Monthly Archives: October 2015

Medford Public Access TV in 2016

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     Embattled outgoing mayor, Michael J. McGlynn, loathes transparency and access television.  A source tells me he was speaking to McGlynn and the lame-duck mayor told the access veteran “I hate public access.”  Those in Medford know that all too well, the Mayor seeing how Vinny Piro’s election hopes in the 1980s went down like the Hidenburg.  The entire TV3 fiasco is a metaphor for McGlynn’s 28 years of dictatorship.

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       On Inauguration Day in Medford, January 2, 2012, School Committee member Robert Skerry told me “everything will change” (in regards to local televised media.)   What he was talking about was Verizon coming to Medford, a contract Mayor McGlynn signed with Verizon on February 3, 2012.    The Mayor’s promises have yet to be delivered – here is is August 12th and we still don’t have the School Committee and City Council meetings on Verizon; we don’t have either of them on Comcast’s ON DEMAND, despite Medford being one of the six cities in the nation to be participating in Comcast’s Project Open Voice (Made In Medford).   Are residents  supposed to just be quiet, complacent and not rock the boat?  Wait until the “powers that be” deliver on those promises?

All due respect to Bob Skerry, a nice fellow with a good heart, things have not changed, and we need powerful voices like Bob Skerry’s as well as other people on the School Committee and on the City Council to let the Mayor know in no uncertain terms that this kind of failure to lead is unacceptable.

Let’s discuss Project Open Voice.   If you have Comcast press Channel 1, the ON DEMAND Channel.   You will find 10 icons (Top Picks, Search, TV Series, Movies and six more) on the first page, scroll down to the bottom where it says More v Choices  (the “v” is an arrow down), click down and you get 10 more icons (HD On Demand, Sports & Fitness etc).  Go to the 8th icon, GET LOCAL and press it.    You will now have 10 more icons inside “Get Local”, those being Red Sox On Demand, What’s New?, 92.5 The River Live (which is a great place to check out!   Adam Ezra Band and Air Traffic Controller live at the River Music Hall, both with Malden residents in their respective groups) and 7 other icons…just go all the way to the bottom again to More v Choices.

Go to More v Choices and there are only two choices: Latino and Made in Medford.  Click on Made in Medford and three new icons pop up:  Public Access, Family and Community.   These sites on the ON DEMAND are from the online website http://madeinmedford.com part of http://projectopenvoice.com

Today, August 12, 2012, there is only one program on Public Access, it is a 123 minute (two hours, 3 minutes) 2012 Graduations (High School and Vocational), available until August 30, and it is free.   On Family you will find a free 6 minute vid of Marine Corps veteran Danielle Marcellino demonstrating her extreme workout routine while on Community a free 5 minute profile of Berklee Music College student Gia Green available until September 14th.  Click on the icon to get a full paragraph on the program.

It was my understanding that Project Open Voice – which Comcast is reportedly spending tens of millions of dollars on – would have dozens of channels On Demand created by the community and broadcast on television in our community.   Here’s where it gets vague and troublesome.

The City Council expected that Timothy Kelly, Sr. Manager of Gov’t & Regulatory Affairs at Comcast was going to speak to the citizens – and the Council, in Alden Chambers this past June.   There won’t be another meeting of the City Council until September 18.  There was supposed to be a big blast-off for Project Open Voice in Medford.  Have you seen it?   The party’s been canceled, and unceremoniously.   Medford residents not getting what we’ve been promised, Medford residents getting their Free Speech restrictions.  And you know where they are coming from, don’t you?   If you’ve followed these columns since June you are aware that the individual in the corner office at 85 George P. Hassett Drive, Michael J. McGlynn, is standing in the way of your ability to enjoy what you are paying for.   He’s smiling in a flowing robe when you click ON DEMAND  Made In Medford Public Access.   The students are there, but you are not!

The other 5 cities participating in http://projectopenvoice.com  Fresno, California; Houston, Texas; Peterborough, N.H.; Philadelphia, PA  and Hialeah (outside of Miami) Florida are front and center on the page.  Medford has slipped down to the very botton, next to “CONTACT US” on the bottom right hand of the page.  Click on Visit our Test Site to see the obscure place Medford, Massachusetts has been relegated to.

Now it’s not that the people at Argus, the outside contractor helping us develop Medford’s Project Open Voice, aren’t nice people…they are.  David Lubell, April and Toyin have been very helpful.  And Tim Kelly is a friendly enough guy for a government agent…sorry…for a Sr. Manager of Govt. & Regulatory Affairs  (be careful! He was the staff director at the Mass. House of Representatives bettween ’97 and 2003)…but this is so important to Medford residents that Mr. Kelly owes it to us to visit the Council (hopefully, September 18th) and tell residents why every channel on Made In Medford isn’t accessible ON DEMAND, Channel 1.

You can visit  Community on Made in Medford and see my interview with City Councilor Robert Penta http://www.madeinmedford.com/community

You can visit Recreation to see my interview with Medford band Await Rescue http://www.madeinmedford.com/recreation

You can visit the Government channel on Made In Medford http://www.madeinmedford.com/government  as well as Public Access, Education, Family and Events.

We want our Made in Medford party.  We want to be put back on the front page of Project Open Voice, and we want all our shows ON DEMAND.  It’s not too much to ask of a company satisfying an FCC mandate as part of their compliance due to the Comcast purchase of Universal/NBC.   “Project Open Voice was created to satisfy specific requirements as mandated by the FCC during the Comcast-Universal/NBC merger in 2011. Comcast’s goal in this project is to “broaden the discovery of local content, including public, educational and government (PEG) programming… and to address the questions of the diverse demand for local content in different communities and the variety of ways to deliver it.”

To “broaden the discovery” isn’t – in the opinion of this public access veteran whose first show was broadcast in 1979 – cloning YouTube.  We can do that on our own.   Comcast delivers content to our TV set.   We want our LOCAL CONTENT delivered to our TV set.  Let’s face it, ON DEMAND is a jungle, and if Comcast cannot put all our Made In Medford content on the ON DEMAND perhaps we need our own MADE IN MEDFORD CHANNEL on the television.  It’s an information superhighway with few cars currently on it.  Comcast needs to give us our own channel for Project Open Voice / Medford to succeed.

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Verizon Contiguous Channels

For the 71% of Medford that gets Verizon, you also get programming from Stoneham, Wakefield, Hudson, Melrose and Malden.  Though, technically, not the “contiguous” channels we were promised, channels from cities / towns touching Medford (Arlington, Winchester, Everett would certainly be appropriate), citizens finally have an opportunity to see how other access stations broadcast their town/city council meetings, their educational channel, their local access.  I’ve been saying it for years, I want residents to compare and see what is available in this city and what is available elsewhere.

My next essay will expand on the Verizon access broadcasts in Medford.

Joe Viglione can be reached at  Visual_Radio{@}yahoo.com

 

Mr. Penta vs Mrs. Burke Thorough write-up of the #medforddebate from a liberal perspective

 

great debate

Watch the debate here
http://tinyurl.com/nvm2wrw

EVALUATING THE DEBATE FROM A LIBERAL PERSPECTIVE

By Joe Viglione

NOTE: When Republican candidate Robert Cappucci ran for Democrat Pat Jehlen’s seat he and his campaign manager told me they were campaigning against President Obama.  My response was: Local elections are not about Democrat or Republican, they are about potholes, empty storefronts, schools, public access tv, painting crosswalks.   Pat Jehlen got my vote.  Right now Hillary Clinton has my vote for President.  Let’s see how the progressives battle it out in Iowa and New Hampshire.  The stakes are big.

The stakes are big in Medford. You would be hard-pressed to find someone more progressive and/or liberal than me.  Where some Republicans in Massachusetts use the term “independent,” I proudly say Democrat. 

Being a Democrat means being a RESPONSIBLE Democrat, and voting your conscience means that you vote for the RIGHT PERSON, not just lockstep check off “D” because Local 25 wants you to, or because a poor candidate is being bolstered by the party locally.

There is no doubt that Mr. Robert Penta is the better candidate, the one running the better campaign, the one with the bigger ideas, as evidenced by The Great Debate.  IN the mail he has sent out The Penta Plan three times.  Mrs. Burke, on the other hand, doesn’t have a plan, talks about resurrecting old plans that have been set aside (and are, most likely, out of date,) and more chilling, it felt – at the debate – like Muccini-Burke was dangling by McGlynn flypaper. You could see her struggle.   When Mr. Penta spoke you could see Muccini-Burke twitching with discomfort, her facial movements were as telling as her leg shaking non-stop.

“As Your Mayor I Will Hire an Outside Auditor” is something that Muccini-Burke would LOVE to be saying, but she can’t handcuffed by McGlynn, the Mayor of the past 28 years who has wrecked the infrastructure of our city.  McGlynn’s toxic endorsements may not have demolished the campaigns of Erin DiBenedetto for State Rep, Carl Sciortino for Congress and Martha Coakley for Governor, but they certainly didn’t help those candidates.  Muccini-Burke’s sputtering campaign can be placed solidly on the shoulders of her affiliation with McGlynn, and is an indicator that were she to become mayor, she would be standing in the shadows of Mike.  That is not good for anyone, certainly not for Democrats. 

Would you vote for Tom Finneran or Sal DiMasi knowing what you know now?  McGlynn’s relationship with former Speaker DiMasi and – even more chilling – McGlynn’s tight allegiance to crooked James V. DiPaola, the late Middlesex Sheriff who put patronage and malfeasance above honesty. McGlynn cannot be separated from DiPaola with temperamental Paul Camuso  hired by DiPaola, McGlynn cousin Johnny Granara – alleged campaign manager to both crooked Sheriff DiPaola and McGlynn – there in the background like Darth Vader, and the rotten-to-the-core Bob Covelle and his reprobate wife Patricia DiPaola Covelle, all part of the McGlynn inner circle that we Democrats, and this city, need to get away from.  Not to mention that Stephanie Burke’s alleged assistant was wife of the crooked sheriff Adeline DiPaola (all due respect, she is said to be a nice person…but she has that name and that relationship,) one of McGlynn’s secretaries, you see a stagnation that the residents need to RUN away from. 

But put aside Stephanie Burke’s sleazy associates, let’s go to the husband she never speaks about.  At #MedfordDebate 2015 “The Great Debate” – Middlesex Superior Court Assistant Clerk Brian Burke was abusive and nasty. The vicious hothead was demanding ALL of Bob Penta’s supporters be removed from a front row where they were seated, which included this videographer.    Burke made two comments about me, one being “Get That Motherfucker Out of There” or “Out of here” – and one prior about having me bounced out of there or something.  It was the use of the word “motherfucker” at an event where there were 1,000 people, by a candidate’s husband that she will show a photograph of, but not say the name of, that should be studied.  It’s actually a reason why Mrs. Burke should resign.

The Ascertainment hearing for Comcast on May 7th is something the Mayor wanted to slip through the cracks and have in secret, though the law demands it be very transparent. There is no transparency with McGlynn.   Mrs. Burke left her position as Budget Director around May 10.  She was still Director of Personnel/Budget when the May 7th hearing happened.  Why was she not there for this critical hearing?

Only Robert M. Penta was there supervising Comcast fees, Comcast’s work ethic, all aspects of Comcast’s 10 year contract the Mayor signed AFTER the Mayor said he would resign at the end of 2015.  No School Committee person showed up (and I believe my friend Robert E. Skerry had an obligation to do so,) no councilors showed up except for Bob Penta, and Mark Rumley ran from the event, as did Michael J. McGlynn. 

Because they call themselves “Democrat” but not doing the job is no reason to vote for them.  This liberal has had enough of the phony Democrats as Michael J. McGlynn is every bit as abusive as Dick Cheney could ever hope to be.  McGlynn IS Dick Cheney, and just because he wears a D on his sleeve only means that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Don’t be duped, Democrats, McGlynn is not honest with the residents of Medford and is one big phony. A Dinosaur and a Dino – Democrat in Name Only who is an anachronism.   Medford doesn’t need that, and Mrs. Burke did NOTHING to distance herself from the very Rogue-Republican-acting Michael J. McGlynn.   There are good Republicans and good Democrats, Michael J. McGlynn is neither.    But local elections are about the right person.  That the Supreme Judicial Court now is looking at a complaint on Stephanie Muccini-Burke’s husband for possible violation of canons, ethical violations at the Great Debate, speaks volumes. The letter from the Trial Court is dated October 20.  Mr. Burke was invisible in Muccini-Burke’s campaign until the great debate.  Acting like a Local 25 thug on steroids, those indicted for allegations of violence against woman recently, is very telling.  Muccini-Burke never gave that union money back, never denounced such ugly behavior, her supporters saying “just a few bad eggs” is a “just a little pregnant” moment. Reprobate Sean O’Brien, with his own troubled past of documented threats, said that ALL of Local 25 was behind Muccini-Burke. That includes those indicted.  Yet Burke and that hideous “councilor” Adam Knight hold tight to their FIve Hundred Dollar bills from the suspicious Local 25.

Do you want more outside interests like Republic Parking taking sixty five percent of our monies, or unions telling you to take Stephanie or else?   This liberal doesn’t condone that behavior or like the prospect of old friend Mrs. Burke, someone I once admired, going to the dark side and turning this city into McGlynnville.  Stephanie Burke is Mike McGlynn in drag and Medford cannot afford a phony Democrat besmirching the Democratic brand.

“A police officer captured on video, threatening a motorist” is a question from Kerry Kavanaugh  Mr. Penta gave the appropriate answer, not about Stephen Lebert specifically, about ANY cop that goes rogue: “There’s the door.”   Mrs. Burke couldn’t even compete.

Post Script: When Mrs. Burke left the City Council we the people felt that she would be our Ombudsman (Ombudswoman) at City Hall. Instead, she worked with McGlynn and became a loyal lieutenant. In a perfect world one would hope that Mrs. Burke and Solicitor Mark Rumley would turn State’s Evidence against McGlynn.  Hopefully, they’ll have to, someday soon.

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COMMUNITY MEDIA MEDFORD IS A COMPANY listed at Medford City Hall as an official business.  The company put the sole proposal for a public access TV station in to City Hall on March 26th, 2015.  Joe Viglione has interviewed over 1,000 guests on radio and television, and is published in many books including the genres of soul, blues, jazz, country and rock music.

 

1:31 in on the 2 hour video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP25U5gb1Uw&feature=youtu.be

ALLEGATION: Did Nell Escobar Coakley Dismiss a High School Sex Scandal to Benefit McGlynn?

Is the Editor of the Medford Transcript attempting to shape Election 2015 by promoting dumb press releases from Muccini-Burke while burying key stories???

9:29 pm October 11, 2015

Nell Escobar Coakley, as a mother, should be concerned about how Mayor McGlynn evaporated the racism allegations, the dismissal of teachers from the Medford school system including TV3’s Ron DeLucia and Jenna Tarabelsi with the public not getting proper updates.  

Did Ron DeLucia resign or was he booted?  A School Committee person told me “and they don’t want him back.”

How can parents make an educated evaluation when the weekly newspaper doesn’t look into Mr. Delucia of TV3’s background at the school, doesn’t do proper follow-up on the Jenna Tarabelsi case, and any other “dismissal” in the Medford school system.

     It’s too important an issue to get the usual Nell Coakley “TV3 gives me a headache” excuse when she doesn’t feeling like working for the citizens of Medford.  Re-typing press releases from reprobate Arthur Alan Deluca or Stephanie Muccini-Burke’s smear campaign is not journalism, it is playing politics to the point where Escobar Coakley BECOMES the story, and every article she posts is suspect for lacking objectivity.

    How does this serve advertisers? How does this serve people who purchase the paper or who buy goods and services from the Transcript’s advertisers and sponsors.  How does the laziness from Nell Escobar Coakley help our fractured community? 

   I worked for Escobar Coakley and have a strong indication of her political leanings in our city, where she does not live.  She works out of the office on the north shore, so how does that put her anywhere near the news, except for what she receives via e mail, phone or fax? But as a mother, how can Escobar-Coakley turn a blind eye on stories when ignoring follow-up on TV3, ignoring follow-up on the Jenna Tarabelsi story indicates that other stories, possibly, are swept under the rug.   “How Do You Sleep” is a song by John Lennon; it would be nice if Escobar Coakley gave it a listen.