John Carlson, the KVI talk host we've been dogging for using the loudspeaker of his popular drivetime talk show to unfairly (and we said illegally) tub-thump for the irresponsible anti-road repair Initiative 912, wrote us to clarify some stuff and try to defend his defenseless, sorry ass.
(As a fairness disclosure, we must say that Carlson and our blatherer-in-chief are old friends--though you'd never know it from the near fatal beatings delivered almost daily to Carlson on these pages. Blathering Michael covered Carlson's quixotic run for governor in 2000; spending a memorable week careering through Eastern Washington from coffee hour to Kiwanis luncheons to Grange dinners. Carlson rode his Harley, while his young staff of funny, Red Bull sucking, conservative quick studies and the Big Blatherer on assignment for the Seattle Weekly, followed lounging in a borrowed Winnebagel. We know Carlson to be an honorable man, an essentially good human being, who simply hates our freedom).
BlatherWatch's charge of ignoring campaign disclosure laws was upheld brilliantly last week in a Thurston County Court, when a judge ruled they'd have to estimate and report the hours of on-air time as an in-kind contribution from Fisher Broadcasting, KVI 's dad.
Carlson points out that we erred when we said:
Later in the day, [Fisher Broadcasting honcho] Kelly complied with the judge by estimating that the in-kind help was worth $20,000 to the campaign — $10,000 apiece for the two hosts for the month of May.
Carlson writes, "It was the 912 campaign, not Fisher, that gauged our value at $10,000 apiece for May."
And we correct that: it was I-912's political consultant, Brett Bader who did the estimating. We still think that's a bargain for the hours and hours the campaign has been plugging away on-air. And, of course, we need to nag Brett: there's still part of April and all of June to jigger up for the PDC, buddy.
(Carlson reported on the radio today that they have 200k of the 275k signatures needed by Friday. He also said several times that win or lose, at least they gave it their best shot--an historically great shot. That doesn't sound too hopeful for them...of course they may have been misunderestimating the numbers for a diabolical strategy understood only by the evil Darth Bader. Or maybe Carlson was preparing the troops for a bust...we're praying about it).
Carlson's main point and the one made by Radio Equalizer Brian Maloney today is this phony freedom of speech argument.
I must say I'm surprised you don't see the precedent this could set in chilling advocacy speech for a candidate or cause in the future, especially where finance limits are in place. For instance, the Seattle Times promoted Paul Schell's candidacy for Mayor before he became a candidate (they helped get him in the race, in other words, by telling him the water would be warm), and wrote several editorials encouraging support for him. Clearly they had a motive: use our editorial page to support a candidate we believe in. That would now become suspect.
We're the liberals around here and we hang onto the First Amendment like a babe on a teat. We stick up for the free speech rights of Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, gangsta rap, and porn sites like this.
Our First Amendment licks are clean, man.
But what we think goes beyond the precious opining guaranteed by the Constitution, and a breech of our constitutional campaign disclosure laws is the daily "direct campaigning" done by Kirby Wilbur and Carlson.
On-air we hear the campaign logistics and strategy at the bread crumb level: meet-ups, petition drop locations; petition pickup or delivery places and times; campaign people checking in with messages for fellow workers; suggestions for signature gathering, and more.
That loophole was closed by the judge, but Carlson still clings to he fact that since he and Kirby have no paid or official part in the campaign, they can do or say just about anything on-air.He writes:
Keep in mind that unlike other campaigns where I was clearly a leader, I am not involved in the chain of command and have no authority in Kirkland. Nor am I getting any compensation or fee. In fact, I'm donating my time to get signatures and I'm donating money because I believe in the cause.
Carlson is a well-promoted and popular public figure as is Kirby Wilbur. Their appearances, endorsements, their very professional faces associated with any product whether commercial or political is worth a lot. Just advocating is powerful but doesn't break any laws or as he says, "Advocacy journalism, so long as it's identified as such, goes back to the founding of the Republic itself."
When John was running for governor, he called his candidacy "an insurgency." We doubt if he'd use that word these days since insurgents are the bad guys in Bush's Iraqi morass.
But an insurgency is what he's leading today.
Class-baiting like a bunch of old socialists, Carlson and Wilbur cast I-912's opponents as an evil cabal of big business, labor and media elites. In reality, the enemy is a bipartisan majority of the people's elected representatives.
Like the Republicans' failed attempt to unseat Gov. Gregoire, this is another lose/win situation for the GOP. Even if they don't get this on the ballot, they've raised ire, hoked up more "rage," and can play the noble underdog to their usual choir plus have gained a new crowd of galvanized and thoroughly politicized constituents.
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Got inside talk-radio poop to dish? Blab it at blatherWatch-mail@yahoo.com. Discretion assured.
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