Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A Savage WIND -- Part 1 of 3


The Experiment

Because I do not do "calls" for anything -- and because for a lot of reasons boycotts can be sooo tricksie and hard to execute -- this is not a call for a boycott.

This is more in the nature of an experiment based on the simple fact that for the last two decades, Right Wing liars in the media have been able to get away with spreading their evangelism of hate, fear and war for only one reason: they never had to go out and get real jobs.

They have always been underwritten by people who, in exchange for votes or believers or validation or customers, have been only too happy to quietly foot the bill from the shadows.

And that is one of the GOPs fattest, juiciest Achilles' Heels; As the Party continues Entroping the Right Fantastic into ever more highly-distilled concentrates of fulminating, hysterical misanthropy, the harder it becomes to pretend that they’re not just plain shithouse-rat crazy.

Which means that since the Denial Condom that “Moderate” Republicans have to slip over their Huge!Throbbing!Racist!Crazy!Party grows thinner and more fragile every day, there has never been a more fruitful opportunity to get up in the grills of those who want to silently support the Party of God and start loudly and publicly framing their alternatives for them.

Make them choose -- Do you or do you not stand behind what these looney motherfuckers say? -- and then make them publicly accountable for those choices.

So I’m going to try an experiment based on these simple facts:
1. WIND is a Chicago radio station that features one of the ubiquitous, all-wingnut-all-the-time line-ups.

2. Some months ago they proudly announced the addition of Michael Weiner Savage to their line-up.

3. To keep the Pig People a'squealin' and a'listenin', Michael Weiner Savage likes to run his mouth.

4. The good people at Media Matters helpfully jot down what Michael Weiner Savage says and publish it, which makes Michael Weiner Savage very, very sad.

5. Advertising revenue is the life's blood of radio, and is what makes it possible for bottom-feeding moral CHUDs like Michael Weiner Savage to exist and enjoy a handsome living.


Thanks to a lot of tedious digging on the part of my army of (mostly imaginary) minions, I now have a fairly exhaustive list of the organizations that advertise on WIND.

The addresses of their corporate offices.

Their websites.

Their phone numbers

The names of their principle corporate officers.

Hehehe.

There is nothing dodgy here -- all of this information is publicly available -- but outside of the WIND marketing department’s computer, I don’t know that such a resource has ever been collated into a single, easy-to-copy-and-paste-from location.

In the two posts that follow, I'll publish that list and offer it as a resource to those who wish to contact WIND's advertisers -- politely -- and inform them of exactly what kind of filth that station purveys over the public air waves (I use the specific example of Michael Weiner Savage), and ask them whether or not they are going to continue underwriting such hateful, divisive people with their advertising dollars.

I’ll also post up a sample Complaint Letter should anyone choose to use it as a template, so all anyone has to bring to the party is a little customized tweaking and a postage stamp.

Remember, if you choose to contact any or all of the organizations on the list;

1. Polite but firm works best to accomplish what you are trying to do.

2. This is not a Free Speech issue. Like any other American, Michael Weiner Savage is free to vomit his lunacy in letters to the editor, or on his preferred street corner, or on a blog, or scrawled in his own shit on his bedroom walls.


Instead this is about Disinvestment. This is about demanding that companies which choose to invest their advertising dollars in despicable organizations like WIND either stop doing what they are doing, or publicly affirm that they do indeed support the unhinged ravings of Michael Weiner Savage.

Because in the Age of Dubya, there is no third choice.

14 comments:

Fran / Blue Gal said...

can people from outside Chicago write, too? Is WIND a clearchannel station? I appreciate that the advertisers get called on this, but if I am in no position to buy their product, what reason do they have to listen to me? I would like to see them get a dozen letters and call the station to say don't put my ad on during Savage.

One thing my letter (I'm in Alabama, btw) could say is that I know what your company does and I am in a position to tell my friends in Illinois about good responsive businesses in their area (not a stick but a carrot, see?) and see how they respond.

I take it you want us to let you know how these companies respond to our letters? Where and how?

Maybe that's down the page and I missed it.

BG

Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

Drifty--here's my blog page and i did sumpin similar at NMFBIHOP, a local pwog/blog...
i wholeheartedly endorse your initiative here. is there any way to get the advertizers' list WITHOUT listening to the program?

Anonymous said...

Having read Stanley K Robinson describe an ice-cave as "driftglass" ...I know ask you today:

"What is 'driftglass'?"

Anonymous said...

I posted this in the other thread, people may or may not want to follow suit, but I plan to put in my letters the suggestion that advertisers direct their advertising funds to WCPT, the only leftie talk radio station in the city.

¡El Gato Negro! said...

Amigo,

joo should get een touch w/ Spocko on thees, he has valuable experience een causing discomfort for rightweengnutbar hate radio stations.

Es verdad.

Anonymous said...

I use the free open source software for recording and editing sounds, Audacity, (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to record our local talk radio wingnut welfare supported host's show.

The headphone jack of my radio is plugged into my computer's line-in jack. I log the recording start time of each broadcast, and then log times at which the wingnut host spews a doozy for future reference.

This type of audio resource could be helpful toward convincing WIND's advertisers that their ad dollars are ill-spent.

Anonymous said...

Drift, I KNEW you'd be over here, having a LARGE time, watching Huckabee and his snaketwirlers extract a few kilos of suet from the GOP's ass, for all their pandering to and empowering of, the flatearthers.

Pardon the expression, but by God, It's a joy to hear Novak and Will, whining about "extremists" in the republican party. :o)

Who knew that Falwell-jizz has a half-life approximately that of plutonium. :o)

Fran / Blue Gal said...

tanbark this is a broken record on my blog but I sincerely wish that Will, Gergen, John Dean, and even Bush Senior COULD save the conservative movement. The tension between people who live in the real world but see things differently is actually a blessing for our democratic society. But it is way too late for that traitor Novak and for the whole Republican party, I fear. Our nation suffered a great loss when Rupert Murdoch and Karl Rove and Tom Delay (forgotten but not gone, make no mistake) and their ilk decided power trumped truth.

BAC said...

Blue Gal, to answer your question above, yes it can make an impact for people outside of Chicago to contact advertisers. The only way to get these people to do the right thing is to threaten their bottom line. It's the money baby ... that's what will get a CEO's attention.


BAC

Anonymous said...

And you say Savage is the one who preaches hate? Look in the mirror my friend. The best way to discredit a faulty idea is to let people hear it. If Michael Savage is so hateful, why do so many people listen?

Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a Joyous Solstice to all

Anonymous said...

"...The best way to discredit a faulty idea is to let people hear it...."

yeah, that worked really well in Rwanda

Anonymous said...

And your solution would be?

jdaquino said...

I believe the solution has been offered up in elegant fashion right here. What's yours? Laissez-faire is not a solution.

Anonymous said...

I don't think a centrally planned economy is a solution either. Tell me how can you reward the entrepreneur under a socialist economy? People who were "victims" of predatory lenders made bad choices. I have had to pay for my bad financial choices. Most people do. Not quite Laissez-faire, but close.

By the way, I contacted Savage's remaining sponsors and thanked them for their support of free speech.