Portland Press Herald & Plum Creek - joined at the hip.

As noted by Jeff Inglis in the Portland Phoenix (Click Here) Plum Creek's CEO joined the Board of Directors of the company that owns the Portland Press Herald 18 months ago - just as the Creeklings began its efforts to sell the public on their plan to build nearly 1000 homes and condos and two hotels around Moosehead Lake in Maine’s North Woods.

The Portland Press Herald, known for trumpeting the "historic" nature of the Plummies' plan, had never revealed this little fact about their ties with Plum Creek until it was mentioned as an aside in the Seattle Times, another paper in the Blethen stable.

PPH's Richardson drops "historic" from Plum coverage?

Perhaps there's hope for him yet. If J-Rich continues he might find his coverage praised by historians of the future, not discarded as syncophantic.

But can the Press Herald afford not to be syncophantic towards Plum Creek?
How strong is the corporate interlock betwixt PPH-owner Blethen and the Plum People?

That there is one is known. What part it plays in the day to day coverage of industrial forestry in Maine as well as PPH scrutiny of Plum Creek's mega development efforts can only be seen through the lens of the paper's news and editorial archives. Something to be done in later posts.

Portland Press Herald's John Richardson: Plum crazy about sprawl.

In his recent article "Plum Creek plan aired, 2nd hearing set for today in Augusta" 12/2/07 (which, thanks to the reduction in reporters in the Blethen Company's Maine bundle of newspapers, appeared simultaneously in the Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel) reporter John Richardson repeatedly salutes the "historic" nature of the massive Plum Creek sprawl proposal for the Moosehead Lake region, and relegates nearly all opposition to the proposal to the distant parts of his article well beyond the fold.

Get a grip, John: what's "historic" here are the untrammeled views and natural wide spaces of Moosehead Lake, better known for the last few thousand years as Mousinibes, btw, and its environs. Not the sprawl wannabe.

He starts off well, contrasting the pro and con one liners of two residents of Greenville , the small town nestled on the southern tip of Moosehead Lake. But it all goes downhill from there.

Richardson found that "Strong opinions weren't lacking" at the Saturday meeting, but manages to quote only the strong opinions of Plum-huggers Ray "Bucky" Owen, Millinocket resident Dan Corcoran, Rep. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, "one of several current and former state legislators who spoke in favor of the plan" (did any speak against, one wonders), Randy Comber ( owner of Moosehead Cedar Log Homes, obviously a potential beneficiary of a building boom at Moosehead Lake, and Christopher Fife, of Moose River, in Jackman, west of Moosehead Lake.

Richardson's selection of opponents verged more on the milktoasty: "Some opponents agreed that the plan today is better than the one first unveiled by Plum Creek three years ago" Richardson writes, going on to quote only one of the "some", Sally Farrand. Her position?

"I think we can all agree the current application is much improved," said Sally Farrand of Beaver Cove. But, Farrand said, "I ask that Lily Bay be removed from the development plan."

Certainly every other opponent of the Plummers will agree that the shore of Moosehead Lake's Lily Bay shouldn't be sprawled upon; they also, however, urge the same status for the rest of the acreage within Plum Creek development footprint. All of it

While he does acknowledge there are 'critics' of the plan, they are given short shrift and are, apart from one, exiled to the end of the article, and in general portrayed as merely quibbling over bits of the Plum Creek proposal, not against the whole kaboodle as the overwhelming number of Mainers across the economic and political spectrum are.

Come on, J-Man: What's this? You're not doing a fair 'n balancin' act on us, are you?

The bright stars and Milky Way reflecting on Moosehead waters in the deep dark of unspoiled night. The keeping of this vast lake largely in a state of Nature through all these years and now into the 21st century. That's Maine history, alive and well.

Large scale developer wannabe Plum Creek's plan isn't historic. It's the very opposite of historic. It is the destroyer of history.

Save journalism to save the world

From The Tyee, October 29, 2007

News Media Revolt: Canada Next?
Activist scholar Robert McChesney rallies growing movement.

Journalism faces a crisis around the world and unless it's fixed, society is in big trouble, American scholar and media activist Robert McChesney says.

"The market's not going to solve the problem.... The technology's not going to rescue us."

Great journalism requires resources, institutional support, well-paid journalists and competition, McChesney told an audience at the Simon Fraser University downtown campus Saturday.

Creating institutions that can produce great journalism is going to take "enlightened, engaged, creative policy-making," he said.

"Short of that, we'll never be a free society."

Read the full article

CSPAN Blinks for Bolly and Bush

When CSPAN began its coverage of the Iranian Prez's unique recipe of fact and fancy at Columbia University, we were treated to not one, not two, but ten minutes of suddenly-worried-about-his-job Columbia President Lee Bollinger's hastily penned and poorly edited name-calling Introduction-as-Tirade. Once the Bollywood performance was through, though, we realized, we would would acttually hear from the Iranian horse's ass --oops--horse's mouth himself.

Imagine our surprise when, 7 minutes into the Bollybelch, CSPAN suddenly added a streamer to the screen noting that CSPAN would shortly cut away to coverage of a mini-subcommittee's hearing on a minor maritime safety bill. We looked at each other - Impossible! CSPAN isn't SO politicized that it would let the Basher speak, but then censor the Bashee.

Ah but 'twas so. Bollinger vanishes from the screen in the midst of a finger point and the still mostly empty committee room appears. Shades of Big Bruddah! No Iranian Prez! Such courage! Protecting CSPAN viewers from unfiltered Ahmadinijad? But not to worry, the CSpaniels whined, the Iranian Big Cheese's speech would appear on....CSPAN 3. Oh fine, we muttered grabbing the channel changer.....WHAT? We HAD no CSPAN 3? A little searching, and it turns out that only a tiny minority of US cable services offer CSPAN 3. Not the one we were looking at in the remote wilds of suburban Washington DC. Sly indeed Cspan.

Perhaps the commercial cable stations would carry him.....? Nope. Tired of flicking through cop shows and the rest of the dreck making up television these days, I turned to ol' faithful: WPFW, Pacifica Radio, and.... tadaah !....there's Ahmadinejad - honking and crowing in the background while a translator rendered into English in the foreground.

We listened, eyebrows raising at times, frowning at others, chuckling or laughing along, communicating in a way with his live audience. Impressed by some of his statements, comtemptuous of others, and massively embarrassed by the anti-free speech frenzy that preceded and followed his talk. And ashamed as a journalist of CSPAN's gutless retreat from making the Iranian President's speech available to all cabled Americans. One hopes Washington Post TV Columnist Tom Shales and/or the Village Voice's Nat Hentoff calls them on it.

WRFR- Station mgr deletes programmers' files without warning

WRFR's station manager Cathy McGuinness does it again.
This morning McG discovered that one of the station's pc computers' memory was only a few hundred megabytes from being full. Did she notify the station staff via her one-way-list serve (having shut down the two way one last month) and request they remove their info from the computer by some deadline, or at least download the offending data onto a CD, for program hosts to access later? While basic professionalism would augur for such simple courtesy, t'was not to be so. McG simply cleared it off and notified the staff and programmers after the fact.

"I don't think I deleted anything crucial to anyone's existance" she wrote, " but I do apologize if I deleted something that was important to you!"

Thanks a LOT, Cathy....
Sigh....

PPH's John Richardson: Supine before 'near royalty'

Portland Press Herald reporter John Richardson's obsequious paean to ex-governor Angus King and ex-NRCM chief Rob Gardiner would be stomach-turning if it weren't so laughable.

The X-men (Richardson gushing refers to them as "near royalty") plan to jump into the windfarm landrush currently besetting Maine. The usual platitudes are trotted out: King is "tired of talking about global climate change" and has "decided to do something about it".

The joke is, King's plan will more likely increase global warming than decrease it.

Richardson, evidently too busy fawning over the 'near royalty' to think straight, could have asked a simple question about the x-men's proposal for a 50 megawatt windfarm in Oxford county: Where are they proposing to reduce fossil fuel energy use by 50 megawatts?

For unless King and Gardiner also plan to purchase and close down a 50 megawatt coal, oil or gas burning power plant, there will be no decrease in fossil fuel consumption in Maine resulting from their windmills. King 's windfarm will simply increase the amount of energy available for consumption, making fossil energy suppliers to reduce their prices to stay competitive with wind and solar. Energy efficiency expert King knows that cheaper energy invariably results in increased energy consumption.

There will be no benefit to our climate. If anything, greenhouse gas production will INCREASE.

But Richardson is evidently a believer in the divine right of near royalty to bloviate, and declines to ask such a simple and basic question of the x-men.

Village Soup - thin broth on railroad fumes

The Village Soup/Knox County Times editorial against regulating Maine Eastern Railroad's diesel fumes is a remarkable exercise in transforming a column of smoke into a tower of humbug. It being unsigned, let us give VS's anonymous editorial writer(s) the politically correct moniker Souperhuman

The basic premises of Souperhuman's opposition to regulating the MER's aged diesel engines are that, (1) trains being generally interstate commerce, regulation of their pollution discharges is the province of the federal government; (2) railroad interests would sue the city of Rockland; and (3) Can't prove its the train's pollution making the air in a Rockland neighborhood noxious.

Interstate Commerce. While this may be true in limited cases for interstate trains involved in interstate commerce, Maine Eastern's reoute begins in Rockland and peters out in Brunswick Maine, about 70 miles from the Maine border. Not crossing state lines, it does not fit into the category of interstate commerce. The feds have shrugged off enforcement of air pollution to the states; these have in large measure, fobbed off what they could to municipalities. Especially revealing was the admission at a recent city council meeting that MER's half century old diesels would not be allowed to operate in New York state because of their pollution discharges. Helloooo? Souperhuman?

SLAPPing Rockland. Railroad interests have threatened the city of Rockland with a SLAPP suit. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation work by threatening opponents of a polluter with costly lawsuits, that, regardless of outcome, will require expenditure on legal fees, filing costs and the other minutiae of litigation. But litigation is how we Americans defend and improve our republic. Without lawsuits,

As to the relative toxicity of the train's fumes, Souperman quotes a letter to the its editor from a local oil burner mechanic, who raises the 'diesel-engines-are-omnipresent-so-how-can-you- prove-it's-the-train-stinking-out-your-home?' argument. This claim, beloved of polluters everywhere, from cigarette makers to paper mills to construction debris incinerators, attempts a smokescreenian blurring of responsibility. If everyone's guilty, nobody's guilty!

But Maine's most important environmental law, the site location of development act, gives Maine regulators the authority to examine just that-- the cumulative impact of new additions to an area's air pollution load. No business may "adversely affect existing uses, scenic character, air quality, water quality..." in Maine. Even international shipping can have to meet local air pollution requirements while running their diesels while docked. This rather obvious applies to a diesel train running its engines while stationary at a terminal as well.

Stir the pot, Souperhuman! A bit of you-know-what has risen to your editorial surface.

WRFR - station manager orders staff listserve shut down

WRFR's feisty 'google group' list serve, which let more than three dozen programmers and staff pass information between themselves and freely discuss station policies, has been ordered shut down by the new station mgr, who declared that programmers were using it to "vent their hostilities"

But, VENTING is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. Rather than bottle up issues with station policies , with other programmers, staff or anything else , the google group's private internet forum let's the programmers exchange their differences of opinion in the semi-privacy that characterizes present day e-speech.

Besides, intermingled with these occasoinal purgative interpersonal staff encounters are more general concerns about station policies and their implementation, its finances, website, publications, equipment maintenance and all the other critical information flows and infrastructure. It can include goring of the station's sacred cows) and criticism of the station manager's style of executing her position

Regrettably Manager McGuiness seems to take fright at such evidence of genuine discourse among equals and has had the group shut down. While she may not even be aware of it, her latest action is one more in a series of essentially anti-democracy initiatives since her taking on the job. Reminiscent of the US foreign policy of dividing occupiedIraq into separate camps, the station's debating sides are to be protected from each others ideas and opinions.

But quashing collective discussion of or disagreement with her management schema, ending weekly decisionmaking staff meetings, replacing them with a host of committees whose every decision is subject to her veto; continuing a pocket veto of efforts by programmers to review station's finances; a seeming disinclination to notify certain "loose cannon" (her phrase) programmers when meeting times and agendas change; and the assumption of final authority to grant or deny new programmers slots on the "community radio" station's schedule--which is nearly bare of local community-related programming--none of these are appropriate for a community radio station.

McGuiness once explained her fundamental governance philosophy to me. WRFR's programmers are, inthe main, "sheep", I was informed, incapable of competent collective action, and must needs be herded about by the "strong" personalities among the station crew. There's something positively Ayn Rand-ish, Jack London-ish about that point of view, something I find to be ...incongruent with my notion of Community.

What I am encountering of course, is simply a radically different weltbild , or world view, in action. A hierarchic one, vertically integrating the station, its staff and programmers into a Quite a valid way of being, it is nevertheless nearly the opposite of my own more horizontally integrated metaphysic of give and take and innovation.

Coupled with her perception of the station's former use of weekly staff meetings to consider issues and make decisions, as a "quagmire", Ms McGuiness appears to have a bit of a fa_c_st tendency, perhaps appropriate in this "Lost Age" that the residents of planet earth are stumbling through at present

Vertical and horizontal organization are both perfectly legitimate ways of being in the world, but the former is, alas, turning out at WRFR to be very unforgiving of dissent or disputation with the established order, no matter how recently that order has been established. While this might be useful, necessary even, in the armed services, our community radio station is not a platoon; our community is not a war zone.

In fact, the sole host whose shows focus on local community issues (Penobscot Bay and Maine State Prison) may himself be at risk of being booted out for publicly criticizing the pace and priorities the manager has chosen, and for promoting shows apparently not consistent with her wishes. Uh oh...that 'sole host' is me! Here! Now!

Sigh. Watch this space.

Humble Farmer on WRFR Community radio? Not if some have their way.

Robert Skoglund, better known by his comedy persona "humble farmer" left Maine Public Radio after the network began censoring his shows and finally required him to sign a promise not to venture any opinions about our nation's political leaders in his commentaries. He left MPR, of course, and has been podcasting since.

Now, there is an effort to get his show on WRFR-FM, a low power community radio airing in Knox County, humble's home. But if the new station manager has her way, he won't appear there, either.

Why? Let's examine the case against humble. One will, I fear, find it a very thin case indeed.

*Issue 1. Humble has a commercial on his pre-recorded show. WRFR is non-commercial. Can't air him!
Response. In fact, after the conclusion of the show's podcast there is a pause and then the plug for his B&B follows. To nip that off the end is the matter of a few seconds.

*Issue 2. He is just going to have a show on air; he won't be participating as a volunteer. Can't air him!
Response: If participation as a volunteer is requisite, than about 80% of the shows on WRFR have got to go, as, by all estimates, that is the % of programmers that don't do any volunteer work. Moreover, who says he won't volunteer? He's written he'll help the station whatever way he can best do so.

* Issue 3. WRFR has been around for 5 years. Why hasn't Humble been involved with the station to date? Can't air him!
Response. His contract with Maine public radio contract forbade it. Now he's no longer working for them. He wants to air on WRFR. What's the problem?

* Issue 4. Humble doesn't do local content. Can't air him!
Response: Every one of humble's shows features anecdotes about local people, from local fishermen to local artists. His latest show features Rockland fisherman Billy Anderson:
"Billy Anderson said that he made three fishing trips out to the Grand Banks with an Icelander...."

Last week's show: "We were talking about all the artists in St. George, Maine and how, if you live here, you know a lot of the people who pose for artists......"

About as "local" content as one can get for a station that airs in Rockland and Saint George, Maine. Certainly there's more local content in humble's shows than nearly anyone else's on WRFR.

Issue 5. Humble is syndicated. If WRFR let's him in, other syndicated shows will surely demand entrance. Can't air him!
Response: Humble's radio show runs on a single other radio station, WDNA Community Radio in Florida, where he lives in the winter.

So there are no sensible objections to humble farmer being on WRFR; we will try to winkle out what it is exactly that gives the manager and programming committee of WRFR such heebee jeebies about the humble farmer, one of the most well known people of our community.

Stay tuned.

Maine's WRFR LP FM: still growing pains, five years in....

As WRFR LPFM heads into its sixth year of operations, the station management, moribund for a quarter decade, has now moved into the hands of Cathy McGuinness. (CM) CM has a bit of experience at a west coast station; she hosted a show at WRFR for 6 months before being tapped for the station manager job, (to the dismay of some who felt there were more qualified. candidates) But so it goes...

Over the past month, CM has been busy reorganizing the station's operations and administration.

Major Change 1. Meetings. Formerly a democracy of volunteers debating and voting on policy and decisions, with the station manager executing those decisions, WRFR now has a more imperial management style. One whereby the station manager makes decisions unilaterally, with the volunteers relegated to committees , whose heads are to confirm or not CM's decisions.
Further, CM has dropped the historic use of standard meeting protocol (old business, new business, motions & votes) , adopting instead a 'briefing' style of governance, in which she presents her newest plans and decisions to the assembled, whose responses must wait until she's done. While questions may be replied to, there is no binding vote the volunteers can make on the new policies. The clumsiness of this approach is borne out by...

Major Change 2. The haphazard way that new DJs or spoken work programmers get approved to go on air.

Historically, a DJ wannabe showed up at the regular Saturday volunteers meeting, did a dog and pony show, filled out a membership form, asked to read the list of Do's and Don'ts. The new programmer would be asked to sit in on someone else's show once or twice to learn the basic procedures first hand. After which, the new DJ selects his or her first one hour slot and begins doing a show, typically with a veteran programmer at hand in case of confusion. That's it.

Now?
A programming committee has been set up. At its first meeting (which I didn't attend after CM assured me was only to discuss committee organizational matters) at least one new show was approved and another, a fait accompli grab of four hours by country DJ Larry Beckwith was recognized. More about him later.

But the response when proposals are submitted for two prominent local entertainers (comic Humble Farmer, and Blues guitarist/producer Blind Albert, is a waspish statement that the programming committee "is still trying to get it's self together and figure out which end is up."

Mindful of Gulliver's Big Endians and the Little Endians: the struggle between Lilliputians who preferred cracking open their soft-boiled eggs from the little end, and Blefuscans who preferred the big end; I'm not too sanguine that any end will be up any time soon.

But not to worry. A cheery note from the ProgComm: "Just hang tight, ok?"

Hanging on in Rockland.
Ron

Oh yes, Larry...... This gentleman is now up to twenty two hours on air; the average DJ on WRFR has 2 hours. The fact of this grotesque disparity is simply unmentionable to polite people, so I'll explain to all ye unwashed:

Mr. B, it is said, is a special case. How special? He simply takes any hours he wants. He threatens to drop all his shows if any of his hours including the newly acquired ones are trimmed back. He has physically assaulted several programmers, and thoroughly bullied the last two station managers; he has a criminal record of handgun violence; staff are warned not to upset him, lest....?!?

Ah, but this is counterbalanced in the minds of three successive station managers by the fact that he is over 70 years old and "has nothing else to do". Pretty flimsy rationale, but in the modern world, backing up threats with violence usually gets you your way. Snowy bearded and avuncular-as-Santa-Claus though he may be, Beckwith's use of fear and loathing as a programming tool, is probably without parallel in the known radio universe.

'Citizen Journalism' Grows Up. August 9, 2007
How to earn trust? asks new wave of news hounds.
By Rory O'Connor

Can ordinary citizens actually function as journalists? Or, as many in the mainstream media would have it, is journalism some sort of priesthood of professionals who venture, Moses-like, to mountaintops and then return to deliver the news as divinely revealed truth to the rest of us earthbound mortals?

Full story at Canadian progressive newsie TYEE

New England's 1st low power FM radio station focus of federal media rights lawsuit

WRFR -lpFM is the oldest licensed Low Power FM radio station in the United States. The station's 100 watt transmitter in Rockland, Maine and its 250 watt repeater in neighboring Rockport provide a shifting blend of local and global talk, news and music, in a broad spectrum from country to classical, to a listening area of about 20,000, in coastal Knox County on the western shore of Penobscot Bay , including the city of Rockland and the towns of Camden, Rockport, Owls Head and Thomaston.

The station's news coverage focuses on Penobscot Bay fishery and enviromental issues, and oversight of the Maine state prison in nearby Warren.

It is the latter, WRFR's coverage of state prison administration issues, from the vantage point of inmate correspondent Deane Rowland Brown, assisted by WRFR news producer Ron Huber, that has led to the filing of a federal civil rights/media rights court case, Brown vs Magnusson et al. Depending on the resolution of this case, America's media may find itself liberated from arbitrary restraints by government officials on news collecting , or if things go badly wrong, may find itself even further out of the loop.

Either way, this civil action may well go into the history books as a landmark decision on the rights of the media and of Incarcerated America, that huge, ever-growing demographic group.

The case should be argued in US District Court in Portland later this year or sometime next year.

At issue: Can the Maine Dept of Corrections forbid inmates from being radio correspondents, and even from submitting written correspondence to a website or radio station for airing, without facing punishment such as loss of phone privileges, solitary confinement, and even exile to a distant state? Does this violate the US Constitution?

To illuminate WRFR's role in the case , below are the sentences in the case filing that mention WRFR LPFM. including Ron Huber, Brown's producer at the radio station. Each is accompanied by a link to a relevant document or website. Numbers are paragraph numerations in the lawsuit text.

Paragraph 47. On January 12, 2006, the name of Ron Huber was added to Mr. Brown's Prisoner Telephone System Number Request. Mr. Huber hosts a radio show on WRFR-LP, a lowpower community radio station in Rockland, Maine. From this time until late October
2006, Mr. Brown communicated with Mr. Huber, by mail and telephone, discussing
various topics that reflected very unfavorably upon the prison.

[Listen to some of Deane Brown's Reports on WRFR
http://www.penbay.org/wrfr/prisonproject/dbreports.html ]


Paragraph 48. ....On March 2, 2006, Mr. Brown wrote to Deputy Warden Riley, thanking him for helping with the lost property.....Deputy Warden Riley asked Prison Industries to restore Mr. Brown's job. Bob Waldron, of Prisoner Industries agreed to do so. However, Captain David Cutler, and Deputy Warden O'Farrell objected and the job was not restored. On June 12, 2006, Mr. Brown detailed these facts in a letter to Commissioner Magnusson, but never received a response. He subsequently detailed these facts, as well as more details about his May 2005 placement in High Risk status, in a letter to Governor John Baldacci, dated July 21, 2006. Mr. Brown did receive a response from the Governor's office, which he forwarded to WRFR reporter Ron Huber.

Paragraph 50. In early October, Mr. Brown was given a copy of an exit interview report about a guard who was leaving employment at the Maine State Prison. This document was given to Mr. Brown in his capacity as an inmate correspondent for the Portland Phoenix and for
WRFR radio. Mr. Brown shared the document with reporters Lance Tapley of the
Phoenix, and Ron Huber of WRFR, who placed it on his website, "Penobscot Bay
Watch," and discussed the contents on air. The document discusses, inter alia, issues of
corruption in the system, low morale, the serving of food that was more than a year old,
incompetence, and forced over-time..
[ Read exit Interview: http://www.penbay.org/wrfr/prisonproject/exitinterview.html ]

-----------------------------------

Paragraph 53. On October 16, 2006, a Prisoner Telephone System Number Request was
completed (signature unreadable), ordering that Mr. Brown's phone calls to Lance
Tapley, reporter for the Portland Phoenix, and Ron Huber, reporter for WRFR, be
monitored.

Paragraph 54. On October 17, 2006, Mr. Brown received a letter from Warden Merrill, stating that it had been brought to his attention that he Mr. Brown was "disclosing confidential
information through the media and in particular through the website, "Penobscot Bay
Watch." Merrill then informed Mr. Brown that he had ordered the telephone numbers
that Mr. Brown had been using to contact the website and WRFR radio to be deleted
from his list of authorized telephone numbers. He further stated that he was "warning
[Brown] that [he] may not disclose confidential information through any other means,
such as writing letters. If [he does] not heed this warning, further appropriate action will
be taken, up to and including disciplinary action."

[Read Merrill's letter:
http://www.penbay.org/wrfr/prisonproject/mspwardenltr101706.html ]


Paragraph 56. On October 18, 2006, Mr. Brown wrote a letter to Merrill in which he noted that "no information has been provided to me in confidence." Brown further stated that "I am
a correspondent with WRFR. WRFR, the Portland Phoenix and myself enjoy the
freedom of the press," and he stated that Merrill "should not be surprised to find this
letter on the Penobscot Bay Watch website, reprinted (with permission) in any of many
publications, and, especially read live over the air at WRFR."

[Read Brown's letter:
http://www.penbay.org/wrfr/prisonproject/dbrownltr_oct1806.html ]

------------------------------

Paragraph 58. On October 24, 2006, Ron Huber, of WRFR radio, wrote a letter to Warden
Merrill concerning Merrill's decision to prohibit Mr. Brown from continuing as a
correspondent for WRFR. Huber stated that "while correctional facilities may restrict a
prisoner's right to freedom of speech for cause, constitutional rights cannot be summarily
denied." Huber also reiterates the contention that the confidential information that
Merrill accused Mr. Brown of disclosing was "information supplied by the person who
generated the information," and noted that if that person chose to release it, it is no longer
confidential, noting that "[i]t appears that the new restriction on Mr. Brown is retaliation
for the legitimate news he has reported on WRFR."

[Read the WRFR letter at http://www.penbay.org/wrfr/prisonproject/wrfrletter_102406.html

Paragraph 59. In a letter dated October 26, 2006, Merrill responded to Mr. Huber's October 24, 2006 letter. In his letter, Merrill stated that "The first Amendment does not give a
prisoner the right to act as a news correspondent. Departmental policy also provides that
a prisoner may not act as a reporter, publish under a byline or act as an agent of the news
media." Warden Merrill ends by stating that his "decision stands as previously stated."
Read Merrill's letter:
http://www.penbay.org/wrfr/prisonproject/mspwardenltr102606.jpg


[NOTE. The federal lawsuit asks the judge to find the Maine Department of Corrections and its officials violated the US and State Constitution. Specifically it charges the below:

Paragraph 72. Mr. Brown, a jailhouse correspondent, was ordered to cease his communication with the media, an order made without any justifiable cause. Furthermore, he was informed that under Departmental policy, "[a] prisoner may not act as a reporter, publish
under a byline or act as an agent of the news media," in violation of the First and
Fourteenth Amendments and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Paragraph 73. Defendants knowingly and intentionally engaged in a deliberate abuse of the
power granted to them by the state by retaliating against Mr. Brown because of his
contact with the press at which time he disclosed the nature of human rights abuses that
were occurring in the Maine State Prison, and because of his numerous grievances related
to prison conditions, by repeatedly labeling him as a security risk with no evidence to
support the charge, and disciplining him through placement in Administrative
Segregation, in violation of Plaintiff's clearly established constitutional rights under the
First, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Paragraph 74. Defendants knowingly and intentionally targeted Plaintiff for a speedy transfer to a "distant location" because of his exercise of his right to communicate with the press to
speak out on abuses within the prison, and his right to file grievances regarding prison
conditions, in violation of Plaintiff's clearly established constitutional rights under the
First, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and 42
U.S.C. § 1983

Paragraph 77. Plaintiff was unjustifiably transferred to a distant prison without any notice or
knowledge of the reasons for the transfer and without any opportunity to appear before an
administrative body, in retaliation for his communications with the media, in violation of
the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

End of extracts from the lawsuit.

What's next? Watch for Amicus curiae Briefs. Want more info contact Ron Huber

WRFR Community Radio under new management. New owner next?

Five years into broadcasting live local radio to coastal Knox County,Maine, low power FM community radio WRFR lpfm 93.3 Rockland/99.3 Camden takes on its third station manager on August 1, 2007.

Cathy McGuinness takes the helm August 1st. Her tasks are twofold - coordinate fundraising and simultaneously guide WRFR's low power FM license to a new non-profit home. The transition comes as the station's dynamic and charismatic founder Joe Steinberger (on left in photo) moves on to pursue other interests, and his interim replacement Emily Sapienza moves to a reporter's job at VillageSoup Times .

A group of programmers are looking to form a nonprofit organization to host the radio station.

WRFR LPFM broadcasts from studios in Rockland, with repeater station W257BI in Rockport. The station's volunteer programmers produce a diverse mix of country, classical, folk, rock, jazz, Christian, pop and other music.

WRFR also boasts a spectrum-spanning spoken-word show mix, ranging from news and comment to improving life skills, oversight of Maine state prison, military history, bible discussions, poetry and science fiction readings, book reviews, commercial fisheries news, Penobscot Bay area environmental news, and more. See station schedule.

WRFR's 100 watt transmitter in Rockland is licensed to the Penobscot School, the 150 watt repeater antenna in Rockport is licensed to the Community School in Camden.

WRFR began broadcasting on Valentine’s Day in 2002. Rockland attorney Joseph L. Steinberger founded the station in frustration at the limits on public access to the airwaves in the Knox County area. Steinberger describes these beginnings in a recent column.

A respected public defender representing indigent defendants before the District and Superior Courts in Rockland, Steinberger successfully applied to the FCC during the first round of licensing, making Rockland on of the first cities in America with a low power fm community radio license.

"I wanted it to be something that could be embraced by the whole community, and not have it be a very left- or right-oriented thing," said Steinberger in a Bangor Daily News article. "Not an elite thing. It is to be a medium for local discussion and talent. It’s not about being an alternative. It’s about being local."

About low power FM Radio:
* FCC's LPFM webpage
* Wikipedia on LPFM
* Prometheus Radio Project

To Contact WRFR:
WRFR 93.3 LPFM
20 Gay Street,
Rockland, Maine 04841
www.wrfr.org
(207) 594-0721
wrfr@wrfr.org

Portland Press Herald, prison industry apologist

Jeff Ingles from the Portland Phoenix details how the Portland Press Herald has become an enthusiastic apologist for the prison/industrial complex.

"Not only did a Friday editoral fail to note that the Corrections policy of moving inmates from prison to a jail is in violation of a federal court order rediscovered by the Portland Phoenix and reported on in the June 29 issue," Ingles writes, "but Sunday's column by obscurer-in-chief Bill Nemitz makes no note of the fact that the Maine Department of Corrections has been failing to treat mentally ill inmates for their medical conditions for more than 18 months"
Click here for the sordid details.
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Pitfalls, praise, and pratfalls for citizen journalists

A few words with Justin Ellis, Portland Press Herald, on citizen journalism.

Staff reporter Justin Ellis of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram emailed and called the other day, seeking my thoughts on "citizen journalists". Read some of Ellis' recent articles.

We spent the better part of an hour discussing (mostly me ranting) on just how citizen and profession journalism differs. What each can and can't do, should but doesn't do, and what ought to be done to come up with ways to augment the weaknesses of each with the strengths of the other. Read on......

Ellis wrote that he was (is) working on:

"..a story about citizen journalism and people who are trying
to take an active part in their community by reporting and writing
on what's going on around them."

He noted that I've

"... been very active in writing on the clean up of Seal Island and land use planning for Sears Island. I also notice you've taken an interest in monitoring Maine's media outlets."

These being subjects I have decided positions on and opinions about, I held forth, to wit:

* Term limits for letters editors. The letters to the editor and op-ed pages are important citizen journalism tools. The editorship of those pages should be term limited, with editors put back in the field reporting on local day to day issues, to reconnect them with the real world, where they can apply their big picture experience to local newsgathering. .

Veteran field reporters should conversely be sent to staff the op-ed and letters department, as well as writing editorials themselves. They can apply their real-world experience to making decisions on which to select of the rivers of letters and other written opinion pieces pouring in to their newspapers and production studios from the public.

Investigative Journalism: Someone's gotta do it. Mainstream Maine journalism is distinguished by a near absence of investigative journalism. The dirty work of uncovering the corruption, incompetence and malfeasances interwoven into Maine's economy and politics is left to citizen journalists and independents like Lance Tapley.

But when citizen journalists uncover scandals they must then publicize them beyond their narrow bonds. The second part of their task: pitching these stories to mainstream journalists, can be as difficult as the investigative work itself.

And Woe to that citizen journalist who arouses sleeping lions of corruption, while lacking the legal and political shields of professional media! The Department of Corrections "corrected" one recently....

Last fall, a Knox County citizen reporter for a weekly news outlet was given a certain internal government document by a retiring official, outlining a pattern of corruption and mismanagement by an important state agency the reporterwas covering.

After the document's public release by the reporter, along with his own reportorial analysis, the reporter was taken from his home into custody by the state police -- with the governor's personal acquiescence-- and driven through the night to a high security prison in Baltimore, Maryland. Neither his publisher nor his attorney are notified.

To this day, he is kept confined "for security reasons" in a secluded cell twenty three out of every 24 hours, with no access to telephone or internet, or other prisoners, and only occasional postal service. There are no plans by officials of either state to release him back to Maine from this secluded exile.

Outrageous? Surely. But while the agencies congratulate themselves on putting a media gadfly away, the Maine media establishment yawns. What's another 'citizen journalist', more or less? Thank goodness a civic minded private attorney has taken up his case in defense of citizen journalism pro bono, too >.

The freedom of journalists to expose corruption without fear of sudden forced exile and/or loss of livelihood, is under attack, friends. If citizen-reporter gadflies are getting swatted. Who will be next? "First they came for the..."

What are you mainstream media types going to do about it? I asked Justin. To his silence I answered myself in bitter precognition: "Nothing!"


More about my discussion with Justin Ellis later...including:

When Media Borgs Collide

Denise Lord's bloody hands

Denise Lord, Maine Dept of Corrections press flack, once again covers DOC's ass. After just-released-ex-con Michael Woodbury turned triple-murderer, Lord told reporters that "state prisoners like Woodbury have access to a wide variety of mental health and psychiatric services, as well as planning services for the day they’re released." But interviews with inmates at the prison show that these are few and far between.

Indeed Woodbury himself told reporters " They told me, ‘We don’t give a shit.’ They were just like, ‘Whatever, leave,’ ”

Why Maine Media need watching

Consolidation of media ownership....timid and jaded reporters....letters editors that censor out dissenting points of view....

These and many other disfunctional elements of the mainstream and alternative media in Maine need airing, as do the obfuscations of state and federal agency spokespersons and the public relations firms that cloud the waters on behalf of anyone or anything that can afford their services.

And here at Maine Media Watch, expect an airing indeed.

Stay Tuned.