L A City Channels 35 & 36 CENSOR Full Disclosure Public Access Cable Programming? (6 min Video Here)

Los Angeles, CA Will the First Amendment rights of independent television producers be jeopardized when city govenment controls all the public cable channels in January 2009? Is it possible that the political appointees serving on an oversight board will be disposed to protect those rights? .......Even if the programs cover issues not favored by government? You be the judge by looking at the record........

MAYOR'S HEAVY HAND?

For the past three years, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's four political appointees who serve on the Municipal Access Policy Board (MAPB) have steadfastly refused to investigate or hold a formal hearing into the unusual circumstances whereby Emmy Award-winning Full Disclosure Network® was removed from the LA City Government channel (Cityview 35) after having provided public affairs programming, to that channel since 1992, as a public service at no cost to the City. Now the City has adopted a plan developed by this same oversight (MAPB) body for the government to take control of all 14 public access channels and studios provided by Time Warner Cable for the past 25 years.

OVERSIGHT OR CONTROL?

Full Disclosure host Leslie Dutton and a number of citizens made a plea to MAPB oversight board, on July 27, 2006 during the "public comment" portion of the meeting. asking them to conduct a investigation and public hearing into the circumstances surrounding the removal of the program from Cityview channel 35. Here is a six minute video news blog of that meeting.

CORRUPTION CANCER SPREADS

Now, three years later, the L.A City funded Educational Channel, LA36, has removed Full Disclosure from their channel line up by claiming "technical problems", only on the Full Disclosure program, are preventing them from showing on the channel. In a series of meetings and exchange of correspondence, LA36 Channel refused to produce any "official" guidelines and technical standards for ALL content producers when requested by an Audio Engineering firm retained by the Full Disclosure program. However a recent "AUDIT" performed by the City Controller's Office released on December 17, 2009, claims that both channels are satisfactorily performing.

REVEALING VIDEO

Full Disclosure Network® is re-releasing a six minute Video News Blog featuring a chronology of events leading up to the abrupt termination of the Emmy Award winning public affairs program from the L. A. CityView Cable Channel 35.

COMMUNITY OUTCRY?

Appearing in this video news blog are community leaders who testified in support of the Full Disclosure Network® at the MAPB meeting. The video features clips of their requests for a full investigation and hearing.

• Don Schultz, past president Van Nuys Neighborhood Council, & Homeowers Association
• David Hernandez, North Hollywood Neighborhood Association
• Dave Bradford, Silverlake/Echo Park Resident
• Gil Wong, member Lakeview Terrace Improvement Assn.
• Leslie Dutton, Producer/Host of the Full Disclosure Network®.

PROGRAMMING PROVIDED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE

Since 1992 the Full Disclosure®. program has been featured on CityView Channel 35, without cost to the City, as a public service at the request of various City Departments, agencies and Council members. The Full Disclosure Network®. is an educational, non-profit organization. In 2002, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented host Leslie Dutton with a public affairs Emmy Award for the series entitled “L.A.’s War Against Terrorism”, featuring LAPD Chief Bernard Parks, LAPD Lt. Ken Hillman, L.A. Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas and L.A. County Sheriff Leroy Baca, covering how government agencies would work together following 9/11.

CONFLICTING TERMINATION LETTERS?

This June 14, 2006 termination letter clearly states the immediate termination was due to “contentious content” while an Email sent by Councilman Bernard Parks to Producer Leslie Dutton contradicted the letter, stating he had not pulled his sponsorship of the program. The Full Disclosure Network™ can be seen on over 40 cable systems and the Internet. Billed as “the news behind the news” programs feature critical issues rarely addressed in depth on the regular news media.

VIEWERS URGED TO HELP

At the conclusion of this video news blog the Full Disclosure Network®. requests viewers to call the following people and ask why the program was removed from the channel.
Tony Ighani Station Manager at 213-485-7561
Bernard Parks, Council District 8 at 213-473-7008

Battle for Control of Public Access Cable Channels: City of Los Angeles Update

Los Angeles, CA The Full Disclosure program will once again be off the air on the LA 36 Cable channel tonight Sunday and Monday due to on-going " technical problems" at LA36, a City funded public access cable channel. However the programs continue to be shown on over 40 other public cable channels throughout California, without problems.

LA36 TECHNICAL PROBLEMS BEGAN
This summer in late July and August the Full Disclosure Network programs on LA36 Public Cable Channel began looking rather strange. At times the video was fuzzy and the audio was so distorted that viewers called Full Disclosure to complain, saying they could not understand what was being said. This problem was not occuring with other programs featured on the channel nor on any other cable channels where Full Disclosure is featured.

UNWRITTEN "DELIVERABLE STANDARDS"
Full Disclosure was notified by LA36 they had determined the source of the technical poblems was the master DVDs that must adhere to "Broadcast Standards" but refused to provide Full Disclosure with specifics. Full Disclosure retained an Audio Engineering firm who met with LA36 management and technical staff to determine how they were transferring the DVD video to their server, as he had already determined no problems with the Full Disclosure masters. LA36 admitted they were not using the master DVDs but dubbed tapes at 2x speed. When asked for a copy of the "Deliverable Standards" an industry term for audio and visual specifications required for content producers, LA36 indicated they did not have such specifications.

NO NOTICE OF OPERATION CHANGES TO PROVIDERS
After problems continued, the LA36 General Manager informed Full Disclosure they had made major operational changes, that Time Warner was turning over control the operations were to be handled "in house". This gave credence to rumors circulating that Time Warner was going to shut down public access channels and studios by December 31, 2008. LA36 claimed technical problems encountered were only on Full Disclosure's master DVDs.

FULL DISCLOSURE RETAINS COUNSEL:
Full Disclosure retained Bruce Maddox, expert audio engineer, as counsltant on the LA36 technical problems. He found the master DVDS in question, to be meet industry standards and acceptable for transcoding. In a meeting with Maddox and Full Disclosure producers LA36 management refused to provide written specifications known as "Deliverable Standards" for audio and video content, instead they agreed to accept three versions (formats) transcoded by Bruce Maddox, for delivery to LA36 for transfer to their new server to determine which version is compatible.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

Will Full Disclosure meet the unwritten standards of LA36?.

Stay tuned for next week's report to learn the outcome....................