In a brutal three minutes during Public Comments tonight, former KHTS Political Reporter Mark Archuleta accused KHTS station owner Carl Goldman of systematically manipulating news coverage to benefit major SCV political figures, including Congressman Buck McKeon & at least one unidentified City Council Candidate.
I have a partial recording of the audio and a full transcript of the remarks below, but let me set the scene first.
I'm told at least a dozen or more supporters of Archuleta were present in the Council Chambers and had their mouths taped shut, to dramatize media manipulation and censorship of reporters. Archuleta then took to the Dais and in a rapid three minutes, made his accusations against Goldman. KCAL 9 news was there, making video of the speech, so we should probably see some real media coverage of Archuleta's comments in the days to come.
Here's a full transcript of Archuleta's comments. They shed much more light on the events leading up to Carol Rock & Archuleta being let go from KHTS, events we got a hint of in our interview with Rock last week:
More to come as it comes in.
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Mark Archuleta tells all before the City Council
I have a partial recording of the audio and a full transcript of the remarks below, but let me set the scene first.
I'm told at least a dozen or more supporters of Archuleta were present in the Council Chambers and had their mouths taped shut, to dramatize media manipulation and censorship of reporters. Archuleta then took to the Dais and in a rapid three minutes, made his accusations against Goldman. KCAL 9 news was there, making video of the speech, so we should probably see some real media coverage of Archuleta's comments in the days to come.
Here's a full transcript of Archuleta's comments. They shed much more light on the events leading up to Carol Rock & Archuleta being let go from KHTS, events we got a hint of in our interview with Rock last week:
My name is Mark Archuleta and I am a resident of Canyon Country.
I wanted to bring to your attention an obituary that may not have caught your attention. The deceased, is the Free Press in the Santa Clarita Valley.
As you may have heard News Director Carol Rock and I were fired last week by K-H-T-S. There has been lots of speculation as to why and I am here tonight to end my silence.
For six months we’ve worked under the pressure from K-H-T-S owner Carl Goldman that at anytime our news stories could be pulled or we’d be forced to alter them to fit a political agenda that would keep facts from the public. We resisted and were fired.
Make no mistake, this move by Goldman is in response to building complaints by supporters and staff of Congressman Howard Buck McKeon.
You may wonder how media suppression works. It begins with a simple phone call, includes threats, and ends in firings of those who will not comply. Two examples:
On May 11th Goldman called me to say he was pulling down from the K-H-T-S website my article on the Mammoth Mountain land swap deal. He said McKeon had called him and demanded it be removed or he would leave a business junket, arranged by Goldman, stranded in DC without his support.
The story disappeared.
Prior to the City Council election, I conducted an interview with one of the candidates. It was a tough, but fair interview. That candidate called Goldman and complained. Goldman came to me and Carol and said the story had to be changed to protect the candidate.
As Goldman explained it was important to prevent a three-person voting bloc on the council and to accomplish that it was necessary to protect the person I’d interviewed and to keep two people from winning. Look at your council tonight and you will see Goldman’s plans worked part way.
Carl and Jeri Goldman have done a lot of good for Santa Clarita through charity. But a lot of good does not balance out a lot of harm. Altering stories to influence elections is harmful and not the business of a reputable news organization.
It is also cynical to hope that the public will believe Carol and I were “laid off for budget cuts”, and then hire our replacements by the end of the week, before our bodies were even cold.
Our firing came days after an October 5th meeting in McKeon’s district office where Carol, Goldman, and myself met with McKeon staffers (District Director)Morris Thomas and (Communications Director) Alissa McCurley.
Because they’d complained about my writing, Goldman promised McKeon’s staff that Carol and I would both be barred from covering McKeon any more until after the election -- including reporting on the upcoming debate with Dr. Lee Rogers.
If muzzling us wasn’t enough, Goldman appeased them further by promising to personally endorse McKeon through K-H-T-S. He also promised to have Rock rewrite a story about the Habitat for Humanity Veteran’s Village project to feature McKeon as a more prominent figure. Goldman even touted his relationship with Buck on this pet project as reason for his endorsement.
Five days after the debate Rock and I were fired.
Goldman made an interesting statement on their website regarding the future of the news coming out of K-H-T-S. He said, “It will be an opportunity for you to judge if our Santa Clarita news continues to be stellar.”
First, let me point out that they didn’t even spell my name right in their statement. What’s that tell you?
Second, it’s not the stories you see online that should concern you. It’s the ones that will never appear because they’ve been silenced by a phone call from Buck McKeon or some other politician or advertiser.
Carol and I have been forced from our jobs, but our heads are held high knowing we served the public trust.
Thank you.A couple of people in the Council chambers said Councilwoman Laurene Weste was visibly upset and "choked up" saying how much she liked Carol Rock and would miss her coverage.
More to come as it comes in.
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