Earlier this week the NAB announced that if you were going to Vegas for their 2021 show, you needed to show proof that you had been given the COVID-19 vaccine. CES, also held in Vegas, made a similar announcement days earlier. Two radio companies, Cumulus and Radio One, are requiring their employees get vaccinated.
Senior Vice President of Communications for the NAB Ann Marie Cumming told Radio Ink on Thursday that the reaction to their vaccine announcement, “has been overwhelmingly positive, as we expected.”
Cumming said the “NAB’s decision was based on the strong sentiment of our community showing support for our approach. We continue to do all that we can to bring the community together as safely as possible for those who can and want to attend NAB Show and Radio Show in person.”
At least one broadcaster is not happy with the decision. Rich Broadcasting (Idaho) owner Richard Mecham criticized the NAB for making the vaccine mandatory and followed that up by canceling his membership to the organization.
Here’s a portion of the e-mail Mecham sent to the NAB. “Does anyone at the NAB do their own research before making a decision like this? Or is the NAB committed to driving the Fauci/Biden fear narrative? The highest number of COVID hospitalizations are among those that are fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated individuals are supposed to start wearing masks again and social distancing. The people that you are inviting to attend the convention are the most likely to spread the disease, assuming that the CDC is ever able to prove that it exists. Please do me a favor and cancel our NAB Membership for Rich Broadcasting effectively immediately. If the NAB has become so political that you are willing to exclude those who have made a decision that is contrary to the Biden narrative then I don’t want to continue being a part of it. People’s medical choices should be their own business. Not to be overly blunt but this decision is total b——t.”
Mecham also believes that “Cumulus and Urban One could be held liable and the employee could file a civil lawsuit against the company in the event of an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Are these companies prepared to sign the document and assume personal liability for each of their employees?”
Cumming told Radio Ink that she is not aware of any other membership cancellations.
“Mecham also believes that “Cumulus and Urban One could be held liable…”
This is factually not true. There were a number of laws passed by both the federal govt and the states designed to limit the liability of employers with regard to covid-19. A plaintiff would have to prove negligence on the part of the employer. The vaccine is not being given by the employer but by third parties. Those third parties have also been given immunity from liability. Same with the vaccine manufacturers.
Broadcasters are not required to attend the NAB convention. If they don’t like the rules, they should stay home. If it’s like most public events, attendees will at some point sign a liability waiver.
The problem we have currently is that idiots like Mecham are being quoted as if they’re authorities on this subject. Why would this publication bother quoting him? Radio owner or not, he’s a liar and he’s ignorant, and if you want to look at the bigger picture, he’s also contributing to the deaths of more Americans. Totally irresponsible writing (I won’t call this journalism).
Not a fair comment on your part. This is a reader COMMENT section… and props to Ed Ryan and Radio Ink, that the comment section is never censured. All comments are invited, creating an interesting free flow of thoughts, or lack thereof lol, at times.
Yes, you are correct, Mecham is clearly ignorant on the scientific facts. But other RI readers including me (and you) have already called him out on that.
Yet another reason my new company will not be joining the NAB.
The NAB board and staff are supposed to be working FOR broadcasters, not OVER them.
Get lost, NAB!
Thank you Rich Mecham for speaking up and for taking it a step further by canceling your membership. Hopefully more broadcasters will refuse to be muzzled and muscled into ‘compliance’… and just refuse to attend the show.
This NAB admission that their response is overwhelmingly positive is a load of BS. NAB now defined. DEEP STATE American TRAITORS!
That some people are openly and publicly swimming in a sea of delusion and paranoia is such a bizarre display.
People in the water are being urged to get to the lifeboats and yet they refuse – completely unaware of the sharks already closing in for the kill. And heartily the fish will dine.
A combination of “fake news” and now “fake freedoms” turn these folks into so much chum.
Meanwhile, it’s probably just as well that radio’s ownership are not required to pass an IQ test.
Why would you even bother printing this moron’s blatantly false claims about vaccines and hospitalization? It is overwhelmingly false.
Do you know for sure that he isn’t speaking truth? Have you vetted this thoroughly? If not, you could be the one making the unwise decision here. And if it is false as you claim, prove it. Just the fact that you protest his being allowed to opine on the subject shows a lack of objectivity and tolerance for other people’s views. Isn’t that supposed to be the liberal progressive way? Tolerance and diversity?
Bob, the facts are that vaccinated people are a tiny fraction of hospitalized people sick from Covid. So Mecham is completely misinformed when he says that “the majority” of hospitalized are vaccinated. The reality is the opposite of that.
And this disease is not at all political, nor are the steps recommended by medical scientists to avoid Covid, political.
The fact that Covid has been a pandemic now under both a Republican President and under a Democrat President, should be proof enough that this is not a political matter. Nor is wearing masks. …Medical scientists — not politicians — are advising that wearing the proper masks can help slow down the spread of Covid from one person to another.
On the other hand, politicizing Covid and attacking/undermining medical scientific facts will only exacerbate the pandemic, and lead to more deaths.
See, the problem with what you believe is that it’s just not true. Today, vaccinated people now make up the majority of the hospitalized in both Israel and Australia, here’s a page with sources on that: https://newsrescue.com/australia-israel-report-95-99-hospitalized-fully-vaccinated/
Especially worrisome in Australia, because while only roughly 20% of the population is vaccinated, the hospitalizations are comprised of 100% vaccinated people. A potential sign that we are witnessing Antibody Dependent Enhancement – basically, things going seriously wrong when a vaccinated person is exposed to the virus. ADE occurred in the animal tests of mRNA vaccines, which is why mRNA vaccines never made it past animal trials – all the animals kept dying. They bypassed animal trials for this one.
People would know this and be able to make better educated decisions for themselves if governments and big tech weren’t censoring “misinformation”; information which actually is true but doesn’t conform to the medicrat narrative.