Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Success! And Thank You MEDC!

We have our first documented success. I would love if we had an actual letter, but I'll let bluestatedon say it in his own words.

Update: MEDC responds quickly (0 / 0)
After I read last week that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation had advertised on KSFO, I sent emails to James Epolito, MEDC President and CEO, and Lisa Dancsok, MEDC VP for Marketing, Communications and Legislative Affairs, to inform them of the situation. I received a personal response via email that evening from Ms. Dancsok, informing me that they were investigating the situation immediately.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from Jim Epolito himself. He'd already met with with Governor Granholm about the situation, and needless to say she was horrified that money had been spent on advertising on that station.

The ads ran in October and November, and apparently MEDC's ad agency, who bought the spots, was not aware of the programming content. I bet they thought they were getting the Little Mermaid, not advocates for violence, torture, and hate.

At any rate, the MEDC has already canceled any future ad buys on the station, so KSFO now has one less advertiser.

Kudos to all of you who've brought this situation to light. As a Michigan resident, taxpayer, and business owner, I want to thank Jim Epolito, Lisa Dancsok, and the MEDC for moving so quickly and responsively.

by bluestatedon on Tue Jan 09, 2007 at 10:34:19 AM PST
From Daily Kos


As Atrios always says, reward good behavior. Good for "Michigan Economic Development Corporation ".

Which reminds me of another important component. THANK people who respond (even it they choose to remain advertisers.) that is their choice. Miss Manners would not approve of returning rudeness with rudeness.

A friend from Norway reminded me of that when she asked for a list of advertisers who choose not to continue their ads on commercially supported broadcast radio station KSFO.

I forwarded her letter to one of the smartest player in this story, Susanne D. Lyons, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Visa U.S.A.
She got my thank you note direct from Star Fleet Headquarters this morning.

Now I'm off to reward good behavior and buy something from Michigan with my VISA card!!!!

Please send me copies of your stories and emails I'll post 'em when we get 'em.

23 Comments:

RJB said...

Brilliant. Good example that can be forwarded to other advertisers.

12:54 PM  
Carl said...

I have some good news, Spocko.

Media Matters picked up the story. While I'm sure I was not the only person to contact them, I'm glad I could help out a little bit.

1:54 PM  
Anonymous said...

Spocko,

I read about your plight on Crooks and Liars as well as Media Matters. Keep up the good fight. You rock!

2:14 PM  
Ripley said...

Did you get the e-mail from Stark? If not, I'll fwd to you.

5:07 PM  
Anonymous said...

i also read the story on media matters (and was treated to a DELIGHTFULLY entertaining tangled bunch of comments after, but that's beside the point) and i think what you did in contacting the advertisers is fan-TAS-tic.

we need more people who not only criticise but take action against ridiculousness; thanks for the good example!

6:39 PM  
Anonymous said...

dude- i just saw you in media matters!!!!! congrats- and i am behind you all of the way!! :)

8:06 PM  
Anonymous said...

All I can say is THANK YOU. Thank you, thank you, thank you Spocko! These nutjobs are unconscionable. Why they aren't "detained" rather than allowed to continue to spew these hateful Pat Robertson-type right-wing threats is a puzzlement. It's also the reason I don't watch ABC or patronize anything that begins with "Disney's..."

9:13 PM  
Anonymous said...

I live in San Francisco and I am sickened by what I hear on that station. I am so glad you are out there making a difference. These wingnuts are just upset because they got their butts handed to them. Barack Obama is a threat because if the nation comes together Melanie Morgan and those like her are out of a job.

11:25 PM  
Anonymous said...

I live in San Francisco and I am sickened by what I hear on that station. I am so glad you are out there making a difference. These wingnuts are just upset because they got their butts handed to them. Barack Obama is a threat because if the nation comes together Melanie Morgan and those like her are out of a job.

11:26 PM  
Anonymous said...

Hey Spocko- I never realized that freedom of speech was reserved for liberals only. If you don't agree with what the right wing threats have to say then change the channel instead of using the media and corporations to prevent people you don't agree with from expressing themselves...it almost seems like Nazi tactics to me!

11:31 PM  
Anonymous said...

Spocko, you are a hero to many. I live in San Francisco and it's so great that you are exposing these class impaired hate mongers. I am just glad to see you...so glad you have no idea. Keep on keepin' on!!

11:44 PM  
joewo said...

http://www.youtube.com/v/mCcY5LrCMSA


First story out of the chute on KCBS 5 at 11pm!!! The announcer even gives a warning of offensive language prior to airing the clips so they see what the clips contain. Let's see...KSFO/ABC gives a cease and desist to Spocko who is some goof with a website for using clips from KSFO. KCBS 5 is owned by...uh...hmmmm....CBS yeah that’s right...and THEY use clips from KSFO as well. So place your bets as to when CBS will receive a cease and desist from ABC's lawyers. Don't hold your breath!!! Disney not only airs quite offensive programming with the guise of being a family friendly Disney station, but they also just prove that they are willing to be a Goliath against a David. Now another Goliath is airing their audio and we will see ABC back down by not sending a C&D to another Goliath, CBS.

11:48 PM  
Anonymous said...

Spocko...Good on you! Use your platform to expose this:

A working coal mine and a shoe factory - to be worked by prisoners (dissidents)?

FORCED LABOR PRISON CAMPS IN THE US - WITH BARRACKS FOR ENTIRE FAMILIES:

Let's make "Swift Luck Greens" famous!

What do you think it will take for Lou Dobbs and Keith Olbermann
to get these images featured on their nightly shows and demand
an explanation of Michael Chertoff? I want to see national TV news
crews there at this location with cameras in hand. We paid for them -
Cheney's KBR built them - let's see them on TV! Aren't they proud?

http://www.democracyforums.com/showthread.php?tid=297

Note that in the DHS “Swift Luck Greens” photos, the mine facility is known as the “East Annex”

This implies that the main facility is further west of this location.

I believe the “main” facility is the one referred to as the “Maximum Security” facility.

Rag Shoshone coal mine closed Thursday. August 30, 2000.

In 2000 – this was the production rate for the mine:

Tons of Coal Mined in 2000: 1,209,795
Number of Employees in 2000: 67

CYPRUS SHOSHONE COAL CORPORATION
HANNA WY 82327

Latitude: 41.92
Longitude: -106.521944

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Inmate_Labor_Program

Wikipedia:

Civilian Inmate Labor Program -

The Civilian Inmate Labor Program is a program of the United States Army provided by Army Regulation 210-35[1]. The regulation, first drafted in 1997 and went under a "rapid act revision" in January 2005, provides policy for the creation of labor programs and prison camps on Army installations. The labor would be provided by persons under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Prison camps

The regulation also sets forth policy for the creation of prison camps on Army installations. These would be used to keep inmates of the labor programs resident on the installations.

In January 2006, Kellogg, Brown and Root reported that they had received a contract from the Department of Homeland Security to expand ICE DRO facilities "in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."[3] A February news article comments that the "new programs" mentioned could include the Civilian Inmate Labour Program.[4] ICE has "joint federal facilities" with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[5]

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/17936
Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs'

Read this guy's take:

http://tinyurl.com/y48vxo

4:37 AM  
Anonymous said...

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., January 5, 2007: “Working in the White House is like working in the monkey house in a zoo when all the primates are loaded with uppers.

A number of lower staffers have abruptly quit, Harriet Myers has quit and others are going the same way. Now why is this? Because it is now very obvious that Bush has lost his marbles, if he ever had any, and we are headed into a major governmental crisis.

Bush has absolutely no intention of leaving Iraq. Any general officer who disagrees with his stupid “surge” is promptly fired and others warned that Bush will fire them if they open their mouths. The brass at the Pentagon and the troops in the field are approaching open mutiny.

There are very serious rumors that National Guard and reserve units will not show up for shipment to the slaughterhouse. Bush has told Congress that they will do what he tells them and if they do not, he will refuse to sign any of their bills he does not approve of and refuse to implement anything they try to pass over his head.

He has deliberately antagonized the new Congress and when he is told that the people want an end to the Iraq horrors, he claims the public still want him to “stay the course.”

Hate mail and death threats are pouring in here in unprecedented numbers and the Secret Service can’t begin to keep up with them. There is no question that very soon, there will be a major confrontation between Bush on one side and the military and Congress on the other. And be sure Bush will lose.

No one seems to know what to do about Bush. He will listen to no one and could care less what the American public wants. What he wants is to hang the remaining Saddam crew, launch a huge military attack in Baghdad, level parts of that city that he personally feels should be leveled, kill off anything that moves, replace the current Iraqi government with a pliable military dictator like Saddam and then come home in what he considers will be a great triumph.

A Republican Senator recently said that what Bush was doing was criminal. It is and now both Congress, the military and a growing segment of the American public are beginning to realize that Bush has to be removed, by force if necessary, from his high office.

I have talked with some of the staff members who are in his presence on a regular basis and all of them say, without reservation, that he has gone around the bend. The Pentagon brass have nicknamed him Caligula and there is a very strong possibility of open revolt from that sector. Troops in the field are seriously talking about mutiny but if Bush knows about this, he could care less.

The plain and simple truth, children, is that our President is a fanatic nut and has absolutely no business running a war. Whatever happens to him will be entirely his fault and I am looking for another job starting this afternoon.”

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2608.htm

4:49 AM  
Anonymous said...

Thanks for spreading the message, Spocko. I listened to the show on Monday, hoping they were trembling in fear of impending doom. I was horrified by how much misinformation and unjustified invective they spew forth. So keep up the good fight.

5:48 AM  
Rob said...

Well done! Thanks for investing the time and fear-sweat this is costing you. These people shouldn't be profiting from hate and intolerance. Be sure to shout out if you need any more help.

7:07 AM  
Rob said...

Well done! Thanks for investing the time and fear-sweat this is costing you. These people shouldn't be profiting from hate and intolerance. Be sure to shout out if you need any more help.

7:07 AM  
2funny said...

glad your site was restored. cant understand the connection of those who did this act(removsl of your site). but control of the media may be the biggest battle of the wars wage two oceans away. good luck with this freedom of speech thing.

7:23 AM  
nonny mouse said...

Saw this story on C&L (as have many others) and was so incensed I've sent a letter directly to Disney's corporate head office (500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521, USA) to let them know that this goes well beyond radio listeners in SF - it's gone global. I sent an email with a clip to a girlfriend in Paris, who was so revolted that she's taking her kids to Park Asterix instead of EuroDisney this summer.

And sent it to a few more friends here in the UK as well with kids, the kind that buy Disney videos. I may not be in the States to watch ABC or buy BriteWhite toothpaste, but there's an awful lot of people here who I really don't want thinking Americans are anything like those horrible, horrible creeps on KSFO. We may be just annoying fleas, but I'm doing my bit to bite Disney where it hurts - in the pocket.

7:49 AM  
Sunshine Jim said...

Snark!

Way to go Spocko!

(best from the gang!)

we're reposting the story on MRR.

9:08 AM  
Liberal-at-large said...

Hey, spocko! I remember when...way back in spring, '04 on the Majority Report blog.

Congrats on your campaign & keep it up!

L@L

9:36 AM  
Anonymous said...

good on you. you're on my favorites list, but honestly i never check in. now i'll update the link.

i've seen melanie morgan enough times to know she's a hideous human being.

keep up the good work and as someone suggested, thanks for the example. if rush had not been so successful= $ i can't believe this over the top hate speech would be tolerated by advertisers.

9:42 AM  
Anonymous said...

Saw the story on CBS-5 S.F. last night. I can't thank you enough for your great work in opening advertisers eyes to what they are funding. Like many others, for years I've been alarmed about the escalation of talk show programs that spew venom and inflame passions while hiding behind 1st amendment rights, or calling themselves "entertainers." But life came first and I did nothing but stew about it. You actually DID something. You are my hero!!!

9:46 AM  

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