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WTKK 96.9 FM's Bruce Stevens: Rabid Anti-Catholic Guest

C

Casablance

Guest
Wonder if anyone else heard Bruce Stevens on 96.9 on Saturday morning with his rabidly anti-Catholic guest Steve Walberg. This Walberg (sp?) guy was a phoner [ maybe a phony ] from California who came on to discuss the book and movie, The DaVinci Code. Besides bashing the book and the movie this 'fundy' Bible thumper spent most of his time bashing the Roman Catholic Church with the encouragement of Bruce Stevens. Besides, that this 'Thumper' used the rest of the time on 96.9 to sell his books and website. This Walberg nut should give author Dan Brown and producer Ron Howard their 15% agent fee for getting him this gig.
 
Most organized religions deserve a good bashing. Having experienced a bit of Catholic School (life was SO much better at Arlington High upon leaving the repressed nuns of Arlington Catholic), and seeing Tom Cruise show us the flower of Scientology's efforts, perhaps religion should remain a personal thing. Good for Bruce Stevens - hope they re-run it - I will listen.Without the Religion of Bush and Osama we wouldn't have the Iraq War and we'd still have the Twin Towers.Don't blame God, but certainly blame religion - organized religion.
 
the way I look at it I tolerate religious people but when they fly planes into buildings so they can kill 3,000Americans and meet Allah and the 72 black-eyed virgins, that's going a bit too far.
 
So...let me get this straight...You're surprised that a guy got on the radio, bashed the church, and plugged his book?You may not agree with his stance, but he did all the right things as a guest in talk radio. I'm sure the phones went well, and there were plenty of sympathetic and opposing viewpoints. As far as religion goes...pray to whatever you want. Just don't tell others that they have to. It's that simple and shouldn't even be open to debate. But, It always is.Keeping this on-topic, it was (on paper) a great guest for talk radio. And it bugged someone so much they started a thread here. That's a "win" for the station.
 
Please note, that Bruce Stevens would not take calls in opposition to his guest who was booked to talk about The DaVinci Code movie and not to bash the Catholic Church. As mentioned in a similar off the air section, I was on hold while 10 calls were put on before me and Stevens never took my call. As you know 96.9 has 4 incoming lines not 10. Evidence that Stevens did not want anyone to challenge his anti-Catholic co-hort. This is not the way Paula O'Connor, the station PD, usually runs the station but Stevens in a "weakend" talker with limited ability.
 
>>Most organized religions deserve a good bashing.I usually don't bash religion--I have an attitude of you do what you want, I'll do what I want, etc.;but let's just say I might listen to what a church has to say (and decide on my own) about a movieonce that church stops promoting Cardinals to cushy jobs in Rome (Bernie Law, come on down!)instead of firing them for "looking the other way" when charges of pedophile priests come out.
 
Off the topic. As a practicing Catholic I can and will criticize my church and will stay and fight for changes not so much in its dogma but in pointless and meaningless traditions...married priests for one.Still, Bruce Stevens should have allowed some one of his listeners to counter the bigotted anti-Catholic rant of his guest.And yes, it matters that this snake charmer was trying to sell his diatribes on WTKK 96.9. I am sure that Peter Smyth, the President of Greater Media, who is also a practicing Roman Catholic cannot be happy that his station allowed such bigotry to go unchallenged.
 
So Bruce Stevens is Anti Catholic because YOU didnt get on? You said you waited on hold (and presumably were never put on the air) while others "bashed" the catholic church from a conversation that started with Da vinci code as the basis?. You're in radio yes? you should know that there is not always time for every guest and with your rather well pronounced pro catholic view stated here my guess is that no matter how much equal time was given to those who wanted to defend the church, your beef would have then turned to not ENOUGH pro catholic guests being allowed to chime in etc. Neanderpaul is absoloutely correct, great guests that spurred talk, you're here talking about it and Im sure that you've spoken to many of your friends and family about your feelings as well, and I would also guess that you hhave not taken 96.9 off of your presets either.. IN SHORT: It's A WIN FOR THE STATION. You should not be suprised by this though, they are THERE to inflame the moderates and praise the right, in this case the inflamed a catholic who will continue to talk about the station. 96.9 is not a real "FM TALK " station, they are basically a typical AM talk outlet with a better stereo signal, they are a traditional right leaning talk station. The only real difference between Howie Carr and jay Severin is that Carr doesnt placate his audience by trying to elevate their blue collar sense of self worth by using larger word than they're used to hearing and allowing them to feel good about themselves when they actually understand a large, pretentious vocabulary words. NOte to Catholics: "the Davince code is a WORK OF FICTION, so Dan Brown presents it as fairly factual, so what? IF Stephan King thought he would sell more books about werewolves by trying to convince people that these are true stories, you dont think he would do it?. It's your fault if you take it as anything more than a work of fiction. Besides if you're catholic you have larger concerns than Dan Brown's conspiracy theories. Talk radio of the 96.9 variety is there to incite, inflame give teh conservatives the constant reinforcement and affirmation that they for whatever reason so desperatelly need. Mission accomplished. How long has Bruce Stevens even bbeen there? I remember whhen he was let go from WBZ years ago.
 
My beef is more that Stevens guest came on under the pretext of discussing the work of FICTION, The DaVinci Code, but spent the hour selling his own books which bash the Catholic Church. If you want an intelligent discussion of the faults of The Roman Catholic Church I would be glad to lead that charge as a practicing Roman Catholic. But I don't want someone approaching the discussion from some bigotted viewpoint which only wants to say that his version of Christianity is better than my version of Christianity. If I wanted that I would have moved to Iraq and watched the various Muslin sects fight it out. I shouldn't really care because this guy's bigotry overshadowed his discussion and made him sound like the fool he probably is. Not sure what it says about Bruce Stevens that he would count this guys as his friend.
 
Well my initial thought is that if he himself is an author he was there to hock his own wares rather than to promote Dan Brown's book ( or probably to discuss the movie, that people were all up in amrs about before hhaving seen it, many of whom also had not even read the book) so then your issue should be with someone who writes (I dont know whether he does or not this is again your interpretation) anti Catholic literature, not that he appeared on talk radio to sell it..... that's what most talk radio guests are even on talk radio for in the first place, a promotional vehicle for their works. However I also find that many catholics especially in Massachusetts are more than ready to brand almost anything that isnt a blanket endorsement of the church, "anti catholic". My point being that if you have a gripe with abguy who wrote an anti catholic book then you protest by not purchasing it but yu cant blame the guy for wanting to promote/sell it now can you?. I get whhere you're coming from, being black if I were to get upset everytime I heard something which i considered racist on talk radio I would make myself insane, the solution for me then is to not listen to right wing leaning talk radio which is essentially most talk radio. I think Severin is a complete pompous, right wing, jerk off, O'reilly, Hannity, all of them make me want to punch the radio so I dont listen. Then again they're paid to get a reaction so I cant fault them for doing their job well either.
 
Casablance, I'll take you on regarding the Catholic Church:1)The inquisition2)Failing to adhere to the teachings of Jesus3)Closing down churches to pay for the sex abuse scandal when "Archbishop" Law has a basilica in Rome with a fortune worth of paintings held in storage.Put those paintings on tour a la King Tut exhibit and watch the cash register ring.While having coffee one Sunday morning three Catholic ladies were upset about their churchbeing closed in Medford. That church was destroyed a few months back and is now going condo.They were lovely women and the Church just took a big part of their lives with NO SAY from thecongregation that built it.This is so contrary to the teachings of Jesus that it isn't even worthy of debate. The system ismore corrupt than radio - and God knows the Spitzer investigation hasn't even touched thingsthat are on an equal level of depravity with the Catholic Church.As a student in a Catholic school I watched nuns beat young girls because they could. It was horrific.There are some good priest but they, unfortunately, have to do the bidding of powerful men who aremore business oriented than God oriented.Until they can give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, I believe it is the DUTY of everyone to shine a light on Catholic misconduct.Amen.
 
where do we disagree. Worked for a group of nuns who are attempting to cover up pedophile and sexual abuse within its international order...until I discovered their cover-up.
 
Thanks for clearing that up." but spent the hour selling his own books which bash the Catholic Church. "Some people do jump on the bandwagon to sell books - however it is good to see the topic stay in the public eye. I can agree with your point of view - and as someone probably on this thread said - we're talking about it.
 
Catholic Church

Gee, Groundloop, thanks for clearing that up!Guess all that abuse we witnessed at the Catholic school I went to never happened - y'know, the nuns whacking girls on the back of the legs with the yardstick; the two priests caught in thesex abuse scandal. How about those of us who RIGHTLY know what the Catholic Church is doingwrong. They're having second thoughts on O'Malley - gee - most of us knew he was in over his head the minute they announced they gave him the position.FROM GROUNDLOOP:"The late Bishop Fulton Sheen once said....."There are not over a 100 people in the U.S. that hate the Catholic Church, there are millions however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church -- which is, of course, quite a different thing."
 
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