Socko's Brain: blogger unplugged by disney

The mysterious owner of Spocko's Brain appeared last night for the first time on talk radio on The David Goldstein Show (KIRO Sundays, 7-10p).The blog was shut down after ABC/Disney threatened a lawsuit after he clipped and posted audio from hate-spewing talkers on their San Francisco right-wing KSFO

If you're not up to speed on this media situation, read Mike Stark's Kos Diary from last week which we read thanks to loyal reader Sparky. The nut of it is that Spocko, started posting the truly extreme and

violent remarks of such blabmeisters as Lee Rogers, Melanie Morgan, Tom Brenner, and Brian Sussman. 

Remarks like Rogers' about a black man in Lincoln, Nebraska: "Now you start with the Sear's Diehard the battery cables connected to his testicles and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his bleeping head off."

Or Sussman's demanding of a caller: "'Say 'Allah is a whore!'" to prove he was not an Islamist.

Or Melanie Morgan on Nancy Pelosi:  "We've got a bulls-eye painted on her big laughing eyes."

Morgan is one of those aserbic Republican blondes favored by the Fox News Channel to come in and help geld liberals when Hannity's butter knife gets too dull. She and Rogers do a straight eight hours - four live and four replay back-to back 5a-noon weekday mornings on KSFO (might have something to do with that her husband, Jack Swanson is the operations manager).

Morgan got her butt in a sling last year after she called for Bill Keller of the New York Times (and nine editors from other papers) to be hanged. In this video clip,  she and the KSFO morning gang yuck it up making the sounds of Keller burning in an old defective electric chair.

But it wasn't posting the audio that got Spocko in trouble- after he started writing letters to advertisers, and such accounts as Visa withdrew ads is when his ISP got the Cease & Desist orders from ABC/Disney effectively shutting him down.

KSFO has some local connections. Ken Berry, who many says started KIRO on its road to destruction, when arrogance and neglect on his watch lost the Mariners contract for the station, is KSFO Program Director. The scandal-sullied Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Sundays, 1-4p ) moved his snorefest to KSFO last year after the Abramoff revelations made it too hot for him in his home Seattle market. Lee Rogers, the cranky old son of a bitch shat into the Seattle airwaves for a short while when the now-defunct KING 1090AM brought him to town and put him up against Rush to stop KVI's Juggernaut of Mean that had taken the market by storm. He didn't last long- his brand of nasty proved too much even for local meaneocons.

Spocko wrote: They have Lawyers, Guns and Money. I've got a 5th tier blog and no money. Because I and some other listeners hit right-wing talk radio in the pocket book, they are acting like wounded animals and brought out the big guns, Corporate Lawyers.  Am I scared? Hell yes. They can easily squish me like a bug and tie me up in legal battles for the rest of my natural life (and Vulcans live a long time), not to mention that unlike KSFO radio hosts, I'm not getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and generating millions of revenue for a multibillion-dollar parent company.  If I pursue this further I expect the next step is a "CyberSLAPP" suit.

Mike Stark writes: It is our hope that by shining the disinfectant that is sunlight upon these advocators of violence, we will give Congress reason to take a closer look at what has happened to political discourse since the evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine.

Spocko has been incommunicado, but for the first time ever, he'll tell his story tonight on the radio complete with audio clips from the offensive station. It'll surely be don't-miss radio.

And by the way: who on the right will step up to this First Amendment atrocity. We're always hearing bloviation from the likes of Hannity who claims he and others like him will be shut down if liberals get control of the government- will he speak up to this? How about you, Mr. Much-Maligned-by-the-Liberal-Establishment Dori Monson? Or you, Bryan Suits? Kirby? Dan & Dave: here's your chance at fair & balanced...

Comments

[Thom]

Morgan is one of those ascerbic Republican blondes

ummm....spell-check is our friend....

[sparky]

I will not hold my breath waiting for the FCC to do anything about this. Writing polite letters of concern to the advertisers is about all we can do.

[joanie]

I don't know about that. I read his update and he's got advocacy. If the blogs were filled with the sound bites, they would have to go after every one . . .

Blitzing Disney seems like the best recourse to me. Disney has a reputation with the family values crowd. Can't wait to hear what Spocko has to say tonight.

This was a good catch, Sparky!

[Fremont]

One man's friendly spellcheck is another man's ascid upchuck, Thom Pettifogger.... Is that" blond" without an "e"?

[sparky]

i spend a lot of time reading Kos..lots of breaking news there, and its usually days before that news hits the mainstream market.

Anytime Mike Stark posts something on Kos, i read it!

[Fremont]

Thanks for the heads up, Sparks...I've been slacking on Kos...too many blogs, too little time, but I've upgraded it to my first bookmark! Lo me gusto.

[Steve]

100 hours...starting...soon

[sparky]

update on Spocko from kos:

Within the past 24 hours:

the story got slash-dotted ( yro.slashdot.org)

fp'd at C&L & FDL ( Crooks and Liars, FiredogLake)

Spocko (who found a host and is back up) is scheduled to be on with Seder tomorrow at the top of the 11 o'clock hour

the blogwarm was an unqualified success (it's discussed at nearly 500 blogs and several have mirrored the audio - and that was over the slow weekend)

Move America Forward (Melanie Morgan's GOP front group) got rattled and hopped into the comments of the Youtube video

Ripley created a great audio complation
http://blogintegrityblogspotcom.blogspot.com

the blogwarm was an unqualified success (it's discussed at nearly 500 blogs and several have mirrored the audio - and that was over the slow weekend)

Move America Forward (Melanie Morgan's GOP front group) got rattled and hopped into the comments of the Youtube video

Spocko has also been interviewed by SF Post and the SF alternative weekly

Spocko's doing a radio show out of WA tonight, beginning at 10 EST. It streams, but you have to register.

Spocko's doing a radio show out of WA tonight, beginning at 10 EST. It streams, but you have to register. (that would be Goldy!)

[Steve]

Slow down Sparky, your repeating yourself like you had too much wine

[joanie]

Nate! I hurried home just to hear Styble! I have a big grin on my face just thinking that we are doing something conspiratorial . . . like mischievous little kids.

It's fun!

BTW, tried to call in on the taxes issue. I couldn't get the damn phone number in that last half hour!

[Dale]

I put my money on Freaky Frank, that he will talk about , the Toy"s R us story that every talk show, host will talk about today on Kiro 710 am And Vinnie Will Wiff us about 15 time thru his show, and make some sort of snorting sound a few times ,
And The Mc Styblehead , it's more than bad it's just WRONG!
As Stock yard Vinne would Say
Tanks!

[bn2189]

Correction: Lee Rogers was not on KING-AM, but _KIRO_. He replaced Jim French's Midday show, who was bumped to the weekend "This Week with Jim French" and what has become Imagination Theater.

Rogers' stint ended when Dave Ross was moved to 9-Noon on KIRO.

[bn2189]

Another correction: Lee Rodgers (that's a spelling correction too; neither Blatherwatch nor I can apparently spell) and Melanie Morgan are NOT on the air until noon on KSFO. Rush Limbaugh airs 9-noon. The Internet stream may repeat them in that time slot, however.

And, while I'm picking on Michael, 5-noon wouldn't be eight hours anyway.

The point about Morgan's relationship with Swanson, however, is something I'm surprised isn't pointed out more often.

[sparky]

Update from Mike Stark:
I got wind from Spocko that KSFO would be addressing our blogswarm on Friday. Evidently, management has decided that all the naughty children that have said naughty things are going to have to face the music. The story is just now starting to be picked up by the traditional media. CBS 5 did a story on in on 1/9 and today it's in the SF Chronicle.

Finally, KSFO is feeling the pinch. More advertisers have left over the last week.

Tomorrow, at 3 PM EST, KSOF is pre-empting their regular schedule (Dr. Laura) to do a special broadcast - a townhall radio show in which they will "discuss" the topic.

Unfortunately, after listening to this morning's broadcast, it doesn't appear as if they are ready to take any kind of responsibility. Instead, they will discuss the "death threats" they've received and the burden of "increased security" they've had to take on. They claim Spocko's radio clips are "old", ""out of context" and in some cases, "just plain lies".
The funny? Well, in listening to their show, I heard over and over again Melanie and co-host being very careful in what they said.

So anyway, they have invited my (and anyone else's) participation in their show tomorrow. I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to bless them with my presence. If they want me on to be their monkey, there's just no way. If they promise me equal time and volume and a genuine opportunity to discuss the issues, well, then I might decide to jump in the mix. I've got a call in to their program director.
I'll update this story throughout the day.

You can read the updates at www.dailykos.com over in the diary list on the right.

[sparky]

Here is the SF Chronicle story

[Steve]

Wow, you mean they want little ole peasant Sparky to participate. Isn't that sweet of them. A peasant little school teacher on a crusade. weeeeeeeee. Wait, thats a peasant with demands at that.

[sparky]

F- in reading comprehension, Steve.
Go back and look at it again.

[joanie]

Sparky, it's your fifteen minutes of fame - go for it, girl!

Ron and Don were talking about kids today. Research/polls show that 49% want MONEY and 51% want FAME. It was actually kind of a good discussion because it was pointed out that it costs a lot of money to live today. One of them used the example of a house in 1967 costing under $100,000. In 1967, $100,000 bought a mansion. Median houses in '67 were probably under $30,000. Times have changed.

[sparky]

no no no.....I did not write that post....joanie!! you flunk reading comp. too!!!

i have nothing to do with the Spocko thing..I was merely posting a quote from MIKE STARK, like it says in the first line :
"UPDATE FROM MIKE STARK"

MIKE STARK MIKE STARK...the guy that Bla'M quoted in the original thread.

sigh.

On another note, are you enjoying your snow day??? Still real icy here...

[sparky]

Joanie..that is why Oprah decided to build a school in south africa and not the united states..she visited hundreds of inner city schools and when she asked the kids what they NEEDED, they all said, money or an i-pod. The kids in S. Africa said they needed uniforms so they could attend school. She said it made her sick to hear how materialistic the kids were in Chicago and NYC...

[joanie]

You know, I heard that about Oprah. Kind of like the Michael Jordan thing to me . . . they both make their millions off consumerism and then blame the consumers for being consumers first.

Kids are so fragile and easily influenced which is why we have almost more commercial programming than content programming.

What do we do about it?

As for reading comp . . . ever heard of quotation marks or italics? I read fast rather than ponderously on this blog (lol).

My snow day? Did you see the times of my posts last night? I had some homework to get done for a math class I'm taking and I kept procrastinating. I was waiting for the promised snow . . . thank god it came!

[joanie]

BTW, Oprah could take kids out of areas of poverty - much like Marva Collins did - and she could make a difference right here at home.

I think she likes the mega feeling she gets with her internationalism. Much like the the Gates do. Did you read the article about the funds that the Gates Foundation invests in? Some pretty slimy stuff. Gates could do an awful lot of good right here at home.