Supporting Documents
U-Savior Responds to Bob Law's Accusations... An Open Community Letter
To my beautiful Black brothers and sisters,
For the last couple of months Bob Law has been circulating lies about us stealing a movie.
As filmmakers we’re baffled as to why we would steal a film from somebody who is not a filmmaker and does not have a studio or any filmmaking equipment. I’m just curious as to when the theft occurred (in reality he owes us approximately $97,000 if this is indeed his film). Was it before or after we promoted him at screenings and on radio shows, put his name on printed materials and on our website along with his bio and photo and gave him vanity credit as a producer even though he didn’t contribute money to the making of the film? In fact, his sole financial contribution consisted of half of the cost of a teleprompter that was only needed so that he could deliver his lines properly. What kinds of thieves run around making their victims look good?
It’s interesting that the claim that we “hijacked” this film from Bob Law happened when the public began to take notice of Disappearing Voices and showed tremendous enthusiasm and anticipation for it. This at the same time that the NY State Attorney General hauled Arbitron into court over the Personal People Meters mentioned in our film. Mind you this is something he was not able to do on his own and he’s been in radio for years.
The claim of thievery is confusing, especially since the film hasn’t been distributed yet and he has no ownership rights. In fact, I suspect that it may all be a ruse to cover up a far more sinister agenda.
My suspicion stems mainly from the ridiculousness of Bob’s assertions. They’re just plain dumb. Before all this, I would have sworn up and down that Bob Law is far from dumb. Well, my father always told me that when smart people do dumb things be careful. Something else is going on.
When I first heard that Bob was saying these things I ignored and dismissed it because I thought someone was just trying to throw stuff in the mix.
But when we got a letter from his attorney (who failed to do her due diligence) the day before the film was supposed to be screened (perfectly timed it would seem) demanding that we stop showing the film, that we had infringed upon copyrighted material, we were thrown for a loop.
So why did he do it? Well, we need to ask ourselves who would benefit by the failure of this film. Who would have an interest in this film not being seen or distributed? Arbitron? Clear Channel? Mainstream media? All of the above? And they all certainly have the means to persuade weak-minded individuals to go along with them in exchange for promises. Why would Bob not want the truth to finally be told? He never got this far with the issue before.
Signs indicate that Bob has been compromised. No other explanation makes sense.
The idea that we stole something from him is preposterous and everyone knows it. And even if they don’t know they should know better.
For the record Bob Law is not the epitome of radio. Bob’s experience and contributions in radio are by no means definitive. There are people who came before him and who came after. And there are people today who have done even more for positive radio, who we have included in this film.
So, in light of all the drama we nipped it in the bud.
Bob Law has been dropped from the final version of Disappearing Voices – the Decline of Black Radio. The film will no longer feature narration written or performed by Bob Law. We are pleased and proud to announce the upcoming release of Disappearing Voices – The Decline of Black Radio - Directed by U-Savior, narrated by radio legend Wayne Gillman (WBLS, Air America), with narration written by Iyanna Jones (The Ghetto Chronicles, Eyes of Xhosa) and additional interviews with:
Bernard White - Program Director at WBAI Community Radio
Jonathan Adelstein - FCC Commissioner
Alec Foege - Rolling Stone Magazine contributor and author of Right of the Dial - The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio
Dr. Kristal Brent Zook - Author of I See Black People - The Rise and Fall of African American Owned Television and Radio
Marcus Reeves - Author of Somebody Scream – Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power
Ralph Poynter - Activist and P.I. for the infamous Larry Davis case
Sonny B. Southerland - Legendary 91.5 WNYE Community Radio Broadcaster/Engineer and Advocate.
So there you have it. These are the facts as to why he’s not in the film. Straight from the director’s mouth.
My final observations are that it’s a shame when people take kindness for weakness. It’s even more of a shame when these things happen in the movement, as if we don’t have real problems we should be addressing.
And for all of Bob’s friends who think he’s right and beyond reproach or who simply feel compelled to show loyalty because they’ve known him so long, here’s a quote from Octavia Butler:
Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool
To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen
To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.
And for people who wondered why we took so long to respond: we were hard at work and we were still hoping in the back of our minds that he would come to his senses and eventually apologize for besmirching our name.
I guess he has so much invested in his ridiculous lies that he thinks there’s no turning back. It’s never too late to do the right thing, Bob.
Thanks to all who knew about this and called us to extend and declare their support.
Thanks to certain folks who didn’t say I told you so when they had every right to.
Thanks to the film festivals that didn’t buckle when they received bogus phone calls from Bob accusing us of stealing.
Wow. For Bob to stoop to this level, business must be really bad at the Seafood Café.
Revolution then peace,
U-Savior