Alex Jones Show - August 25, 2004


Alex Jones at Telecom Infrastructure Committee


Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

183.72133

Word count

3,604

Sentence count

301


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Producers at Austin Community Television, ACTV, are taking their fight to court against the City of Austin and the Board of Directors of the City Council. They claim they are being censored by the Board, and the City is trying to get them in court.

Transcript

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00:00:02.000 Alex Jones, and actually, you get the benefit of a loophole in our policies.
00:00:09.000 For this subcommittee, we don't have an upper end on who can give you their time, so you actually have 20 minutes now.
00:00:17.000 Okay, well, I probably won't even spend 20 unless you have questions.
00:00:20.000 15 is sufficient.
00:00:21.000 Thank you.
00:00:21.000 First off, Mayor Proteum, it's good to see you.
00:00:24.000 You're looking great, and I appreciate your honesty in this whole discussion.
00:00:27.000 And Council Member Alvarez, congratulations on a new member of the family.
00:00:31.000 Thank you.
00:00:32.000 And I don't know this nice lady, but I've met Mr. Hood.
00:00:34.000 He's a real gentleman.
00:00:35.000 Enjoyed talking to him about this when I first began to learn of it when he was leaving one of the board meetings, though he didn't have any details of it.
00:00:42.000 So it's good to see your attorney.
00:00:46.000 I'm not going to come in here and yell and scream this time.
00:00:48.000 I have been locked out of the producer forum, as the other producers were, locked out of the studio just the day before I came down here.
00:00:56.000 And I had heard what they had to say.
00:00:58.000 And then we had the media and people denying and saying it's not true.
00:01:01.000 So I was thinking, my God, the council is, you know, involved in some big cover-up.
00:01:06.000 And from our deep investigations, I've spent, and I don't believe that's the case now, at least with you guys.
00:01:11.000 In our deep investigation, I'm probably up to 65 hours now.
00:01:15.000 Stephan is up to how many hours, Stephan?
00:01:19.000 About 80?
00:01:21.000 A lot.
00:01:22.000 I mean, lawyers, microfilm, law libraries, calling experts.
00:01:28.000 Going over it.
00:01:30.000 And we continued to tell the board, look, repudiate what's in your minutes and what you've said about censoring people.
00:01:36.000 Repudiate this, or we're going to have to take legal action.
00:01:41.000 And understand that I actually studied the law quite a bit, and I know there was a tort reform four years ago, now it's almost five, where you, it's a tort reform, it's a good thing, where if you don't want to just go right out and sue somebody, you can have an investigative Subpoena, which the courts lean towards and almost always grant.
00:02:01.000 And that's what this hearing is coming up for.
00:02:03.000 And if that's unsuccessful, then we have the big guns.
00:02:07.000 We have violations of the contract with the city, with the charter from the early 70s, with just multi-facets, conflict of interest, dynamite stuff.
00:02:21.000 We don't want to do that.
00:02:23.000 I am the one.
00:02:24.000 I mean, there's a bunch of producers who have signed on.
00:02:25.000 A lot more are going to sign on.
00:02:26.000 I'm the one paying for this.
00:02:27.000 And I'm paying so AXS TV isn't hurt.
00:02:31.000 Whereas I can find plenty of lawyers who are ready to go right out and go up against the city and AXS television and anybody else that's involved in this.
00:02:40.000 And I know the city's not afraid of that.
00:02:42.000 You guys are up here with billion-dollar bond proposals or half-a-billion-dollar bond proposals.
00:02:46.000 The point is that AXS television is very, very important.
00:02:49.000 Just to give people some background, let me just read Stephen's press release.
00:02:56.000 ACTV producers go to court over free speech.
00:02:59.000 Austin, Texas producers at Austin Community Television, ACTV, who oppose the ACTV board of directors' moves to limit free speech and expand commercialism on Austin's public television channel, Senate 1116, are taking their fight to court.
00:03:12.000 And we will remind you, this is the birthplace of Axis Television, years before Congress codified it.
00:03:18.000 And years before the deregulation of 1996, AXS TV was born here.
00:03:24.000 This is the Independence Hall of AXS television.
00:03:26.000 We have former city council members who have shows like George Humphrey.
00:03:29.000 We have black shows, white shows, Hispanic shows, people shows, libertarian shows, Democracy Now!, Republicans, pro-lifers.
00:03:35.000 It's all on there.
00:03:36.000 It's beautiful.
00:03:38.000 And today, Attorney Steve Gibbons, on behalf of six ACTV producers, and we've got a lot more that want to sign on, just these six filled out all the paperwork.
00:03:47.000 It's filing a petition in Travis County District Court in order to depose and subpoena records from ACTV board members and ACTV director John Villarreal.
00:03:56.000 On July 22nd, ACTV board members and executive management announced a reorganization of the channels that would effectively limit free speech programming to one channel, Channel 10. The board says it will be called free TV. Austin's free speech and non-commercial public access television channels are threatened by the board's channel reorganization.
00:04:15.000 Said Stephan Ray, ACTV producer for the program Democracy Now.
00:04:19.000 Producers taking this legal step represent both sides of the political spectrum.
00:04:23.000 We get into that.
00:04:24.000 One of them is George Woolley, myself, Alex Jones, Stephan Ray, and others.
00:04:27.000 The board's limits on free speech go against the charter of ACTV, said Jones.
00:04:32.000 By that I mean the original documents that established public access television 31 years ago.
00:04:37.000 The petition cites potential violations of the Texas Nonprofit Corporation Act, the Open Meetings Act, And I kind of disagree with that point.
00:04:45.000 We're going to move.
00:04:46.000 There's much more media issues.
00:04:47.000 The Time Warner franchise agreement, the city of Austin contract with ACTV and ACTV's own bylaws.
00:04:53.000 Now, let me give you evidence of what we're talking about.
00:04:55.000 Let's go to the latest evidence.
00:04:58.000 Last night, I told my lawyer this was going to happen on Monday or Tuesday.
00:05:00.000 I said, hold off.
00:05:01.000 I just, you know, I know this is the right thing to do, but I don't want to get in this because once I get in this fight, I'm going to go all the way.
00:05:07.000 I'm sure people are going to buck up and get all, you know, get their chest out, and then it gets really serious.
00:05:12.000 I can't imagine the investigations we've done, the stuff we've found.
00:05:15.000 And so last night we go to this board meeting that was going to select this puppet board, which I'm a member of, that just advises.
00:05:23.000 And we went through these arguments about it all, being producers, and they said, well, they'll look at it a later day, but we did elect some people, and I'm on that little subcommittee.
00:05:34.000 And then I said, let's go into L.S. Teca down the street, one of my favorite little restaurants.
00:05:37.000 So I go over there, and we've got like 15 people there, and I'm sitting across the table.
00:05:41.000 John Villarreal, and I have four witnesses to this, and two of them now sworn this into the court record.
00:05:48.000 And I say, so can't we just stop this talk of restricting free speech, what's in your minutes, doing all this?
00:05:54.000 And John says, well, in September, you're going to get a handout.
00:05:57.000 We've already paid for our new series and done all this and jumped through all the hoops.
00:06:00.000 You do that each year.
00:06:01.000 That happens right now.
00:06:02.000 The deadline's August 31st.
00:06:04.000 And he goes, well, Alex, we're going to give you a little handout about 11 and 16, and you're going to be on 10. And we're going to tell you what your program is and where it can be and what channel.
00:06:16.000 Because I won't be able to be on those channels because you can't criticize anybody on those channels.
00:06:19.000 It's in their own minutes.
00:06:21.000 And I'm going, you're saying this in front of people.
00:06:23.000 We're here trying to work this out.
00:06:24.000 I've been to like six, seven meetings.
00:06:26.000 I talk to these board members at home and it's like talking to a brick wall.
00:06:29.000 I mean, either they're incredibly naive or they're slicker than senators I interview on my radio show.
00:06:34.000 I mean, it just keeps going and going and going.
00:06:37.000 It's like Ashcroft or something.
00:06:39.000 You know, there is no Patriot Act three months after it's enrolled, you know, the Patriot Act II, with the Speaker of the House, and I have the enrollment sheet from the Library of Congress.
00:06:46.000 I mean, I've got their minutes.
00:06:47.000 I've got all this stuff.
00:06:49.000 He's sitting there telling this, and I look to Lee Hill, R. Lee Hill, one of the board members, and I say, Lee, he's sitting right next to me.
00:06:55.000 I say, Lee, is this true that, you know, you guys keep denying this to the media, but it's in your minutes.
00:07:01.000 Now John just said this.
00:07:02.000 Is it true that I won't be able to be on Channel 10?
00:07:05.000 And he says, yes, it's true.
00:07:07.000 We hope you'll be able to be on Channel 10. I go, so I can't be on 11 or 16?
00:07:11.000 And he said, no.
00:07:12.000 And I said, he goes, it's the plan.
00:07:14.000 I go, what's the plan?
00:07:14.000 We can't talk about it.
00:07:16.000 It's smoky and foggy, Alex.
00:07:18.000 This in front of witnesses.
00:07:19.000 A whole table of people.
00:07:21.000 And I'm sitting there dealing with this.
00:07:24.000 I've been on Access Television as a guest for 10 years, on the air for 8 years.
00:07:29.000 I love the place so much.
00:07:32.000 We've reached hundreds of thousands of people.
00:07:36.000 So many good people can go down there and speak out in this ever-consolidated media.
00:07:40.000 And I just got word that Denver Access is being shut down in a month.
00:07:44.000 Houston just got shut down a month and a half ago.
00:07:46.000 They're shutting them down everywhere.
00:07:48.000 And it's incredible.
00:07:50.000 The establishment doesn't want us to have this.
00:07:52.000 So we can criticize the toll roads, we can criticize the checkpoints, we can criticize the police state, the people's voice nationwide, every week some new established 25, 30 year old access station is being shut down and in some cases it's this slick maneuver of, oh we're commercializing it or we're going to change his designation or we're going to have a program director and he says if you get a show.
00:08:12.000 That's not what access television is supposed to be all about.
00:08:17.000 And so I just start typing the board members names into Google.
00:08:21.000 I mean, literally on Saturday night, my wife comes down at 2 in the morning.
00:08:24.000 Honey, stop it.
00:08:25.000 I've got just stacks of stuff.
00:08:26.000 It gets more and more nightmarish.
00:08:27.000 And I'm going to look at Ron Frank's own website, ronfrank.com.
00:08:30.000 It says in corporate comments, you know, top thing, Time Warner, we love you.
00:08:35.000 You're our favorite consultant.
00:08:36.000 Oh, my God.
00:08:37.000 Can't wait to have you back again.
00:08:38.000 Austin Time Warner, head of, you know, personnel management and development.
00:08:44.000 And I go out to other board members, and they've got big media companies, and they're former heads of major record labels, and they've got big fancy entertainment educational companies, and then I've heard, we're going to have education on Channel 16, and can't have bad stuff around that.
00:08:59.000 We're going to get grants, and all the pieces start going boom, boom, boom.
00:09:02.000 Then I go down layer after layer and layer after layer of stuff I don't even want to bring up here.
00:09:07.000 Okay?
00:09:07.000 I mean, it's amazing.
00:09:10.000 And this is a fight we're going to win.
00:09:13.000 Either with the public perception or with the council or in the courts.
00:09:16.000 And man, I've been spending 20, 30 hours a week on this.
00:09:19.000 It's exhausting, but I'm going to keep doing it.
00:09:21.000 I'm going to keep moving forward.
00:09:22.000 I'm going to continue to expose this.
00:09:25.000 And I smelled a big, fat rat.
00:09:27.000 And then we found a big, fat rat.
00:09:29.000 And, you know, the big, fat, dead rat underneath the floorboards.
00:09:32.000 And I'm saying, can we just recognize this thing?
00:09:34.000 And all I keep asking the board to do is please say that you will...
00:09:38.000 Not restrict us off these channels.
00:09:39.000 They go, it's not a free speech restriction.
00:09:41.000 It's just that if you criticize, you won't be on them.
00:09:43.000 And you will be on 10. And that's most of the shows.
00:09:47.000 We'll be on 10, where it's all controlled, and now we're taking channels that are established and censoring people off of them.
00:09:54.000 Their position in the bylaws, in the city contract, we have all this in the brief.
00:09:58.000 I mean, it's like this thick.
00:09:59.000 All the rules, you know, the state, city, county.
00:10:03.000 Everything.
00:10:03.000 It's all in there.
00:10:05.000 The contracts, everything.
00:10:06.000 And it clearly states they can't get involved in any content.
00:10:10.000 And I remember years ago, the totally different attitude of John Villarreal, who I've always thought was a really nice person.
00:10:17.000 When somebody would be on the air, you know, threatening me and saying, this is where Alex lives and stuff.
00:10:22.000 And I went to him and I said, you know, you might want to kick this person off.
00:10:26.000 And he says, no, handle it with the courts.
00:10:27.000 You know what?
00:10:28.000 I did.
00:10:28.000 That was my experience.
00:10:29.000 And I went and it worked great.
00:10:31.000 Okay?
00:10:32.000 He said, look, We would have liability if we started deciding what's on.
00:10:35.000 That's what's kept us safe.
00:10:36.000 They've never had a problem for 31 years.
00:10:39.000 You know, what, a decade ago they had an InfoSex thing.
00:10:41.000 Nothing compared to, you know, Janet Jackson or whatever at the Super Bowl.
00:10:44.000 I mean, they have a really good history.
00:10:46.000 This is something that protects them.
00:10:47.000 So I'm also trying to protect an Austin institution.
00:10:50.000 Believe me, I mean, I'm on 87 radio stations.
00:10:52.000 I make documentaries that are sold all over the world.
00:10:54.000 I do interviews on the biggest shows.
00:10:57.000 I mean, I don't need access to television anymore.
00:10:59.000 But I love it.
00:11:00.000 I have a passion for it because it stands up against tyranny, and it's an Austin landmark and institution.
00:11:05.000 You know, I'm trying to stand up for acts of television because what it is for the community and for those that haven't got the chance to get out and have their voices heard and to get involved.
00:11:18.000 And I just dearly love it, and there is so much more to this story and so many serious things that are happening.
00:11:26.000 And I talked to the board.
00:11:28.000 Some of the members of the board, some of the members seem like they're willing to listen and try to back off these past rules and laws that they have brought in, regulations, that would restrict speech.
00:11:41.000 But then as soon as one has said they don't want to do it, then another denies it, then another says, yes, we're going to do it, and you're going to be given a handout in a month telling you what channels you can be on.
00:11:50.000 So I would ask the council that is the true elected body in...
00:11:57.000 Austin, Texas, to send interrogatories, letters, registered letters to the board, and demand from them all of these working group minutes for yourself, so you can find out what these true notes are, so you can see it for yourself.
00:12:14.000 And we're going to bring you, I wasn't aware that you hadn't seen the minutes, and obviously you're very busy, we'll bring you the minutes of the stuff we've gotten.
00:12:20.000 First thing they do is come in Months and months and months ago, what month was that where they set aside the rules, Stephen?
00:12:29.000 April.
00:12:30.000 And they go, we're going to move to set aside rules that could block us from our new plan.
00:12:36.000 I mean, and then we say, well, what are the rules you set aside?
00:12:38.000 We don't know what you're talking about.
00:12:39.000 That's a mistake in the minutes.
00:12:41.000 And then, okay, well, what's this?
00:12:42.000 A few months later, about if somebody criticizes or critiques another religion, people are off the air.
00:12:48.000 We don't know what that is.
00:12:49.000 My, that's another mistake.
00:12:50.000 And then one of the board members...
00:12:52.000 She gets up at the Millennium Center at one of these forums and is asked about it, and she goes, well, we're for that because, you know, this could hurt people's feelings by criticizing other religions.
00:13:01.000 And I'm a realtor, and I almost lost a sale because somebody would want to sell to one religion because they heard something on ACTV. Well, it's not our problem if somebody criticizes some religion.
00:13:12.000 That's what religions do.
00:13:13.000 You're not going to have anything on Channel 11 if this starts happening.
00:13:16.000 I mean, period.
00:13:17.000 One religion doesn't say, we're the one, we've got all the...
00:13:20.000 I mean, it's crazy.
00:13:21.000 I mean, I've never heard of...
00:13:23.000 Russia has more free speech than this.
00:13:25.000 That is, they don't say you can't say something that's hurtful to a religion or you can't criticize a group.
00:13:30.000 I mean, it's amazing.
00:13:32.000 I'm not even kidding.
00:13:33.000 I mean, AXS TV is supposed to be all about free speech.
00:13:36.000 The birthplace of it, you know, this is now happening to it.
00:13:41.000 And again, we are legally going in to bring them in for depositions.
00:13:48.000 It's a tort reform.
00:13:49.000 And we're not even seeking money at this point.
00:13:52.000 We simply want to leave the institution alone so that it is not damaged, and so its protective membrane of free speech is not damaged, their content neutral position as providers to the community.
00:14:03.000 We don't want our individual free speech and what we do with our shows to be damaged.
00:14:09.000 We don't want any of the producers to be damaged.
00:14:11.000 I've been to four or five of these producer meetings, and there might be one producer out of 200 people that shows up.
00:14:17.000 That gets up and says they're for it.
00:14:19.000 I don't even think there's been one producer that's gotten up.
00:14:21.000 But the point is, I've never seen anyone at these meetings get up who's for this.
00:14:25.000 We are the true constituents, the producers of AXS TV. And we've had hundreds of viewers show up to this.
00:14:31.000 They're all against what's happening.
00:14:33.000 We call...
00:14:34.000 Exactly.
00:14:36.000 The staff.
00:14:37.000 I have privately talked to all...
00:14:40.000 I think...
00:14:42.000 Wait.
00:14:42.000 Every member of the staff but John Villarreal.
00:14:45.000 Or maybe one other.
00:14:48.000 Who is for this?
00:14:49.000 They all hate it.
00:14:50.000 In the first meeting, when this was announced, first board meeting, there were shouting matches.
00:14:54.000 People who'd been there decades said, what is your problem?
00:14:58.000 You can't do that.
00:15:00.000 You know, the analogy is, and then I'll wrap up if you've got any questions.
00:15:03.000 The analogy is, let's say we have a city-owned golf course, 100 years old, giant oak trees.
00:15:07.000 This has happened in other cities.
00:15:08.000 There's a lot of case law on this.
00:15:09.000 And the city says, well, we've got our board, and they say they're turning it down and putting an amusement park.
00:15:14.000 The amusement people are going to pay $50 million for this.
00:15:17.000 Everybody goes completely ape, there's lawsuits, and that board's thrown off.
00:15:21.000 So the board can say, we're God, we can do whatever they want, but they're not.
00:15:24.000 They're there to serve Austinites, serve producers.
00:15:27.000 They're to uphold the standard of what it is.
00:15:29.000 They're not there to say, let's tear down the golf course, cut down all the oak trees, and set up Coney Island.
00:15:36.000 This place has a mission, and that mission is being violated clearly from their minutes.
00:15:43.000 And then we have board members getting up on TV and saying we're going to have control and oversight over the shows and what is done.
00:15:49.000 And we have multiple board members saying it.
00:15:51.000 And then when the news calls them, they go, there's no free speech violation.
00:15:54.000 It's amazing.
00:15:55.000 And it's very Machiavellian.
00:15:57.000 Very Machiavellian.
00:15:59.000 And I have been open to discussions on this issue.
00:16:02.000 I have tried to get them to back off their position.
00:16:05.000 I have begged.
00:16:06.000 I have pleaded.
00:16:07.000 And that was only taken by most of the board members.
00:16:12.000 As a sign of weakness.
00:16:14.000 When in truth, I was simply trying to mediate this in an unofficial way so it's not escalated.
00:16:20.000 But now we're in the fight.
00:16:21.000 We're going all the way to defend free speech in the Lone Star City, in the Lone Star State, deep in the heart of Texas.
00:16:28.000 And I want to thank all those that came out.
00:16:30.000 I just mentioned it once on the radio.
00:16:31.000 I want to thank all those that came out today and gave us their time.
00:16:35.000 And just God bless you.
00:16:36.000 And I just beg this council to Then they claim, yeah, we've had council members that complain.
00:17:06.000 They won't tell us who.
00:17:07.000 Then you call McCracken's office and they say, conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory.
00:17:12.000 And then our sources inside the telecommunications system at the highest levels, I don't think we want to give those names out, but Stephan's been conferring with them, looked in the files.
00:17:22.000 There's been, on average, 12 complaints a year about AXS TV. I mean, my God, I have a little sandwich shot on the road from me, probably gets 12 complaints a day.
00:17:30.000 And they admit that they've got over a thousand phone calls at McCracken's office saying they don't want this.
00:17:37.000 Okay?
00:17:38.000 And the Chronicle was saying when they wrote that hit They were getting 500 calls every 30 minutes when people were calling down there.
00:17:47.000 And I would imagine your offices have gotten calls about this.
00:17:50.000 So we want free speech.
00:17:52.000 It is popular.
00:17:53.000 And so they've tried to tell us there's no funding.
00:17:55.000 We look at the funding, it's actually increased.
00:17:57.000 While most government departments have decreased.
00:18:00.000 They have slightly increased when most government departments and government people watch and know Pay.
00:18:12.000 Okay.
00:18:13.000 And.
00:18:14.000 John. John. John. John. John. John. John. John.
00:18:23.000 Thank you.
00:18:53.000 Thank you.
00:19:23.000 And I've been friends with John.
00:19:24.000 He was just Mr. Free Speech, a bigger defender of free speech than the former executive director.
00:19:30.000 And it's been a 180. And it's very sad.
00:19:35.000 It's been very painful for me.