I had a great conversation with Greg Basta, Deputy director of New York Communities for Change on Virtually Speaking Tuesdays. My buddy Mike Stark had some official business to deal with so Greg came on as my guest. We talked about the role of organizing and long established non-profits with Occupy Wall Street, how effective activism doesn’t always get good media coverage and good media coverage doesn’t always mean effective activism.
We also discussed how to better link the effective activism with good media coverage.
It was interesting to hear how the OWS people and the NYCC, Unions and other non-profits worked together on great projects like Occupy the Boardroom. (Soon to be a major motion picture, or a book, I forget which)
Here are the two great videos I mentioned. Mimi Pierre Johnson, an NYCC member, reading her letter at Chase about her foreclosure. Love the video work on this video.
Ted Nugent is performing at Arizona ‘s Pima County Fair on the Budweiser Stage on Saturday April 28th.
I wonder if Ted, who likes to refer to himself as a law-abiding citizen, knows an important fact about the Pima County Fair?
Weapons are not allowed into the Pima County Fair, with the exception of uniformed security guards.
Pima County sound familiar? Jared Loughner killed six people and left 14 injured on the Safeway parking lot on Saturday January 8th last year. This happened in Tucson, in Pima County U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was one of the injured.
Will Nugent bring out his machine guns on stage during the show? If he does he will be going against the written directive of the Southwestern Fair Commission, Inc., a non-profit, private corporation who is paying him.
Will his security detail keep their guns locked in their vehicles?
Will they don uniforms and submit to the authority of the Sheriff of Pima County?
Or will they just ignore the Fair’s rules, strap on their guns to open carry or conceal carry?
Today, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association finally addressed the Trayvon Martin shooting— by attacking the media for covering the case, claiming they are “manufactur[ing] controversy for ratings.” Link to story with audio of speech
LAPIERRE: But the media, they don’t care. Everyday victims aren’t celebrities. They don’t draw ratings, don’t draw sponsors. But sensational reporting from Florida does. In the aftermath of one of Florida’s many daily tragedies, my phone has been ringing off the hook. Now, the National Rifle Association will not comment on any story without a full understanding and a thorough understanding of all the facts. But if I were to answer a call from Diane Sawyer or Chris Matthews or Brian Williams or Rachel Maddow, let me tell you right now what I’d ask them.
Where’s your outrage? Where’s your outrage about Willie Brewer III from Akron, Ohio? Or Derrick Linkhorn from Decatur, Georgia? Or Daryl Adams from New York City? Or what about Antonio Duff? Just this past Monday afternoon, about the same time I got here into town, he was killed and murdered. And he’s not the only young man murdered in this city this past week. You reporters, you don’t know their names. You don’t care about those people. You manufacture controversy for ratings. . . . → Read More: Hey LaPierre, the Media’s Not to Blame, You Are.
One of the big benefits of either being privately held or a huge public ikdkdk corporation is that you don’t have to tell anyone in the media the truth. There really is no penalty for lying about your finances if your aren’t public and if you are big and public you can often bury loses that other companies would have to report.
Case in point. The CEO of Clear Channel, Pittman, finally spoke to the AP yesterday and said 58 advertisers leaving the Rush Limbaugh show didn’t have a major impact on Clear Channel. Full quote here.
According to my friends at Media Matters 58 advertisers left.
Now in the world of small to mid-sized public companies that would be what is called, “A material event” and could tank the stock. Earnings this quarter could disappoint investors and management,who promised certain numbers, would have to do something to make changes.
If you are privately held, or huge, like NewsCorp, after losing 58 or 81 Advertisers you can say things like “advertisers leaving the program did not have a major impact on the company ” and get away with it.
Tonight the Political Science Student Association at San Francisco State University is hosting a Political Debate.
March 14th, 2012 in McKenna Theater located in the Creative Arts Building on the SFSU campus (link for tickets
Sadly I have a previous engagement so I can’t attend, but I want to make sure that the other guests and moderator knew just about Sussman’s radical views on women, religious freedom, health care and life.
So I prepared some notes for the other panelists, Norman Goldman and Michael Krasny:
Tonight on your SFSU panel is Brian Sussman from KSFO. I’m sure that he will try and sound moderate for the crowd, but if you want to engage him and ask him to defend his real views here is some audio evidence of his views over the years. I haven’t been monitoring him lately but it would be interesting if he says his views have changed.
Issues that might come up tonight: women’s reproductive health, religious freedom, health care
Women’s reproductive health
Sussman supported the South Dakota law that banned all abortions INCLUDING those for Rape and incest, with the exception of life of the mother. He thinks that it is correct to . . . → Read More: SFSU Political Debate with Radio Hosts Krasny, Sussman, Goldman
News Flash! 50 advertisers have pulled their ads from the Rush Limbaugh show. Updated list here.
Everyone wants to know, “What will happen next?” Some people want to know how to “fix the problem” (i.e. lost sponsors) others want to know, how can we make,”the problem” worse.
I am of the metaphorical mindset, “When your nemesis is drowning, throw him an anchor.”
There is, and will be, tremendous pressure to keep The Limbaugh Zeppelin afloat. Lots of people are scrambling to find the right words, strategy or actions to get back to the status quo. What might be surprising to some, but not to me, is that the MSM will help keep this gasbag in the air. Why? A few reasons:
1) The “They could do this to me!” fear. They might remember that Lou Dobbs is gone and Glenn Beck if off TV, not because of what they said, but because of “market forces.” The progressive left made those “market forces” happen by alerting advertisers and asking them to stop allowing these people to taint their brands.
2) Rush gives them the language for ideas that are easy to describe. One stop shopping for what . . . → Read More: Rush Doesn’t Need Your Stinking Ads!
Considering how the Catholic Bishops want to tell people what to do, I though about who was really in charge of that organization. And so I wrote this piece. I just warped around the Sun and used my universal translator to listen into one performance review that didn’t go too well.
“Greetings, Jesus. Have a seat. Well it’s that time of year again. Performance review time. I’ll go through the review and then you can comment later before you sign it.
“Okay, the good news is that the people seem to like you and they loved the free food you got them at that picnic. I don’t want to know where you got those loaves and fishes, if they fell off a donkey or what, but it was great because it didn’t put a dent in our food budget. Some people called it a miracle, but it’s only a miracle if you’re not in the business of selling loaves and fishes. Our concessions vendors were really unhappy that day. But our real problem was revenue from plate passing was way down.
Tuesday, February 7th on Virtually Speaking Mike Stark and I discussed what we could learn from the SOPA fight and the Susan G Komen Debacle. Listen to the podcast by going to the BlogTalkRadio link
There will be a billion pixels spilt on these stories that you can read elsewhere by scholars, experts and journalists. What I’m most interested in is what works/worked for the media activists out there.
How we can replicate this to fight the right? How can we press the advantage? Why the left will NOT press the advantage. How will the Right defend against this in the future and who will they enlist to help them?
BTW, can anyone else see the fingerprints and style of Ari Fleischer all over Brinker’s media interviews and statements?
(Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” it’s a safe bet that he would approve and suggest someone who mirrors his style.)
What steps will the PR experts at Ogilvy take to try to repair the brand?
Last October Chris Christie threw his support behind Mitt Romney, I’m pretty sure that is the reason that Romney will win tonight. Check out the video of the phone call Christie makes to comedian Jimmy Dore bragging about how his support for Romney will help him win. The whole podcast can be found at on the Jimmy Dore show. website. I like to describe the podcast as “The Daily Show for Radio”, very funny, very smart. The “celebrities” who call in are voiced by @MikeMacRaeMike. His Bill O’Rielly and Herman Cain are spot on and the writing, by Dore, Frank Connif, Paul Gilmartin, Robert Yasumura and Steve Rosenfield is hilarious.
I often have conversations with people who don’t exist to illustrate real conversations I know about and have a 93% confidence level have actually happened. Here’s a conversation I had last night about Mitt, taxes, GE and strippers. I’m not lying, I’m writing fiction with my mouth. – Homer Simpson
Over a single malt whiskey at the Scruples Lounge in Bridgeport, Connecticut I spoke to Sam Johnels, junior deputy tax guy for General Electric.
“We totally could have gotten the Government to pay Mitt. The guys he hired? PricewaterhouseCooper? More like Pricy Underwater Houses Pooper! They couldn’t figure out how to get the IRS to pay him? Idiots. If we were in charge of his return, he would be getting $3.2 million from Uncle Sam instead of paying out one thin dime.”
“Do you think that the fact that Mitt was running for President had anything to do with how they structured the returns?” I asked.
“I suppose so, I hate all that political ‘What will it look like to the regular people?’ bullshit.
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Spocko's United Reserves Against Killing of Journalists and Liberals
Spocko’s Press Clippings
Here's the New York Times story about my efforts to defund violent rhetoric on KSFO. January 15, 2007 by Noam Cohen
The tale of Spocko, a self-described "fifth-tier" blogger who lives in San Francisco, exemplifies how one person with a computer and an Internet hookup can challenge the views of a major media corporation -- and what a media corporation will do to stop him.
For the past year, Spocko has been e-mailing advertisers of KSFO-AM with audio clips from its shows and asking sponsors to examine what they're supporting. Some sponsors have pulled their ads, after hearing clips like one of KSFO's Lee Rodgers suggesting that a protester be "stomped to death right there. Just stomp their bleeping guts out."
[snip]
A little over a year ago, he became so annoyed by the "violent" tone of commentary on KSFO-AM that he and some of his readers e-mailed more than three dozen of the station's advertisers.
"I want to emphasize that if you withdraw your ads you aren't limiting their free speech, just removing your paid support of it," Spocko wrote to advertisers.
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