Friday, November 13, 2009

Lou Dobbs out at CNN!

This was great news!

I was listening to Lee Rodgers last week screaming about how we should kick all Muslims out of the country. This is as bad or worse than the kind of comments that Dobbs would make. When Rodgers says stuff like that or says that we should massacre every one in Iraq he likes to make a comment right afterward. He usually makes an attack on CAIR. Something about them taking notes and how they will probably have some kind of email campaign to try and get him fired and how it never works. He of course doesn't bother to mention just how much his bigotry and violent rhetoric has cost the station. Does he ever wonder why he isn't allowed to read certain commercials anymore?

A year after Melanie Morgan was let go and she was back filling in for Officer Vic on a vacation. Rodgers made some comment about how long they had been on the air and how the liberals hadn't stopped the program. He was just oblivious to the fact that Morgan got canned because of the money that KSFO had lost. And he was partly responsible for the lost revenue along with Morgan, Sussman and Officer Vic. He probably believed the line that the new parent company was not singling her out but cutting all over because of a revenue drop company. I can read a financial statement even if he can't. I saw that Citadel mentioned the money they lost in San Francisco. There are only two stations in San Francisco owned by Citadel. KGO and KSFO. You don't call out a city for losing money if you are MAKING money in that city.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he was mentioning all the reasons that Rodgers will never be fired. It's not because he's good or gets high ratings (like KGO hosts) it's because he is not important enough or high profile enough to be fired. He is being ignored.

He is kept in place by KGO management because they don't want an "outsider" to compete with KGO. Also, since he won't go on TV like Morgan his profile is low. He won't be quoted in newspapers either, so his outrageous comments are marginalized into the radio ether. I was doing him a favor by exposing him but I didn't mind because I knew it was costing the station advertisers. There really is such a thing as bad PR.

It is fun to make Rodgers jump through hoops though. I have been able to make sure that he has stopped attacking the journalists at ABC radio. The big bad Lee Rodgers won't admit it, but you will note how after I wrote the people at ABC radio and noted to them how he is calling all their journalists liars and buttkissers he has stopped calling them out by name. So much for his comments that nobody can tell him what to say and what not to say on his radio program. He just as to admit that the liberals and the journalists that he hates so much actual DO have power over him. It must really eat at him that a "crackpot with a keyboard" has any influence over him.

I supposed if we wanted to we could get him fired, but he's really not worth it. I'd rather show more and more advertisers just how bad he is for there brand. Loss of revenue is really what matters to corporations. Or I might just ignore him. He will hide out in Arizona screaming about the quality of his phone lines and the incompetent engineers at KSFO.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Max Keiser Sees Goldman Sachs As The Real Crooks



Looking for Villains? Max Keiser has got a big one for you.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

What's News Corp's ROI When Someone is Shot at a Tea Party?

I know you have your own questions for News Corp's earnings call today, but could you do me a favor and ask a few of the following question during the Q&A session?

What steps has Fox News taken to recoup the revenue lost from 80 advertisers leaving the Glenn Beck show? (link to list of lost advertisers)
If the Beck show has high ratings but low revenue how long does the network plan to keep losing money on the show? Is there a path to profitability?

If the "high ratings" of the show is supposed to result in greater revenue for other parts of the company, is there any documented figures to make this connection? Third party audited figures? (The myth of Fox News ratings bump)

Which departmental budgets are subsidizing the Glenn Beck salaries and production costs?

If internal Fox budgets are not subsidizing the Glenn Beck show, is the funding coming from Chairman Murdock?

If Fox News is not subsidizing the Glenn Beck show and Chairman Murdock is not personally funding it, then funding is coming out of a News Corp budget. What form does the company expect the return on investment to take? Better relationships with the current government? A better Federal regulatory environment?

The Wall Street Journal is still an advertiser on the Glenn Beck show, does this mean that the marketing budgets for News Corp in-house properties have been told to subsidize the Beck show by News Corp management?

What steps has Fox parent News Corporation taken to protect their assets in the event of a shooting at a Fox sponsored tea party event?

Last week a jury ruled that Entercom Communications Corp (ETM:NYSE) subsidiary has to pay 16.6 million to the family of a Sacramento woman who died in a radio station water-drinking contest.. (Link) Although she signed a waiver and the station claimed they were not responsible for her actions, the jury still ruled that the subsidiary was negligent in the wrongful death case.

News Corp subsidiary Fox News has been actively organizing and promoting "Tea parties". Angry Fox viewers have brought weapons to these events to intimidated the President and other politicians. If someone is shot Fox will of course claim that they are not responsible for the actions of individual just like Entercom did. But as we have now seen in the Entercom case that defense does not hold up in court. especially when the station is the driving force for getting people to participate.

It appears that Fox is not only ignoring the danger signs, it is actively calling for action that they have no way of controlling in an effort to boost ratings.

What steps have you taken to protect your assets in the event of a shooting at a Fox sponsored tea party event? Have Fox News competitors taken steps to protect themselves from shooting deaths at tea parties that they organize and support?
Has Fox taken out more insurance? Has News Corp? Can you name the insurers? Have the insurers taken into account the Entercom ruling yet for your premiums?

Thanks,
LLAP
Spocko

P.S. See Spocko v. talk radio hosts in the New York Times for a bit about me