If Lara and Adama were Simpsons characters

From the artist Dylan Meconis. Check out the whole set of BSG characters reimagined as Simpson characters (link)

Thanks Xeni at Boing Boing!

Melanie Morgan wants to dig up environmental author, Rachel Carson, and "kill her all over again."

Are there any limits to the violent rhetoric coming out of KSFO? Apparently not. It's not enough to talk about "a bull's-eye painted on [Pelosi's] big, wide laughing eyes.” (then pretend you said no such thing) Or talk about killing and torturing people like Lee Rogers and Brian Sussman do.

Now Melanie Morgan of Disney Radio station KSFO 560 AM wants to dig up the grave of a dead person and kill them again!

In a conversation with John Berlau (author of Eco-Freaks from the ExxonMobile funded front group, CEI) broadcast on the 6:00 hour on December 01, 2006

They were discussing how good DDT is and the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

Lee Rogers: Well I think the moral of this story is beware of do gooders they'll kill ya.

Melanie Morgan: "or dig up Rachel Green and kill her all over again. I mean that would an appropriate,

Rogers: Rachel Carson.

Morgan: I'm sorry, Rachel Carson of Silent Green.


- Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan on ABC Disney Radio station KSFO 12/01/2006 06:15 AM (The Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan program, KSFO 560 AM) (audio link)

(Rachel Carson prior to her death in 1964 of breast cancer)


So just how sick are these people? It's not enough to disagree with the conclusions of the meticulously researched book Silent Spring, but she wants to find the body of Rachel Carson, who died in 1964 of breast cancer, and "kill her her all over again."

Would Morgan give her a choice of how she could die this time after she has re-animated her corpse? Will she choose hanging like she suggested for Bill Keller and nine other editors? Bullet between the eyes like Rogers wants for Kevin Holder? Hog-tied and burned alive like they suggested for others? Stomped to death?

(Oh and fyi Rachel Green is the fictional character in the TV show Friends, nice of Rogers to ensure Morgan gets the name correct of the person that Morgan wants to dig up and kill all over again. And it's Silent SPRING. Not Silent Green. Maybe Morgan was thinking of Soylent Green because they also had a special use for dead people.

(Cue Charlton Heston screaming, "Soylent Green is made out of people!")

And remember folks, the Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan show is on a Disney station and sponsored by their local and national advertisers (who might not really enjoy having their ad run right during this ghoulish and violent rhetoric. I wonder if the American Diabetes Association (an advertiser) is cool with sponsoring potential grave desecraters?)

Disney Radio host, Brian Sussman, calls Barak Obama a "halfrican"

Just in case you missed it while it was on the front page of Media Matters starting Thursday December 07 , 2006.

Check out Melanie Morgan co-host on "Halfrican" Obama.


(L-R Melanie Morgan, Brian Sussman, Tom Brenner "Officer Vic")

From the December 4 edition of KSFO's Sussman, Morgan & Vic:

MORGAN: Senator Obama, who is, as you call, a 'Halfrican' --

SUSSMAN: Halfrican and, again, his father was -- his father was from Kenya, his mother's white. OK, now, I have nothing with mixed -- nothing against mixed-race people but, my point is, when this guy stands in front of a black audience, pretending like he was born and raised in the hood, and he can identify with their problems, he doesn't allow -- he is not, in my opinion -- 'cause my opinion is your average white guy -- he is not allowed to wear the African-American badge because his family are not the descendants of slaves, OK? He can't identify with the discrimination and the slavery and all of that that's gone into these black families for generations; he's a kid who was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth in a white family in Hawaii, OK? You wanna call me names for saying this? Go right ahead. I'm just telling you what the guy is.

MORGAN: Well --

TOM BENNER (aka "Officer Vic," KSFO morning traffic reporter): And you're not making this up. I mean, it's documented, for goodness sake. You can look it up.

SUSSMAN: I'm not making this up, so I just -- I get offended and I know I have many black friends who get offended when he stands in front of that black audience talking like he's from the hood, born and raised, and I can -- can identify with all of their issues. He can't!

MORGAN: Well, and guess what? It's working. It's working big-time.

(Audio link)

---Now I know that Sussman has a whole patter about why he feels he can use this term (I get the impression that he has adopted children of mixed races, but I'm not sure) he clearly has a strong story to explain why he can say things like this whereas Morgan can't. But as my friend pointed out to me,

So what if he can? That's still a slur and racist, and *he's* not black. Hell, that would be derogatory if a black person said it about another black person, kind of like how it's derogatory for a black person to call another black person an "oreo," (black on the outside, white on the inside) or for a Native person to call another Native person an "apple" (red on the outside, white on the inside) . It's derogatory because it says negative things about *both* groups he's talking about, and he doesn't get to make that call, black adopted kids or not.

And always remember folks this commercially supported broadcast radio is brought to you by The Walt Disney Company! And ABC Radio! Advertisers should know what they are funding so they can make their own decision if they want to support this "Hot Talk".

How KSFO Views Advertisers?

Like I said earlier, if some nice people from an agency or a placement firm like Interep starts looking to see where Disney station KSFO is and want to know, "Who is Brian Sussman, Melanie Morgan and Tom Brenner and why are they calling Barak Obama a Halfrican?" (audio link) Media Matters link They might find this post.

I think it is instructive for the advertisers to see how they are viewed internally at the Disney station KSFO company. Especially new advertisers who might be coming on board when a sudden opening appears (why the sudden opening?)

Someone who calls himself Spocko's Vendetta (who appears to be part of the sales team at KSFO based on his comments about Cache Creek) and who also writes remarkably like sales manager Michael Black, although with weaker grammar and punctuation, had this to say in my blog comments.

Spocko's Vendetta said..

i think you're a fraud. you don't really care about at&t who makes a ton of money by selling pornography, visa who rips of the consumer and keeps them in dept or fed ex whose airplanes increase global warming. those companies are making a killing compared to ksfo which bills about 15 million a year. no you are a fraud mr. spocko. you have your own personal agenda and vendetta against the station. you're probably working for michael savage ,bernie ward or one of ksfo's competitors and they will expose you through their investigations. why is it that you never attack anyone other then ksfo hosts? no attacks on KNEW or michael savage, bill o'reilly etc...

(emphasis mine)

It is interesting to note how he views AT&T, Visa and FedEx. It makes me wonder if those advertisers have stopped advertising. I wonder how he views advertisers who are considering pulling their ads? Let his own words about these advertisers be your guide.

But of course if questioned he will probably go into denial mode (see Morgan's methods above). I, of course, never said anything like that about the advertisers, those are his own views.

And for the record, I don't work for Savage, Ward or KSFO's competitors, but of course that would be the easy answer to give to an advertiser. It appears that SV can't imagine anyone being repulsed enough by the violent rhetoric that goes out on the public airwaves on this station to do something as basic as alert the advertisers.

And the good people at Media Matters are doing a fine job illustrating what Michael Savage, Bill O'Rielly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are saying. I'm a 5th tier blogger so I figured I should focus on the local people that don't already have someone paying attention to what they are saying.

Spocko's Vendetta said..

god you've got so much information that the police think you work at 900 front st! they're going to find you spocko aka james madison aka patrick mcshane. they're going to find you and sue you for everything you've got. slander slander slander libel libel libel. you will go down before they lose an advertiser. why don't you stop being such a coward and walk down the hall to luckoff's office and tell him who you are and why you hate him so much.

(emphasis mine)

I see that the police are on this investigation! In earlier comments it was the FBI too. I do hope that "they" (Disney?) knows that I am being threatened with the full force and weight of the Walt Disney Company legal team. I'm not sure they would approve of their legal team being summoned and directed toward me, a private citizen. But then again not being within your organization (hence no "walk down the hall") I don't know how these things work.

Note how easily SV throws the term slander and libel around. As I'm sure Melanie Morgan knows, slander and libel are very difficult things to prove. Morgan uses that knowledge to protect her from suits from Cindy Sheehan, the photographers from the LA Times and the SF Chronicle.

The language of thugs

As David Niewert has pointed out, violent rhetoric on the radio is used for multiple purposes. Sometimes it is directed toward groups to marginalize them, sometimes it is used to intimidate them. And as my friend Thers notes, not everyone has the resources of the main stream media or the security team of a US Congresswoman.

So when the language of thugs is applied to different groups the responses vary based on their resources.

• When Lee Rogers talks about shooting and torturing a black man in another state because he was arrested too many times, Melanie Morgan laughed and management determined it was fine. Kevin Holder probably doesn't even know Rogers wanted him dead.
  
• When Brian Sussman talks about cutting off the finger and then the penis of an Iraqi in another country, management ignored it. When the comment led to advertisers leaving, management supported him.
  
• When Melanie Morgan said the following about a sitting congresswoman and the soon to be Speaker of the House "We've got a bull's-eye painted on [Pelosi's] big, wide laughing eyes", we know that it was brushed aside with non-apologies that don't even acknowledge the threat.

So when Spocko's Vendetta says, "be careful spocko. they're coming for you..." I can see it is all a part of a pattern.

Spocko's Vendetta said..

your slander and libel regardin "shitty" is going to cost you. he's saying chivy like some guy from texas. it would be so out of context to rip the advertiser during sussman's stellar live endorsement that it wouldn't make sense. be careful spocko. they're coming for you for lying to their advertisers

(emphasis mine)

Any subsequent escalated violent rhetoric directed toward me (and as you can see they are all capable of this rhetoric) will also be ignored by management. I guess I should be content with the hope that nothing will happen. That I should simply assume that nobody will act on any suggestions of violence directed toward me. And I'm sure that when Chad Castagana sent white powder to Nancy Pelosi and Keith Olbermann it was just as hilarious to them as Lee Roger's "joke" about castrating Bernie Ward was to him.

I think that Rogers, Morgan, Sussman and Brenner should know that what they are saying is working. People have been INSPIRED by what they have said. (Or incited might be another way to put it.) Spocko's Vendetta has gotten the message! He knows what to say and do. If Michelle Malkin's readers are any indication I'm sure my personal info will be posted any minute now and the tainted letters and death treats will begin.

It worked. I'm officially scared. Good job. I'm sure that the Walt Disney Company is as proud of you as they are of Rogers, Morgan, Sussman and Brenner. And, if their pattern dealing with them is any indication, you are in the clear.

Of course if there is a Chad Castagana out there who wants to pick up the ball and run with it feel confident that the law won't hold you responsible. Unlike Rwanda, when someone gives out the address of people and says step on the cockroach (audio), when Lee Rogers says to stomp people to death, it doesn't happen (audio). Yet.

Good thing nobody at Disney or from the agencies is reading my blog

If the nice people at BBDO or GSD&M or media placement firms like Greenstripe get directions to "check out KSFO and this or that host" to see what they are about, I do hope that they find this post.

Because they can see how they, as customers for the station are REALLY viewed. And of course if they listened to some audio clips of the hosts they could learn that they are exposing their clients to some very gruesome talk, often right before their ads.

For example, I can not imagine that Dr. Julian Feneley, Chief Executive Officer of BriteSmile Inc. which is headquartered-in Walnut Creek, wants to hear right before his ad Lee Rogers say this about a listener, "I've got to try and track that email address and do something unpleasant to his cojones, if he has any." "None." says Melanie Morgan as she launches in to the BriteSmile commercial. (audio link)

I don't know Dr. Feneley, but I imagine that after all his hard work on growing the company, nurturing the brand and the product he might not be too happy that right before his ad Rogers uses the Spanish word for testicles.

Sadly there really is nothing the agencies or advertisers can do about it. Any suggestion that Rogers refrain from testicle talk before his ad will not be tolerated. Why? Because as Lee Rogers has made crystal clear:

"Nobody is gonna tell me, what to talk about or not talk about or in what fashion on this radio program. It ain't gonna happen!"

- Lee Rogers, ABC Disney Radio station KSFO 11/30/2006 05:09 AM (The Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan program, KSFO 560 AM) (audio link)

Dr. Feneley's or his people really should keep that in mind if they decide to continue advertising on the show. They clearly are pretty close to the show's host since Melanie Morgan and her sister read the ads. He might have better luck suggesting Morgan tone it down. But as we have seen with her non-apologies for saying "We've got a bull's-eye painted on [Pelosi's] big, wide laughing eyes" and "it's time to put the bull's-eye on [Pelosi]. (See Media Matters yesterday) Morgan's method is to pretend she never said what she actually said.

But of course if you advertise a lot having your ad might right after Morgan talks about putting bull's-eyes on elected officials is highly possible. Just ask Phil Pacsi, the executive director, North American Consumer Tire Marketing for Bridgestone Americas Holding owner of Wheelworks. You can reach him at pacsiphil @ bfusa.com

Notice how his ad ran right after Morgan's comment (after Brenner's traffic). (audio link)

I think FedEx might have been smart enough to stay away from this kind of talk, but I'm not sure. But maybe Wheelworks doesn't know what is happening on the station they advertise on. I understand, it's a big market. If his agency can't protect him maybe someone should let him know what's going on.

Sorry to have to contact you like this Phil, but you were probably told I'm just some competitor who didn't care about your brand. Who you associate your brand with IS important. I'm sure your bosses in Japan like: Hideki Yokoyama, Vice President and Officer, Brand Management and Product Planning for Bridgestone and Masayuki Okabe, Vice President and Officer, General Affairs, Legal Affairs and Corporate Communications, wouldn't want to lose face because you continued to support a station whose host talks about painting a bull's eye on the Speaker-elect to the United States Congress.

But what do I know, I'm not supported by the Walt Disney Corporation. I'm just suggesting you make your decision based on your own ears.

Go for Papa Palpetine

Spocko needs a little Science Fiction laugh break. Thanks to Matthew Gordon at Crooked Timber for the link.



From Robot Chicken

We write letters and the good people respond

Lucie Brosseau
Rideau Hall Press Office, Governor General of Canada

Dear Lucie:

Last week the local radio hosts KSFO in San Francisco, CA said yet another disgusting thing about the UN and while reviewing some audio files I came across them joking with Ann Coulter about the death of UN Peacekeepers in South Lebanon.(Audio link 1.01 clip, comment at 45 seconds.) In my research I determined that a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, was one of the men who died while serving under the Nations Truce Supervision Organization.

I wrote to the management of these radio hosts to complain, but I doubt they will do anything. The station is owned by ABC Radio Disney, but it appears that profit is a higher priority than human decency.

I wanted to pass on to you and to Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener's family that many of us in America appreciate the United Nations and especially the role that brave Canadians have played as Peacekeepers. Please don't judge us by our most obnoxious broadcast radio hosts.

Finally, I wanted to just pass on my thanks for your well written release honoring Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener and let you know I honored them as well in this post.

http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/2006/10/we-honour-their-memory-and-everything.html

Sincerely,
Mr. Spocko

Response from Governor General of Canada's office
-------------

Dear Sir,

On behalf of Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, I am responding to your e-mail below. Please accept my apologies for the delay in sending this response.

Thank you for your taking the time to write and share your views with the Governor General on this issue. Your efforts to commemorate the courageous spirit and tragic passing of Major Hess-von Kruedener on your Web site is very much appreciated.

Thank you for writing.

Yours sincerely,

Lisa Bryden, INFO
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive / 1, promenade Sussex
Ottawa ON K1A 0A1
www.gg.ca
e-mail / courriel: info@gg.ca

Army Corps of Engineers admitted it was their design failure that caused the levees to breach

From the fabulous Scout at First Draft. Scout has done a ton of original reporting on the New Orleans flooding. Seeing as I live in a region and a city that is about 12 years away from our next major earthquake, I think it is important to see how a region that plays a huge role in our energy needs is treated. Louisiana's offshore oil and gas wells account for more than 30% of U.S. domestic energy production.

New Orleans is a major port for the US and South Louisiana is a major provider of natural gas, oil and refineries for that oil. The area has assumed great risk (coastal wetland destruction, Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) to provide goods and energy to the country. (for more go here) It all came crashing down on them with Katrina. Particularly the federal levees came down. The Army Corps of Engineers admitted it was their design failure that caused the levees to breach which in turn flooded the city.

The people of New Orleans had assumed they were protected. They weren’t. Having assumed risks to meet the needs of the country they believed there would have been a recovery response equal to the destruction they have endured. It hasn’t. They thought we were all in this together only to be met this past 462 days with neglect and abandonment. Worse they have endured the slings and arrows of the Why Live There, Why Rebuild Below Sea Level crowd and ask are we truly alone in this? Does the rest of the country not realize the importance of our port and off shore resources? Was there not a social contract? Is this not the UNITED States of America?

The questions go unanswered. It ought to frighten us all. If a city of such economic importance, rich in cultural and historical significance can be laid to waste and perhaps laid to rest from lack of will and commitment to make the part whole again, then who among us is safe? The new Congress could go along way in demonstrating we indeed share in the risk and responsibility by addressing the rebuilding of the levees to Cat 5 protection and restoring Lousiana's wetlands.

Calls to torture and kill people coming from radio hosts at Disney Radio station KSFO - Why not just change the channel?

People ask, "Why not change the channel?"

What if almost every day you heard talk radio hosts talking about killing your friends?

Not simply dead, but hanged. (audio link, Lee Rogers)
Their place of work blown up. (audio link, Melanie Morgan, Lee Rogers, Tom Brenner)
And when your friends died after the building was blown up? The hosts laughed. (audio link, Ann Coulter, Morgan, Brenner "Officer Vic")

What if they "joked" about cutting off your friend's testicles?(audio link, Rogers, Brenner)
Seriously talked about cutting off your friend's finger and then his penis? (audio link, Brian Sussman)

And what if they said that millions of the religion you belong to should be murdered?(audio link, Rogers)
Murdered based on a simple guess of which ones were the extremely bad ones? (audio link, Sussman)

Would you do anything? Tell anybody? ( link and link)

And what if you found out that someone who heard of this constant talk about wanting your friends dead, decided to act on it? (Chad Castagana)

What if they talked like an assassin talks about a victim when referring to the leader of your group of friends? (audio link, Morgan)

Would you say anything?

What if you decided to tell people about it, say the owners of the radio station, and they not only ignored it but encouraged it. (audio link, Sussman)

What if you wrote to the owners of the radio network and they ignored it and encouraged it?

Would you drop it?

What if after all this talk they still defiantly kept it up? (audio link, Rogers)
Pretending that they never said what they said (audio, Morgan, Rogers), even after audio proof to the contrary? (audio link, Morgan)

Suppose one of the most respected Brands and Companies in the world, which owns the network and the station, was alerted to what these people were saying?( link)
Might you expect they would care? Are THEY not members of any of these groups? Do they not have customers in any of these groups? Would they not defend their friends? Are they not humans?

Would you simply change the channel?

KSFO 560 AM is owned by ABC Radio Disney.
Go here to write the FCC and complain. If you want to write advertisers drop me a line. spockosemail atsign gmail .com.
If you have thoughts on who else should be notified let me know.