Saturday, January 06, 2007

Hate Speak The Right's Right

With no viable political philosophy and no coherent strategy for governance, the right wing nutjobs whose shrill radio broadcasted voices have advocated nothing but hate and contempt are starting to find themselves in the glare of the spotlight.

The right of these "radio personalities" to advocate violence, rape and torture against anyone they dislike or anyone who they define to be a "liberal" is being eroded as people wake up to the fact that hate isn't tool of govenment and that advocating violence against anyone who disagrees with you isn't leadership.

After more than a decade of descent into more and more pathalogical and potentially delusional fantasies about visiting violent indignities on their enemies (any American who disagrees with them) their party is about to be over.

Over at Kos, Spocko vs. Disney is putting the battle for our public airwaves into the public's consciousness. Here in some detail is the type of behavior that passes for public discourse on KSFO, in San Francisco.

Primarily, we want to raise awareness of the hate that is broadcast over our airwaves every single day. To that end, it’s useful to highlight clips like this one, in which the KSFO host ponders, "the day will come when unpleasant things are going to happen to a bunch of stupid liberals. It’s going to be amusing to watch, [cohosts laughter] very amusing to watch." Or this one, in which Melanie Morgan, speaking of Nancy Pelosi, claims to have "a bull’s-eye painted on her big wide laughing eyes." It is our hope that by shining the disinfectant that is sunlight upon these advocators of violence, we will give Congress reason to take a closer look at what has happened to political discourse since the evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine.

A secondary goal is to begin a dialogue with the advertisers that may still be ignorant of the horrible things uttered by the hosts at KSFO. For instance, does it make sense for Match.com to pay for advertisements that run immediately after Melanie Morgan suggests that Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, should be dug up and so that she could be killed again? How romantic do you feel after that visualization? Does it make sense for Denny’s, a company with a, how shall we say... less than adequate race record to advertise on Brian Sussman’s show when he agrees with a caller that all mosques in Syria should be blown up by cruise missiles when they are most likely to be full of praying Muslims?

Another of our goals is to encourage corporate responsibility. Disney allows their subordinate companies to engage in this kind of hateful behavior because it is profitable to the Disney parent. As long as Brian Sussman makes KSFO money by demanding that a caller prove he’s not a Muslim by saying "Allah is a wh*re," Disney will not intervene. Of course Winnie the Pooh, The Little Mermaid, Mickey Mouse and Snow White’s hearts are broken, but no matter...

Disney isn’t in it for the morality. It’s all about the benjamins. Why else would they allow Melanie Morgan’s cohost, Lee Rodgers to tell his listeners that good reason exists to "go in and attack the New York Times." Why do they allow express advocacy of violence against innocents to be broadcast from their corporate property? Here – listen to "Officer Vic" call Senator Barak Obama a "halfrican" because his mother is white. Or try this one – Brian Sussman describing how he would torture...

Finally, we’ve got some selfish goals. We are tired of being marginalized by fringe kooks like these guys. This clip here, in which they fantasize about putting NY Times Editor Bill Keller in a malfunctioning electric chair, really says it all. These people have set the tone and defined the discourse for the better part of 5 years – or longer. It is a ridiculous thought that these immature and dysfunctional children are given platforms from which their bile and venom is broadcast to millions. This air pollution is absolutely toxic and damaging to the goal of a reasonably harmonious and peaceful society and it needs to be marginalized. Nothing will marginalize it further that making what they say known. Melanie Morgan, Lee Rodgers, "Officer Vic" and Brian Sussman would be involuntarily confined if they uttered these statements on a street corner. Why should they be given 50,000 watts to do it over the broadcast spectrum that belongs to you and I?

I don't know what Morgan, Sussman and crew really believe. Most of what they do is an act, but it is an act that they get to play out because it garners advertising money for big corporations like Disney. If the money dries up, then this rough and tough talking crew of wingnuts will be out of work.

Here is a list of KSFO advertisers. Contact them and politely ask them to stop funding hate speech on the radio. If KSFO considers what its "personalities" do to be valid political commentary, then the station (ABC and Disney) can continue to fund this political commentary out of their own resources. I wonder how long that exercise in free speech would last.

Be polite in your communications – don’t assume the worst. As a matter of fact, as I understand the situation, ABC markets many of its radio stations as "family-friendly" Disney owned properties. Individual ad buyers never hear or have reason to know how their product is being tied to this filthy hate-pornography. Finally, contact your representatives – especially if you live in the Bay area. Make them aware of the garbage that is being broadcast into their own districts. Demand protection from offensive content. If there are seven words you can’t say on the radio, why should these people be allowed to advocate actions that are so much more dangerous? Obscenity is obscenity. KSFO has earned the right to millions in fines, but unfortunately, nobody has had the political will to hold them accountable. Maybe that time has come.

KSFO Advertisers


Administaff800-237-3170
Agape Village800-379-0103
Agape Village Foster Family Agency209 824-5365
American Diabetes Association703-549-1500
AT&T
BAAQMD
Benchmark Lending800-680-4000
Best Buy612-291-6114
BFS Retail & Commercial Operations LLC a subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.630-259-9121
Big O Tires (TBC Corp) via Sumitomo Corporation of America561-227-0955
BMW of North America LLC.800-831-1117
Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.
Bright Smile1-800-542-4802
Cache Creek800-992-8686
California Teachers Association
Check 'n Go513-336-7735
Choice Hotels International301-592-6719
Cingular Wireless
Cyber Mesa Telecom
Dennys
Eastern Furniture
FedEx
Freecreditreport.com Experian847 517 5600
Frontier Airlines800-265-5505
HMS Capital
Home Depot
HoMedics Inc.1-800-466-3342
Humidex-Atlantic800-293-9577
In and out Hamburgers1-800-786-1000
Infineon Raceway at Sears Point800-870-RACE ext. 137
John M. Cummuta800-743-8533
Kaiser Permanente
Learning Annex Real Estate and Wealth Expo 1800-US ANNEX(212) 371-0280
Match.com (an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp)800-926-2824
Michigan Economic Development Corporation(517) 335-1871
Microsoft Dynamics
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.888-560-MMSA (6672)
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company314-982-1000
New York Life Insurance Company212-576-7000
OSH (part of Sears Holdings)847-286-9036
Outofbk.com (Automated Finance Corporation)(877) 688-6325
Pacific Gas and Electric Company916-923-7053
Preparation H (Wyeth)
Pulte Homes, Inc.1-866-785-8325
Riviana Foods
Shreve and Company Jewelers(415) 421-2600
Sleeptrain
Sutter Health415-925-7905
Taylor Made Water Systems925.521.9100
The Jewelry Exchange -Goldenwest Diamond Corporation714-542-9000
The Jewlery Exchange
Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc
Verizon
Verizon Wireless(805) 372-6969
Visa Security Play (Visa U.S.A., Inc.)
Wheelworks
Window Broker888-240-3688
Zuffa, LLC. (parent of UFC : Ultimate Fighting Championship)

All these organizations have websites and most have publicly available email contact information. Most also have a mailing address and list the names of their executives. Drop them a note. You might also discover that most of these organizations have mission statements or other statements indicating their commitment to serve their customers and respect their employees. Ask them how they would deal with an employee of their company who advocated the kind of violence and hate that you hear on KSFO against another of the company's employees?