Parenting Advice from Lee Rodgers: Knock your Kids into Next Week

Lee Rodgers is back at KSFO and he is as bad as ever.

It's pretty clear that nobody at the parent company listens to him. The only time they seem to hear what is going on at the show is when I point it out to the advertisers. I'm sure they would be shocked and appalled and maybe understand why decent advertisers don't want to be associated with the show. But since Mitch Dolan, President of Citadel’s Major Market Station Group, left in February, Farid Suleman is taking on his duties. I don't expect Farid to have time to monitor KSFO.

But I've got time, so I'll help 'em out! Spocko's listening!

Let's look into just the first 25 minutes of today's show. That's about all I could handle after last night's green Irish beer and green Romulan ale. Rodgers is bemoaning the Republican party having any impulse other than being obstructionist. And he makes an analogy to parents, maybe he sees the Republican Party as the Daddy party. In Rodger's world daddies threaten to beat their kids if they disobey.

Should parents, for example, never say no to stupid ideas of their kids like a 'Hey folks I'm planning on a weekend of binge drinking and uh and uh sorting cocaine and oh and by the way I'm going to use the family car.'?

Parents shouldn't say no?

'No punk that's stupid. You're not going to do it-and you try it I'll knock you into the middle of next week.' An approach that should be used more often in America families. (audio link)
--Lee Rodgers, KSFO, ABC Radio/Citadel Broadcasting,
3-18-2009 at 5:25 am

This really isn't surprising for a man who is unrepentantly in favor of killing political opponents, torturing and executing people for being arrested too much, burning people alive and stomping protesters to death.

Good thing Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family was replaced by the Huckabee report. I wonder if Gov. Huckabee is in favor of threatening to beat kids so they don't drink and drive? Maybe I should ask him.

Gov. Huckabee, Lee Rodgers, a radio host on KSFO in San Francisco, thinks that parents should threaten to "knock their kids into next week" if they hear they are planning to drink and do drugs. Do you agree with this approach? Rodgers says it "should be used more often in America families'.

Is beating children an effective method of getting them to stop drinking and doing drugs? Why not? Lee Rodgers is a proud conservative. Is this view point shared by other conservatives?

Before you answer Gov. we all know that talk radio hosts are very powerful in today's media world. If you disagree with Rodgers you might have to apologize later.

Burger King is a major sponsor of Lee Rodger's at KSFO. That's right, family-friendly Burger King is sponsoring a radio show where the host suggests parents should threaten to beat their children.

Now I doubt that Burger King has any idea what the folks at KSFO are saying. I can't imagine they would keep advertising if they did. Their media buyers aren't going to tell them, they won't want to walk away from any revenue. They probably just were shown a spreadsheet and thought "Heck, KSFO is in San Francisco, how bad could they be? It's not like they suggest that parents threaten to beat their kids!"

(Pssst. Burger King, they are pretty bad, listen to a show. You'll find KSFO hosts violating a number of your very own Code of Business Ethics of Conduct for Vendors.)

Remember KSFO is a vendor that provides Burger King with a service. They are a very public vendor. The radio hosts read your commercials live on the air and therefore they are the voice of your company to people in the Bay Area. When Michael Vick got involved in dog fighting, Nike pulled their sponsorship. Rodgers has suggested that millions of innocent Muslims be killed, and criminals be tortured and executed and most recently on, 3/18/2009 that children be beaten. Is this the guy you want representing your product?)

Of course it is just a matter of time before they don't just say something bad before or after your commercial, sometimes they integrate your commercial into something nasty. Listen to what "Officer Vic" did with McDonalds
(Audio link)

Hey maybe I should let Cindy Syracuse, senior director, cultural marketing, Burger King Corp know about Rodgers massive anti-Muslim bias. She might care.)

Burger King Corporation CSR mission statement:
Burger King Corporation is a global citizen. We live and work alongside our constituents, and value their interests as our own. Fundamental respect for all people, and our planet, guides our corporate conscience. We are committed to diversity and inclusion, dignity for all workers along our entire supply chain, food safety and animal welfare, sensitivity towards the environment, and a spectrum of civic and charitable priorities that promote our shared future in the communities we serve.

I'm thinking that the reason KSFO keeps Rodgers in Arizona is so that he isn't roaming the halls looking for a fight. Did he get an ethics waiver from Citadel's Code of Business Rules and Ethics?(I haven't found it in Form 8-K with the SEC under item 10, I'll look more later.) Why would he be allowed to get away with his comments if he doesn't' have an ethics waiver?


I sometimes amuse myself by talking to friends who don't listen to talk radio by repeating word for word the comments in the same tone and fashion as the hosts. After the initial stunned reaction people ask me, "Do you really think they believe what they are saying?"

I respond, "I can't read their minds, I don't know what is in their hearts or what they do at home in their personal lives. In a way it doesn't matter if they are true believers or not. All I can know is what they say. They are sick if they believe it and frankly just as sick if they say it and DON'T believe it, because that means they are aware their comment is sick and say it any way. That shows a level of calculation that suggests they know exactly what they are saying is wrong and do it anyway."

My friend Rich (who probably hasn't read this far since he hates my long posts) was the first one to point this out to me and I realized later why many people ask me that question. They want to give the benefit of the doubt to others. They believe that people are good and that saying things like this are just for ratings and money.

Many people on the right don't believe that people are good and don't give people the benefit of the doubt. One reason that "Hot Talk" radio survives is because liberal people don't want to believe that these hosts could really believe what they say. It HAS to be entertainment, if it isn't entertainment then these comments are real and that is creepy and scary.

I can't really do a mind meld with the hosts and see if they mean the opposite of what they say day in and day out for months and years at a time. It's swell if they love their own dog or don't beat their own kids but as a listener all I can judge them on are their exact words, with all their intonations, rhythm and stresses-- that is why I include audio clips. Listen in context, listen to the words, come to your own conclusion.

I've come to the conclusion that they aren't joking and they really mean this stuff.