9-02-2021 12:46am

AlamogordoTownNews.com Special Report - Politics is Hard, but so is being a radio personality in Otero County, apparently...

Chris Edwards Editor

Politics is hard. Understanding the unconscious forces that make politics so divisive, explosive, and often unproductive are important for us to understand. But what we must understand, is these unconscious forces, don’t only apply to the art of politics, but they also apply to anyone that has a public presence and following such as radio and television personalities or even the personalities of those of us in the print space. Those with a public presence, live a hard life.

Politics and those that live a public life live a hard life. Put simply, being a public personality can be hard because people are hard.

People are hard because we are unknowingly driven by unconscious forces. This is true for those who seek to govern, those who speak and let their voice be heard; as well as those who will follow those that lead via politics, performance art, or media - verbally, visually or written. While unconscious forces are at play in all human interactions, the intensity of these dynamics is galvanized when anxiety and power are involved on a large scale as with those that lead a public life or a live in the media writing opinions or covering the news, creating art or those in the art of politics. Those that put themselves out there lead hard lives in many ways.

Those that lead public lives and those in politics engage with many people and as such deep personal and societal anxieties are activated when people are engaged in opinions and dialog. The opportunity to drive dialog and to sway public opinion beyond one’s circle sheds light on these anxieties and is a catalyst for important conversations. In election periods and in periods of uncertainty or conflict, we get more of an opportunity to look at the struggles that face ordinary people regarding their finances, health, education, race and cultural relations, human rights, quality of life, belief systems and so on. Those who are struggling in such periods look for someone to help them find security either in dialog, or in following, or in their words of comfort and ideals or in their leadership, if involving a political campaign. Those who are successful in leading dialog and swaying opinion get addicted to it at times, and look to keep it that way and momentum with them.

Fear of survival and fear of loss are powerful human motivators and become especially transparent during election campaigns or during times of economic stress, stress to health such as the stresses of Covid-19 or during times of unrest and when security is at risk. Change in general leads to survival factors of human nature to kick in.

Politicians and media personalities use their verbal or written skills to sway opinion in a form of splitting-and-projection which may be part of the political show, or just show businesses, or the news business—as an intentional way to heighten interest and get our attention—it also preys on our worst fears and the worst human impulses.

Identify someone to hate or blame and you bring a group together in a powerful way. Rarely a productive way, but a powerful way.

Here in our home community of Otero County, New Mexico, we have seen this play out multiple times in the last year. Couy Griffin has used these impulses and as such has engaged his base but also alienated a good portion of the community. The counter acting result was the creation of the Recall Couy Griffin Committee being created and action by it initiated. The Committee is made up of humans, and human nature kicks in, and it has used its platform and also swayed opinions in a way some could view as splitting, verses unifying. Others would disagree. Human nature always kicks in when dialog becomes tense and engaged and outcomes impact us all.

The committee has also used the sway of public forums and has had a variety of spokespersons from; Chez Sanchez, to Scott Fredrick, and others on occasion, and as such it’s brought people together in a powerful way, but it has also galvanized a part of the community, people who were once allies are divided when it comes to Couy.

There are proponents and opponents, and those of us a little more neutral, but with opinions. When one is in the spotlight, there are times those opinions drive us, and our human emotions; and there are times when that driving force, creates actions that are not always productive, positive, and compassionate to the feelings and beliefs of the written or listening audience or the subject in question.

The last week, the public has witnessed this very phenomenon unfold because of the tensions being felt around Couy Griffin, the Recall Couy Griffin Committee and the oratory news and opinions expressed by KALH radio personality Anthony Lucero around Scott Fredrick.

Mr. Lucero has recently had some commentary that some have viewed as “personal attacks” on the Recall Couy Griffin Committee spokesperson, Scott Fredrick. This commentary percolated into social media platforms and onto the airwaves of KALH radio and apparently expanded beyond the committee actions.

Remember our earlier statement, “Politicians and media personalities use their verbal or written skills to sway opinion in a form of splitting-and-projection which may be part of the political show or just show businesses or the news business.” This is true, but this is just due to human nature, and the unconscious forces discussed earlier in the article at play. Leadership of these public principles must also consider the unconscious forces of human nature and the power of the microphone or of print when managing those with a voice. Those with a voice or the power of the pen must also be cognizant of human nature and we must self check ourselves on occasion to ensure fair and balanced reporting or dialog rather we are a writer, a verbal personality or a politician in power or striving for a platform.

The result, however, of the recent commentary and actions of Mr. Lucero in relation to Mr. Fredrick, is that the station management has acted, and removed him from the mic as the on-air news personality.

Whether that is a permanent decision, or a temporary decision time will tell.

A press release from the station states:

“With regards to recent events on air, specifically the commentary voiced by Anthony Lucero on Scott Fredrick, we at KALH Radio feel it proper to take immediate action.

While Mr. Lucero will be permitted to remain with KALH as director of programming and as a producer, should he desire, we are removing him as an on-air personality effective immediately. This includes both KALH Spectrum News as well as Solid Gold Sunday.

The mission of KALH is to be the voice of the community and the beacon of local news and information, and we seek to return to that mission. KALH Radio has subsequently suspended access to Mr. Lucero's Facebook account as it was tied to the station.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me.

Mattie Medlin - KALH Director of Operations, (575) 491-3197 mattie@medlinpl.us”

AlamogordoTownNews.com reached out to Mr. Fredrick for his reaction to this decision and his response was,” I’m
sorry to hear that Mr. Lucero lost his on-air position as It seemed like it brought him joy for many years. As the spokesperson for a political committee, anything I say for the committee he or anyone is free to judge using the words that were said. Factual criticism of our efforts is not only fair it is expected due to the nature of the efforts. We wish him the best of luck in whatever he decides to do.”

Given that the escalated nature of the issue percolated, possibly as a repercussion of the recall effort of Couy Griffin, we reached out to Mr. Griffin and asked if he had heard of the actions of KALH radio and did he have any comment. His response was “It’s disappointing to see the censorship in our country today. America has become very thin skinned and unless every word spoken is seasoned with “political correctness” it is most times silenced. Anthony Lucero in my opinion had much in common with the great Rush Limbaugh. That is, they both had talent on loan from God.

Anthony’s wit and creativity will be missed by many. But I have no doubt his talent won’t rest long, and a bigger and better opportunity will come along soon. Until then, we will be rocked to sleep by the Alamogordo Daily News and other politically correct outlets that focus more on agendas than giving us the news raw and unrehearsed!”

We asked Mr. Lucero if he had any comment on the issue he said, “I have been advised to not comment. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact the station by way of the email or the phone number posted.” He then ended with a cryptic message, “Roma Iterum Resurget.” Latin - the assignment is for the reader to do the research on his meaning, apparently.

We contacted the station as an advertiser and our comments were that any actions of a journalist being reprimanded is unfortunate, and we understand that the station management must do what is best to protect the station. However, our hope is that Mr. Lucero will issue a public apology and that the station will modify their stance and treat this time off the air, as a suspension, and allow him back to air in the near future.

AlamogordoTownNews.com understands that speech unchecked can be divisive, but we also understand human nature and the nature of those with a public forum, and as such struggle with any hint of censorship to a free and open expression of ideas.

We agree that dialog must be backed with fact and not get personal.

This issue was a good reminder to us as, there are times we see ourselves get personally vested in the stories such as with Mayoral candidate Susan Payne and on other issues, that impact our community. Our own passion can sometimes come through emotionally in our own reporting. It is just human nature, as we saw at the beginning of our storyline. Any of us, with a public voice, rather large or small, must gut check our prose, and ensure they represent the best value to the business or the forum of which we represent. We must not get personal, and we must follow the principles of public, journalistic, or political integrity to the best of our abilities.

We hope that the sentence. of no mic for Mr. Lucero, is not imposed long term, on a personality that has devoted years of service to the public good. Ultimately the decision of how to move forward, belongs to the station management and owners.

However, we the public decide who wins and loses on the airwaves. If you have an opinion either way, let the station management know it. Any member of the public can email the station management per the press release at mattie@medlinpl.us.

In politics, we often remind the public to be engaged and let your voices be heard. The airwaves technically, are a commodity of the public, so in that sense, let your voice be heard as well.

Onward, we go into the final weeks of the Couy Griffin recall. Let us hope, no more causalities fall out of this effort, and know that, this too shall pass.