We live in a valley, a mountain top, an insular, isolated community situated above the hustle and bustle of city life which lies fifty miles down a twisted, dangerous canyon road.
What is peculiar about our situation here which makes it almost a "Land that Time Forgot, your manners" is that the information which comes in and out of here is generated by a machine. That machine runs off of a word previously discussed called, cronyism.
I narrowed that word to the situation at the Kern Valley Healthcare District, but I realized it runs rampant throughout this valley.
It's everywhere you find stagnation and lack of accountability.
Yes, I have some very ambitious plans in that I intend to prove on my blog, with the jurors being blog readers, who could be considered accountable and why such things that happened at our hospital were allowed to happen.
I had the dubious displeasure of recording Mr. Jamison's radio talk show this morning, though what I heard of it in the fifteen minutes before I promptly fell asleep (some of the best sleep in while, he's great for insomnia) was very interesting.
In fact, Mr. Jamison, announced the new website for the station, KCNQ.com. Just go there for all the news you can count on.
Really, could any of us count on the radio station or the board member who continues to commandeer his bully pulpit without taking any responsibility for the situation which occurred at KVHD?
Certainly not Jamison. He would have to be accountable for not only the problems at the hospital, but his subsequent overreactions and protecting the powers rather than the people.
See again, we all allow ourselves to be victims of the entrenched powers that be, the ones who give Jamison a venue for his personal torment and those who have to listen to it. It's not just Jamison.
No options up here.
They say turn the station if you don't like it. Okay, I will.
What's this?
There isn't anything else. That is what makes this situation different.
Now, yes, I agree, it's not like we're so cut off as to not know what is going on with other media outlets, but most likely we have only TV, which is just a video piece attached with two sentences, and a large newspaper down below which has just enough manpower to cover the two blocks around it's building.
And we know that internet service up here is archaic.
The options are limited as to local information. It's a bit of a "monopoly" here, wouldn't you say?
It used to be different
People will have you believe there were good old days, when news was news, but that never happened, and it never will, because it can't.
Walter Cronkite was a distinguished journalist, an almost American icon, or probably one now, though he just told it how he saw it.
We're all journalists, all of us have a story to tell, and all of us have a unique reference point from which we tell our stories.
Some people actually "hate" me, can you imagine that?
But they read me. And to me that is the biggest compliment.
When you tell your children about what you did as a child, those stories we all have that send the children packing from the room, then you learn about editing and editors.
The story you eventually read in the paper goes through a process, which in the end, gives us, the readers, a repeatedly filtered, perspective of whatever the writer is trying to say. And the politics of the machine the writer works for.
I am often sitting in front of many building blocks of a story deciding what should go where, what should be left out, what's the best stuff and what should be out front. One of the pet peeves of my editors and many readers, is that I like to save the best stuff for last. (There's a lot of foreplay in my stories and even my friends know now after years of listening to my litany of tales, that it will be worth the wait to let me set it all out and get you that punchline you so desire.)
If you notice, most news stories contain the most influential pieces of information within the first few paragraphs. That is because the reader is expected to cut you off at some point and grab onto another subject. This is standard practice in English classes everywhere to teach it this way.
I don't happen to like it, so that's not the way I do it. (I'm not a cookie cutter reporter anyway or we wouldn't be here right now.)
(I hope you're getting my point that there is more to come here to tie up all the loose ends and plot twists. And it may be worth your time to know that I have had only put up a fraction of what information and background I have collected.)
For me to have devoted this time to this monumental task without payment is all about using the tools of reporting and the nature of fairness to try and set straight a road that has been crooked for a long time.
I've used my own money, I've not been bought by anyone nor will I be, my own creativity, the technical knowledge of others, to try and bring some accountability to two different institutions here in the valley: the healthcare district and the media.
Distortion of information vital to public safety. I just made that up, but that could be the new media law. I like it, it sounds fitting to our particular situation.
What I have witnessed here in the valley by people in what would be considered "positions of power and responsibility," those caring for our parents and grandparents, those elected to serve, those dispensing information and calling it "news," those who employ people and put food on the table in many a home, breached all trust with this community.
Without batting an eye. (amazing)
Government officials, and that is what a Kern Valley Healthcare District board member is, and if that board member doesn't realize that then they shouldn't be there. This is a "public" healthcare district and the public has every right to know what is going on.
The public should not, however, be accountable for knowing problems the media intentionally kept from them.
"I didn't know," I've heard people say recently.
Of course you didn't because you walked into the market and you perused the local paper, set it down, and thought that there was nothing to worry about.
You turned on your TV and you find there is no one out there really fighting to bring you local, personal, useful, information to you.
Then the local radio blares a message that there is a threatening reporter trying to uncover a public health threat which doesn't exist. The airwaves are full of messages, that if remain unchallenged, take hold and you begin to disseminate misinformation unwittingly.
But the egregious nature of the Jamison/QAB/Kern Valley Healthcare District/ambulance company/relatives working in clinics/ connection really plays out the dangerous situation of not separation of Church and state, but of media outlet and business/government entity.
Again, my ambitions have gotten bigger, as I realize the problem is bigger than just this healthcare district. The district's current situation is a direct result of poor management, and that includes the management of the powers that be in this town.
The information mongers.
As we speak here tonight, the gauntlet was thrown down by me this week with the two media outlets, QAB and the Kern Valley Sun Newspaper, owned by a little corporation, called Wick. (I guess adding an -ed, would be out of line)
I believe that the accountability of these organizations will directly influence the perpetuity of this valley, so that is why I am choosing to cover these major obstacles and challenges that they are and will be.
I have given the Sun and QAB notice of what my intentions are and what I will be doing in the coming months.
The Sun turned down an offer from me today to pay me for my time and expense in tracking this hospital, as well as the others who have helped, as this was the responsibility of the local institution which likes to call itself a community newspaper.
After I spoke to their attorney this morning, I realize the people at the Sun haven't told him everything, they haven't even admitted it to him. I doubt that was cat and mouse game either. That phone call was about the fact that the three top dogs at the Sun, Publisher, Marsha Smith, Editor, Cathy Perfect, and reporter, Susan Barr, don't want to admit to the harassment, the game playing, defamation and their respective roles in the KVHD case.
Yes, Miss Perfect, can put up three huge pictures of defendants back in February, then when I suggested she make sure the picture of one of what I consider to be the biggest conspirators, former KVHD CEO, Pamela Ott, be equally displayed, she used the smallest photo available.
You don't think this blog has gotten to them?
Rather than just admit they obstructed an investigation and pay me for my time and expense, as well as damages from "defamatory practices" they chose to go the pugilists route.
(And no, standing still will not help you.)
I always give a warning, but only one. I gave it to the Sun today and they have chosen to be sued.
But again, the suing part is out of necessity. I'm just a small time blogger, and they are big corporations, so I have only a few weapons of choice to use against them.
What do I want?
The worst thing imaginable: an admission of responsibility.
And in the case of QAB, I would love to see if we can get a class action lawsuit together for this whole community, as we were not just duped, we were bold faced, unabashedly, lied to and mislead.
If that's not a good enough reason, I don't know what is.
But since I'm not about being "shut up", Kern Valley Sun, I won't go the
normal route with these lawsuits. I want my day in court with you. I want to testify, I want to be heard, in our system which is the only chance left to set the record completely straight.
Relying on a system that is so flawed is ridiculous, but realize that this whole problem has been about a "system failure." Where nobody takes responsibility, nothing is usually accomplished.
Systems that don't work contain the likes of these people who would hide in it and feed off it.
This, of course, leads straight into the main body of government, on which we rely, for civility, decency, fairness and creating institutions and laws that can actually be managed and work effectively. (Which usually doesn't happen, but I can at least wish it would.)
I'm going to be talking about why the DOJ has not, after a month of requests, been able to tell me why Pamela Ott, the shredder, did not get treated the same as the other defendants. Why she had no bail and why she didn't get the conspiracy charge.
So, the update tonight is that I gave the Kern Valley Sun their due warning that I will be using our courts of law to make my case, but not until after I make my case, right here on this blog.
We will now be calling the Sun, "the defiant one's" as they much like Jamison and others, can dish it out, but cannot take it.
Apparently, they didn't like what I've said about them on this blog. And instead of making a decision with accountability in mind (even with good business sense), they have done what they continue to do with me, and that is personalize this and personally attack me, the messenger, not the message.
(Mind you, had the Sun made the decision to settle with me and pay me for my time doing their job, it would have been an admission of an "error" on their part. I would have went easier on them for good behavior. But they don't have enough true self esteem to admit when they are wrong. No they aggravate it by putting things in the paper about me, and also...keeping things out of the paper about me and this whole story...more on this.)
The QAB issue is now being known as "power mongering for morally challenged souls."
I will be updating you on the two cases with my media friends and dishing you the whole story as it goes along.
(It's kind of weird taking on the media, it's a bit like cannibalism to me)
Let me make one point before this fight really begins, and that is, at any point these people could have helped and not hindered, the progress of the investigation by scrutinizing the situation at the hospital.
Compared to the response of other news and media organizations outside this area, they have failed the people they should serve and even went as far as being complicit when they knew they were ignoring or misconscrewbulating the truth.
There are no other ways to do this, but to attack these problems, and pray for some relief. I happen to be built for this kind of thing, and that is why I think I'm stuck with this crummy job.
I'm not attacking these people saying they are evil and totally unworthy: I'm attacking saying they can and could have done better. It's their deeds and actions which I am attacking. But true, actions and character, are often directly related.
(I'm sure Pam Ott or Bob Jamison or Chet Beedle have fed a stray cat or taken the trash out for their mothers, but they did damage too. And that damage could have been not only been avoided, but much of it was intentional. You can't quantify the pain caused to the people who had loved ones in the nursing center and were treated like dirt when they tried to find out what had happened.)
Everyone of us has our flaws, me at the top of the list, but when we go astray and try to make it somebody else's problem, scapegoating, vilifying, then it's gone too far and it has to be stopped before more people are hurt.
If I seem glib to you at any point, realize I'm very serious. And I don't take what I'm doing lightly at all.
But it happened on my watch...
Index of complaints:
Crimes against the elderly and community by the Kern Valley Healthcare District administrators and board members. Getting charges against those who created the toxic environment in which employees did things they wouldn't normally do and the top administrators created a public smokescreen, campaign to cover their tracks.
The KVHD romp against its employees and its continued struggle with staffing the nursing center as well as the rest of the hospital for that matter.
Malfeasance on the part of certain board members in dealings with a big, baddy up in Sacramento, the office inside the office of Statewide Healthcare Planning and Development, Cal Mtg. There's a 17 million dollar debt strangling this hospital and these guys insured it. And promoted it without overlooking what the board was doing. (Oh yeah, it goes up to the state level)
Distortion of the facts and using a media outlet for personal vendettas and agendas, against all ethical guidelines, becoming aiders and abetters of criminal activities, that is what the MEDIA WAR, now underway,is about.
Watch out! Flying words zone.
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