ScottsBigMouth

Schiller Has Some Explaining To Do

Disclaimer:  I wasn't present at the CAPS Meeting Last Night.  I am working from multiple accounts online on what happened, as well as multiple-source reporting.  I am currently traveling in Bella Vista, AR, and Corpus Christi, TX; but I am STILL very disturbed about what happened JUST BLOCKS away from my home.  I'm coming back on Monday night the 24th.

That said...

Helen, you have screwed up, again.

The excuses for the gangland behavior in Uptown are absolutely unacceptable.  Let's cut the crap.  You have some explaining to do.

I have watched the video of our local thugs out wilding over the weekend in the streets at Sheridan and Leland.  We all know where they hang out between Wilson and Argyle along Sheridan.  We all know that the police are doing a little bit of patrolling, but seem to have almost no support from you.

We are noticing how you show up for meetings that involved moneyed people like developers, Chicago 2016's folks, and of course, the Mayor.  We always seem to see you where there is money, or a camera present...but we rarely if ever see you on the street in our actual neighborhood.  You seem to move through our neighborhood like a ghost, unseen.

I'm not sure if anyone has told you this, Helen, but people are pissed at you.  Pissed enough to not vote for you, give you any more money, and to run other candidates against you.

WE EXPECT ACTION.  SERIOUS ACTION.

We are not going to give up our neighborhood to a bunch of pushers, thugs, drunks, and crazy people.  We live here, and we intend to take back our neighborhood, with or without you.

You had a distinct and unique opportunity to do the right thing when you showed up to talk about how great the 2016 Olympics will be for Chicago.  The right thing to do, in this case, would have been to make a forceful statement against ANY and ALL violence in the Uptown/Edgewater corridor, and then call on CPS Supt. Jody Weiss to get his butt up to our ignored neighborhood and make it so.

But, instead you made excuses.  Unlike some neighborhoods in Chicago whom are too scared to take back our own streets, we're going to stop the problem before it declines into all out war.  The on-the-street officers who protect us now, as much as they can with limited resources, deserve the support from all of us.

What we seem to be getting from you, though, is a shrug and a very weak statement that "shit happens."

If you think this is going to cut it, you're wrong.

Now I wasn't there, so I only can go by what I've been seeing from here...albeit limited by distance, but the distance lessened by the all-seeing-eye of the Internet.

Helen, we're waiting for you.  You weren't at the CAPS meeting yourself, but instead sent some "aides."  That was not the right call.  You should have been there.

As for me, I'm on my way home soon.  When I get back, I'm coming to you with a mike and a recorder to find out where you're coming from...you get a chance to explain why 5 people getting shot in 48 hours just down the street in my neighborhood doesn't demand your direct and personal attendance at the meeting.

I hope to hear from you Helen.  My email is scott@foval.com and my phone number, in case you need it, is 773-570-0011.  I expect that we're going to have a civil, on-the-record discussion, that I can bring back to ScottsBigMouth's audience to tell them what you're going to do to support us in our effort to hold the line on the thugs, take control of our turf.

It's time to explain, Alderwoman Schiller, and your constiutents expect you to respond directly.

Regards,

Scott

Panic In The Streets May (or Not) Happen in Chicago Over DTV Transition

I am laughing my butt off this morning about the FCC's "Defcon 6" status over the analog turnoff today.  If you've been watching TV here in Chicago, it is pretty darned hilarious that there are STILL clueless sheeple all over town who are going to be streaming out of the human ant hills of Chicago, angry literally losing their gourds because they won't be able to see "Barney Miller" reruns after 11:59 tonight.

I'm sorry, people...if you are so out in left field that you don't know, or don't have a box or new set yet; you probably need to just go to the library and read.  TV in the new millennium (i.e. 9 years into it) is just too complicated for you, and you need a refresher course in the basics of running your life; i.e. "Think and Grow Rich" or "Internet for Dummies."

Now, I exempt ALL old people from this statement.  But for God's sake, if you are a younger person (like under 70) who has let an in-law or your old lady neighbor go without a box, then you are a bad person.  I know I made damn sure my Grandma had cable, so we didn't have a problem today.  It opened up a whole new world to her, just like the Internet did, and now she sends me clips of Olbermann to make sure I'm on top of the day's political madness.

If people in the know haven't gone out and literally bought a box FOR an older person who doesn't understand what's happening, well then you deserve their wrath when they knock on your door at 3AM wanting to watch "M*A*S*H*" or "Three's Company" or "Judge Judy," and you deserve to be morally obligated to let them in and sleep in your place while you go out and fix their damn TV signal.

Here in Chicago it is estimated that more than 100,000 people are as-yet unprepared.  I'm telling you, we cannot allow this madness to happen.  Of course, should we feel sorry for anyone who loses their signal today who is NOT an old person?  No, let them go out and take to the streets in protest.  I'll be locked snugly inside my flat with "Laverne and Shirley."  If they're out on the streets its probably the first time they've been out of the house for the day, and then the FCC and CPD can handle them.  It might be kinda fun to watch, because if there is one thing the drug dealers in my neighborhood are afraid of, its the fruits and nuts who stream out on the street when the TV doesn't work.

JOIN IN to Launch A NEW KIND of Media Station

Are you an online media junkie?

Are you a community activist?

Are you a hacker?

Are you an A/V geek?

Are you a budding host / journalist / voice / performer / DJ?

Are you just interested in doing cool stuff with the coolest people?

My name is Scott Foval, and I'm all of these things.  I'm also a really loud, liberal, mouthy, opinionated, techy, geeky, gay, community activist, writer, producer, and host.  I'm putting together a new type of media station, based here in Chicago, that will serve the purpose of creating the "next" platform for news, information, radio, tv, podcasting, music, advertising, marketing, and community activism.  Dubbed "the MediaHub," I am putting out the call for folks to join me in contributing the heavy people power, creative talent, development prowess, knowhow, and yes, money, to create this new kind of media studio in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

Why Now?  First, take a look at this piece I wrote about the Future of Journalism in Chicago .  It gives the idea, for the most part, of what I am suggesting needs to be done.

The bottom line is, I've thrown down the gauntlet with my journalist and producer friends in a very public way, specifically because it will force me to put my ass on the line and actually lead by example.  I have a lot of seriously talented friends, many of whom are looking for ways to do their best work, and get it out there, in a way that hasn't been done before.

I believe that it shouldn't take 10 Million Dollars to build or buy a station that reaches millions of people directly, acts as a community resource, and delivers cool content 24x7 around the globe.  I also believe that the models that are out there so far...well, they just don't quite make it, yet, do they?

I've laid my own brand right on the line to make this happen.  First and foremost, I took my own progressive talk radio show, which I originally created for a terrestrial radio station; and made it accessible to the world through an online open source model, to be hosted at ScottsBigMouth.com.  I have asked people with their fingers in the Internet, TV, Radio, Progressive Politics, Media, GLBTQ, Green, and Journalism worlds to help me take my show, ScottsBigMouth, way beyond just a blog or radio show, to be a fully-operational 3 hour daily LIVE streaming media talk show, created with Open Source resources.  This show, which will include an ensemble cast of characters, producers, reporters, contributors, directors, producers, engineers, technicians, developers, and yes, GEEKS, will take the whole idea of a LIVE show and blow it into a whole new universe.  THE UNIVERSE, specifically.

The collective resources of the Internet, Open Source, Media, Journalism, Entertainment, Production, Activist, and Business communities; have the ability to create a digital news and entertainment "platform for live media interactive communications with a global audience" for fractions of what global Television or Radio networks can possibly create with their finite resources.  The project, I believe, can collaborate to create and support "the MediaHub" now...right here in Chicago.  With global contributions of resources and talent; "the MediaHub" could absolutely upend the entire pay media model and support massive change in the process.

What I really think we need here is to establish the free media equivalent of a global open source development collective, engaging every creative, marketer, business person, journalist, talent, corporate leader, and community leader available. To guarantee that truth, justice, and good journalism survives, we must pull together every revolutionary patriot we can muster.  The first step is to create a "test bed" in a particular lab type of environment that would become "the MediaHub."

Are you interested in helping me?  Do you have a show idea that "the MediaHub" could help launch?  Do you know of others who might also be interested?  Do you have technical, consulting, business, fundraising, grantwriting, journalism, media, or marketing expertise that will help it become a reality?

If so, then email me at this address:  chicagomediahub@gmail.com .  I will coordinate a conference session to begin the work.  Time is of the essence, though.  If you are interested, PLEASE DO NOT WAIT to respond.  Email chicagomediahub@gmail.com right now and become a part of this new exciting community free media project.

Thank you, and feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions at my personal email address...

scott@foval.com
Thanks in advance for reading, and I hope to hear from you.

Peace,
SF

--
Scott Foval
www.scottsbigmouth.com
www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-foval
scott@foval.com Email/IM
1-847-380-9028 / fovalgroup Office/Skype
1-312-519-6466 Mobile

Remember The Folks In Janesville This Holiday

When I was a kid, I used to get a kick out of taking a quick run out to the barn to sit in my great-grandpa's old 34 Chevy Pickup.   The standard paint job, a forest green, took all who viewed the old truck back to the depression era.  Built like a tank, the truck became a symbol in my family.  We all were thrilled when my uncle acquired it from the folks, and got it up and running several years ago.  It still carries a farm family's legacy, even though it has seen better days since my uncle's passing last year.

My mom told me the other night that the old Chevy was fabricated in GM's 85-year-old Janesville auto plant.  Unfortunately, last night in Janesville, the last shift of workers completed the final vehicle to run off the assembly line, and the plant closed.

WXOW-TV in Janesville notes that the first truck rolled off the Janesville line in 1923.  Since then, generations of Wisconsin and Illinois auto workers have commuted to work the line.  The plant long has been a symbol of the strength, quality, and honorable work that was produced there.  Indeed, it was the single largest major manufacturer in the area, and when the last of 1200 jobs ended yesterday, so did the idea in Janesville that if you got on at the plant, maybe where your dad or mom worked, you too would have a pretty good life; thanks to the UAW and your "other family" at the plant.  Once in, one found that the "other family" were as intregal to one's life happiness as ones' blood family.

Now the plant is silent.  Yesterday the last SUV rolled off the line, and will be donated to charity.  Its a muted tribute to a plant that saw now President-Elect Barack Obama visit during the Presidential campaign.  He promised to try to save the American auto industry.  Unfortunately, he isn't in office soon enough to save the Janesville Assembly Plant.

Janesville saw it coming, but it was still a shock.  In June, when the closing was announced, UAW leaders said they were going to try to get GM to change the decision.  That's all gone now, as have the smiles on a lot of the faces of people on the street in Janesville.

The story of what has happened to the American manufacturing industries in the last 20 years is a shameful legacy of the global economic downturn.  When I was growing up, part of my life was spent living in strong manufacturing towns like Newton, IA, Middle Amana, IA, and East Moline, IL.  Union folks, my dad and mom taught me, were the best kind of people; to be respected for their hard work to build and live the American Dream.  Management was often arrogant and aloof, and rarely respected in these towns, mainly because of their actions to sell-out their neighbors.  Well, they weren't neighbors, really, they just moved-in and moved-out to follow the next promotion, or more money.

When the Newton, IA, Maytag Assembly Plant was finally closed in 2007, many in the town blamed themselves.  They wondered if they had done everything they could to save their jobs and their town.  It was a dark time in the former home of "The Maytag Repairman."  After all, "Newton" had been the name of the repairman's faithful dog; together parts of one of the strongest manufacturing brands in the United States.  Whirlpool, which acquired Maytag in 2006, never really held a commitment to Newton, as the people there were seen as a pain in the butt for their tendency to protect themselves through tough labor negotiations with the company.

Newton has begun to bounce back now, with a group of new "green" industry jobs taking hold in the town.  A commitment from civic, business, and political leaders in the town has brought a bounce back to workers in the town.  From giant wind turbines to the concrete towers that support them, Newton's manufacturing plants are once again seeing life, and pride has been restored to some of the workers there; although it is but a fraction of the number that worked for Maytag and its supporting suppliers.  An estimated 1800 jobs have been added statewide in Iowa, not even close to offsetting the numbers of people Maytag and its suppliers once employed in Newton alone.

The building success stories in Newton and other towns are stories that Janesville, WI, is going to have to emulate in the next few months.  In order for the town to survive, it will have to commit to aggressive economic development, and without much support from the States of Wisconsin or Illinois, both of which are suffering massive deficits.  So far Janesville has had some success, with a few new smaller plants, some in plastics, others in food services, each picking up a little bit of the slack created by the void that the GM's plant closure has created.

There is opportunity for new "green" jobs there too.  The stated commitment by President-Elect Barack Obama may be the best shot for this bastion of Badger and Packer pride.  Always working hard, Janesville's leaders never have been people to slack off on the job.

They will need our support, though, and it is critical that as we celebrate the holidays, we remember Janesville and hundreds of other towns around the country that have seen real quality "honest work" jobs go down the tubes while Wall Street elites collect their ill-deserved holiday bonuses on the taxpayer's dime.  We need to make a point of shopping in these towns, investing our business dollars and retraining program dollars in the people there, and insure that Obama and other political leaders keep their promises to the good Union folk that have supported our country from the beginning.  Most of all, we need to remember what caused this whole calamity in the first place--the failure of Americans to buy American and insist that American companies keep jobs here.  That is the only way we can ever expect to regain the American Dream for all of our people.

This holiday, please remember Janesville, and Newton, and Middle Amana, and East Moline.  These people are hurting, and we need to help our neighbors get through this.  Let's all say a prayer in our own way that things are about to get much better for all of us.

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Harkinistas El Presidente Birthday Party Goes Way Too Far

I recently joined the Harkinistas group on Facebook, a group of current and former staffers to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA; started by Jud Lounsbury.  Little did I know that Jud was going to stage a whole coup where I would become "El Presidente" of said group.  Yes, he made me a figurehead...a puppet if you will...for the cause of celebrating all things Harkin.  As I am still to this day a huge fan of fellow Delta Sigma Phi brother Tom Harkin (a.k.a. TH), I am humbled to be a puppet in Jud's Facebook play.

Now, it would seem, the Harkinistas group is throwing an "El Presidente Birthday Party" on Facebook, and Jud has created a new likeness of me that I've never seen before...but is pretty damned funny.

El Presidente

I think this is the first time anyone has ever photoshopped me, or put on a themed party in my honor.  I guess being photoshopped on Facebook, and an online birthday party is possibly one of the highest honors I could receive. Its kind of being the Kathy Griffin of Facebook.  Where Kathy is on the D list of all other media, I'm the El Presidente of a D list online fringe banana republic.

FABULOUS!

Thanks Judster!

-Scott

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Has Zell Run TribCo Into The Ground?

When Sam Zell took contol of the venerable Tribune Companies just a couple of years ago, questions abounded from columnists, politicians, and business folks alike about what it could mean for the media empire.  Based upon a report from the ChiTrib this morning, the answer may "6-feet-under."

Phil Rosenthal and Mike O'Neal broke the news in the Trib this morning that Zell and his minions are working with law firm Sidley Austin and investment bank Lazard to evaluate TribCo's options.  It would seem that Sam Zell, never one to step away from a fight, took on a heavy amount of debt in order to score a win with the Tribune buy.  The debt comes due today, and now there is about $13 billion in leveraged debt sitting on TribCo's shoulders.

One must ask what effect that a bankrupcy filing would have on the two most visible facets of Chicago life that TribCo represents. Tribune's media properties (The Chicago Tribune, RedEye, WGN TV and WGN radio), several of which recently saw "makeovers," that even to amateur observers' eyes obviously cost serious cash to execute, are the most threatened media properties in the market.  In particular, WGN TV has spent heavily to upgrade studio facilities, imaging (graphics, promo, etc), and signed big name talent Mark Suppelsa from WFLD Fox Chicago.  WGN AM 720, also in transition, announced last week that John Williams would be moving to the wakeup slot from mid afternoons, apparently under a bit of pressure.

The second, of course, is the Cubs.  So far the TribCo restructuring has not restricted Jim Hendry and Lou Pinella from doing what it takes to be competitive.  This year, though, with the threat of a bankruptcy looming, will they have what they need to hire stars and pay salaries to win a World Series?  So far "the curse" has persisted, and Zell now may have exacerbated the situation by ego-based administration.

Is Sam Zell running our favorite stations and team into the ground?  Does he really have any idea what he's doing?  I'm no expert, and would not be good restructuring companies because I actually care about the people who work with me, so I'm probably not the best person to ask.  However, it would seem to my untrained eye that Zell has so violently hacked at the newsroom's resources, put unqualified peeps in charge of the restructuring, and spent on weakening the journalistic integrity of TribCo's properties; that now it is going to affect the Cubs too.

If Zell has so weakened TribCo's overall strengths that the entire enterprise is weak, it could force the Cubs to be sold for much less than they're worth as a whole.  This effect could be a simple "star on the Christmas tree" after the little grinch has already chopped it down and it's lying in the cold wet snow.  Is anyone in the board room downtown telling the Emperor that he has no clothes on?  Someone better wake him up before there isn't anything left to sell or restructure, or whatever his master plan calls for next.

UPDATE: AS OF 2:08 PM ASSOCIATED PRESS WAS REPORTING THAT TRIBUNE CO. FILED FOR CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION IN DELAWARE, CLAIMING $13B IN DEBT AND $7.6B IN ASSETS.  MORE INFORMATION...AT TV NEWSDAY.

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Feder Shocks Chicago Media With Announcement

For 20 years everyone in Chicago's newsrooms, studios, and agencies, always knew who had the inside scoop.

Feder.

If you wanted to know what the deal was with your favorite radio or tv show, which personality crossed the line, when management dropped pink-slips, or the scoop on your favorite anchor jumping to another station; there was one place to look.

Feder.

This morning though, we mediageeks are choking up as Columnist Robert Feder announced his pending departure from The Chicago Sun-Times. Although it will be a few weeks before he's gone, Feder already has received scores of “we'll miss you” comments at SunTimes.com.

Although I've never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Feder, I have read his column religiously for several years. As the media landscape is changing, and as quality journalists are pushed out the door, Feder has been on the cutting edge of breaking stories about the carnage in newsrooms across the country. Beyond that, however, Robert Feder has always provided context in his writing, humanizing how "business priorities" have ravaged The Fourth Estate and changed the media business.

Unfortunately for us, Robert Feder feels that taking the retirement offer from ST was better than losing his passion for covering the media beat. We're all saddened that it has come to this, and that we won't have him to show us the right way to do it anymore.

Good Luck, sir. The rest of us can only hope that as many people respect us at the end of our careers as we respect you.

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Nexus of HIV/AIDS Information and U.S. Public Health Policy Is Core of Hypocrisy

On the eve of the International Conference on HIV / AIDS, kicking off today in Mexico City, Mexico, a revelation on the depth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic ripped across the wires. The rate of HIV/AIDS infections in the United States annually was underreported by roughly 40%. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/health/03aids.html?scp=2&sq=H...

After all the number crunching, the hemming and hawing over experimental vaccines, DNA profiles, drug-resistant strains, and experimental regimens; the numbers we have been talking about are actually 40% higher than reported. The new numbers tell us that nearly a quarter of a million additional Americans are living with the virus that causes AIDS or have full-blown AIDS, up from just over a million to 1.1 million.

As a self-identified HIV-positive American, I would have expected that my government was keeping better tabs on the epidemic. More than that, knowing this new data, I would have expected that U.S. HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment would be at least as important as other items on the national agenda, equally-as-important as the economy, jobs, poverty, corporate responsibility, the housing crisis, etc. I have a very hard time believing that this data is actually “new” information. Rather, it seems to me, based upon the particular agencies involved in public health policy and the Bush Administration's policies towards dissemination of this type of information, it is becoming clear that in the last 8 years the Bush Administration has been fudging the numbers in order to purposefully ignore the domestic HIV/AIDS situation, while simultaneously giving billions in global HIV/AIDS assistance to appear empathetic and responsive to the problem.

Meanwhile, U.S. HIV/AIDS prevention policy is hopelessly delivered via abstinence-only education programming in public and private schools, a course of “cloaked theology” proving itself ineffective through actual reported teenage pregnancies and up-ticks in new STD reports not including HIV/AIDS. At the national and state levels, HIV/AIDS research dollars, governed by the numbers that are now being “restated,” already are steered away from domestic “street level” prevention and treatment. Rather than leading research, prevention, and treatment at home, U.S. Taxpayers' health care dollars are spent on massive external delivery of anti-retroviral pharmaceuticals to African countries in an effort to cultivate needed goodwill, and the all-important access to oil reserves they hold.

These new numbers arguably are just another bullet in the smoking gun of hypocrisy that has become the hallmark of today's Republican party. Through cynical manipulation of all U.S. Government resources towards relentless pursuit of oil exploration at all costs, massive propaganda campaigns to confuse the American people, and manipulation of markets and other government -- all efforts are designed and executed to reward Republican donors' “investments” in their candidates. Regardless of who dies on the home front, be it soldiers or those suffering without adequate health care, the Bush Administration won't spend a dime unless it benefits their power or their pocketbook.

Obviously that statement is arguably controversial, especially because the Bushies claim they care about people with HIV/AIDS. The problem is, they only care when oil is connected to the situation. If you asked George W. Bush and Laura “Pickles” Bush to come down to the hood or to boystown to tour an HIV/AIDS not-for-profit treatment and services program...oh, I don't know...like TPAN here in Chicago (http://www.tpan.org), I guarantee you will get a non-response. Heck, we can't even get local Republican candidates to come down and witness the lack of resources, scarcity of free adequate HIV/AIDS care, and widespread starvation that exists here--let alone getting POTUS to stop by.

The truth is that we gays and african-americans have been written-off as “disposable” by the Republicans in charge of our current U.S. (and many local) government. We don't give a lot of money to them, we don't align with their right-wing conservative Christian ideology, and we don't “fall in line” behind the straight white guys who are their candidates. As a result, this 40% number, in any other context a scary increase over previously-disclosed numbers, will barely be reported in the corporately-controlled, Republican-leaning mainstream media. Rather, it will be swept under the rug, like all other things that affect the poor, afflicted, and less-powerful; and will only be spread under the left-wing and progressive blogs. The caveat is that if enough of these left-wing sites spread the message far enough, maybe, just maybe a brave reporter for Big Media will do some digging...of course, then that person's editor will nix their story.

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Spring in Chicago...Packing and Moving in One Day!

When you file a story at 1:30ish AM it is kinda hard on your butt the next day.  Especially when your partner is up at 5:39AM on the dot to get ready for work!  Fortunately I was saved this morning by Maxwell House and what's coming tomorrow...a move.

After significant numbers of apartments viewed, and applications filed, we're supposed to get a truck and move tomorrow.  As a result, ScottsBigMouth will be silent until the weekend, when I'll be at the Chicago Green Festival working the seminar rooms.  I'll try to liveblog as much as I can, although it will be secondary to my duties as a room captain.

If you have a chance to come down to the Green Fest, by all means look me up and say HI!

Wish us luck in the move tomorrow...we're going to need every little prayer and every crossed finger to help us survive the day!

Scott@Foval.com