presents the
Outlandia Gazette
All editorial — All social commentary — All for the common good
T.G. Buckley-Dockter – Founder; Publisher; Editor-in-Chief; Distribution Manager; Intrepid Reporter; IT Guy; Coffee Girl
MOTTO for this issue: We believe you can fight biased thinking on public airwaves.
Issue No. 10 March 28, 2018
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To: Paul Westhelle, Executive Director
Received your fundraising letter.
Will not be donating this year.
I’ve already informed Ira Glass as to why.
He’s OK with it.
In fact, he dispatched a Pro-Publica team to investigate “What’s Brewing In Ashland?”
We call it censorship…
Written around 800 BC, Homer’s Odyssey provides an early example of censoring a woman. Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, walks into her living room to check out a male gab fest. Her son, Telemachus, tells her to go back upstairs and tend to her loom, that public speech is the business of men.
A more recent instance of censorship was last week when our intrepid reporter was blocked from public speech on JPR’s Twitter feed. (Seriously, who doesn’t like tweets about BuBu’s?)
So much for the progress of women’s equality in the last 2,800 years.
After a phone call to determine the who, what, when, where, and why, the Ashlandia Gazette tweeted this response to the parent overlord of National Public Radio.
@npr – 29-year-old employee of Jefferson PUBLIC Radio in Ashland Oregon reacts to three satirical tweets to City Hall and blocks the sender (annual donor).
First Millennial to not understand social media?
Or Thought Police in Ashland keep getting younger?
Now, as far as those donations go…
A couple thoughts (which btw are original, informative, provocative; and not spam):
- When your letterhead slogan says Listen Discover Engage it makes sense that this should be a two-way street with the public. Especially when you take money from them.
- Like-minded thinking stiffles learning/growth. It’s also boring when the same opinion is bantered back and forth. A lively discussion requires different points of view. Likewise, a democracy needs many voices to survive; not just one from the Twitter Monitor.
Your letter states that JPR needs “diverse voices” and “music is not wallpaper, but food for the soul.” But this thinking is not the reality at your station.
In the case of diverse voices, your Censorship Stew was on full brew mode this weekend. Emma’s Revolution, the signing duo of Pat Humphries and Sandy O, performed in Ashland on Saturday night.
The concert was sponsored by the Rogue Valley Peace Choir. Pat and Sandy’s voices are beautiful–kinda like a mixture of Sheryl Crow and Buffy St. Marie. Their guitar music is uplifting; their songs lyrics meaningful and inspirational–with topics such as peace, women’s issues, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, #TimesUp and the Stable Genius. Plus they have really nice personalities!
A recording of one of Pat and Sandy’s songs, “Peace, Salaam, Shalom,” was played by a military clergyman on a laptop on a hill in Fallujah, Iraq–an acknowledgement and tribute to the three languages/religions involved in the Middle East Morass.
Has anyone at your radio station ever been involved with anything as cool as that? How about the Twitter Monitor?
Didn’t think so. But yet someone at Jefferson Public Radio banned Emma’s Revolution from appearing on your station. The reason: They were deemed “too strident.” Emma’s Revolution has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered. But JPR knows better?
If you’re not crawling under your desk in sheer embarrassment at the lunacy of this decision, you should be.
Pat and Sandy are singer-activists in the style of Pete Seeger, who was a friend of theirs. As Bruce Springsteen said about Pete Seeger: “He was a stealth dagger through the heart of our country’s illusion about itself.” Activists prod people to think–beyond like-mindedness; sometimes into a non-comfort zone. Activists are needed now more than ever. You should have been honored to have them grace the JPR airwaves.
The decision to ban Emma’s Revolution is more problematic than just the idiocy of it. It is yet another example of the ‘Female Problem’ so prevalent in Ashland. Do you think if Pat and Sandy were men they would have been called “strident?” It is just an excuse to censor women. To silence their voices so the patriarchal power structure remains unchallenged. (By the way, be sure and mention that “strident” comment in your pledge drive promos. Sure to bolster donations!)
Your Censorship Stew reeks of sexism. It’s not only unappetizing for individuals; but for a community (or country), it’s deadly. And just as creepy is that this thinking is so pervasive in Ashland’s major institutions.
You can block the Gazette’s tweets all you want. But to block Emma’s Revolution is an affront to human decency. You owe them an apology. And an invitation.
Here’s their message and latest CD. Log on to their website and check out the third song, “Into Your Heart.” Hear what you and the brain trust at JPR missed.
In addition, here are some blocked tweets you missed:
From Joan Kroc: “I want my money back!”
From the President of the Knitters of America Association: “It’s better just to knit. Not be a nit-wit.”
From the Kewl Millennial Klub: “So it’s like really more important to have a high number of followers on like Instagram than a high number on a credit report. What a credit report anyway?“
From the men at the JPR Office: “We love Hope Hicks! But we’re public radio. We’ll settle for what we can get.”
From KHPR in Honolulu, Hawaii: “Spam is onolicious. #WahineNoKnow”
From WHYY in Philadelphia: “Umm, it’s not…umm…a fresh idea to…umm…censor people or thoughts.”
From the guy who made the decision to block Emma’s Revolution: “Why couldn’t they be more like Ellen DeGeneres?”
Mr. Westhelle –
IOHO, you need to make changes in the antiquated mindset at JPR. It will be much appreciated. And one of those times where specific actions can change the world in which we live.
Sincerely,
The A.G. Staff
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Thanks for reading…