Mike Malloy controversial comments

[TheBigA]

If you call your "family doctor" or your "primary care doctor" and announce that you have a problem that needs attention today, you will be told to proceed to the Emergency Department at the hospital.

The fact that we have such a thing as "primary care doctors" is part of the medical industrial complex. Those doctors who are fortunate enough to be "in network" are part of the medical mafia. They play by the rules set down by the national system. That's how they get "favored nation status." Of course there are independent doctors who are "out of network," and you're free to use them. But it will cost you more.

It's all nationalized, in the same way as our hardware stores have been nationalized, our pizza parlors are nationalized, and yes, even our radio stations have been nationalized. In fact, when I hear people harkening back to the days of 7-7-7 or 5-5-5, I point out that such rules would put radio at a disadvantage, in the way that restricting our medical system would put doctors at a disadvantage.

Talk radio likes to promote the mythology that we still live in small town USA with local doctors who make their own decisions. That it's the liberal politicians who want to nationalize and therefore ruin the greatest medical treatment in the world. But the fact is the system was nationalized a long time ago in the name of cutting costs and increasing profits by the medical industrial complex. Just as very similar corporations have nationalized the radio stations that employ those hosts. Don't misinterpret this as a criticism of any of this. I'm just the weatherman, telling you what's going on.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Exactly. GoatRodeoCowboy & I have had many discussions about something I call the "medical industrial complex." It's what you will encounter if you are so unfortunate to enter a hospital at some point in your life. The "medical industrial complex" is the consolidated group of health care companies, hospitals, insurance companies, and other medical professionals, who set the prices and the procedures we receive as medical consumers. In a free economy, we should be able to pick where we want our heart bypass surgery will take place, considering the price, experience, and type of care. Unfortunately, when you have a heart attack, you lose all control from the moment you call the ambulance. Quite often, medical service doesn't operate in a free economy where consumers choose.

Talk Radio has been negligent by not allowing or scheduling conversations that help the American public to understand these issues.

Much of the nation has been undergoing change in how medical care is structured at the local leve while much of the South has kept the older style provider-relationships and insurance relationships in place. Today, at "warp speed" the medical-industrial-complex is being shoved into boxes and mechanisms that the rest of the nation has already achieved while at the same time trying to figure out what Obamacare does to the provider-relationships and insurance relationships. You will note that much of the "verbal heat" on a lot of these issues come from Southern legislators and governors.

The Atlanta newspaper recently had a big article about the "Narrow Market" insurance model. (Old news up North, front burner agitation in Atlanta.) Aggressive insurance companies go to hospitals and announce: We bring you patients. We will bring you ALL our patients if you give US special pricing. Turn us down and we take all our insured patients to another hospital. Now that we have that relationship settled, the insurance companies and the hospitals go to the doctors: If you want the patients we insure... you need to accept our price schedule and you need to use only the hospital we are aligned with when your patients need hospital care.

So you've been working for Home Depot Corporate HQ for years (or some other comparable company), and your wife goes to an OB-GYN in your neighborhood and when the baby is to be born, you get it all done in the hospital near where you live. So this morning you go to an Employee Benefits meeting and you sit through a presentation. You take the literature home and you digest it all and here is what you find. The doctor you have been seeing for 8 years is no longer available to you. You look at the list of doctors affiliated with your insurance company and they are all way-the-hell-and-gone across on the other side of a neighborhood where you don't want your wife driving through unless you and your AR-15 are with her. And then the doctor explains that your next baby will be delivered at a hospital TWO neighborhoods over... a neighborhood where never in your life have you been.

Folks: this is not the government messin' wit'cher healthcare, this is free-enterprise corporations in the medical insurance and medical delivery business. And if you know your stuff... you will catch them responding to your complaints with: "Oh, Obamacare made us do it." (And you tell your brother-in-law in Minneapolis about all of this and he says: Oh, we had all those changes LONG before Obamacare was passed.)

And Talk Radio has done diddly-squat to prepare you to deal with all this when you talk to your doctor, your hospital, your insurance company, or your employer H.R. Department.

 

[flybynight]

The fact that we have such a thing as "primary care doctors" is part of the medical industrial complex. Those doctors who are fortunate enough to be "in network" are part of the medical mafia. They play by the rules set down by the national system. That's how they get "favored nation status." Of course there are independent doctors who are "out of network," and you're free to use them. But it will cost you more.

It's all nationalized, in the same way as our hardware stores have been nationalized, our pizza parlors are nationalized, and yes, even our radio stations have been nationalized. In fact, when I hear people harkening back to the days of 7-7-7 or 5-5-5, I point out that such rules would put radio at a disadvantage, in the way that restricting our medical system would put doctors at a disadvantage.

Talk radio likes to promote the mythology that we still live in small town USA with local doctors who make their own decisions. That it's the liberal politicians who want to nationalize and therefore ruin the greatest medical treatment in the world. But the fact is the system was nationalized a long time ago in the name of cutting costs and increasing profits by the medical industrial complex. Just as very similar corporations have nationalized the radio stations that employ those hosts. Don't misinterpret this as a criticism of any of this. I'm just the weatherman, telling you what's going on.

Good luck convincing the flag-waving, fact-challenged, Archie Bunker types that what you're saying is true or makes sense.

If talkradio does anything, it emboldens the idiots and encourages them to dig their heels in on some of the most uninformed and short-sighted positions we encounter in this country.

But hey, if it can sell gold and food backpacks, who cares, right?

 

[TheBigA]

Good luck convincing the flag-waving, fact-challenged, Archie Bunker types that what you're saying is true or makes sense.

Truthfully, I have no interest in convincing anyone of anything. At some point, every one of them will encounter the medical system I've described, regardless of where they live. Hopefully, their corporate radio insurance will cover their costs. But it won't change the service they get, with continual tests that they didn't ask for, but are ordered because their insurance will pay, which drives up premium costs every year. The patient is an open wallet for these places. I don't have to say a word. Just get sick. See what happens.

The funny part to me is that many of these talk stations run advertising for the medical industrial complex. I hear it all the time. So you go from hearing hosts talk about how liberals are killing local doctors to advertisements from national health care companies, many of which are based in red states. And no one seems to notice the inconsistency.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Regardless of the details, the issue is just an illustration of a point. Instead of a carefully thought-out, long-term plan, they followed the process that Goat Rodeo Cowboy advocated when he said, "Whether it is a legislative committee working on a new bill, or a corporation trying to iron out employee policy or work out a new policy for a warranty program for the company's product, the discussion has to start with the 'small moving parts'. Until what we used to call 'group dynamics' get to simmering and cooking by tackling smaller elements one at a time, the group will just come unglued if they try to discuss the big issues, the full issue before the group has established trust and flexibilty and the ability to communicate among themselves."

That entire premise is wrong. No matter how you re-examine the decisions that lead to the Vietnam War, they all disprove the idea of working on the "small moving parts" first. That principle is just plain incorrect.

Behold! I reach up on the shelf and bring down not Aesop's Fables, but current business journals.

Lets look first at General Motors. One of America's great examples of a company that follows your concept that all wisdom lives atop the office tower at Corporate HQ. At this example, we currently have ignition switches that turn out to be a problem since the late 1980s. But in the culture where problems are only solved when they are first discussed as broad management issues, no one could get enough traction to "stop the madness!" So a great American icon of central planning that has gone bankrupt once since the turn of the century... may be on the edge of entering bankruptcy again.... because people who " have their hands all over small moving parts of the problem " are not allowed to touch the problem until it fester's up as a big juicy boil on the corporate behind and finally the problems gets some attention from the people who are God-ordained to solve ALL problems... the broad-thinkers at the top.

Now lets look at Toyota. You can be the newest worker on the production line. You can be installing one of the smallest and maybe in the eyes of some, the least important part in the whole automobile. But when the 3rd or 4th car in a row comes to your workstation where the holes do not match up like they always have in the past, you reach up and pull the "trip wire" and whole blooming assembly line comes to a stop! O.K. What gives over here? What is the problem? And the production team jumps on the problem as though it was the begining of World War III and they figure out what is going wrong, and they fix the problem.

The big heavy duty thinkers on up the line in offices with mahogany desks will get a report on how a problem was solved a few days ago without them resorting to big broad upper-level policy discussions to fix the problem.

Don't look for headlines that Toyota is declaring bankruptcy even if you do read headlines that GM is once again in trouble.

SIDENOTE #I. One of my offspring is a "Lean Process" planner in the hospital business. She attends conferences and seminars regularly just to stay sharp rather than get into a thinking rut. She tells me she recently went to a workshop with honest-to-goodness Toyota people in the room. Her comment: "Dad- those Toyota folks take-no-prisoners!"

SIDENOTE #2. Over the last couple of years I have posted comments and asked for responses of evidence that the broadcast industry engages in "Lean Process" type thinking and training. The only response I have ever received was a note that a broadcaster had introduced a plan where advertising customers could pay their invoice to the radio station via an on-line bank transer/deposit via a computer screen, speeding up the receipt of money.

That is a good example of "Lean Process". Is that the only example the entire industry has that it can share with me?

SIDENOTE #3. How often have you heard Talk Radio ever blunder into a discussion.... much less plan one... about Lean Process in the American business community?

 

[flybynight]

Truthfully, I have no interest in convincing anyone of anything. At some point, every one of them will encounter the medical system I've described, regardless of where they live. Hopefully, their corporate radio insurance will cover their costs. But it won't change the service they get, with continual tests that they didn't ask for, but are ordered because their insurance will pay, which drives up premium costs every year. The patient is an open wallet for these places. I don't have to say a word. Just get sick. See what happens.

The funny part to me is that many of these talk stations run advertising for the medical industrial complex. I hear it all the time. So you go from hearing hosts talk about how liberals are killing local doctors to advertisements from national health care companies, many of which are based in red states. And no one seems to notice the inconsistency.

Wouldn't you love to be there at the moment some rogue conservative finally realize that what the dreaded LIBRULS are trying to do is more in their best interest than what their red, white and blue, flag waving, tri-corner-hat wearing neighborhood posse has in store for them?

 

[TheBigA]

Wouldn't you love to be there at the moment some rogue conservative finally realize that what the dreaded LIBRULS are trying to do is more in their best interest than what their red, white and blue, flag waving, tri-corner-hat wearing neighborhood posse has in store for them?

To be honest, I've gotten past the point where one or the other is "better" or in the "best interest" of consumers. As my 90 year old grandma once told me, "Don't get sick."

 

[Avid Listener]

Behold! I reach up on the shelf and bring down not Aesop's Fables, but current business journals.

Irrelevant. You still design the car by first determine fundamental basics, like should it have 3, 4, or 6 wheels, what kind of motor, etc. From that basic fundamental big picture, you then work on the details, eventually getting down to the switches and other bits. The fact that sometimes people get the little bits wrong doesn't mean that you first decide on which little bits to use, and then build the rest of the car around them.

 

[Small Market Guy]

In my view there is a vast difference between a host dumping a caller who disagrees with the host's 2nd Amendment views (because the host believes the caller's 2nd Amendment is "false"), and a host taking calls or guests from members of the groups you listed.

So you wouldn't allow those groups on the air either. The only difference between our point of view here is where the line is drawn.

As for the whole "disagrees with the host's 2nd Amendment views", it's not about "views" or "opinions". It's about FACT. Do the research.

Thanks for answering the question, by the way. At least someone here wants to have a real discussion instead of doing nothing but crying about the lack of discussion.

 

[FredLeonard]

So you wouldn't allow those groups on the air either. The only difference between our point of view here is where the line is drawn.

As for the whole "disagrees with the host's 2nd Amendment views", it's not about "views" or "opinions". It's about FACT. Do the research.

In right wing world, views and opinions are what THEY say. Fact is what I say.

 

[TheBigA]

At least someone here wants to have a real discussion instead of doing nothing but crying about the lack of discussion.

Maybe your copy of the First Amendment is different from mine. By the way, each of those groups has had access to TV talk shows.

The funny part is that it's your view that each of the examples on your list has a natural born right to own a gun. But they don't have a similar right to be on your radio show. Ask Alan Berg how that worked out for him.

 

[Small Market Guy]

The funny part is that it's your view that each of the examples on your list has a natural born right to own a gun. But they don't have a similar right to be on your radio show.

Even I don't have a RIGHT to be on my radio show.

The First amendment protects our right to speak. It doesn't force people to give us a forum to do it.

 

[Small Market Guy]

In right wing world, views and opinions are what THEY say. Fact is what I say.

Sorry I wouldn't let your friends from the KKK on my show. It's just my policy.

 

[Small Market Guy]

And Talk Radio has done diddly-squat to prepare you to deal with all this when you talk to your doctor, your hospital, your insurance company, or your employer H.R. Department.

It's not News Talk Radio's job to tell people how to deal with their doctors. I can't even imagine the liability issues that would be involved with that. The first time someone asks for advice about some medical issue and drops dead, the radio station would be on the long list of people being sued.

Not to mention talk about how to navigate the mess of a healthcare system we have would make for dreadfully boring radio.

I think news talk hosts have done just fine covering Obamacare. The conservative hosts have pointed out the flaws and the liberal hosts have defended it. Just as expected by their audiences.

 

[TheBigA]

The First amendment protects our right to speak. It doesn't force people to give us a forum to do it.

You asked if those folks deserve time on the air. I said yes. No one's forcing you to do it, but they'd be justified to do so. A radio station is a modern equivalent of the public square, where citizens could go and express their views. A talk show is by definition the proper place for such expression. If any of the groups on your list feels their rights are being abridged, they are justified in taking you to court. And unless you have an FCC rule that prevents you from giving them time, you can't deny their request, especially based on personal prejudice, which is what you're doing.

 

[Small Market Guy]

A radio station is a modern equivalent of the public square, where citizens could go and express their views.

That would be the Internet. A radio station is the modern equivalent of a newspaper, where the owner/editor/host moderates a discussion of his choosing.

Now some hosts, myself included, like to have open discussions of various issues. I don't hang up on callers who disagree. But there are just certain things I find irresponsible to even humor. Just like I wouldn't have a representative from NAMBLA on the air, I wouldn't have a rep from the Brady Campaign on the air. They're in the same boat in my book. In fact, the Brady gang is MORE dangerous than NAMBLA in my book.

 

[FredLeonard]

Sorry I wouldn't let your friends from the KKK on my show. It's just my policy.

The KKK doesn't need to be on your show. Not when you can express their views for them and maybe even make those views seem respectable. From what you've posted, your views are very much in sync with the KKK (and their successors, the Birchers, McCarthyites and Tea Party).

You equate NAMBLA and the Brady Campaign? How Freudian. Well, maybe. Ronnie appointed Brady press secretary and Ronnie did statutory rape.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

It's not News Talk Radio's job to tell people how to deal with their doctors. I can't even imagine the liability issues that would be involved with that. The first time someone asks for advice about some medical issue and drops dead, the radio station would be on the long list of people being sued.

Maybe we should back up, back away from medical care for a moment and discuss: Does News Talk Radio have a job? Does it have a purpose? Does it owe the public anything for being granted the time and space on the dial. We are probably spinning our wheels to discus what opportunity it has (more than the JOB it has) to deal with the medical care question if we can't even determine if News Talk Radio has a job. Maybe News Talk Radio is just a big parasite on society if it has no job and no role.

I didn't propose that Talk Radio should prepare the audience how to discuss medicine with the provider of medicine. I do propose that Talk Radio (if it indeed has any socially redeemable purpose) should explain to the public what some of the changes and pressures are in the medical field so that know what research they want to do before they sit down with their doctor. Maybe Talk Radio could explain to people who haven't been to the hospital in 8 or 10 years what changes in relationships are taking place... like the fact that the doctor who admitted them to the hospital 8 years ago and was their advocate in helping them get the best deal from the hospital...but now the doctor is possibly an employee of the hospital and is NOT going to show you how to protect yourself from the hospital. At this point, in no way have I suggested that Talk Radio should advise the listener to agree to surgery or refuse surgery, to have an x-ray or to refuse the x-ray. I can see having two guests in the studio who have differing views on how often a woman should have a mammogram and let them present their opposing views. Have two doctors in the studio with differing views on how men should deal with various results of a PSA test and whether to have a biopsy or not.

Do a show in which people familiar with health insurance explain what questions to ask the Insurance Agent about the health insurance plan he/she is trying to sell you.

Not to mention talk about how to navigate the mess of a healthcare system we have would make for dreadfully boring radio.

Oh, contraire my friend. You should be present when I run into one of my friends I haven't seen for 9 months or a year and they ask what's new with the "health incident" at our house. It's like a comedy-club routine as I describe to them the medical dilemmas that have changed, the question we have had to answer we never heard of before, and some of the trade-offs we talked the doctors into rather than plow ahead like driving on a freeway in the fog.

The only reason for navigating healthcare would be a boring topic on radio.... is because the host, the moderator is incompetent to deal with the topic.

I think news talk hosts have done just fine covering Obamacare. The conservative hosts have pointed out the flaws and the liberal hosts have defended it. Just as expected by their audiences.

News/Talk Hosts tend to do pitiful when covering Obamacare.... conservative or liberal. Yes, they tend to tell their audience what the audience EXPECTS TO HEAR.... not what they NEED to hear, not what would be HELPFUL to hear.

But to discuss the pros and cons of Obamacare.... which is about the only thing Talk Radio tries to do apparently, is like sticking your big toe in the water, putting your shoe back on, walking home and saying: I went swimming. To talk only about Obamacare is to ignore Medicare, Medicaid, Women's health issues (Can you say Sandra Fluke?), long-term care for the elderly which Obamacare and Medicare basically don't do... Medicaid will take care of you once the nursing home has driven you into bankruptcy. For Talk Radio to discuss medical care, it has to talk about transportation issues of those who can no longer drive. Talk Radio needs to discuss how the people with extended illnesses get to the polls, and who is working with them to arrange for absentee ballots. Talk Radio needs to have guests who explain why medical care in
America costs more, maybe twice as much, as in other nations we consider to be our peers.... and guests to explain why that really isn't true after all.

I think this would be an interesting program... do it once a week for three or four weeks in a row: open up the phone lines, or simply give a Facebook location where listeners are invited to submit question and topics about medical care and its organization and its financing they would like to know more about. The first week will catch a lot of people off guard. The second, third and fourh week will probably produce suggestions and questions that were kind of subconscious in the beginning.

Life does not fit in a tiny little box shaped like a coffin. Life is multifaceted. Life has surprising turns and issues. But Talk Radio is stuck in this tiny little coffin shaped box and it needs some personalities who can "think outside the box".

I'm still waiting for you to convince me, demonstrate to me, that you are more talented at it than a cigar box.

 

[Avid Listener]

Maybe we should back up, back away from medical care for a moment and discuss: Does News Talk Radio have a job? Does it have a purpose?

Yes. The job, the purpose is to make money for the people who own the stations.

Does it owe the public anything for being granted the time and space on the dial.

No.

 

[JeffM]

I'm not necessarily talking about anybody here (before anybody gets their shorts twisted but if the shoe fits...). My descriptions applies to a top 40 DJ from Cape Girardeau whose girth is exceeded only by his ego.

How daaaare you insult Rush Lardbutt? He got his start in radio the real Amurrican way...he asked his daddums for a job!