I’ve been meaning to mention a new local blog for the past couple days, so I thought I’d just give a quick plug to blatherWatch, which fills in the gaping niche of slamming critiquing talk radio.
Listening to talk radio, so you don’t have to — a turn of phrase I freely offer to freelance-journalist-turned-unpaid-blogger Michael Hood as his new motto — blatherWatch intends to cover the entire radio spectrum. I wouldn’t wish this curse on my worst enemy… I can barely suffer through Air America due to all the commercials… and those tend to be the least unpleasant moments on right-wing rant stations like KTTH and KKKvi. But as much as we love to hate GOP-surrogate blogs like (un)Sound Politics, talk radio is still by far the loudest voice in the right-wing echo chamber, and somebody needs to keep an eye… um… ear on the opposition.
Recent topics have included the impending real-news-blackout that will accompany the papal death watch, KTTH host Mike Siegel’s ties to Bill O’Reilly, and the highly suspect slant of the Arbitron ratings:
NPR and other public broadcasters are not surveyed, since they’re non-commercial and Arbitron is nothing if not about business. That leaves a large part of the local listener story left untold especially in liberal markets like Seattle where NPR is widely tuned in.
It also throws into question the numbers that conservative talk supposedly enjoys and the conventional wisdom that there’s not enough progressive interest in radio talk for it to pencil.
Personally, I hope blatherWatch fleshes out its excellent commentary and analysis with a bit more reporting of the daily truth-carnage on our local airwaves. I’m not sure if Michael knows what he’s getting himself into, but if, like me, he stupidly dedicates too much of his time to blogging, blatherWatch will surely evolve into an important destination in the local blogosphere.
Blathertalk is a good word for it. When Bush’s senior citizen prescription non-benefit bill was pending, I was driving across Wyoming listening to Rush Limbaugh because there’s only 1 station in Wyoming and the choice was listen to either Rush or the wind whistling by the car window. So I (choke, gasp) listened to Rush blather about prescription benefits for seniors for about an hour and a half, until I couldn’t take it anymore and turned him off after throwing up my lunch of cold cut sandwiches and potato chips all over the car seat.
What did Rush talk about? Bill Gates. He blathered on and on about how Bill Gates would be able to get a tax-subsidized prescription drug benefit in his old age by paying 30 bucks a month. That’s all Rush talked about — Bill Gates in old age. Never once mentioned the millions of senior citizens who have to choose between the drugs that keep them alive and eating dog food. The way Rush tells it, Bill Gates is the only person in this country who’s going to be old 20 years from now.
So what’s the BFD about Chairman Bill getting a prescription benefit along with the rest of us if he ponies up his 30 bucks a month? What’s the matter, Rush? Doesn’t C. Bill pay enough taxes for ya?
Goldy, Perhaps you Democrat “Radio Nazis” should demand “equal time”. Or perhaps YOU could have your own show [Commie Lib Democrat Goldy “Explains” The News!] or [Goldy In The Hillary Village!]]
My favorite thing is to hear libs cry and whine about the hate speech on talk radio.
Their biggest complaints are:
1) The fact that somebody has on opinion that differs from theirs.
2) That opinion is so popular it draws enough advertising revenue to remain on the air.
OMG somebody has an idea outside liberal group think!!!!! Run away. Run away.
I’ve listened to Gerafalo and Franken. I don’t agree with them. I don’t think they are close to being correct. But I support the fact that their opinions bring a differing viewpoint to the political dialogue.
Wow KKKVI. Isn’t that hate speech in and of itself? It’s amazing that one person’s political idealogue can be another persons hate speech. And that most of us are so close minded that we can’t fully appreciate a differing opinion without giving that opinion a label.
Actually, a survey of NPR’s guests and commentators about 3 years ago showed that a majority were conservative. Although what conservative means today is not quite what conservative has always meant, so in some ways, many of those conservatives would today be considered liberal.
…not to mention that they’d be considered “traitors” and “heathens”.”
Goldy–
Let’s publish a top 500 list of State Government Pensions and the details of the computations. They are public records you know.
The taxpayers would be disgusted at the “2 year base game” many PERS1 employees played to get 60% of a much higher base by manufacturing a promotion or new position to screw the taxpayers.
Plus…middle-class working folks would have LOVED to get the returns the Washington Retirement System got by freely investing money.
Guys like Shyster Attorney Don are a blight on our economy for the rest of there miserable lives.
20 years of Democratic Party rule in Washington.
Look at those pensions Goldy..and look at how they are computed.
You will gag!!!!! All at taxpayer expense.
Don is worse than a bottom-feeder. Rather than be grateful for his RIP-OFF…he wants more. Perhaps Parasite Don is appropo!!
Go ahead Goldy…LOOK AT THE LEFTY CESSPOOL!
Mr. Cynical……..I wish I could write as well. Bravo Zulu!! With respect, JCH
Cynical @6
Um… and this has what to do with talk radio?
Mr Cynical, I get great laughs from your posts. you are correct that all public servants salaries are posted on lbloom.net, check it out. Talk radio. KVI, KTTH, great stations, better on the weekends. FYI, why won’t randirhodes disclose her real name jeffgannon? and billclintons real name was billyblythe. LOL Isn’t that some “FUNFACTS”
JCH @ 7
You don’t have large aspirations, do you?
Don–
You have surfaced. Tell us how it feels to be bottom-feeding with the rest of the carp?
It will be very interesting to match the big State Pensions with Political Donations….won’t it Don???????
How do you think the top 500 state pensions swing in terms of political donations Don??? Hung to the Far Left??
Not a pretty sight!
chardonnay@ 9–
Well…we have a mutual admiration society started because I appreciate your consistently outstanding posts as well.
Boy, that Don-carp guy is sure sensitive about being a bottom-feeder isn’t he?? Don lives in a fantasy world. We all see him for the disgusting carp he is….yet he truly believes he is a beautiful rainbow trout!
Thanks for the tip on salaries. Offensive, ain’t it?
I believe an even bigger scandal is the actual PENSIONS and how they are computed. The good old boy-girl LEFTY club has this pension thing figured out to a tee!!!!!
Manipulate promotions and big salary increases for the last 2 years….fat cat retirement when you add social security.
Mr. Cynical is not only fucking ignorant about how state pensions work, he doesn’t know a damn thing about fishing, either. I’ll take carp any day, the slime rockets are yours! Although I seriously doubt you could catch one even in a pay-per-inch pond where they haven’t been fed for three days. Geez, people, what can you say about someone who thinks put-and-take trout fishing is a higher form of sport than carp fishing? Better to say nothing.
Mr. Cynical —
I can excuse ignorance about how PERS works, but there’s no excuse for being ignorant about fishing. You’re not American, are you? I’ll bet you’re one of those sleeper-cell terrorists we hear about.
How long have you been in this country?
Uhhhhhhh Don–
You are PERS1…right??
The system was free to invest in the stock and bond markets, right? The formula is 2% per year up to 30 years===60% right?
And it’s 60% of the average of your highest 24 months salary, right?? And you are trying to tell me you will never ever get a cost of living increase on this, right??
Don…carp fishing is kind of fun. However, most people don’t like to eat them (unless smoked). I think they are kind of disgusting to eat. People often catch carp, suckers and other bottom-feeders and throw ’em up on the bank to die!!
Keep deflecting from your reality Don. It must comfort you and help you get thru the day. But at night when you turn off the lights and stare at the ceiling, you know I’m right!!!
don @ 15
please explain TSP accounts.
Wow!!!
Looks like we have a hit blog radio program…”The Cynical-Don Show”…both quite entertaining, if a ‘little’ off-topic.
terrorist @ 16
No I don’t get COLAs.
char @ 17
I didn’t work for the feds, and I don’t have a TSP account.
That reminds me, if NPR wants to be leftist, fine. But it’s clear that subsidizing them with taxpayer money makes no sense.
I can’t resist the obvious pun:
Makes no cents.
OK I will then, TSP, aka Thrift Savings Plan, similar to a 401k which allows a portion of their income to be invested in the market.
All federal workers have them, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to name a few. The two mentioned democrats OPPOSE the SS reform (Ryan/Sununu Bill) that would allow all u.s. workers to invest a portion of their FICA dedcution into a personal investment account, similar to the TSP that federal workers like 2 washington senators have.
Now, why can patty do it but we can’t? If I can’t do it, either should you. I say all you govn’t workers should pay into SS like the rest of us then. what’s fair is fair.
. . . still working on him to take his meds. Have patience, folks. But, I have to let you in on a secret (and at the same time get back to “talk radio” content). Mr. C. is a HUGE Abba fan. But, worse than that he is a gigantic Bob Edwards fan! No kidding! He went ballistic when Bob was “promoted”. Spent a week in the hospital having his meds adjusted, he did.
hugs and kisses!
Yeesh…talk radio turns instantly into rip Don a new one…good holy moly… :(
Maybe there is a parallel…Rush has a tendency to beat one subject slowly but surely to death. Savage is savage to anyone and anything that steps over his fine little line. Randi Rhodes is shrill enough that often times one thinks shes repeating herself.
I wish this blatherwatch person luck and will bookmark his site. Anyone that’s willing to take on the shock jocks from all sides of the spectrum should be applauded as doing more than his share to raise the national collective bar.
As a side note, I don’t mind Medved or AirAmerica’s mid day guy. They at least approach real conversation.
char @ 22
So do you and I. It’s called an IRA or a 401(k).
char @ 22 (continued)
How is creating another multi-trillion-dollar deficit “reform”? Never has so pernicious a piece of legislation been so malevolently misnamed.
It has become most obvious the mainstream media as a whole does not want to report the facts. They skim the main meat of the Rossi proceedings and leave us with their scrapes. Out of the transcript they so painfully srutinize, we find them picking and choosing buzz words that lean so dam far to the right they resemeble the leaning tower Piza. Fact is, they deliberatly exclude what they don’t want the public to know. This kind of haphazard reporting sucks, is unacceptable. Yellow journalism has kindled the need for blog world news. The cutting edge blog site award goes to Goldy.