2.13.2007

Dear Fox25 News Undercover...

okay, so the Fox 25 News at ten hasn't even been on yet, but i have been watching the upcoming promo's for it. and i wrote them a letter. here's what it said:

Dear Fox25 News,
I have an even greater undercover story for you than the ability walk right into public schools. It's shocking, and very troubling (especially in these dark times), but apparently you can ALSO walk right into the post office, city hall, and **gasp** the public library!!

I can think of more pressing news right now (especially in these dark times) than the fact that you can walk into a public building.
Sincerely,
-- bandit

so what i got back (so far) was an autoreply, thanking me for writing, and they seemed to feel awfully sorry that they couldn't personally write back to every person. they gave me some useful phone numbers. here they are:

MA Office of Consumer Affairs: 617-973-8787
Attorney General's Office: 617-727-2200

what do you s'pose would happen if i called up the Attorney General to say that i was very concerned that people were allowed to walk RIGHT INTO A PUBLIC BUILDING?

7 comments:

banky said...

Jessamyn, I believe Carl Monday has already exposed the dangers of allowing the public to enter libraries!

Anonymous said...

Not to be snarky, bandit, but most people don't walk into a public library in order to snatch a book to molest... Schools are different than other public buildings. A kindergartener can't defend her/himself like a public librarian can.. Just ask Scoutie...

That said, I hate Fox too!

Bostonian90 said...

Something about grown men (Mike Beaudet and producer Jonathan Wells) lurking around playgrounds, schools and sportsfields with hidden cameras gives me the creeps. Mike Beaudet is setting a horrible example for children with respect to bullying and given Jonathan Wells personal background, I'm not sure that he would be the example for children, OR parents or any family for that matter. He is just being an adult bully.

When did we decide that instead of infoming us about what is going on in the world news stations should tell us what they think we have to know and insist on bullying and harassing people, jumping out and surprising them with questions, the answer to which are irrelevant. It is all for the shock value of seeing someone's emotional response to being surprised and probably humiliated.

I just want my news to tell me what is going on in the world and let me decide what to think. I'd like lawmakers and judges deciding the laws. I don't need Fox Undercovers Jon Wells public smear crew manipulating the system or just destroying someone's reputation because of what decision the jury made. Frankly, I don't think that any family would want Fox 25 Undercover and Jonathan Wells and Mike Beaudet lurking around their schools or communities.

Free Thought said...

Well said. Actually the anti-bullying legislation just might make some of their segments illegal though they'll probably be grandfathered.

We've got to teach our kids that because you heard something, or even KNOWN something, others have a right to privacy, especially in delicate situations where publishing speculation and hearsay will permanently damage someone's life and reputiation.

I wonder how many of the children who recently took their own lives because of bullying might just have lived if their classmates had not been fed constant images of investigating reporters chasing people around and sending the message that harassing people about personal issues is ok.

Anonymous said...

true story from my town. a while back one of the kids started watching fox undercover when they were big on sex offenders so he got some of his little sixth grade buddies to convince a kid that mike beaudet was doing a story on kids who are gay and that this little boy (who is very sweet but just not a tough guy....you know the type) was the subject of a fox 25 undercover investigation.They told him that one of the kids in school had told fox 25 about him and that there were hidden cameras on some of the other kids to catch him acting gay.Very wisely, the parents pulled the child from school before this poor little guy ended up doing something terrible and put him in private school and hes doing great and in fact he is running track and doing really well.the family did it very quietly because some parents actually wanted to tell the story to the local parent to teach other families about bullying and television but the parents probably did the right thing by just quietly moving him.several months later, the rumor went around that another child would be the next subject of a fox 25 undercover investigation for being gay but without a specific target and so for about a month we were hearing non stop about it and the kids trying to guess who it is and they got ahold of the mike beaudet rhetoric of using the word might so we kept hearing well you might be gay.finally things were getting out of hand. Kids were lifting up each others shirts looking for cameras and fights were erupting out of mistrust and a group of parents had a meeting with the school counselor.the amount of fear and backstabbing among the kids became too much and what seemed like a silly game initially turned into something that was breaking up friendships and keeping middle school children (girls too) up at night.the school counselor was really great and we all learned a lesson about teaching kids to view television critically.generally she suggested and most parents have done so, not viewing fox 25 for news at all but switching over to 4,5,7 or cnn so that this stuff doesnt make it into the house at all. What I dont get is this is fox25 so desperate for ratings? why the hell did they pick a producer whose personal background is so questionable? Do they actually think that concerned parents are going to put their trust in this guy or in a reporter who runs around with hidden cameras and jumps out of vans and harasses people?lets not forget the one-sided biased skewed misrepresentation of truth for one minute.the example it set for our kids about bullying people about sensitive issues caused huge problems and thank god we live in a small town where we can manage it. Looking at what happened to this little boy in our town, this could very well have been another youth suicide and we all know it.

Malden Father said...

Students and parents in Malden have started a petition and facebook page for Fox 25 News to fire Mike Beaudet for yet another smear campaign against a teacher who had no chance of a fair evaluation. It's time that Boston started standing up to Fox 25 News and stopped cowering to their skewed stories, lies and character assasinations which seem to always kick into high gear around sweeps week. Nobody ever gets a fair chance against Mike but I'm more concerned about a very questionable ex-producer named Jonathan Wells who seems to have quietly slinked away from what might not be his first slander lawsuit. I'm also concerned about the fact that Mike knowingly withheld information from parents which he later asserted affected the safety of their children. I am also concerned about the lies that Mike seems to have been caught in but in his quest for being unrelenting, refuses to admit to.

Fox Undercover Boston said...

Any communities who believe that Mike Beaudet will be running a story which invovles their children, school, apartment complex, etc can now be proactive by getting the truth on Fox Undercover Boston. Inform people that if they spot Mike Beaudet, producer Kevin Rothstein, or cameraman Jim Goff that they should confront them IN A GROUP, and advise him that they intend to call the police if they do not immediately leave. Let the police handle it. If they try to ask questions about an indivual, inform them to contct the police or school board if they believe that anyone is at risk. You do not have to be victims because WFXT needs Foxundercover on sweeps week.