Shock Jocks

Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post reports on a “fatwa” shock jock Michael Savage has issued against the media monitoring group Media Matters for America.

“I’m having a hard time discerning the logic behind talk-radio host Michael Savage’s recent threat to post pictures and ‘pertinent information” about the people who work for Media Matters For America on his website,” writes Linkins. “Oh, wait! I see my mistake! I am sitting here, contemplating Michael Savage, and attempting to ‘discern logic.” Okay, my bad.”

Savage recently called upon “all people in the media who have been harassed by this Stalinist group, Media Matters, to join forces to publish the names of the people and put their pictures up on their websites.”

LISTEN HERE

One time shock jock and current blogger Hal Turner got one thing right. Turner, accused of encouraging violence against Connecticut legislators, told authorities upon his arraignment on a felony charge of inciting injury to persons that, ‘”It’s certainly my intent to motivate the public to get involved in this, and certainly we hope that nobody’s going to go off the deep end and do something terrible, but … ” He then added, chillingly, ”You never can tell.’”

The former radio talk show host recently urged his blog readers to ”take up arms’” against lawmakers and suggested state officials should ”obey the Constitution or die.’” He also wrote that residents should ”put down this tyranny by force’” and ”I suspect we have enough bullets’” to stop any prosecutors, police officers or court officials.

The crime Turner is charged with, inciting injury to persons or property, carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 10 years. Turner claims his words are protected by free speech rights.

As the Associated Press reports, “Turner’s views have drawn scrutiny before. Two years ago, police in New Jersey beefed up security for four state Supreme Court justices whose addresses Turner revealed ‘to show they can be gotten to.” Turner released the information after the court ruled that gay couples were entitled to the same rights as married couples.”

At least that’s what Reihan Salam believes! Writing on the Daily Beast web site Salam says that the controversial hosts are preventing more violence than they are stimulating and in fact deserve “a medal from the Department of Homeland Security.”

As Salam notes, “After a Holocaust Museum security guard was murdered by a deranged white supremacist, many observers loudly wondered if right-wing extremism represented a real and potent threat. After all, the shooting followed the slaying of George Tiller, the Kansas doctor best known for performing controversial late-term abortions. Are the two events a dark potent of a violent domestic terror campaign?”

The answer, says the author, “is probably no,” because “screamers” like Beck, O’Reilly and their ilk actually “soak up the angry energy of alienated citizens.” Rather than stoke the fears of their audience, Salam claims, the screamers instead “inoculate… against truly extreme sentiments.”

I recently spoke again with Jeff Farias, who does one of the most consistently interesting topical talk programs out there — and the topics this time included recent hate speech-fueled murders of abortion provide Dr. George Tiller and the security guard Stephen T. Johns at the Holocaust Museum, as well as attempts by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to censor a book critical of his 9/11 prosecutions.

Not surprisingly, Julius Genachowski — Barack Obama’s nominee for chairman of the FCC — does not support reimposing the fusty old Fairness Doctrine anymore than his boss does. Asked at his nomination hearing to publicly state his view on the defunct yet still- controversial policy, Genachowski said he strongly supports in the First Amendment and doesn’t think the FCC should be involved in censorship.

According to industry trade journal Broadcasting & Cable, Genachowski was “asked at his nomination hearing by ranking Senate Commerce Committee Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) to publicly state the opinion he had expressed to her in a meeting–that he did not support the doctrine, even if it were arrived at by ancillary routes like localism mandates.”

Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who also got his renomination vetting in the committee Tuesday, said he did not have any concerns that the commission would reimpose it, saying he would take Genachowski at his word.

Now if only the right wing shock jocks would do the same!

Chicago area shock jock Mancow Muller was hailed in some quarters recently for submitting himself to waterboarding and then admitting that it constitutes “torture” — although there is some evidence that it might have been a faked stunt…)

Whatever the truth about the waterboarding, however, as blogger Josh Kalven has noted, it’s still “worth remembering how rancid his WLS show often is.” Regarding Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s recent comment that “them Jews” in the White House won’t let President Obama talk to him, for example, Mancow absurdly asserted that, because of his connection to Wright, Obama is an “anti-Semite” who was “popping champagne” following the recent shooting at the Holocaust Museum!

Kalven’s post has all the awful audio, if you can bear to listen. If not, here’s a full transcript:

MULLER: Did you hear that Obama and Rev. Wright were popping champagne last night?

PAT CASSIDY (co-host): Yeah? Where was this at?

MULLER: Well, they were excited over the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.

CASSIDY:Oh, please.

MULLER: No, Pat. I am convinced that this president hates Jews and he hates Israel. And look, he spent 20 years sitting in a pew –

CASSIDY:Rev. Wright does, I think so.

MULLER: He spent 20 — look guys, he spent — and I know the criminal, liberal, state-controlled media doesn’t report it, but Obama sat in our city folks — before I knew the name Obama, I knew Rev. Wright. I’m a churchgoing guy. And I knew what a racist anti-Semite this guy was. What church — I ask you people — what church celebrates Louie Farrakhan that isn’t — what Christian church would celebrate this guy?

So now here’s Rev. Wright: “Them Jews won’t let Obama talk to me.”

[PLAYS AUDIO CLIP OF WRIGHT COMMENT]

MULLER: Okay? Obama sat there with this Jew-hater for 20 years. Obama, let’s remember this, dedicated his book to him. Named his book after one of Rev. Wright’s sermons.

CASSIDY: The “audacity of hope” is from a Rev. Wright sermon.

MULLER: Okay? And then when anyone question this anti-Semite, race-baiting hater, oh they’re charged with being a Republican attack machine. Okay? This guy is no man of God. He is evil. And when you see the way Obama is kissing Muslim butt and selling out Israel, you realize where it all came from: the radical wife, okay? The radical, Black Panther wife and Rev. Wright the anti-Semite.

So here we go. Here we go again. World War II. Here we go.

CASSIDY: Well, there’s no question that Rev. Wright is a racist. And he certainly appears to be anti-Semitic, certainly his comments last night — and he’s made a million of them.

MULLER: “Those Jews” aren’t going to let me talk.

CASSIDY: Exactly. And that was pretty clear. It’s hard to hear the sound-bite, but you could definitely hear it.

MULLER: Yeah, well, “them Jews won’t let me talk to Obama.” Who’s he talking about? Rahm Emanuel?

CASSIDY: That’s exactly right.

MULLER: Yeah, yeah, so I’m betting these two, these two anti-Semites — yes, your president; you voted for him, mouth-breathers — your president and Rev. Wright — two great Chicagoans, two great race — hey, race-baiting is a way of life here in Chicago — two great race-baiters. I bet they were popping champagne over the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.

CASSIDY: I doubt that. That’s ridiculous to say that. No question.

MULLER: Really?

CASSIDY: Yeah. They’re celebrating a shooting at the Holocaust Museum?

MULLER: Yeah. Yeah.

My longtime business partner and pal Danny Schechter “the News Dissector” has just launched a hot new chat show on Gary Null’s Internet-based progressiveradionetworks.com. Schechter recently had Yours Truly on to talk about hate speech, shock jocks and related issues. Enjoy!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reports that former shock jock and current blogger Harold ”Hal’” Turner, who recently urged readers to ”take up arms’” against Connecticut lawmakers and who suggested government officials should ”obey the Constitution or die” has surrendered on a charge of inciting violence.

Turner was angry over legislation that would have given lay members of Roman Catholic churches in Connecticut more control over parish finances. So, on June 2, he wrote on his blog that Catholics should ”take up arms and put down this tyranny by force.’”

”It is our intent to forment direct action against these individuals personally,’” Turner wrote. ”These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die.’” And, speaking of police or prosecutors who may try to stop him, Turner wrote, ”I suspect we have enough bullets to put them down too.”

Last week, however, he explained the posts as ”crude political hyperbole uttered in a context which did not lend itself to imminent lawlessness.’” And upon his surrender to authorities, Turner’s attorneys issued a statement saying that his First Amendment rights need to be protected, even if people disagree with his views.

The progressive radio network Air America is landing back in the nation’s capital after a long hiatus — inking a local marketing agreement with Bonneville International Corp. to begin broadcasting its programming in June on 1050 AM.

“Air America is obviously very interested in the D.C. market,” Bennett Zier, Air America’s CEO told the Washington Business Journal. “It’s where decisions are made. Its number one business is politics.”

As reported in the Hartford Courant, Internet radio host Hal Turner “accused of inciting Catholics to “take up arms” and singling out two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official on a Web site “was taken into custody in New Jersey recently after state Capitol police in Connecticut obtained a warrant for his arrest.

The paper noted that, “Turner, who has been identified as a white supremacist and anti-Semite by several anti-racism groups, hosts an Internet radio program with an associated blog. On Tuesday, the blog included a post that promised to release the home addresses of state Rep. Michael Lawlor, state Sen. Andrew McDonald and Thomas Jones of the State Ethics Office” in reaction to a controversy over a Connecticut bill that would have changed the way the Roman Catholic Church is governed, taking power away from church officials and turning it over to lay members.

The blog of the “Turner Radio Network” recounted the matter, then included the following remarks in a section labeled “commentary”: “It is our intent to foment direct action against these individuals personally. These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die.”

The post continued: “If any state attorney, police department or court thinks they’re going to get uppity with us about this, I suspect we have enough bullets to put them down, too.

“Mr. Turner’s comments are above and beyond the threshold of free speech,” Capitol Police Chief Michael J. Fallon said in an e-mail announcing the warrant. “He is inciting others through his Web site to commit acts of violence and has created fear and alarm. He should be held accountable for his conduct.”