[Kzyxtalk] David Brooksher

[Tim Bray]

In response to Beth's request,  I went back and looked at the e-mail 
Christina sent to the Programmers list.  I don't think it will violate 
any confidence or privacy to share the relevant line to which I referred 
earlier:
"I was laid off not fired. John has done right the right thing in this 
process." [sic]

I wasn't her biggest fan, but she displayed some class in that period.  
That particular e-mail laid out a number of ideas for how KZYX might 
survive the financial crisis it was facing, and prosper in the future; 
and several of those have since been followed up by the Board and 
management.  She did fault the Board for not doing more fundraising, 
programmers for not making a clear enough case to listeners for 
contributions, and management for not embracing more of her ideas.  
There was some justification for all of that.

So there's your reality check; and it was Sako who threw her name around 
here.

As for Brooksher, he tried to develop a team of local correspondents 
here.  I remember a Programmers Meeting when he made exactly that pitch, 
explaining how easy it was to do and that he would train anyone who was 
interested, etc.  He got a couple of people to do it - like Louis 
Bigfoot - but not enough to make it work.  That wasn't management's 
fault, or even Dave's, but ours as a community.   After Dave left, John 
asked the programmers to pick up some of the slack by covering more of 
the local events and affairs on their shows, and I think some have done 
so.  It's too bad they don't seem to be getting any recognition for 
that; all anyone wants to talk about is the lack of a half-hour local 
news program.

I may be out of my league, but I am not manufacturing information (that 
might be John S. you're thinking of) and if I am deaf, it is not 
intentional.  KZYX is far from perfect and I have long been critical of 
many aspects.  I think it has improved in many ways since I started 
listening; perhaps your opinion differs.  Since it is a matter of 
opinion, neither of us has to be wrong.

Sincerely,
Tim Bray


On 2/11/2014 8:53 PM, nsi at mcn.org wrote:
> This is crap Tim. John Coate didn't "lay off" Christina. That's just 
> how he couched it when he promised her she'd be rehired as soon as the 
> finances improved.
> What he really did, was take the first step towards shutting down the 
> News Department as an independent entity; an entity with the 
> contractual right to negotiate its budget. And which had control over 
> the content.
> I'm not even sure now that cancelling the news department and 
> replacing it with 5 minutes of press releases and recitation from the 
> Press Democrat was really within his purview. And if so, what a 
> mistake. Where was the Board oversight?
> David Brooksher was canned because he resisted Coate's interference in 
> his news gathering, which began to be an appropriately focused 
> attention on the struggle over the extension of the Marine Sanctuary 
> zones in our region.
> What David did at KMUD was put together and train a team of local 
> correspondents. In other words: Bush Radio.
> --Which is what Christina wanted to do at KZYX/Z. Mary Aigner, in all 
> the years she has been there, has yet to recruit and train a bilingual 
> public affairs team. And has done nothing to replace the local 
> programming we once aired re. Native American culture and issues. You 
> are out of your league here and either manufacturing information or 
> intentionally deaf to what went on. And continues.
> As a first step: you need to do a reality check with Christina before 
> you throw her name around. --beth bosk