Robert Stacy McCain writes so I don't have to

Fellow blogger (a much more well-known one than I am, of course) Robert Stacy McCain describes what he expects the media to do in covering the book tour of Sarah Palin (hey, did you know she has a book out, and did you know I get paid if you buy through this link?) in this American Spectator column.

Salient points, which Mr. McCain fleshes out quite a bit more than I will here:

1. They (the MSM, that is) will ignore Gov. Palin's popularity (even as people are lining up hours in advance for her book tour events).
2. They'll focus on the crazies.
3. They'll postulate that this means that the Republican Party is in trouble.

All this is par for the course for most of the media, I suppose, but we may as well call them out on it.

As an added bonus, Mr. McCain takes a well-deserved shot at self-described conservative (since no one else will still do it) Andrew Sullivan, best known these days as Trig-Truther #1.  Money quote:

We look forward to Andrew Sullivan's next book, Inside Sarah Palin's Uterus: The Most Shocking Scandal Ever.

It's worth a full read.  Check it out.

"Todd and Don Show" to return

590 KLBJ announced today that the "Todd and Don Show" will return to its lineup.  (Strangely, KLBJ previously had an article on their site announcing this change themselves, but now it's gone, so here's KXAN's article, and here's the Statesman article.)  The show, pulled in July over controversial racial remarks made by Don Pryor, will return to KLBJ's lineup on December 7.

Emmis, owner of KLBJ, issued the following press release:

Earlier today, Hispanic leaders and Emmis Austin Radio management met to discuss cultural sensitivity issues and a commitment to open communications and improved relationships. Emmis Austin Radio presented a plan of action which includes mandatory diversity training for all on-air personalities, producers, and station management, at all six Austin radio stations owned and operated by Emmis. Emmis announced that The Todd and Don Show will return to the KLBJ-AM airwaves on December 7, 2009, with a transformed perspective on community history, expectations and cultural sensitivity. Hispanic leaders were updated on Emmis Austin Radio’s progress in these areas so far, and were assured by Emmis that efforts to better serve the entire Austin community would be ongoing.

Hot 93.3 to flip?

All Access is reporting today that the entire Hot 93.3 air staff has been let go.  The station is currently still running CHR/Rhythmic without jocks, apparently.  No other information has been confirmed as of this date, but unsubstantiated reports are that the station is going to jettison its current format on Friday (I'm already getting hits to this blog entry from people checking into that possibility), possibly in favor of an FM Talk format...

...which makes little to no sense to me, given that we already have FM Talk available via 98.9 KXBT, and also (kinda) via translator K259AJ 99.7 (simulcasting 590 KLBJ).  It also makes little sense given KDHT's top-ten ratings in a tight Austin market.  But I guess we'll see.


(Thanks to tweep @Kent_Ahrens for the tip.)

Update 11/19:  It's not going to be FM Talk.  It's going to be KGSR.

Apparently the media doesn't like Sarah Palin...

(Hey, in case you haven't heard, Sarah Palin has a book coming out today.  There's a link over to the right of this screen.  I'll get a pittance if you buy through it.  If you like me, go for it.  If you don't like me, buy it anyway and have a book-burning or something.)

Just this morning, I've seen several items that appear to have been shown by some MSM outlets to counterbalance the phenomenal sales of Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue.  It's as though they feel that it is their personal mission to try to keep Gov. Palin down, in some sort of attempt to make President Obama look better.  Let's check out a few of them, shall we:

Last night, Naomi Wolf appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live"and, among other things, insisted that Sarah Palin was part of a "cabal" of people carrying water for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove.  Luckily, as NewsBusters reports, there were others to try to speak rationally about the former governor.  (If memory serves, local station KVUE had a Belo-circulated report that showed a different clip in which Ms. Wolf whined that all Governor Palin has been doing has been to "play the victim card", which only speaks to Ms. Wolf's opinion instead of saying anything about Gov. Palin, who, of course, has had a lot to say about policy and other things.  But that doesn't fit Ms. Wolf's skewed perception, does it?)

This morning, ABC's "Good Morning America" showed portions of Barbara Walters's interview with Sarah Palin (and since I haven't seen said interview yet, I'll reserve comment).  And what headline did they tout right along with the Palin interview?  Of course, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that President Obama has an approval rating of 56%, which is miles away from the recent sub-50 ratings he's been pulling.  And there's a good reason for this:  as HotAir.com reports, this poll was skewed 14 points in favor of Democrats over Republicans.  Way to be fair, ABC.

Apparently CBS did not get an interview with Sarah Palin this time around, and I don't wonder why (see Couric, Katie), and so they felt that a good balance to the interview on ABC would be to give a spotlight to a completely undeserving Levi Johnston, father of Gov. Palin's grandson.  Others have fact-checked Mr. Johnston's changing story before now, and I can link to them later if need be, but suffice it to say that I generally don't believe pretty much anything Mr. Johnston is currently saying about Gov. Palin, and I further believe that he is on a mission, possibly guided by people with an agenda, to destroy the grandmother of his child in whatever way, truthful or not, he can.  (That, and I'm tired of seeing his smug face all over the media.  If ever there were a person deserving of my "useless celebrity" label, he is one.)

Meh, that's enough of that.  Besides, Robert Stacy McCain has already covered a lot of this evident bias against Sarah Palin in this American Spectator column.  Look into this, and judge for yourself.

Sarah Palin on Oprah: Comments

For the first time in a long time, I watched Oprah yesterday to see her interview with Sarah Palin.  I will admit I've watched Oprah before, unlike some others (the last time, I believe, was when Dave Ramsey was on).  I will also admit I haven't been too thrilled with Oprah since she openly endorsed Barack Obama for president, but that is her prerogative.  I think the "did Oprah snub Sarah" story was overblown (and so did Sarah, according to yesterday's interview), but given the hyperpartisan environment present in the 2000s, such a story was inevitable.

Enough with the preliminaries.  I'm sure there are another thousand people who want to speak their piece (yes, that was used correctly) about this interview, so let's get to it.

First of all, Sarah Palin gave a great interview with Oprah.  Yes, I'm a huge Palin fan, as anyone who reads this blog regularly (hi, Dad) knows, but I'll admit she's not always had good interviews before (see Couric, Katie).  This one was good.  Sarah was charming and personable, and she gave good answers to almost everything Oprah asked.  (No, she didn't answer Oprah's question about 2012.  I can totally understand why; would you want a three-year campaign?  It was bad enough watching Obama run for two years.)

Now, I know that some people slammed Oprah's interviewing in this episode, but I thought her questions were mostly quite fair.  She covered a majority of the topics that needed to be covered.  The only issue I had with her questions were that she re-asked Gov. Palin about her reasons for resigning immediately after she had just answered the question.  And, really, must we revisit that again?  Apparently some people simply refuse to accept the truth of the matter.

So, all in all, I'd say this interview was nicely handled by both Oprah and Sarah.  Of course, others will see things differently (for example:  if you must, you can see some rather nasty comments at Oprah's site's own write-up of the interview).  But with a few more interviews like this one, I totally believe that the real Sarah will triumph over the false characterization propagated by many with an agenda.

Video of almost the entire interview (while it lasts):

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3 (Couric interview clips omitted due to CBS copyright)



Part 4



Part 5



All this, of course, is to promote Gov. Palin's book, Going Rogue, easily available to you via the link on the right side of the page.  Note:  I do receive an incredibly small kickback commission for each copy sold via this link.

An exposition on a pejorative, and why what I learned doesn't matter

Earlier today I had a long and drawn out Twitter conversation with someone whose opinion, though I disagree with him a lot, I generally respect.  The crux of the conversation was whether the current trend among liberal columnists, politicians, and basically everyone else of using the term "teabaggers" to describe conservatives, or people who have taken part in tea parties, or both, or whatever, is a pejorative.  If one looks at the definition of "pejorative", one sees the following, courtesy dictionary.com:

–adjective
1. having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force: the pejorative affix -ling in princeling.

By that definition, it can easily be seen that the way that "teabaggers" is used most often is a pejorative.  Some people--and for some reason a lot of them seem to be employed by the same network--are in love with the term.

Anyway, my online friend (we live in the same city, but we've never met) said that if the term originated with the tea partiers themselves, then it isn't a pejorative.  I challenged that point, and he pointed me to a Wikipedia article proving that there were protesters who fully knew the double meaning of "teabagging" and used it on their signs and webpages. 

Until today, I was unaware of anyone on what would be considered "my side" using that term that way.  I thought about it for a while (after I had to call off our debate for the day job), and I have come to the following conclusions:

1. It is not acceptable to me, as a father of young children, to be around a movement where it is necessary to use stupid double entendres to make a point.
2. Thus, had I known about what I learned today back then, I would have disavowed it.  Sigh...ignorance is bliss.
3. Yes, I would so have done.  You think I want to expose my children to that kind of language?
   
4. Most importantly, the fact that some very few people on my side used that term at one time does not make it open season on using it and still holding on to whatever shred of decorum is left in political discourse.

And my final conclusion about the whole thing:

Seriously, y'all using that term, grow up.  And that goes for you too, President Clinton.

Dishonorees #3, 4, 5 and 6

I continue to be somewhat surprised and disappointed at the number of people who run afoul of Snowed In's Theory.  The term to which my theory refers is a pejorative little term ("teabagger") used by people who apparently have little of value to say.  It's very frustrating to hear the term quite so often, and yet there are certain places--and networks--where it is commonplace.

And thus it is that two people from MSNBC, along with a guest, think that using pejoratives to define your political opposition is the funniest thing since David Letterman made a tasteless joke about a Palin daughter.

One such dishonoree--you knew this day would come quickly--is Keith Olbermann, who is so wonderfully objective that there is an entire website set up to him, and this website documents his recent (probably not the first, but the first I've seen documented since I wrote the theory) foray into the land of bad taste, a land with which Mr. Olbermann is quite familiar by now.

Also, as documented by Kathleen McKinley in a nice post here, Rachel Maddow and frequent guest Ana Marie "Don't Call Me Wonkette" Cox are frequent users of the offending term.  (There may be a silver lining to this portion of the story...see the end of this column for more.)  I could have documented Ms. Maddow's use of the pejorative term myself, except that I have seemingly blocked the short period of time during which I had MSNBC from my mind.  :)

Like I said, this is MSNBC about which we are talking, so the use of a term such as "teabagger" from its on-air personalities shouldn't surprise me.  But I expect more from our public officials (except my esteemed representative, Lloyd Doggett, from whom I expect little and yet still manage to be disappointed) than to disparage their political opponents in such a manner.  And thus I found myself a little shocked, I suppose, and very unhappy to hear that none other than President Obama has dishonored himself and his office with a quote such as "Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care?"  Lest anyone think this quote must have been made up, it was supplied to the NYTimes by a Dem representative, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, as reported by the National Review Online.

So, in case there was any question regarding what President Obama really thinks of people with whom he doesn't agree, let's make it clear:  President Obama has no respect for you whatsoever.  If you want to disagree with this, disavow the slur above.  And don't come back at me with "well, your side has said blah blah blah..."  Yeah, so that gives our president an excuse to drop down to the level of some of his critics?  The president has the responsibility to be above that kind of thing.  The end.

Ugh.  Let's move on to a better portion of this sad story.  The above-mentioned Kathleen McKinley, aka @RWSparkle (well worth following, by the way, as she is better spoken than I, and she also blogs more regularly than I apparently will be this month) challenged Ms. Cox in the post cited above to stop her use of the term "teabaggers", as shown in the following Twitter exchange (snipped so as to hold on to what little shred of a G rating this blog still has):

RWSparkle @anamariecox I have a better idea. Why don't you stop using the crude term "teabaggers" in Tony Snow's memory?


annamariecox RT @RWSparkle: Why don't you stop using the crude term "teabaggers"? // if you donate to fight colorectal cancer, I'll never use it again.


RWSparkle Why don't u stop using the crude term"teabaggers"? //RT @anamariecox if you donate 2 fight colorectal cancer, I'll never use it again// U GOT IT!


RWSparkle EVERYONE NOTE! @anamariecox promised not to use "teabaggers" anymore if I contributed. I'm the TOP contributer http://tinyurl.com/ycneyyx


RWSparkle @anamariecox I'm taking you at your word. Tony Snow would approve. A good thing to do in his memory.

If you approve of this, you should consider donating as well.

Epilogue:  since I started writing this thing, I have seen confirmation that Ms. Cox has invoked the offending term once more.  Way to keep your promise.  (courtesy this tweet from RWSparkle)  People should still donate, but Ms. Cox needs to be called out for this.  This may end up as a new corollary:  once a dishonoree, always a dishonoree.  I certainly hope that doesn't hold up as true, but nothing I have seen so far from any dishonoree has changed my perception.  Such is life in the Age of Hope and Change, I suppose.

Snowed In's Theory: New Dishonoree

About a month ago, I wrote about my theory about people who can't refer to their political opponents in a civil way:

Snowed In's Theory:  Anyone who uses the term "teabagger", or any form of that word, to refer to Tea Party or other protesters who are concerned about the direction taken by government is not interested in having a meaningful discussion about issues.

Its corollary was along those lines, as corollaries usually are:

Corollary:  Statements, articles, and/or interviews in which this theory comes into play may be ignored as a whole.

Recently Jim Hightower wrote some tripe at his website, jimhightower.com, entitled "Goofing Up Health Care Reform".  If you know anything about Jim Hightower, you know he is no fan of conservatives.  However, in his first paragraph, you can almost imagine the spit flecking from his mouth as he decries those evil tea partiers:

America's shouting match over health care reform has turned completely goofy ­ and I'm not talking about confused seniors at teabag rallies getting red-faced with anger after being told by the right-wing scare machine that "government is trying to take over Medicare."

The rest of the column decries the Democrat senators who don't lean far enough left to suit Mr. Hightower, but since, as far as I can tell, the use of the phrase "teabag rallies" is done by people who want to imply the more offensive "teabaggers" but can't bring themselves to use the actual term, the theory still applies, and thus the whole column is not worth my time, and possibly yours, as stated by the corollary to my theory.

And so, Jim Hightower, you are officially the second dishonoree who has run afoul of Snowed In's Theory.  However, given what I know about your extreme political leanings, you might be proud of this.

(Still no dishonoree graphic.  If anyone wants to make one, I'd be happy to consider it.)

Austin Radio Changes Coming

RadioInsight.com reports that massive changes are coming to the Austin radio landscape on Monday, November 2.  Many, but not all of the changes involve Spanish radio stations flipping to English formats, courtesy the financially troubled BMP Radio.  Here's a quick summary of the changes:

• 1490 KFON:  switching to an undisclosed format from Tejano.
• 1530 KZNX:  moving its local programming to 104.9 (see below).
• 92.5 KXXS:  switching to an undisclosed format.
• 98.9 KXBT (formerly KHHL):  apparently switching to news/talk.  A possible website, 989BigTalker.com, has been registered this week.
  
• 99.7 K259AJ:  the former Hot 93.3 translator is now simulcasting 590 KLBJ.
• 104.9 KHHL (formerly KXBT):  flipping to sports, possibly as "104.9 the Horn".
  

I'll be listening Monday and intend to update as I learn anything, but if you know something, feel free to comment.

Check out RadioInsight.com's entire report for more information.

Update 10/31:  It appears from a RadioInsight.com update (same link as before) and an Austin American-Statesman article that 1490 KFON will keep its current format, which is listed as Spanish oldies by the Statesman and Tejano by RadioInsight.com.  92.5 KXXS will remain a simulcast of 104.9 with the new format.  Meanwhile, former KVET morning host Sammy Allred will have a daily show on news/talk 98.9 KXBT.

Why I'm Missing Stuff in the First Place

Blogging will return to normal shortly...I've been out of town for my grandfather's funeral.  Godspeed, Grandpa.