mike webb’s union-busting at kiro: hypocrisy with a capital h

It was all tied up after yesterday’s vote to decertify (read bust) the union (AFTRA) from KIRO radio. With a handful of votes in dispute that could throw the NLRB election in either direction, nobody knows what’s next.

Petitioner for decertification was overnight talker Lou Pate, (Mon-Fri, 1-5a) who hasn’t returned blatherWatch’s emails for this piece. He’s one of those fuck-you conservatives, who pulls down some of the highest ratings at KIRO. But he's relatively harmless because he’s on at such weird hours that few hear him--many Entercomers didn’t know he even worked there. 

They do now. And management must have loved this little revolution boiling up from the bottom with hopes of totally removing the union from the station.

It’s been a bitter and highly-charged atmosphere at the embattled newstalk station, still stinging after its last record-poor ratings period. Staffers weighed their options in what’s been described as “barking debates,” around the newsroom.

A former Entercomer writes, “It's up to the staff to keep the union strong, they've been lazy and antagonistic toward each other, rather than providing a united front.”

Liberal Dave Ross, (KIRO m-f, 3-6p) wrote an eloquent memo defending a union shop; progressive Erin Hart is said to have favored the union as well.

KTTH’s Mike Siegel, who, if need be, can be conservative in the morning and liberal in the afternoon, flew in from reporting the undo Gregoire trial in Wenatchee just to vote. We’re not sure where his heart was for the day.

This should be a slam dunk issue for a liberal: union shop good, scab shop bad. Right? So most mysterious was the stance of Mike Webb (m-f, 9p-1a) who describes himself as a “liberal with a capital L.”

His off-air behavior often differs from his radical lefty talk show personna.

Webb worked very hard to help Pate’s efforts to bust the union, writing two anti-union memos to fellow employees. Just last week, Webb ranted on-air for hours about how “stakeholders” are more deserved of reward than “stockholders.” That's socialist boilerplate, but we now know that while he was saying all that, he was beating on the fingers of workers trying to hold on to their stakes.

Webb is, should we say, complicated; or might we say, hypocritical? He labels other people yuppies, yet drives a new black Lexus. He rails against corporations, yet makes a very good living from one of the largest media corporations and fights hard against collective bargaining rights for his fellow “stakeholders.”

A staffer says, “It was the most blatant management ass-kissing effort I've ever seen by Webb...he often refused to pay his [union] dues, but was the first to seek protection every time he got himself in trouble.”

Does this sound like a capital L liberal or a capital B bullshitter?

Webb is also gay with a capital G, which makes you wonder about his night after nightly plugs for energy drink RockStar. His repeated mentions can be translated into marketing dollars directly into the pockets of one of the most virulent and well-known homophobes in the country.

An ace blatherWatcher sent us a link to another revealing salon.com piece, America's Laziest Fascist by Dave Gilson (You don't need to subscribe to Salon to see this article, click on "Day Pass", watch a brief ad and read on.) about race baiting, queer-bashing, Michael Savage (KTTH m-f, 3-6p) and his entrepreneurial, homophobic son Russell Goldencloud Weiner’s promotion of their herbal drink RockStar, a liver-cleansing formula supposedly to help imbibers "party like a rock star."

Webb can’t plead ignorance: this article has been on the Net for over a year. It describes a crazy $100-a-head event in Concord, CA billed as “Savage Uncensored,” where, according to Gilson, young Weiner introduced his dad by asking,"’Who's heterosexual and proud?...If you're not, hopefully you will be soon!’ Before handing the stage over to the man he called 'our leader,' he advised the audience how to handle his hot-tempered dad: ‘Let him know you love him!’"

Read the hilarious article to hear how Michael Savage drunkenly deconstructs in front of 5000 paying fans.

Savage’s TV show was kicked off MSNBC after just four months a couple of years ago when he lost his temper and called a gay caller a “sodomite” and wished him death by AIDS. He also advocates nuking the Middle East. Here’s a sample from the salon.com piece: "I don't give a damn if they hide behind their women's skirts, wipe the women out with them! Because it's our women who got killed on 9/11! And it's our women who are gonna get killed tomorrow unless we get rid of the bugs who are destroying us!"

This is the company Webb keeps and enriches by pushing RockStar.

The disparity between Webb’s actions and words is a glaring example of what’s always to be remembered about talk radio--it’s a business first. Ratings are Job One and cynical professionals like Webb can be counted upon to oppose, favor--do whatever it takes--to get the ratings that brings home the smoked pigmeat. 

Comments

[Sid]

Mike Webb can be such a mean spirited bitch. he pisses me off an I'm a liberal. Now I know why...he's just a jerk

[jen]

yeah what I want to know, is Michael Hood a liberal with all this cirticism of liberal talk show hosts. We shouldn't criticise our own, lets hold our fire for the right.

[ding]

Once again, you seem to have trouble with facts.

First, Lou Pate is on the air Monday through Friday 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., not Sunday through Thursday as you write.

Second, everyone on the KIRO staff knows who he is. He's been on the air for 5 years and has been a fixture at the regular Battle of Talk Hosts.

But, here's a question for you, Mr. BigTimeJourlanlistAndWordSmith: How come you don't write about the handful of hardcore right-wingers in the Entercom building who were running around drumming up support FOR the union.

But, wait, here's a better question: why do you assume liberals have to support AFTRA. If the union sucks and is draining dues from members for nothing should they just keep paying like lemmings? Do you think liberls have to be stupid, too?

Looking forward to your well-crafted, pithy reply. The thirteen of us who read this shit will get a kick out of it.

[BigTimeJourlanlistAndWordSmith]

When workers give up their only legal representation and recourse with management, they've lost (or given away ) something very valuable.

Labor unions have, granted, brought a lot of shit down on themselves, but American workers have become spoiled in many instances and take stuff for granted.

If push ever comes to shove, the company isn't going to give a rusty fuck about employees, and won't have those annoying contracts and union reps in their way.

Hope it never comes to this for you guys, but you better prop up those ratings a bit or push might come a little sooner than later.

I didn't really wanna get into the merits of the union/no union argument, but rather into the 2 sides of Mike Webb's mouth who, it can be argued, is not a liberal but plays one on the radio.

I'm sure you saw Heidi Dietrich's piece in the Puget Sound Business Journal, which validates everything blatherWatch has been writing about KIRO and vocifererously denied by you. Here's a link: http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2005/05/23/story7.html

You, as a management person sticking up for Lou Pate is really a joke... For a guy who gets the best ratings on your station, he gets bupkus when it comes to promotion of his show; not to speak of promotion (in 5 yrs!) to a better time slot. I hope now, that he's gotten your attention, management will give him what he deserves.
bests, Michael
PS: I'd love to hear from all those right wingers running around KIRO or KTTH sticking up for the union...discretion, as always assured.
PSS: thanks for the correction on Pates hours--is that all you got?

[windie]

mind fixing that link so we can get the whole thing? Sounds like an interesting read..

~Thx

[umo]

How can lou pate claim huge ratings on KIRO? The after midnight audience is miniscule.

[Michael]

Here is the link to the KIRO article

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/high_tech/cable_tv_radio/2005/05/23/seattle_story7.html

[Michael]

For some reason the comments section won't allow the posting of the complete URL for the article.

[David]

I'm getting a headache.

If Mike Webb is not a real liberal, then he has to be the greatest actor in the world, and I don't believe that. There must be more to this than meets the eye. I'd like to hear what he has to say about it.

I do take issue with your idea that a good liberal can't enjoy driving a nice car. I am a flaming radical myself, but I also happen to drive a black Lexus. Being a liberal doesn't mean you have to be poor, for Chrissakes. We live in one of the most radical cities in the country, but it also happens to have one of the highest per capita incomes.

Now if he was driving a Hummer, that would definitely not be politically correct!

[David]

I'm getting a headache.

If Mike Webb is not a real liberal, then he has to be the greatest actor in the world, and I don't believe that. There must be more to this than meets the eye. I'd like to hear what he has to say about it.

I do take issue with your idea that a good liberal can't enjoy driving a nice car. I am a flaming radical myself, but I also happen to drive a black Lexus. Being a liberal doesn't mean you have to be poor, for Chrissakes. We live in one of the most radical cities in the country, but it also happens to have one of the highest per capita incomes.

Now if he was driving a Hummer, that would definitely not be politically correct!