Tonight the North Tonawanda City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the return of Legislative Journal with Tom Christy to the airways of LCTV. In supporting this resolution, the Republican majority council caste a vote for open, free political discourse in Niagara County. It took the council apparently little time to see that what was at stake was the openness and integrity of the public sphere that constitutes the democratic process of our community and our Republic.
The Council transcended the opportunity for partisan gain and took a stand to defend the primacy of a fair and free process of political inquiry, information and self-expression. They are most surely to be commended and thanked for their championing the return of one of Niagara County's few forums for the public scrutiny of our legislators, city and town officials and other citizens who work for the public good.
The North Tonawanda Council was able to see that the return of Legislative Journal with Tom Christy was not simply about the person of Mr. Christy. Yet they were able also to see that the democratic substance and energy of the inquiry that occurred on that show was a function of his courage and constancy in asking in the questions whose answers remained in the dark. The Council rejected the politics of secrecy and partisan power. They opted for a politics that seeks to know the motivations and justifications for the actions taken by government officials that affect all of our lives. The council sees that Mr. Christy deserves to be returned to the forum he created and nurtured with his quirky, earthy, unpretentious repartee, rapport and honest vulnerability.
The actions of the LCTV Board of Directors in ousting Mr. Christy is a black mark for public integrity in Niagara County. Also, the virtual wall of silence and callous lack of compassion with which Niagara County Legislators confronted the many citizens who pleaded for the return of the show they loved is a frighteningly disheartening sign of the depths of indifference to which local politics has descended.
Senator Maziarz feigned ignorance of the coercive abuse of power at LCTV and denied having any knowledge of anything "except what I read in the papers." Such disingenuousness is insulting to the intelligence of the citizens of this county and a final reminder that the Republican majority has no respect for any citizens other than those who toe the line and support the limbo of business as usual, the status quo which has been good for the few but is failing and defeating the many of our county.
Plato once said in his discourse on the Law that the task of the true Legislator was to bring harmony to the community through the mechanisms of law and the authority of leadership. In so far as the Republican majority of the Niagara County Legislature chooses to claim they have no right to intervene to achieve such harmony in our county in this case and insofar as our senior leader, George Maziarz, prefers the display and application of administratively coercive force rather than cooperative solution to our problems, Niagara County will in the foreseeable future remain in a state of political violence, that is, a state of suspicion, animosity, destructive antagonism, character assassination and incredulity. The unity, harmony and integrity of democratic process and the respect for the spirit and intent of law will remain secondary, compromised and scoffed at in the name of partisan power and privilege, a strategy that history shows has not worked and is certainly not now called for.
It is unfortunate that the Legislative majority of our County could not learn a little political prudence from the leaders of North Tonawanda.
4 comments:
Larry –
Interesting post. I’ve resisted opining about the Christy/LCTV thing – until now – because I’m not really sure how I feel about the issue. It might be unfair to express an opinion about a show I watched with decreasing frequency with each passing year. And, I wonder if my views of the show’s host were coloring my thoughts on the larger issue.
I am a firm believer in and strong supporter of the first amendment rights of free speech and an unencumbered press. It has, for the most part, served us well since its inception. So, I am troubled by the manner in which Legislative Journal was removed and subsequently re-tooled. I make no claim to expertise on the workings of a local cable commission, and I frankly just don’t understand the arguments made elsewhere about the differences between and purposes of a “government” channel and a “public” channel when it comes to local cable access. I suspect, as a practical matter, it is a distinction without a substantive difference.
At the same time, the very amendment rights being shouted by those who want Christy returned to the air also apply to the organization that saw fit to remove him. Let’s be clear -- media organizations make choices every day, with every story decision, with every deadline, with every broadcast lineup. The first amendment gives them the right to make such choices. The first amendment makes no distinction on whether or not they make the right choice – whatever that is – instead it simply protects them when they make the choice.
Forgive the broad generalization, but the obvious leanings of Fox News to the right and MSNBC to the left didn’t just happen. They were conscious decisions made by the management of those organizations. Hate one or the other all you want, decry the lack of fairness and balance till the cows come home, but in the end we are forced to recognize that the first amendment guarantees the right to make such decisions. Looking closer to home, Tom Christy has the right to express his opinion, while at the same time LCTV has the right to tell him to express it elsewhere – for whatever reason. It’s hard to demand one right without respecting the other.
And, without a doubt in my mind, much of what went in to his show was his opinion – a judgment made about a topic with questions and answers from him designed to support his opinion. Offer an opposing opinion or question and callers were summarily dismissed as know-nothings or, worse, shills for whatever the other side was. That is a large part of why I rarely watched the show at the end. (Plus, frankly, I found his style to be akin to fingernails on a chalkboard.)
I don’t know why Tom Christy was removed, but I suspect it was a mix of all that we have heard and read about it. We may never all the reasons behind it. As such, I will not defend nor condemn the quality of that decision.
You wish to condemn local Republicans, including some specific individuals, as the root cause of this action. Fine. Circumstantial evidence could certainly lead one to the conclusion that they are the cause of Christy’s removal. But I wonder if certain sectors of this community would display the same umbrage and outrage if Fox were to remove, say, Bill O’Reilly?
Interestingly, Larry, in your effort to garner support for the return of Christy to LCTV, you’ve demonstrated that there is a more direct way to examine the workings of our government. Show up at a meeting. Express an opinion – unfiltered through the colored lens of a TV host -- to those who put their name on a ballot and won. What a novel idea, eh?
Pirate:
Thanks for considering this in more depth and detail! But aren’t you missing an essential distinction between, on the one hand editing and, on the other, an at least questionable censoring of the opportunity to have an opinion? Also, isn’t there a big legal distinction to be made between an entity like Fox and Public operation? Can’t Fox censor its employees in ways that a Public station cannot? I ask because obviously I’m not a lawyer and don’t really know. …. Moreover though for LCTV to get rid of him after 10 years of no bad job reviews and to then dismiss him on considerably trumped up critieria, is suspicious. I say “trumped up” because as I understand it, they didn’t have to use the “right” to “edit” at all. At N-trip a while back, we had a faculty member who had come up for tenure after 10 years. He had absolutely no bad job reviews but for some reason wasn’t given tenure. The question became “why?” The available critieria had never been applied in 10 years but suddenly became applicable. It caused a stink and he eventually got tenure. I think something similar is happening with Christy. … I don’t think I would ever run for office and if I did would undoubtedly lose. Maybe starting a third party is a possibility since the Repub’s, Dem’s and Libertarians don’t ultimately appeal to me. Or maybe I’ll take my frustrations and apply for my own cable show … since nobody seems to want to secede from NYS with me.
Larry --
I don't know the legalities of this, to be frank, as FCC regulation is complicated even on its best day.
However, my somewhat educated guess is that if LCYV decided it was going to run nothing but cooking shows, it would have the right to do so. Or simply set up cameras to record the actions of governmental bodies, with no comment or opinion. Sort of like c-span. Perhaps not compelling viewing but, again, I believe the choice of content rests with the board at LCTV.
Besides, I believe at least part of the reason from Christy's departure was the decision of the show's producer that he had had enough and didn't want to do it anymore.
Was there more to it? Probably. I tend to think it was not as nefarious as many would make it seem, nor do I think it was orchestrated by some evil mastermind. Plus, as I said in my first post, I think Mr. Christy had over the years evolved (devolved?) from modestly amusing and quirky host who liked to prod and poke at issues to a clearly partisan hack who saw evil and wrong-doing as being completely one-sided. The more shrill he became, the more open he left himself to criticism and response.
I guess that is what bothers me about the "look what they've done to poor Tom Christy" argument. The idea that he is above reproach because he is colorful, or that he is some above-the-fray observer of the political scene is utter nonsense. Tom made himself as much a "player" in the political game as any elected official on either side of the aisle.
On the other hand -- Larry Castellani, Governor of New Niagara.
Has a nice ring to it, eh? We could turn one of the NT boathouses into the governor's mansion. Because of the amount of waterfront, we'd need a navy. Build a signature bridge across the little river.
Hell, yeah, I'd vote for you!
Larry:
i can't thank you enough for your efforts....
we must keep this in mind, and pirate makes great comments.....LCTV is NOT msnbc or fox.....it is a media outlet run by the community.....it operates under VERY broad guidelines by the state public service commission to allow nearly everything, instead of what people think is acceptable or not acceptable...
when pirate says "run all cooking shows" it's an important comment.....yes, run all cooking shows, but not certain cooking shows approved by a politically orchestrated board.....pirate could make a cooking show and it wouldn't be allowed on-air because pirate made it, not because it wasn't a good show.....
i'm not articulating it right, but the rest of this summer, and until we get this straightened out, will be an educational campaign to tell people exactly how this happened and how, if you're a cooking show producer, you too could be silenced.....
it's never been about one show, but about the process.......WNY is where we are for a very distinct reason, and this is a microcosm of that reason.....if people are willing to put the time and energy into this we will all better understand how WNY got to where it is, and where we can go if we want to change....
the show i hosted was taken off not because the public didn't want it, but because a very few politicians were able to coerce a very few lockport citizens to take it off the air.......that should scare the daylights out of people no matter where you live......
again, many thanks for larry castellani and many others who are pointing out that they don't need this sort of "protection" from their community leaders....
tom christy
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