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.