BlatherWatch

Tony snow: back to talk radio?

Tony Snow has resigned as the Bush administration propaganda minister, a position he took last year, leaving Fox News Radio's "The Tony Snow Show," carried locally on KVI.

He got the job despite he'd called Bush "impotent" and "something of an embarrassment," on the radio.

Snow says his departure is based on money, not the colon cancer which has recurred. "If I had the dough I'd stay 'til the bitter end,” he told NBC News. As an assistant to the President, Snow earns the highest-level salary among White House officials at $168,000 a year.

The end is increasingly bitter. Well-liked by his media colleagues, the affable conservative Snow lent, during his short tenure, an artful articulate-ness uncharacteristic of the administration.

Thom hartmann show to CSPAN

This from Al Peterson at NTS Aircheck:

Tube-Check: Since most in the broadcast biz know there's nothing more exciting than watching a guy do a radio show, we offer this alert that Air America Radio's Thom Hartmann Show will get the "Full Monty" video/radio simulcast treatment from cable's C-SPAN channel tomorrow (8/31) from noon-3pm (ET). Hartmann, who has been independently syndicated for the past five years, joined AAR in February to replace former Talk radio host-turned-Senate-candidate Al Franken. Both AAR and C-SPAN callers will be able to participate in the radio/TV simulcast. The show also airs on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio.

Thursday Oddems: bad week for aural sex, cabañas in Aruba, succor for suckees, and don't drive like my brother...

~ Those durable grease monkeys who continue to be the biggest stars on NPR (though Linda Werthheimer would rather eat poison than admit it) Tom and Ray Magliozzi and their longtime producer Doug Berman of Cartalk will write and star in an animated the TV version of the show, PBS's first primetime animated series scheduled for Summer, 2008. A contest for listeners to come up with a name for the show will be announced on the radio. Whether show statistician Marge Innovera, and Russian chauffeur Picov Andropov will make the cut on the new series has not yet been announced.

(photo: Frank Shiers, "Don't picket, blow it!) "

~ ~ Frank Shiers's no scab! We reported in this space that Frank (KIRO m-f, 9p-1a) scabbed a teacher's strike, and we apologize. Frank writes: "The whole time, I was a member-in-good-standing of the WEA. And, obviously, I transferred from the North Kitsap Education Association to the SKEA when I changed schools. I never crossed a picket line. As a WEA member, I couldn't and wouldn't. I wasn't a scab."   

Shark attack: the stranger, l'affaire sharkansky, and the terrible karma of the 15% tip

In  "Shark Attack," a new story in The Stranger, ace reporter Erica Barnett did the due journalistic diligence, and spoke with almost everybody  involved. They even got a picture of Steffany Bell the waitress in the center of this shitzkrieg.

(photo: stefan sharkansky- why is this man laughing? -seattle post intelligencer)

The Sharkanskys public image is still in tatters.

Read Barnett's story here. Read our story here.

Darcy makes history... and a hundred large

We've been reading right-wing blogs- we've been the subject of some awfully salacious ad hominens by some of the fringe lately.

They call us the "nutroots" as well as wacko, out of control, unhinged, hysterical, desperate, hate-filled, filth-spewing- we're socialists with our panties in a bundle.

But the nutroots made history this week. Democratic campaign types in Washington DC are still pinching themselves.   

We (you) raised over $100k for Darcy Burner. Fourteen months out from the election. In five days. From small donors. Over a weekend. In August!

It's unheard of- there's no organization that can do that!

(Sure, the Republicans or the Tobacco Institute can have a fat cat affair and do some black-tie bundling as Rep. Dave Reichert did with the help of Prisoner Bush, on Monday. They reportedly raised $500,000, but Darcy's netroot drive this weekend was with small donors: largest donation: $1000, and there was only one of those.)

Is nightside the right side for KIRO after all?

When they fired New York Vinnie, Bonneville suits insisted in a staff meeting that BlatherWatch's speculation that some form of their Salt Lake City mother station KSL's Nightside Project would be inserted in the 7-10p slot on Dori Monson's KIRO.

The War President's Afternoon Tea

THANKS DAVE!

President George W. Bush, starring in a $10,000 a head trough for embattled 8th district congressman Dave Reichert's campaign will fly into SeaTac, the first sitting president ever to do so. (they usually come to the much closer Boeing Field).

KIRO's Jane Shannon is reporting that parts of I-5 and 405 will be totally shut down between 3:30 & 4:30p) as the President and Dave go to dinner. Traffic will be cleared and rush-hour commuters will have to wait until he passes.

Adding to the mix, will be angry protesters in downtown Bellevue and along the route.

As you're sitting in the afternoon heat, peeing in your water bottle, waiting for the limos to pass by: REMEMBER DAVE REICHERT! ... and send a few bucks to Darcy Burner!

(Darcy's having a low traffic impact virtual and real time town hall meeting on Iraq this afternoon with real consituents (not GOP fatcats) at 3p at the Bellevue Westin. Attend at your keyboard, by going here. If you're of a mind to protest in Bellevue, click here). 

Deborah brandt speaks out about KUOW

Deborah Brandt anchored the morning news at KUOW for 9 years- the last two of which the show was number one in the drive time Seattle market.   

Her rapid exit in February was an early crack in the veneer of staff that's started to crumble with the resignation of Ken Vincent. She's the latest to speak out about conditions that are roiling the staff of the public radio station. 

Did we say anchor? Hell: for years, Brandt was the ship, captain and crew of the KUOW morning drive.

"I was running my own board, hosting my own show, writing and producing my own newscast and still won best newscast in the nation," she says.

"If something happened and the station went off the air, there were no engineers," she laughs, I'd do that too. I'd have to get them on the phone and I'd troubleshoot it."

Horse's ass radio tonight: darcy burner, chris vance, christian sinderman

Darcy Burner, for whom the netroots are raising cash this weekend will appear on the David Goldstein Show (KIRO sat., sun. 7-10p) at 7p.
Local Daily Kos biggie McJoan will phone in.

At 8p: Democratic political consultant Christian Sinderman and Republican consultant (and former WSRP chair) Chris Vance will recap this week's primary and look ahead to the November election.

Meanwhile, the netroots keep plugging away at their ambitious $100k goal for Darcy Burner. By opposing the inarticulate Sheriff Reichert in the 8th District, she faces the fundraising juggernaut of the Republican National Committee. George W. Bush will appear for Reichert at a $10,000 a head funder on Monday.

The netroots are having a quilting bee- won't you help? Click on the graphic appropriately on the left and give a few bucks to Darcy.