BlatherWatch

Mel gibson's drunken jew-baiting: now what do you say, michael medved, rabbi lapin?

In an national atmosphere of heightened anti-Semitism tragically and violently portrayed here in Seattle, Friday, Mel Gibson added to the fire by spewing profane and anti-Jewish language at cops arresting him in Malibu for drunk driving.

There's a local talk radio connection- both Seattle-based syndicated talker Michael Medved and fellow Mercer Island resident, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, radio host at San Francisco's KSFO were leading national apologists and ran the right-wing Jewish offense for Gibson through the controversies around the launch of his harsh, bloody, Jew-baiting Christian screed-flick, The Passion of The Christ in 2004.

Marketing genius broke attendance records by enticing fundamentalist Christian churches to buy tickets in blocks; rent out entire theaters, and fill them up with evangelicals who usually reject the offerings of Hollywood, especially movies rated R, which this one was because of the gratuitous and bloody torture scenes.

The incredibly successful (more than $611 million gross) cinematic depiction of Christ's last days was widely criticized by many mainline rabbis as anti-Semitic. The portrayal of Jews as manipulative, hook-nosed thugs was considered by many Jews as a suspicious bit of editorializing by Gibson.

Although he's told the media that he regards The Passion as having actually been directed by the Holy Ghost, he otherwise had total artistic control of the production.

Lapin and Medved were among the right-wing Jews shown the film before it was released. When non right-wing Jews such as New York Times critic Frank Rich asked to view it, they were turned away, "thus allowing Mr. Gibson's defenders, in a perfect orchestration of Catch-22," wrote Rich at the time, "to say we were attacking or trying to censor a film we 'haven't seen.'''

(Let us inject here what Gibson (fine Christian gentleman that he is) wants for Frank Rich. Presumably sober at the time, he told the The New Yorker in 2003:  ''I want to kill him, I want his intestines on a stick... I want to kill his dog.'')

Lapin, who Rich has described as the "show rabbi of the religious right," called the gruesome, Christian-proselytizing film, "wholesome entertainment that depicts Christianity in a positive light," and castigated other rabbis' protests. "The very public nature of their attack on Gibson," he said, "exposed their real purpose- fundraising."

Week's end oddems: teresa joy hides the hose; KOMO kicks the ass; the woof kicks shit; all dori is nonsense; frank shiers takes the pledge

~~ It's our favorite radio commercial at the moment, so it's been placed on our hallowed ad list along with the Toe Tent. It's titillating especially early in the morning, to hear KTTH's hot, news frump Teresa Joy panting about the Hide-a-Hose, which we fantasize as a direct order. We're not sure exactly what it is, but we're thinkin' it must be the suburban version of the Hide-a-Salami, (fyi, the Vancouver Island native edition is called the Haida Salami), which has always been a game that's given rise to more than our culinary passions.

~~ Fortunately, this TV commercial has not yet reached radioland: nor has this one.

~~ KIRO's doing better in some ways but it'll take a while for the ratings to catch up, if they ever do. KOMO beat KIRO by a full half point in the 12+ Arbitron ratings book. We've only had cursory glances at the money demo (25-54) but it looks like moving Dave Ross back to the 9-ta-noon really helped (whooda thunk it???) but the Ron & Don (m-f 4-7p) Show? ...not so much. In combined morning and afternoon drive KOMO was again the number one AM in adults 25-54 tied for 9th in AQH Rating, KIRO came in 13th in drives.

~~ The biggest story in the new ratings is the success of The Woof against KMPS in the shit-kicker music arena, although we don't much care about music stations.

BlatherWatch gets restraining order against Mike Webb

Mike Webb loses it. His fury is so near the surface, it unleashes itself in the most inappropriate circumstances, and in places where it's himself who's most harmed.

Like in the corridors of the courthouse and the very courtroom in which his sorry ass is on the line for felony charges in real time. 

His attorney. Mark Larranaga can't control him; and neither, apparently, can the King County Courts Administration. Without something done to mitigate his behavior in some way, we (and others) are afraid Webb will spin out totally and do something really stupid.

And we hope we won't be the object of his infection and that's why we got a temporary restraining order against the former talk host who's on trial for fraud in Seattle's downtown Superior Court.

(We need to say for the record: even though he used to play one on the radio, Mike Webb is not a liberal. Liberals do not bully people. Liberals respect process. Liberals don't wear tight clothing unless they look good).

We showed up today to watch Webb's first day in court. When we arrived at the courtroom door, we were met by Merciful Nate, an ex-fan of Webb's, who'd brought his digital camera.

(Mike Webb takes to cameras like vampires take to Vacation Bible School; and Nate may not have known that- maybe he missed our account of Webb's assault of a photographer in court halls at his June 30 hearing).

There was no one in the hallway but us when Webb and Larranaga came striding up. It happened fast- Nate started snapping away; Mike ran at him holding his briefcase in front of his face like a hoodlum on a perp walk in a tabloid black & white, swearing and yelling. Mike's poor lawyer, yelled ineffectively, "Mike, Mike!"

Wow.

Inside, the judge wasn't there yet and as Larranaga and Prosecutor Nancy Balin chatted, Webb turned around, shook his finger at us, made eye contact, and said in a voice low enough so only the two of us could hear, "Watch your back."

Mike Webb trial finally begins thursday!

The Mike Webb trial is today, Thursday, July 26.

He's drawn Judge Julie Spector in her courtroom in Room E-733; at the King County Courthouse, 516 3rd Ave., Seattle. Pretrial arguments and jury selection will begin at 10a. Opening statements are expected to begin Monday.

Webb was arrested in December on fraud charges after police say he tried to claim damages from an accident he had with an uninsured driver on a Geico insurance policy the company says he bought after the accident. He was fired shortly thereafter from his evening talk host job at KIRO AM radio. 

Here's our Mike Webb file:

Mike Webb: sad, dry, drunk

Mike webb assaults photographer in courthouse

BREAKING: KIRO TALK HOST MIKE WEBB CHARGED WITH INSURANCE FRAUD

A tangled webb: the seattle police's case against mike webb 

Hackers? police conspiracy? yeah, that's it...

Mike webb's attorney no stranger to "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation."

Mike webb, 1995-2005 R.I.P.

Mike webb speaks

Ten easy things mike webb can do to keep from going postal

Open thread: How has the Defense of Marriage Act defended your marriage?

With the squishy Supreme Court decision today upholding one man, one woman marriage, we'll ask Dave Ross's (KIRO m-f, 9a-12p) question: did you decide to marry someone of the opposite sex because of DOMA?

Wednesday oddems: the supremes make their move; michelle malkin gets jiggy; tina gets another job, mike webb loses buffalo, dan savage takes a wife, bob ferguson takes it

~~ By the time you read this, every talk show will be talking about the State Supreme Court's decision on the constitutionality of the State's marriage law as it pertains to the rights of everybody. Expect this topic to go on for weeks. Don't miss Horsesass radio (KIRO, 7-10p) Sunday- Goldy's booked ace-boom Seattle fags, The Stranger Editor Dan Savage, and reporter Eli Sanders to talk about it. Both of these guys make good radio and the subject is something dear to their, er, hearts.

~~ Michelle Malkin, hot, naked, and sweaty? God, we love this woman! Thanks to loyal reader, BiteMeJeff, we got this opportunity to watch our favorite little Holocaust mitigator in her gym shorts doing the bouncey-bounce on a trampoline. (Note she gets jiggy, but never jiggly).

~~ It was a great night Tuesday at Drinking Liberally at the Montlake Alehouse, the schmooze/booze fest where liberal politicos, media mavens, candidates, bloggers, and those who love them meet for weekly political plotting, pillaging, and plotzing. The joint buzzed with the news that County Councilman Bob Ferguson had announced in a pathetic presser that he had, with the agonizingly pretty Councilman Reagan Dunn, coaelesced in a slimy tangle (not unlike fornicating banana slugs) to make a five/four majority (Ferguson cuckolding his fellow Democrats) in favor of  putting the idea of making the County Auditor's office an elected position on the ballot. Read all about it here. As the evening's podcast got started, Ferguson, (who Goldy at horsesass.org calls the "Joe Lieberman of King County politics") walked in. He donned a pair of headphones and a red hisbiscus at his left ear and subjected himself to some hearty slander by the assembled podcasters, who were loaded for bear, and included Goldy, Molly Bradley-Martin, the PI's Joel Connelly, and Carl Ballard. Ferguson vigorously defended himself, and they, mostly just said EEEUW! There wasn't much he could do to stanch the stench of the blatantly political flatus; or convince this crowd that adding a full helping of partisan politics to the Elections Department was anything but stoopid. It's a nice chunk o radio- you can hear it here sometime today. BTW, Stefan: nobody on the public payroll said, "fuck."

Talk radio righties take eyman to the woodshed- will they leave him there?

Maybe Tim Eyman has finally done it.

It started a few years ago when he was caught paying himself from what he self-described as his "pro bono" efforts. And ever since- after his every excess, and grandiose lie; after every one of his foible-filled stumbles, the chattering class always says: "Eyman's got nine lives, he always comes back."

But maybe, just maybe, he's done himself in this time.

In case you're not up on this, Eyman claims that some 35,000 signatures for his anti-car tab I-917, were lost, stolen, or strayed from the offices of Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed's office after he turned them in.

Nobody's buying it- not even his traditional supporters and oldest friends in talk radio.

Longtime ally John Carlson (KVI, m-f, 3-5p) bent him over and drove him to Tukwila today on his show, Monday.

Ordinarily loyal libertarian and I-917 supporter, Dori Monson (KIRO m-f 1-4p) remained highly skeptical throughout a simultaneous interview with Eyman and Reed. It was some great radio- listen to it here:

Tina nole: "good looking, good hearted, available"

Tina Nole is Dave Ross's producer, and inarguably, one the city's best at what she does. We've always ID-ed her as a slick chick; but we had no idea how slick she actually is until we picked up the August edition of the new downtown mag, Seattle Metropolitan.

On page 97, there's a pic of the 34-year-old Tina, in a most unproducer-like dress- and a look that probably produces more in her daily life than she probably has the time or inclination for.

She's alternately described as a "hot date," "a yummy single," and a "blooming personality." We're not sure what all that means, but we're pretty sure it's good for a young woman's prospects for someone else to sit on her head other than that danged dog she says she loves so much.

Here's the deal: you can get a date with Tina if you go to the magazine's singles auction & party to benefit On the Boards and bid her out. (We've always thought the idea of singles auctions was a creepy concept; but then again, when we were single, we hadda resort to picking up dates at Sex Anonymous meetings and car dealership grand openings with free hot dogs. Once we went to a Sex Anon meeting with free hot dogs- a big mistake...).

Tina is a KIRO blogger and a recent post might give you an idea about her values, and what you might have to contend with getting to know her better. According to a posted laundry list, she's most thankful for: every dog she knows, Tom Douglas, cell phones, lasagne from the Pink Door, bubble baths, Rachel Corrie, wine, and double-sided tape- all come in higher on her list than God.

No judgments, here Tina, but we're just sayin': this God thing might be a problem in the Big Picture and a little off-putting to some of the single men we were hoping would bid on you. Think about it.

(Seattle Met is a knock-off of Seattle Magazine that strains (and, so far, fails) to distinguish itself in the depressing milieu of local urban lifestyle slicks. Full Disclosure: BlatherWatch's Michael is a contributing editor of Seattle Magazine.)

David Sirota on horse's ass radio tonight

Montana media critic and political commentator David Sirota, known and loved by listeners to The Al Franken Show will join David Goldstein (KIRO Sundays 7-10p) tonight at 8p to discuss his new book, Hostile Takeover.
He'll be in Seattle, Thursday, July 27, at 7p to do a Town Hall speech, Q & A and book signing. For more information on the event, call Elliott Bay Books at 206-624-6600.

Why we read blogs...

We were moved by this blog post on the death of Jim West by David Postman and the stunning exchange in the chain of comments.