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Up front, let me state that contrary to some misstatements made by some producers, it's not the League of Women Voters of San Francisco that are preempting producer programming. As I understand the situation, it's Marc Smolowitz and Zane Blaney doing the preempting in the name of League of Women Voters programming. I give the League of Women Voters of San Francisco the benefit of the doubt that they are unaware that this abuse is occurring.
I've been a supporter of the League of Women Voters as long as I can remember. Back in the days when I had disposable income, the League of Women Voters is one of the groups I donated money to. I've always appreciated their efforts to inform voters. Prior to my employment at Access SF, I would volunteer to work on the League of Women Voters programs at Access SF. I was happy to work on the programs again this past year as an employee.
The SFCTC Grant Agreement with the City and Country of San Francisco mandates that Access SF cablecasts voter informational programs. It does not state that this programming should preempt producer programming. The Access SF Policies and Procedures gives Zane the right to preempt programming, but that's a bit self-serving since Zane wrote these rules. My concern is that Zane doesn't understand how to exercise that authority in a responsible manner. There was absolutely no reason for producer programs to be preempted for these voter informational programs. The Access SF schedule is pretty sparse. It is so sparse that on most days, programming is repeated two or three times just to fill in the programming gaps. There are also many "X"ed out timeslots held in reserve for specials. Why would producers precious assigned timeslots need to be preempted for special programs when so much time is already available?
The current month's programming schedule does not show producer timeslot commitments that are effective at the beginning of the next month. At the monthly timeslot selection lottery meetings, producers are granted timeslots that become effective not the next month, but the month after the next month. The Program Coordinator needs that intervening month to process all of the playback applications and update the databases. Program commitments are made a couple months in advance. The "X"ed out timeslots held in reserve for specials do not change, but the programming gaps do change.
Marc Smolowitz, the SFCTC Development Coordinator, who producers the League of Women Voters of San Francisco specials, plans the cablecast schedule in isolation and refuses to consult with the Program Coordinator. Marc looks only at the current month's schedule, the one that doesn't show commitments for next month and the month after that, when preparing his press releases announcing the League's schedule. Marc has Zane sign off on these press releases, and they are sent out to the press, before the Program Coordinator is told that all decisions have been made and cast in concrete. The Program Coordinator is the ONLY person who has record of what commitments are made to producers for upcoming series and special timeslots. The Program Coordinator MUST be consulted when planning upcoming specials (and festivals). Zane doesn't agree with the need to bring the Program Coordinator into the picture, since he reserves the right to preempt programming at will and has no reservations on how he exercises that authority. The Program Coordinator (first Tom Barkett, now Sam Long) has absolutely no control of this, yet they are the ones who must take the abuse from producers when the producer's show is preempted.
Had this misprogramming occurred once, I might attribute it to a misunderstanding, but this problem has been repeated over and over again while I was employed at Access SF, and I presume it was happening prior to that.
In October 2004, I submitted an election special "There's Something about W" for playback. This was a professionally produced independent documentary made by San Franciscans. I obtained permission from the producers to screen this documentary on Access SF. When I gave my playback application to Tom Barkett I found that all of the special timeslots, and almost all of the daytime program gaps had been reserved by Marc Smolowitz for League programming and his "The San Franciscans" programs. There was nothing available for the member producers except for some overnight programming in the wee hours of the morning. Later I found that Marc's aggressive gobbling up of timeslots also included preempted timeslots committed to producer series.
In March 2005, Marc did the same type of aggressive scheduling for his "Youth Media Festival". He preempted prime-time producer series during an entire week to run his festival. The only shows not preempted for his festival where ones that provided Youth Festival coverage by allowed Marc to schedule the guests.
Marc repeated himself again in October 2005 in his aggressive scheduling of League programming and his "The San Franciscans" programs. He again took most available timeslots as well as preempted timeslots which were committed to producer series.
The Program Coordinator (first Tom Barkett, and now Sam Long) takes the abuse for preempted producer timeslots and for not being able to schedule producer specials during reasonable timeslots. That is not fair. because it's Marc Smolowitz who is aggressively gobbling up these timeslots, with the backing of and authority of Zane Blaney.
In October 2004, March 2005, and October 2005, Tom Barkett was outspoken in staff meetings that it was not right to preempt producer programming or to not abide by timeslot commitments he had made as the Program Coordinator in the name of Access SF. Many other staff members were outspoken in supporting Tom's position. Zane Blaney would tell Tom (in front of the rest of the staff) that his authority gives him the right to preempt programming at will, and he will not tolerate any questioning of his authority. It was Tom's standing up for the commitments made to producers that prompted Zane to get rid of Tom via a constructive termination. It's an abuse of authority for force someone out of their job because they question a program scheduling decision.
Of course these specials can be schedule in a fair manner. Nobody contests to importance of the League of Women Voters voter information specials. To schedule these (and other) special programming fairly, all it takes is:
Why would Marc Smolowitz and Zane Blaney argue with this? Zane's answer "Because I have the authority to preempt programming at will.".
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