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2-5: Red, Yellow, and Blue




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	Red, Yellow, and Blue!


  or

The Truth About the Liberal Plot Afoot to Silence the Conservative   Voice in College Journalism Forever!



           I t all began on January 1, 1997 with the government's new "voluntary" letter-and-number based system of ratings for TV programming. The TV ratings would appear every 30 to 60 minutes in the upper right-hand corner of the screen for 15 seconds.

            TVY   Suitable for children.

            TVY7  Not suitable for children under seven.

            TVG  SSuitable for all audiences.

            TVPG  Parental guidance suggested.

            TV14  Parental guidance strongly suggested. Not suitable for children under fourteen.

            TVM   Mature audiences only. Not suitable for children under 17.

          The most famous bill concerning the TV ratings is S.363, or "The Children's Protection from Violent Programming Act.". Introduced by Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-SC), the bill demands stricter broadcasting laws to screen objectionable content. S.363 paved the way for "improvements" to the ratings and the V-chip, designed to automatically screen programs by rating and block any that are objectionable according to settings a parent or guardian presets. In effect, this makes Fritz Hollings--as well as that liberal lapdog Al Gore, who supports them wholeheartedly--the father of these hideous little monstrosities and the architect of my misery.

          In the notes to Almasheol, I detailed the conspiracy that cost me my job at the Arkansas State University Herald. The TV ratings, which have done more to destroy lives, cost jobs, and rob Americans of their freedom than any other law to come down the pike in a decade, were at the root of my termination and the subsequent dispute that forced me to leave school.



     The improved ratings came in September of 1997.

          New letters were added: V for violence, FV for fantasy violence, D for suggestive dialogue, L for crude or objectionable language, and S for sexual content. This created an even more confusing mess of government vegetable soup. Parents were either bewildered or completely apathetic to the new system. It has yet to produce a negligible effect on consumers' TV viewing habits.

         It is my firm belief that the TV ratings legislation is evil, useless, and should be destroyed.  We must also stem the tide of the new Communism, the growing and disturbing trend of anti-conservative prejudice in college newspapers. Right-wing writers are routinely shunned, slurred, and served with false charges if they dare to openly express their politics and are seen as a liability by liberal editors and faculty advisors.

          The goal of my Red, Yellow and Blue Movement is three-pronged:

    To force Phillip Scott Mitchell--who, whether through unwitting incompetence or deliberate treachery, leveed the damaging and false charge of plagiarism against me on February 5, 1997--to admit there is no sketch and to name any masterminds or accomplices in the deception and subsequent coverup. In doing this, my good name will be cleared; then, I may secure a much-needed interview with The Herald, and the flag may be lifted from my records, allowing me to return to ASU;
    To establish antidefamation groups for the conservative columnist and closet Republican who might be facing down a termination contract one day because he wrote or said the wrong thing once too often, and employ pro bono lawyers within these groups so that any  wrongfully-terminated writer may sue his former bosses;
    To lobby Congress to repeal S.363 and dissolve the TV ratings.

    What I seek are answers to several important questions concerning the events of nearly a decade ago:

        Why did the managing editor who recommended I become a columnist and to whom I owe my start in the newspaper business mysteriously resign two weeks before my dismissal? A "dispute" with Lici Beveridge, editor, who would later serve me with charges was cited. Were they afraid that he was a foot-dragging holdout who had to be let go?
        Who came up with the plan to devise a fake plagiarism charge:  Bonnie Thrasher, faculty advisor, or  Scott Mitchell, copy editor?
        Why was Mitchell not present at our hearing, although the rules clearly state the accuser must be present at a plagiarism hearing for cross-examination?
        Why did Lance Turner, editorial editor, claim he belived in my innocence yet sign the contract to fire me only one week later? What was he promised/threatened with to get his signature on that document?
        Why did Roger Lee, associate dean of judicial affairs, promise to question Mitchell at our initial meeting, yet only a year later say he didn't believe it was "necessary", even though Mitchell's claim was the root of the whole dispute? Did Thrasher order him not to pursue it any further?
        Finally, I strike at the very crux of their argument: Saturday Night Live is a big New York-based outfit. On the very off chance that that sketch might in some form exist outside the tiny and polluted mind of a glorified copy boy...how would they know some writer for a rinky-dink fourth-rate school newspaper over a thousand miles away had the same idea as one of their writers--and why would they care?


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	This is the only surviving copy of "TV Ratings System" known in existence...
  	  	...a handwritten draft from my personal library consisting of two pages, written front and back.
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  	  	Judge for yourself, having read the column, whether I could have stolen it from SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE--bearing in mind I began writing it in late December 1996, and the sketch, even if it existed (which it doesn't) would have aired mid-January at the earliest. This proves Mitchell was either mistaken or lying when he made his claim.
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	Life outside the fishbowl




        Being forced off The Herald really drove home some hard life lessons for me. I learned that no matter what you might think, you are not truly indispensable. I learned that anyone who tells me  "I have a liberal friend!"  really means: "I know a liberal who hasn't betrayed me yet". And ultimately I learned that if you can't hack it in the fully-controlled fishbowl environment of a college campus...if you can't last more than a semester on a two-bit campus rag without self-destructing...then you will never make it in the real world.

     I was denied a lot of things when I had to leave school. One of those things is my copy of the 1999 Indian. It contains one of the only existing pictures of me taken in my army jacket, a beloved heirloom that previously belonged to my father, Curtis M. Sweet. I was forced to leave school in December when judicial affairs froze my records, so I wasn't present when the yearbooks came out in May. If nothing else A-State owes me that book. I paid ten dollars for it along with tuition, housing, and meal plan at the start of the semester, and I am entitled to it. The Herald and ASU have no right to withhold my Indian from me. It is just another part of the faculty advisor's Stalinist power trip.

      Many of my old friends from the paper made it. They got promotions, they built fat portfolios, and after graduation they landed cushy jobs. But what do I have? No portfolio. No comic-book companies looking to sign me. No air-conditioned office at a major metropolitan newspaper. I was sent back home con solamente a diploma in one fist, a termination contact in the other...and a dream. A dream to succeed...and then rub it in the noses of everyone who destroyed my future, who built their lives on my broken back. Like Jonathan Swift, I would use my writing and satirical twist on life as a forum to preach the truth and advance the cause of Red, Yellow and Blue.

     It has been a long, slow, painful fight. Many losses. But I can see the sun rise over the battlefield...and it is saying victory is for me. Very soon.



        To date The Herald refuses to allow me to promote my books and tell my side of the story in their pages. Why do they fear the truth? What are they hiding?

      Perhaps you think, "Why should I care? How does this guy's problems affect me?" You must realize this is a very real, ever-growing problem. It could very easily happen to one of your friends. Or your own son or daughter. Or you. Anyone you know going to ASU, maybe looking to go into journalism, is a potential victim. Especially if they're a conservative. I want you to care. I want you to get up off your fat lazy rectums and actually feel passion about something for the first time in your misbegotten life. There are very evil, very dangerous people in power at ASU, and your apathetic blindness only helps them flourish. I want to see these people pay for their crimes. I want them stopped before they tear apart another life, or wreck another promising journalism career.

          Note to liberal scumbags: Do not send me a list of names claiming they're guests who appeared on some imaginary SNL episode; I won't believe you. Do not send me a link to a website about this imaginary SNL episode: I won't look at it. I know how easy these things are to fake. Does the name "Mary Mapes" mean anything to you? I know you.  I know all your pathetic little tricks. I'm not impressed. Get a tape or a transcript, put it in an envelope, and send it to me. It's funny: you'll throw thousands at Katrina relief and feeding the starving children (money which goes into the freezers of corrupt Louisiana politicians and the coffers of corrupt African dictators)--but ask you to shell out five bucks for postage, or buy a book and actually educate your stupid selves, and you just spit a few curses at me and run away giggling like the cheap, feeble-minded morons you are. God forbid you actually read something that will question your narrow and diseased world view.

          So write, call, e-mail. Tell these hate-filled, ignorant trolls to grow up and move on. Let bygones be bygones. Let them know we are angry at the constant scare tactics, bullying and numerous violations of journalistic ethics used to hush us, and it cannot stand. Insist that they give me an interview. Demand that they grant me a full pardon for all offenses, crimes, and trangressions, actual and percieved. Tell them we are tired of being silent.  Drown them in letters. Torment them with phone calls. Now is the time for drastic action. I want my life back. These people have destroyed my future, ruined my credibility, and hurt me both physically and emotionally. My self-esteem and my physical health are damaged. My old friends no longer talk to me and my family doesn't respect me or support my cause. I have become a shadow of a man because of these charges.

       Let's get the message of RY&B out! Contact the Dean of the College of Communications at A-State:

P.O. Box 540

State University

Jonesboro AR 72467



 or by email at rshain@astate.edu, or by phone at (870) 972-2468....

...or you might send a letter-to-the-editor to the ASU Herald personally at

P.O. Box 1930

State University

Jonesboro AR 72467

 or you may e-mail the paper at hrldoff@kiowa.astate.edu, Dr. Joel Gambill, department chair (jgambill@astate.edu), or Bonnie Thrasher, faculty advisor (bthrasher@astate.edu). Or, call the Dept. of Journalism and Printing at (870) 972-3075.  Personal home/work addresses/phone numbers of key players in the plot against me are also available on request, through nostradamus13_2000@yahoo.com. Just put the words HERALD CONSPIRACY or RED YELLOW AND BLUE in the e-mail title.






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	2-5 RY&B Blog


Updates:

     9/19/05. Got this in my e-mail today:

            "Please do not contact any of my writers in the future. We've told you over the last several
            years to stop, and I'm telling you nicely to stop now. Otherwise, we will contact the proper
            authorities to deal with the situation."

            [name withheld]
            Editor-in-Chief, ASU Herald

 So it seems they're threatening to arrest me if I don't stop asking for an interview! Don't they realize they tried sending a couple campus Deputy Dawgs to my house before, way back in 2002, to scare me into shutting up--and it failed? Don't they ever stop to think or ask themselves just what the faculty advisor is hiding that necessitates these kinds of childish gambits? I told them if they try anything against me, I will haul them into court and take it out of their hide--which is the last thing they want: bad press. I'm in no danger. The Herald is just a paper tiger, after all. Well, if anything comes of this, I'll let you know. Unless I'm in a jail cell with no Net access.     :rolls eyes:

     6/5/09. Got this in my e-mail  (March 30)  from my old "friend" and mentor Mark Berky, the managing editor who got me my start. This was in response to a polite e-mail I sent him regarding allowing me access to CD burners on campus for a proposed book project:

             I don't understand why you keep contacting me because I am one of the people that documented your plagiarism.  You seem to have forgotten that when you were confronted by The Herald staff -- that includes me -- you confessed to deliberately plagiarizing... That column is still on file.  Would you like me to send you a copy?  I have offered to do that before.

             I have no intention of jepordizing my job at ASU by bringing you on campus.  You are personna non grata at ASU. You are officially not allowed on campus. You are not allowed on campus because you came up with this fantasy that you did not plagiarize and that various members of The Herald staff and the faculty advisor had formed a conspiracy against you and you started harrassing them.  But your column is still here, still proving that you were not conspired against, but rightly fired from The Herald for plagiarism.

            ...Do not contact me again. Ever. Allow me to repeat myself, just to make sure you understand me -- DO NOT CONTACT ME AGAIN.

             Get over your obsession to come back to ASU. We've covered this ground before, but apparently you need to be reminded of the facts once again.

              You can't come back.  As you say, the past is past and you should put that grudge behind you.

             [This e-mail] is being forwarded to ASU Campus Police Investigator Brian Shelton.  If need be, I will send a copy to the Jonesboro Police Department, the Arkansas State Police, and the the Missouri State Police.

            Have a good life, don't cross over into mine ever again.

Well, first of all, I think a polite two-line, "I'm sorry, I can't help you, Good luck on the new book" note would have sufficed, rather than this vitriolic, venomous missive. Secondly, if Mr. Berky has access to my file, I'd suggest he examine my termination contract abit more closely. The word "crime" and its variants appear eleven times in the document. Not once do you see the words "mistake" or "oversight". If not a conspiracy, then at least Mr. Berky can concede this is dangerously loaded language and likely may have poisoned the minds of the editorial board, perhaps biasing their decision and erasing any hopes of a fair and impartial hearing. Ntoe also the word "harrass"--which along with other buzzwords liberals employ, like "threatening", "attacking, "hate speech", and "whining"--is a leftist codeword for "question the Party". Thirdly, I contacted Mr. Berky because I (perhaps foolishly) trust him and thought I'd have at least one moderate liberal friend on the inside. I should learn to take my own advice: never trust a lib, their loyalty is always to The Party, and a liberal friend is just someone who hasn't yet thrown you under the bus when thy decide your friendship becomes a liability. Finally, I am sending Officer Shelton an e-mail., with a complinentary copy of Belch Dimension Comics attached, to plead my case.  With any luck this matter can be settled amicably out of court, and I can have my way on this deal.




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