Reclaiming Wisconsin's Airwaves: Broadcast Blues Comes To Wisconsin

If the gentle reader will recall, I told them that while we take the state back from the greedy clutches of the Republicans and their corporate puppet-masters, we could also take back the airwaves of Wisconsin and make them serve the public again.

Here is a press release from Sue Wilson, the maker of Broadcast Blues, announcing her upcoming tour of Wisconsin:

2011 Wisconsin Media Reform Tour

Putting the Public Back into Broadcasters' Public Interest Obligations

When Delafield resident Barbara Begale went to see a documentary film about media reform in Florida, she never thought she'd return to Wisconsin to organize an entire film tour. But after seeing the award winning Broadcast Blues, which shows how the consolidation of the media into a few corporate hands is jeopardizing our news, information, and even public safety, Begale says a light bulb went off. "Suddenly I understood why the United States is so divisive. The film explains why the news is filled with lies and why there is so much hate speech. If people know the truth, people will make the right decisions, but they're not getting the truth. Everyone in this country needs to see this movie." 

So she contacted the film's director, who readily agreed to travel throughout the state with the film. "This is a great opportunity to remind the people of Wisconsin that they actually own the Radio and TV airwaves," says filmmaker Sue Wilson. "Local TV and radio stations receive licenses for the privilege to broadcast, but there's a catch: in exchange for their licenses, the law requires them to 'serve the public interest.' If they do not, people can legally challenge those licenses and take them away. The question is, are the broadcasters serving the public interest of Wisconsinites?" 

Wilson plans to answer that question by surveying those who attend the screenings about how well local broadcasters are serving local needs. If people tell her their local TV and radio stations are not serving the public interest, she will teach them how to reach out to local broadcasters with the goal of improving the quality of local broadcasting. "Sometimes," says Wilson, "all it takes is a friendly visit to station management to create a dialogue between the broadcaster and the community. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a legal petition to deny a station's license, and we're prepared to help people whichever way it goes. What's important is that people understand they have unique rights as owners of the public broadcast airwaves."

The 2011 Wisconsin Media Reform Tour kicks off September 17 in Madison with continuous screenings at the FightingBobFest, then goes to Madison's Landmark Auditorium that evening for a 7:30 showing and organizing event. The tour continues to Appleton Sept. 17, Mequon Sept. 21, Milwaukee Sept. 22, Hartland Sept. 23, Racine Sept. 24, Wausau Sept. 26, ending in Eau Claire Sept. 27th. 

All events are free and open to the public.

Here is a trailer of the movie:



And via Steve Hansen at Uppity Wisconsin, here is a poster with all the dates, times and places that Sue and Broadcast Blues will be visiting. Please share this with your friends, family and neighbors.

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

Is Talk Radio Really That Popular?

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this one comes via my buddy, Shaina:

If you actually sit down and compare audience pull and equalize the wattage of the stations, progressive media can easily go toe to toe with the right wing shows.  They just don't have the backing of the money of corporate media.  Another reason why we need to take back our airwaves!

Reclaiming Wisconsin's Airwaves

Several years ago, an unknown blogger using the pseudonym "Template" created Whallah!  The purpose of this blog at that time was to be a foil to then squawk radio host Jessica McBride.  Soon after McBride was fired by WTMJ, which used a racially charged gaffe as an excuse, but really just wanted to cut corners and bring in the cheaper syndicated squawkers Dennis Miller and the always offensive Michael Savage.

At that time, Whallah! expanded to take on all of the local right wing squawkers, from Charlie "Mr. Woodhouse" Sykes to Mark "Wetback" Belling to the now departed but not missed Republican regurgitst Patrick McIlheran of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel infamy.

But this is just one little blog. It can do so much.

The powerhouses such at WTMJ-620 and ClearChannel's WISN-1130, not to mention other stations around the state are still spewing their one-sided message in order to support Republican/Teahadist causes and agendas.

So how the hell did this happen?

Let me introduce you to my new friend, Sue Wilson, who has more than a passing familiarity with talk radio.

Sue has made a movie about this (which is probably why she is willing to come to Wisconsin and get us started) but her ideas have sound basis and reflect much of what #wiunion has done in the past several months on its own.  To describe how we got here and her plan on how to help us, I would refer the gentle reader to her post (which is unfortunately on Huffington Post - Side word to Sue: Daily Kos, dear, Daily Kos).  Here is a couple of key excerpts:

That's not to say the demise of the Fairness Doctrine did not have an adverse effect. I produced public affairs programming under that rule at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, and found it very workable. I did not have to tell both sides of the story, I just had to try to do so. I also witnessed how, once it was abolished, TV programs that covered the local community just disappeared. And on the radio side, once the Fairness Doctrine went away, there is little question that Rush Limbaugh went hard right on a national microphone, attacking Democrats and anyone else who gets in the way of his pro-corporate right wing agenda.

Copycats soon moved in, creating an industry of right wing propagandists. In 90 percent of radio programming today, no real debate is allowed (unless a brave or committed few sneak past the microphone hoarders' screeners.)

But the Fairness Doctrine wasn't perfect. Part of the problem was it employed a top down approach, with Big Daddy Government putting broadcasters in the untenable position of being liable for lawsuits even over content in comedy programs. (CBS was sued under the Fairness Doctrine when the Norman Lear character Maude had an abortion in the TV show of the same name; opponents sued, saying CBS must do other shows where women did not have an abortion.) Rather than face such reprise, some broadcasters chose not to cover any controversial issues at all, which many argue chilled debate rather than engendered it.

In August, 2011, the final nail has been pounded into the coffin of the Fairness Doctrine.

Sue goes on to point out that the Federal Appeals Court made a clear and cut ruling that the airwaves, despite the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, are clearly the public's airwaves. They belong to us, not to the Koch Brothers or to Journal Broadcasting. We only let them use them, via the government. If they violate the public interest in using the airwaves, we, the people, can and must correct that, as they did in Sacramento:

This is not to say the only way to get broadcasters to serve the public interest is by filing legal challenges to their licenses. The Sacramento Media Group, affiliated with Common Cause, has successfully employed a model of knocking on TV stations' doors, asking for five minutes of daily political coverage on TV during election season. It took meetings with station management making that request, monitoring stations' coverage for three election cycles, writing several reports and releasing them to local newspapers (which caused the stations considerable embarrassment.) But today, SMG has found success. Their next goal is to ask local Talk radio stations for balanced political coverage, again during election seasons.


At the end of the day, the publicly owned airwaves are about public safety, about community and about ensuring First Amendment rights for everyone in the public square of broadcasting. Luckily, the Supreme Court is on our side.

So, what does this have to do with any of us? Sue answers that question too:

That's the First Amendment Right of all the viewers and listeners, not the just ones who listen to the most profitable formats for corporations.
There is much energy around restoring the Public into the Public Interest. A grassroots movement started earlier this year in Florida, when the UU Legislative Ministry supported an 11 city media reform tour featuring Broadcast Blues.

But it is really finding its legs next month with the 2011 Wisconsin Media Reform Tour featuring Broadcast Blues. (Broadcast Blues is the 2009 documentary film I made which delves into issues of public interest obligations of broadcasters.) Thanks to the organizing efforts of local folks, I'll be traveling to eight cities in Wisconsin, showing the film, then surveying citizens as to their specific public interest needs. Next, we'll work on how to approach their local broadcasters, not just by email, but with personal visits, and convey to the broadcasters what they need. In some cases, friendly visits will get great results: heck, the manager of the station could be somebody you went to high school with. But other times, protests, boycotts, maybe even legal petitions to deny the stations' licenses may need to be filed.

We'll do whatever it takes to restore the public -- all the public -- into the public interest obligations of broadcasters.

But unlike the Fairness Doctrine, this is a bottom up approach. This is "We the People" holding both broadcasters -- and the FCC accountable to us. We are taking back that which we already own: our public airwaves.

Stay tuned as we get closer. We will need to form teams to take on not only Milwaukee's broadcasters, but in cities all over the state, from Madison to Wausau to Green Bay. The more hands that we have on board, the easier and the faster we can correct this problem which has plagued us for far too long.

Just as we are taking back our state, we need to take back our airwaves.

Are you with us?

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

It's Hard To Be A Conservative: Part Really I Lost Count

You have to continuously complain that some companies might drop their health insurance plans in favor of that offered through the Affordable Care Act, or as the RWNJs like to call it, Obamacare.

Yet at the same time, you have to hope that you won't have to explain why you've been silent for years about the companies like Walmart, McDonald's and Aurora who haven't been offering health care coverage in favor of government-sponsored health care programs like BadgerCare.

Making Us Feel Better All The Time

Dan, aka Las Vegas Badger, decides to take what I'm sure is the high road for him and gives his two cents worth on the fact that David "Chokehold" Prosser is getting away with assault and battery, using the most misogynist and confusing ramble since Tom McMahon gave up blogging regularly:

Both Bradley and Abrahamson have put work place safety, a legitimate issue where people actually have been harmed, in less than serious light. But because both of these wenches are liberals, they will get a pass from liberals because, well because they are liberals and facts be damned. These two liberal hair brained bimbos put the issue of work place safety back 20 or more years in Wisconsin and that is a shame, shame, shame.

Um, yeah, because calling the victim of a crime and the Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, wenches and bimbos really gives you some serious gravitas, y'know?

Thanks Dan, you just keep on making everyone feel better about themselves!

Saving PolitiFact The Trouble

It's been a while since PolitFact has taken a look at Charlie Sykes' outrageous statements and lit his arse on fire, so we'll just have to do it for them.

Thursday morning, Sykes was ranting and raving about this article in the paper which told of how hundreds of people came out to Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's budget hearing to speak passionately about saving paratransit.

I only caught parts of Sykes' steaming pantful, but there were two glaring lies he was telling his audience.

One, he said that the advocates for the disabled were saying that the paratransit fees were going to more than triple.  All this proves is that Sykes is illiterate.  The article actually reported this (emphasis mine):

The cuts proposed by the Milwaukee County Transit System also include elimination of service on six regular routes, ending Freeway Flyer service and shortening routes or cutting bus frequency on 28 other routes. The transit system also is proposing to raise paratransit fares for riders with disabilities by $1.25, to $4.50.

Again, it only shows that Sykes can't read.

But where Sykes really got it wrong, and thereby set his own trousers ablaze, was when he claimed that no one has ever threatened to cut paratransit services before and that he was outraged about it.

The only thing is that paratransit services have been threatened before, even as recently as last year when then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker threatened to cut that service to the bare minimum required by federal law.

Secondly, per county records, now Governor Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature have decided to cut transit and paratransit funding by $5.5 million in the recently passed budget.

Don't expect Sykes to admit to that any time soon, though. He's too busy trying to keep the flames from his pantaloons from reaching all that hairspray in his helmet-hair.

There Are No Mirrors In the Dooley Home

Fred Dooley, RWNJ and owner of the most inappropriately named blog in the state, had this to say as he was gloating over 42 WEAC employees losing their jobs:

Wouldn't it be great though to legislate that a select group of people had to use your product and then have the government collect the payment for that product and pass it along to your business?

Now imagine the organization that got that incredible deal regularly gave a percentage of that payment back to one political party in order to ensure that they protected this unethical business model as long as it was possible.

Can you imagine the outrage from that political party when that campaign gravy-train was threatened? Why they might be so mad that they would leave the state in protest!

Interesting thought, isn't it?

Of course, Dooley wouldn't know a thing about a group that received incredible deals and generous giveaways from the government, then turned around and used some of that obscene profit taking to buy politicians of a certain party.

Oh, and by the way, here's a picture of Dooley speaking at a Koch Brothers-sponsored TEA Party rally in Racine:

Need I say more?

Milwaukee's Collective IQ Is About To Experience A Significant Jump

Just like we did when Jessica McBride was given the boot or when Paddy-Mac performed the ultimate hypocrisy, Milwaukee is about to be blessed with a significant spike to our collective intelligence.

Drama Queen James T. Harris is leaving the great and about to become greater state of Wisconsin to spew his hatred, bigotry and sexism across the deserts of Arizona.  Gilas will no longer be the only monsters slithering across the sands there.

The funniest part of it is that his mentor, Charlie Sykes, couldn't even let a small time conservative blogger her moment of glory by being the one to break the news, but had to hog it for his own vain self.

The only real question is whether the Petty Child is leaving because he found a better deal for his soul or because he's leaving like a rat jumps from a sinking ship.

You Can Take The Man Out Of Talk Radio But You Can't Take Talk Radio Out Of The Man

It was inevitable. Some idiot does it every year.

Every summer, when it gets stupid hot such as it's been for the past few weeks, with heat indices in the triple digits, the media and local health departments and/or politicians give the warning to keep hydrated, keep cool, watch out for the elderly and disabled and mentally ill, and to never leave your kids or pets locked in the car.

And every summer, some right winger shows themselves to be an idiot by complaining and mocking the warnings.

This year's idiot is former TMJ squawker who left the station and did the lateral move of speaking more directly for the Republicans - in this case, specifically for Senator Scott Fitzgerald:

And despite all the warnings, we have already had four deaths across the state which have been contributed to the heat wave.

But given the way he's been cheering on Scott Walker and the Snittin' Fitz, don't expect Jagler to give an apology for his callous remarks any time soon.  He's still got too much squawker in him to have even an ounce of class.

What Does WISGOP, Squawk Radio and Right Wing Bloggers All Have In Common?

The answer is that their positions are so indefensible that their only line of argument anymore is name-calling, as exemplified in this mass email from WISGOP:

You know that squawkers like Sykes and the echo chamber will be using these names until election day and beyond as they lick their wounds.  

After all, original thought has never been their strong suit.

Paddy Mac forever?

Patrick McIlheran has been gone from the Journal Sentinel editorial page for a full month now, since leaving for greener pastures and the public trough. Praise the Lord.

He lives on, however, in the paper's website, where his last column, "The Right's Ideas Are Winning," continues to be displayed prominently with the other actual working journalists on the site.

I've sent a polite email to the assistant managing editor of the online edition. We'll see if that wipes the smirk off of McIlheran's face.

UPDATE: It took only 38 minutes to get a reply:

Good point. We'll remove him from the various spots he's featured. Thanks.

An Ode To Squawk Radio

From a reader:

Rant, rant, rant
Is what they do when they can't
Provide the information
for their side of the situation.
When they call me with their facts
That is when I react.
I hang up on them and
Rant, rant, rant.

How To Cause Instant Rage In A Wing Nut

Apparently, if you demand that the Republicans actually be held accountable for the consequences for their unethical behaviors, you get them instantly spitting mad.

Personally, I think Mike Tate didn't go far enough. The Republicans should also be held responsible for the mass unemployment, the deficit and all of the other social and economic woes they have caused with their greedy, myopic policies.

Solidarity Floats

A couple of weeks ago, the local paper, in an ongoing series of attacking public sector workers, pointed out a story in which the Racine firefighters union chose not to expend its limited resources for a non-union float, even though said float was originally designed to honor the victims of 9/11. It's not that they were opposed to it, but they felt that they could spend their time, money and manpower more effectively on other things.

As one might suspect, the usual suspects, right wing radio squawkers and their echo chambers, chose not to present the situation honestly but rather to conflate it to try to make it look like the unions were against the 9/11 victims and thus against America. Then again, honesty has never been a friend of the right, especially for radio squawkers.

As one might imagine, the float did just fine as people gathered in support, either to genuinely honor the victims, or to take advantage of the publicity to promote their own event or their image.

Ironically, one of the people that came out to "support" the float was Vicki "Wolf on back, snake on chest" McKenna, nee Pyzynski. This is the same woman who took to calling the firefighters thugs, despite their hero status, just because they simply opposed the Republicans' abuse of office and unilateral stripping people of their rights.

But how do the victims of 9/11 fell about this whole thing? Are they mad at the unions for dissing them? Do they feel that the unions were wrong for standing up for their civil rights like that?

Apparently not, according to this news story:



Did you notice that the firefighter highlighted in the clip, claimed to be a Republican? Did you catch when he said that the GOP's attack on the working classed superseded politics or the union/anti-union debate?

So why are right wingers like Charlies Sykes so anxious to make this such a big deal? The answer is simple. They know that they are, once again, on the wrong side of history. So they conflate and exaggerate a non-story in an effort to distract the public from what's really going on.

And thus they make themselves truly the ones that are disrespecting those they pretend to defend.

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

Sykes Stoops To Mocking The Disabled

We've already known for years that Charlie Sykes has no morals and no sense of decency.

But once again, Sykes has gone beyond the pale, and shown his true nature.

He has decided to publicly mock, both on his radio show and on his blog, Jeremy Ryan, or as he is more commonly known, Segway Jeremy Ryan, as that Mr. Ryan has made an online appeal to help with his legal bills:

You may have read/seen about "Segway Boy," the perpetual protester who has apparently made a career out of annoying behavior, wracking up dozens of unpaid tickets along the way. The last time we encountered Jeremy Ryan, he had "15 citations totaling $3,604.50 for protesting and disrupting events at the Capitol." As the paper reported: "So far, he hasn't had to pay a cent." Now he's taken to the internet to beg... for others to help him continue to mooch. Classic stuff...

Mr. Ryan has become a fixture around Madison, known for riding his Segway and being very vocal and very visible in his protests of the outrages being committed by Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature. While I personally cannot condone all of Mr. Ryan's behaviors, he has had the right to make his feelings known.

While the Segway does make Mr. Ryan stand out and has made him an easily recognizable figure, it is equally as well known that Mr. Ryan has a very rare and life-threatening genetic condition that requires his using the Segway.

In fact, at the time of this writing, Mr. Ryan is currently in the hospital after collapsing and has been for days, due to this condition.

With these medical bills piling up, is it any wonder why Mr. Ryan would ask for a little help from his friends and supporters?

But the fact that Mr. Ryan has this life-threatening condition and is disabled to the point of needing the Segway in order to get around doesn't slow Sykes down one bit from mocking him.

Likewise, newly ordained Koch employee and comic book aficionado, Kevin Binversie also has to take a cheap swipe at him, basically saying he should sit down and shut up and do what the dark overlords tell him to do.

And to complete the trifecta of vulgarity, Bruce Redenz, known for getting into trouble in diners and doing ORRs from his job, comments on Sykes' site with this heart-warming way to treat a disabled person:

I will not be sending Jeremy a check.

I would, however, be willing to offer him a very unglamorous $10.00 p/hour job in the Madison area. He will need to be prepared to get filthy dirty doing arduous, repetitive work. I can offer him 35-40 hours per week at least through the summer. He will need to be prepared to show up consistently, at pre-determined, routine business hours.

This is a legitimate offer, Jeremy. Charlie knows how to reach me.

I will begin holding my breath now in preparation for Jeremy's call.

Sadly, these three seem to be more of the norm than the exception to the right wing of the state. And then they wonder why the people of Wisconsin are outraged and are actively working to correct the direction this state is heading.

Now, of course, if any of these three had a shred of common decency in them, they wouldn't have done what they done in the first place, so I wouldn't advise Mr. Ryan to wait for them to apologize for their crude and rude behavior, even though that is exactly what they should be doing.

But then again, if they are low enough to mock a disabled person, why would anyone care what they have to say about anything in the first place?