Free to Speak Out
Cable television host Leslie Dutton reassured Hawthorne Councilwoman Ginny Lambert that she need not be the slightest bit embarrassed about having to sit on a phone book.
“When Gloria Allred was on the show, we had to bring out a whole stack of books†to pile on the attorney’s chair, Dutton said. “She is really tiny.â€
By serving on the panel for “Full Disclosure: The News Behind the News,†Duttons’ guests--four ostracized politicians--joined the distinguished, and sometimes diminutive, company of outspoken women throughout Los Angeles County who are often criticized for asking too many questions.
La Puente Councilwoman Sally Fallon, wearing her signature scarf and wide-brim hat, joined Lambert, Inglewood Councilwoman Judy Dunlap and former Alta Loma School District trustee Carolyn Preschern in taping a two-part series dedicated to dissenters who hold public office.
The women on Thursday’s panel said they have been censured, intimidated or harassed for publicly raising questions about the way their governmental bodies operate. Although gadflies are not always women, the “old boys network†works heavily against those who are, Lambert said.
The programs will air on 32 cable systems sometime next week, so “we’re safe until then,†Fallon joked.
Barbara Blinderman, who organized the panel for the California First Amendment Coalition, watched the first program’s taping from the studio’s “green room.â€
She laughed incredulously as Lambert lambasted business ethics in Hawthorne and shook her head when Fallon said she was asking the district attorney to investigate her city.
When the studio doors opened after taping for the first show had ended, Blinderman said: “You guys are creating a sensation in the green room.â€
As an assistant helped Blinderman with her microphone and another handed her a phone book, Dutton told the rest of the panel to match Blinderman’s passion when they discussed their own bureaucratic woes.
*
“You’ve stated your case,†she said. “Now we want you to get mad.â€
And mad they got.
“Maybe there should be a mandatory one-year prison term†for people who interfere with the democratic process, Fallon said.
Although her colleagues on the La Puente City Council denounce Fallon as a rabble-rouser, she said she frequently casts her vote against the majority because she is not given enough information to make intelligent decisions about many agenda items--a problem all of the panelists said they share.
“If I was ever to write a book, it would be called, ‘Died For Lack of a Second,’ †said Preschern.
“That,†Fallon empathized, “would be my book too.â€
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