BlatherWatch

The Asshole Chronicles: rush limbaugh, michael j. fox, and the NAB

michael hood — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:08:00 -0800

My, how times have changed.

The National Association of Broadcasters is honoring Michael J. Fox with their Distinguished Service Award for his work in television for “raising awareness for Parkinson’s Disease through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.”

Seems like only yesterday (actually, it was 2006) that Rush Limbaugh, that great American, broadcasting pioneer, and conservative role model, mocked Michael J. Fox on-air accusing him of either playacting or deliberately going off his meds to enhance his symptoms to make a political point.

Fox had displeased the Maha Rushee by making a PSA that urged support of stem cell research. Delighting the dittoheads, Rush even rocked his heft back and forth on his radio throne, aping Fox’s jerky parkinsonian tremors.

It was not one of Big Pants' better moments.

"(Fox) is exaggerating the effects of the disease," he said. "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act.... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting.... he is an actor after all."

There were righteous outcries at the time, but the NAB's were not among them. This, the principle broadcasting trade organization was silent, as so many are in the industry when it comes to the excesses of the powerful, and vindictive Rush Limbaugh.

They had, after all - just the year before - awarded him their coveted Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year for the fourth time. (1992,1995, 2000, 2005).

Oops.

We'd guess the NAB decided that enough time had passed, since Rush’s notorious and widely condemned attack- he might not notice this public assuaging of their collective guilt. They could show that the industry was sorry, even if Rush never was.

Thanksgiving "left" overs: CHEF MICHAEL'S TURKEY CRANBERRY JELLO PRETZEL SALAD

michael hood — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:40:05 -0800

The late Emmet Watson, always published his Thompson Turkey recipe this time of year; NPR's Susan Stamberg offers her mother-in-law's cranberry relish. Michelle Obama makes her Apple Cobbler; Hillary Clinton touts the Chocolate Chip Cookies she famously doesn't make. Slade Gorton has his Warm Crab Dip; and the Bush Family their Zuni Stew.

These are beloved family traditions and the Bla'm Fam has one of it's own- which we're presenting by acclamation for the fourth year. We created it with a nod to the dubious genre of "family holiday favorites." As with all such recipes- it's the sediment, not the taste (or taste) that endears it.

There's no "right ' way to make this favorite- it's made truly from the "left" overs found in any liberal's holiday pantry.

CHEF MICHAEL'S CRANBERRY TURKEY JELLO PRETZEL SALAD

3 tbsp. sugar
2 c. crushed pretzels
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 c. powdered sugar
10 oz. leftover turkey
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
8 oz. carton Cool Whip
2 c. miniature marshmallows
6 oz. pkg. cranberry Jello
2 1/2 c. boiling water

Mix together sugar, melted butter and crushed pretzels. Press into 9 x 13 pan and bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Set aside to cool. Soften cream cheese; add powdered sugar and cream well. Fold in dessert topping and marshmallows. Spread over pretzel crust. Mix Jello in boiling water. Stir in turkey. When slightly thickened, pour over cream cheese layer. Place in the refrigerator until set. Serves 8 to10.

Lou dobbs for president

michael hood — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:25:50 -0800

Another self-important conservative media clown getting into retail politics?

Yet another right-wing candidate for candidacy who’s eschewing both political parties?

Hell, yeah- Bring on farty old Lou Dobbs, (KKOL m-f, 6-8p) and let’s throw him a tea party!

Dobbs claims to be “reaching out” to Latino groups, but put him on a ticket and his campaign would look like the Alamo. Hispanics would come out in droves to defeat the friend of Minutemen, the blithe, birther-agnostic idiot who now denies ever saying that undocumented immigrants are bringing leprosy to the US.

Glenn Beck is also making big third party noises. He's having, he says, a series of “conventions” next summer to educate us using those cryptic white papers with all the big words he can pay somebody to write for him.

The carnival that is Sarah Palin is up on the same horse. She and Beck are scrambling for ownership of the tea-baggers who are already split into at least two fractious factions.

The White House must be gleeful.

While we view the anger of the right as a serious development, the third party impulse could marginalize them even faster than nominating a Lou Dobbs, Sarah Palin, or a Glen Beck for anything.

We love the 2-party system only because, it’s what is, and it ain’t going to change. That’s more than conventional wisdom, it’s as near to a political truism as you can get. (We do love to shit in the hat of conventional wisdom, because conventionality is boring; but at the end of most days… it’s wisdom).

Never successful nationally or presidentially, third party jousts at the good order (at least in recent decades) help Democrats. Think Ross Perot, Al Franken, Pat Buchanan, and NY-23.

Ron reagan ain’t local and now… he ain't live!

michael hood — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:22:23 -0800

Ron Reagan, is a Seattleite who’s done his national show live on and from the insufferable, CBS-owned KPTK at 3p since he syndicated with Air America. But the live-part was bumped to 6p as of Monday, when the station injected the Norman Goldman Show. Goldman, a progressive lawyer who has the career advantage of having the dough to buy himself clearance on troubled talk stations in their drivetimes.

KPTK fits that description. (26th in the market, the only progressive station in one of the most progressive cities in America!)

(photo: Norman Goldman)

The station typifies everything we hate about consolidated, corporate radio. In one of the most liberal cities in America, KPTK is free of local programming, and has a famously tin ear for local sensibilities.

A new life for shannon burke- if he works it...

michael hood — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:19:56 -0800

Shannon Burke, 45, a once popular, conservative, mid-day radio host on Orlando’s RealRadio 104.1 was jailed last Spring after he ragefully, drunkenly, shot his wife's dog in their bedroom. The bullet wounded the dog and hit his wife, grazing her head.

Friday he pleaded guilty and was given a 6-month sentence.

Clear Channel who owns the station, was not charged, though it may be argued the media megalith was complicit by turning a blind eye to Burke's crazed behaviors.

Burke failed as a liberal talk host in Texas, then, after coming to Florida and flipping to the right, got some success. Unfortunately his emotions, let loose in the free market of rugged right-wing individualism turned mean and alcoholic.

Burke now says the ordeal is the best thing that ever happened to him. He got treatment and started a radio show dealing with drug and alcohol recovery on WORL-AM.

“I’m a little different person than I was 7 months ago,” Burke said. “I’m clean and sober. I know the recovery show is helping a lot of people getting them into recovery and that’s crucial, too, for my recovery.”

Burke must attend Alcoholics Anonymous, continue mental health counseling, complete a firearms safety course and 100 hours of community service at an animal shelter.

Burke was sentenced to 180 days, with 26 days jail time credit. The judge told him he would most likely be eligible for work release. Burke told reporters he would like to serve that on the air. “That’s my goal. That’s what I do,” he said.

Political therapy should be included here: remember extreme conservatism can kill.

The Orlando Sentinel's Gary Taylor chronicled the decline of a conservative of convenience who fell rather swiftly into a self-indulgent swamp of violent alcoholic behavior.

Burke was a free-wheeling, left-wing talk-show host in Austin, Texas, when Clear Channel brought him to Orlando in 2001. Three years later, after Burke cultivated a local following as a staunchly conservative — though not highly rated — host on 540 AM, the company promoted him. Burke moved down the hall to Real Radio 104.1 FM, a popular blue-collar show that did well in the ratings.

Clear Channel encouraged Burke to develop a "bad guy" image.

He took to it like a rat to cheese, getting tattoos, riding motorcycles, and drinking like a pig despite his well-known allergy to booze.

"They [managers at Clear Channel] enabled it by making excuses, and sending him to bar gigs, knowing he would drink, even if he knew he shouldn't have," [friend and talk host Jeff] Duncan said.

Taylor describes a suicide attempt and alcoholic acting out as far back as 2004 in a bitter divorce. His ex-wife is asking a judge to keep him away from their 9-year-old daughter after his "erratic, volatile and escalating behavior."

Another girlfriend accused him in court records of biting and choking her and firing a gun in her presence. He also "has issues with drugs and alcohol," she said.

Of course, Clear Channel, with their signature sociopathic, ratings-first, see-no-evil management fired him only after his shooting up his wife and dog went very public.

It's Shannon Burke's fault. He's the alcoholic, violent asshole. But we've seen this enabling too many times before: whether it's Entercom ignoring Mike Webb's deep problems and misdemeanors; or WTKK letting Jay Severin run at the mouth with violence-encouraging hate-speech.

We're joking, of course, about the dangers of embracing a right-wing philosophy, but not about radio management. Too frequently it lets outrageous stuff go until their bottom line is threatened or somebody gets hurt and it makes the papers.

And oh yeah: How many more talk hosts are out there, hollow and seared inside because they took up a political stance alien to their natures because the market seems to demand it?

KVI’s Peter Weissbach hires illegals, according to report

michael hood — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:48:28 -0800

It’s one of those tropes you always hear on right-wing talk radio: bust the employers of undocumented workers, and the problem will be solved.

But in a Seattle Times story today, an Obama administration strategy that does just that has backfired on far-right talkhost, KVI Peter Weissbach, 62, (m-f, 5-6p) who’s gotten very rich running Seattle Building Maintenance, a janitorial service that employs the very illegals he rants against the government not busting!. (At, of course, the miserly wages that corporations can get away with paying such workers).

According to Lornet Turnbull’s story, Weissbach, (rhymes with pies-rack) and his wife’s company cleans such downtown landmarks as Seattle Art Institute, Pacific Place, Metropolitan Park and the Dexter Horton and Westin buildings.

“The subject of an ongoing immigration audit by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, the company has been clearing its books by firing some of itseport janitorial staff — about 100 people so far — believed to be working illegally.”
The probe of Seattle Building Maintenance offers an early glimpse into ICE's approach to worksite enforcement — stealthily targeting employers rather than workers.

ICE’s new strategy is in lieu of dramatic workshop raids that make great teevee.

The article says the Weissbachs have been cooperating with ICE only since approximately last August.

The wealthy Weissbach has, what’s been described to Blatherwatch, as a “business arrangement” with the troubled KVI, giving him an hour of drivetime to indulge his hobby of being a right-wing talk host. A Canadian emigrant and naturalized US citizen, Weissbach is heir to a rich Vancouver family who made their money in recycling (garbage removal).

Weissbach was hired in 1999 when KVI removed Michael Medved (who loaths him) from their line-up (Medved was syndicated shortly thereafter but was not allowed to be heard in Seattle for a year when Fisher pressed his non-compete clause to its full extent).

After he was fired from KVI, his once-promising radio career declined. Weissbach has had weekend shows on KIRO, and done fill-in for Michael Savage, Art Bell.

As Weissbach has harped for years, and years,

The Weissbach Show has no false gods and no sacred cows. It's the show that looks behind the facade; pricks the pretensions; and questions the veil that we're told is reality. It's the show that encourages you to think - and once having thought - stand up and speak out.

Will this blatant hypocrisy and lawbreaking cost the "prick of pretension" his hour of right-wing drivetime radio?

We wouldn't make book on it.

Is linda thomas the new KIROFM morning voice?

michael hood — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:05:00 -0800

Linda Thomas is working the news this morning on KIRO. Is she the new KIRO morning newsperson sidekicking Gregg Hersholt?

16 year KIRO veteran Jane Shannon was fired rather abruptly two weeks ago.

Often mentioned for the job, Thomas won't face a tough learning curve- she’s been filling in on KIRO for years.

Thomas is the honey-toned radio pro, and one time blogger who gave up the profession to have a family before returning to the fray.

KBCS changes protested

michael hood — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:11:24 -0800

A group of former KBCS volunteer music producers, the people who love them will demonstrate against the paid staff they hold accountable for the station’s deep format changes next week.

A group who calls itself SaveKCBS, will protest Nov. 27th, 5:30-7p, outside a KBCS benefit with Amy Goodman at Seatttle's Townhall (8th & Seneca). Goodman’s Democracy Now! headlines the station’s new morning line-up.

They say, “Democracy Now in our Community Radio Now!” claiming the programming changes were made in anything but democratic manner, but rather in a top-down decision by paid (god no) staffers.

They write:

35 years of rich, unique, and diverse music programming which served the greater Seattle community, was cut at KBCS...and nobody asked for your opinion!
On August 24, 2009, KBCS management completed Phase 1 of their programming changes. This is a complete revamp of the weekday programming with 4 hours less music each weekday!

Station management announced the community station’s model was not a sustainable one. Owned by Bellevue College, the station was built on the notion that every cultural musical niche should have a place on the airwaves. As we wrote last summer:

While other sorts of public radio like news and news talk (NPR) has thriven, the eclectic, crazy-pants, hyper-local, easy access, volunteer-powered model that depends largely on listeners of jazz, folk, or classical music is declining all over the country, especially urban stations. These niches are being mined by satellite radio and on-line radio channels.

What’s causing the stink is the dumping of most of the venerable jazz, Latino, and folk music programs, and the installation of syndicated public radio news shows such as PRI’s smart morning news show, The Takeaway; Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!; The Michael Eric Dyson Show, and more.

Community radio is going through the same shrinking pains, consolidation and syndication as public and commercial stations. Community stations like this are classic farm teams for all radio, as well as venues where diverse programming can be heard no matter how arcane nthey may seem to a mainstream audience.