BlatherWatch

BlatherMunch35: a legacy of popcorn and spreading the butter

My father was fanatical about popcorn and making it was one of the few rituals he observed and I remember every detail of it.

You may think the word fanatical is just more of my tedious and inevitable hyperbolizing, but my old man was a liberal Republican from the Pacific Northwest, where "process is our most important product," and popcorn, for him, was all about process.

NPR shrink caught in big pharma payola

(Disappointingly, this story was front page, above the fold in the New York Times when we awoke this morning -- as of 1:30 p (PST) this has yet to be mentioned by NPR news or appear on its web site).  

Big Pharma has inserted itself in a niche on the Wall of Shame usually reserved for skeezy record companies wanting their records played by avaricious platter-jockies.

But instead of a fast-talking DJ with an extreme haircut taking envelopes bulging with cash and luxury vacations, it's an authoritative Chevy Chase doctor with a reassuring voice, and an impressive Rolodex telling info-seeking listeners to use a drug whose manufacturer has paid him exorbitant lecture fees and 100's of thousands of dollars to promote it on the air... of public radio! 

Fairness doctrine: 'unlikely' to industry insiders

Here's what Tom Taylor of trade site Radio-Info.com writes in his newsletter about the paranoia spread by Rush Limbaugh about the Fairness Doctrine the long-gone policy which he claims the socialist, autocratic Obama government will bring down on talk radio, free speech and Big Pants' bottom line.

Ex-talk host/moviemaker debunked

Don't know if you've been following the ferkukkle around right-wing ex-talk host John Ziegler who's making a documentary on how Obama stole the election because the media was so biased in his favor.

He hired Zogby to ask questions of Obama supporters about the race; their answers were pre-supposed to prove they knew more about the bad stuff about McCain than the bad stuff about Obama, because -- natch -- of the media.

That poll has now been discredited, reports that liberal rag, The Wall Street Journal and John Zogby has been forced to admit, “This was not Zogby International’s finest hour,” he said. “Something, somehow, fell through the cracks.” (not the first example of Zogby's cavernous cracks).

The doctor is out, dennis miller is in at kvi

Dennis Miller, the former SNL comedian, sports caster turned libertarian, security conservative radio talk host and will take over KVI's 9 ta noon slot in early February. He left the Seattle market when KKOL flipped to business talk early this month.

The KVI slot is now filled with Dr. Laura Schlessinger who tells young women and gay men why they shouldn't sleep with their boyfriends. She tersely supports wives who are having trouble serving and servicing their husbands on demand as, she believes, is their Biblical role. (Laura's never lasted long in this market, though she's tried many times).

'Racist bigot,' glennn beck gets jumped at wendy's

All he wanted was a goddamned Frosty™.

Glennn Beck, (KTTH m-f, 6-9a) in a Wendy's for a Frosty™ last Saturday night, was accosted as he stood in line by a truck driver with "food in his hair" who called him a "racist bigot."

Here's the story from the mouth of the hypermanic, pop-eyed, chubby-cheeked, arm-flapping, spittle-spraying, race-banging, grenade-launching, cliche-spewing, sex-obsessed, fag-baiting, right-wing cheer-king for violence against diversity:

Bonneville responds to staff concerns

KIRO Program Director Rod Arquette, who is also Bonneville's Vice President for Programming and Operations responds to our story about their company's relationship with gays:

Bonneville Seattle is very proud of the relationship we have with all our employees and I think they would agree. We strive every day to provide an environment that allows our employees to succeed and grow. That actually is written into our company’s mission statement and is one of the reasons we enjoy such a high employee retention rate and loyalty. We communicate honestly and sensitively. The company is committed to maintaining a work environment that is free of illegal harassment and discrimination, and our doors are always open to talk to any employee who feels they’ve been treated unfairly.

KIRO gays nervous about mormonic homophobia

"I've never felt the need before to hide who I am at work," says "D," a gay staffer at Bonneville's Eastlake broadcast facility, "but now I'm not so sure that was a good idea."

Bonneville International owns Seattle's KIRO, KIRO FM, and KTTH; Bonneville International is holy owned by the Church of the Latter Day Saints -- or the Mormons, if you prefer.

The church was the focus of furious protests over the weekend in Seattle and major U.S. cities after LDS honchos called on California Mormons to donate time and money to the campaign for Proposition 8 to overturn a supreme court ruling permitting gay marriage.

Talk radio and the GOP: adrift on the same iceberg...

Talk radio and the Republican Party are intertwined, and both are sinking, and their problems are mirror images of each other.

We've told you many times: neither has had much success enticing and hanging onto young, black, or Latino people nor any other than the fast-fading demographic than whites of a certain age, mostly male.

Talk radio hasn't even tried to win them, and the Republicans don't know how...

For one thing, with few exceptions talk radio's product hasn't changed even for those of us whom they've been targeting -- it's still the old "stir-'em-up & get-'em-to-call" routine based by definition on negativity, anger, cynicism -- or if the host is really good -- all three.

We're taking the weekend off...

in case you hadn't noticed.