HEADS ROLL AT FREE SPEECH RADIO

Mendocino County's marijuana controversy got its best airing yet when
free speech made a rare, hour-long appearance at the county's public
radio station last Thursday evening. But by Friday morning free
speech was in full, limping retreat at the Philo headquarters of
Mendocino County Public Radio, and two KZYX staffers had been
suspended for having committed the unspeakable act on the air.

What happened?

Thursday's debate had been advertised as "KZYX, Thursday night, April
10, 2007. Media Panel Debate on Measure B. Moderator: K.C. Meadows.
Guests: Keith Faulder, Ross Liberty."

The only media person in the broadcast booth was moderator K.C.
Meadows of the Ukiah Daily Journal. Mary Aigner, a station staffer
for many years, was also in the booth operating the call-in equipment
for Meadows.

Mr. Faulder is an attorney and former candidate for Mendocino County
District Attorney. Among other clients of his thriving law practice
Faulder, who had prosecuted dope cases, now defends persons accused
of marijuana-related offenses.

Ross Liberty is a Ukiah businessman who, along with Ukiah City
councilman and supervisor's candidate John McCowen, and Mike Sweeney,
manager of Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority, devised
Measure B, probably as a strategy to help elect McCowen to the Ukiah
area's supervisor's seat. Sweeney, a former Maoist, and the only
viable suspect in the car bombing of his late wife, Judi Bari, does
the heavy intellectual lifting for his long-time friend, candidate McCowen.

Measure B would roll back Mendocino County's Measure G, an advisory
which made personal use and possession of marijuana in amounts not to
exceed 25 plants and 2 pounds of processed bud Mendocino County's
lowest police priority.

In 2000, Measure G passed as an in-County advisory by 58% to 42%.
Marijuana duly became a non-priority for local law enforcement
although state and federally funded raids continued to be carried out
against large-scale grows.

Proponents of Measure B, who include Ms. Meadows, who has
editorialized for its passage in her newspaper, argue that marijuana
production in the County is "out of control," thanks to Measure G,
with armed criminals presiding over large-scale grows in the County's
vast outback. Measure B's proponents add that pot growing is now
common even in the County's incorporated jurisdictions of Willits and Ukiah.

Opponents of Measure B maintain that an hysteria over pot has arisen
fueled almost entirely by unfounded anecdotes about the drug's
prevalence, the crime it is said to inspire, the numbers of
undesirables it is rumored to have recently attracted to Mendocino County.

Measure B received a thorough airing on Thursday night's program. The
discussion was smart, civil and lively. It was adult give and take
and interesting radio, public radio as it should be.

Enter the enemies of free speech at, of all places, a radio station
that constantly advertises itself as "free speech radio."

In an odd series of events, peculiar even by the turbulent standards
of local public radio, the passionate but otherwise unremarkable
on-air debate about the pending marijuana ballot measure prompted
station management to suspend the show's host, Ukiah Daily Journal
editor K.C. Meadows, and to also place program manager Mary Aigner, a
long-time employee of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, on
open-ended suspended status.

Both suspensions have stunned the larger Mendocino County community.
Aigner's removal has especially shocked station listeners. She has
been a loyal KZYX employee for some fifteen years and, it is no
exaggeration to say, synonymous with the enterprise.

Meadows and Aigner apparently incurred the hasty wrath of station
management when they inserted their views into Thursday's on-air
debate between Faulder and an overmatched Ross Liberty.

The station, which was concluding a week of on-air fundraising heavy
on promos touting its commitment to unfettered talk, also canceled a
marijuana debate scheduled for the following Friday morning during
which, Mr. Liberty, fresh off his audio-flagellation by the
quick-witted Faulder, was to have debated Laura Hamburg, a long-time
pot advocate. That discussion was to have been moderated by station
old timer Karen Ottoboni. No reason was given for its cancellation.

Faulder said later that he's puzzled at the fallout from Thursday
night's debate. He said he never felt embattled, never felt "ganged
up on" by his on-air opponents. Faulder said that rumors, and they're
flying from Gualala to Covelo, that he intended to sue unspecified
persons or entities were "ridiculous."

Writing to K.C. Meadows from Italy where he and his wife are
vacationing, Faulder went on to say, "I am truly sorry if you decide
that was your last show, KC. Not for you, you'll do fine, but for the
people of Mendocino county. I believe your participation and comments
in the discussion on Thursday made for a more spirited and engaging
debate. While I didn't know you were in favor of Measure B until you
told me on the air, it didn't matter to me. It didn't change my
position, and I certainly didn't expect you to be a potted plant in
the room. I knew that wasn't your style. I thoroughly enjoyed myself
and the debate.

"I have always preferred content over form and substance over
process. It doesn't matter to me if a debate or discussion is in my
living room or on KZYX, I want intelligent people to participate and
share their ideas and experiences. I believe that is what you did. I
am sure that a lot of people were talking about Measure B the next
day. That is why I agreed to go on your show -- to get people talking
and thinking about an important local issue. If nothing else, I think
we all, Ross Liberty, you and I, succeeded at that. I hope you will
go back on the air, and soon."

K.C. Meadows is a veteran journalist with an extensive background in
both print and audio media. She has reported for and edited the Ukiah
Daily Journal since the middle 1990s. Her paper's letters page,
unlike KZYX's airways, is genuinely open to opinions on all subjects
and from all perspectives. The articulate Meadows has hosted an
interview program at KZYX that began some ten years ago as a one-hour
per month media roundtable show with veteran local journalist Jim
Shields of Laytonville's Mendocino County Observer. Until Shields
ceased participating, Meadows and Shields offered the only
consistently informed local news discussion the station has managed
to produce in its twenty-year history. When Shields bowed out,
Meadows commenced interviews with local politicians and other figures
prominent in the Mendocino County news. She has been with the station
as a programmer for about ten years.

Clearly surprised and angry at KZYX's handling of what objectively
was nothing more than a robust but civil discussion of a
controversial local matter, a discussion that would be viewed as tame
and even tedious by commercial radio standards, Meadows described the
gloomy events in a blog posting early Friday morning.

"This morning I talked with Belinda at KZYX after calling the station
to talk to program manager Mary Aigner to congratulate her on her
participation in my program last night on Measure B with Ross Liberty
(Yes on B) and Keith Faulder (No on B). Mary, I was told wasn't there
but, boy, Belinda (Station Manager) wanted to talk to me. She said
the folks at KZYX were very upset that I got involved in expressing
my own opinions during the hour and that Mary had been suspended for
speaking out on problems with commercial pot growing. As soon as Mary
(who was running the board for me and there to do pledge drive
breaks) started saying her own Anderson Valley neighborhood had been
overtaken by pot growers the staff at KZYX went nuts, signaling to
her over and over to shut up. She didn't.

"Mary never said, 'Vote for Measure B.' She simply stated that
problems with commercial pot growing were real and she'd seen them
first hand. Suspending her for that, it seems to me, borders on a
serious First Amendment violation. (I wonder, if Mary had said
something like, 'It's been my experience that medical marijuana
patients really have a problem finding supplies' she would be under
suspension right now.)

"For some reason there was a real crowd at the station last night, I
assume because they're in the middle of pledge drive. The crowd, I am
told from someone standing among them, was also going crazy trying to
get me to shut up, too. One woman (later identified as Lynda McClure,
an opponent of Measure B) actually put a note to that effect up to
the broadcast booth window, but I didn't have my glasses on and
couldn't see it.

"Anyway I wouldn't have shut up. I said at the beginning of the
broadcast that I was a fervent B supporter and that would be clear
during the show. For some reason the folks at KZYX assumed I was
simply hosting some kind of non-partisan debate on Measure B. I would
never have agreed to that. First, I am not unbiased about it. That is
why I stepped aside from my usual role as moderator for the forum the
Daily Journal is hosting May 8 with the American Association of
University Women and the National Women's Political Caucus. Plus, I
express my opinions on my monthly show all the time. Why would last
night be any different?

"Belinda (I am sorry but I don't know her last name and the staff
isn't listed on the station Web site) told me that all programmers
are forbidden from expressing opinions on anything on any up-coming
ballot as they are officially representatives of the station when on
the air. She said that's an IRS rule and an FCC rule.

"I have to say I find this odd given the dedicated bias of KZYX, NPR
and other public radio sources on any number of left of center
issues. They defend it saying they are basically the voice of the
non-mainstream and that's their mission.

"Belinda said she would send me a copy of the rules.

"She said I am suspended from KZYX too.

"I said, let's just consider it my last show."

Which is the station's loss because Ms. Meadows is very good at
radio. She is also much in demand at County political events as
debate moderator at election time because she is able to graciously
keep the talk moving along. Her radio shows were always lively, even
if her guests weren't; her talent for expediting talk was
demonstrated in her last show Thursday night when the inevitable
non-verbal listeners called in to stumble through addled statements
that might have rambled endlessly on if Meadows hadn't diplomatically
ended them.

I wrote to Ms. Meadows expressing these sentiments, adding that in my
experience with KZYX that if it's free speech you're looking for from
them, start your search in Canada.

She replied:

"Thanks. It was an absolutely surreal experience watching the
meltdown in the crowd outside the booth as the program progressed. I
guess they were there for pledge night, but I'd never seen so many
people at the station. At one point a woman [Lynda McClure] was
holding a hand written sign up to the booth glass trying to get me to
keep quiet. When Mary Aigner started talking about how her Anderson
Valley neighborhood was full of commercial pot growers claiming to be
medical marijuana growers I thought the KZYX team was going to rip
the microphone out of the wall. Their free speech cop came bounding
into the booth with us making faces and signaling wildly to Mary to
SHUT UP!!!! I've had my disagreements with Mary, but I have to give
her credit for speaking up.

"The only people having a problem throughout all this were outside
the booth. As heartily as Faulder and I disagree on this issue, even
he pointed out during a break after one caller claimed I was part of
the right wing takeover that people forget the UDJ endorsed him for DA.

"Anyway, I hope Mary doesn't get thrown under the bus for this. I
just found out when I got to work this morning that they canceled
today's planned Measure B 'forum' with Karen Ottoboni, Ross Liberty
and Dan Hamburg. And that they won't be airing anything on the
subject for two weeks. Belinda said this morning to me that they were
consulting their attorneys about how serious this flaunting of their
rules turns out to be. I also understand that they are not allowing
anyone to have a copy of the tape of the show either. Well, good luck to them."

But Mary Aigner has been thrown under the bus. Whether or not she'll
be rescued or run over until she's flattened right out of a job
remains to be seen.

This is Aigner, a single mother who has raised two daughters by
herself, said on the public airwaves Thursday night, this is her
crime, verbatim:

Aigner: "I just want to jump in here and say, because I happen to
live in a rural subdivision with wonderful southern exposure, so I've
seen what's happened in my neighborhood over the last five years. I
must say that I don't think that anyone in Mendocino County will ever
say they are not growing medical marijuana. According to people who
grow it, it's all medical marijuana. And so I think that that is
interesting to me and that's one of the things that both the Yes and
No need to address is this huge loophole in Measure G because it's
obviously not all medical marijuana. I don't think there are that
many cancer and AIDS and chronic pain patients."

Faulder responded, "Why do you think that, first of all? That there
aren't that many?"

Aigner: "Pardon me?"

Faulder: "Why do you think that? I know..."

Aigner: "Personally, I do know people who do use medical marijuana
because they're HIV positive and it's very important for them, mostly
as an appetite stimulant and to counterattack the drugs that they
take. And they tell me, where they live, if they go into a
dispensary, they see very few of people, they say very few of the
patients they see in the dispensary, they're, you know, young, healthy kids."

Faulder: "What does diabetes look like?"

Aigner: "I'm just... I'm..."

Faulder: "What does Krohn's Disease look like? You know, I'm no
doctor, but you can't see a lot of these..."

Aigner: "My perspective is that everyone who has, you know, is
definitely, it's all medical marijuana and I think that that is an
important distinction in this situation. Is that some of it's medical
marijuana, some of it's personal use and some of it is just economic.
And I think that that distinction should perhaps be made in this conversation."

Which is simply a statement of the obvious.

Faulder's suggestion that because a person is young and looks healthy
he may be suffering from a terminal or debilitating disease, is true;
but it's also untrue in the undisputed larger context, which Aigner,
without advocating either side of that night's dispute over Measure
B, is that the preponderance of people walking around with medically
sanctioned pot cards simply like to smoke pot and medicinal marijuana
is a sanctioned method of keeping the cops off their backs.

To suspend Mary Aigner, let alone fire her, as seems to be shaping up
here, for simply stating a known fact is not only flagrantly unjust
but, given her many years of service to the clearly ungrateful radio
station, cruel.

Station manager Belinda Rawlins was unavailable for comment. She said
in an e-mail that she will return to work today (Wednesday).

Vance Crow, KZYX's "communications director," said Friday he couldn't
confirm or deny the current station status of either Aigner or Meadows.

"Out of respect to them I can't comment on station staffing, even if
they're volunteers," Crowe said, emphasizing that station policy,
particularly its political broadcasting policy, must be absolutely
impartial. "In any moderated forum we have to be sure we're not
presenting one side or the other. We can't have direct or indirect
endorsements of any ballot measure," Crowe said.

Writing from her home on the Navarro, Pebbles Trippett, the
Northcoast's most committed, and certainly its most relentless pot
advocate, weighed in on the KZYX controversy.

"My primary political commitment is to freedom of speech. Everything
else in this country flows from that right. Dialog, disagreement,
dissent in furtherance of knowledge and justice are more important
than affiliation, family loyalty or any other law. If freedom of
speech goes, it'll all go.

I sincerely thank the AVA for initiating a rough-&-tumble Dialogue on
Dope (4.9.08). This is especially important in Mendocino County due
to the Measure B vote in June on marijuana for personal use. The
existence of a spirited debate, dedicated to opening the floodgates
of opinion, is more important than the topic at hand or what position
anyone takes. We have umpteen disagreements to air and no other place
to air them. Newspapers are increasingly moving toward long
soundbites instead of depth journalism. The AVA is our vital artery
to uncivil discourse, if need be.

For instance a recent 1st Amendment flap on "dope" occurred on KZYX
without any on-air discussion post-flap to inform listeners why a
long-time programmer, KC Meadows, and KZYX staffmember, Mary Aigner,
were suspended and the second No on B debate canceled. It was the
station's first Measure B debate on the marijuana for personal use
issue between Atty Keith Faulder representing the No on B side and
Ross Liberty representing the Yes side, with Ukiah Daily Journal
editor, KC Meadows, moderating.

KC introduced her show stating her Yes on B bias up-front and the
debate proceeded. Keith Faulder's well-reasoned No on B arguments
took up most of the time. Eventually Mary Aigner, long-time KZYX
employee who was on hand for the pledge drive, joined in the debate
posing Yes on B comments such as possessing an MD approval is a
ticket to grow pot, etc. Mary was not originally part of the debate
and became a third voice for Yes on B, in addition to Liberty and KC.
From what I hear, it was at that point that people who were in the
station for other reasons motioned and made signs from the other side
of the broadcast window for Mary to stop talking and officially
remove herself from the dialogue. The official No on B
representative, Keith Faulder, was not bothered in the least by the
lopsidedness. His primary loyalty is to unfettered speech. His
comment--"I relished it."--is the official No on Measure B campaign position.

KC remarked later in assessing the situation after being suspended
for allowing lopsidedness in a debate, "Mary wouldn't stop
talking...and neither would I." She, like Faulder, was defending the
importance of true debate, letting people you vehemently disagree
with have their full say without negative consequences for unpopular opinions.

More debate, not less, is the message. The No on Measure B Campaign,
the Director and Steering Committee, were totally unaware of and in
no way supported cutting back on debate or punishing debaters, such
as by suspending KZYX programmers for expressing their views on Measure B.

Taking the high road would lead to withdrawing the two suspensions
because they were the wrong thing to do. Such suspensions are
effectively punishment for 1st Amendment protected opinions. Mary
Aigner's 25 year service to the station should count for something,
and the No on Measure B Campaign position on this subject should
count for something and neither did.

At this point the previously canceled Measure B debate with Laura
Hamburg, moderated by Karen Ottoboni, is being rescheduled. The
station should introduce a lot of dialogue and interaction with
listeners on this subject, especially during the pre-election debate
period. Perhaps a liaison committee could help increase the number of
debates sponsored by KZYX on Measure B, in part to undo the recent
legacy of curtailing dissent without good cause or adequate
explanation and in part, to reflect the voices and views of their
constituency on the vital issues of medical choice and personal
freedom. I volunteer to help in the interests of an informed public.

Dialog is the real deal. It's what makes life dynamic or static,
vital or dead. Dialog offers us all a chance to get off the fence,
give our input and shape our world."