More on Rivero vs. Jones

I feel relatively certain that it was some well-intentioned individual who used my Gmail address to submit an inquiry about Mike Rivero's departure directly to GCN apparently via some "feedback" form on their web site.

The inquiry, submitted "Fri, Jul 30 10 at 06:23:04 PM CDT" read as follows:

Hello,
Many of the fans of Mike Rivero's radio show "What Really Happened" are very curious about why the popular show is leaving GCN. Can something be done to keep him?
The only information is an announcement on Rivero's website stating that the show is leaving. This is causing an enormous amount of speculations and suspicions from fans of the show all across the internet.
As of today there still isn't an announcement or even so much as a sentence about it on the GCN website. What is going on? With so much information on the GCN web site about what is going on in the world, what isn't there ANY information about what is going on at GCN?
The blogosphere community will continue to stir this out of context until you make some sort of announcement. Please do it soon.
Thank you!

This inquiry resulted in an email response that I received today from someone at GCN.

Mr Rivero did not give us a reason other than he thinks it is time to move on. He will be greatly missed by us.
Mr Rivero is a wonderful man and we wish him the best.

Christin Davies
1-877-996-4327 ext 102
cdavies@gcnlive.com

Genesis Communications Network http://www.gcnlive.com

[Actually, based on IP address information that appeared in this email I do know who initiated this, and I do not have a problem with it.]

When I first read Ms.[?] Davies terse response, my initial reaction was to think: Well, someone is lying here. Then I reexamined what each of the primary parties had actually said. Mike's initial announcement posted on his web site said, "...I have decided to leave GCN...." The talk about Mike being fired or "banished" has not come from him, but rather from bloggers and other third parties.

His next posting did assert that [by implication] GCN and/or the Jones organization had canceled his regular monthly appearances on the Jones show. Christin did not address this issue, but it had not been raised in the submitted inquiry. If those appearances had continued, they might well have made for some very entertaining listening, but probably would have been uncomfortable for the participants.

I can surely empathize with Mike's decision to go, based on what he said in his "nutshell" remarks. It does certainly appear that he felt that he was in a hostile work environment at GCN probably mostly because of the considerable influence Alex Jones appears to wield there as the "star" of the network. [The question has been raised as to who is actually the "top dog" -- Alex Jones or Ted Anderson.  I don't know how their interpersonal dynamics work, but I strongly suspect that Alex brings more money to Ted's network than vice-versa at this point.]

Given the substantial amount of anecdotal evidence that Jones has acted covertly to harm the business relationships of other radio hosts, it is easy to envision Rivero wondering how long it would be until his turn would come.  Since he wanted to remain true to his ideological beliefs [which conflicted with Alex's] it might well have been only a matter of time until he went down the Jeff Rense road.  Choosing to not compromise his convictions, it seems clear that it was best for him to choose the time for his departure rather than having it forced upon him.

Since Mike made the proactive move, it may be that Jones/GCN pulled the plug on his monthly appearances as much to assert some control over events [and "save face" a bit] as to avoid potential on-air unpleasantries.

At this point I am more interested in what Mike's "new" show is going to be like, how it's going to be different from what he's doing now, than I am in behind-the-scenes intrigues at GCN.