OK, you asked for it, you got it.
Here's the author describing the "tactic" of information spin that right-wing talkers use. Because the 36th market guy is such a spin expert.
Using the first strategy, a host will describe something a liberal has said or done that conservatives disagree with, but for which the liberal has not been widely criticized, and then say, “You know what would happen if a conservative had said (or done) that? He (or she) would have been filleted by the ‘liberal media.’ ” This is particularly effective because it’s a two-fer, simultaneously reinforcing the notion that conservatives are victims and that “liberals” are the enemy.
Now here's what he does later in the "article":
To amuse myself while listening to a talk show, I would ask myself what the host would say if the situation were reversed. What if alleged D.C. Madam client Sen. David Vitter had been a Democrat? Would the reaction of talk show hosts have been so quiet you could hear crickets chirping? Hardly.
Or what if former Rep. Mark Foley had been a Democrat? Would his pedophile-like tendencies have been excused as a “prank” or mere “overfriendly e-mails?” Not on the life of your teenage son.
Suppose Al Gore was president and ordered an invasion of Iraq without an exit strategy. Suppose this had led to the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. troops and actually made that part of the world less stable. Would talk show hosts have dismissed criticism of that war as unpatriotic? No chance.
Or imagine that John Kerry had been president during Hurricane Katrina and that his administration’s rescue and rebuilding effort had been horribly botched. Would talk show hosts have branded him a great president? Of course not.
Mr. Hypo, meet Mr. Crite. Four examples deep. Oh, Dan just sits from on high, looking down on all us foolish mortals in amusement. Why indulging in highly hypocritical behavior, of course.
Want more? Goooooood.
Here he is fighting for truth, justice, and the American way--and the movie ends up all happy because the evil radio host came to him hat in hand (as usual, he is quick to point out) and groveled at his feet...
One day during a very bad snowstorm, I walked into the studio during a commercial break and suggested to Charlie that he start talking about it rather than whatever conservative topic he’d been discussing. Charlie assumed, as he usually did in such situations, that I was being critical of his topic. In reaction, he unplugged his head phones, stood up and told me that I might as well take over the show because he wasn’t going to change his topic. I was able to quickly strike a bargain before the end of the break. He agreed to take a few calls about the storm, but if it didn’t a strike a nerve with callers, he could return to his original topic.
The snowstorm was the topic of the rest of his show that day. And afterward, Charlie came to my office and admitted I’d been right. But we would go through scenarios such as this many times through the years.
Need another? No problem. Here's one that shows how bright he is. Let's say Limbaugh hit the scene BIGTIME in '93. (I know he was on the air before that, but I'm referring to the avalanche of notoriety he got around this time. EX: The National Review Called Him "The Leader Of Conservative Principles" on their cover around this time.) Took this GENIUS till 2005 to figure out something was a little askew with the right wing talker phenomenon. Wow. Talk about flying blind. Here he is coming to his catharsis:
It was Katrina, finally, that made me truly see the light. Until then, 10 years into my time at TMJ, while I might have disagreed with some stands the hosts took, I did think there were grounds for their constant criticism of the media. I had convinced myself that the national media had an intrinsic bias that was, at the very least, geographical if not ideological, to which talk radio could provide an alternative.
Seems good at rationalization, self-importance, and mudslinging his co-workers, but looking at the world around him in terms of media doesn't seem to be his strong suit. A chimp with a head trauma who listened to Limbaugh ONCE in those years should have been able to discern a clear bias. Entertaining? Sure. Engaging? Of course. Unbiased? This guy wants to have his cake and eat it, too. If it took KATRINA to make him aware of this, I'm thinking he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
But maybe he's the coolest guy in market #36.
Next, the Martyr Of Milwaukee Talk Radio goes to station management with his idealistic, NEWLY DISCOVERED CONUMDRUM:
I went to Charlie and Jeff and told them my concerns. They waved me off. I went to Program Director Rick Belcher and told him I thought Charlie and Jeff had things terribly wrong. He disagreed. I was distraught. I felt I was actively participating in something so inconsistent with reality that even most conservative talk radio devotees would see this. But in a way, it was merely a more obvious example of how talk radio portrayed reality selectively.
Just figure that out after a dozen years, didja??
The next few paragraphs all start with "I." That says something. And they all serve just for Mr. Journalistic Integrity (after the lights were out for a dozen years) to pat himself on the back and put a boot to the groin of everyone else:
I was a dedicated program manager. I helped the hosts at my station do show prep by finding stories I knew would pique their interest and fire up their constituencies. I met with Charlie Sykes daily, about a half-hour before show time, to help him talk through topics before going on the air. Charlie is one of the smartest people I know, but he performs at his best with that kind of preparation.
I often defended Jeff Wagner from upset moderates and liberals in the community. Jeff’s a very good talk show host whose brilliance is overshadowed only by his stubbornness.
I helped our program directors try to find the right role for Mark Reardon, who, in my opinion, was always miscast (he wasn’t as right-wing as Sykes or Wagner and his job was switched several times). Ultimately, that miscasting helped his career, because WTMJ laid him off, after which he became a talk show star in St. Louis, a much larger market.
I worked with news and sports hosts, too – Robb Edwards, Jon Belmont, Ken Herrera, Jonathan Green, Len Kasper, Bill Michaels – to help them craft ways to sound human and “real” behind the microphone without violating the separation of church and state that existed between the station’s talk and news programming. Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I didn’t.
IF ONLY THOSE FOOLS HAD LISTENED!!!!!! Then Milwaukee would be safe, and pure, and wholesome and the talk radio world would again bloom anew, fresh and unblemished.
Lastly:
I left WTMJ with some regret, attracted by an offer to work in the cutting edge field of digital media at one of the nation’s largest news and entertainment conglomerates.
I guess if you just came to the conclusion maybe something was one-sided about right wing radio in 2005, you'd consider the world of digital media "cutting-edge."
As for "one of the nation's largest news and entertainment congomerates"? Well, we've seen what passes for "the nation's largest and most successful" with this back-stabbing, mud-slinging clown. I bet it's "Bob's Digital Media & Shrimp Shack."
And my final nugget here is that it's very, very, very, very interesting that Mr. Slag-My-Former-Coworkers-While-Bemoaning-A-Lack-Of-Fairness-And-Balance wrote something and NO ONE FROM THE STATION WAS ALLOWED TO REFUTE OR ADDRESS THESE ALLEGATIONS IN THE ARTICLE. Not even contacted or asked if these things really happened.
Seems fairness is a matter of convenience to "one of the largest and most successful anecdotal self-congratulators in the nation."
