BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

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"I don't know how much longer PBS is going to survive," veteran documentary producer Beth Sanders told me last week.

"People can view Downton Abbey online."

She had already read PBS Self-Destructs in the October edition of Harper's Magazine.

To a great extent, PBS programming is "basically irrelevant," longtime producer B.J. Bullert told Harper's, adding that a culture of suppression has become embedded.

Look no further than KNPB TV-5 in these parts, which has refused to run Bill Moyers' programs for years after banishing them to 2:00 a.m. on weekends.

I tracked Sanders down in Seattle, where she is working on a new film The Draft and The Vietnam Generation. When I last talked to her in 1998, she said she might never do another. I'm glad she's reconsidered.

The Pentagon is spending between $16 million and $60 million to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the escalation of the Vietnam War and the word "massacre" is not used to describe the legendary My Lai Massacre, she told me.

For those too young or just wanting to forget the nightmare of our Vietnam loss, Army Lt. William Calley led his troops in a daylong mass killing of civilians in the little village of My Lai. Only when two valiant helicopter gunship pilots risked court martial by intervening did the slaughter stop. Decades later, they were honored for their courage. Calley got 20 lashes with a wet noodle. Last I heard he was selling jewelry at a family business in Florida.

Sanders produced and directed Fear and Favor in the Newsroom, (Barbwire 12-10-1997 and 2-15-1998 and 2-22-1998), a killer documentary about corporate influence.

She had a devil of a time clearing it on PBS stations. I got it aired in Reno and Las Vegas.

Fear and Favor has come home to Nevada many times since.

It told the story of how San Jose car dealers influence the news, just as Washoe auto moguls in 2013 ordered the Reno Gazette-Journal to oppose critically needed school maintenance taxes.

When former UNR journalism dean Jerry Ceppos was editor of the San Jose Mercury News, he caved to pressure from the media establishment and retracted the true story of the CIA facilitating importation of crack cocaine to urban ghettoes in order to finance its (pardon the unintentional pun) black operations.

On Dec. 17, a haunting echo of Fear and Favor came back to Sparks with the showing of Shadows of Liberty, evidence that the problem has gone from very bad to critical to suicidal.

Just 25 people viewed the killer documentary at the Sparks Labor Temple. The producers could not get it shown on any PBS station.

"The major news outlets employ a double standard, one for stories that could offend the powers that be, and one for all other news," Sanders and co-producer Randy Baker wrote in 1998.

"It is this double standard which gives the news its Fortune 500 spin," they noted.

I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion after the Sparks showing.

Former Tribunite Dennis Myers, now the highly honored news editor of the Reno News & Review, noted that back in his TV days, "don't touch car dealers" was a standing (if not explicit) order.

A longtime former Reno Gazette-Journal reporter recently told me that a week rarely went by that Champion Chevrolet boss Jack Stanko did not threaten to cancel his ad budget over some news story with which he disagreed.

PBS was originally National Educational Television. Once it started running kickass programs, the establishment soon overwhelmed it. The name change says it all.

The Reno-Sparks community TV station was shut down by local governments five years ago.

Watch for My Lai Love Fest 2015.

It was necessary to destroy PBS in order to save it.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

ONLINE EXTRAS...

TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY: FEEL UP YOUR FIRE METER. The Reno Gazette-Journal did big spreads on three consecutive Sundays (Sept. 14, Sept. 21 and Sept. 28) on NV Energy smart meter fires. Welcome aboard. Barbwire readers were two years ahead on the fire meter issue. (Touch a Smart Meter, Go to Jail — 11 October 2012)

[UPDATES: THE NEVADA FIRE MARSHALL'S INVESTIGATION concluded "don't worry, be happy." I'm still worried and will continue fondling NVE's precious equipment. In its Sunday 21 Dec. 2014 front page headline major story, the Reno Gazette-Journal published results of the NVEnergy-commissioned "don't worry, be happy" echo study. Spoonfed stenography means never having to say you're sorry.]

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The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important. We've got a lot of work to do.

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

Andrew Barbano is a 46-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

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Smoking Guns... Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential The ever-expanding Ira Hansen Archive of an anachronism BREAKING BAD Walter White and some other white guy Who's,,, ...Who? Breaking Bad 5: Machine Gun Michele and the good ole boys Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-16-2014 Sparks Tribune Breaking Bad 4: Ira and his ammosexuals flip us the finger Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-9-2014 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-11-2014   Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Labor Day: State of the Unions By Mark Robison / Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 9-1-2013 The above graph was used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 ...and more ammo... We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 ...and more ammo yet IMF Head Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She’s Right. By Erika Eichelberger / Mother Jones/BillMoyers.com 5-30-2014 “The behavior of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally…since the crisis. The industry still prizes short-term profit.” The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest 2013-14: BARBWIRE SCORES SIXTH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD BRONZE 2014 Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake / 4-18-2013 The 2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon / 5-30-2013 The politics of media ga-ga boosterism / 3-20-2014 2012: WE WON —> BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION GOMORRAH SOUTH CONFAB—> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO NPA HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT Support legendary photographer Don Dondero next 2010 GOLD HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was   Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

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Copyright © 1982-2015 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 46-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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