Can't cha' take a Joke? The Bully's Lament
I was at a convention and we were talking about a tactic that is used by some people on the right. They say something offensive and then when someone says, "Hey, that's offensive." They reply, "I was JOKING! Can't cha' take a joke?"
I asked what our reply to this remark should be. My friend Thers at Whiskey Fire suggested "Bite me." A professional cartoonist suggested, "If an actual joke had happened there would be laughter."
Right wing talk show hosts use the, "It's a comedy bit!" to try and excuse their especially nasty comments. But if you listen to the shows long enough you will hear what is clearly NOT comedy. And no amount of historical revisionism will make it so.
If that trick doesn't work they use the, "You have to hear the whole context" gambit. As if right before they said the horrific comment they said, "I would NEVER say something like THIS!" Other dodges used are, "It's old and out of date!" as if they aren't still using Howard Dean's scream.
Carla Marinucci's column the other day asks about Brian Sussman's comedy skit. That was what was offered up by Media Matters at the time and that was what the Council on American-Islamic Relations -a member of the Hate Hurts America Multifaith Community Coalition focused on.
They could have chosen lots of other comments to focus on, some of which I've posted in the past, others I've never posted. One reason they aren't all available is that KSFO's parent company had my blog shut down because I was using those and other clips to show the violent rhetoric coming out of the hosts of KSFO. The didn't really want the advertisers to hear what their hosts were saying on the advertiser's dime, (Ironic eh?) so they ginned up a bogus copyright violation to shut me down.
So any crying that you might hear from KSFO hosts about how people are trying to silence them is hilarious seeing as they ACTUALLY used the power of the legal system to shut ME down. Fortunately the fine folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (as well as hundreds of bloggers) had my back and helped me prove I wasn't violating their copyright. I found another hosting company, ctyme.com, and got back on the web.
My goal was to alert the advertisers about what they were paying for on KSFO so they could decide if they wanted to continue to associate their brand with KSFO "humor" and the violent rhetoric targeted at liberals, democrats, Muslims and journalists. By my count 27 advertisers agreed that the content of the show just wasn't something they wanted to keep sponsoring.
Many companies have internal guidelines about the standards their vendors need to meet. They simply looked at their own guidelines and said, "We can't give a waiver to this vendor who attacks people of one religion or belief."
So what were some of the comments that upset the advertisers? I have lots, but since the current discussion is about people of the Muslim faith I'll repost some of those here. Listen for yourself.
"Say Allah is a Whore"
Sussman may claim that the call where he asked a listener to "Say Allah is a Whore", was a comedy bit, but it wasn't. That is their all purpose dodge. Listen. Say Allah is a whore audio link
He didn't just say it once, he said it twice.
NOTE: Sussman did apologize for this comment, but only because he got caught on that one. I have many other quotes of his that show an ongoing rage toward Muslims. Go to the KSFO website where Sussman had two hours yesterday to have his say on this. That is where he says this was a comedy bit (ha!) and that he already apologized.
ABC Radio is now owned by Citadel Broadcasting. Michael Black is no longer the sales manager. It is now Deidra Lieberman. Citadel Broadcasting is majority owned by Disney.
In recent months the way the station gets around their violent comments and anti-Muslim bias by having anti-Muslim guests who will never challenge their views. People like the Jihad Watch guy.
Caller comment and Host agreement that Innocent Muslims should be Preemptively Killed
For example, here is a quote I didn't put up.
A caller suggests that they send 10 cruise missiles hitting all the mosques in Syria on Sunday. Sussman agrees and says that we should have done this. 12/07/2006 six o'clock hour
Sussman's gruesome math, estimating that 10 million Muslims need to be killed because they are probably extremists. (link)
They love to accuse me of not providing context (as if right after they make a horrific comment they said, "I totally retract what I just said!") Extra context almost always reveals even more support for their horrific comments.
8 minute clip where Sussman reveals his true feelings toward of Muslims. (link) March 13 2006 You may want to take a walk in the sunshine after listening to that.
Now you might say that the deeds actually happened and that they would upset anyone who cares about innocent life. I must remind you that Sussman chose to read attacks from Muslims. I would like to believe his hate and anger is because he feels terrible about the innocent life that was lost, but given his pro-torture views and his stated desire to torture people I don't buy it.
Here is a five minute clip of Sussman talking about how he would cut off body parts to get people to talk (link) That was from 2005.
And just to be clear that he hasn't changed, here he is just this January talking about how he would shoot a suspect in the knee to make him talk. (link) 1/07/2009 Maybe he thinks that 24 is a training film. As I've said in the past, Jack Bauer has writers, the show is fiction.
And just so you can get a flavor of what else goes on this show, listen to this clip from March 31, 2009, but a few days ago. Advertisers have to be honest in their ads, journalists run corrections. But there are no such limits to the talk radio hosts. They can ignore facts, or make up information.
Listen to him agreeing with a caller who talks about how children will get AIDs from skinning their knees on a sidewalk where a person with AIDs spit (or vomited or pooped).
That we can't show him one person who has died from pollution in the united states.
Oh, and there is no correlation between asthma and pollution in the United States.
(Audio Link, Guest claims you can get AIDS from spit on the sidewalk)
So what do you do when this kind of misinformation and violent rhetoric toward others goes out day after day on these shows? You can contact their management, but has supported them with, 'It's a joke!' or "It's just their opinion!" or "Don't pick on us!"
That is why I contacted the advertisers, to ask them if they want to continue to sponsor this misinformation and violent rhetoric. It's the old, "Let the market decide." that the right claims to believe in from the comfort of their media monopolies.
I might write more about this, but now I think I need to take a walk out in the sun myself.
I asked what our reply to this remark should be. My friend Thers at Whiskey Fire suggested "Bite me." A professional cartoonist suggested, "If an actual joke had happened there would be laughter."
Right wing talk show hosts use the, "It's a comedy bit!" to try and excuse their especially nasty comments. But if you listen to the shows long enough you will hear what is clearly NOT comedy. And no amount of historical revisionism will make it so.
If that trick doesn't work they use the, "You have to hear the whole context" gambit. As if right before they said the horrific comment they said, "I would NEVER say something like THIS!" Other dodges used are, "It's old and out of date!" as if they aren't still using Howard Dean's scream.
Carla Marinucci's column the other day asks about Brian Sussman's comedy skit. That was what was offered up by Media Matters at the time and that was what the Council on American-Islamic Relations -a member of the Hate Hurts America Multifaith Community Coalition focused on.
They could have chosen lots of other comments to focus on, some of which I've posted in the past, others I've never posted. One reason they aren't all available is that KSFO's parent company had my blog shut down because I was using those and other clips to show the violent rhetoric coming out of the hosts of KSFO. The didn't really want the advertisers to hear what their hosts were saying on the advertiser's dime, (Ironic eh?) so they ginned up a bogus copyright violation to shut me down.
So any crying that you might hear from KSFO hosts about how people are trying to silence them is hilarious seeing as they ACTUALLY used the power of the legal system to shut ME down. Fortunately the fine folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (as well as hundreds of bloggers) had my back and helped me prove I wasn't violating their copyright. I found another hosting company, ctyme.com, and got back on the web.
My goal was to alert the advertisers about what they were paying for on KSFO so they could decide if they wanted to continue to associate their brand with KSFO "humor" and the violent rhetoric targeted at liberals, democrats, Muslims and journalists. By my count 27 advertisers agreed that the content of the show just wasn't something they wanted to keep sponsoring.
Many companies have internal guidelines about the standards their vendors need to meet. They simply looked at their own guidelines and said, "We can't give a waiver to this vendor who attacks people of one religion or belief."
So what were some of the comments that upset the advertisers? I have lots, but since the current discussion is about people of the Muslim faith I'll repost some of those here. Listen for yourself.
"Say Allah is a Whore"
Sussman may claim that the call where he asked a listener to "Say Allah is a Whore", was a comedy bit, but it wasn't. That is their all purpose dodge. Listen. Say Allah is a whore audio link
He didn't just say it once, he said it twice.
NOTE: Sussman did apologize for this comment, but only because he got caught on that one. I have many other quotes of his that show an ongoing rage toward Muslims. Go to the KSFO website where Sussman had two hours yesterday to have his say on this. That is where he says this was a comedy bit (ha!) and that he already apologized.
ABC Radio is now owned by Citadel Broadcasting. Michael Black is no longer the sales manager. It is now Deidra Lieberman. Citadel Broadcasting is majority owned by Disney.
In recent months the way the station gets around their violent comments and anti-Muslim bias by having anti-Muslim guests who will never challenge their views. People like the Jihad Watch guy.
Caller comment and Host agreement that Innocent Muslims should be Preemptively Killed
For example, here is a quote I didn't put up.
A caller suggests that they send 10 cruise missiles hitting all the mosques in Syria on Sunday. Sussman agrees and says that we should have done this. 12/07/2006 six o'clock hour
Sussman's gruesome math, estimating that 10 million Muslims need to be killed because they are probably extremists. (link)
They love to accuse me of not providing context (as if right after they make a horrific comment they said, "I totally retract what I just said!") Extra context almost always reveals even more support for their horrific comments.
8 minute clip where Sussman reveals his true feelings toward of Muslims. (link) March 13 2006 You may want to take a walk in the sunshine after listening to that.
Now you might say that the deeds actually happened and that they would upset anyone who cares about innocent life. I must remind you that Sussman chose to read attacks from Muslims. I would like to believe his hate and anger is because he feels terrible about the innocent life that was lost, but given his pro-torture views and his stated desire to torture people I don't buy it.
Here is a five minute clip of Sussman talking about how he would cut off body parts to get people to talk (link) That was from 2005.
And just to be clear that he hasn't changed, here he is just this January talking about how he would shoot a suspect in the knee to make him talk. (link) 1/07/2009 Maybe he thinks that 24 is a training film. As I've said in the past, Jack Bauer has writers, the show is fiction.
And just so you can get a flavor of what else goes on this show, listen to this clip from March 31, 2009, but a few days ago. Advertisers have to be honest in their ads, journalists run corrections. But there are no such limits to the talk radio hosts. They can ignore facts, or make up information.
Listen to him agreeing with a caller who talks about how children will get AIDs from skinning their knees on a sidewalk where a person with AIDs spit (or vomited or pooped).
That we can't show him one person who has died from pollution in the united states.
Oh, and there is no correlation between asthma and pollution in the United States.
(Audio Link, Guest claims you can get AIDS from spit on the sidewalk)
So what do you do when this kind of misinformation and violent rhetoric toward others goes out day after day on these shows? You can contact their management, but has supported them with, 'It's a joke!' or "It's just their opinion!" or "Don't pick on us!"
That is why I contacted the advertisers, to ask them if they want to continue to sponsor this misinformation and violent rhetoric. It's the old, "Let the market decide." that the right claims to believe in from the comfort of their media monopolies.
I might write more about this, but now I think I need to take a walk out in the sun myself.
4 Comments:
I didn't see a link...
CAIR has a new alert, but we'll see if their protest to mystery e-mails works:
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?mid1=763&&ArticleID=25843&&name=n&&currPage=1
They may actually believe it is a joke, but the truth is: Right Wingers have a crappy sense of humour. Most of them wouldn't know funny if it hit them in the knee.
It's not a joke; it's them being a**holes.
Just FYI, and being a pedant again: Theoretically, it's possible to contract HIV from saliva, but that doesn't mean it happens anything like often. Catching HIV from skinning your knee on a sidewalk would take such an extraordinarily dense set of cascading consequents that it hardly bears thinking about.
You'd have to skin your knee to the point where it drew blood, exactly on the spot where an HIV-infected person had spat saliva containing sufficient viral load to cause infection (not always a given; some people with HIV don't shed it in their saliva), prior to the time that the virus died (it doesn't survive indefinitely outside of the host), and then you'd have to contract the virus yourself (which is not always a given even post-exposure). That's a lot of lottery wins in a row.
1985 called; it wants its AIDS ignorance back.
One of the deals with being a scientist and being intellectually honest is that it requires people to say stuff like what Interrobang just did. But in the black and white world of RW soundbite radio, that just isn't allowed.
I remember in high school having a conversation about how you scientists didn't like to give 100 percent certainty statements and that lawyers would use that to cast doubt on them. And people who didn't understand would go, "OOOOOH he's not 100 percent certain!" (of course these are people who say stuff like they give 110 percent!)
I think it was the 1985 attitude about AIDs that pissed me off too. And the "I'm a nurse" line was annoying. Really, are you a nurse specializing in the transfer of aids virus from not sexual contact?
Arrrggghh.
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