Saturday, November 20, 2021

Email to CBS 42

[The below is the text of an email I have sent to CBS 42 News Director Rob Martin on 11/23/21]

To CBS42

The immediate purpose of this email is to urge CBS42 to provide a forum in which Alabamians who are antagonists in the fight over "critical race theory" in Alabama schools may have a conversation on CBS42 that has the effect of tamping down the fight.


Politics in crisis
The driver of this email is my belief that the United States is in a dire crisis of politics. 

If you do not think there is a dire crisis, do not bother reading this email any further. 

Otherwise you should please continue reading.

The dire crisis of politics is the waging of total, existential political warfare between the two political parties, in which each side says the other side is threatening the destruction of democracy in the United States (albeit the destruction being in different ways). 

The Democrats say the Republicans are seeking to fundamentally alter how governance of the United States is determined and to create and perpetuate a minority governance over the majority. Their actions include availing of the current decennial redistricting to favor the Republicans, and nationwide efforts to get state voting laws changed in ways that will favor Republicans, including increasing the ability of Republican controlled state legislatures and officials to disregard the votes of the state's voters in the 2024 Presidential election in how the state casts its votes in the electoral college. This is happening on the Republican side under the domination of Donald Trump and with a view to making him President again in 2024.

The Republicans say the Democrats are threatening to implement socialism and bring about repressive authoritarian control by the central government in Washington DC. A flavor of this is given by the below in Rep. Barry Moore's statement about the reconciliation bill at  https://barrymoore.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-barry-moore-opposes-dangerous-reconciliation-bill

“The most serious threat to our representative democracy is the betrayal of the values that empowered us to become the freest, most prosperous nation in the history of the free world. The dangerous bill advanced by House Democrats today would bring our nation alarmingly closer to the repressive socialist utopia envisioned by power hungry globalists who abhor American exceptionalism and the rights of all individuals. This transformative legislation seeks to elevate government to the all-powerful role of provider of our livelihoods and our liberties, not the protector of our God-given rights that our brilliant Founders created."

In this total political warfare between the Republicans and the Democrats, every significant political disagreement is fought over ferociously and exploited to keep riled up  the political base that is needed to be soldier combatants against the other side.

There are factors that worsen the situation of the total political war between Republicans and Democrats, including particular ones applicable to Alabama. These factors include the following:

1. The extent to which Alabama is a one party state, with Republicans being in control and  unaccountable in a reasonably competitive electoral process in Alabama; 

2. The debilitation of local newspapers and their ability to help in holding elected officials accountable;

3. The ability of Republicans in office, and Republican candidates for office, to avoid answering questions that voters should hear answered;

4. The rise of  social media as voters' main source of information and the huge problem of  misinformation and disinformation on social media;

5. Extreme political polarization, the two sides not having reasonable public conversation with each other, and voters seeking or accepting being walled off from hearing the other side; and

6. The destruction of trust in institutions and authority.

In this dire crisis of politics, the highest motivation of the leaderships in the waging of the total political war is for one's side to have the power and for the other side not to have the power, with the best interests of the United States being secondary, if not disregarded. A large majority of Americans are being victimized in this existential power struggle by the leaderships of the two sides. This majority of Americans can be rightfully very pessimistic about the functioning of our democracy and its capacity to produce a governance of the society that, through  compromise, has a large majority consensus of acceptance.

Instead of  compromise, and a a large majority acceptance of the process by which governance is determined through elections, there is rage and demonizing, and no large majority acceptance of our  governance and our institutions of governance.

Local TV stations; my suggestions
Management, news producers, program anchors and reporters at Alabama TV stations should contemplate the foregoing, decide the extent to which they believe there is a dire crisis of politics in the United States, think about whether the role of their TV stations includes trying to help the United States overcome its dire crisis, and decide whether their TV station can and should undertake additions or modifications in their news programming, particularly looking forward to the 2022 elections. 

Generally I think TV stations should focus on the extent of one sided distortions that the two sides communicate to their base and whether and how the TV station may make their viewers aware of the distortions they receive from their political side, and the viewers perhaps having their minds changed in how they view the particular subject.

I have the following suggestions:

1. Press elected officials and candidates harder to get answers to questions they don't want to answer. If officials and candidate balks, employ the "empty chair" tactic I urged to Ms. Susana Schuler, President & General Manager, WVTM13, as set out at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2021/01/open-reply-to-susana-schuler.html.

2. Identify issues that, in the national crisis of politics, the TV station thinks are especially worthy of editorializing by the TV station, and do on air editorializing. 

3. Try to get debates between representatives of the two sides. Develop town hall and round table type conversations involving regular Alabamians on both sides.

4. Identify groups in Alabama that are influential and that have concerns about issues  you have identified as worthy of editorialization. Engage with the groups with the view of providing them a TV forum in which to express their views. Particularly address with the groups the extent they have lost the trust of Alabamians and endeavor to work with the groups to rebuild trust through their presentations on TV. Consider how I have endeavored to engage the business community as indicated at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2019/11/silos-in-al-politics.html, but to little avail. Ask the Alabama Republican Party whether it has a desire for a TV forum via your TV station. If the answer is yes, engage with them about whether the forum can be utilized by the party in a way that positively contributes to the TV station fulfilling the role you have for your TV station, as discussed above. I think most TV stations have done a good job in involving the medical community expertise related to COVID, the vaccines and vaccination. One new thing that might be done is to have direct, side by side engagement between the medical community and Republican elected officials relative to vaccine mandates.

5. Talk to your audience about the problem of social media misinformation and develop program presentations for helping your audience to overcome the problem for themselves personally.

6. Convey to your audience the problem of the debilitation of local newspapers and their ability to contribute to holding elected officials accountable; that your TV station is endeavoring to step into the breach: and what your TV station is undertaking to do in its programming. If your TV station needs funding to undertake new, added programming, tell your audience that. Have a mechanism in place for receiving contributions from individuals, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

Particular issues and matters
If your TV station undertakes any of the foregoing suggestions or has other ideas for new things to do, I think the focus should be on matters as to which the TV station believes one side or the other, or both sides, communicate gross, one sided messaging to their base. Your TV station should consider the extent to which such messaging enrages their base against the other side and adds to polarization and division in the country. Your TV station should think about whether it can effectively make its viewers conscious of the one sided distortions that the viewers receive from their side and potentially may have their minds changed in how they view the particular subject. Particularly think about how the sidelined majority in the middle will react favorably to reasonable, centrist, unemotional discourse on the subject.

I list four matters below that are loaded with the vituperation of our politics in crisis and deserve attention by your TV station (I think). There are other matters I could list as well, but this email has enough in it  As to the four matters, I have made protracted, unavailing, efforts to ameliorate gross, one sided distortions that are messaged to the base of one side, or the other. For what it is worth, I give links and other information regarding the same that a TV station might consider helpful in trying to decide its own approach.

1. Rigged 2020 election or not; January 6th; rule of law
These subjects are central to the dire crisis of politics in the United States. They are expansive. 

2. Critical race theory.
See tweets and their thread at the beginning of this blog entry.

3. Vaccines and mandates
I have spent weeks trying to get a response to my charging that Gov. Ivey and ALGOP legislators are guilty of nonfeasance, malfeasance or moral depravity in their prohibiting vaccine mandates in Alabama.

4. Guns

Conclusion
This email to you is being done by copying and pasting the text set out at the aforesaid link into an email form and sending the email. Evidence of my emailing will be by copying the heading of the actual email showing email addressee and date and time of emailing and pasting it below the [end of text of email to CBS42] designation below.
One way or another, I will communicate the substance of this email to other TV stations and others in Alabama.
After sending my email to CBS42, I may or may not make changes to the text. If I make changes, I will indicate the changes under the below  [end of text of email to CBS42] designation.

In closing my appeal here, I emphasize how unwilling ALGOP lawmakers in Congress, ALGOP candidates, ALGOP party leaders and ALGOP media cheerleaders are to engage in any reasonable conversation with me about anything. Those persons have the power and are secure in their positions, and they don't have to engage in any conversation with any Alabamian who wants to express reasonable disagreement regarding their positions on the issues. I have tried to appeal to the Alabama business community about this, to no avail. The Alabama Democratic Party gets little or no attention in whatever it might say and has not invited me to have any conversation with them. The academic community does not seem to be in a position to make pronouncements which will be fairly considered by Alabama Republicans. I don't know how much weight print newspapers in Alabama have with readers.
To me the foregoing leaves only Alabama TV stations to appeal to, which I have been trying to do for more than a year. This email is my latest try.
Regardless of what happens in Alabama related to the crisis in politics in Alabama and throughout the United States, that crisis will stay boiling so long as the Republican Party is dominated by Donald Trump, which will be at least through the 2022 elections and likely until the 2024 election. 

Sincerely,

[end of text of email to CBS42]


Email sent to CBS 42 News Director Rob Martin
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: rmartin@cbs42.com <rmartin@cbs42.com>
Sent: Tue, Nov 23, 2021 6:28 pm
Subject: Appeal to CBS42 regarding United States dire crisis of politics

11/29/21
The below tweets are part of my communicating to other Alabama TV stations the email I sent to CBS42.
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