[Kzyxtalk] Fwd: [MCN-Discussion]- Fwd: Re: David Brooksher

[doug mckenty]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *doug mckenty* <dougmck at gmail.com>
Date: Friday, February 14, 2014
Subject: Re: [MCN-Discussion]- [Kzyxtalk] Fwd: Re: David Brooksher
To: "discussion at lists.mcn.org" <discussion at lists.mcn.org>


I have tried to join this KZYXtalk thing twice and get no response.

David Brookshire was not fired.  He quit.  He only lasted the year because
he thought if he quit sooner than that it would look bad on his resume.  He
told me it was the worst job he ever had.  When I asked him why he was able
to start a community Jounalism Project at KMUD and not KZYX, he told me it
was because KZYx did not have enough "social capital."  He also did not get
support of staff and management.

If Dave and Christina are so hard to work with.  Why do they thrive at KMUD?

Doug M.

ps.  Both Dave and Christina both public ally support my candidacy for MCPB
board of directors.




On Friday, February 14, 2014, Cindy Swan <cswan at willitsonline.com> wrote:

Mr. Steffen:

Thank you for
Can you also clear up
just why Dave Brooksher was fired?

 From a distance,
he appeared to be doing a
level headed and
very professional job.
IMO, as a long-time
community print-media journalist,
and one well-aware of the challenges
associated with truly providing
objective information
in the face of an emotionally-charged
bandwagoneer political climate.

Of note: his very objective coverage
of weekly Board of Supervisors' meetings. . .
and development, in association with
Terri Klemetson, KMUD News Director,
of Community Journalism
training workshops -
held in Philo, Willits, and Round Valley.

He was quite kind and helpful
to our fledgling
all-volunteer run station

and even came, at my invitation,
all the way
to Round Valley . . .
along with Terri Klemetson, KMUD News Director
and Joseph Orozco, KIDE (Hoopa Tribal Radio)

to spend a weekend - his "days off"
to work with/train
30 of our local volunteers here
in how to do a professional interview
+ recording/editing techniques.

We were humbled by his youth, yet
his ability to work with people
of all ages and backgrounds,
his passion for community radio,
amazing radio voice, strong sense of ethics
and his technical/teaching skills.

Many of us looked forward to
participating in future workshops
and developing our own skills . . .
to the point where we could
reciprocate, in kind, by producing
professional-quality news, worthy of
inclusion in his daily, 30-minute KZYX Newscast.
(Just as a few of us have done for KMUD News,
as a result of Terri continuing
the Community Journalism Project,
--with the enthusiastic support of her Board.)

He also assisted in developing an agreement
between KZYX and KYBU
to re-broadcast KZYX News on our station
as a "teaching tool" - so our listeners
and volunteer programmers could get a clearer picture
of what "local, community radio news" was all about.

His approach was hardly radical, single-issue oriented
or "hand-wavy"; but strictly
"just-the-facts" and stressing the need to
do the necessary research and keep
one's objectivity and integrity intact.
A real pro, trained at HSU's
excellent radio journalism program
and even interned w/NPR ?

Then, suddenly, he was
"laid off" due to "budget cuts".
And KZYX News became
5 minutes of Paul Lambert reading press releases.

Looking at the budget posted on KZYX's website
I could not help but notice that, while
the $30,000/year News Director position
had been cut "due to budget constraints"
(out of a $500,000/annum budget)
--yet $20,000 had been added under a new line item
called "News Consulting".

When I asked John Sakowitz
just who the "consultant" was
all I got was . . .  <crickets>

Perhaps, as KZYX Business Developer,
you can answer this question?

Sincerely,
C. Swan
37 year resident of Mendocino County,
(Covelo, as well as Mendocino, Caspar, Albion "back in the day")
KZYX listener, since its inception in 1990 . . .
15 years Owner/Editor "The Round Valley News" (retired)
Founding Member, KYBU * "Round Valley Community Radio"



On Feb 14, 2014, at 12:40 PM, David wrote:

> Once again we have revisionist history at work here.
>
> I will resist any invitation to go into the quality of any
> newsperson's writing and reading skills or personal agendas. I will
> however set the record straight on other issues.
>
> No-one had a plan to raise the $40-50,000 needed to bring on an
> additional full-time newsperson. Raising $4000 is laudable but what
> if there is no additional money? The person is laid off again 6
> weeks later? Secondly, the financial health of the station did not
> improve the moment lay-offs occurred. The debts were still there.
>
> To my knowledge there was never any harassment claimed by her
> toward me. To the contrary, I informed the General Manager that I
> refused to have any more one-on-one meetings with the newsperson
> due to her harassment of me. I would meet with her ONLY if there
> was a third party in the meeting to observe. In addition, I have
> never spoken with anyone outside of KZYX about any issues
> associated with
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