MPBN, Village Soup, other Maine media shrug and turn aside as Baldacci affirms his pro-torture position re Mainer inmates

It is a terrible dare, to stand up against the System when in Maine state prison. Unlike other states in New england and Elsewhere, Maine prison officials cling to an archaic labyrinthine hodgepodge of human rights-violating prison punishment practices and policies. Taking issue with inhumane conditions or treatment opens inmates to sure retribution, exacted in excruciating detail But for MPBN and other media. that's not a story

Already, with the hunger strike of a collective group of inmates being held in sensory deprivation cells of officially ended, Deputy Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord gloats that 'no changes will be made' in our state's sick policy of putting inmates into punishment cells for months of prolonged sensory deprivation. Inmates at Maine state prison carried out a similar hunger strike in 2006

So does Maine media look into why these eight Mainers dared to put their necks on the line?

Of course not! (with a few tiny exceptions). Take Herald Gazette/Village Soup reporter Shlomit Auciello. Please!
Primed to the gills with info about the raisons d'etre for the Maine state prison's present and past hunger strikes, about Maine's history of retribution against those inmates daring to lawfully rock the boat about the devastating effect that prolonged sensory deprivation has on the minds and hearts of those being held in such circumstances, primed with all this info what does Shlomit Auciello do?

Why, she builds her story around the exhalations of the Great Bloviator: Associate Corrections Commissioner for Public Relations Denise Lord. Right from the start:

"According to DOC Associate Commissioner Denise Lord...."

Lord is good at her job. Like one of Saddam's officials, or a guantanamo public affairs officer he can extoll the positive side of torture: it is "an incentive to inmates " Auciello dutifully reports this party line.

"They have access to reading materials and magazines," Lord observed, leaving out the well known observation that anyone held in sensory deprivation units quickly becomes disoriented and unable to read as the days and weeks pass.

Most disgraceful perhaps. Auciello tries to sugarcoat the disgusting fact that at any given moment, the state of Maine continually puts men and women in and out of sensory deprivation tanks for widely varying lengths of time. Letting Lord get away with spinning it polyannaishly as "fewer than 2.5 percent of the prison's 2,200 inmates!" as though sensory deprivation was not a practice that can only be described as intentional infliction of torture, carried out in the name of the People of Maine.

But that wasnt the story Lord wanted, and Auciello like the rest of the callow media went right along with the associate commish.

So, policies that so conflict with international human rights treaties that global sanctions against te Baldacci Administration ought to be imposed? Not an issue.

Inmate-rights organizations are pumping up the volume, taking Baldacci to task
beyond the beachhead that the hunger strikers have established in their brief campaign. They are doubtless learning the punitive consequences of their courage, which we should not allow to have happened in vain.

Let's convince the Governor that Maine needs to join other New England states (and the rest of the civilized world) and remove the stain to our honor of our adhering to an archaic labyrinth of human rights-violating prison punishment practices and policies.

From sensory deprivation in long term punishment isolation cells, to forced exile to distant states, deputy commissioners and wardens pick and choose from a palette of cruelty to suit their moods.

Let's put an end to this

Soup spills into fish documentary

Ah, Souperwoman. How DO you do it? The videographer arrives from Frisco, the producer from Portsmouth, and the local guy connecting them with Knox County fishermen squires them to Lobsterman Art Johnson for a satisfying go-round in his backyeard amid his still-homeported trap gear. Then to the fish pier, where connector-man checks in with the Western Sea, Plan B, Double Eagle and other boats, all alive with spring-cleaning. He motions them on down to the end: Captain Fill of the ' Sea is willing to talk. They amble down, quick words along the way with the Live Lobster folk and the bait people.

We are all there at end of the fishpier, finally and the good Captain has allotted some time from his busy schedule, sitting relaxed on dock, while his crew works around him, grinning in anticipation of being video'd for national news distribution. The producer begins her low key language dance, working out the psycholinguistics for a good interview.

WHEN IN POPS A VILLAGE SOUP REPORTER

...stepping into the documentary space between the interviewer and her camera shooter, and Capt Fill. "Wait!" she announces, and the camera lowers, pulls back "Me first."

Danny Fill raises an eyebrow at the producer. She shrugs. The reporter demands the Captain's name, inquires as to his business (he tips his head toward the Western Sea, the steel herring seiner rising and falling in the Gulf of Maine swell behind him.) Meanwhile the interviewer, videographer trade glances with the local producer. He clears his throat. The Soupie stops (she is snapping photos of Capt Fill now) and then, recollecting that there ARE other people here, steps back, and Meg the producer restarts to her colloquoy with Danny Fill.
tend to modify the observed, a privilege that is reserved to the documentarians and their subject.

Or should be. Souperwoman stays inside the frame, for all the world as if this were a press conference.

Eventually the interview is over, and as the captain returns to working on his boat, we shift to a lobster smacker, back from transporting lobsters from island fishermen to the mainland. He is interested but declines, politely but firmly, to be interviewed. He does agree to talk off camera and Meg quizzes him about healthcare. The Village Soup reporter again inserts herself into the frame with her own questions and photography. The local producer moves up the pier, considering the next interviewees. They head to the North End Shipyard, where the wooden masts of half a dozen windjammers rake the sky.

Captain Brenda Thomas of the schooner Isaac Evans is nowhere to be found, but the Souper proves useful and finds him the boat's phone #. He calls and reaches her husband, who listens to the proposition of being interviewed. Shortly he walks up through the shipyard. An interview with he, (much Soup insertion, of course). Finally Captain Walker shows, agrees to be interviewed, too, and take camera crew aboard her schooner, clambering across another to reach the Isaac Evans. Only a bit of Soup this time, as the quarters aboard are rather tight for captain and documentary crew AND soup reporter.

Things come to an end. The footage is shot, the words are all in the can. A quick stop to get a release signature from Lobsterman Artie Johnson Local Producer, the the documentary crew a share a round at the Black Bull, and all go their seperate ways. Meg got what she came for. Consumers Union will have its health care story. Village Soup will have its story "the making of a documentary".

And when it duly is published, the local producer reads it and sighs. He's not in the "making of" story at all. A casual reader would think the Souper Reporter had done it all on her ownsome.
He jots her a quick email subject lined with a "Thanks for the coverage of the health care video crew" to fan her ego, but with this message in the body: "...And a hearty middle finger for leaving me entirely out of it."

Childish, but one must observe the proprieties.