The last local election results showed we’re center-left: The returns are HERE and show our County continuing to go “blue.” Democrats Newsom, Yee, Becerra, Hallinan (not Gaines), Denney (over LaMalfa 55-45), Morse (routing McClintock 76-24), even Sisk (over Dahle), and “no” on gas tax repeal, among others, all won — much to the chagrin of our local Republican Central Committee.
I’m glad to see some diversity among our electeds too — in offices such as Sheriff (Shannan Moon), Grass Valley City Council (Hilary Hodge) and Clerk-Recorder (Gregory Diaz). We’ve turned the corner politically — and I doubt we’ll be turning back. Truckee has been a leader, and the rest of the county (sometimes begrudgingly) is going along. Meanwhile, our national demographics are changing — in the year 2044, white Americans are projected to fall below half the population and lose their majority status, according to Census Bureau data.
The Union newspaper — with a long-deserved reputation as being the “Tea Party Gazette” — is becoming more center-left. The newspaper showed real courage in banning righwing blogger and resident loud-mouth Todd Juvinall from posting at TheUnion.com for a month. (Some users claimed Todd was offensive; Todd said The Union had “no balls.” You go, Todd!) Rebane himself has been more critical of The Union’s politics — a sign that he’s not getting his way (think Baby Huey).
With the winds of local political change blowing through our towns, locals would think KVMR — long a local beacon and pioneer of progressive ideas — would be feeling good about its precient programming.
Instead it is stuck with extreme rightwing blogger George “Raghead” Rebane — a Simi Valley transplant —as the commetator on its news hour. Huh?
Rebane’s post this past week was another over the top, even outrageous, “rumination.” On KVMR, he claimed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was somehow “resolved.” An excerpt: “So now the Saudis execute one of their own on foreign soil but in their own consulate, and the world’s ‘moral majority’, led by the US and its allies, gets their collective undies in a bundle, decrying the murder and demanding confessions and justice from the Saudis.
“So, despite the public gnashing of teeth and rending of garment by Trump’s political opponents, everyone understands that this is the correct way to end the affair.”
“Undies in a bundle”
That’s right “undies in a bundle” over a brutal murder and this is the “correct way” to end it.
Meanwhile, The New York Times is calling Trump’s statement “extraordinary”; a Washington Post columnist writes: “In effect, Trump is doing his best to help the Saudi regime get away with the murder of a U.S. resident and one of the Arab world’s most prominent writers. If the administration continues down this path, it will further destroy whatever is left of America’s moral credibility on global human rights and freedom of expression.” Turkey ripped Trump for turning a “blind eye” to the killing.
What is KMVR thinking? The rest of us are becoming more open minded politically, and the commentator that KVMR chooses during the “news hour” is a political troglodyte — all but parroting Trump’s lame defense of this brutal act. Rebane’s bizarre “rumination” is here.
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 
Because of Rebane’s diatribe of hate, I’ve stopped supporting KVMR. The policy of KVMR to support distasteful, hateful and erroneously dangerous opinions in the name of some sort of liberal tolerance, is misguided and I won’t lend my ear or pocketbook to it.
I agree 100%. I stopped when Rebane started. Terribly misplaced magnanimity and just plain stupidity and willfulness on the part of KVMR.
“Dr.” (his term to describe himself, not the rest of us) Rebane likes to use the word “dumpth” in his posts, referring to what I call dumblings. I guess you could include Dr. Rebane in the mix. In his latest blog post he refers to Don Rogers as The Union’s editor. No, dumbling, he’s the publisher. Big difference. And to think, he has a doctorate degree — or claims to. Small towns are a hoot!
Speaking of KVMR we just raised $43,000 for victims of the Camp fire. That was raised in just one day which shows the extent of KVMR’s listener support from the community. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
KVMR does air a variety of opinions on contemporary issues. Any listener is free to respond with equal time to any commentary we broadcast or even to be a regular contributor. We are indeed Community Radio and that means the entire Community.
Also , for the record, Rebanes commentary airs every other week and is 4 minutes long. Equal time is available to respond.
It’s hard for Jamal Khashoggi to respond to George Rebane’s latest outrageous rant on KVMR, since this gentleman — an American resident and Washington Post columnist — is dead, having been brutally murdered. My hope is that KVMR shows some news judgment rather than its “anything goes” approach to commentary. It has a responsibility to the community to provide both sides of an issue. Meanwhile, here’s “the other side,” obviously missing on the KVMR “News Hour.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/11/20/khashoggis-murder-will-stain-trump-and-america-forever/?utm_term=.7ccb25bbe7ad
If you actually listened to KVMR Jeff you would have heard Amy Goodman and Democracy Now dedicate at least six segments to the Jamal Khashoggi topic in recent fve weeks. You can check it out on Democracy Now’s website. We broadcast the program every day five days a week.
Paul,
You either don’t get it or you’re so enamored with your provincial “blog war” debates with George Rebane (I see you comment on his blog daily) that you are blind to this on going problem with KVMR’s News Hour programming (a community-wide effort). Check out the comments from others here: What about this don’t you understand? Those segments you refer to are not in response to Rebane’s commentary on the news hour. There is no continuity in the presentation. That’s the journalist’s job! Rebane’s blog is hardly an Algonquin Roundtable; it is the rants of “white flight” from Simi Valley, best known for the acquittal of the police officer in the Rodney King beating. Gee, even Simi Valley, is becoming more diverse. Think Paul!
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-30/news/mn-1942_1_ventura-county-jury
https://www.vcstar.com/get-access/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vcstar.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion%2Feditorials%2F2018%2F11%2F07%2Feditorial-ventura-county-continues-move-left%2F1925298002%2F
And it gets worse. Under “KVMR News Department,” we see George Rebane’s name. Let’s face it Paul: You have let him co-opt the News Hour
https://www.kvmr.org/show/kvmr-evening-news
“KVMR News Department
Broadcaster(s): Paul Emery, Felton Pruitt, Charlotte Peterson
Broadcast Day/Time: 6PM – 6:30PM, Monday – Friday
Genre: News/Talk/Public Affairs
Past Episode Podcasts
KVMR Evening Newscasts are broadcast every week night between 6:00 and 6:30 PM. Featuring local, regional, national & international headlines, local features, live call-in discussion, and commentaries. Plus regular features from Molly Fisk, George Rebane, Will Durst, and others. You can email KVMR’s News team at; news @ kvmr.org or you can call in a news tip to at: (530) 265-9073 ext. 206
Local news sources: The Union Yubanet Emergency resources”
Read this, honestly: “Plus regular features from Molly Fisk, George Rebane, Will Durst, and others.” WTF? Molly Fisk is an accomplished, published poet: Will Durst is a famous comedian. But who is George Rebane? Come on Paul, this is laughable.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/molly-fisk
http://willdurst.com/
George does a Commentary for four minutes every other week. Is that what you consider “co-opting” the news program?
Paul, You list Rebane’s name alongside Molly Fisk (a published, accomplished poet) and Will Durst (a nationall know comedian)? Is this a joke? What else is someone to conclude but wielding undue influence?
Jeff
We’ve been down this road a couple of times before. You have my email and know how to contact KVMR for further discussion.
We’ve been down this road before because you are apparently “blind as a bat” about it. It is not my job to fix this; it is yours. Can you?
Meanwhile, here’s one for Paul Emery and George Rebane to ponder from tonight: A DC neighborhood group just voted to rename the street in front of the Saudi embassy for Jamal Khashoggi https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/29/politics/khashoggi-street-renaming-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1yAjy70h-e4Mm6zp4VkafW8nXOe2g7wIqe0UohKXXwq8cfgwenJBBbM1A
Meanwhile, Gregory Goodknight/Knightbrook or whatever it is deems to post fat jokes on Rebane’s blog near midnight. And he fancies himself as an “intellect.” Go figure!
And bingo, as if on cue, here comes Barry Pruett! He’s the wannabe Ohio State grad who went to Valpo instead (https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/48771-valparaiso-law-school-to-write-its-final-chapter-in-2020). Another western Nevada County “high achiever.” LOL.
I have not mentioned Pruett’s name for weeks. But out of the blue, he suddenly jumps into the local blogosphere to launch a personal attack. He seems to have a lot of bottled up anger, going back to losing the clerk-recorder’s race against Greg Diaz — in every precinct, no less. I wonder if Dr. Phil could help him.
Oh look, now Gregory is casting out threats: “One more and you’ll win the prize of your.family being fair game for remarks.” Another one of our longtime local “high achievers.” LOL.
Of course, “fish” has to jump in, repeating himself as if he had some obsessive compulsive disorder. Not much new there. And to think, I hadn’t mentioned any of these losers for weeks. They must have missed me! LOL.
Pruett still can’t put a sock in it. Perhaps he can be a guest on Paul’s “news hour,” addressing how he managed to lose every single precinct when he ran for clerk recorder against Gregory Diaz. That’s quite a feat in a small town like ours. You’d at least think he could have won his neighbor’s support!
Does any of this surprise you? Those people go menstrual toward anyone who stands up to them and doesn’t agree with them
You can’t make this stuff up! Now “fish” is scolding Paul for suggesting it seems odd that he is so focused (and invested in time) on the issues and personalities in a small community where he doesn’t even live. Gee, imagine that!
Rebane thinks this is an attempt at “silencing him.” Poor KVMR.
And Pruett thinks he “won” because I commented here. He also thinks he “won” the clerk-recorders race. And he thinks he “won” a diploma from Valpo. Ha! I wonder how much KVMR is reeling in from all this. Paul?
Oh Jeff, nobody listens to Mr. Rebane, except the like minded in his tribe. He spouts out of his silo in the Union and it’s weird, but after the first two or three sentences my mind will, for some reason, “autofill”, the rest. I have checked on myself and darned if I don’t get it right every time. He just keeps droning on in his queer stilted language, the same thing over and over again. He has no solutions nor the means to carry them out if he had. So he just keeps roaring into his echo chamber.
Boring much?
Try Sirius.
The KVMR “News Hour” can do better — much better. The latest rant seems to be at odds with KVMR’s own “core values.”
Nice article in the Union this Friday noting KVMR’s remarkable one day on air fundraiser for the Camp Fire that raised over $43,000
KVMR raises thousands for Camp Fire victims during Black Friday fundraiser
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/kvmr-raises-thousands-for-camp-fire-victims-during-black-friday-fundraiser/
Also on the News Program tomorrow at 6Pm an interview with Gary Zimmerman, retired Senior Economist for the San Francisco Fed and water news with Hydrogeologist Steve Baker. Also a Commentary from Will Durst.
Paul,
You are confused. This is NOT a criticism of KVMR in general. We are longtime fans of KVMR, donors and promoters. (The Camp Fire fundraiser being the latest example in the article KVMR submitted to The Union that you cite). We LOVE KVMR, the Celtic Festival, the Bridge Street Project, longtime contributors to the programming such as Kim Rogers, etc.
Rather, this is a directed criticism of YOU, as news director of the KVMR News Hour, and the quality of the content, the latest being George Rebane’s outrageous, even hateful, commentary about journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
An excerpt: ““So, despite the public gnashing of teeth and rending of garment by Trump’s political opponents, everyone understands that this is the correct way to end the affair. … Losing the order for shipping the Saudis our fancy armaments and other things so that they will remain our ally in the region, trumps all other factors in this case.”
This belongs on Breitbart, not KMVR! And MOST IMPORTANT, there was no counter opinion.
There is quite a bit of blowback from that commentary too. That is not good for KVMR!
“Because of Rebane’s diatribe of hate, I’ve stopped supporting KVMR. The policy of KVMR to support distasteful, hateful and erroneously dangerous opinions in the name of some sort of liberal tolerance, is misguided and I won’t lend my ear or pocketbook to it.” —Karla Arens
“I agree 100%. I stopped when Rebane started. Terribly misplaced magnanimity and just plain stupidity and willfulness on the part of KVMR.” -brucelevy
“We’ve forfeited our moral leadership for a few dollars more” — George Boardman, no less — directly contradicting Rebane
https://ncroadkill.com/2018/12/01/weve-forfeited-our-moral-leadership-for-a-few-dollars-more/
So Jeff I take it you listen to KVMR’s evening news on a regular basis to be able to make that critique of it’s content. Also what is the definition you have of “quite a bit of blowback”? So far I see two responses other than yours.
Paul,
I think you mean “its” content, not “it’s” content. But to answer your question, absolutely. You are defending the indefensible. I am making a critique about Rebane’s commentary on the KVMR “News Hour,” which undermines the credibility of the news program in general. To somehow suggest that only three people in our community (me and the two others who posted here) find many of his rants objectionable is out of touch. It also is astounding to read on the link on KVMR’s News Hour’s website: “Plus regular features from Molly Fisk, George Rebane, Will Durst, and others.” To mention George Rebane in the same sentence as Molly Fisk and Will Durst shows a real warped sense of Rebane’s contributions compared with Molly Fisk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Fisk) and Will Durst (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durst). There is no wikipedia entry for “George Rebane.” LOL. You seem to have a warped sense of reality, perhaps because you spend so much time commenting on his blog every day. Cast a wider net for the News Hour, Paul, and give George a slot on the regular, non-News Hour schedule if you like his voice (or contributions) http://www.kvmr.org/schedule/genre. You are hurting the News Hour and in turn KVMR.
So you and two others on your blog share that sentiment. Thanks for the feedback. I will see that it gets shared with the Program Director.
No Paul, just holding up a mirror. Sorry you don’t like what you see, but it isn’t going to go away. I suspect the Program Director, KVMR’s management and the board aren’t blind to this either. It must be very uncomfortable for them. Thanks for your music though!
One solution might be to have Rebane submit his diatribes a week in advance and then allow someone to write/record a counterpoint and then broadcast them back to back.
You could also change the name of the broadcast to “news and comment.”
Joe and anyone else
I would be glad to talk about the news program in detail any time in person at the station. I’m here most week days or you can contact me via email at paulemerymusic@yahoo.com.
What Joe said: “One solution might be to have Rebane submit his diatribes a week in advance and then allow someone to write/record a counterpoint and then broadcast them back to back.”
Paul- Do you have a problem with that?