Life22

Day 13,577 - Live Debate Snafu.mp3
Transcript
00:00:06 Kevin
Good morning, gang. It is a Friday morning, man.
00:00:14 Kevin
So most of you are on your way to work, excited for the long weekend? Well, not long weekend, but it's a weekend, right? It's longer than a work day. I know most of you guys are.
00:00:25 Kevin
The ones who are out there, who are working, not the lazy bums who listen to the channel that sit at home and don't do anything all day. Look at that. We just lost a few subscribers. Oh well.
00:00:34 Kevin
Umm.
00:00:36 Kevin
Which is not today's theme, but you know like, like, you know, don't forget, don't don't forego.
00:00:45 Kevin
What you believe in, to to to appease others. So there's a little life wisdom of the day. As most of you know, we've had a busy week this week, right? The mayoral debate was on Wednesday night. So I've got a few things to start with on that, a rant to get into and then.
00:01:04 Kevin
So I wanna let you know that I I plan on breaking down the debate. We had a lot of like segments and time scheduled for that and it kind of got thrown out of the water just because we were allowed to view it.
00:01:19 Kevin
We were not allowed to record the debate so.
00:01:26 Kevin
Which is. Which is funny because we we orchestrated the debate like we didn't orchestrate the actual debate that took place, but we were the ones who were like ah, because there's been since I was on the Council, there's been like 3 mayors races and I think this would be the 4th.
00:01:44 Kevin
That have occurred and we've never had a debate and apparently there was one years ago prior, you know, 12 years ago.
00:01:52 Kevin
When I wasn't there. And it's funny because it was like, oh, we should have a debate. And so I got one of the candidates to do it. And the other candidate. Then I started calling around. Hey, maybe we should do it at JC. Maybe we should do this. Ohh. You're calling with the debate. Oh, it's already scheduled. Don't worry about it. Like what? What do you mean? Schedule that. And I didn't schedule it. And it was like, oh, well, you know, this organization in the League of Women Voters saw.
00:02:13 Kevin
That Amy was gonna do a debate on a podcast and they're, you know, scheduling it. I'm like. Ohh. OK. That's cool. Well, maybe they'll reach out to us because we're part of the press pool. We get more views than the Times herald right now, which is, which is very funny because.
00:02:27 Kevin
I'm sure the Times Herald wouldn't have thought that years ago when I were calling them out for their ridiculous reporting. And so it was just kind of it was humorous. And this is this is, I guess I'm going right into the rant with it. Something's burning on my brain because, you know, we started asking questions. We started.
00:02:47 Kevin
You know, we sent in emails with questions for debate candidates. None of them were read. Well, we're going to have a debate and it's going to be fair, but it's also going to hit the hard hitting questions. Nope. Didn't do any of that. Nope. Just kind of. What are your thoughts on drugs like? Yeah, so.
00:03:05 Kevin
I've got a few issues with it, but it is what it is, so now it's in a. It's in a public space JC it was.
00:03:10 Kevin
Open to the public.
00:03:14 Kevin
And and there was, well, we don't know what JC's policy is, but the league of Women Voters says in no recording policy. Which.
00:03:22 Kevin
Well, that's weird because you've allowed one person to record. Well, they're recording.
00:03:26 Kevin
On behalf of us.
00:03:28 Kevin
OK.
00:03:30 Kevin
But they're a news outlet, and they're posting it to the public in a public space. Well, OK, that, that's that's kind of odd that you won't let any other news like.
00:03:44 Kevin
Police record.
00:03:45 Kevin
Like.
00:03:47 Kevin
I I don't know. It's one of those things, you know, the Times herald had a photographer there and we were given permission to take stills. Ohh, you know. But it's one of those.
00:03:59 Kevin
Here was the other part that got to me because I also talked to a few other people and they're like it's a public space. There's nobody who can stop you. They physically can't remove you because you're not causing a disturbance from recording. I guess hindsight 2020 out of politeness, I guess, is how I did it, probably unintentional.
00:04:18 Kevin
But it was one of those. It was one of those things, you know, you just the other thing that got me was.
00:04:27 Kevin
I ended up sitting next to two Alderman and then one left and then another one replaced him and it was just I so but I saw there was at least 4 Alderman there, right? Which means that it technically should have been published by the city itself as an open meeting, regardless if they were participating in an event. If they show up to an event, it's technically a public meeting.
00:04:47 Kevin
Because they could have, because from what my understanding was being on the Council like they could be.
00:04:54 Kevin
Having.
00:04:56 Kevin
Discussions or whatever, right? Like we were never allowed to meet. Like I couldn't meet. You could meet one Alderman, one off, one-on-one. But if you met with more than two others, which means there were three of you, you could potentially like. You could literally just say all we talked about was the weather. You could record the conversation and say, hey, listen, this was just the weather.
00:05:17 Kevin
It does not matter because you had the potential to talk about city business or business of the board that you were on.
00:05:26 Kevin
And and so yeah, you could not meet in groups of three or more because it created a quorum.
00:05:34 Kevin
Or it somehow? Well, it somehow activated public meeting law. So you technically.
00:05:38 Kevin
We're hosting a whatever and so you had to have it published so we could and then they tried to construe it that like, well, if you had a text message that just, hey, guys, the meetings moved or whatever, that whole text message was technically foil able and was supposed to be published because it was a meeting. Because if you had, you know, three or more Alderman.
00:05:59 Kevin
Like just notification. You know what I mean? It was just one of those. But they never, they never considered that with like, e-mail chains that were like, hey, today's meeting is this. It's like, well, yes, it's boilable. It's all boilable. But you didn't have to publish it.
00:06:11 Kevin
As a meeting, so I don't never understood that one, but but these are the different rules. So technically, if they were charging money for the debate, you will be required.
00:06:22 Kevin
You would have to allow everybody to come in for free regardless, because there was.
00:06:28 Kevin
Three elected officials there.
00:06:30 Kevin
And I believe the mayor counts as an elected official and he's technically participating in the event. So it was one of those like, OK.
00:06:40 Kevin
Where you like, it's a. Now it's an open meeting now, like you're under open meetings law. So even if you have a policy that says that you don't allow recordings.
00:06:50 Kevin
You allowed it open to the public and.
00:06:54 Kevin
4 Alderman wandered in from off the street, not wandered in, but they, you know, they came in now. It's now you're subject to open meetings law. Now you can't stop people from recording. Now you can't do this now. You can't do that. And technically.
00:07:09 Kevin
Stopping somebody from recording is a violation of open meeting law, and it's not just that's not just a detriment to the the, the, the elected body. They didn't stop anybody from from publicly recording, but you you see the same consequences that the the city could face. So like if you're an individual stopping somebody from recording at a council meeting and you're not.
00:07:28 Kevin
Part of the meeting you can still see the same consequences because you're violating the law. That's how it works.
00:07:34 Kevin
So it's just it's one of those things. It grinds my gears just because we we spent probably way more money like upgrading equipment and stuff so that we could have on site reporting and on site this than that given that we're the only news channel in Olean.
00:07:51 Kevin
And then you know, just to just to kind of be like you can't do that here. This is ours really. You telling the guy who, like incepted the debate?
00:08:02 Kevin
With the only news channel and only and that he can't record the thing like.
00:08:07 Kevin
He's got eight times the number of subscribers that you guys do, like he's got more reads than the Times Herald does now because they're dying like they're not even printing in New York anymore.
00:08:17 Kevin
They're not even like they're gonna stop printing altogether, and they're gonna be.
00:08:22 Kevin
Well, they're going to be doing the E paper thing. So it's just, I don't know, it just it it like it really just like, hey, not even like a.
00:08:30 Kevin
We appreciate you coming up with the debate idea. Really. Ohh like who? Who came up? You guys weren't gonna do it. You haven't done it in like, 8 years.
00:08:38 Kevin
12 years.
00:08:41 Kevin
I don't know. And it's funny. And then there was, like they they. Well, you didn't. You didn't call us like I listen, I barely got your e-mail. Like, if you look at like the the newspaper articles related to the whole ordeal.
00:08:53 Kevin
It just said like submit questions by the 4th.
00:08:56 Kevin
You know, it was Wednesday of last week, I believe. And then it was like by 7:00 PM to this e-mail address with this subject. And it's like, OK, well, I'm gonna go on their website. I'm gonna go on their Facebook page. I'm gonna go on the national, the state and the county ones. So I can see on so we went to six different places on the Internet to see where I can find information. Like, what questions are they not looking for what?
00:09:17 Kevin
Questions like more specifics because.
00:09:19 Kevin
Everyone was asking me to submit questions that were.
00:09:23 Kevin
Kind of bias to one side or the other, and I'm like, well, this side can answer it, but this side can't and I was like, so I tried to formulate questions that both sides would be able to answer.
00:09:34 Kevin
And so it was like at least, you know, non bias and it's like, yeah, I could have. I could have struck it both candidates with the question. But it's like, yeah, but the question would only struck at 1:00. But even though, and if I fair and balanced both of them out. So I submit 10 Questions, 5 went after one candidate 51 after another.
00:09:51 Kevin
It I mean that's that's not what we're looking for. They want the question itself to be.
00:09:57 Kevin
You know, be able to go at both sides and they it was, but they didn't have any of that information. The only stuff they had on their website for a non biased organization was like celebrations of Pride Month. And I'm like why, why do we care about that? I understand that the League of Women Voters is a left-leaning organization that claims to be the least.
00:10:18 Kevin
Biased organization on the planet like you can't say like we are non biased in any way shape or form. Then then if there was a group of if there was a group of of of Women League of Women Voters who were like.
00:10:33 Kevin
That didn't want women to vote. For example, if there were a group of women who didn't want women to vote, they would have to still help them in whatever their mission is, because that's part of not being non biased. Like if there's a group of.
00:10:48 Kevin
Women Voters who.
00:10:49 Kevin
Are anti trans.
00:10:51 Kevin
Then.
00:10:54 Kevin
Who are anti trans and then like you also have to support them. That's part of being non bias. If you gonna support one group you have to support both or you support none like that's the rule. So like don't sit there and they were touting, you know, nonpartisan, non bias and it's like but but you're not you're not it's just it's it's humorous.
00:11:13 Kevin
We get along with everybody. Well, then you also have to support people that don't get along with anybody, like that's non bias. I don't think people get that. I think people like think that, well, if it seems like the right thing, then it also must be OK and it's like, yes. Well, you can do the right thing, but you can't sit there and say that we accept all, I don't know.
00:11:33 Kevin
Anyways, my gears are a little grind because we you know.
00:11:36 Kevin
We had a lot. We had a lot invested in this and you know we we like now all of a sudden it's like, well, we're gonna. We're gonna take clips from the show and it's already like pulling teeth to try to get clips because it's it's meant to be used in its entirety. And it's like, well, then, how do I, how do I question a.
00:11:53 Kevin
Question. How do I argue with a question that somebody submitted like somebody submits a question? One candidate answers it. I don't like their response, so I'm gonna review their response to that question. Like you don't have to watch the hour before or the 30 minutes after the question to to to be able to criticize a response to a question.
00:12:15 Kevin
And even within those questions, there are like little sporadic thoughts from both sides that just like you're like, why did that person bring this up? Why did this person bring that up? And it's like.
00:12:25 Kevin
Sometimes there is no contacts for some of these answers, and you're like well.
00:12:29 Kevin
Like it wouldn't matter if I showed you an hour and a half video, you would know from the 30 seconds like like listen, there was no context before or after. Here's the full video, but we're going to review the section in question so we don't have access to do any of that, which is which is stupid.
00:12:45 Kevin
Especially because we're the the hard hitting news channel in the area, right? So that's, I don't know. So there was Kevin's rant now for the debate itself. I am working on being able to review the debate.
00:12:59 Kevin
Which I I'd like to like, watch it, make notes. I wish I had a copy of it. It is a pain in the **** because they also posted like they also posted they could take it down at any moment. So it's like it's up there until somebody reviews it in a way they don't like it for their candidate or whatever. I just think that that's whatever candidate they're choosing, which I'm assuming less leading organization.
00:13:21 Kevin
That.
00:13:23 Kevin
That's already like preliminary amongst their ranks, who I also talked to are coming out with an endorsement here after the primary, which is fun or right before the primary, which I think is funny as well, they're non biased, but they have endorsements like how do you do that? Like I just it's just it's.
00:13:41 Kevin
It it makes my head hurt a little bit, but you know it is what it is. But so they if somebody posts a a response that maybe one side over the other has that they don't like like, hey listen I I because I wanna do a in-depth breakdown on each one of them and I'm trying to be fair and I'm trying to be non biased but I'm not gonna tell you that I'm not biased I'm going to have my opinion and I'm going to try not to let it shed.
00:14:00 Kevin
Through until the final hours, right. That's usually how it works. Before the the primary. I'm going to give you my breakdown on both of them before the but.
00:14:11 Kevin
And then the last thing I I got to get off this rant. So and then the last thing that I'd like to talk about before I sign off today is that you guys.
00:14:23 Kevin
You guys are probably like why, you know, Kevin, we want to hear your take on the debate and I will give you a play by play as well as a summary, but.
00:14:32 Kevin
The debate happened. The debate is like when you go to the grocery store to buy groceries.
00:14:37 Kevin
OK.
00:14:38 Kevin
So you go to the store, you buy the groceries like it's not ready to eat yet. The groceries are in the fridge, the meat is thawing on the counter like it's.
00:14:48 Kevin
The raw ingredients have just arrived.
00:14:55 Kevin
So now that the raw ingredients have just arrived, you're going to have to give me some time to pick it apart. Slice things up, start to prepare it.
00:15:06 Kevin
And then we can do the cooking.
00:15:08 Kevin
And then I can serve it to you and that's kind of how that's kind of how the debate is you gotta give it a few days. You gotta give some time. You know what I mean? You go to the store and then it becomes dinner. Then it becomes something that you can digest, something that I can prepare for you so that maybe it's easier for you to digest. Maybe I have to cut your meat. I don't know depends on because I don't just have listeners that are.
00:15:29 Kevin
Well versed.
00:15:32 Kevin
Political commentators I have, I have a few, and then I have other people that I have to, you know, airplane. They're they're stuff to them because they they just, they're not in it. They don't have the experience to understand and break down everything. That's where I come in. So. But with that said, thanks for listening to my rant this Friday morning and it'll.
00:15:52 Kevin
Energized me throughout the day and thank you for staring at my 711 Christmas shirt. There were a dollar last year, so I got like 20 of them so.
00:16:02 Kevin
Alright guys, we will see you guys hopefully this weekend on life 22.
00:16:10 Kevin
Title taxed.