La secte de Jonestown

I briefly alluded to the matter on my last broadcast but did not go into the details.
Because there are many rumors circulating, I will outline my perceptions of the matter.
When I came into the American Free Press office on Wednesday morning, two of my colleagues, Chris Petherick (and later Julia Foster) informed me with great embarrassment that the day before (and that very morning, just as I came in the door), Mr. Stadtmiller had called American Free Press and indicated that he wanted to replace me with another writer from AFP.
Mr. Stadtmiller complained to them (and not incorrectly) that I had often missed programs (which I later calculated to be on the average of about four nights a month).
My AFP colleagues were, to be perfectly candid, a bit disturbed that Mr. Stadtmiller had not first discussed the matter with me and that he had gone behind my back (to them) and they duly tried to avoid becoming involved in the matter, but that was virtually impossible since Mr. Stadtmiller had contacted them. It turned out that Mr. Stadtmiller had also contacted another AFP writer who works outside the office.
When I learned that I was clearly about to be ousted from RBN by Mr. Stadtmiller (who certainly has the right to do that, as it is his network), I determined that I would no longer continue to plague Mr. Stadtmiller with my presence (or non-presence, as the case may be).
I really don’t have any particular desire to go or be where I am not wanted.
I would note that I never received a penny (nor did I ask for one) from Mr. Stadtmiller during the entire time that I was involved with his network.
Note that—as regular longtime listeners can confirm—I did not use the nightly forum to enrich myself. I promoted other people’s books and websites and promoted American Free Press and only occasionally would refer people to the website michaelcollinspiper.com which carries ebook versions of my books and which, by the way, is NOT “my” website, but is a subsidiary website run by another individual.
Although I did ask Mr. Stadtmiller, by email, to advise people that I had been fired (or rather, I guess, that he was planning to fire me) but his interpretation is that I “resigned.”
I left with no advance warning simply because I didn’t know, until the day of my last broadcast, that Mr. Stadtmiller was actively working to find a replacement for me.
I leave it for you and others to judge the circumstances and consider, for example, what you would do if you learned that the person you had worked for (for free) for some five years was recruiting one of your day-to-day work colleagues to replace you.
Never once did Mr. Stadtmiller ever offer any criticisms of my on-air commentary and on more than one occasion he told me (several years ago) that I had the “second highest ratings” on the network.
I appreciated the freedom that Mr. Stadtmiller gave me to direct my own programming and never once did he try to interfere with the content.
I did learn from Mr. Stadtmiller and from several folks in Texas that Alex Jones was very hostile to me and, on one occasion, Mr. Jones did pressure a small independent radio network in Texas to cease carrying my broadcast, even as it was carrying other RBN programming (along with that of Alex Jones’).
For the record, it is appropriate to note this:
As many of my longtime listeners know (but which I only revealed on the air about eight months ago) for a period of about two years I was suffering from periodic and very debilitating heart palpitation episodes that could last anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 or 15 hours. On one occasion I experienced one of these “events” in the presence of two RBN hosts, Mark Glenn and Hesham Tillawi, when I was visiting Mark’s home in Idaho. On several occasions these events took place in front of my colleagues at American Free Press. I would break into a cold sweat, turn very white. I could not lie down. It was very frightening.
In those days, when I was ill, I often had Mark Glenn sit in for me, but Mark was subsequently banned from RBN, so on the more recent occasions where I expected to miss a show, I was unable to get him as a substitute. After I found another substitute, Mr. Stadtmiller complained to me that this particular substitute was “no good on the radio” and even urged me to bring back Mark Glenn (perhaps as an afterthought) but Mark Glenn wanted nothing further to do with RBN.
Although (thank God) my heart palpitations ceased about a year ago, I have still periodically missed shows; occasionally from colds (which I have frequently) but more often than not it has simply been because I was exhausted by a full day and hardly prepared to do a 9-10 broadcast and was usually sound asleep!
I was disturbed to learn that a certain party associated with RBN (who shall go un-named) claimed that I was missing programs because I was an “unreliable drunk” (and was thus, presumably, too drunk to do the show) but the problem with that malicious and mendacious theory is that—as my AFP colleagues can attest—I do not like to drink in the early evening hours so therefore it would be impossible for me to be “drunk” and thus unable to broadcast! I only mention this, again, for the official record of my relationship with RBN. And, by the way, there was never once any occasion where I had gotten drunk and couldn’t do the show. I even did MOST of my programs when I was out-of-town on vacation here in the United States.
Please feel free to circulate this information as there is nothing “confidential” or “secret” about any of this. And certainly Mr. Stadtmiller is free to comment on this as he so pleases.
Cordially,
MICHAEL COLLINS PIPER
P.S. Mark Glenn has volunteered to help me set up a podcast at michaelcollinspiper.podbean.com and I will be maintaining my own blog at michaelcollinspiper.blogspot.com. Certainly I expect to continue to be associated with americanfreepress.net and the weekly newspaper, AMERICAN FREE PRESS, and can always be reached at michaelcollinspiper@yahoo.com or, in the alternative, at michaelcollinspiper1960@yahoo.com. And, of course, I urge people to check out my work at michaelcollinspiper.com