Fox Radio Host calls Oprah a Nazi racist for her Obama support

Some high-level discourse from the right wing "marketplace of ideas" in advertiser-supported broadcast talk radio.



On September 14, 2007 at about 3:22 pm Bryan Suits, talk host from Fox radio station KVI* in Seattle said that Oprah is a racist for supporting Obama. He also calls Oprah a Nazi.

Bryan Suits, KVI, Seattle:

"Does the fact that only Barak Obama is so er well that the only presidential candidate that will appear on Oprah's show, does that make her a Nazi racist? Is it mutually exclusive that a black woman can be a also a Nazi? I don't think so. I frankly think she is a Nazi."

(short Audio clip MP3) (Short Audio clip WMA)

I think she has a right to do what she is going to do, I think it makes her a racist though. And I'm not goin' use any kind of coded language or whatever. Anyone can be a racist, we all understand that right? Anyone can be prejudiced and I think she's prejudiced. I I don't think that Barak Obama is anything except a guy who's capable of of well-delivered high sounding rhetoric, but when one asks him for specifics eh his depth suddenly shows itself.

So, the fact that Oprah not only, and I don't have, I throughly understand why a racist would support someone of their own race. I get that, but the fact that she's excluding other candidates first of all-- as someone with a talk show I'll tell you yeah it's her right but it means something, it is revealing something, it's revealing that you are close minded. So if somebody can take her side, and like I say, I know that none of you watch Oprah, certainly no men do, but your friends do, so if you can explain to me why your friends don't think that she's a racist Nazi fraud, I'm curious, but like I say, it is her right.

(short audio clip MP3) (short audio clip WMA)

Here is the seven minute full clip in two formats.
(Audio link WMA) ( Audio link MP3)

I don't usually focus on name calling on right-wing talk radio, if I did it would be like counting tribbles after a quadrotriticale feast. But I stumbled upon this guy while discussing right-wing talk radio in other parts of the country.

The usual hosts I track, Lee Rodgers, Melanie Morgan, Brian Sussman at Tom Benner "Officer Vic" at KSFO are busy calling for the death of Ron Paul supporters and mocking McCain's POW
status or joking about rape right before interviewing the Raider coach.


Ad Hominem Attacks

When I first heard someone describing this kind of name calling as ad hominem attacks I asked, 'What does Jackie Gleason saying 'Hummana, Hummana, Hummana' have to do with name calling?" Then they looked down their "I took Latin and you didn't" nose at me and explained that ad hominem can mean attacking an opponent's character rather than their argument.

Any time I hear someone on right-wing radio bemoaning the lack of decorum and crying about name calling on the left I just have to wonder, "Don't they have ears?" Two seconds after being OUTRAGED at the left for name calling and disrespect they will summon the worst possible slurs they can get away with, as well as a ton of garden variety ones.

But some words are different. There was a time in this country when calling someone a Communist could destroy their career. Yet it is casually tossed at people on the left today. There are words that can do the same today, they are different ones, but there are still words that can be used or abused.

I don't want totally to address name calling at public figures, because the rules are different for them. But I do wonder about name calling of non-public figures. Who is a public figure these days? Everyone? Everyone with a blog?


What name calling is okay and what crosses the line?

I recently had a great discussion with some women about how really damaging name calling can be to people. I thought about that and wondered who leads the way? Who "normalizes" name calling, who ratchets it up to new levels of viciousness?

Frank Luntz and Newt Gingrich understood the power of name calling. They focus group tested names to use as weapons against political parties and groups of people. There is a reason that they told everyone on the right to call it the Democrat party and it wasn't to save time talking. ("It rhymes with rat! Get it? DemocRAT? HA! I crack myself up Newt.")

Intelligent people can even admire the linguistic creative powers of someone like Rush Limbaugh, and still be disgusted at how he has applied his powers.

Interesting note: Rush credits Tom Hazlett, a Professor of Law & Economics at George Mason University with coining the term Femi-Nazi. I just looked at his CV. No mention of that creation, I'll bet his students and telecom clients would WANT to know what he is REALLY famous for rather than some dusty policy papers. Can you image? "Hi Ms. VP of marketing I was the one who told Rush to call you a Femi-Nazi, now get me a cup of coffee and let me tell you how to run your telecom business. And get me my 50K fee check while you are at it!"

What about calling someone else a liar? There was a time when people actually cared about their reputation enough to say, "No I am not a liar. Take back what you said." But it is hurled at ordinary people and journalists by talk radio hosts with nary a thought.

I think that for people who want to be known for their honesty in dealing with people calling them a liar can be pretty damaging. Sometimes people's reputations mean something, and even famous people like Oprah might be hurt when someone crosses the name calling line.

I don't expect Oprah's people to do anything about this. I don't expect Obama's people do to anything about this either. They will see this as an attempt to get ratings and won't engage. But who should care? Everyone who associates with the name caller. This is your guy. You OWN him. He works for you. Every commercial he reads, every advertiser who wants to be on the Bryan Suits' show should know, "I'm supporting the guy who called Oprah a racist Nazi." They may be fine with that, I don't know their demographics or their stated value systems. It's their choice, but they should know.

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but please... don't throw sticks and stones.
-Old joke, author forgotten.

People always have and always will call others names. It's a way to belittle others and "put them in their place." I'm not a total pearl clutcher, I've even indulged in some name calling myself at times, I try to be aware of the line, but I'm only (half) human.


*Note: KVI is a Fox station owned by Fisher Communications, which also owns several CBS TV stations and one ABC TV station in Seattle. They have stations in WA, OR, MT and ID.

Attn: Ron Paul Supporters. Lee Rodgers Wants you Dead!

Allow me to reach across the ideology aisle for a moment. For a long time I've been monitoring the violent rhetoric that comes out of KSFO Radio, 560 AM.

So it's really no surprise that on September 6th at 5:27 am ABC Radio employee Lee Rodgers yet again talked about killing people on the advertiser- supported broadcast airwaves. I guess the only twist this time was in addition to his desire to see liberals, journalists and Muslims dead, he now wants to see conservative listeners dead. Welcome to the club Ron Paul's people.


Background And Transcript
Melanie Morgan, Lee Rodgers and "Officer Vic" (who is neither an officer nor named Vic) were talking about a recent Republican debate and how they thought that none of the candidates have a chance of getting the nomination. Rodgers mentions Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee and John McCain as people he didn't think had a chance at winning.

Rodgers: You are using up all this time on people who ain't goin' nowhere.

Morgan: Yeah. They need to thin the herd

Rodgers: Yep. Time to cull the herd

Morgan: Especially get rid of that Ron Paul. Gosh he irritates me.

Rodgers: Oh, he's a moron.

Morgan: And his people, don't email me. If you do I'll just delete you. I'll hit delete, delete, delete.

Rodgers: Oh come on, go with the real threat, "We'll trace you back, run you down and kill you like a mad dog. Go ahead say it Mel, that's what you really want to say."

"Officer Vic": Oh dear, oh dear

(WMA audio link) (audio link MP3)

What Can You Do?
So Ron Paul supporters, what will you do? You can't write Morgan, she will delete your emails. Rodgers wants to trace you and "kill you like a mad dog". Morgan's husband, Tom Swanson, is the operations manager, so no help there. Rodgers has stated on numerous occasions that ABC Radio/Disney and now his new employer, Citadel Broadcasting, support him. (Audio link)


Do you think you could get him to apologize? Actually, it might work for you. Why? Because you are conseratives and the supposed target audience. I'd like to think that they would listen to you.

You could really show your power if you could wrangle an apology out of Rodgers or get management to give one of those "we regret it was broadcast" bogus apologies for him like when he defamed George Soros. (link) (Wow, talk about powerful! Even Imus did his own apologies.)

Of course if he was forced to apologize for this, then by Rodgers' definition that would mean that Citadel Broadcasting management are "little frightened wussies" who apparently speak with a lisp too. (Audio link short) (Audio link longer) You see, in Rodger's world, radio management who ask hosts to stop insulting listeners or call for their death are "gutless weasels" (audio link)

Of course Rodgers didn't apologize for his other violent comments such as the suggestion that they torture a common criminal and then "blow his bleeping brains out". (audio link)

Sounds like a bit of a double standard to me. It must be because it's okay to talk about killing a black man, liberals, Muslims and journalists but not Ron Paul's people. (Oh and by the way, that man that Rodgers suggested be tortured and killed was black, Rodgers' claim that he didn't know he was black at the time of the comment might be valid, but the claim that he STILL didn't know he was black months later when he refused to apologize, strains credulity.)


Who Might Care: Advertisers and Your Boss
Now you could write a few advertisers to let them know what they are paying for while they are trying to reach YOU, KSFO's self-selected conservative audience. You could also suggest to Ron Paul that KSFO wouldn't be a good place to place ads, why should your candidate pay the salary of the hosts that hate you, think your guy is a moron and want you dead? And they aren't just down on Ron Paul, they have trashed every single Republican presidential candidate with the exception of Tom Tancrado, Duncan Hunter, or Fred Thompson.

My suggestions:

• Ask advertisers if they are aware they are paying for this kind of talk
• If they were an advertiser who went away then came back, like AT&T, see if they were promised this kind of violent rhetoric from KSFO hosts would stop.
  

  Maybe the advertisers believed the sales reps who said that the hosts wouldn't talk like that any more. (Surprise Mercedes, Lexus, Chevrolet, Kaiser and AT&T! Someone didn't keep their word that Rodgers would stop talking about killing people on the air! Maybe you should have gotten that promise in writing.)
  

  
  
• Ask them if these type of comments are reflective of their own values.

If they say, "Well the hosts are just trying to piss off liberals and if you don't like it to change the station." Please let them know that you aren't liberals, this is your conservative station and that you don't think it is funny or a wise business move to advertise on a station that wants to kill their listeners.

Here are a few specific advertisers who Rodgers is the voice of on KSFO.
AT&T (audio link) from 8/30/07
Lexus (audio link) from 8/30/07
Select Comfort (audio link) from 8/30/07


Good luck!

UPDATE: 9/21/07 4:30 pm
Greetings Ron Paul supporters!
It appears that several people have picked up this post about KSFO.

I will politely suggest (as I've stated above) that you do NOT engage with the hosts at KSFO. Do not call them, do not email them. I also want to STRONGLY condemn any kind of threats of violence toward anyone connected with this station. I've said the same to my liberal friends and I'll say the same to you.

I personally am not a fan of profanity, however since you are not part of an advertiser-supported broadcast radio station which has a 7-second delay (and the threat of $350,000 fines over your head), your situation is different. Some may choose to use strong language, that is your choice.

However, no matter how well reasoned, polite, thoughtful (even logical) your comments may be, they are not really interested in hearing from you. I will say the same for management.

ABC Radio management is very much aware of everything these hosts say. In the past management has attacked people who contacted advertisers to alert them to this kind of talk. ABC/Radio Disney had my blog shut down in January of this year simply to prevent advertisers from hearing what they are paying for when advertising on this station.

If any of you college students want to read about ABC Radio/Disney's actions curtailing speech, please note, it was ABC Radio/Disney management who had my blog shut down and my speech silenced using a bogus copyright claim. (link to Electronic Frontier Foundation)

The hosts on KSFO have a history of violent rhetoric. ABC Radio management profits from it so they turn a deaf ear to the violent comments directed at multiple groups of people and individuals. Ron Paul supporters are simply the latest group to be attacked. Make no mistake, people at the highest levels at ABC Radio, Disney and now Citadel Broadcasting know of these comments. They have done nothing, they will do nothing.

That is why in the past I took this information to the advertisers and asked them, "Do these kind of comments reflect your values as an advertiser? Listen for yourself, if not, perhaps this is not the show for you." I did not suggest anyone boycott the advertisers, most advertisers had no way of knowing that they were paying to be associated with these kind of violent, cruel and crude comments. Many advertisers agreed. A large number pulled their ads. This is the marketplace at work.

Note: Some advertisers who never "officially" stopped advertising, but did curtail their purchase on other grounds, have returned. Others who replaced the advertisers who left may have been given assurances that either the hosts have apologized (which Rodgers clearly did not), that they will not talk like that in the future, or that the offending host will no longer read their commercials. As you can hear, none of those assurances appear to have been met.

To aid those who want to politely contact advertisers:
AT&T
Wendy Clark, VP-advertising, AT&T wendy . clark @ att . com

AT&T's dodge in the past to avoid association with Rodgers was to give the commercial reading duties to Melanie Morgan, maybe it was after Morgan threatened to cancel her AT&T business they came back (audio link).

You may want to contact Eric Hausken in AT&T Corporate Citizenship
ehausken @ attnews . us

LEXUS
Deborah Wahl Meyer, Vice President Marketing, Lexus Division

It's the local dealers who buy into the advertising on KSFO. They might be interested when they find out that it's not just liberals KSFO hosts attack, but their own conservative audience.

Select Comfort (Email form)

Sleep Train, Dale Carlsen, (retail sales of Select Comfort beds and a KSFO advertiser (dale @ sleeptrain.com) (Audio of Morgan saying they couldn't torture her into giving up her bed. Nice brand loyalty I suppose, but the mental image of the product being associated with torture isn't really appealing to me.)

Kaiser
Arthur Southam, Senior vice president, Product and Market Management
Debbie Cantu is responsible for this area. debbie . cantu @ kp . org

Kaiser is another advertiser who no doubt was given assurances that their "Thrive" campaign would not be run while violent controversial remarks were made. Maybe they need to review their relationship with KSFO, maybe even with the larger organization if this is how ABC Radio disrespects their wishes.)

You can listen to their podcast to see which other companies are advertisers.

I will write more later, right now it is fascinating to note the process that goes on when the radio hosts have their own words reflected back to them. Today at about 15 minutes into the program the name calling starts, the denial that Rodgers even SAID the words he said. He calls everyone liars for accurately repeating what he said.

First he believes that sincere Ron Paul supporters are misguided.
But the rest of you are:
"psychotic lunatics who are pathologic liars"
Then he says that nobody from other parts of the country would listen to this program.
Of course this contradicts his bragging on 8/31/07 at 5:25 am that people listen on the internet and he hears from people "all over the place". (audio link) I would send you to their podcast of that comment but alas, down the memory hole.

Now what is interesting is how he calls his own comments about Ron Paul supporters, "flat out lies" and says that another comment about him joking about lighting a dog on fire a rumor. Well if it is a rumor, he started it since he said it. (audio link long Officer Vic's memory needs to be jogged since he was the one who made yelping sounds of the burning dog after Lee Rodgers joked about setting its "ass on fire") And you will note that although I'm sure he loves HIS dog, it is Morgan's dog he is joking about burning.

KSFO Hosts Recommend Accused Criminals be Hog-Tied and Set on Fire

As sick and unfunny as that was, Rodgers and Morgan weren't joking back on October 27 of last year when they talked about an accused arsonist. They seriously talked about this,

Rodgers: I say they catch the person, tie 'em to a post and burn 'em. Set 'em on fire,
"Officer Vic.": Yeah.
Rodger: let 'em know what it feels like.
Morgan: Hog-tie 'em first, that would be good.
Rodgers: Yeah, yeah.
Morgan: Campaign finance reports...
Rogers: I'm a compassionate conservative.
Morgan: So am I, so I agree with you. (audio link)

If you wonder why I bring up this old clip, I include it because Rodgers and Morgan never apologized for that either, so one could conclude that management approved of that comment. There was a chance to denounce it on January 12, 2007 during their special broadcast, but they didn't, I will note that apparently the Disney lawyers were in the room and management was listening that day, so if ever there was a time to distance themselves from these comments, that was the time. But they didn't.

I also bring this up because in a sick coincidence in San Francisco on Jan. 12, 2007 "... two women allegedly kidnapped [Jill] May off the street, took her to Candlestick Point, doused her with gasoline and burned her alive -- a slaying that made national news for its utter depravity. " (SF Chronicle Link, Link)

I'm not saying that Morgan and Rodgers' suggestion that people accused of a crime be hog-tied and set on fire had anything to do with the burning of Jill May alive, but when you listen to how casually they talk about and all agree on burning someone alive, you have to wonder how many advertisers would want to have their name associated with these people and this station.
I also like to point out that there is a REASON that responsible broadcasters still say allegedly, some have learned from the Richard Jewell case.

But Mercedes Benz is a sponsor of KSFO. Could you imagine this being printed in a paper? "KSFO hosts recommend accused criminals be hog-tied and set on fire, this comment brought to you by KSFO advertiser, Mercedes Benz." This kind of association passes on the radio because people can't see the connection, even though they can hear it. Yet the hearing connection is just as powerful as the seeing connection.

Finally, for those of you writing advertisers, use your own words and remember, suggesting someone stop sponsoring this kind of talk is very different than telling someone to stop saying what they are saying.

(9-27-2007 5:52 pm Edited typo and extended quote on burning alive alledged arsonist.)

NFL radio station hosts joke about rape, tell Saints fans displaced by Katrina to stop whining and shut the hell up

Roger Goodell
NFL Commissioner

Dear Commissioner Goodell:

I know you have your hands full with the bad behavior of NFL players and coaches, so you probably didn't hear what the radio hosts from KSFO, the flagship radio station for the NFL Oakland Raiders, had to say about New Orleans Saints' fans displaced by Katrina flooding.

On the anniversary of 1,577 dead in Louisiana and tens of thousands displaced, Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan said this about New Orleans and the Saints' fans:

Rodgers: "I don’t wanna hear anymore of this crap from people in Louisiana saying.'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.' Shut the hell up. Solve your own problems. It’s been two years, grow up." (audio link WMA) (audio link MP3) (Windows Media Audio files. Mac users try Flip4Mac download plug in here)

Rodgers: New Orleans is "a sewer"
Morgan: Money going into New Orleans is going down "a rathole." (20 sec audio link WMA) (Audio link MP3)

Rodgers: "Maybe those people down there ought to stop their sniveling and whining...".
(20 sec audio link) (120 sec link for context) (20 sec audio MP3) (120 sec audio MP3)
(Transcript here or KSFO’s own podcasts from Aug. 29-30, Sept. 5-7 2007)

Why should the NFL commissioner care about the on-air comments of the hosts of the official radio station of the Raiders? Because they are tainting your brand with their horrific, cruel and crude comments. They are insulting the fans of another franchise and, to quote from the Fan Code of Conduct from another NFL franchisee, "Harassment of visiting team fans will be considered unruly behavior and grounds for ejection." Why should the hosts of the Raider flagship station be held to a LOWER standard than a fan attending an NFL football game?

Raiders' head coach Lane Kiffin appears every Monday and Friday at 7:45 AM on KSFO's morning program. In the lead up to Kiffin's Friday September 7th, 2007 interview, hosts Brian Sussman, Tom Benner ("Officer Vic") and Melanie Morgan joke about rape in prison right before Coach Kiffin's interview. This is what the coach and Raiders fans were subjected to when they tuned in to hear about a football game.

(Audio wma from 5 minutes before Kiffin interview. Audio MP3)

Sussman: Officer Vic and I just about lost our lunch when I mentioned, "What do you expect, one of these prisoners to snap on a condom in the shower just before he ramrods some weakling?"
Benner: (Officer Vic): (Laughter)
Morgan: Oh for gosh sakes.
Sussman: I'm serious you know, this is a jail! It's not a frat house!

(Audio WMA from 1 minute before Kiffin interview Audio MP3)

Benner: Would those be ribbed condoms for added pleasure?
Morgan: Stop it. Stop it. No. No No.. Zip it.
Benner: the basic kind? ..
Sussman: Let's get the coach on the line,
Benner: or with reservoir tips
Sussman: it's Hot Talk 560 KSFO

As you know, Commissioner, based on your own radio interview experiences, Coach Kiffin was almost certainly on the phone listening to the show prior to his interview. Is that the kind of lead in that you would want before an interview? Would you want your daughters listening to this while waiting for daddy's interview? Did the hosts hope Kiffin would join them in joking about prison rape? Sadly, this is not the first time that KSFO radio hosts have gone beyond the bounds of simple human decency, nor is it even the most egregious.

Lee Rodgers called for the torture and execution of a common criminal on broadcast radio -- but when 28 advertisers pulled their business due to comments like this, KSFO/ ABC Radio and Disney management shut up their critics and didn't demand that Rodgers apologize. (link) In fact, Rodgers brags about never having to apologize: he boasts that management strongly stands behind his comments and considers anyone who disagrees with him terrorists. (audio link WMA)
(Audio link MP3)

Please consider what that tells you about the values held by ABC Radio management, what they consider acceptable on-air broadcast behavior -- and what it means to the NFL for the Raiders to be affiliated with this station.

Melanie Morgan has called for journalists be hanged and electrocuted, and that people simply suspected of criminal behavior be hogtied and burned alive.(audio link wma link MP3) (With the recent passing of Richard Jewell --who was falsely accused of a bombing before all the facts were in-- I am reminded why responsible broadcasters don't incite the violent death of anyone suspected of criminal behavior.)

Recently you demonstrated that your organization will not condone abhorrent behavior in its players. There are some things fans will not tolerate. If your fans who are animal lovers need further proof of the depths that KSFO hosts will sink to, here is an audio clip of Lee Rodgers joking about lighting a dog on fire (audio link wma) (audio link MP3) I believe even Michael Vick wouldn't joke about lighting a dog on fire.

Of course KSFO wouldn't pass on any listener complaints to you. Morgan is married to the KSFO operations manager and if you disagree with Rodgers he suggests, "We'll trace you back, run you down and kill you like a mad dog." (audio link) (audio link MP3)

• I would like you to condemn these comments and ask Rodgers and Morgan to apologize to the fans, friends and families of the New Orleans Saints.

Coach Kiffin can speak for himself, but he might also seek an apology from Sussman and Benner and request that they refrain from joking about rape and other disgusting talk before his interviews on the Raiders' flagship station

• If all the hosts and management do not apologize on air and in writing, I would ask you to consider revoking their status as an official NFL flagship station.

Other radio stations take action when a host's comments cross into foul territory. Other stations don't tolerate this kind of talk. When a corporate partner doesn't respect you and your brand, maybe it's time for that partnership to be dissolved.

Of course ABC Radio, and their new parent Citadel Broadcasting, will say that it's just a numbers game and that all you care about is if they deliver the audience. Given your experience at NFL Ventures, you might want to verify the numbers and demographics they really deliver. KSFO's hosts constantly attack liberals, immigrants, non-Christians and the victims of natural disasters. Considering the diversity of the Bay Area, it's reasonable to believe that many Raiders fans fall into one or more of those groups being attacked. Is insulting the majority of your potential audience members a good way to attract listeners to your franchise? Rodgers even tells everyone who doesn't like his comments to not listen to the station.

I believe the head of your legal team, Anastasia Danias, spends a tremendous amount of time ensuring that companies don't state or imply an association with your brand unless you approve. Does an ongoing licensee with the NFL come with any responsibilities on the part of broadcasters? Or can they assume that once locked in, there is nothing they can ever say or do that would jeopardize their license with the NFL?

Finally, I know the temptation when reading these comments is to simply dismiss Rodgers and Morgan as ridiculous talk radio hosts whose views couldn't possibly represent the NFL let alone the Raiders. The station management may say I am complaining because I don't like the politics of the hosts and that they have no control over their "free speech". First, I will point out that these comments are NOT about politics but are repugnant comments directed toward fans, family and friends who lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina's flooding. Second, asking for an apology is not limiting the hosts' commercially-sponsored speech, but simply asking people working at the official station of a NFL team to maintain a level of human decency in their broadcasts in order to maintain the privilege of an NFL broadcast license.

My good friends in New Orleans and Louisiana tell me they feel the rest of the country have forgotten them, but some of us haven't. I challenge these disgusting comments and misinformation from the official radio station of the Raiders and I hope you will too.

Thank you very much for spending your valuable time investigating this issue and I look forward to hearing your response.

Sincerely,

P.S. Considering the Raiders #1 draft pick, JaMarcus Russell, played for Louisiana State University and hosted friends and family following Katrina, he might want to educate Rodgers on post Katrina problems.

cc
Anastasia Danias, Assistant General Counsel, National Football League Properties LLC

National Football League
Greg Aiello, Vice President of Public Relations
Peter Murray, Senior Vice President of Partnership Marketing and Sales
Jaime Weston, Director Brand Management & Integration Marketing & Sales
Beth Colleton, Director of Community Affairs

New Orleans Saints
Tom Benson, Owner Via Fax
Mickey Loomis, Executive Vice President/General Manager
Greg Bensel, Vice President of Communications
Ben Hales, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

Oakland Raiders
Amy Trask, CEO
Chris Gargano, Raiders Director of Broadcasting
Mike Taylor, Director of Public Relations

ABC Radio Networks
James M. Robinson, President, ABC Radio Networks -- Phone (212) 887-1670

Entercom Radio Network
Ken Beck, VP, General Manager of Entercom New Orleans
Kenny Wilkerson, WWL, flagship radio station of the Saints
Bobby Hebert, WWL

KRON, Channel 4 San Francisco
Gary Radnich

LSU
Charles Baglio, Director of External Football Relations

Oakland Assemblymember Sandré Swanson

UPDATE: If you are having problems with the WMA audio files try the Mac plugin called Flip4Mac download from Microsoft here. Mac people I trust recommend it. I also have the same clips in MP3 format.

Katrina refugees are sniveling whiners and freeloaders says SF Radio Host for ABC Radio Station KSFO

Michael Marsh
Anchor, 5, 6 & 10 p.m.
WBRZ
mmarsh@wbrz.com

Dear Michael:

Last week while the rest of the country was wondering how the refugees from the Katrina flood were doing, Lee Rodgers of San Francisco radio station KSFO called them sniveling whiners and freeloaders and told them to shut the hell up and "Get off your butt and go to work." (audio link)

Rodgers: This two year pity party has gone on long enough and then some.

Rodgers: But two years later for god's sake people, solve your own bleeping problems, we're sick of hearing about you. And eh, and if you are sick and tired of the whining of the people in or from New Orleans about the government not doing enough for them and doing the rebuilding job for them. Maybe those people down there ought to stop their sniveling and whining and watch an example of self reliance right there in their own community. ( audio link)

Rodgers: I don't wanna hear anymore of this crap from people in Louisiana saying "Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee. Shut the hell up. Solve your own problems. It's been two years, grow up. (audio link)

Melanie Morgan, the co-host, called New Orleans "a rathole " (excluding the French Quarter). Lee Rodgers call New Orleans a sewer.

Rodgers asks, "Is one hurricane supposed to be a permanent life long ticket on a bleeping gravy train? Come on!" (audio link)

Rodgers suggests that the displaced people, "Get the hell over it!"

Morgan also alleged that, "...kids in the schools became the worst bullies and offenders and disrupted many of the fine Houston schools." I'm not really sure what evidence she has, but I doubt she has facts to back up her claims.

If you want any more information, see the complete transcripts and longer audio links below. Note: KSFO, 560 AM is an ABC Radio station and is owned by Citadel Broadcasting.

LLAP,

Spocko

P.S. Michael, I see you spent some time at KPIX in SF, they did a story about some of the other horrible things KSFO hosts say and the lengths they went to to shut up their critics.


cc Tony Jones
Whitney Vann

Complete KSFO Audio Links and Transcripts

I've provided links to the audio clips below for your convenience. I've also transcribed their comments. To verify that what I'm including is not out of context or manipulated in any way, I suggest that you listen to the audio podcasts that KSFO puts up on their own website. I've listed when the audio clips starts in real time as well as when the audio clips start on the KSFO podcast (The KSFO podcast doesn't include the first ABC Radio news broadcast).

NOTE:Melanie Morgan's 501 c. 3 group, Move America Forward, is embarking on a nationwide tour this week "fighting back against the anti-war left" and her concern that money is going down a "rathole" of New Orleans is rather ironic considering that she supports the money going into the war in Iraq and into a country that is NOT populated by US citizens.

---------------------------------xxx--------------------------

What do ABC Radio host Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan think of "those people" in New Orleans and people who had to leave during the two year anniversary of this massive tragedy? These are transcripts and audio from 8/29/2007 and 8/30/2007.

Rodgers: Save New Orleans? For what? The French Quarter..

Morgan: For another hurricane.

Rodgers: Now they got the French Quarter up and running again. Okay fine. It's a theme park, but that's what it's been for years anyway.
The rest of it's a sewer.

Morgan: Well the French Quarter wasn't even that badly hit. I mean..

Rodgers: No because it's on higher ground.

Morgan: Exactly so there wasn't much of a problem there to begin with. But they are trying to fix the unfixable in the rest of the city and in the mean time every politician in the country is pandering, spending billions of dollars and putting it in what? A rathole.

Rodgers: These transplanted New Orleans. [in whining voice] "Oh it's my home I gotta go back" No you don't. People have moved all over the world through out human history. You can do it too. Get off your butt and go to work.

Morgan:[laughing]

From KSFO on 8/29/07, broadcast time 7:44 am: (Audio link, MP3, 49 seconds )

( Longer audio link, MP3 1:50 seconds)

Location of clip in KSFO podcast # 2117503 on August 29, 2007 is at the 2 hours 40 minutes. http://www.ksfo560.com//sectional.asp?id=17750

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Rodgers and Morgan 8/29/07 05:15 am ( Link MP3 9 minutes )

http://www.ksfo560.com//sectional.asp?id=17750

Rodgers: "Did you know that parts of New Orleans where some these silly people are trying to rebuild houses are 14 feet below sea level and sinking by another inch every year ? And nothing has been done really that would prevent another Katrina. Nothing. Now where in god's name is the logic about trying to rebuild a city in a location like that?"

{Snip. he blames the French and says keep the French Quarter as a Theme park'}

"I for one, I'm all in favor of helping needy people, but at what point do you say, 'Hey it's time that you people got off your asses went to work and earned your own way"? Two years later, Dallas Morning New, some of the refugees from New Orleans were settled in Dallas and the community had an outpouring of generosity and they were giving them all kinds of freebies housing, so on and do forth.

Morgan: Yeah

Rodger: Two years later, the people have been freeloading for two years are whining because the gravy train is slowing down. ( Link)

Morgan: Oh. No! That's terrible.

Rodger: It says, I'm looking here at the Dallas Morning News, say "Hurricane Katrina relief, once an outpouring of support for evacuees displaced in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has slowed to a trickle on the second anniversary of the storm official figures are available, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 evacuee households, [people from New Orleans and vicinity-this fragment was inserted by Rodgers and is not in the linked story text] still call North Texas home, [according to advocacy groups- he left out this phrase]. And countless evacuees still need help paying for basic necessities such as rent and utilities."

Ah at what point after a disaster and personal hardship are people expected to start taking care of themselves again? Is one hurricane supposed to be a permanent life long ticket on a bleeping gravy train? Come on! (link)

[Morgan then proceeds to tell about during her experience the Ruskin Heights Tornado in 1957 her family recovered and not one of us received a dime from FEMA or any other Federal agency (Note FEMA wasn't created until 1979 by Jimmy Carter) She of course doesn't count the National Guard that came in to help as a Federal Agency. Of course the Menorah Hospital , doesn't count either even though they cared for her (they reattached her toes) and her bother and mother.]

Morgan: People took care of each other and this kind of sentiment you don't hear expressed about the Katrina victims, what you do hear about are those people is those people who were transported to Dallas and brought with them all kinds of crime and just awful, awful behavior.

Rodgers: And Houston even worse

Morgan: In fact many of those kids in the schools became the worst bullies and offenders and disrupted many of the fine Houston schools.

Rodger: Well they brought the habits of the New Orleans public schools with them and those were widely and reliably reputed to be some of the worst schools in the country.

The President is going to be down there today and there's going to be endless babbling by him and other politicians, about "Oh we gotta rebuild New Orleans" Where is it written that we have to rebuild New Orleans so the whole damn thing can happen all over again?
Morgan: (crosstalk)

Rodgers: That's just plain simple minded stupidity

Morgan: I agree

Rodgers: And of course now it's come out. Big surprise, Louisiana er um which is a moral sewer in terms of political responsibility, one of the most corrupt states and New Orleans is one of the most corrupt cities in the country and big surprise yesterday or day before it was in the news that millions perhaps billions of dollars of aid that's gone down there has never reached the intended....

Morgan: Victims

Rodgers: recipients, the victims of Hurricane Katrina. No. No. No. Some how it got siphoned off by crooked contractors and crooked politicians you know the kind who go around bribe money in home freezers and stuff like that.

Get the hell over it! Rebuild New Orleans? Why? Why? Alright, it was a lovely charming old city it's gone and I don't care how much money they stuff into the pockets of crooked contractors down there, it ain't ever coming back. Never. Never. Never. 14 feet below sea level! For god's sakes think about that for a moment. ( Audio Link)

Another Katrina. It's isn't if, it's just when. And then you do it all over again. That's why I resent the government subsidizing flood plan insurance. People get flooded out, the government gives them a check to go back and build another house in the exact location to get flooded out again. The next time the Mississippi or the Missouri river is up or a Hurricane comes ashore what are we doing? This is insanity! Thank you.

Morgan: You are welcome very much, and truer words were never spoken.

Rodgers and Morgan 8/29/07 05:15 am ( Link MP3 9 minutes )

http://www.ksfo560.com//sectional.asp?id=17750

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FROM 8/30/07 6:40 AM

Rodgers: Yesterday we have the orgy of media coverage of course that's spilling over into today about the second anniversary of Katrina. The elected leaders of in Louisiana and New Orleans and let's never forget they were elected.

Morgan: Mm hmm.

Rodgers: The people down their picked them, the elected leaders two years after hurricane Katrina. Still they can't seem to do much of anything beyond whine and beg. "Somebody come fix our problem." ABC's Steve Ocinsamie is down there in New Orleans as part of the coverage of the anniversary and talks about what NOLA, New Orleans Louisiana is like today today.

AUDIO from ABC News

"Two years after Katrina and much of this city still looks like it did the day the city was flooded. While many people have come back it just doesn't have the life that New Orleans have that we all remember. It seems that people are more distrustful of government people don't trust anything that they hear. There is very little faith in the levees, which supposedly have been mostly rebuilt but only to category 3 protection. That doesn't sit well with many residences.

Rodgers:: Then do this people, Get OUT!

Morgan: Yeah.

Rodgers: Move somewhere else. Hundreds of millions, billions of human beings before you have done exactly that. Conditions aren't good here, let's go somewhere else, why do you think you have to live in a bleeping swamp?

This two year pity party has gone on long enough and then some. And this may also help explain why so many people who left New Orleans after the hurricane have decided, no they are not coming back. Now the population of the city of New Orleans is only about two third what it was before hurricane Katrina, but boy one group that is back in force, the crime element.

The criminals, mostly drug dealers have certainly come back and taken up residence. One hundred and 60 people have died in street killings in the last year, many of them residences killed by thugs looking for money. This past weekend in New Orleans east a Vietnamese couple was gunned down in their home in front of their kids.

What a contrast between the endless whining and begging by the crooks who run Louisiana compared to the post Katrina rebuilding next door in the state of Mississippi. There is still more to be done there, but a whole lot of progress is being made along Mississippi's gulf coast two years after the Hurricane. ABC Robin Roberts reports from Pass Christian Mississippi

Eleven of Mississippi's thirteen casinos big employers are back. Employing 18,000 people. That's a thousand more than before Katrina. Almost every school is back, enrollment at 94 percent of what it was before the storm.

So long story short, while Louisiana keeps begging the federal government to come in and fix everything for them, Mississippians simply got to work and did it.

Morgan: Begging and blaming. That's their favorite pastime. To blame the Federal government for everything that went wrong in Louisiana and that it's all their fault that Katrina victims don't have any money, and God after two whole years, their benefits are running out.

Rodgers: At some point, at some point you gotta say, you people are gonna have to stand on your own two feet. Of course FEMA made a total bleeping botch of their what should have been immediate response to the hurricane it's like, it's not like they didn't know the hurricane was coming. So they screwed that up. But two years later for god's sake people, solve your own bleeping problems, we're sick of hearing about you. And eh, and if you are sick and tired of the whining of the people in or from New Orleans about the government not doing enough for them and doing the rebuilding job for them. Maybe those people down there ought to stop their sniveling and whining and watch and example of self reliance right there in their own community. ( Audio Link)

Now the only really surprising thing about this story is that USA Today ran it, they run a story with out the focus of beating up on the Bush administration, http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070829/1a_coverside29_dom.art.htm

"While much of the rest of New Orleans is still the same disaster area it was the day after the hurricane two years ago. One neighborhood has rebuilt itself. It's the neighborhood of Versailles a few miles east of downtown New Orleans where the houses have been rebuilt and repainted, nearly all 7,000 residents of that neighborhood has returned. And you might ask what's different about that neighborhood. Here's what's different, it's made up of Vietnamese refugees who came to this country after the Vietnam war, they knew about untenable circumstances, they did something about it. They moved. And they, most of these people come from the Mekong river delta in Vietnam which is the rice growing area, why because it's lowlands and the Mekong river floods regularly so they know something about that. And they didn't wait for the government to come in and solve their problems for them. They just went to work fixing things. One of the early returning residences in the neighborhood a woman named Linda Tran, she is 55 she and her husband and their son slept on air mattresses while her family and other neighbors worked together to rebuild each other's house fix them up repaint them. She owns a restaurant in the neighborhood and she used money from her insurance to rebuild and she says, "I didn't want any money from the government. We needed our home. We worked all our lives for it," so she like her neighbors when to work and they did it themselves. And instead of Bush going down there and engaging in another hugathon and making more promises about how much more money we are going to pour in to that area. He should have said, "Hey people look at your neighbors the Vietnamese, see what they did and stop bitching and moaning, 'Oh the government is supposed to ffff fix things!' Here's a little footnote by the way, President Bush and the congress have committed over 127 billion dollars to relief for New Orleans and the immediate gulf cost region around there. Now to give you some perspective, adjust for inflation, so it's an apples to apples comparison. Dollars for dollar, 127 billion dollars is more than the 107.6 billion dollars we spent rebuilding 16 countries in Europe after World War II.

Morgan: Wow.

Rodgers: I don't wanna hear anymore of this crap from people in Louisiana saying "Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee. Shut the hell up. Solve your own problems. It's been two years, grow up.

It's 13 minutes before seven o'clock. Hot talk. 560 KSFO.

--X-X-X--

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Rathole

Gravy Train
Rathole Sewer
Freeloading whiners
Permanent gravy train
Get over it
Sniveling Whining
Shut the hell up

Sniveling Whining

NOTE: If you want to send this to other media, use the brilliant Spotlight project!
http://www.thespotlightproject.org/

Just plug in the permalink from Spocko's Brain and pick a few TV, Radio and Print journalists in the states/cities that are mentioned.
Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Phoenix, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona and California

Can the FDA Assure Safety and Security of the Food Supply? Part 2 hearing

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2007

Diminished Capacity: Can the FDA Assure the Safety and Security of the Nation's Food Supply? – Part 2
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
9:30 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building
Witness List
Connect to the Video Webcast (100 kbps)
http://energycommerce.house.gov/membios/schedule.shtml

Witness list:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.071707.Witness%20List.pdf

Thanks to reader Mike for staying on top of this.
I'm of course hoping that someone will ask them timeline questions.

Also I'm hoping for some
"What did you know and when did you know it?" questions (It always seems to come back to that, doesn't it...)

As I've reminded people, the FDA has no recall power, except for baby formula.
So faced with a new problem (chickens and hogs that ate melamine and c-acid laden pet food) the FDA decided that instead of telling Big Chicken and Big Pig to recall the chickens and pigs, they "worked closely with industry" and created a risk assessment report based on, how shall I say this politely, weak science.

And guess what, the risk assessment said, "Sure send it out to the humans, based on old data from other species and not on any actual current feeding tests, the probability is low that it won't be a problem." Hey America, how does it feel to be Big Chicken's guinea pig? Would have been nice if we could have known when we were being used as a guinea pig right? So we could say, "I don't trust your "risk assessment" please tell me which chickens were the ones I ate.

But I always wondered, if it wasn't a problem then why didn't they tell us the NAMES of the big chicken farm that sold the chickens? Why didn't they say, "The chicken is as safe as houses based on our "risk assessment" so the company that is selling it to you is ____________."?

BTW, I'm pretty sure I know which one of the Big Chicken players it is, but of course after I alerted the advertisers to the violent rhetoric of the talk radio people and they shut down my blog and threatened me I have no desire to expose myself to the censorship games of yet another multi-billion dollar industry. (Hey, maybe I should tell people if they send me a self addressed stamped envelop along with $100 bucks then I can say, "You didn't hear it from me." )

Here's my questions that they won't get to because I don't have any real power (aka lobbyists whispering into my ear).

Did Big Chicken put the pressure on the FDA to create this "risk assessment" so that they could get the USDA stamp so they could sell to humans? What role did Big Chicken and Big Pig have in this process of determining the safety of the food that they probably didn't want to cull? Was that contact appropriate?

I wonder how they will respond. I mean it's not like they need to lie if you asked them. I'm sure they would just say that they were "working closely with industry". Say for example Big Chicken called the FDA and said, "Create a test so I don't have to kill 20 million chickens and 56,000 hogs." Would it be WRONG of them to suggest that? I'm sure that it would be seen as just a suggestion and it's not like they are trying to intimidate the FDA. I do wonder if there are some rules and guidelines that they are breaking-- maybe Lisa Shames and the wonderful folks at the GAO could tell us.

NOTE: We don't use the precautionary principle here. Therefore looks like we are going the China route. So I guess the rule is "If it's not EXPLICITLY going to kill you, go ahead and put it in. And then, if later, we find out that it DOES kill people, well then we'll stop."

I do hope one of the fine reps asks about the process of creating the risk assessment, and then asks, "Who's chickens were they and then where did those chickens and pigs get sent to?"

I'm sure they have a good answers, the best money can buy.

Updated and edited, draft was posted first. I blame Haloscan.

Defending Those who Can't Defend Themselves

One of the coolest kids I know, Allison Hantschel, has a column in the DailySouthtown about the regular attacks on journalists by folks like Rush Limbaugh.

I agree with Allison (Athenae at First-Draft) in her response to USA Today founder Allen Neuharth, who said he thought the idiotic things Rush says were amusing. As I was discussing with the brilliant and media savvy volvodrivingliberal the other day, the power of right-wing talk radio over the public airwaves is not something to dismiss as only fodder for the weak minded. Rush's heuristic techniques and language seeps into the popular culture on both sides. Some of Rush's phrases become anchor phrases that can frame an issue so that we see the phrase but not the underlying deeply disturbing premise.

What do I mean? Here's one example, Rush constantly calls the media "The Drive By Media"

Now what image does that bring up?

Criminals. People with guns who drive by and shoot people. Criminals who should be in jail, not allowed to roam the streets.

And what race of people are the current drive by shooters?

They aren't white mobsters are they? He is comparing them to the current violent murderers who do drive by shootings. This is his casual "joke". In one phrase he compares the media with cowardly, murdering thugs. And he is never called out on it.

When over 108 journalists and 39 media support people have been killed to cover Bush's war, calling them killers is disgusting and disrespectful of their sacrifice.

Here's part of Allison's column.

Limbaugh and his lesser lights, imitators like Mark Belling in Wisconsin and Melanie Morgan in California, have made their bones on mocking, attacking and denigrating.

Ignoring such slights -- laughing them off -- has led us to what New York Times columnist E.J. Dionne called "the rightward press," in which constant pushing from the right-wing end of the political spectrum so intimidates the so-called objective press that it attempts to pre-empt criticism by feigning docility.

Treating hatemongers and advocates of violence (Morgan memorably called for New York Times editor Bill Keller to hang) as performance artists who shouldn't be taken seriously -- respectfully interviewing them as fellow travelers -- is what has led to this state of affairs in which there is literally nothing a conservative can say that will get him or her in trouble.

Ignoring these people -- acting like they don't matter -- allows their influence to grow in the dark like mildew, unchallenged, uncontested.

Read the rest here (link)

OH, and before she explodes into a flurry of, "I never said that!" Here is the audio proof of Morgan saying "Hang 'em". You will of course note there is no, "If tried and convicted and then found guilty" (which is what she and her colleagues have now be trained to say as there legal talisman after I busted them on their violent rhetoric. Listen here. (link)

Melanie Morgan's history of attacking the press is well documented. Criticizing the media for not doing their job is one thing, saying "Hang 'em" is another.

Calling Scientists and Mathamticians! Use your Skills! Help Save Lives!

Gina at Pet Connection did a great translation and analysis of the peer review results of the risk assessment document created by the FDA so that the USDA could give approval to Big Chicken and Big Pig to release the chickens and pigs into the human food supply.

DMS in comments makes the stunningly clear comment that I was going to make:

I think we need to keep in mind that the FDA/USDA released all of the chickens, eggs and Pigs for processing and sale before they even had their assessment peer-reviewed. Where else, but in the American government, would that happen?

Comment by DMS — June 13, 2007 @ 10:36 pm

This is at the heart of the issue. Big Chicken and Big Pig wanted a reason they could use to get the USDA to release their chicken and hogs into the human food supply. They got it. And it's not even really a test. It's a RISK ASSESSMENT. They are creating probabilities based on assumptions in lieu of hard data. And guess what? There were no mathematicians on the peer review list. Surprised? I'm not.

Calling Superstar Mathamtician, John Allen Paulos. Also known as:"Mathamtician to the Media" For my money, Paulos is the best explainer of math and stats in the business.

John Allen Paulos to the Blue Spocko Courtesy phone. John Allen Paulos to the Blue Spocko Courtesy phone.

3.5 million chickens went out because someone took recalled pet food known to kill animals and fed it to chickens. Maybe that food could be excused, it was the first batch that went to humans.

(BTW, somewhere out there a odd lots person(s) who said, "Hey, I can pick up this food for pennies and sell it for dimes. Why is it so cheap? Who cares!" Hey buddy that "food" killed thousands of pets and tens of thousands more, and now you are going to feed it to the animals I eat? Thanks a lot, jerk.)

I want some OTHER scientists to look at this and speak plainly about this (and about your peer's peer review if you don't mind.) I know that some of you have less at stake than getting the call from the FDA to do more paid (?) peer reviews, so maybe you can be a bit more... blunt. After all, it's your life this time, not just some pets.

And speaking of mathematicians like John Allen Paulos, (who is one of my favorite writers on math, the media and humor) Listen to explodinghed, another commenter at Pet Connection.

risk assessment is simply a way of appearing to make responsible decisions without actually doing that. it’s been going on in business for a very long time. this peer review was less of a whitewash than i expected it to be, but i’m not surprised that they reached the conclusion that fda’s actions were “reasonable”. i’m sure that everyone involved knew what their assignment was.

note that there are no PhD level mathematicians on this panel. not for nothing, but in more than a decade of working on biological research projects and water analysis projects, i was rather shocked to realize that in general, the scientists with whom i worked were almost uniformly terrible mathemeticians, and in many cases not even good scientists.
[snip]
Comment by explodinghed — June 14, 2007 @ 5:13 am

(btw, I'm not going to fault him or her for their spelling and capitalization, this is not a peer reviewed blog...)

So if you want to check out the risk assessment on the contaminants that that went into 23.5 million chickens and 56,000 hogs read it here. (Link)

If you then want to comment go here:
Docket: 2007N-0208 - Draft Melamine and Analogues Safety/Risk Assessment; Availabiity [sic] (link to comment form)

Finally, here is the big thing to remember. If this food is NOT safe to eat, you Can NOT avoid it even if you want to. Why? Because the FDA/USDA will NOT tell you who put these 23.5 million chickens into your food supply.

What would have happened if the peer review panel said: "This is a TERRIBLE risk assessment. This should NOT be used to justify sending 20 million chickens and 56,000 hogs into our food supply."?

Nothing. Why? Because the chicken has flown the coup. The hogs are now your bacon.

So now that the risk assessment peer review has declared it "reasonable" (by some hand picked scientists ) can they tell us the names of the chicken farms that sold the chicken to us? Why not?
What is their fear? Don't they trust their scientists? Don't they think that they are reasonable?

If they don't tell us the names of the farms and tell us WHERE the food went then we know that they don't believe their own data. But they are willing to make us the guinea pigs because their first and foremost purpose is not as stated:

FDA's Former Mission Statement

The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health.

The New FDA Mission Statement?

The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health profits of corporations by assuring the safety of their food. The FDA provides the public information that the corporations deem useful for consumers to consume the foods that are being sold to them.

Lee Rodgers Likes that the Chinese Poisoned Your Cat or Dog

This is an actual quote. Listen: audio link

Are some people so black hearted and cruel that they come out in favor of the poisoning of your pets? Yes. Are these people paid by the pet food industry to promote their products? Yes.
Who are these people? One is Lee Rodgers at KSFO, and today, June 12, his new boss, Citadel Broadcasting closes the 2.7 billion dollar deal with Disney.

When confronted what do people like Rodgers say? That they were joking? I've heard sick jokes and I recognize the cadence. Doesn't sound like it to me. But if it is, is calling it a joke really enough cover for this sickness? And is the excuse, "Well I have a pet myself! So clearly I didn't mean it!" Going to fly? So I guess he really doesn't want all cats and dogs dead, just yours and not his.

Purina is a major sponsor of KSFO's Morning program. And if you think that Rodgers will apologize think again. He does NOT apologize for talking about blowing the brains out of humans. (link) audio of Rodgers not apologizing for suggesting the torture and execution of a Lincoln Nebraska man. Link

He never bothered to apologize for saying someone suspected of a crime be burned alive (Melanie Morgan added the hogtied to the burned alive bit). So this isn't just a one time deal.
I'm sure the excuse that the humans did bad things works for some people, but what did a bunch of innocent pets ever do to him?

I do hope that Karen Crawford, the Director-advertising and relationship marketing at Nestle USA or Kathie Day, the Director, Marketing, Purina One, Nestle Purina Petcare understand that associating with these kind of people isn't' really good for their brand.
People with dead pets don't need to buy Purina.

A friend put the email contacts in encrypted form to make it harder for screen scrappers to get the email. You must have javascript enabled to get the info.

Nestlé Purina PetCare Company	Keith Schopp	Public Relations	Checkerboard Square	St. Louis	MO	63164	314-982-1000		Contact
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company	Jim Radt	Marketing Director	Checkerboard Square	St. Louis	MO	63164	314-982-1000		Contact
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company	Karen Crawford	Director-advertising and relationship marketing, Nestle USA	Checkerboard Square	St. Louis	MO	63164	314-982-1000		Contact
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company	Kathie Day	Director, Marketing, Purina One Nestle Purina Petcare	Checkerboard Square	St. Louis	MO	63164	314-982-1000		Contact

Thanks to Special Place in Hell for the javascript encryption!
update 6-12-07: correctly pointed out the NON-apologies and added audio clip

Paying Attention to New Orleans Pumps. Corp mistakes that Might cost Lives

Scout at First Draft has a great post up titled, Army Corps of Engineers Report: New Orleans Pumps still have mechanical flaws; also found contract improprieties check it out and also check out Matt McBride's, excellent blog "Fix the Pumps" for his engineering rigor (or any of my buddies in the New Orleans blogger community in my blog roll at the right. I dig them all, with special props to Gentilly Girl, Dangerblond and Humid City v. 2.3.


There is a view formulated by right-wing think tanks that if only government would get off their damn backs with demands for safety that everything would be better. That the "free market" will fix it all. That there are too many damn rules that are just a burden already.

But here's the thing. Rules and regulation are GREAT for businesses. Businesses NEED a working government. They NEED a working legal system. Competent government oversight is GOOD for the health of business. Just like a working media are good for government and business. The corporations will never admit this because, well then they would have to acknowledge all the good things they get out of rules, regulations, laws and a working government infrastructure.

I've heard some corporate executives say, "All I need is an unfair advantage."

Of COURSE they won't talk about the tremendous benefit they get from worker safety rules or government oversight, or contract regulations. Instead they find the excesses to make a point.

"Look how ridiculous this rule is! See how inefficient government is? What stupid requirements they demand!" Yes, there are ridiculous excesses, but there often is a reason for each and every one of the rules and regulations. Some company (or multiple companies) got busted badly and people got sick, died or will die because of a serious transgression. Or the corporation did life -changing economic harm to millions of people.

And the people cry out for justice.

"Where was the government at? How could the businesses get away with this? What kind of greedy monsters want to hide and cover-up information about poison in food?"

So then people become reluctant activists. I explain to them that they are working against a mind set and structure that has been developed and nurtured for decades. This mind set has been fabulously successful and its practitioners are highly-skilled and well paid.

These companies won't admit a failure even when their noses are rubbed in it, or if they do, it will have to be pro-forma admission of guilt which is Latin for "I don't really want to say this, but I will because I have to and secretly I'm glad I have to." (High school Latin scholars feel free to jump in here and comment.)


Corporations That act Like Children

People who study childhood development tell us that children need structure. Children have to learn what things will hurt them ("Hot! Don't touch! Don't play with matches! Careful! You'll poke your sister's eye out with that stick!")

Children will resist the warnings until they achieve awareness that the rules and warnings are for THEM and not some other children out there who are really bad. The rules they break are often designed to protect themselves and others. ("Don't eat that! It's poison! Don't feed that to your sister, it will kill her!")

I don't expect to hear children say (until years later) "Thank you Mother for not letting me eat that poison. Thank you Father for insisting I always wear protective goggles when woodworking." They don't have that kind of insight. But they should be grateful that someone insisted they do the right thing.

I clearly remember walking with a friend with toddlers in tow through the Air and Space museum in Washington D.C.. It was like the kids had no idea that gravity worked! They were ready to fling themselves off of high places or slip through gaps in the bars of railings overlooking the airplanes and space capsules. It was exhausting keeping an eye on them because they were constantly trying to evade our watchful eyes. Their quest to have fun looked to me like a constant attempt to kill themselves.

I mention all this because whenever there are calls for any regulation the cries of "Nanny state!" start. Any attempt at sensible guidelines or regulation are loudly shouted down under the guise of "there is too much regulation already!" They are then quietly shouted down with donations in the halls of congress. When we looked at something like the pet food industry we see that regulation to them doesn't have the same meaning as it does to us. But they know that throwing around the words "highly regulated" will stem the tide of criticism and bring out the defenders of all things "free" market and anti-oversight with real regulation.

Like a child they would never come forward and say, "PLEASE regulate me. I need the discipline!" Instead they will say, "I don't want any stupid rules. I'm going to pick up my toys and go to somewhere were their aren't rules." And because there are plenty of people and countries to choose from with cheap labor they will pick the ones that lets them follow the least amount of rules.

And then when some of them grow up (usually after something bad happens) they realize that those pesky rules were there for a purpose. They can see that a working infrastructure legal system, food safety, human safety or financial guidelines were actually good for them. But now they are addicted to the rhetoric, stuck in the groove of decades. Fighting the previous battle and imaginary excesses and some rare real exceptions.

I use the"business as child" metaphor because if I didn't, it would be too hard to contemplate.

Imagine people in business or supporting businesses who actively work to make it possible for MORE horrible acts to happen? I can't imagine people sit around and decide to cover up or support poison in food. People who, instead of addressing the problem, argue that the problem doesn't exist or question the credibility of the critic. What kind of people would do that?

Can you imagine someone calculating that X number of people or pets might die because of this, then asking "What do we had to do so that we can get away with it?" I just don't think that most humans would say, "Who do we have to hire to cover this it up, to make it go away and shut up the critics?" Normal people don't think that way.

If these people exist, surely they must not be lionized. Surely people whose job it is to draw focus from the problem, aren't aware of what they are really doing. I think that those people, if they are involved, will make weak arguments in a desperate hope that that they will be seen as a sham. I would think that these people would quietly do the right thing to maintain their personal moral high ground. But I do understand the power and pressure of the child and their self-centered world view. The Child will scream "I hate you!" to the parent who tells them, "No! You can't feed your sister that. It will make her sick!"

If there are people at the highest levels making this all possible, how would you react to them? Should they be praised? Excused? Rewarded? Vilified? How should they be treated by other humans? And what about the people who assist them knowingly? What role do that play? What culpability do people with full awareness have? People who know something is wrong and do it anyway? But I'm just a brain in a box. I live in the internet. I don't get out much, so I don't know the ways of the world.

When time in measured in nano-seconds, I wonder how much time should be given to people to act in a manner that is befitting of the label, human being?