Daily Archives: December 27, 2013

Media, Pensacola, Politics

Commercial Liberal Talk Radio Takes A Dive

Following the same footsteps as Air America Radio a few years ago, commercial Progressive or Liberal (same thing) talk radio disappears in markets replete with their disciples, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Well, except for NPR that, so far, taxpayers are forced to subsidize.

2014 will mark the beginning of a massive change for liberal talk radio across the country. In New York, WWRL 1600 AM will flip to Spanish-language music and talk, throwing Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and Alan Colmes off the air. In Los Angeles, KTLK 1150 will be dumping Stephanie Miller, Rhodes, Bill Press and David Cruz off the air in favor of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. In San Francisco, KNEW 960 will leave Miller, Hartmann, and Mike Malloy without a radio home in the market.

hand-tapping-morse-code-on-an-antique-telegraph-machineWith listener participation down to friends, relatives, and employees, they are moving to the free, as in no commercial sponsorship required, media on the internet (short wave & smoke signals) like the wildly popular (somewhere behind Al Sharpton) Pensacola-based Ring of Fire radio show. The progressive show run by lawyers Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who recently disabled reader comments from their website, and bans conservatives from commenting on their Facebook page. And, they don’t take phone calls on the fly either. They can’t. If they did, they’d be forced into defending their indefensible talking points.

Update: 12/29/2013

This kind of ‘protecting the bubble’ censorship is not exclusive to the Ring of Fire show. It is indicative about why they can’t hold a broad audience. Except for their lemmings that do listen, their angry and derogatory tone does not attract sponsors or a broad spectrum of listeners. Mike Malloy, in the show that bears his name, is a prime example. Unlike Papantonio, Malloy will take calls. But he didn’t like one he got from me over a subject that we will be talking about again, unemployment benefits. Malloy didn’t want to hear that Republicans wanted to extend unemployment benefits if they would cut an equal amount from somewhere else in the budget, like the PayGo law required. Instead, he suggested that “right-wingers” practice self mutilation instead of calling his show. See Liberals And Speech, Part 3, Right-Wingers, Cut Your Hand Off for details and the full audio.

Seems Malloy was prophetic 25 seconds into this clip, “let’s see if he calls this program if we’re still on the air.”

 

Link: Liberal Commercial Talk Radio Disappears in NY, LA, SF in 2014

Economy, Media, Politics

Obama’s Pay Raise For Military

You’ll have to look far and wide for a media report that explains the details behind the one percent pay raise that Obama gave to the military in the budget he signed today.

What  happened was, the House passed its version of the fiscal 2014 Defense authorization bill in June, which included a 1.8 percent pay increase for troops. The formula for determining service members’ annual pay increase is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index and the growth in private-sector wages; for 2014, that turns out to be 1.8 percent. But under the law (Title 37, Chapter 19, Section 1009) the president has the authority to set an alternate pay raise for military personnel, citing a national emergency or fiscal concerns, if Congress doesn’t pass legislation adjusting the amount or canceling it.

So one would think, what with food stamps going to active military personnel and families having shot up 400 percent, that the Commander In Chief wouldn’t be cutting the modest 1.8 percent. But he did.

All the major media outlets use this template:

  • ABC: The comprehensive defense bill Obama signed will give military personnel a 1 percent pay raise.
  •    AP: The comprehensive defense bill Obama signed will give military personnel a 1 percent pay raise.
  • USA Today: Military personnel receive a 1% raise under the bill.

Now if there were a Republican in The White House, first of all, there wouldn’t be a cut. At the very least, the military would have gotten the 1.8 percent increase based on the standard formula. But for argument’s sake, play along. If there were a Republican in the White House that did what Obama just did, the media would be screaming at the top of their lungs, front page above the fold, ‘President cuts military pay 80 percent,” and “President slashes military pay by 80 percent.”

This is a first. The media is actually calling an increase, an increase. After all, one percent is one percent more than zero. In all other circumstances where the Republican party can be demonized, that one percent increase is called a cut. A cut from the 1.8 percent increase that the House passed.

Yet another blatant example of the media covering for their president. At the expense of our troops no less.

Link: 2014 Military Pay Raise Guaranteed