Last week on the Sunday TV interview show from Albany, Senator George Maziarz was critical of the Review Board for early release of potentially dangerous criminals from incarceration. And rightly so.
He was also critical of the antiquated oversight by the State Liquor Authority of our local wine industry. He said they were clearly standing in the way of the Niagara wine industry prospering and being competitive with our Canadian neighbors. And rightly so.
The Senator emphasized that one thing that could help government and temper bureaucracy apparently in such situations was “public scrutiny” of bureaucratic activities. Truer words were never spoken. And rightly so.
However within his very own county recent harassment of Legislative Journal TV host Tom Christy by LCTV Board of Directors flagrantly flies in the face of the express wishes of our elected leadership. Stringent faux-regulations as to how Mr. Christy must “behave” during his show were imposed. This amounts to (1) an actual gag on free speech, (2) an attempt to control knowledge content by shackling free dialogue with artificial interview rules, and (3) an elitist limitation of guests to elected officials and denial of the host having any say in choosing guests, having an opinion or critically reflecting on the discussion.
Obviously these fraudulent “editorial rules” were a thinly disguised pretext to cloak their real purpose: to suppress speech, control the political content of governmental discourse and widen the gap between the "public sphere of free speech for the people" and the "institutional sphere as staging ground for governmental action, propaganda and control" of Niagara County. And to get rid of Christy.
Today Tom Christy’s program was canceled. Without explanation, excuse, reason or justification. Simply in either an arrogant display of administrative fiat or simply ignorance or indifference as to what serves the people, or possibly fear generated by well placed or powerful politicos, the program was just cancelled. Without discussion, due consideration of the consequences or consideration of Tom’s role in our community, by e-mail no less, brazenly canceled. Why? Possibly because there was a little too much “public scrutiny” for some who do not believe in the democratic process of inquiry, questioning, criticism, self-reflection, accountability and demand for meaningful action and change.
Ironically the very “public scrutiny” that Senator Maziarz calls for is being prevented in his own county. The very organ of public scrutiny is being “downsized” so to speak, contradictory to the very needs of the government and the polity as indicated by Senator Maziarz.
However not only was the ‘public scrutiny,’ that Legislative Journal enabled and facilitated when free and open media interaction was provided, denied without believable reason. But when questioned by Gloria Bryant, a Lockport citizen, as to the straitjacket placed on Christy and when asked to release their governing by-laws and articles of incorporation, LCTV Board of Directors refused to cooperate, denying her access to the information. If that is not enough, they arrogantly questioned her as to why she wished to exercise her right to know. Consider the audacity and elitism of such resistance to providing legally required public information. However this seems to be the modus operandi evolving at LCTV and possibly in Niagara County.
Tom Christy’s “Journal” is the liveliest, most spirited and interactive program of the people in our area. To have expected Tom to only speak to elected officials is an arbitrary but calculated attempt to control speech, information and knowledge. Legislators so used are reduced to mere mouthpieces which have no true voice without the constant and uncensored input of the people they represent.
Only when a polity begins to undergo a move toward such authoritarian-like rule do heinous actions like this take place. Surely Senator Maziarz did not call for “public scrutiny” merely to support his legislative efforts. Surely he recognizes that a republic which loses its democratic foundation is no longer a republic at all and fails to live up to its classical Liberal principle of limitation of government and empowerment of the voices that found and ground this Constitution.
This, my friends, is the beginning of the end of free speech in Niagara County. Unless, of course, you refuse to let these thoughtless bureaucratic wannabees get away with this. Too often recently in Western NY we see officials censoring speech, shouting down citizens in town council meetings and the like. LCTV in fact should be expanding shows like Christy’s and opening our depressed and demoralized polity to new ideas, vigorous self-examination and expanded “mediation” of democratic relations.
We should at times like this throw a new light on the historical fact that so often in the past it has been the voice of the people such as Lois Gibbs, Erin Brokovich, Karen Silkwood and even now locally Louis Ricciuti exposing the reprehensible level of chemical and nuclear pollution in the dump sites of Western NY, who have moved government forward toward meaningful democratic action.
If the citizens of Niagara County do not wish to turn their communities over to the bureaucratic-technocratic managerial elite who wish to control thought and action and suppress democracy, then join this fight and demand the restoration of Legislative Journal and Tom Christy to the democratic airways of Western NY.
Call LCTV and demand your rights. Call the Lockport Council and Mayor’s office. Call Tom and offer ideas and support at 228-3367. Call Senator Maziarz and request his help. Support Dennis Virtuoso at the next County Legislative meeting in Lockport where he will submit a resolution to restore Legislative Journal. This can be the beginning of politics as it should be in Niagara County, a democratic community of “public scrutiny” and the express will of the people guiding and informing government.
3 comments:
That's too bad, though I found Christie fairly boring. Perhaps more people should also do the work necessary to get their own programming on LCTV, since most of it is very dull; part of the problem is that Christie's was one of very few shows to challenge anything at all. If more people put challenging programming on, the whole culture of the station could change. All you need, I believe, to have a show put on LCTV is to have a non-profit organization of some kind, so let's start one.
But then I'm a dreamer...
I agree that Christy was the only one to challenge at any level in any way. I didn’t find him boring but, if he was, surely not more than the talking heads on these other shows or the robots who do the shows out of Albany. But again you’re right we should have many more shows of all kinds challenging the status quo of a County that is failing. The present leadership and, for the most part, a passive constituency is stuck. Especially when it comes to politics, its stuck in a cliché and combative thinking that is regressive if not just pathetic. Witness what often goes on in the NiagaraTimes blogspot: a partisan pseudo-politics of protection of established power and business, and irrational, abusive attacks on radical disagreement to ways and means that are obsolete and failing. That blog serves a purpose but it doesn’t have much to do with new ideas and probing critique of what’s really gone wrong in Niagara County. I wish we could bring the level of discourse up to what goes on, for example, in a work like The Promise of Politics by Hannah Arendt. This should be on all pundits reading list.
Larry....I wish I could go in person to support Dennis Virtuoso. But I have a Town Board Meeting that night. I plan on doing my part to help out anyway I can.
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