Taxi leader Fisshea Tesfaye speaks with Pete Tucker in the parking garage opposite Gaylord National

The Taxi Link airs Sat. 7-8 pm on WUST 1120 AM. Listen here (imperfect audio in first minute): Download audio file (TaxiLink-05182013.mp3)

Just over the District line at National Harbor, the upscale mini-city and resort on the Potomac River, Prince George’s County taxi drivers say they’re being pushed aside to make way for Veolia, the French transportation giant.

Drivers say they’ve been informed that beginning June 1 they’ll no longer be able to pay a monthly fee to park at National Harbor. Unable to afford the high $3 an hour parking meter rates, drivers say they’ll effectively be cut off from accessing National Harbor hotel guests. “I believe they are trying to get rid of us,” National Harbor taxi leader Fisshea Tessfaye told The Taxi Link. 

While National Harbor didn’t respond to The Taxi Link in time for broadcast, Gaylord National – the massive hotel, convention center and resort at National Harbor – provided a written statement (see below). Gaylord National said it doesn’t own the parking garage across from the hotel – which is owned by The Peterson Companies, management for National Harbor – nor does it “believe that taxi drivers are being evicted.’”

In its statement, Gaylord National also outlined its future plans with Veolia, which seem to confirm drivers’ fears.

“Beginning in June, Veolia Transportation, Gaylord National’s transportation vendor, will enhance their services to offer Express Transport – a new, eco-friendly, hybrid-vehicle car service… [which] will serve as a lower-cost alternative to Veolia’s luxury, black-sedan car service.”

“Clearly what you see is they’re trying to squeeze out the cab driver,” said The Taxi Link co-host Tony Norman.

Meanwhile this week in Alexandria, drivers saw city council move forward with a credit card mandate that provides companies, but not independent drivers, with the right to select their credit card processors. “For some reason, the city [views us] as independent contractors when it comes to obligations, but when it comes to benefits we are just [viewed as] employees,” Alexandria taxi leader Daniel Berhane told The Taxi Link.

Alexandria city council also voted to establish a task force to study the issue of mobility. Drivers contend that, as independent contractors who own their own vehicle, they should have the ability to freely associate with any company they choose and not be forced to stay with a company for two years, as the city currently requires. “The companies are taking advantage [of drivers],” said Berhane. “It’s very simple: Let the market dictate.”

“There are many laws that are questionable… and there are many practices that are questionable, but if nobody ever challenges it in court then they continue,” said Tony Norman. “I would stress that the drivers ought to look into challenging some of these issues about their right to move from company to company.”

This week in D.C., a TV personality continued his quest for an Emmy Award with yet another sting operation against taxi drivers. In his latest piece, Channel 9’s Russ Ptacek claimed that half of D.C. taxis don’t stop for handicapped passengers.

Here’s the full statement from Gaylord National: 

“Beginning in June, Veolia Transportation, Gaylord National’s transportation vendor, will enhance their services to offer Express Transport – a new, eco-friendly, hybrid-vehicle car service featuring flat-rate fares to destinations throughout the Washington, D.C. region.  This new fleet of vehicles will serve as a lower-cost alternative to Veolia’s luxury, black-sedan car service.

“Since opening five years ago, our guests have expressed their desires for high-quality personal transportation service with clean vehicles, courteous and knowledgeable drivers and reasonable, flat-rate fares to the area’s top destinations.  Express Transport is simply a direct response to this customer feedback and will be an expansion of Veolia’s existing contracted sedan transportation services. Additionally, we have learned that the transportation our guests receive to and from the hotel has a direct impact on their overall experience, and it influences their impressions of the entire National Harbor destination and greater Prince George’s County.  For this reason, we must ensure that our guests will have the option of utilizing a safe, reliable and enjoyable personal-transportation service.  We are also delighted that Veolia will be utilizing a fleet of eco-friendly, hybrid vehicles for this service, and we are certain our guests will appreciate this green approach as well.

“We also believe our guests will appreciate Express Transport for its up front, flat-rate fares, which are fully disclosed to passengers prior to boarding the vehicles and in many cases, offer a savings over traditional taxi fares.  For example, the new flat-rate fare from Gaylord National Resort to Reagan National Airport will be $22 each way during non-rush hour times. Guests will be able to pay their fare via credit card or charge it to their final guest room bill – two additional conveniences our guests have been requesting.

“Moving forward, our guests will still have the option of choosing whichever transportation service they wish to utilize – whether it be a luxury black-sedan car service, an economical private-car service such a Express Transport, a group shuttle or a traditional taxi operator. This has always been the policy since we opened in 2008, and it will continue in the future.”

And in response to The Taxi Link’s question about taxi drivers being told that as of June 1 they will no longer be allowed to pay a monthly fee to park at the garage directly across the street, Gaylord National wrote:

“The parking garage located across the street from the hotel where the taxi drivers stage is not owned or operated by Gaylord National. We do not believe that taxi drivers are being “evicted” from the National Harbor garage, and we encourage you to reach out to The Peterson Companies (management of National Harbor) for clarification on this matter and with any other questions regarding their facility.”

The Taxi Link is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers and airs Saturday 7-8 p.m. on WUST 1120 AM. The show is hosted by TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker and D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission member and ANC 1B chairman Tony Norman

Stained glass mural of Philly taxi leaders

The Taxi Link airs Sat. 7-8 pm on WUST 1120 AM. Listen here: Download audio file (TaxiLink-05112013.mp3)

Download mp3

The National Taxi Workers Alliance, which became the 57^th national union of the AFL-CIO less than two years ago, is looking to work with The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers to organize cabbies in the nation’s capital. “If it was done in a city like New York, if it was done in a city like Philadelphia, it can damn sure done in Washington, D.C.,” Philly taxi leader and NTWA vice president Ron Blount told The Taxi Link. 

Meanwhile, this week the D.C. Taxicab Commission approved a credit card mandate as part of the Modern Taximeter System (MTS). D.C. taxi chair Ron Linton claimed that drivers will see a 2-4% increase in earnings as a result of MTS. From the dais, Stanley Tapscott, the longtime driver and Taxicab Commission member, asked how Linton arrived at this conclusion, but the chairman dismissed the question and moved straight to a vote. “I think these figures are just being picked out of the air,” Tapscott, who cast the sole vote in opposition to MTS, told The Taxi Link directly following the hearing.

In order to offset MTS’s cost, the Commission is implementing a $0.25 surcharge on each ride, as well as a $0.25 increase to the base fair, which would raise it to $3.25. Linton’s now-approved plan also calls for the return of the very extra passenger fee he took away, although now drivers would receive $1 for all the additional passengers instead of $1 for each extra passenger.

Philly taxi leader Ron Blount

Elsewhere, around 300 drivers gathered near Philadelphia’s historic 30^th Street Station on Friday to call on the city to take steps to improve driver safety, as well as to establish a workers’ compensation fund for cabbies. The protest was held in response to Wednesday’s killing of 33-year-old driver Hafiz Sarafaqaz.

Lastly, The Taxi Link spoke with Jon Liss, co-founder and former director of Tenants and Workers United, a grassroots organization that works with cabbies in Alexandria and Arlington. “It became pretty clear pretty soon that the drivers were having a problem because they were attached to a monopoly like property,” said Liss. When just two companies dominated Alexandria’s taxi industry it allowed their owners to treat “drivers like they saw fit. They charged pretty much as much as they could get away with. There was no democratic rights.”

The Taxi Link is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers and airs Saturday 7-8 p.m. on WUST 1120 AM. The show is hosted by TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker and D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission member and ANC 1B chairman Tony Norman.

Mohamed Salim, left, talks with reporters. Photo courtesy of the Council on America-Islamic Relations

Listen to The Taxi Link: Download audio file (TaxiLink-05042013.mp3)

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An aviation executive’s racist remarks and assault of a Fairfax taxi driver have caused an outcry. The driver, Mohamed Salim, recorded the conversation with his late-night passenger, Ed Dahlberg, president of Manassas-based Emerald Aviation. “If you’re a f—-ing Muslim, flying jets into the World Trade Center, then f—- you! I will slice your f—-ing throat right now!” Dahlberg told Salim. 

Salim is an army reservist who served in Iraq. He first told his story to The Washington Post, which produced this video report. Salim also spoke with other media outlets including ABC7.

Meanwhile in D.C., the cover story for this week’s Washington City Paper repeatedly calls cab drivers racist. Russ Ptacek, the Channel 9 newsman who regularly uses sting operations to target drivers, is the subject of the article. The Taxi Link interviewed the author of the piece, Will Sommer, a talented young City Paper reporter.

In the WUST studio, from left to right: Stanley Tapscott, Pete Tucker, Tony Norman

The media is often quick to accuse drivers of many things, including racism, which jeopardizes drivers’ safety as they welcome unknown passengers into their vehicles, sitting directly behind them. While assaults against drivers happen frequently, they are rarely recorded (as in the case of Mr. Salim) or seriously investigated by police.

“Most drivers don’t even bother about calling the police if an incident happens,” D.C. Taxicab Commission member and longtime driver Stanley Tapscott told The Taxi Link. “It’s so unfair because [the police] really don’t protect the driver.”

Mr. Tapscott, 87, served in World War II and trained at the segregated Montford Point at Camp Lejeune, N.C. “We were mistreated terribly. I don’t even want to go back and think of some of the things that happened to us,” he said. Last year, 400 African-American Marines who served at Montford Point, including Mr. Tapscott, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Taxi Link is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers and airs Saturday 7-8 p.m. on WUST 1120 AM. The show is hosted by TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker and D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission member Tony Norman.

The D.C. Taxicab Commission is scheduled to vote to publish final rulemakings on the Modern Taxi System on Wednesday, May 8 at the commission’s general meeting at 10 a.m. at 441 4th St., NW, One Judiciary Square in the Old Council Chambers on the first floor

Daniel Berhane and fellow drivers protest outside Alexandria city hall

Listen to the Taxi Link here: Download audio file (TaxiLink-04-27-2013.mp3)

Download mp3

In Alexandria, taxicab drivers associated with Tenants and Workers United protested outside city hall this past week to call on the council to ensure drivers’ right to select their own credit card processors as the city moves to mandate credit card acceptance. “[Drivers] have been ripped off of our independent contractor role in this city and we’re trying to take that back,” said taxi leader Daniel Berhane, who told his fellow protesters their efforts had pushed back the council’s vote, now scheduled for May 14. 

Also last week, the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, chaired by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, held an oversight hearing of the D.C. Taxicab Commission. Before taxi chair Ron Linton’s testimony, two representatives of The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers, Negede Abebe and Mechal Chame, addressed the committee. “When [will we] engage in the improvement of the industry as stakeholders?” Chame asked Cheh.

Taxi leaders Negede Abebe (right) and Haimanot Bizuayehu compare notes before the D.C. Council oversight hearing

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s newest nominee to the taxi commission, Gladys Mack, also testified. Mack, who is now retired, worked for the District for 22 years, where she held three cabinet positions and served on the Washington Metropolitan Transition Authority (Metro) Board. “I think you will find me to be quite open to any concerns of the independent operators. When I was at Metro I was considered to be quite a friend of the Metro bus operators,” said Mack.

The Taxi Link airs Saturday 7-8 p.m. on WUST 1120 AM. The show is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers and co-hosted by Pete Tucker of TheFightBack and Tony Norman, chairman of D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1B. Listen to last week’s show here. 

The D.C. Taxicab Commission is scheduled to hold a hearing on uniform taxi colors and sedan class regulations Wednesday, May 1 at 10 a.m. on the first floor of the Old Council Chambers at 441 4^th St., NW (Judiciary Square). 

The D.C. Taxicab Commission is moving full steam ahead with implementing a so-called “Modern Taxi System” (MTS). Yet in several areas MTS resembles the commission’s push last year to install one company’s credit card processors and screens in the back of all cabs, which ultimately failed when the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the city’s $35 million contract with Verifone because of irregularities in the procurement process. Nevertheless, at last week’s standing-room-only commission hearing on MTS, D.C. taxi chair Ron Linton expressed a willingness to once again take an act-now-ask-questions-later approach. 

“[No one] can foresee and understand everything that will work or not work. I think that’s part of the human nature of things. But I certainly would not take the position that a regulation adopted today is now in concrete forever,” said Linton. The Taxi Link co-host Tony Norman disagrees with the chairman’s interpretation. “A regulation is set forever unless the Taxicab Commission comes back and modifies it… [or] there’s a deadline within the provision itself.” Norman continued, “What you have going on here is a rush to judgment… [There's a] small group of individuals that are coming to these conclusions about these regulations and then they’re being railroaded through.”

It was Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT), a Verifone competitor, which successfully filed suit to overturn last year’s smart meter contract. Now CMT is looking to secure the MTS contract and the company is worried that the punishment for drivers who use alternative credit card processors (with lower transaction fees) isn’t severe enough. “No taxicab company, independent owner or taxicab operator should use any device or service for processing of digital payments other than the approved MTS,” CMT’s Jessie Davis said in testimony before the commission Wednesday. Davis recommended that a “violation of this provision will be grounds for immediate removal of the MTS… and suspension or revocation of the taxicab owner or operator’s license.” Linton assured Davis that under the MTS regulations drivers can’t use alternative credit card readers. “All the transactions have to go through the PSP,” or Payment Service Provider, said Linton, who had numerous follow up questions for experts like Davis, but few if any questions for drivers.

As D.C. cabbies fight to maintain their ability to contract with the credit card processor of their choice, next door in Alexandria drivers are engaged in a similar struggle. Ahead of the Alexandria city council’s scheduled vote Tuesday evening to mandate credit card acceptance, drivers are holding a protest Monday outside city hall. Drivers are not opposing the mandate but they’re concerned they may lose their ability to choose their own credit card processor, explained Aurora Vasquez, co-director of Tenants and Workers United, a grassroots group working with taxi drivers in Alexandria and Arlington. “We want to be very sure that that transition to credit card acceptance is respectful of the fact that cab drivers are independent contractors and through that lens we firmly believe that cab drivers should be allowed to select the credit card processing vendor of choice, so long as… [it] meets certain security standards,” Vasquez told The Taxi Link.

While Alexandria cabbies are protesting outside city hall, D.C. drivers will be gathering inside the John A. Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave., NW for an oversight hearing of the D.C. Taxicab Commission before the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, chaired by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh. Appearing on The Taxi Link, taxi leader Mechal Chame, board member of The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers, said he’ll be testifying at the oversight hearing. “We will fight back,” said Chame.

The Taxi Link concluded with an interview with Cyril Crocker, the kickoff to a series of interviews with members of the D.C. Taxicab Commission. Crocker, who is a lifetime resident of D.C., worked in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development under Mayor Anthony Williams. Now a commercial realtor, Crocker told The Taxi Link that he views cabbies as independent businessmen, like himself. “I have a lot of respect for the drivers in this city. It’s not an easy living.”

* This post was edited since its original posting.

The Taxi Link is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers.  

Monday’s hearing of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., but one agency is set to appear before the taxi commission. 

In Alexandria, Monday’s protest (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) and Tuesday evening’s vote are scheduled to take place at city hall, 301 King Street, Old Town, Alexandria.

Download mp3

The Pacifica Foundation is in trouble and the problem starts at the top. The listener-sponsored, progressive, anti-war radio network – which operates five stations in as many major markets and has more than 100 affiliates – is experiencing widespread upheaval. Up to this point I’ve kept my concerns about Pacifica interim executive director Summer Reese to myself, but after what I witnessed in D.C. Superior Court last week, I must speak out.

The case in question involved a frivolous lawsuit to stop Pacifica’s D.C. station, WPFW, from moving to a new home. The defendants included WPFW’s general manager and three station board members, including myself. There was one other defendant, Ms. Reese, who used her testimony to jeopardize the very foundation she heads up. Among Ms. Reese’s inaccurate statements was that she’d been forced to sign WPFW’s lease for a new home.

Judge Geoffrey Alprin didn’t buy it. He asked Ms. Reese if anybody put a gun to her head. Turns out they hadn’t. The judge’s further questioning revealed that it wasn’t a gun but a vote of the national board, which governs the foundation, that led her to sign the lease (which she was in favor of).

Supposedly Ms. Reese was in court to protect the interests of Pacifica. But she didn’t. Not only did she testify against the foundation’s interests, she also failed to secure legal representation for herself or her fellow defendants despite repeated requests.

Here’s what’s going on: Ms. Reese wants to fire WPFW general manager John Hughes, but she hasn’t. That’s because she needs to maintain board support if she’s to keep her own job as interim executive director, and the board isn’t comfortable with firing Mr. Hughes since he’s got a contract and hasn’t been written up by his direct supervisor (Ms. Reese). So in an effort to make Mr. Hughes appear weak (and fireable), Ms. Reese has undermined him time and again. Nowhere is that more apparent than in regards to the move.

WPFW’s current home is being demolished and the station must vacate its building by April 30. The clock is ticking. Since it’s Pacifica that signs the lease, not WPFW, Mr. Hughes is dependent upon Ms. Reese for her signature, as well as to provide prospective landlords with requested financial documents, something she’s repeatedly failed to do in a timely manner. What’s more, despite the difficult situation WPFW finds itself in, Ms. Reese has gone weeks without responding to Mr. Hughes’ calls and emails, letting her personality conflict with him interfere with her duties as interim executive director.

Sitting before Judge Alprin, Ms. Reese likely saw a perfect storm gathering. A ruling against WPFW and Pacifica could be blamed on Mr. Hughes, thereby giving Ms. Reese the needed cover to fire him. And she appeared to adjust her testimony accordingly. Fortunately it didn’t work.

Those of us who are apart of Pacifica are often too quick to call for a change in leadership. The network’s near constant churn at the top creates a dizzying merry-go-round of instability. But after what I saw in court, it’s clear change is needed.

Now, I realize that Ms. Reese isn’t likely to resign. Nor is the national board likely to call for her to step down, in no small measure because she’s the chair. Apart from being a clear conflict of interest – she heads up the body that’s supposed to oversee her – this arrangement just isn’t working, as the instability across the network makes clear.

It’s not just WPFW that’s suffered under Ms. Reese’s watch. WBAI in New York is teetering on the edge, having all-but lost its ability to broadcast from atop the Empire State Building and the station is now housed in several temporary and scattered sites throughout the city. At Pacifica’s flagship station, KPFA in Berkeley, Ms. Reese just issued an abrupt notice of her intent to terminate the interim general manager despite the fact that the station’s local board opposes the firing and the national board wasn’t consulted. Also under Ms. Reese’s watch, Pacifica’s corporate status lapsed, putting the foundation in jeopardy and leading to the loss of its name (now officially Pacifica Foundation Radio).

What’s become clear over the past year is that Pacifica is not well served with one individual holding both of the foundation’s top spots. It’s time for a change.

Pete Tucker is a member of WPFW’s Local Station Board

Related stories: WPFW needs a home, not scare tactics about a corporate takeover

Taxi leader Haimanot Bizuayehu speaks at a protest in front of the D.C. Council last year

The Taxi Link – which is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers (SBA) and hosted by TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker and D.C. advisory neighborhood commission member Tony Norman – returned to the air Saturday on WUST 1120 AM.

Appearing on the program, SBA board member Haimanot Bizuayehu discussed the taxi commission’s upcoming hearing (see below for details) on the Modern Taximeter System, which appears to be a scaled down version of the controversial $35 million Verifone contract that was overturned by the Contract Appeals Board last year. “The proposed rulemakings have many provisions that [won’t] be fair to the drivers, especially when it comes to the tracking device,” said Bizuayehu. 

Bizuayehu also discussed his testimony from Friday regarding the taxi commission’s flawed complaint process which allows the commission to take severe actions against drivers without timely or adequate notification.  Co-host Norman responded, “Clearly it’s very troubling about the [lack of] due process.”

The Taxi Link also examined the mistreatment and corruption Boston cab drivers are subjected to while police turn a blind eye. A recent Boston Globe expose noted, “While taxi passengers in Boston pay some of the highest rates among major U.S. cities, many drivers live in poverty.”

The Taxi Link is back on air thanks to contributions from drivers, said Bizuayehu. “Drivers who contributed their own money to make this show happen fully understand the magnitude of the problem that their industry is facing today.”

The Taxi Link can be heard Saturday 7-8 p.m. on WUST 1120 AM.

The D.C. Taxicab Commission’s upcoming hearing on the Modern Taximeter System is scheduled for Wednesday, April 17, 10 a.m. at the Reeves Center at 14^th and U St., NW.

Pacifica Radio’s WPFW 89.3 FM

“Clear Channel is not going to interfere with this station.” - Tony Norman

Pacifica Radio’s WPFW 89.3 FM has called D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood home for the past 15 years, but it’s not likely to much longer. The City Paper building, which houses the station, is being demolished in order to make way for a taxpayer subsidized luxury hotel. Forced to move, and having looked at several properties in D.C.’s hot real estate market, the station has settled on an affordable space just outside the District in downtown Silver Spring on top of a Metro stop.

Even though the new location would provide the station – which is listener-sponsored, commercial-free and near-broke – with huge savings, some programmers and their allies have launched a campaign to stop the move. They’ve taken to the airwaves to drum up fear, telling listeners that there will be a corporate takeover if WPFW signs a sublease, landlord-tenant agreement with Metro Networks Communications, which is a part of Total Traffic Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel, the media conglomerate. This effort comes on the heels of a nearly two-year-long campaign by the same programmers to fire the general manager, John Hughes, who removed some of their shows. 

WPFW’s need to move comes as no surprise to anyone involved with the station. In fact it’s been openly discussed for no less than four years and as many general managers. Yet the campaigners offer no serious alternative for relocation, just fear-mongering.

Not everyone is on board with this approach. “People shouldn’t be so weak to think that just because you’re leasing from A, B or C that that’s going to destroy you,” said Tony Norman, an elected member of WPFW’s Local Station Board and Pacifica’s National Board. “We should have more faith in what we stand for than some people frightened by Clear Channel.”

Along with Norman, I joined John Hughes on Friday’s edition of Manager’s Mailbox (listen below). Hughes said the sublease agreement provided for no governance or programming relationship of any sort with Clear Channel. “There’s no strategic partnership [or] relationship connected to Clear Channel.”

While the lease will not lead to a corporate takeover, it may well provide WPFW with the opportunity to regain its financial footing. Presently the station pays $17,500 a month in rent. At the new location, the rent would be just $11,500 a month. An additional savings of $1,000 a month is anticipated as a result of sharing expenses for the phone, internet and T1 fiber line, according to Hughes. But the biggest savings would come from the build out, or the absence of one, which is estimated to cost the station $150,000, an expense that would be unnecessary since the Silver Spring studio is already built out.

This message has seldom been heard over WPFW’s airwaves which have instead been dominated by the campaigners’ efforts to drum up fear of a corporate takeover. Despite this, listeners voiced support for the station moving to Silver Spring. “That sounds like a good deal,” said one caller, Eddie, who challenged the notion that doing business with a corporation not in line with Pacifica’s mission meant instant doom. “If I go to Exxon-Mobil to buy gas does that mean that I’m a big supporter of Exxon-Mobil?” he asked.

Fear-mongering aside, Pacifica has been doing business with Clear Channel for some time. In order for stations to receive live broadcasts (like Democracy Now!), a satellite feed is required. Among the companies that offer this service is Clear Channel, whom Pacifica contracts with. Despite this ongoing business relationship, “Clear Channel has not taken over Pacifica and they haven’t influenced the programming of Pacifica,” said Norman.

Moving to the Silver Spring location makes sense. The savings the station would see allow for the very real possibility that staff could finally be brought up to full pay, and the station could begin to build up its capital reserves so that its next move is to a building it owns, like Pacifica’s west coast stations. While this isn’t a far out idea, it’ll only happen if the infighting stops, or at least subsides for a few years.

“I don’t care where you move as long as you stay on the air,” said Mary, who called into Manager’s Mailbox. “And if you’re going to save money, I mean, kudos. What is the big argument?”

Pete Tucker is an elected member of WPFW’s Local Station Board, where he serves as vice chair

Listen to Manager’s Mailbox here (segment begins with Tony Norman) Download audio file (Managers_Mailbox.mp3)

Steven Titch, Robert Corn-Revere and Pete Tucker at Reason

(Video at bottom)

Last week, noted First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere gave a talk on censorship in the age of the Internet. Directly following the talk at Reason magazine’s D.C. office, TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker joined Corn-Revere for a wide-ranging discussion on threats to an open internet.

The two also debated the issue of net neutrality, the principal which calls for all web content to be governed by the same set of rules, preventing the powerful from receiving special treatment, including faster download times for their sites.  

The discussion, which was moderated by Reason’s Steven Titch, begins at minute mark 27:45…

Related links: Reason TV, “Are the 7 Dirty Words Still Dirty on the Internet? Robert Corn-Revere on New Media Censorship”

Listen to Bullet Points with Navid Nasr on Voices of 99%: Download audio file (blogtalkradio.com.BulletPointswNavidNasr.mp3)

TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker joined Bullet Points with Navid Nasr on Voices of the 99% for a discussion on the Washington Post’s selective scrutinizing of politicians, as well as the paper’s education business interests.

The Post’s recent call for the resignation of D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham doesn’t fit the paper’s pattern of going after councilmembers whose base of support comes from the African American community, but it nevertheless points up the Post’s willingness to go after the lesser transgressions of those its targets while ignoring more serious improprieties of others supported by the downtown business elite.

This bias was never more apparent than in the 2010 mayoral contest between Vincent Gray and Adrian Fenty, who the Post backed to the hilt, in no small measure because of then-schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. In addition to being anti-union, Rhee pushed an agenda that called for greatly expanding the testing of students and teachers.

The Post owns Kaplan, the for-profit testing company and online school that came under federal investigation. Speaking to investors in 2007 at a time when more than half of company’s revenues came from Kaplan, CEO Donald Graham rebranded The Washington Post Co. as an “education and media” company. With its primary focus on education, not media, it may not be too surprising that the paper’s education coverage has often seemed to coincide with its business interests.

These were among the issues discussed in the hour-long discussion on Bullet Points.

Related stories: On Education, the Post is Profitable, Not Objective; D.C.’s Double Standard; Navid Nasr on the Middle East Protests