The Asshole Chronicles: rush limbaugh, michael j. fox, and the NAB

My, how times have changed.

The National Association of Broadcasters is honoring Michael J. Fox with their Distinguished Service Award for his work in television for “raising awareness for Parkinson’s Disease through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.”

Seems like only yesterday (actually, it was 2006) that Rush Limbaugh, that great American, broadcasting pioneer,  and conservative role model, mocked Michael J. Fox on-air accusing him of either playacting or deliberately going off his meds to enhance his symptoms to make a political point.

Fox had displeased the Maha Rushee by making a PSA that urged support of stem cell research. Delighting the dittoheads, Rush even rocked his heft back and forth on his radio throne, aping Fox’s jerky parkinsonian tremors.

It was not one of Big Pants' better moments.

"(Fox) is exaggerating the effects of the disease," he said. "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act.... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting.... he is an actor after all."

There were righteous outcries at the time, but the NAB's were not among them. This, the principle broadcasting trade organization was silent, as so many are in the industry when it comes to the excesses of the powerful, and vindictive Rush Limbaugh.

They had, after all - just the year before - awarded him their coveted Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year for the fourth time. (1992,1995, 2000, 2005).

Oops.

We'd guess the NAB decided that enough time had passed, since Rush’s notorious and widely condemned attack- he might not notice this public assuaging of their collective guilt. They could show that the industry was sorry, even if Rush never was.

Comments

[ryder]

Michael J Fox exagerating. The pompous one rambling on and on about it.

Do you really care?

[Drew]

When the GOP used to talk about "compassionate conservatism" it was just a facade. And it certainly wasn't including the Pills-Buried Doughboy, whose concerns only go as deep as where he can get his next handful of Hillbilly Heroin, or if he packed enough boner medication for a week in the D.R.

[AuthenticAndrew]

I thought it was funny that there had to be a distinction made between compassionate conservatism and whatever the alternative might be.

[KS]

then there is compassionate liberalism - turns out to be schadenfreude. IOW, Compassionate means a policy is cloaked as compassionate and is targeted for special interest groups no matter what side of the political spectrum it comes from.

[JemStone]

NAB is almost as bad as the NEA, their all about $money and bilking their members and advocates.

[KS]

Almost, but not as bad and to add they are not as bad as SEIU - who sits at the right hand of the White House.

Andy Stern, head of SEIU has had more visits to the White House than anyone since Mr. Obama began his regime and that's not just a coinki-dink.

[Drew]

Ted Haggard and Ken Lay were frequent visitors to another White House. So was Bandar Bush. Very frequent visitors indeed. But, business is business in the republican clubhouse.

[Puget Sound]

yeah drew, business is business so i am sure you'll join me in saying that turning the clinton whitehouse into a boarding home for dem donors who wanted to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom was low rent...

[Puget Sound]

and how much are those ambassadorships going for nowadays under Pres Obama? from the WaPost: (political pick = $)

"Obama had specifically said he would continue the tradition of sending political picks overseas. Historically, around 30 percent of envoy positions are filled by politicals, the rest go to career Foreign Service folks, and Obama, when the dust settles, is likely to be in that range. In addition, many countries prefer non-career people who are said to be able to pick up the phone and speak directly to the U.S. president.

But a comparison of Obama’s early picks with President Clinton’s, for example, indicates substantial differences between the two Democrats. Clinton tended to pick people with experience in public policy — if not international policy — for the important embassies. His big donors were generally given jobs in smaller countries in eastern or northern Europe where they could do little lasting harm."

Too be fair, Drew, I've been listening to the Nixon Tapes and in there he is talking with Halderman about making those fat cats pay$250k per ambassadorship as he notes that Kennedy was getting $100k per Ambassadorship and inflation has taken its toll.

[Puget Sound]

I thought it was funny that there had to be a distinction made between compassionate conservatism and whatever the alternative might be.

Posted by: AuthenticAndrew | November 27, 2009 at 02:31 PM

Most find it ironic that someone who has to self label himself 'authentic' doesn't see the irony in his posting.
Probably an issue of 'density' in the membrane.

[Drew]

putzie, both bushies did the same thing. Actually, Ken Lay was the first to find a place to lay his weary head there under Bush II, having given the largest campaign contribution to Bush (second only to ExxonMobil). This also put Lay in the elitest of the elite: the Pioneer Club. As one other member of that group and fellow Texan once said, "Well, of course we expect special favors from this president! You give over $124k in donations to seal the deal on deregulation and tax favors, you goddamn well better be getting some perks along with that! As we say here in Texas, 'Ya dance with them that brung ya', and this kid (w) knows that!" Lay got much more than fine french linen to sleep on that night- he was able to steer deregulation mandates in the states he operated in (Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Arizona, Wyoming, and California, which is believed to have personally netted him nearly $100 billion. He made over $30 billion off of California's energy disaster.
Nobody truly understands the true spirit of giving like wealthy republican donors and lobbyists.

[KS]

"Ted Haggard and Ken Lay were frequent visitors to another White House. So was Bandar Bush. Very frequent visitors indeed. But, business is business in the republican clubhouse."

That was suspect also. Meanwhile, you are giving SEIU a pass - right ? That's bogus partisan hypocrisy. Just shows you really don't care anything about honesty and integrity in Government.

[Drew]

I don't think the president of the SEIU got a free nights stay like the previous three administrations have done for their friends. But the fact that a union representative is hanging out with this president doesn't bother me at all. Unions represent the working class, and provide a better quality of life for everyone, even you anti-union, anti-people republicans. When big business lobbyists and CEOs do this, it only serves themselves, not America.

[Puget Sound]

He made over $30 billion off of California's energy disaster.
Nobody truly understands the true spirit of giving like wealthy republican donors and lobbyists.

Posted by: Drew | November 28, 2009 at 10:49 AM

Drew
the difference is that I don't have blinders to it being a one party issue.
Both Parties do it. That's why I gave you an example from the Repubs.
If you want to make the case that only Repubs do it then you'll get a crap load of examples of Democrat perfidy.
If you'll be a little bipartisan then you get some traction.
So much for 'Hope and Change', eh?

What say you on Howard Dean looking to kill Obama Care as currently put forth in the Senate?

[Drew]

You don't read all the way through a post, do you? I did in fact mention how the democrats have done it as well. But I have no real problem with organized labor leaders that push for legislation that improves wages and benefits for their members, especially when compared to CEOs and corporate lobbyists who worked very hard to keep wages low, offshore jobs, and raid pensions, all while making record personal profits. Historically, this has and likely will always be a republican hallmark, but democrats have certainly gotten in on the game as well.

[AuthenticAndrew]

Lobbyists pushed off advisory panels - change you can believe in

[Drew]

Still searching the web for a news site that mentions something called Obamacare...
I did find a right-wing blog that did mention Dean's oppostition to the bill, but it attempted to say that Dean was just going to think like a republican and blindly oppose the bill, never mentioning any word of why. Not true.
Dean wants a strong public option- something that cons, con politicians, and the health industry lobby all hate. He feels that this bill has morphed into a plan that protects the fat profits of the industry, but will do little to help middle and lower income Americans who can't afford to be sick or hurt. In other words, no change. Republicans are out to protect the wealthy and screw the poor and working class. Again.

[Puget Sound]

drew
i didn't see the later post as i didn't refresh the page prior to posting. i was going off the earlier post.
good for you, equal opportunity basher.

[Puget Sound]

this is from Bill Press's interview of Howard Dean

"DEAN: There is something worse than passing no bill. This bill isn’t very strong. In fact, the only piece of reform left in it is the public option. The insurance reform is gone, essentially, because what they did is they have guaranteed issue — they have to, er, the insurance company has to ensure you — the problem is they don’t have community rating any more. They, they, they, the Senate bill, I think, charges three or four times as much for sick people as they do for healthy people, and the House bill is twice as much. …

DEAN: You know, we did this ten or fifteen years ago in Vermont, and you can charge 20% more for your most expensive clients as you can for your cheapest clients, and that’s it. Now if you can afford to buy health insurance if it’s 20% above the bottom price, but you can’t afford to buy health insurance if it’s twice as much or three times as much, so guaranteed issue doesn’t do you any good unless you have real community rating. Real community rating doesn’t exist in either the House or the Senate bill, so the old argument, which I used to make, was that we ought to pass this thing just to get the insurance reform. There isn’t any insurance reform left in this bill to speak of. …

DEAN: You know, what this is is a giant bail-out. This is a bail-out that makes AIG look cheap. Sixty billion dollars a year go to the insurance companies under this bill. Now if we can get a public option, I think that’s OK, but if you don’t have a public option, why would you want to stick the taxpayers with yet another bail-out? They bailed out the banks, they bailed out AIG. This is a trillion-dollar bailout. …

DEAN: I would vote with Bernie Sanders. I would vote to kill this bill if it does not have a public option, because that is doing harm to the nation. It’s not just, “Well, there’s some of this” –

PRESS: Yeah.

DEAN: This is a harmful bill to the nation without a public option, because it’s going to take trillions of dollars, billions, well, trillions over several decades from our kids. The Republicans are right about the rhetoric of the bill. But if you get reform, you can fix it. If you don’t get reform, you got the system that we have today, you are gradually going to start uninsuring people, because we are not going to be able to maintain this system. This system does nothing to control costs."

[Sheet Metal Workers for KS]

Yes, we have infiltrated the Naval Observatory Mansion. It is pure evil what we are going to do with that place.

[KS]

Does KS stand for Kansas ?

The only thing Howard Dean is concerned about is government control of Health Care. His concern about bail-outs sounds plausible until he adds that increasing debt is OK as long as the Govmint controls an additional 1/6 of the economy with Health Care. Of course he has said this all along. That pubic option will knot up the passage of any health care through at least the end of the year.

It is a shame that common sense measures that would actually increase competition and keep costs down like the ability to buy insurance across state lines and tort reform will not be allowed into the bill until the Dems get shut down. People are waking up and now seeing through these brown shirt tactics.

[KS]

Obama care does not exist. It would be more accurate to call the House version Obamalosi care and the Senate version Obama-Reid Care and combination of the two would be Obamalosi-Reid care.

Whatever you call that, it's a pig and we all know that they are continuing to try and put lipstick on that pig.

[chucks]

That pig just needs to be shot and buried. The only thing it can do is increase the cost and decrease the quality of health care in this nation.

[Puget Sound]

That Insurance Pig may very well be gutted since we have so much dissension within the Dem Party.

Looks like more trouble for Pres Obama on the left with his likely announcement of greater troop levels in Afghanistan and the departure of yet another 'close Gitmo' muckity muck. That's the second -recall Greg Craig- departure a few weeks ago.

For those anti-war on the left who supported Pres Obama recall that he ran on Afghanistan being 'the good war.' So if you like war, unmanned predator drones shooting into Pakistan, etc you got what you voted for. If you wanted Gitmo Closed, well then you got snookered.

Of course, the silence on the left is deafening. No real anti war protest. It looks to have been for political points to drive out Pres Bush and not sincere.

On the departure of Phillip Carter:
"President Obama fired Greg Craig, his main counsel on matters concerning the Guantanamo Bay Facility -- unless, of course, you really believe the claim that Craig resigned. And this week Obama sheds another one of his GITMO team with the resignation of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Detainee Policy Phillip Carter."

So to the 'progressives, what say you?
More war and more Gitmo...will we be seeing some street protest,etc? I saw A little bit in Seattle the other day.
Maybe Sparkles will slap another bumper Sticker on her pick up...

[Puget Sound]

LMAO, Jesse 'the body' Ventura claims that he was taken off the air for being against the War in Iraq...

"(Question): This is not your first venture into TV hosting since leaving the governorship. What happened to "Jesse Ventura's America," which ran briefly on MSNBC in 2003?

(Ventura): It was awful. I was basically silenced. When I came out of office, I was the hottest commodity out there. There was a bidding war between CNN, Fox and MSNBC to get my services. MSNBC ultimately won. I was being groomed for a five day-a-week TV show by them. Then, all of a sudden, weird phone calls started happening: "Is it true Jesse doesn't support the war in Iraq?"

My contract said I couldn't do any other cable TV or any news shows, and they honored and paid it for the duration of it. So in essence I had my silence purchased. Why do you think you didn't hear from me for three years? I was under contract. They wouldn't even use me as a consultant!

When you live in Mexico, your houses all have names. I almost named my house Casa MSNBC because they bought it. I was paid like a professional athlete, and I got very wealthy. For doing nothing."

Good news for some of the conspiracy loons, looks like Jesse Ventura will get his Conspiracy Show on the air.
Enjoy that as a visual follow up to some Malloy and Randi.

[sparky]

Great, I get home from Thanksgiving vacation to the news that 4 more officers have been shot and killed.
They carry weapons, and they were still shot and killed. Tell me again how carrying a gun keeps you safe???

[AuthenticAndrew]

It's funny how King 5, KIRO and all the rest talk about being there when big news breaks but then you have FOUR (1,2,3,4) cops shot near Tacoma and because it's the weekend they can't be bothered to get off their asses and do some reporting.

This is why we need more public journalism. The for-profit guys take naps on weekends and hollidays and when they are working 905 M-F they mostly fixate on sensational, nagative news that attracts ratings. I think everybody would agree that what we need to know and what we merely want to know often don't overlap.

[Puget Sound]

Great, I get home from Thanksgiving vacation to the news that 4 more officers have been shot and killed.
They carry weapons, and they were still shot and killed. Tell me again how carrying a gun keeps you safe???

Posted by: sparky | November 29, 2009 at 03:13 PM

Oh Sparkles, that dog don't hunt but you got that knee jerk reflex to make the gun control argument on the back of a tragedy...sigh.
You gonna disarm the police? Actually, if you walk into a place and get the drop on 4 people while they are unaware it would be hard for any of them to defend themselves.

And Authentic Andrew, I agree that while they were there live for a few hours all of the big ones backed off and shut it down for weekend programming. I would have thought that the Northwest Cable Channel or the KONG Station would have stayed with the story live.

But as news shows cede it to the internet then these same news stations can hardly blame viewers for abandoning 'em.

[sparky]

Latest update says that two were killed while working at their laptops, one while standing and the other managed to go outside after the shooter and get off a couple of shots before he died. The shooter may be injured.

And in another Lakewood..

LAKEWOOD, N.J. —

The second man inside a New Jersey house when a gun battle broke out and left four police officers wounded has been charged with obstruction.

Ocean County prosecutor's office Deputy Chief Michael Mohel (mohl) says 33-year-old Edwin Lugo was inside the Lakewood home when Jamie Gonzalez opened fire on a SWAT team that burst in looking for drugs and guns early Thursday.

Gonzalez and the most seriously wounded officer remained in critical condition Friday.

A search of the house near the Jersey shore is continuing.

I agree, Andrew, and I don't even think of turning on the radio to hear about something like this. That is why I have internet capability on my cell phone.

[AuthenticAndrew]

It makes me worry. What if we a natural disaster were to strike over a weekend, such a massive flooding of the Kent Valley? These news organizations are private entities who only look out for us if the profit motive is met.

This might be the tip of a larger argument to be made against privatized versus socialized services. I want to know that the services we support won't bottom out when circumstances happen to be unprofitable.

[sparky]

Well, they spend hours and hours letting people call in when we have snow, just to let us know how much is on their deck. But when something important happens...forget it. KOMO is about the last station out there that covers the news...but they didnt have much on this earlier. I am watching KOMO TV at the moment...full coverage.

[AuthenticAndrew]

Well it is time for the 5 o'clock news, but for a NATIONAL GODDAM NEWS STORY I expected quite a bit more than what we got earlier today.

[Sensor]

You guys don't know WTF your talking about as usual. KING TV was on it right away. Dori Monson got on it right after the game and stayed over-time to take calls, etc. So STFU!

[Blatherguard]

Maybe your name should be "censor"

[sparky]

The shooting happened at 8:30 this morning. How timely of Dori.

I just talked to a friend of mine who is a policewoman. She said this is getting out of hand..this is why they despair of how many nutjobs are running around with guns. It makes the police targets.

[KS]

Did you listen to Dori shortly after it happened or are you just making an assumption he didn't say anything while he did the Seahawks pre-game show ?

[Sensor]

DUH! Right on KS, we're talking about the two idiots on this blog who continually jump to conclusions based on inaccuracies. Wow.

[sparky]

I dont give a shit what Dori thinks or does. Nor what you think either, Duffman. 9 kids will not have a parent at Christmas time. Spare me your fake outrage and your arguments about guns.

And before someone runs in here with his pants down asking me if I want guns to be taken away, the answer is no. But I do think that anyone who commits a crime with a gun should receive an automatic life sentence without any possibility of parole. If that wouldnt dissuade people from using a gun everytime they get mad, at least it would lock them all up.

[Sensor]

Only HE can judge what is fake outrage. But naturally you would think you are the omnipotent judge of all. What a bunch of BS you spew. You and your little dog authahole too. LMAO

[AuthenticAndrew]

If this were a weekday every single hour of KIRO radio programming would be dedicated to the four fallen officers. Ron and Don would be doing another "arms around our officers" at the space needle. Dave Ross would be pontificating about gun control. Dori would be blaming Greg Nickels, and tomorrow they will be doing these things, at the time they're scheduled to be on the air anyway. But all we get today is (supposedly) a passing mention by Dori Monson during a sports show? They couldn't even bring in low rent talent like Frank Shiers. Don't bother KIRO, they're too busy eating turkey sandwiches.

The bottom line is that they talk about having a commitment to being first with breaking news, but on their day off? fuck that shit.

All these apologists who are pointing out how they mentioned the news in passing between downs or home improvement shows are ignoring the fact that they ultimately didn't keep the promise of bringing listeners full coverage they like to brag about ad nauseum to fast paced music. They just have to hope that days like this never happen and expose how full of shit they really are.

[Sensor]

Well you've just demonstrated that you didn't listen to KIRO today. Yet you profess to be such a judge on the subject (as your handler also does).
It's appropriate that you are posting under this topic label as you are the consummate example of an asshole, chronicled or not.

[AuthenticAndrew]

What's really sad is that they don't even appear to have a plan for such emergencies. Doctors always rotate on-call status to ensure that someone is available 24 hours a day for big emergencies, but these TV and radio stations, despite having been in business for many decades just seem to wing it. Their contingency is either substandard or non-existant. I'll let you decide which.

[Sensor]

"I'll let you decide which."

WTF!!! Is this guy full of himself or what. Gee thank you ever so much for letting us make our own decisions. LMAO

[KS]

Whether AA or Sparky listened to KIRO is one issue that only they know the truth and don't really care.
Consider the source(s), Sensor and if you are really Duffman, use his moniker, but I have my doubts.

Furthermore, I don't give a shit what either of you think about Dori Monson.

[sparky]

Well Andrew, let us hope that the next big story happens during the week, then.

[Sensor]

Dori is the hardest working employee that KIRO radio has, bar none.

[AuthenticAndrew]

He's also the hightest paid AFAIK so I would hope so.

[chucks]

I live in Parkland. I was watching TeeVee news at about 8:30 this AM when they broke the story of a shooting here with "multiple" officers shot. My house is pretty well sound proof so I went outside to witness a remarkable number of police cars converge on our little community.
Turned on the old scanner to hear what was going on. Needless to say, it was very active.
I know that KING5 brought in Joyce Taylor and that red headed guy as well as a couple of others from their "A" team.
I listened to KOMO radio most of the afternoon on the FM band, listened to the scanner and watched TeeVee as well as monitored The News Tribune and Pierce County Sheriffs web sites.
So, beyond a cop at 114th and Steele St, probably not a lot of folks payed more attention than I.
The local news did a great job of covering this tragic crime. A great deal of information was available and known to the press that the police did not to get out there was held up by the press (responsibly in my opinion) to protect the police officers working the crime in my community as well as our family's and neighbors.
There are probably more cops in my neighborhood tonight than in all of Seattle. We feel safer for it, but that will not stop my son or me from being armed and ready while my wife and his daughter sleep.
The press did well.
The police are doing remarkably well.

[Sensor]

Well said, finally someone who is commenting from a sensible stand point and one who also bases his comments on fact instead of spewing BS based in political slant. Obviously this person listened and watched relevant coverage (like I did) and we can realize BS for what it is.

[AuthenticAndrew]

So what you're saying is that it was a big local news story for an hour or two? CNN didn't seem to think so. They were all over it and it's currently the top story on CNN.com. That the local media phoned it in today is all but indisputable. If you consider this half assed, cobbled together coverage the kind of reporting they promise us in those gloating promo spots then I fear for us all.