BlatherWatch

the company they keep

Arizona militia man, and anti-immigration vigilante Chris Simcox was pelted with marshmallows today by the host when he appeared on the John Carlson show (KVI,m-f, 3-6p).

Simcox, a newcomer himself to Arizona, is a weekly newspaper publisher in Tombstone, the site of the historic OK Corral shoot-out, and located in Cochise County, a constituency known for its ugly history of violence against illegal immigrants.

He's riding the Western anger-wave gathering around the untrammeled immigration over the porous and inadequately patrolled southern border.

Simcox's Minuteman Project has lined up volunteers from some 29 states to camp out in April on ranches and public land to spot and report illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol.

This drew the outrage of the Mexican government Monday. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told a press conference he would discuss the issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits Mexico on March 10.

Immigration is a bottom-up conservative issue that's going nowhere in the top-down Bush Administration. Ever beholden to business, the President's immigration policy has been downright liberal--mainly because business interests (and US consumers) depend on the coolie labor afforded by the millions of mostly Mexican illegals who pour over the border each year.

It's is gonna be a problem in 2008, if not 2006...mainly for the Republicans. That's because the grassroots--reflected by callers screened to talk today on Carlson's show-- are madder than hell.

"We are not a militia" Simcox claims. They were, however, a militia, about 20 minutes ago. His newly scrubbed-up Tombstone Militia is now known as the "Civil Homeland Defense" which he describes as a "county-wide blockwatch" of concerned (and armed, I might add) citizens.

The majority of the 400 members, he says, are retired cops and veterans who have trained themselves in law enforcement and military techniques. In reality, they're fat-butted middle-aged weekend warriors that the Border Patrol would rather stay home and ride their Barca-loungers.

Border Patrol officials (who Simcox, knowing his KVI audience, dismissed as bureaucrats) say they deal with armed drug dealers daily and the idea that hundreds of armed citizens playing cops & robbers on the desert is alarming and dangerous.

With the nice face Simcox put on his posse for Carlson today, you'da thunk he was a humanitarian concerned only with the welfare of the poor wetbacks he strives to drive out. He says his boys help the injured, deliver babies, and give them water.

"We have a no-contact policy. We're acting only as eyes and ears," Simcox told Carlson. "We work within the law. We spot illegal immigrants and report them to the Border Patrol."

The Minuteman Project may be well intentioned, but they've whipped up the neo-Nazis and white supremacists on sites like StormWatch.org. They've given a national call for their little old boys to go out to Cochise Co. and lend a hand in April. They see this movement as proof that white people are finally rising up against the muddy tide. The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks hate groups, is closely monitoring Simcox and his mufti-ed boy's club.

Carlson led Simcox along the ridge line of least resistance, pitching softballs, and rarely asking the follow-up questions that separates the so-called "advocacy journalists" from real reporters.

In the early '90's, in the warming political environment of burgeoning right-wing talk radio, the nation's powerfully paranoid militias, stuck their heads up out of their holes.

Hosts championed these nutballs as 2nd Amendment heroes. Even KVI (the only conservative talk station in Seattle then) flirted, mostly out of naiveté, with the far, far right. Mike Siegel joined white separatist Bo Gritz in an on-air smarm-fest at a survivalist expo and was roundly denounced by the Seattle press. There was a show for a while from the racist/conspiracist Liberty Lobby. Political hitman Floyd Brown warned on-air against the New World Order and introduced guests such as Satan-baiting evangelist Bob Larson.

Even Kirby Wilbur, a real estate appraiser brand new to broadcasting, bought a Glock and gave succor to militia men in interviews that were big hits to an audience being rapidly politicized.

Then came Oklahoma City, Waco, and Ruby Ridge. The militias and talk radio were denounced from the White House. Talk radio retreated to concentrate on killing Bill Clinton; and the militias crawled back into their spiderholes. 

For talk radio, it was a case of naiveté and overreach, spawned by the arrogance of their own misperception of power. The conservative movement has jumped off this extreme cliff before; to avoid doing it once again they'd do well by keeping their distance from fools like Simcox.

goldy makes john carlson say "horse's ass"

I was only able to hear part of David "Goldy" Goldstein's segment on the John Carlson's Friday afternoon drive (KVI m-f, 3-6p), though I heard enough to grok the atmospherics, if that's a word that can be applied to Carlson's flatfooted daily Republican love-in.

If you've just parachuted into the blogosphere, or are from a galaxy far, far away; David's popular horsesass.org is one of the brightest stars in the NW liberal firmament. He's prolific, has an attorney's grasp of policy--and what makes me keep coming back--a laugh out loud wit.

A brightspot for me was hearing Carlson (who's a bit of a prig) in introducing Goldy, having to say "horse's ass" on his G-rated show. The words came out of his mouth like the expectoration of a small turd and with the kind of qualifying tapdance he usually saves for premising faint praise for his worst enemies. 

Carlson asked Goldy on to explain the "big binder," issue in the gubernatorial-unvote campaign which the GOP is now waging in the courts and on talk radio. Goldy impressively detailed the elongated ballot reconciliation process without losing the audience or even being interrupted that much by Carlson; who (to his credit) will usually shut up and let guests with authority finish their sentences.

Conservative talk hosts are not known for questioning authority, but when someone they disagree with gets too authoritative they're not above interrupting or muting them or pushing the dump button.

Carlson's show is Carlson's game and my dad always said, "you'll never win playing the other guy's game." So after Goldstein was dismissed, Stefan Sharkansky, the blogging (clearpolitics.org) Republican heavy lifter for unvote, phoned in and Carlson licked him to death.

Sharkie refused to debate Goldstein on the show; heeding, I guess, Oscar Wilde's dictum: "Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar, and often convincing." While I don't blame him--Goldy is formidable on his feet--it was yet another KVI opportunity lost for a piece of great radio.

I'm still boggled by the endless time spent by Carlson on the guber-unvote. I know it's good for the GOP to keep this alive and to maintain the high angst level. It's hurting Christine Gregoire and shall continue to do so whether she wins or loses; but how can this daily, negative, legalistic, wonky nattering hold up in the radio ratings?

It looks like pure partisan spinning, damn all other considerations. At this point, are they preaching anywhere but to the choir-loft?

Dave Ross in his new afternoon drivetime slot (KIRO m-f, 3-6p) holds the guber-talk down to breaking news and intermittent interviews with the principals. We won't know for a while, but my gut continues to tell me there's high dial creep from Carson to Ross by the button-punching commuters who comprise that high-cuming dayshare.

the celebrity death channel

As the Pope goes in and out of the hospital, I'm been bracing myself for the Big Inevitable. It's not that I have an emotional attachment for the Pontiff--the grieving I'll be doing will be around the media black-out and page 6 treatment news will get while we eulogize him, pontificate over his sweet old carcass, and put him in the ground, or wherever Popes are put out for recycling.

Real news won't be re-booted until after the world's flock of Cardinals flutter into the Vatican and go through the elongated white smoke and gilded mirrors of a Papal campaign and inauguration. (Oh how I remember the anti-Pope John XXIII faction's '60's battle cry "Twenty-three Skidoo!"). The excitement, however,  will be in sostenuto, and behind closed doors. Stale wafers of information placed on the tongues of reporters by Vatican minions will have to do.   

Princess Di's doings blocked out the sun for nearly half a year.

We just went through Ronald Reagan's death, which went on for a month (two months on Fox and right-wing talk radio). After the elaborate send-off and florid beatification, observers were surprised the Gipper didn't rise back up after 3 days...

It could be like one very long late Friday afternoon--that time of the Washington week when politicians own up to embarrassing mistakes or announce dubious decisions by sneaking them into the sparsely read Saturday editions. George Bush could pull some tricks while the press are snoring at their keyboards in the Vatican pressroom and the suckers are watching the sectarian Roman spectacle. He might invade Iran, appoint Ron Silver to the Supreme Court; go on a bender or make good on his promise to put a man on Mars. No one would know for weeks, if at all.

My solution to the imminent smarm-fed bore-fest and subsequent loss of national productivity caused by these endless public memorials is for the cable companies to put up the Celebrity Death Channel. When a notable shuffles the mortal coil, here would be a 24/7 place for remembrances, caskets, biers, corteges, catafalques, riderless horses and empty boots. There'll be Lilies of the Valley and teddy bears, stirring words, and precious moments; teary eyes, eerie ties and candles lit by the 1000. You'll hear Gregorian chants, taps; and 'Amazing Grace' played on bagpipe, bugle, organ and fleugel or sung by overdressed children or the Norman Naberclacle Choir.

The Celebrity Death Channel could be a heartfelt place for those actually interested in mourning a public figure in the comfort of their own home with a few million close friends, and strive to attain that blessed Nirvana of our age: closure.

cooking The Book

"Honesty underlies everything
we do, and everything we say,
to every customer."
                     -Steve Morris, Arbitron President and CEO

"We're Number One!!!" Even when they're in the same market, stations and their hypermanic talent blatantly promo themselves as at the very pinnacle of the local ratings. Unfortunately, they're light on the details and here's why:

For a fee, Arbitron, the subscribers-only ratings service (known as The Book) will make its local and regional radio ratings reflect the numbers a station wants to see; that is: numbers it can sell. Customizing survey areas, dayshares, demographics and time periods to support stations' ad-selling strategies, Arbitron serves up the numbers in any manner of configurations to help sales departments demonstrate the value of their audiences to advertisers.

Frinstance: if the "Lush Rimjob Show" can be heard in three cities, but is number one in just one , and only among 18-35 year-old married male Chinese Volvo drivers who drink coffee and own one or more labrador retrievers, Arbitron will provide customized results conveniently sans the embarrassing survey areas or more inclusive demographics and make Lush Numero Uno even though many other stations are kicking his ample ass in overall ratings in the three city coverage area.

Accuracy in the overall ratings are questionable as well. Arbitron compiles numbers from a list of  "listener diaries," mailed out to people they allege are randomly selected. They're supposed to fill out the long and rather time-consuming surveys and mail them back.

Arbitron says these diaries are sent to some two million people in the US over the age of 12; but admit only half send them back. Since there are over 230 million people in the US in that age category, the sample is pretty pathetic in terms of the population as a whole.

NPR and other public broadcasters are not surveyed, since they're non-commercial and Arbitron is nothing if not about business.  That leaves a large part of the local listener story left untold especially in liberal markets like Seattle where NPR is widely tuned in.

It also throws into question the numbers that conservative talk supposedly enjoys and the conventional wisdom that there's not enough progressive interest in radio talk for it to pencil.

Air America has shown that with entertaining and substantive formats and hosts it can succeed. Much will be riding on whether it can entice station managers to try the new daring format and attract the hidden audience that Arbitron ignores.

if this is what they eat for breakfast...

no wonder they're pissed off.

It's an alternate universe, out there in early morning con-talk (Mike Siegel, KTTH; Travis Bawks in for Kirby Wilbur, KVI). Sprung on you suddenly, you might think you'd slipped into an ugly cocaine day-after dawn.

Actually, 'universe' is too big a word for this puny, partisan cul-de-sac.

Today, the layered and faceted real world of real events and people was replaced by one full of violent soccer moms; a Legislature where Rep Toby Nixon (R-Kirkland) or Sen. Bob Morton (R-Spokane Valley) are relevant; an Oz where the separation of King Co.from Seattle or the secession of Eastern Washington from the rest of the state are desirable and viable.

Siegel gave way too much air-time to Linda Jordan, the hemorroidal and deluded perpetrator of the grouchy recall effort against Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed. She's back to court for reconsideration of her silliness after it was found insufficient last week. She will lose again.

Bawks spent at least an hour on the distraction of a dust-up at a girls basketball game in Sequim where an unhappy father punched a coach. His conclusion after all the tsk, tsk? Don't mess with soccer moms!  The blame, of course, was layed at the feet of those infamous supporters of Bill Clinton.

Reality is that majority Democrats in the Legislature are working on the real problems--everybody's problems--of a record revenue shortfall and a thousand problems we can't afford to address.

We heard nothing about that reality this morning.

Instead it was the radical secessionist proposals being demagogued by Nixon (proposing the King Co.one) and Morton (who wants to pull out the dryside). These are proposed mainly to grab some headlines from the minority backbench. Twas ever thus in Olympia...

Aside from the inconvenient fact that creating a 51st state would take passing it through the Democratic Legislature, then an act of Congress; another cogent reality is that Eastern Washington would be a third world state like Mississippi without the wetside revenue stream. They'd have to name it Pothole for the miles of roads they couldn't afford to maintain. Besides, haven't you noticed? Government--for better or for worse--never does huge things on its own; it responds radically only when huge things happen...to it.

I have no problem with these views being aired--they're part of the much-touted red county rage-fire blazing out of control outside Seattle. It's about the messy Gregoire/Rossi conundrum; it's about King County's controversial Critical Areas Ordinance. It's about the clash of rural, urban, and suburban cultures. It's about shotguns and Jesus and I can tell you, it's a long way from a cease-fire.

What pisses me off is the irresponsible Republican Party's response to these grievances--they can be a real a bitch when they lose elections or political fights. Among other devisive atrocities, they get their talk radio surrogates, to whip up the washed masses to withdraw or recall.

They whip the choir into saying:
we lost the legislature; we lost the governor's mansion, so we'll spite our face, take our half of the state, fuck you, and have a nice rest of the day.

Or:
we disagree with this policy or that policy, so we'll throw this politician out or that politician out then find somebody who always agrees with us.

They tried it with Sam Reed, who ought to get a Backbone Award for following the law in the face of his own party's nasty right-wing onslaught. They tried it with County Councilman Dow Constantine. Both men had just been re-elected in November; and both recalls were laughed out of court as everyone knew they would.

The legal standard is high in our state: you must be be caught with your hand in the till or in bed with the livestock to get recalled around here. You can't just undo an election because you disagree with a politician (as you can in California).

The Republicans and the talk-jocks know this about the law,but con-talk audiences are spared those details. These are folks who regularly brag on-air they haven't read a newspaper in years. All their news they get from these partisan radio blabmeisters with their Republican talking points and big microphones. With only half the story cynically spoon-fed to them, they feel ripped off, disenfranchised and even more rageful. Rage is good for Republicans with eyes on the next election cycle.

In the end, I'm afraid, we'll all feel their pain.

mike siegel and the dark art of target democracy

They're tap-dancing, these Republican surrogates on local talk radio. So what else is new, you say?

Mike Siegel, KTTH early morning (6-9a) talk jock would never cop to being a Republican or, for that matter, anybody's surrogate. He's a hard-edged, humorless bulldog, an attorney who (like Bill O'Reilly) claims he's a pragmatic, non-partisan truth seeker.

Siegel's ties with Bill O'Reilly goes back to the '90's when the Grand Bloviator was still anchoring the trashy syndicated TV tabloid, Inside Edition. He convinced O'Reilly there was a conspiracy of high-profile pedophiles whose tentacles (testicles?) extended from Seattle to Olympia. It was supposedly headed up by a high-ranking Seattle Police official and covered up by Mayor Norm Rice (who Siegel always passionately hated). O'Reilly came to town and tried to confront Hizzoner with a camera crew, but Rice ducked him, and the story went away. O'Reilly went home to NY presumably to pick on cripples, little old ladies and get active in the loofah culture.

Despite his non-partisan protestations, there's rarely an issue or a candidate Mike Siegel goes to bat for that's not conservative and/or Republican.

And going to bat is what the scrappy Siegel is all about.   

Word on the street is that his sad dayshare is a weak spot in the ratings dominance of new right-wing talk station, KTTH over arch rival KVI. Granted, he has a tough row to hoe against his former KVI colleague, the popular morning smarm-meister Kirby 'Curvy' Wilbur.

This morning, Siegel argued as he regularly (to his credit) does, with State Democratic Chair Paul Berendt--about voting 'reforms.' He's against (as Republicans traditionally are) Motor-Voter (the successful automatic voter registration of driver's licensees) voting by mail, and anything else that makes voting easier for the hoi polloi.

He preaches the hard-ass GOP line: show your ID to prove you're a human being, a non-felon, and a citizen. (Maybe in the shining futureworld of the Republutopian 'ownership society', we'll add Christian, heterosexual and credit cardholder to the list.) 

It's conventional wisdom that Democrats win in large voter turn-outs. In our state, the Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts for Kerry helped win majorities in both houses of the Legislature for the first time in years.

It's been stunning since the election to hear Republican Guber-Unvote demonstrators whipped up by KVI and KTTH, chanting the small 'd' democratic mantra, "Count every vote!" They're recent converts--having become born-again populists after their losing candidate Dino Rossi could be spun as the victim of voting irregularities.

But here's the bind that ties for the R's :

Bush won because, in very targeted areas, (Ohio, Florida) he beat the D's in getting out the vote even in an election in which they surpassed themselves turning out their base. Karl Rove's strategy, as well we all know, called for ransacking the cow pastures for every stray evangelical that had ever bent a knee (and maybe a few more). For other reasons, irrelevant here, R's made inroads with Hispanics, blacks, and women--groups whose votes they've traditionally tried to suppress.

Getting out the vote, then--even for the GOP--is key. Do R's still want to hold down these minority voters now that they seem to have a chance winning them over? Are they so sure felons are really all Democrats? Is it possible that dead people might tend to vote Republican? These questions need to be carefully considered if R's are to be the organic majority they brag about becoming.

The Rovian art of target democracy must be learned by local GOP activists and ably practiced by GOP mouthpieces such as Siegel, Carlson, Wilbur, et al.

Watch Republicans strive to invoke fear and loathing against Latinos among white suburbanites, exurbians and ruralites while appealing at the same time to the conservative Catholicism of those same Latinos. They'll try to instill or buttress white middle-class fears of black people, their criminality and decadent hip-hop culture while simultaneously appealing to African-American Christian conservatism and cultural homophobia. They've got a job-o-work to do, but they've proven time and time again--they're up to it.

It's target democracy in action.

It's about get-out-the-vote. Stay tuned for morality, morality, morality; an up-tempo drumbeat of anti-immigration; more gratuitous framing of liberals as hippies, defrauders, criminals and traitors; and a ramping up of hard-line 'rules are rules' rhetoric from ruling class wannabes in a broadening political movement.

morning travesty

I know he's the 2nd string--but that's no excuse to be boring. Rapacious Puppy, producer Travis Bahks in for Kirby Wilbur this week on KVI's morning show, spent most of my early awake time hyperventilating about the gubernatorial unvote and the Democrats' voting reform bills in the Legislature, which Bahks claims will just further their power-hungry assault on the system. No new information, no debate.

Made me yearn for the thrillingness of NPR.

It was the usual caffeinated hallelujah choir; everyone warmly slapping each other's back, congratulating and agreeing with the boyish Travis, who stomped around, a little louder than everyone else, a little madder than everyone else as if to say, 'I am the host, damnit!'  and not some attaboy Young Republican let into the studio on a tour.

Listening to a NASCAR race would be more provocative.

Wilbur has a loyal audience, but why would anyone new not let their fingers do the walking on the car radio?

I know, I know, afternoon drive-guy, John Carlson told the Seattle Times that listeners really want to hear every dot and tittle, every legal bend in the colon of the Guber-Unvote (it's a movement!). He claims it's good radio.

But my Roamin' finger, the one on the car radio buttons that my superego subconsciously directs so I'm never bored, sends me time and again to KIRO's Dave Ross when Carlson goes Guber-Unvote. He says he's devoted more than 80 percent of his air time to it since the election--so you know I've been listening to a lot of Dave Ross lately.

Bet I'm not the only one.  MH

a dog's breakfast

It's incredible, if you think about it--and no one seems to any more--talk radio gets away with murder.

Drive-by slash & burn, toxic 'intenuendos,' callers' lies and faux accusations let go by; and 'facts' pulled straight out of their butts are standard. As is unapologetic daily fellatio on GOP politicians, outright Republican Party organizing and general water-bearing. This so-called 'advocacy journalism' is simply advocacy. And in a nasty, gut-fighting style the self-righteous Party would never own outright.

F'RINSTANCE: con-talk radio--with the help of bloggers--totally drove MSM debate on the gubernatorial "re-vote," actually leading citizens into believing they had the right to a process that doesn't exist in the State constitution. That's a helluva political accomplishment.

And all of this in Seattle, where four (4!) right-wing am radio stations thrive and have thriven (throve?) for years. If you're an arriviste, or spend your time watching sports less macho than politics (like say, sea hockey or extreme golf), you need to know: Seattle hasn't been Republican since FDR sent Herbert Hoover back to making vacuum cleaners.

But you'd never know that by dialing up the am--KVI (570 am) with local hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson; or the newly dominant KTTH (770 am) with Mike Siegel. These guys have not only born Republican loads through the years, but in their listener-rich drive-time slots have politicized a lot of folks who previously did nothing more political than eating Ben & Jerry's.

You're right, Air America (1090 am) has arrived with a little balance--but with, unfortunately for local libs,  no local talk jocks.

The powerful, multi-format (both lib and con) KIRO (710 am) is a brighter spot for D's--with Dave Ross, the uber-fair, self-described moderate (he's lying--he's a liberal) who carries nobody's water, and isn't equal to the right-winger's steady partisan drumbeat. The new 9 to noon guy, Allen Prell is a liberal, but we're still getting to know him, those of us who aren't over at Air America listening to Al Franken. Tony Ventrella, is so lovable, he has to be a liberal (he flirts with running as a Democrat for Congress about every other year). KIRO's Mike Webb and Erin Hart are out lefties but don't do much local politics and are in night time or weekend slots that guarantee relatively small listenerships.

KIRO has its right wing too. Most prominent is afternoon talker Dori Monson, who does plenty of local issues, and seems to grows more conservative every year; Lou Pate who doesn't count he's on so late; and now Frank Shiers, a helium-weight who sounds like he turned conservative to get the job.

Seattle MSM has ignored TR for years. This is partly because of inter-medium envy that has always existed ("broadcast speaks only to itself, print speaks only to god") and partly because they thought (and hoped) that talk radio was too gritty, extreme and right-wing noisy for nice Seattle, and that it would go eventually go away. They were wrong.

They still don't cover TR very well, but political activists, and pundits, such as the PI's Joel Connelly and the Times' Joni Balter as well as Democratic Party Chair Paul Berendt have all acknowleged its powerful influence on state politics.

Radio talkers can say anything they want and get away with it--unless, as Howard Stern has learned--it's about sex, then there's hell to pay from the new Puritans down at Bush's FCC. There've been rare exceptions with political talk. In the '90's, Mike Siegel, then on KVI, allowed callers to say salacious things about then Seattle Mayor Norm Rice. He was fired. John Carlson tub-thumped for an anti-affirmative action initiative on his KVI show, even though he was being paid to head up the campaign. He was fired. Of course, after the success of the initiative, he returned triumphant to KVI.

Public focus is sharper on TV and print folks than on the radio blatherers. The disturbed but syndicated Michael Savage (KTTH, 3-6p) regularly trashes gays, trisexuals, 'Demon-cats' (Democrats) immigrants, cat owners, Europeans, on the radio but when he, on his start-up MSNBC TV show, went into one of his excoriating fits (he called a gay caller a 'Sodomite' and wished AIDS on him) his tiny cable news audience was horrified, the network embarrassed, and Savage was frog-walked back to San Francisco dragging his wicked tongue behind him.

Letting the sun shine down into the well of media, especially talk radio, that's what we be blogging, here at blatherWatch. It's not all evil creepy-crawlies to be exposed, there's plenty of absurd bullshit on the radio that always makes for plenty of laughs. Most talk radio is conservative, so we'll see if  conservatives can be fun. Seattle liberals can be ridiculous as well, so watch this space. --MH