Hey, Tokyo Rose, where's your kimono? Quit playing with our airwaves

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."- Little Johnson

Oh, I've already thought this out, I'm going to have to battle it out with the most entrenched types in this valley, and it will probably not be pretty.

However, I'm not worried about it, because unlike these people, I have always had the valley, the healthcare services, and community in mind, with an ultimate goal of making things better.

Let's start with my run with the local newspaper. I took on the water company when they wanted a 75% increase. I dogged them for months while it went through the PUC for approval. I even spoke at the meeting with the PUC and ended up featured in the newspaper. (The reporter didn't know who I was back then)

I'm about this community and it's future, which is up in the air right now, as we all know here, and could get worse.

We are a primarily senior community which means, unfortunately, that there are many predators about looking to get away with many untoward things.

In another case, a scam was going around here, it was called "Skye Travel Club" and they were asking for credit cards and other ID types of material from people over the phone.

Although, there had not been a scammed person actually reported, I saw the danger of this continuing as there would be victims eventually.

I tracked these people to the edge of the Texas border into Australia. Not on my watch, is my motto.

Verizon took heavy shots from me too as the phone service has been so poor that people can't even make phone calls without being dropped or having strange alien noises on the line. (Still not fixed by the way.)

But then they did say it would cost millions to fix and that is why it isn't so. Of course, that was supposed to be off the record, but it seems we get short changed constantly up here in the valley by corporations and anyone else looking for an easy buck.

However, there is also the responsibility of not getting people too upset with the use of media here.

When the South Fork School District had a problem with uranium in the water the story could have been written many ways. The school district, being cooperative with me, and the idea that people are most generally leaning toward the fearful side, I wrote the story in a more gentle tone.

And funny enough, even more so, when the district began a study to unionize or unify the districts, there were teachers crying, people arguing, an almost mass hysteria.

Now as a reporter what would you have done? Used this hysteria for your own interests or try to make it understandable so that people can work through the issue with information?

I chose to make it what it was: just a study. Relax.

Did I help sell a monumental amount of newspapers by doing that? Nope. But I did serve my community and hopefully its best interests.

Now to those who did not serve our community, I say, we are now embarking on something the likes of which may have never been seen here before: a media war.

(And not the kind where we are competing for ratings and advertisements: no this is about accountability)

It's the types of media that make this clash interesting as well as the geographical anomoly which exists: A printed newspaper (thanks for ruining the environment too) with an additional website; a local radio station with three different channels and a brand spanking new website; and me a blogger on dial up with an eight year old computer. (If I was a bettin' man, I'd go with the long shot here though)

Technology in communication differentiates this fight, yes, but what also makes it different is me: I'm just different. I'm your wildest of cards.

(I believe in walking the walk, not just talking the talk.)

But all I have is this little, tiny blog to work with, oh what will I do?

The anatomy of a news story...what you think you know and may just react to

What's news?

People these days barely have time to read a news story all the way to the end, and probably no time to question and understand it.

And reporters and writers, have less time, get less money, trying to give you all the facts and details.

Those are just some of the factors which play out in how you get your information. (Processing it: well that's a whole other matter)

Even if you did have all day long to read, you would still have to spend just as much time on the Internet or the library researching to see if you were sold a bill of goods. A fact is not a fact, just because I or someone else says it is.

I remember my favorite day of the week was Sunday, as I knew I would spend it ensconced in newspaper, black ink on my fingertips. Those big, bulky papers, too big to roll up, so they had to be folded in half for delivery, contained a whole section of comics, sports, pull out magazines, world news, and Lot's of puzzles you couldn't get the answer to until the following Sunday. (no cheating)

I grew up with the LA Times and the Orange County Register, Indianapolis Star, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and then on to the Wall Street Journal, and our local newspapers which monitored what these other huge news superstars couldn't.

The gap.

My father was always going to city council meetings about something. He wouldn't be seen as an activist, he simply knew that certain things got done and local government was how to achieve these aims.

It was pretty matter of fact that my father argued with the state of Arizona over his property taxes and then found out how to avoid the rise in costs.

Many people don't know how to utilize local government, which is always labyrinth like no matter how small the area.

Community newspapers should consider it their responsibility to cover all the local issues that cannot be addressed by the larger organizations. It should be first and foremost to keep the community "covered" as so many things get lost.

There are dozens of clubs, small franchise organizations, children's sports and hobbies, that rely on local news coverage to survive as fundraisers, memberships, and donations are necessary if they're going to be here next year.

Anything which has any urgency to the community, such as a change in laws, road construction, weather conditions, safety issues such as unqualified leaders in a hospital promoting the use of drugs that settle unwanted behaviors in patients which would require more staffing of which there wasn't, SHOULD BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS.

How do you know?

Well, let's take a story, and examine the origins and what you know about it. Here's a good one: what happened at our hospital with the news coverage.

The incidents and practices of chemical restraints used at the Kern Valley Skilled Nursing Facility between Aug. 1 thru Jan. 31, 2007, were investigated by the state of California Office of Medi-Cal fraud and elder abuse bureau, in 2008, after Department of public health scrambled around for more than a year gathering the confetti.

Now, there were a lot of us here who could tell this story from many perspectives.

But the investigators wrote their reports, jotted down notes, took recordings, removed the leftover evidence after the shredding and illegal tampering, and went home with it.

The lawyers then looked at what the investigators had, fit it into a winning scenario, added some charges to coordinate the outfit, spun the situation for their own purposes, then sent that case off with a, "next."

From the original incidences, witnesses, the perpetrators, the ombudsman, the department of public health investigators, the state investigators, to the lawyers, and finally, lovingly into the hands of the press.

Our bad boys of public relations at the DOJ, Scott Gerber and Evan Westhrupp, were pumping up the volume with one too many Starbucks on this day, and probably found the material to be quite viable for an attention getter of a story.

They did what millions of us out here do, spin baby spin.

They are public relations, the PR, the authors of press releases which go out to every news organization they can get them to. If they go in verbatim, the better.

That was one of the first things I did in the news business was to re-write the press releases, trying to drain them of some of the spin, before they would go in the paper.

Now, I see that practice has changed, as most of the coverage brought about by our local "hot topic" almost all coverage came from those press releases. Some with follow up calls, but not many.

So, now, do any of you here know Scott or Evan the authors of the press release about KVHD? (I don't know, I thought I'd ask, it is a small world up here)

But the newspaper, radio and TV will tell you that they're safe when they stick with this release. It wasn't there mistake it was Scott, he did it.

It was hot news, so the PR boys and their press releases flooded the information market as speed out runs accuracy.

You might find it funny, but ask either of the PR boys if they thought the press "got" what they said in the release right.

As the information comes down these channels, it gets a marked change as it goes through many filters. The attorney general has his slant as he is creating an image of fighting for the people as this might help him win the governors seat this next election.

Hey, its just the truth, we all have spin. (Only some of us admit it)

Now, you're a nurse, fired from KVHD, you break your last dollar to purchase the local newspaper and then you read the story...and you know its not what you experienced...and the bulk of the story comes from a stranger's interpretation a few hundred miles away in Sacramento in the form of a press release...but this is your local paper, your neighbor, what happened?

And then your grandmother has died under suspicious circumstances; family were frequent visitors to the KVHD skilled nursing facility but you weren't notified of changes made in the treatment; none of your questions were answered and you are labeled a simple "complainer."

You tune in the local radio station, the only one broadcasting for our area, and hear that CEO, Pam Ott, is on the radio with KVHD board member, Bob Jamison, and they're talking about rumors, laughing off claims that people died in this or that way, and you decide to call.

Taking action, you call in and after having to make your point sharp, you are then placated by Pam Ott, who tells you she's sorry, and she would like you to come in and talk to her. (But you'd have to make it quick as she was on her way out, just waiting for that job at Sierra Kings to come through)

Ott forgets and can't see your face, that you have already been to the hospital many times, trying to obtain paperwork, which you never could get all copies, and you realize this is the local media misleading and covering for a public healthcare district.

You're on the air...

The filtration media used on this blog...yes, we're all bias, and so are you reader. What?

The stories we read and hear in the media are mostly remote and distant from the actual events being reported on.

(I've yet to be invited to the White House, but I still care what is going on there. And, who knows, maybe someday they'll have me over for a chat. Hey, my life has been such that just about anything can happen.)

I think I've made that point heavily on this blog, but there is more to say, as I've transformed myself from an average reporter to someone with a whole new journalistic style: I like to call it "facts and smacks."

But this blog is alive, there's a writer, a person, a whole lifetime of experience which the stories I write have to go through in the filtration process.

You may never know or ever see the reporter from the LA Times who sits behind his name and title, writing from a perspective not that all of us will understand nor care about.

Even our brethren newspaper in Bakersfield is a mystery as to who is writing, why they are writing it, and why they write the story from the angle they do.

I don't know them, their lives, their marketing strategy, but I glean what I can from the paper, with a certain respect that they are doing the best they can to give us a look at what they think is important to write about and print.

The TV stations do blurbs about us in the mountains above Bakersfield, usually with mangled wrecks from the canyon on the five O'clock news, or just video of our elder abuse defendants from the Kern Valley Healthcare District.

(making a point about how this story could even be properly covered by a TV or radio station, even a newspaper would be overwhelmed with this Kern Valley Healthcare District drama. That's why there are now almost 200 blog posts up)

TV does not have time to get anymore than a video bite and a few quotes and lines for the story. They do have the advantage of having the ability to get breaking news to many people in short order, which is important in case of emergencies, fires, road closures, earthquakes, major governmental decisions, untimely deaths, etc.

So, they have their role to play, but more often than not, they try to squeeze a complicated story into a two minutes of air time, and it can become the source of misinformation by virtue of the inability to bring enough of the picture together to make a whole portrait.

The job is tough one, but we are all bias, and all confined by some limitation, whether it be our own personal values, or the media outlet we work for.

I'm so happy to be away from the constraints of the media market, as this blog runs off air and handouts, I have successfully found the freedom to write what I deem important and interesting. And how I write it is no longer going through an editor. (Love you editors, you catch our mistakes before they're published, and then you load us with stories we can't possibly complete, but reporter types are definitely gluttens for punishment.)

There is one thing though, that makes this different, is that I take full responsibility for what is put on this blog. If I make the mistakes it doesn't fall on my editor or corporation it hits me right in the face. But I recognize my responsibility to my readers and actually like it. When I make mistakes, I will be the first to tell you. So, it's a freedom/responsibility combination that makes this endeavor so appealing to me.

You're biased too: don't you realize?

How seriously you take the stories are based on your own filters which means maybe if your healthy and have never been sick in your life, you probably won't open the paper or this blog, to find out all you can about about healthcare issues or reform.

However, your parents are in a nursing home, you turn right to any article that concerns elder abuse or anything to do with diseases of age.

Then there are those interested in crime and punishment, because...they may just like CSI Miami, or have an interest in the inhumanity glaring at them constantly from our media.

I'm not sure why, but I watched the OJ case for months, felt like I knew those people by the time it was over. I even went to the crime scene on Bundy and came up with my own theory. (I still have the pictures somewhere)

I also took off work to watch the Iran/Contra hearings, because it was intriguing to me that our President, Ronald Reagan, was allowing others below him to take the fall (Ollie never fell though) or responsibility for the decisions of our ultimate leader.

My favorite thing to watch for when I actually turn on the TV, which is seldom, but I like to see what the news is teasing. You know what I mean, the story they say is coming up, and you wait through the top stories, the weather, sports and finally they tell you about the pit bulls who ate a house full of babies.

Pit bulls are great stories, everyone talks about it. Now they have all these television shows which provoke our fears about animals: "When animals attack," "When animals hate the postman," "When bears eat your honey," etc.

So, we are being used by the media as they have discovered we will turn on the news if they can scare us half to death.

Not that journalism was ever perfect, it cannot be. Again, its an interpretation being reinterpretted.

What this filter is made of: my bias

If you wonder why I'm doing what I'm doing, you're not alone, I wonder every night, but there are always good reasons and the real reason.

First, I'm an idealist who will fight for principles and values I hold true. I've been in the middle of many wars, this isn't my first tour.

The Casmalia toxic waste issue almost got me thrown out on my ass by secret service.

I've been in the middle of a teacher's strike. Unions versus school board: very inflammatory stuff. Both sides were on the attack, but the school board handled the situation about as badly as could be done. They personally defamed teachers while having an expensive dinner paid for by the district so they could talk about it. (The teachers won, and well they deserved it considering how they were treated.)

Then there was the issue of racism with the farmworkers who lived on the coast and woke up every early morning to pick the food we all shop for at the supermarket. Boy, that was one for the books. The ugliness that came out was something I don't even like remembering.

So, when I write, I can write from all sides, but there is always a stronger version that makes balance almost impossible.

I expect readers to think about what I have written, and not just take an informational handout.

People used to think if there was a cover on a book, or a white coat on a doctor, or a uniform, that it had the credibility and authority.

We all know now that is not true. We have to make sure we filter junk just like our email programs.

So, I'm a Pollyanna, a person of little intelligence, but one of integrity.

Now, let's go on to a more personal perspective. I was damaged by an antibiotic, called Gentamicin, which is an aminoglycoside, and it has all the potential to heal serious infections, but it also has to be handled carefully as it can cause permanent neurological damage.

I was never told about the side effects or what to watch for. So, when the damage occurred I didn't even know there was a relationship between the medicine and my sudden imbalance and blindness.

My life has not been always one of illness, though it is now, it was one of independence and physical strength and prowess.

The dealings I had with doctors were usually concerned with injuries from sports and other physical activities such as climbing and hiking, or my friendly GP was a good friend, we talked regularly.

Then years later I trusted a doctor over my own instincts. That was Oct. 1, 1999, when everything changed because I was not informed about the medication I was on.

You would think that would be enough, as I spent three years working to recover from this life long damage and try to start my life over without all the things I used to love: hiking, climbing, biking, swimming and reading.

I lost all my stress relievers as well as my own self image changed. I felt weak and victimized.

But again, my family and friends, picked me up off the floor and told me to "just keep going."

So, it was building things, climbing ladders, taking care of small children, gardening, reading until it hurt, and I had thought I had overcome the biggest obstacle of my life.

It wasn't the biggest obstacle I would face though

After three years, I had put on more weight and muscle than I had ever carried in my life, and I was ready to get back to it. But I didn't know what it was I was going back to, or more like forward to.

Suddenly, my recovery took a turn, and I was losing all that weight and muscle I had put on. I began to shake all the time and my hair was falling out.

What was I going to do? Not a doctor, hell no. I was scared to death of doctors at that point. But I was as mad as hell at the pharmaceutical industry and their half poison/half cure treatments.

I left my family on the coast as I knew I was sick and I didn't want them to be burdened again with my problems.

What I did was drop my parrot off with my friend, threw some clothes in a bag and took off looking for a den to crawl into. It was completely random, I could have thrown darts into a board, but this is where I ended up.

I headed straight into the mountains and found this isolated valley I had visited when I was young.

I came here to die

The Kern River Valley was my choice of places to die, because by the time I got here, the Grave's disease I was suffering from, had progressed to the point where I was unable to breath well enough to take the trash out and could not sleep at all. My heart pounded in my chest, my hands shook like palsy, while I kept losing weight.

I knew I was very sick, but I couldn't bring myself to go to the doctor. Until my neighbor above the antique store in Kernville, insisted that I go to see someone. Actually threatened to take me to the ER more like it.

Out of desperation I did go to the doctor, over to our Rural Health Clinic, where I would meet with my second destiny: the healthcare fight of my life.

They quickly diagnosed me initially with Grave's disease, but it was all downhill from there.

Unlike the prejudice I have encountered when I became disabled, I had no intention of living my life on medication in front of the television. I like to work and I also believe strongly in service to the community.

So, I have not been playing on the lake or laying around feeling sorry for myself. I've been trying to recover and work.

After some treatment, I began to feel like I could once again be part of the world. I had gained weight, been in an exercise class at the college, and was writing like crazy for the local paper (whom we will be discussing soon). Things were looking up.

However, in October of 2006, as the hospital was covering its dirty dealings in the skilled nursing facility and elsewhere, I again, lost the weight, strength and again was the shell of what I once was.

It all happened on my watch

While I struggled with this current downhill slide, which is still being diagnosed, (should know this week) the hospital administrators knew I was not much of a threat at 90 pounds.

They lied openly and even had these untruths in the newspaper. I didn't know, I was sick, and hanging on for my life. But that's no excuse, I didn't do my job. (If you can't do it right, you shouldn't be doing it. Just heard that somewhere.)

So many people were hurt here while I struggled simply to get out of bed. But I knew the moment, I had the strength, I would flush them out, and do what needed to be done.

Unfortunately, later in that year, out of complete physical weakness, I fell and hit my head, face, on the side of a tub. Ten days later I stroked out which caused more nerve damage; half my face is numb. (not just my skull)

You'd think it would have been over then, I did, but you can't ever count me out, ever.

September 2008: I came back

With my family again taking care of me, I worked to recover from the injuries from the fall, the stroke, then the current illness, which is likely Lupus, and came back to my house in the valley late last year.

No, no help from the rural health clinic, but we're going to take that up next: A Patient's plea: a rural health nightmare.

But now you know how this whole thing started. You know the filter I have. I care about people, principles, and my service to life.

I've been told "you can't take sides you're supposed to be impartial." Whatever, that's so old school. Nobody is impartial.

Let me also say this isn't a personal attack. (Oh, you liar Laura Hart) If it was then I would not be doing this.

For me, it's about progress and change. If nobody "Speak's Up" then the mistakes aren't caught and changed.

I'll give you an example of my bias. The Mt. Mesa Clinical Pharmacy, which is sitting next to Chet Beedle's knife on the cutting board, was my pharmacy for the last five years.

I know the people there and they absolutely HATE ME. I've yelled at them for bad service; called them repeatedly on their mistakes; and generally there's a rift between us. Personally.

However, as a writer, and concerned citizen, I will fight for them to be treated right by this district, keep their jobs, and be paid an adequate wage.

I'm for fairness. If that's a problem, you shouldn't be reading this blog.

(Get ready though, there is going to be some bare knuckle brawling going on soon, as the state of California better be ready to prosecute the situation here at KVHD. Pam Ott is going to court on November third and fourth, and I am going to make sure you know why.)

Bob's bias: just to let you know the radio station of the valley, our only one, as signals get lost out there in the mountain range, had a story about the October board meeting. Yeah, Bob Jamison, KVHD board member, reported his own story from the board. I guess "smooth news" was busy, or tied up in Bob's trunk.

The story of the board meeting turned out on the radio as Jamison's attempt to close the pharmacy and stop wasting time and money. He was the protagonist in their story. (Good luck community. You're getting the news from a really "impartial" source there.)

Thanks Bob. That's so informative. I'll keep that in mind. (Jeez)