Kuoi, Leigh Robartes, Tim Cook

[Robert Anton-Erik <anton933@uidaho.edu>]

Oh, I just love irony.

Tim Cook, in a recent vision2020 post, refers to the kuoi-leigh situation
as: "Robartes's latest episode of entire KUOI staff irritation"

Ironic considering the way Tim Cook irritated the entire KUOI dj staff
during his term as Music Director.

And another one from Cook: "While it might be true as
stated in his exhaustive "resume" (masturbatorily posted on some local
travel agency's website called "Escape"; how's that for irony?) that he
has spent a lot of time lurking around at KUOI, generating navel-gazing,
ponderous, ramshackle and self-serving radio spots, Leigh Robartes is a
straight-up hack."

Well Tim, I don't remember seeing anything in Leigh's resume about
"lurking" or "navel-gazing" but I do see a lot of information about
important news stories that Leigh has done in the last 10+ years. And how
exactly is posting a resume "masturbatory"? Leigh has been fired from his
job. He (and others) think unfairly. Obviously posting his resume is
totally appropriate to show the degree of involvement Leigh has had with
KOUI, news, and the community. Tim, you're merely discrediting your own
position when you attack Leigh this way.

According to Tim the "only issue" is that Leigh makes people (staff? djs?)
uncomfortable. Oh Irony of Ironies. This from the guy who physically
assulted me in Master Control one night because he didn't like the music I
was playing. And anyway, even if Leigh is the biggest asshole in Moscow,
that doesn't mean he should be fired from KUOI.

Another thing Tim brings up: "Robartes is so far left he's far right,
resembling the same characters he rambles on against.  Leigh Robartes is a
hypocrite, a kind of poor man's Rush Limbaugh." And what does this have to
do with anything? Leigh can be left, right, up, down, and that doesn't
have any bearing on his job.

It's obvious to me that Tim has something personal against Leigh.

Here's the issue as I see it.
Leigh has been fired for a couple reasons, according to Loren. One was his
inability to correctly sign up for production room time. Well, considering
it was Loren who implemented new scheduling rules and procedures, this
aspect of Leigh's firing seems to stem from Loren's inability to work with
his staff when implementing policy changes. The other reason Loren gives
is that Leigh was talking to people about what was going on with
production room scheduling problems. For Loren to say Leigh can't talk
about that IS indeed a free speech issue.

Aspects of Leigh's personality, how well he "get's along with others", and
what Tim Cook, who has been out of Moscow and away from KUOI for many
years, has to say about Leigh all have absolutely nothing to do with the
official reasons given for Leigh's dismissal. If Leigh was unfairly fired
(as I believe) then we need to stick to the particulars surrounding his
dismissal. Even if Leigh attacked Donna Rhodes as Tim alleges, that has
nothing to do with what is happening now.

-------------------------------------
Robert Anton-Erik 
anton933@uidaho.edu 
http://www.ets.uidaho.edu/rob/

"The medium is not the message,
 the message is the message."
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