Monday, February 26, 2007
Right Wing Radio Listeners Suck
Right wing radio listeners suck. The other day I was absorbing Chris Hedges' discussing his latest book American Fascists, when he challenged his fellow Americans to tune into these religious broadcasts that populate our radio dial - to grapple with the messages of hate and isolation that so many languish within.
Thanks to my previous employer I've consumed about as much religious, talk down to you, 'christian' radio as any sane man can be expected to absorb. So I skipped the WWJD FM, and even took a pass on Rush Flagship FM that Clear Channel was so nice as to provide the Twin Cities a few years back; I went with what I figured was more 'mainstream' conservative talk, the local KSTP 1500 talk. They also cover the Twins, so I figured their schtick couldn't be all that horrible. I was wrong.
The host of the hour or so that I listened to was Robert Somebody, I think. I suppose I could visit their website and track down his name proper, but I just don't fucking care enough to. He was the cookie-cutter 'moderate' conservative, and his smooth radio voice didn't quite cover for his artless insertions on talking points. He said 'I don't know,' a helluva lot, and often took the stance of being just slightly more educated than his callers by reinforcing their slightly bigoted, reactionary statements, but also claiming that he could 'see the other point of view.' In short, he was a hack.
What bothered me was the caliber of his callers. To call them proto-adults would be too optimistic.
Perhaps in the world of talk radio, a program's callers are the greatest barometer to gauging how that program lives up to the broadcaster's obligations within the shared resource that is our public domain airwaves. If the broadcaster claims to provide any public service whatsoever, the frameworks of ethics and citizenship that their callers flesh out ought to be a fair measure. After all, most of these fuckers heavily screen their calls to produce an appearance of acceptance and respect for the host. They have the tools to define their listenership in who they put on the air and how they treat them.
Caller #1 on AM 1500 in Minnesota, Friday 2.23.7, approximately 11:30 ish: (paraphrased)
Yeah, I think all this media attention about Hillary and Obama is just too much too soon. I don't care. I just want to wait until next fall when they have it narrowed down to two people, and then vote on the one I like.
To be honest, I need to take a minute to elucidate the hosts pathetic demagogic rope-a-dope of the day. His main theme was all about the judge of the Anna Nicole Smith trial crying during his pronouncements, and then questioning why 'are we so focused on this when so much that is clearly more important is going on?' Thus he included that weeks talking points about Clinton and Obama being in a political dogfight without any support whatsoever (just one 'important' story that was overshadowed by who gets the body.) He could also criticise the media for not paying attention to the war, while not having to discuss the war at all. Just to say that it was, 'more important.'
So for me, a good ole boy like Caller #1 deserves a strong rebuke. Bob didn't provide one, cuz from the perspective of a right wing controller that's just the greatest attitude in the world. 'Yeah, get all upset cuz you have to hear too much about a political race, just wait until there are only two and then decide.'
Caller #1 should consider emigration. His mentality would be great in One Party China right now, he would have fit in just fine under the Kremlin or a King. His mentality just ain't good enough for America and any radio host who gave a shit about this country would tell him so.
'Sorry Caller, but you are just dead ass wrong. Folks like you who just want to wait until it's either Kerry or Bush are the problem in this country. If you don't get involved in your party during the primary phase, than you are pissing away the most important opportunity to influence who represents you. If you are not active in your party at the primary level you are not doing your job as a citizen, that fucking simple.
Caller #2, female, called in to talk about how much she loved the ANS trial, but how she doesn't listen to any real news from 'the media' cuz it is all slanted and bad. She had a nephew in Iraq, and he's sent her a bunch of Videos and Letters telling her about all the good things going on over there that 'the media' never talks about. Nephew built a water treatment plant, nephew built a school - why don't the media ever talk about everything we are doing for 'them' over there?
Bob Hack loved her, he grooved on her riff for five minutes. Can't get enough of 'family members' with 'special insight' into a war on the other side of the fucking planet who think that everything bad about Iraq in the media is a propaganda falsehood.
If Caller #2 was not a real Minnesotan woman who sounded a lot like my aunt, I'd be a whole lot more mean. Fuck?!?, reports of suicide bombers and dead U.S. soldiers are not news, but stories from one nephew about 'good works' trumps all? Has this nephew been back to the water treatment plant? Is it still in existence? Cuz I can research the clean water standards or the number of hours of electricity in Baghdad at any time, and that's a good indicator if the situation is improving.
A good host would have patiently explained to her that in a war, a citizen has to be informed about the good, and the bad. Sure the information her nephew sends her in important, but he's in the middle of a warzone, and our media should be able to provide more of a 'big picture' kind of story.
In a way, I think the family members of soldiers (particularly when they choose to ejaculate talking points) are granted a level of celebrity in the media. Probably not a good thing.
Right wing radio listeners suck. They don't have the practice with thinking or logic to even make sense, and they don't seem to have a concern with doing anything that might rise to the level of Civic Duty. For too long I've liked to pretend that those sort of people don't exist, or at least they are a small minority - NOT TRUE - fascism cultivates these sort of worthless fucks, and more and more, these ignorant thralls are feeling 'empowered.'
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
This is only being posted as a way to try to get a cooler avatar for my geek side. The pic is from a collectable card game illustration by Danial Gelon copyright 1994. Hopefully, this falls under the radar of copyright lawyers, since I'm not trying to make any money off this image at all. I'll take this down in a heartbeat if I'm unwittingly violating someone's intellectual property rights.
