The Niagara County Legislature’s rapacious right wing rejected Dennis Virtuoso’s resolution to support the reinstatement of “Tom Christy’s Legislative Journal.” Except for a couple votes Virtuoso stood alone giving the opposition the opportunity to reconcile the government with the voice that has practiced and defended the democratic space and public sphere that’s quickly shrinking in Niagara County, namely Tom Christy.
But Christy went too far and actually asked questions on his show in the interest of truth and understanding that made the Republican advocates of questionable IDA practices, unnecessary PILOTS that increase taxes on families that don’t have the money to fund business bailouts, and the highest taxes in the kingdom, squirm and cringe. Using the LCTV Board of Directors as their front, they axed Christy as a lesson to anyone who demands reasonable discussion regarding the disaster that we so obviously are.
Nothing but the official story can be expected should a new “legislative journal” show emerge sans Tom Christy. Surely we’ll never see Louis Riciutti discussing the nuclear and chemical waste that pocks the landscape. We’ll never see a discussion of the virtual apartheid practiced against Niagara Falls effectively separating it from the county like the Mason-Dixon line. Nor will we see discussion with respect to actually using the natural wonder of the Falls, Gorge and Greenway to create a viable and sensible tourism economy. And its unlikely that the flow of Casino money out of the Falls or the sucking sound of revenue from the parks being drained to Albany will receive much attention. We’ll see some political variation of the Christian channels where true believers confess their faith and the miracles that resulted thereof.
The sophomoric rhetoric on the part of a cowardly and selfish Legislature pleaded that the public speakers didn’t have the facts to make any judgement regarding what went down at LCTV and that the Legislature didn’t have the authority to interfere in the “private sphere” of public media, whatever that meant. It amounted to excuses to not act. It amounted to the contempt that autocratic and authoritarian mentalities exhibit for democratic freedom, openness, inquiry and challenge. The thin skinned Conservative/Republicans ought to be skittish given that their leadership seems to be something analogous to the good that Jim Jones’ leadership did for his followers when he offered the Kool Aid. “Here drink. It’ll take you to heaven.”
So the Conservative/Republicans choose the assassination politics of division, derision and exclusion. They demonstrate that not even a man who wins the Volunteer of the Year Award and gives 10 or so years of his life to openness in government is worth honoring with the right that any good American deserves who has served in good faith, diligently and with honest enthusiasm and humility.
I see no salvation in the partisan politics of Democrats and Republicans. I do not identify with democrats but I could easily loath Conservative/Republicans given the callous and corruptive display of smug indifference and diplomatic violence I witnessed tonight at the Niagara County Legislative Meeting. Niagara County is in deep deep trouble with this caliber of leadership and virtual despotic disdain for the free exchange of ideas and good-natured rapport that Tom Christy created and nurtured on Legislative Journal.
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ReplyDeleteI am concerned about the dangers of contamination that are not being allowed to be discussed openly and freely.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Lakes Health Report (Search: Great Lakes Danger Zones? - Center for Public Integrity, and Centers for Disease Control-ATSDR) that has been suppressed by the White House clearly points to problems along the Niagara River Corridor and along Lake Ontario, yet this has not been revealed in the local press or even discussed within the realm of the public.
With Sky-High cancer and other disease rates in AOC's-Areas of Concern right in our own back yards, it's no wonder that the news obituaries are loaded with before life-expectancy and underaged deaths!
Of all the dubious and nefarious things that I've come across within Niagara County, these are the most egregious and saddening to the soul.
If you have a child, get out of NC. If you think that "jobs, jobs, jobs" is the answer, think again.
Without full disclosure and immediate attention to these waste sites, disease rates will increase!
That's NOT opinion, that is a scientific fact because of the widespread decay of radioactive materials within many of these "official" sites and, around numerous undisclosed spots that pepper the area.
Have you ever wondered WHY certain politicians and others get their health care paid for life? Wonder no more!
Published under anonymous here because my screen and actual name have been used by others on GOOGLE to help carry on with the silence and suppression of these messages.
Have a nice day and may the truth prevail.
Lou Ricciuti
You’re not fooling anyone - Tom Christy is a liberal “talking head” and a political lighting rod.
ReplyDeleteDuring the last election cycle he was “over the top” on many occasions by actively campaigning for one side on the tax payers dime; and his viewership dwindled.
News flash - not everyone is interested in hearing his same old slant on every topic – he should have been a bit more “fair and balanced” – it’s a good time for a change.
I would like see something like the “Legislative Journal” return to the air waves but it should not be a single man’s bully pulpit.
"it’s a good time for a change."
ReplyDeleteOf course you mean that "it's a good time" to have the opposition to free speech.. have their sway and say so.
That's clearly understood here with your comment.
Obviously – you have your “leftist” blinders on so let me clarify.
ReplyDeleteYour free speech argument is crap – no one is stopping Tom from expressing his point of view; he has a web site and many friends in the radio community. So that’s hardly the case.
However, it’s was getting to be to “one sided” - he let his personal political views “bleed into” the program. This disenfranchised a lot of people. They started asking the questions “why should the public pay for this crap?”
In my opinion, it was becoming more about whom he wanted to see in office rather than an examination of the issues and facts. He became to partyism – a never ending campaign show.
True, the left-of-center parties lost an ally in the media and he was entertaining at times; but I think the airwaves are in need of something new.
Yes it a good time for a change.
Barney,
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard this all before. But if you want to add something new to your argument I seriously am interested in specific examples of how/when TC “let his personal political views “bleed into”” the show. I appreciate someone becoming too party-oriented. But your labeling him as ‘leftist,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘one-sided,’ is unenlightening. In a sense everyone is one-sided insofar as they have a point of view they believe in.
But ‘facts’ and ‘issues’ are interpretations. They don’t drop down out of the sky from God in a form we can all unproblematically agree on. Why can’t you see or consider that issues and facts are arguable? Why pretend there’s some basis that we all just simply agree on without any problem? Bias and ideology can just as easily be embedded in the so-called facts. And issues can be determined by those in power that aren’t everyone’s issue or even the issues that most of us are concerned with.
Pretending that objectivity requires some neutrality that’s really not achievable is just another way of censoring. That is, if TC doesn’t live up to the fantasy of neutrality, which isn’t really possible in the real world, then he can’t mediate the discussion at all.
Maybe a computer could be completely neutral but a political being can’t.
If he has attacked people personally, as I’ve heard from one source, then that’s a different matter and it shouldn’t be done. But he doesn’t deserve to be canned for that. I agree that we could stand to have much new or additional programming on the air. But that doesn’t necessitate getting rid of TC. There aren’t exactly hoards of people applying to produce quality political/governmental programming.