BlatherWatch

Seattle babble-on: the dorster goes viral; more christianizing at kvi; another performance artist attack; ruth gibbs' perm on the firing line

~ Is Dori going viral? The answer is yes according to our sources, and it could be deliverance from the boredom we're having with local talk radio. Dori Monson, (KIRO m-f, 12-3p) recently bought the dorimonson.com domain for an undisclosed amount, reportedly hefty. (he's got the dough, dude, he's the King of Seattle radio, and endorses a hundred products and services!) His intention: "to be able to respond in kind to BlatherWatch, and have a site like Goldstein's except put some money into it," or so they say. Until he recently scooped it up, The domain had been parked with a polite spoofsite gently making fun of The Dorster. Here's a cached version of it.

~ The Christianizing of Kirby & Company (KVI m-f, 5-9a) has stuck some sharp pointy fingers in some soft spots. A KVI/KOMO staffer wrote to say "the situation is delicate right now," and that management is very aware of it. The sharp-tongued Carleen Johnson, former news "gal," now Associate Pastor, is leading the weekdaily devotionals with Kirby chiming in passively and Matt Haver not saying much. A comm ent by EBB: "I had to stop listening to Kirby months ago because I could not abide by the religious turn the show had been taking." Not that the KVI suits don't like Jesus, we're told, but it's conventional broadcasting wisdom that religion-speak turns off listeners on secular radio. Sweet old Blatherwatch commenter Tommy008 writes: "This morning they had a Christian movie reviewer on since, of course, a just a  plain old movie reviewer wouldn't do. Carleen mentioned during this segment about being "on fire" for God." Last May, Johnson quit because, sources told us, the outspoken Christian conservative was uncomfortable about the way KOMO was reporting- among other stories- the Supreme Court decision on late term abortions. She brought an attorney down to Fisher Plaza, and after nearly two weeks of negotiations, the resignation was declared a "misunderstanding," by management. This may be a clue as to why the kid gloves around this on-air Chirstian witnessing which has got to be giving management the hives.

The perfesser is back! fred ebert returns to local airwaves

Fred Ebert, mathematician, academic, militarist bon vivant, pre-Bushite Republican and erstwhile KIRO evening host will do an hour at drivetime (5-6p) weeknightly on Olympia's KGTK 920 and 1400 KITZ AM in Port Orchard.  

Ebert, who suffers from a military industrial complex tells us he'll be doing commentary, "Stump the professor," lifestyle, and newstalk with guests and callers on a variety of a topics in his high energy, mad scientific style.

(KITZ can be heard in Seattle and much of King County. KGTK can be hear south from Fort Lewis to Kalama, including greater Tacoma, and Olympia).

Autumn oddems: cougarless radio; born-again wake-up; dead beetles; petrified alligator feet; the larry craig halloween mask; amy grant, venus velasquez; unauthorized licking; and why does dori hate goldy?

 
~ Onward Christian radio? We've been listening to Kirby & Company (KVI m-f, 5-9a) lately. It's the freshly revamped Kirby Wilbur Show now a troika of The Kirb, Carleen Johnson, and former producer Matt Haver. They've spruced things up and there's some more good tension with three personalities and 3 generations. But what we noticed (and we've gotten a couple of letters) is a distinct Christian tone with language and the kind of testifyin' we'd expect on born-again radio. Christian crossover singer Amy Grant (who's pushing 50, btw) appeared Weds. morning and if we didn't know better, we'd have thought it was KGNW. Is KVI doing a little Christian crossover of its own? Or is it some freelance Christianizing? Either way: it's a significant formatting step worth noting on this secular station.

~ A disappointed reader, "Marc" writes: If you expect to meet a sexy older woman, don't bother with Cougar Radio (KPTK Saturdays through Nov.) The hopeful boy-toy was expecting radio advice or a  hook-up. "It's football!," he grumped. He'll just have to oil his guns, put on a nipple shirt and go down to Wild Ginger like everyone else.   

Ron paul: white noise from a dark place

We're amazed at the cultish clamor on the Interweb for the homuncular geezer Dr. Ron Paul, the stealth right-wing extremist running for President on the Republican ticket.

Here's a candidate straining into the mainstream. Paul won the straw poll at Sunday's Fox News when 34% of Fox News viewers said he won the debate. He came in 3rd the day before in a straw poll at the Christianists' Values Village pow-wow.

In the last fundraising reports filed, Paul had raised a more than respectable $5.2 million with $5.4 million left for the primaries and no debt.

He's the only anti-war Republican candidate (which shows how in-fucking-much trouble they're in) which apparently, with his ruggedly individualistic views has gained him passionate support on the interweb.

Even some lefties have joined the cult. Bill Maher says Paul is his "new hero." The Daily' Show's Jon Stewart gushed, "What is so interesting about Congressman Ron Paul is you appear to have consistent, principled integrity."

Hillary re-takes seattle

It sure was quiet around KVI today as Hillary Clinton strode into Seattle, today.

A little different than that sunny summer day in 1994, that Kirby Wilbur (KVI m-f, 5-9a) led  his fired-up listeners into the belly of the Seattle beast- to the environs of the Westin Hotel where the First Lady was appearing to promote her health-care plan.

National news was made as they heckled Clinton, and traded insults with an outnumbered crowd of Clinton supporters. The Seattle Times says "KVI made public officials dyspeptic and gave local media the hives."

Medved to headline islamo-farcical awareness

College Republicans are a national conservative campus fringe group historically in an epic battle for relevance with the more wholesome Young Republicans. Nearly invisible on the UW campus, it's lonely being campus conservatives. The group exists only on paper, and doesn't even maintain a website. The uproar they're raising this week is small but the noise is disproportionately large considering their tiny membership. Famous former College Republicans: Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, Grover Norquist, and Jack Abramoff. One of their alums may be elected President next year, although they won't be bragging about it: Hillary Clinton was president of her College Republican chapter during her freshman year at Wellesley.

We're reading Frank Rich's excellent, The Greatest Story Ever Sold which chronicles in a concentrated read the selling of the Iraq war by Bush administration honchos as they fanned out into the media peddling the nuclear fear factor.

Horse's ass radio: R-67 debate; bill sherman; islamo-fascist awareness week

“The David Goldstein Show” (KIRO Sat. Sun.,7-10p)
7p:  Should insurance companies have the right to screw policy holders with impunity?
With a stroke of the governor’s pen earlier this year, WA joined forty-four other states in penalizing insurance companies for “bad faith” actions such as denying claims without cause… at least, WA would have joined these other states if the insurance industry had not immediately filed a referendum seeking to overturn it. Dana Childers is the spokesperson for the Reject R-67 campaign, which is spending over $10 million of insurance industry money to invalidate the law. Sue Evans represents the Approve R-67 campaign, which is fighting to keep the law on the books. Both join me by phone.

8p:  Open lines with Bill Sherman
Absentee ballots are already pouring in, so Bill Sherman, Democratic candidate for King County Prosecuting Attorney joins Goldy one last time to talk about the issues and take your calls.

9p:  Republico-Fascist Awareness Night
Tomorrow, right-wing hate-monger David Horowitz kicks off Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week, and College Republicans nationwide will be joining in the festivities, apparently eager to even further diminish the GOP’s standing with their fellow young folks. University of Washington College Republican President Tom Walker will join me in the studio.

Thursday oddems: vaginal-Americans unite; feminists are sexier; squawk & awe in the war on xmas; dori spurns the gutter helmet; more randi smears; rush, the new bambino; other coochie scorchers and everlasting wounds.

~ Niche demographic? Cliff May, that certifiable Republican "consultant" who occasionally fills the conservative chair on cable when the scheduled rightie gets caught in a vice sting, told MSNBC's Tucker Carlson in a discussion about Hillary that he doesn’t think people should vote for a candidate based on their race, religion or gender and said: “At least call her a Vaginal-American.” We think that might have, er, legs. And if the coochie-snorcher is to identify distaff voters, then why not Penile-Americans? Or the Scrotumnal Bloc; determined after conducting "Pole polls" of course.

~ Feminists are better lovers. Despite decades of Rush Limbaugh's framing feminists as ugly, angry, asexual ball-busters, a Rutgers University study found that feminism boosts sexual satisfaction for both men and women despite both genders hold negative views of feminists. Women with egalitarian attitudes find mates and men find them attractive. What's more, they may even be enjoying sex more than non-feminists. Yuh think?

~ Sorry we've been blogging lite lately; we've been busy with another project and sometimes in the night the lights simply go out. 

~ Dori Monson, and Billo Reilly have already started on their annual War on Xmas. This made-up ratings-whoring will serve them well for a couple of months. It's always boring to listen to false indignation, but for these two otherwise secularist jerks, it's more than we can take. The best argument for letting religious symbols stink up public places is that it might make talk radio phonies shut up about it.

Police release sketches of suspects in randi rhodes assault

This from Unconfirmed Sources:

Police Release Composite Sketches of Suspects in Randi Rhodes Assault
by Dood Abides

New York, NY (UPSI) - New York Police Department detectives have released composite drawings of two unknown white male suspects wanted in the assault last night on Air America talkshow host Randi Rhodes. The suspects are described as both being in their 50s, one tall, the other shorter and markedly obese. Police are said to be ruling out robbery as a motive and looking into the possibility of charges for a hate crime.

UPDATE : Randi Rhodes attack disputed

An attorney for Air America radio personality Randi Rhodes is disputing on on-air report by a colleague that the liberal talk show host was attacked on a Manhattan street, according to story in Newsday.

Air America  talk host Jon Elliot reported the mugging on air Monday night.   

Baroosk at Talking Radio picked up the story Tuesday that Rhodes (KPTK m-f, 5-8p) was mugged and brutally attacked while walking her dog Sunday night near 39th Street and Park Avenue, in New York but the NYPD wouldn't  confirm the report.

Elliott strongly hinted the incident was a hate crime influenced by Rhodes' progressive politics, pointing out that Rhodes was wearing a jogging suit and displayed no purse or jewelry, "This does not appear to me to be a standard grab the money and run mugging."

The Newsday story says, however, Rhodes attorney says Robert Gaulin confirmed that Rhodes was injured after she was knocked down by "something or someone" as she strolled the streets of Manhattan's Murray Hill district around 8p, but wasn't sure herself what sent her tumbling to the pavement.

"She hit her head on the street and was disoriented," Gaulin said. "She's not sure what happened. She didn't see anything." He added that she never reported the incident to police.

Air America released a statement saying that "the reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded." Elliott followed that up with a retraction.

"I shouldn't have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right wing hate machine. I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on an emotional reaction," he said in a written statement.