Monday, September 1, 2008

Take Action on Ridor and Martin Ritchie and Oxygen-TV!

According to Ridor's "Countdown to Resurrection" blog, the Oxygen TV's "Janice Dickerson Modeling Agency" hired an unqualified ASL interpreter for Martin Ritchie, the deaf reality TV
contestant,. The non-certified ASL interpreter was Jerry Ferris, CODA himself.

Jerry Ferris's pre-reality TV occupation was the art gallery director somewhere in Southern California. Ridor mentioned what a brown-nosed opporuntist, Jerry Ferris have been for years and leeched on anyone as a stepping stone all for himself. Ferris had been the TV producer for several tv programmings and actor and self-opporuntist lately.

Ridor's blog pointed out to the real concerns about Martin Ritchie being disservice by Jerry Ferris' questionable ASL interpreting on Oxygen-TV's "Janice Dickerson Modeling Agency" reality TV show of the Season Four since 2006 - www.janice/about.aspx Several deaf individuals from Barb DiGigi and Jared Evans also shared their concerns about Jerry Ferris and the issue of interpreter qualification and ethics on Ridor's blog.

Let's take a real action like writing out the letter of concerns and inquiry to the Oxygen TV network and National Association of the Deaf and other advocacy groups in advancement of deaf rights. Most important of all is to be more precise and specific and non-threatening with your concerns, disappointments and dissatisfaction to all the listed groups above about the unacceptable practices of hiring such an disqualified ASL interpreter for the reality TV programming and other entertainment features.

We could put the issue of unqualified ASL interpreters and the shortage of qualified ASL and transliteration interpreters in the United States on the map for this year's 2008 presidential election.

Here are the email address and mailing address for the Oxygen TV network -

TV Feedback -

O2.feedback@nbcnni.com

Mailing address -

Oxygen Media, LLC
75th 9th Ave
New York City, NY 10011

Email address -

www.oxygen.com/legal/contact.aspx

National Association of the Deaf (NAD)'s website address - http://www.nad.org/ and click on
"Take Action Center" heading for leaving messages to the NAD's Legal Advocacy unit.

We also ought to write a letter of objection and inquiry to our hometown newspapers, national magazines and entertainment industry periodicals about the issue of disqualified ASL interpreters for the world of entertainment, especially deaf contestants and participants. Let's spill over the black kettle of the DeafRead to the rest of the dominant society (hearing people).

We must kick our rear sides from time to time and do the deaf activism for real!

Please check out Ridor's "Countdown to Resurrection" blog for more additional information.

ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the follow up! You are right, we should make noises out of it. I would like to watch the program tomorrow night to observe the so-called work of Jerry and gather evidence of his mishaps to provide examples when writing a letter other than providing a factual information that Jerry is not certified.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, RLM! Appreciated this! Am doing this!

    Barb, trust me -- you'll wince and automatically realize that Jerry ain't certified!

    Cheers,

    Ricky

    ReplyDelete
  3. RLM, he is pretty bad. When I saw him interpreting, I know immediately he is not certified at all. He shouldn't be in that position at all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Barb DiGi and Ridor,

    Both of you are very welcomed!

    RLM

    ReplyDelete
  5. MZ,

    Really? I believe your assessment of Jerry Ferris' so-called interpreting skills. I have not seen this show yet. Many friends of mine do not have the subscription to the Oxygen TV on their CATV service. Mine, too.

    Certified terps could be on the bandwagon to demand more respect and protection for their own profession.

    I hope that Janice Dickerson will post Martin Ritchie's presence on the Oxygen website sometimes this week.

    Thanks MZ for your comment. :)

    RLM

    ReplyDelete
  6. why r u guys so concerned about it... its Martin's problem if he dont like jerry, he can fire jerry by himself. i dont think martin have any problem speaking up... since u kw.. hes a...reality tv model.
    Jerry ferris has went over the hill so.. i dont think we shld really THAT concerned about Ferris even tho i did thought that ferris wasnt THAT great but... hella thats waht captioning is for

    u guys dont want to b making this a big deal like contacting janice dickinson n etc. it will just make ur case look even more stupider

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, Jerry Ferris is a user and only wants to get close to people who can help him get into show business! He certainly used me and has never kept in touch ever since!

    Be careful!

    ReplyDelete