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BAVC Threatens to Cancel Media Alliance Program on SF Community Access TV
The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) has threatened to cancel the Media Alliance show "Media News" in retaliation for publication of a December 1, 2009, press release announcing a producers' protest of the tentative station closure of San Francisco Community Access Television at 1720 Market Street.
The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) has threatened to cancel the Media Alliance show "Media News" which airs every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 7pm 'live' on San Francisco Community Access Television (Channel 76). BAVC Executive Director Ken Ikeda issued the threat to Tracy Rosenberg, Media Alliance Executive Director and host of "Media News", on December 10, 2009, in retaliation for the organization's publication of a December 1, 2009, press release announcing a picket and protest by producers at San Francisco Community Access Television. See the link to that press release here:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/03/18631368.php
In issuing the threat to the producers of "Media News",BAVC's Ikeda has violated terms of the current Franchise Agreement with the City of San Francisco which prohibits any management control over producers' exercise of their First Amendment guarantees. The Coalition To Defend Free Speech and San Francisco Community Access Television calls on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and City Attorney to investigate this act of coercion from BAVC towards Media Alliance and the producers of "Media News" and take the appropriate legal action, including termination of the current franchise agreement.
BAVC's latest transgression is exemplary of its attempt to quash any opposition from either producers, viewers, or the
community-at-large, of its plans to close the doors of the state-of-the-art SF Community Station at 1720 Market Street
this Friday, December 18, 2009, at 8pm, and essentially shutdown public access television in San Francisco.
BAVC, a long-time political supporter of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and recipient of numerous grant funds from
the San Francisco Department of Technology and Information Services (DTIS) over the years, was awarded the 3-year
contract to operate public access television in June, 2009. BAVC is guaranteed over $470K in yearly public funding along
with a one-time conditional grant of $375K from the City which was negotiated as part of a settlement agreement with
Comcast.
The Coalition to Defend Free Speech and San Francisco Community Access Television calls on the San Francisco
Board of Supervisors and City Attorney to take swift action to stop the closure of the current Market Street station
and strongly urge the current operator, BAVC, to negotiate an extended lease with the landlord, Paragon Realty
of San Francisco. By negotiating a new lease, the City will save taxpayers at minimum, approximately $200K
in station demolition costs, funds that would be best used toward paying the rent at the current state-of-the-art
facility at 1720 Market Street.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/12/03/18631368.php
In issuing the threat to the producers of "Media News",BAVC's Ikeda has violated terms of the current Franchise Agreement with the City of San Francisco which prohibits any management control over producers' exercise of their First Amendment guarantees. The Coalition To Defend Free Speech and San Francisco Community Access Television calls on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and City Attorney to investigate this act of coercion from BAVC towards Media Alliance and the producers of "Media News" and take the appropriate legal action, including termination of the current franchise agreement.
BAVC's latest transgression is exemplary of its attempt to quash any opposition from either producers, viewers, or the
community-at-large, of its plans to close the doors of the state-of-the-art SF Community Station at 1720 Market Street
this Friday, December 18, 2009, at 8pm, and essentially shutdown public access television in San Francisco.
BAVC, a long-time political supporter of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and recipient of numerous grant funds from
the San Francisco Department of Technology and Information Services (DTIS) over the years, was awarded the 3-year
contract to operate public access television in June, 2009. BAVC is guaranteed over $470K in yearly public funding along
with a one-time conditional grant of $375K from the City which was negotiated as part of a settlement agreement with
Comcast.
The Coalition to Defend Free Speech and San Francisco Community Access Television calls on the San Francisco
Board of Supervisors and City Attorney to take swift action to stop the closure of the current Market Street station
and strongly urge the current operator, BAVC, to negotiate an extended lease with the landlord, Paragon Realty
of San Francisco. By negotiating a new lease, the City will save taxpayers at minimum, approximately $200K
in station demolition costs, funds that would be best used toward paying the rent at the current state-of-the-art
facility at 1720 Market Street.
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BAVC should lose the contract to operate SF Public Access TV along with any other business they do with the City of San Francisco.
Ikeda's tactics towards Media Alliance are similar to those used by mobsters who terrorize innocent victims for failing to
comply with their illegal schemes.
Wasting $200K of taxpayer money to demolish a state-of-the-art facility sounds like a crime, in-and-of-itself
This whole deal smacks of cronyism between Newsom, BAVC, and DTIS.
An investigation by the DOJ and the State AG is in order. "The Dirt Always Come Out in the Wash".
Ikeda's tactics towards Media Alliance are similar to those used by mobsters who terrorize innocent victims for failing to
comply with their illegal schemes.
Wasting $200K of taxpayer money to demolish a state-of-the-art facility sounds like a crime, in-and-of-itself
This whole deal smacks of cronyism between Newsom, BAVC, and DTIS.
An investigation by the DOJ and the State AG is in order. "The Dirt Always Come Out in the Wash".
Recently there have been a series of posts about the Bay Area Video Coalition and the operation of public access television here in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the posts have been filled with inaccuracies including misleading and dishonest statements by the authors. We have done our best to openly communicate with the Coalition to Defend SF Community Access TV, and to correct the misleading and inaccurate statements that they have posted on IndyBay as "news."
This latest post, however, which accuses our organization of threatening another community-based nonprofit organization, crosses a line that we can not accept. This is a libelous accusation -- an outright lie.
We understand that groups may disagree with our strategies and we encourage an honest dialogue about those disagreements based on some semblance of reality, but presenting false stories as "news" ultimately undercuts everyone's work towards building a better public access station. You can read BAVC's vision and plan for public access television at http://www.bavc.org/sfcommons
For more than 30 years, BAVC has supported independent mediamaker and activists including many members of the San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia community. And we are incredible disappointed that a resource like indybay.org is being abused in this way.
This latest post, however, which accuses our organization of threatening another community-based nonprofit organization, crosses a line that we can not accept. This is a libelous accusation -- an outright lie.
We understand that groups may disagree with our strategies and we encourage an honest dialogue about those disagreements based on some semblance of reality, but presenting false stories as "news" ultimately undercuts everyone's work towards building a better public access station. You can read BAVC's vision and plan for public access television at http://www.bavc.org/sfcommons
For more than 30 years, BAVC has supported independent mediamaker and activists including many members of the San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia community. And we are incredible disappointed that a resource like indybay.org is being abused in this way.
For more information:
http://http:/www.bavc.org/sfcommons
The Coalition stands by its original story posted here. UNEQUIVOCALLY.
As for two-way dialogue between the Coalition and BAVC, there is NONE.
The only people BAVC has dialogue with are their Corporate Clients, Foundation Bank-Rollers, and Newsom.
To BAVC: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!".
Time to Drop Out, BAVC.
As for two-way dialogue between the Coalition and BAVC, there is NONE.
The only people BAVC has dialogue with are their Corporate Clients, Foundation Bank-Rollers, and Newsom.
To BAVC: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!".
Time to Drop Out, BAVC.
BAVC’s Ken Ikeda Secret Closure Plan For Community Access And Why He Did Not Let The SF Supervisors Know
BAVC promised and continue to promise that they would have a collaborative relationship with the producers and programmers. Instead they moved to close the station without even inform and consult with their elected community access board what their plans were. That is one reason members of the elected board attended the protest at the station. Secondly, they did not inform the SF Board of Supervisors and particularly those SF Supervisors including Mirikarimi who had been involved in having hearings to protect public community access. Why would BAVC and it's executive director Ken Ikeda not inform the supporters of community access on the SF Board what their plans were since he is very competent in communication. The only reason is that BAVC and Ikeda had already worked out their plan to close the station with the Mayor and his Department of Technology. This was completely duplicitous on his part and shows that he is an operative for Newsom's privatization drive. In fact city employee Barry Fraser admitted that his department had set aside up to $200,000 to dismantle the station without consulting Mirikarimi or the Board. BAVC only sent out a notice to the producers and programmers after formal complaints were made to SF Technology Contract Compliance Officer Barry Fraser who was told that this was not proper. The notice went out the same day complaints were made. Ikeda and BAVC also knew that was going to be a Comcast settlement of $375,000 and that could be used to keep the station open but their real plans are to fold San Francisco community access into BAVC and to use the city funds to keep BAVC going. BAVC is a completely non-union operation and has been in alliance with Mayor Newsom who wants to privatize all technology and communication as well as everything else in San Francisco. Newsom in alliance with BAVC has opposed public Wi-fi and the collaboration between BAVC and Newsom has meant hundreds of thousands of public funds going to operate BAVC.
Ken Ikeda could have kept the station functioning until the plan to build a flash studio was set up at the BAVC operation but even this was not done so under Ikeda and BAVC there will be no use of the main studios, editing facilities and other equipment at the 1720 station for Feb or even later. The lease for the station runs until April 30, 2009 but they want to shut the station down months before the expiration of the lease since their plan all along has been to fold the community access station into BAVC and to charge producers and programmers BAVC prices. This will limit the use of the equipment and facilities to high income people and not the workers and low income of San Francisco who were previously able to use the equipment.
The Labor Video Project and supporters of Community Access will continue to fight for a real public community access public center regardless of what Ikeda and Newsom have planned. The right of working people and low income people to have access to production equipment and a main studio to produce their shows is a critical component of public Access.
The following letter was written by one of the station's programmers and producers
DEETJE BOLER
1280 Laguna Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
567-8446
December 14, 2009
Ross Mirkarimi, Supervisor
S.F. Board of Supervisors
City Hall
San Francisco, CA 94102
Dear Supervisor: Re: Operating funds from DTIS for Public Access TV
My distress at our community access station losing production assistance, training, and access to production equipment under the new management of AccesSF by BAVC drives me to contact you in hopes that you may somehow be able to stop BAVC’s plan to shut down the Market Street facility and demolish it at the City’s expense ($200,000) months before the lease runs out. NOT OK! Instead, I would hope that the City could use that money to pay the rent on the facility and could in the course of time negotiate a new lease to continue using the facility.
To this end, let me offer the following for your consideration and possible action. It is my understanding that there used to be a City Commission that handled the PEG stations and funding but that Mayor Newsom disbanded it. It is my further understanding that the responsibility for dividing up the funding for the three PEG functions (public access, educational, and government) fell into the hands of Barry Fraser of the Department of Technology. It is my further understanding that he has divided the $1 million or so amount in the City budget for these three functions into three very disparate amounts, with only about $130,000 going to public access while by far the largest share goes to his department, DTIS. Is this acceptable? It doesn’t seem it to me.
From a 7/17/09 letter to San Francisco Media Center by Jolie Gines, Contract Administrator for the CCSF “ …. The City takes the public access mission seriously—it is committed to negotiating the highest level of services possible given current funding limitations, and will oppose any terms or conditions that would restrict or deny available services to any City residents, including low-income and other vulnerable populations. ….” (my italics). Considering the positive nature of the spirit of this statement, it seems to me that every effort should be made in this emergency need to save the facility from closure. A fairer division of the DTIS funds would provide important additional moneys to continue producers’ access to and use of the Market Street facility.
Since the public access channels desperately need more operating funds in order to continue to run our community television station with the necessary training and accessibility for producers, I would like to ask that you look into how these funds might be more equitably divided between the public access, education, and government channels. And, perhaps, identify other sources of funding for this same purpose.
I would be happy to follow up on this in any way you might suggest. Thank you for your attention.
Very truly yours,
Deetje Boler
Cc: Sup. Daly, Campos, Mar, Avalos
BAVC promised and continue to promise that they would have a collaborative relationship with the producers and programmers. Instead they moved to close the station without even inform and consult with their elected community access board what their plans were. That is one reason members of the elected board attended the protest at the station. Secondly, they did not inform the SF Board of Supervisors and particularly those SF Supervisors including Mirikarimi who had been involved in having hearings to protect public community access. Why would BAVC and it's executive director Ken Ikeda not inform the supporters of community access on the SF Board what their plans were since he is very competent in communication. The only reason is that BAVC and Ikeda had already worked out their plan to close the station with the Mayor and his Department of Technology. This was completely duplicitous on his part and shows that he is an operative for Newsom's privatization drive. In fact city employee Barry Fraser admitted that his department had set aside up to $200,000 to dismantle the station without consulting Mirikarimi or the Board. BAVC only sent out a notice to the producers and programmers after formal complaints were made to SF Technology Contract Compliance Officer Barry Fraser who was told that this was not proper. The notice went out the same day complaints were made. Ikeda and BAVC also knew that was going to be a Comcast settlement of $375,000 and that could be used to keep the station open but their real plans are to fold San Francisco community access into BAVC and to use the city funds to keep BAVC going. BAVC is a completely non-union operation and has been in alliance with Mayor Newsom who wants to privatize all technology and communication as well as everything else in San Francisco. Newsom in alliance with BAVC has opposed public Wi-fi and the collaboration between BAVC and Newsom has meant hundreds of thousands of public funds going to operate BAVC.
Ken Ikeda could have kept the station functioning until the plan to build a flash studio was set up at the BAVC operation but even this was not done so under Ikeda and BAVC there will be no use of the main studios, editing facilities and other equipment at the 1720 station for Feb or even later. The lease for the station runs until April 30, 2009 but they want to shut the station down months before the expiration of the lease since their plan all along has been to fold the community access station into BAVC and to charge producers and programmers BAVC prices. This will limit the use of the equipment and facilities to high income people and not the workers and low income of San Francisco who were previously able to use the equipment.
The Labor Video Project and supporters of Community Access will continue to fight for a real public community access public center regardless of what Ikeda and Newsom have planned. The right of working people and low income people to have access to production equipment and a main studio to produce their shows is a critical component of public Access.
The following letter was written by one of the station's programmers and producers
DEETJE BOLER
1280 Laguna Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
567-8446
December 14, 2009
Ross Mirkarimi, Supervisor
S.F. Board of Supervisors
City Hall
San Francisco, CA 94102
Dear Supervisor: Re: Operating funds from DTIS for Public Access TV
My distress at our community access station losing production assistance, training, and access to production equipment under the new management of AccesSF by BAVC drives me to contact you in hopes that you may somehow be able to stop BAVC’s plan to shut down the Market Street facility and demolish it at the City’s expense ($200,000) months before the lease runs out. NOT OK! Instead, I would hope that the City could use that money to pay the rent on the facility and could in the course of time negotiate a new lease to continue using the facility.
To this end, let me offer the following for your consideration and possible action. It is my understanding that there used to be a City Commission that handled the PEG stations and funding but that Mayor Newsom disbanded it. It is my further understanding that the responsibility for dividing up the funding for the three PEG functions (public access, educational, and government) fell into the hands of Barry Fraser of the Department of Technology. It is my further understanding that he has divided the $1 million or so amount in the City budget for these three functions into three very disparate amounts, with only about $130,000 going to public access while by far the largest share goes to his department, DTIS. Is this acceptable? It doesn’t seem it to me.
From a 7/17/09 letter to San Francisco Media Center by Jolie Gines, Contract Administrator for the CCSF “ …. The City takes the public access mission seriously—it is committed to negotiating the highest level of services possible given current funding limitations, and will oppose any terms or conditions that would restrict or deny available services to any City residents, including low-income and other vulnerable populations. ….” (my italics). Considering the positive nature of the spirit of this statement, it seems to me that every effort should be made in this emergency need to save the facility from closure. A fairer division of the DTIS funds would provide important additional moneys to continue producers’ access to and use of the Market Street facility.
Since the public access channels desperately need more operating funds in order to continue to run our community television station with the necessary training and accessibility for producers, I would like to ask that you look into how these funds might be more equitably divided between the public access, education, and government channels. And, perhaps, identify other sources of funding for this same purpose.
I would be happy to follow up on this in any way you might suggest. Thank you for your attention.
Very truly yours,
Deetje Boler
Cc: Sup. Daly, Campos, Mar, Avalos
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