It was probably around 1 p.m. on Wednesday last week when it happened.
I was working with David Budries, one of the finest people you will ever meet. He was setting up the sound system for the District 1 supervisor debate we were going to put on that night.
David is a member of the KRYZ Radio board of directors. So am I.
Because he was having interference of the sound system for a reason he could never determine, David made the decision to “hard wire” the speaker system. That meant physically running wires. In this case, it was at the Midpines Hall.
We were also putting a speaker in front of the building so the KRYZ volunteers stationed there could hear what was going on. As an old “roadie” from decades ago when I assisted in setting up my brother’s rock band, I was helping out.
I was holding the wire as David was behind me taping it to the wall. For the outside speaker, we had to run in under the front door. That’s when it happened.
As I laid the wire on the concrete, I raised back up and “bam!” I smacked the back of my head right on the corner of the push-style door handle frame. It smacked so hard David asked me if I was alright.
“I have a hard head,” was my response as the brain matter rattled around.
It hurt. (There was still a small bump there five days later.)
But I carried on because not only did the sound system have to be set up, the entire room had to be ready to go for that night’s forum.
I bring this up for good reason.
David, who just by the sound of it knew that one hurt and asked how I was right away, is just one of the many people associated with KRYZ Radio who volunteered time to put on this event.
As far as I am concerned, all of them are of high character and want to see good things happen for the radio station. That’s why they were there; it was going to be our first live event in a while and every hand was on deck.
I feel the same is true for Nicole W. Little, the publisher of this paper, and Tom Lyden, our reporter who served as the moderator of the forum. Both are of high ethical standards.
That is one of the reasons we are able to put on such events. Good people doing good work for the betterment of the community.
In my estimation, the forum went off without a hitch, was quite successful and seemed well received.
Now, I am not one to get wrapped up in social media. Quite the opposite, in fact.
And to nobody’s surprise, the critics emerged following this successful event.
I can take criticism with the best of them. My skin is thick.
But there was one issue that floated around after this forum I must address.
Someone out there in the la-la land of social media decided to tell the world we had somehow given the questions we were going to ask to one of the candidates before the forum.
Let’s just be right up front: That is a complete lie and the person or persons saying it are liars. Full stop.
You can criticize the questions, the format, the broadcast or any thing else you want; but when you go at the integrity of the people who are doing this for the community, it is a bridge too far.
To the liars, where did your information come from?
Oh, I know, thin air.
Let me set the record straight right now on how this forum, and past forums, work when it comes to the questions.
The questions are submitted to me and me alone. I gather them in a place accessible to nobody else. The questions come from the public and are generally sent via email. As soon as I copy those questions to a master list, the email is deleted.
In this case, about four days before the debate, I shared the questions in printed form with Hannah Fleetwood, another KRYZ board member who partnered with me during the forum to ask the questions. We sat and talked about them and got them in some semblance of order.
Next, just two days before the debate, I shared a copy with Tom, who was going to moderate and who was given the chance to edit any of the questions or add a question or two if he felt it was needed. Since he covers county government, it was an important step.
The day before the debate, the final list was determined and I printed them out. It was then they were given to Nicole for a final look. She’s the boss of the place and makes these events happen.
That’s a total of four people who knew the questions.
On Wednesday morning, the day of the debate, I printed out the final list and took a hard copy to Hannah.
Nicole didn’t keep a hard copy, meaning only three existed: me, Hannah and Tom. All of those copies were kept under wraps and didn’t even see the light of day until the minutes leading up to the forum.
That’s how it worked, folks, no matter what the liars on social media say.
It’s always interesting to me how people simply make things up when they don’t like something that happens. Boo hoo.
And get over yourself and your biases.
The staff at the Gazette and the volunteers at KRYZ are upstanding people who pour their hearts and souls into making sure events like this happen and are conducted in a professional manner. This forum was no exception.
I will never understand those who simply make things up to try to influence others in the public. Trust me, I deal with it all of the time and it’s an offshoot of social media that is harming our society.
Not to mention they don’t have the guts to come into our office and accuse us in person.
Nope, they sit at their keyboards and call us unethical.
How ironic.
Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.com
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