recounting a list of improvements he helped get in the city over the past two decades." But the good he has done was recently overshadowed by the rusting cars in his yard.
"I don't know," he said. "I just love old cars. I always have." But over time the townsfolk and one neighbor objected to them. Where Carrier saw his first car - the one he bought as a teen-ager for $50; his neighbors saw a junk heap. Where he saw his first wheels and the car he used to take he and his high school friends on a road trip to Gatlinburg and then over to Cherokee, NC his neighbors saw a broken hulk.
Where Carrier saw memories, the city saw an eyesore. Being in public office and having an eyesore in his yard and neighbors complaining about it meant Carrier was fair game for the local newspaper - The Bristol Herald Courier. (A Media General newspaper)
A Courier photographer and newspaper reporter Mac McLean took a photo of Carrier’s yard and the cars and ran the photo in the newspaper, along with some information Carrier said wasn't true.
"I never had words with my neighbor," Carrier said. "And he's been gone a month, sold his house and moved out. I waved at him a few times, but we never had words.”
Carrier admits his neighbor wrote City Hall about several of the vehicles that appeared to be abandoned or were sitting in his yard. The Bluff City Mayor Tom Anderson brought it up at a meeting, Carrier said.
According to the story in the Bristol Herald Courier, Anderson said city officials had little they could enforce because the city's current ordinance dealing with overgrown and dirty lots does not apply to owner-occupied property, like a yard at someone’s private residence. A proposed ordinance would change that and it would also make Carrier the first person in town to be cited.
Under the new law people could file a complaint with the board who could then determine whether it was necessary to take action. Carrier’s property was at the top of the list, so Carrier said, he moved the cars, but the neighbors have been gone a month and they did finally sell their home.
"They couldn't sell their house cause things are bad all over," he said. "It wasn't all the cars. It was the housing market."
What bothers Carrier the most about the whole affair is that Carrier said the paper reported he said he would "Piss on his gut," to Mac McLean. "I never said that," Carrier insisted.
"I confronted him about it (the story)," Carrier said when asked if he did indeed “bump” Mac. The two men were standing, Carrier said, in a meeting near the city recorder where Mac was talking to the city recorder.
"I don't got no craw-fish in me. I don't back up to nobody. I said are you the dude that put a picture in the paper about my property and my house. He said yes, and I said I don't appreciate it. It upset my family a whole bunch. I've been over the rocks enough it didn't bother me too much but it upset them and I'd appreciate it if you didn't do it no more. That's all I said to him," Carrier said.
"It said in the paper that I said I would piss on his guts. I told that to the city recorder and she said “That's a lie, that's a big lie. I was there and I heard what you said.”
Carrier denies saying it as well.
"I never said such a thing," he said. Carrier also said no one ever talked to him about the incident and that Editor Todd Foster, the editor of the paper never even got his side of the story. The article in the Courier said Foster attempted to contact Carrier, but couldn't reach him. Oh well - might as well go ahead and threaten the man. Good thing it was only a threat of using his name in a newspaper Carrier doesn't read.
"He don't have my cell phone number and I never talked to him. I wasn't here to answer the phone if he did call," Carrier said.
Carrier sighed and was quiet for a minute. “I just hope it settles down."
It may not. After all, Carrier’s name is now in the Bristol Herald Courier 14 times. In a small town like Bluff City, them's fighting words I suppose. And for the reporter who was so intimidated by being bumped...maybe he ought to go back to filming and humiliating women. Sad isn't it? All the men will defend each other, but don't seem to care so much about the abuse of women. Such is Media General. But before I accused a man of saying he was going to piss in my guts...I'd make sure the only witness to the incident at least confirmed it....at least before using his name 14 times in an editorial.
Media General staff may not respond to emails from me because they may - at some future time, but in court with me since I have filed an EEOC complaint - so this reporter was unable to contact them for comment. However, other bloggers may feel free to do so.
"I don't take the paper and she doesn't either," Carrier said in a telephone interview Monday night.
"Someone called and told her about it," he said. "And she cried. Then she got on my hind end," he explained.
Bluff City is a small town in East Tennessee, population about 1,500. It's a small enough town that neighbors know neighbors and remember each other's school history as well as the names of their neighbor's children and dogs. It's a town where something like a new parking lot light at the ramp to the put-in at the lake is a big deal. A town where things like a new recycling bin and junk cars are front-page news.
Carrier, now a politician in the town where he played high school football in the 50's, is proud of all he's helped accomplish there, and sorry that the cars he loved so much have caused so much of a ruckus.
"In 93 when I was on the board I helped get recycling bins down by the lake," he said, recounting a list of improvements he helped get in the city over the past two decades." But the good he has done was recently overshadowed by the rusting cars in his yard.
"I don't know," he said. "I just love old cars. I always have." But over time the townsfolk and one neighbor objected to them. Where Carrier saw his first car - the one he bought as a teen-ager for $50; his neighbors saw a junk heap. Where he saw his first wheels and the car he used to take he and his high school friends on a road trip to Gatlinburg and then over to Cherokee, NC his neighbors saw a broken hulk.
Where Carrier saw memories, the city saw an eyesore. Being in public office and having an eyesore in his yard and neighbors complaining about it meant Carrier was fair game for the local newspaper - The Bristol Herald Courier. (A Media General newspaper)
A Courier photographer and newspaper reporter Mac McLean took a photo of Carrier’s yard and the cars and ran the photo in the newspaper, along with some information Carrier said wasn't true.
"I never had words with my neighbor," Carrier said. "And he's been gone a month, sold his house and moved out. I waved at him a few times, but we never had words.”
Carrier admits his neighbor wrote City Hall about several of the vehicles that appeared to be abandoned or were sitting in his yard. The Bluff City Mayor Tom Anderson brought it up at a meeting, Carrier said.
According to the story in the Bristol Herald Courier, Anderson said city officials had little they could enforce because the city's current ordinance dealing with overgrown and dirty lots does not apply to owner-occupied property, like a yard at someone’s private residence. A proposed ordinance would change that and it would also make Carrier the first person in town to be cited.
Under the new law people could file a complaint with the board who could then determine whether it was necessary to take action. Carrier’s property was at the top of the list, so Carrier said, he moved the cars, but the neighbors have been gone a month and they did finally sell their home.
"They couldn't sell their house cause things are bad all over," he said. "It wasn't all the cars. It was the housing market."
What bothers Carrier the most about the whole affair is that Carrier said the paper reported he said he would "Piss on his gut," to Mac McLean. "I never said that," Carrier insisted.
"I confronted him about it (the story)," Carrier said when asked if he did indeed “bump” Mac. The two men were standing, Carrier said, in a meeting near the city recorder where Mac was talking to the city recorder.
"I don't got no craw-fish in me. I don't back up to nobody. I said are you the dude that put a picture in the paper about my property and my house. He said yes, and I said I don't appreciate it. It upset my family a whole bunch. I've been over the rocks enough it didn't bother me too much but it upset them and I'd appreciate it if you didn't do it no more. That's all I said to him," Carrier said.
"It said in the paper that I said I would piss on his guts. I told that to the city recorder and she said “That's a lie, that's a big lie. I was there and I heard what you said.”
Carrier denies saying it as well.
"I never said such a thing," he said. Carrier also said no one ever talked to him about the incident and that Editor Todd Foster, the editor of the paper never even got his side of the story. The article in the Courier said Foster attempted to contact Carrier, but couldn't reach him. Oh well - might as well go ahead and threaten the man. Good thing it was only a threat of using his name in a newspaper Carrier doesn't read.
"He don't have my cell phone number and I never talked to him. I wasn't here to answer the phone if he did call," Carrier said.
Carrier sighed and was quiet for a minute. “I just hope it settles down."
It may not. After all, Carrier’s name is now in the Bristol Herald Courier 14 times. In a small town like Bluff City, them's fighting words I suppose. And for the reporter who was so intimidated by being bumped...maybe he ought to go back to filming and humiliating women. Sad isn't it? All the men will defend each other, but don't seem to care so much about the abuse of women. Such is Media General. But before I accused a man of saying he was going to piss in my guts...I'd make sure the only witness to the incident at least confirmed it....at least before using his name 14 times in an editorial.
Media General staff may not respond to emails from me because they may - at some future time, but in court with me since I have filed an EEOC complaint - so this reporter was unable to contact them for comment. However, other bloggers may feel free to do so.
Piss in your gut....
Even though Editor Todd Foster is from the south he said he isn't familiar with the term "piss in your gut." Well, the phrase refers to entering a man's anal canal with one's penis so deeply that he can then "piss in your gut."
The movie Deliverance has a scene in which such humiliation is adequately conveyed the term "squeal like a pig."
Of course that's exactly the sort of phrase someone who hasn't yet served time for Felony-Writing-of-a-Name might not have experience with. I actually had to call a good ole boy I know for a definition...
So now I know nothing makes a man who threatens to "piss in your gut" quake in his boots more than being threatened with having his name in the newspaper!! Oh my Golly. In essence Mac was threatened with this.... WARNING GRAPHIC AND DISGUSTING
and Todd retaliated with this....
Stay tuned. I'm sure now that Todd who told the Alderman "Should another incident of this sort happen again, I can assure you your name will be all over the Opinion page of this newspaper, and a possible call made to local law enforcement," is feeling more manly, as is Mac. And - given the repercussions we can all assume that in keeping with Media General policy - if you anger their editors they will deliberately and with malice aforethought....slander your name. Unless you're a woman. Then they simply film you and talk about your breasts and make fun of you in the newsroom...
So now we know...The men at Media General get defended...the women don't.
But if all this isn't enough...then read the citizen comments....sounds like a real hot-bed of potential Pulitzer stuff there at the Bristol Herald all right:
The movie Deliverance has a scene in which such humiliation is adequately conveyed the term "squeal like a pig."
Of course that's exactly the sort of phrase someone who hasn't yet served time for Felony-Writing-of-a-Name might not have experience with. I actually had to call a good ole boy I know for a definition...
So now I know nothing makes a man who threatens to "piss in your gut" quake in his boots more than being threatened with having his name in the newspaper!! Oh my Golly. In essence Mac was threatened with this.... WARNING GRAPHIC AND DISGUSTING
and Todd retaliated with this....
Stay tuned. I'm sure now that Todd who told the Alderman "Should another incident of this sort happen again, I can assure you your name will be all over the Opinion page of this newspaper, and a possible call made to local law enforcement," is feeling more manly, as is Mac. And - given the repercussions we can all assume that in keeping with Media General policy - if you anger their editors they will deliberately and with malice aforethought....slander your name. Unless you're a woman. Then they simply film you and talk about your breasts and make fun of you in the newsroom...
So now we know...The men at Media General get defended...the women don't.
But if all this isn't enough...then read the citizen comments....sounds like a real hot-bed of potential Pulitzer stuff there at the Bristol Herald all right:
Send your sympathy cards....
Poor old Mac McLean was "bumped" by an Alderman. His boss, Todd Foster retaliated - and THREATENED said Alderman!
Jeff Foxworthy where are you when we really need you?
Foster, the editor of The Bristol Herald where Mac now works, has gone to the pages of the newspaper to defend Poor, helpless MAC MCLEAN. You'll recall dear readers that Mac is the reporter who video taped women's breasts without their knowledge or consent and flashed them around the newsroom and yelled "You can see their nipples!" ...much with the excitement a 12-year-old boy would have upon seeing his first women's underwear ad I assume... He can abuse women, but not stand up to an angry man. Yep...that's about right...
Now poor Mac has been "bumped" by a politician!!! Horrors!! Poor boy. His editor has taken up the sword (pen) and attacked back!!! Todd Foster is defending poor Mac...albeit in an editorial. Poor, poor helpless Mac. It's okay for HIM to attack women...but not to be bumped by a man who then called him a "dumbass"...according to Todd. Geesh....no matter where he goes....Read the whole editorial here.
Don't you just LOVE RED-NECK Media General? These are the folks reporting your news boys and girls....They defend the men, but abuse, humiliate and ignore the women. Too bad Steven Kaylor didn't have the "spine" to stand up for Mac's victim...but then...what do you expect....it's Media General's good-ole-boy-ism hard at work.
From Todd Foster's editorial:
McLEAN REPORTED the incident to me, and I fired off a letter to Carrier on May 21.
“Dear Alderman Carrier,” I wrote. “Reporter Mac McLean today informed me of an incident with you yesterday in which you warned him never to publish your name again and then bumped him. You lost any claim to privacy when you won public office. Furthermore, public disputes don’t even shield private citizens from publication. Should another incident of this sort happen again, I can assure you your name will be all over the Opinion page of this newspaper, and a possible call made to local law enforcement.”
I never heard back from Carrier. But McLean did. On June 3 at another meeting of the Bluff City Board of Aldermen, Carrier spotted the reporter and publicly declared “there’s that dumb ass right now.” He walked by McLean, and within earshot of other city officials, vowed to the reporter that he would “piss in your gut.”
I have no idea what Carrier meant by that threat to the reporter; it’s no Southern colloquialism I’ve ever heard of, but it’s safe to say it’s unbecoming of an alderman.
SO, AS promised, Carrier gets his name in this column – 14 times, by my count.
As a journalist, I hope Damascus, St. Paul and Bluff City remain the gifts that keep on giving. If I were a citizen, though, I’d be thankful they’re not in the same geographic room at the same time.
Insufferable can easily become combustible.
J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier. He may be reached at jfoster@bristolnews.com or (276) 645-2513.
Jeff Foxworthy where are you when we really need you?
Foster, the editor of The Bristol Herald where Mac now works, has gone to the pages of the newspaper to defend Poor, helpless MAC MCLEAN. You'll recall dear readers that Mac is the reporter who video taped women's breasts without their knowledge or consent and flashed them around the newsroom and yelled "You can see their nipples!" ...much with the excitement a 12-year-old boy would have upon seeing his first women's underwear ad I assume... He can abuse women, but not stand up to an angry man. Yep...that's about right...
Now poor Mac has been "bumped" by a politician!!! Horrors!! Poor boy. His editor has taken up the sword (pen) and attacked back!!! Todd Foster is defending poor Mac...albeit in an editorial. Poor, poor helpless Mac. It's okay for HIM to attack women...but not to be bumped by a man who then called him a "dumbass"...according to Todd. Geesh....no matter where he goes....Read the whole editorial here.
Don't you just LOVE RED-NECK Media General? These are the folks reporting your news boys and girls....They defend the men, but abuse, humiliate and ignore the women. Too bad Steven Kaylor didn't have the "spine" to stand up for Mac's victim...but then...what do you expect....it's Media General's good-ole-boy-ism hard at work.
From Todd Foster's editorial:
McLEAN REPORTED the incident to me, and I fired off a letter to Carrier on May 21.
“Dear Alderman Carrier,” I wrote. “Reporter Mac McLean today informed me of an incident with you yesterday in which you warned him never to publish your name again and then bumped him. You lost any claim to privacy when you won public office. Furthermore, public disputes don’t even shield private citizens from publication. Should another incident of this sort happen again, I can assure you your name will be all over the Opinion page of this newspaper, and a possible call made to local law enforcement.”
I never heard back from Carrier. But McLean did. On June 3 at another meeting of the Bluff City Board of Aldermen, Carrier spotted the reporter and publicly declared “there’s that dumb ass right now.” He walked by McLean, and within earshot of other city officials, vowed to the reporter that he would “piss in your gut.”
I have no idea what Carrier meant by that threat to the reporter; it’s no Southern colloquialism I’ve ever heard of, but it’s safe to say it’s unbecoming of an alderman.
SO, AS promised, Carrier gets his name in this column – 14 times, by my count.
As a journalist, I hope Damascus, St. Paul and Bluff City remain the gifts that keep on giving. If I were a citizen, though, I’d be thankful they’re not in the same geographic room at the same time.
Insufferable can easily become combustible.
J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier. He may be reached at jfoster@bristolnews.com or (276) 645-2513.
All of us get angry - some more creatively than most...
Click on the photo to enlarge it so you can read the math formula and the solution below!!
Had to share this with you all! There are many ways to express anger. Some of us blog. Some of us write checks and send photos to friends. Either way - the message is - in the internet world when you screw up - a lot of people are going to hear about it pretty darn quick. I have to side with this guy on Verizon...worst service in the world. When people say "Can you hear me now?" that is usually because NO!! THEY CAN'T HEAR YOU! Horrible branding...but true...best to take care of problems before they hit the internet wouldn't you say?
Had to share this with you all! There are many ways to express anger. Some of us blog. Some of us write checks and send photos to friends. Either way - the message is - in the internet world when you screw up - a lot of people are going to hear about it pretty darn quick. I have to side with this guy on Verizon...worst service in the world. When people say "Can you hear me now?" that is usually because NO!! THEY CAN'T HEAR YOU! Horrible branding...but true...best to take care of problems before they hit the internet wouldn't you say?
Federal Crime? The journalism experts weigh in...
Danville Register and Bee clerk/typist dubbed "Human Resources" person Ann Austin wrote to tell me I was committing a "FEDERAL CRIME" by posting my clips to my website. So I asked the experts at Poynter.org - a website for journalists. Their response? Read Joe Grimm's response for yourself.
Joe writes a column called "Ask the Recruiter." Joe Grimm is the recruiting and development editor for the Detroit Free Press. He also recruits for Gannett and runs the JobsPage Web site for Poynter.org. From that, he published "Breaking In: The www.JobsPage.com Guide to Newspaper Internships". In 2008, Joe will publish "The Best of Ask the Recruiter," drawn from his Poynter Career Center column. Thanks Joe!!!
Poynteronline
Ask the Recruiter
MONDAY, JULY 14, 2008
Is It a Federal Crime to Post My Clips?
Q. Someone from human resources told me it is a federal crime for me to post my clips and samples of photos I wrote or took while employed at the newspaper on my Web site.
I know of half a dozen other reporters who do this, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. What's the fair use law on posting your work as portfolio pieces?
Lawless
A. Fortunately for you, the FBI is too busy keeping the homeland safe and rooting out Internet sex predators, or I am sure they would show up at your house.
Seriously, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
All I can think is that the person who warned you against committing a federal crime must be thinking about copyright law. Before anyone is concerned about the thousands of journalists who post or photocopy attributed examples of their work -- thousands do it -- the feds will first deal with the felons who violate the FBI warnings at the beginning of videotapes or who rip the little tags off pillows.
If you are still worried, post links instead of the actual stories and photos.
There, now that I have been a wise guy, would a lawyer like to weigh in on this before Lawless gets busted? Click here to comment.
Joe writes a column called "Ask the Recruiter." Joe Grimm is the recruiting and development editor for the Detroit Free Press. He also recruits for Gannett and runs the JobsPage Web site for Poynter.org. From that, he published "Breaking In: The www.JobsPage.com Guide to Newspaper Internships". In 2008, Joe will publish "The Best of Ask the Recruiter," drawn from his Poynter Career Center column. Thanks Joe!!!
Poynteronline
Ask the Recruiter
MONDAY, JULY 14, 2008
Is It a Federal Crime to Post My Clips?
Q. Someone from human resources told me it is a federal crime for me to post my clips and samples of photos I wrote or took while employed at the newspaper on my Web site.
I know of half a dozen other reporters who do this, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. What's the fair use law on posting your work as portfolio pieces?
Lawless
A. Fortunately for you, the FBI is too busy keeping the homeland safe and rooting out Internet sex predators, or I am sure they would show up at your house.
Seriously, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
All I can think is that the person who warned you against committing a federal crime must be thinking about copyright law. Before anyone is concerned about the thousands of journalists who post or photocopy attributed examples of their work -- thousands do it -- the feds will first deal with the felons who violate the FBI warnings at the beginning of videotapes or who rip the little tags off pillows.
If you are still worried, post links instead of the actual stories and photos.
There, now that I have been a wise guy, would a lawyer like to weigh in on this before Lawless gets busted? Click here to comment.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Silence is cowardice
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr
—Martin Luther King, Jr
The great scheme of things....
In the great scheme of things, how big a deal is this? Not so much considering what's happening in the rest of the world. There are, indeed, much worse atrocities. Rape, Muslims cutting off the hands of people who steal a loaf of bread, murder, war....it's all out there. So why bother making a big deal over the humiliation of a couple of business women and the on-going bullying of employees for a media giant? PRECISELY BECAUSE IT IS A MEDIA GIANT.
When it become acceptable behavior for a newspaper - an organization that's supposed to be a community watchdog - to behave like this, it impacts the community. Any of you know, or should know that once someone starts abusing you and gets away with it - it only escalates. They don't wake up and say, "Gee, what a jerk I've been. I'd better stop this sort of behavior." Nope. That's not human nature. When a reporter can go out and film women's bodies, come back to the newsroom and make fun of them and be rude to co-workers and his bosses not only ignore it but encourage it, do you really think he's going to stop? C'mon.
So what happens? They're like roaches...one manager - whom employees referred to as "Mr. Hormone" for his behavior....ends up in Florida....married, with child, but still "Mr. Hormone" and willing to risk his publishing reputation to post to this blog and rant...and to probably answer later to how many women he was involved with in the newsroom...we'll see....so he took this attitude and poor management skills to his new paper. Mac has moved onto another paper where his boss doesn't seem to care either.
So it grows. And how many other newspapers and television stations tolerate the same behavior? Most of them from what I know. You know what happens. It escalates. The behavior gets worse. Why should you care? Well, it may be YOU or your child or your wife or sister or mother being treated like that one day. Most people hate their jobs anyway (unless they're one of the protected ones who DON'T complain about their workplace and are left alone until they do). But one day it WILL be you. It may take a little longer, but when you don't speak out against sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination, it grows. And it will keep growing.
The sad thing is Media General - with all of the talent it does have nationwide - has failed its employees. The men who run it, who sit on its board - don't respect women or their employees enough to enforce the policies they have. And that's just sad. Because in the great scheme of things that's the attitude the rest of the world has when they kill, maim, rape and pillage - they're just further along than we are - but given time....I'm sure Media General will have everyone up to speed on total abuse too...
I've already spoken with so many former employees who were bullied, shamed, mistreated and abused by these same people I'm talking about. There's no reason for it. Each and every one has said they "LOVE" this blog because finally, the bullies are being exposed for what they are - bullies, weak, untalented, incompetent jerks. People are feeling more empowered and more hopeful. This blog is being read by more than 5,000 people and the numbers are growing. People who are tired of being bullied and the people who bully them are seeing - this is what can happen
Again - I urge you - if YOU are being bullied - start a blog. If you're too afraid to name names and document things online - then make up names like "Evil boss" but blog. Write about how bullies make you feel, what you're doing. Link to www.bullyoffline.org and sites like this one. STOP THE BULLIES. Because we can spread and grow just as fast if not faster - because there are more people being bullied than bullying. And if we work at it - we can stop it.
The media should be STOPPING abuse, not promoting it.
When it become acceptable behavior for a newspaper - an organization that's supposed to be a community watchdog - to behave like this, it impacts the community. Any of you know, or should know that once someone starts abusing you and gets away with it - it only escalates. They don't wake up and say, "Gee, what a jerk I've been. I'd better stop this sort of behavior." Nope. That's not human nature. When a reporter can go out and film women's bodies, come back to the newsroom and make fun of them and be rude to co-workers and his bosses not only ignore it but encourage it, do you really think he's going to stop? C'mon.
So what happens? They're like roaches...one manager - whom employees referred to as "Mr. Hormone" for his behavior....ends up in Florida....married, with child, but still "Mr. Hormone" and willing to risk his publishing reputation to post to this blog and rant...and to probably answer later to how many women he was involved with in the newsroom...we'll see....so he took this attitude and poor management skills to his new paper. Mac has moved onto another paper where his boss doesn't seem to care either.
So it grows. And how many other newspapers and television stations tolerate the same behavior? Most of them from what I know. You know what happens. It escalates. The behavior gets worse. Why should you care? Well, it may be YOU or your child or your wife or sister or mother being treated like that one day. Most people hate their jobs anyway (unless they're one of the protected ones who DON'T complain about their workplace and are left alone until they do). But one day it WILL be you. It may take a little longer, but when you don't speak out against sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination, it grows. And it will keep growing.
The sad thing is Media General - with all of the talent it does have nationwide - has failed its employees. The men who run it, who sit on its board - don't respect women or their employees enough to enforce the policies they have. And that's just sad. Because in the great scheme of things that's the attitude the rest of the world has when they kill, maim, rape and pillage - they're just further along than we are - but given time....I'm sure Media General will have everyone up to speed on total abuse too...
I've already spoken with so many former employees who were bullied, shamed, mistreated and abused by these same people I'm talking about. There's no reason for it. Each and every one has said they "LOVE" this blog because finally, the bullies are being exposed for what they are - bullies, weak, untalented, incompetent jerks. People are feeling more empowered and more hopeful. This blog is being read by more than 5,000 people and the numbers are growing. People who are tired of being bullied and the people who bully them are seeing - this is what can happen
Again - I urge you - if YOU are being bullied - start a blog. If you're too afraid to name names and document things online - then make up names like "Evil boss" but blog. Write about how bullies make you feel, what you're doing. Link to www.bullyoffline.org and sites like this one. STOP THE BULLIES. Because we can spread and grow just as fast if not faster - because there are more people being bullied than bullying. And if we work at it - we can stop it.
The media should be STOPPING abuse, not promoting it.
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