The Washington Post has been poking sticks in our collective eye for way too long. Their hiring of Ben Domenech, coming right on the heels of the Deborah Howell/Jack Abramoff fiasco, was salt on our wounds.
Think about it for a second. That hire, that blog... well, at conservative establishment media institutions like the WP - that shit just doesn't get done overnight - especially at a time when they are laying off real journalists... I'm betting they starting planning this while licking their wounds from our last dust-up.
We can't roll over on this. It's time for some push-back. Follow me over the flip for the plan.
As many of you know, I've kind of fallen into being a talk radio "specialist". Recently, in addition to making my own calls, I've recruited others to join in "call-ins" to Bill O'Reilly's show. Our efforts resulted in a huge embarrassment for Bill. We provided fodder for Olbermann's show and even Howard Stern ridiculed O'Reilly for his hubris and arrogance. Not to imply causation, but O'Reilly's ratings are tanking while he watches Olbermann make serious gains. Today, MoveOn.org added their substantial weight to the effort.
Anyway folks, this situation with the Washington Post cries out for talk radio action. Consider the O'Reilly affair "proof of concept". A committed troupe of talk radio callers can make a huge difference in shaping public opinion. Public opinion, in turn, can influence events.
Here's the plan.
- First, we need people that live in or near Washington DC
- Use this thread to post names and phone numbers of local radio show hosts (post the hours of their shows as well).
- Post everything you can about these guys and gals... Tell us about their personalities, behavioral tics and any other minutia you can think of.
- The next step, beginning in due course, will be getting people to make use of that list. Again, we're going to take over the airwaves - only this time, instead of it being one show, we're going to blanket a city.
- I'll orgainize the information and post a diary soon with the follow-up actions.
Because...
We need to start asking some hard questions.
Why in the world would the Post hire a person that called Coretta Scott King a "communist"... on the day of her funeral?
Why would they hire a guy who counts Jefferson Davis amongst his heros?
Has the Post totally lost any sense of responsibility towards their readers? It can't possibly think their readers would embrace Ben Domenech as one of their own? So why hire him?
If these questions come to dominate the DC talk shows, the Post will have to answer. Until now, they've done a great job of ignoring us. Talk radio is one of the only venues of truly egalitarian media. Anyone can call, anyone can be heard.
It's our time.
Update [2006-3-30 19:7:50 by Mike Stark]: I wasn't clear. This IS NOT another wingnut operation. The point of this is decidedly NOT to call into right wing talk radio shows. Instead, we want to blanket the DC airwaves with discussion of this topic. We want our voices to set the agenda. We, after all, are "the people".
To that end, we want to work with the stations and hosts that will work with us. This is not to say that we don't want information regarding right wing talk in DC (that is also important), rather, this action is focused differently than the O'Reilly action was. We're the Roots. We're nimble like that... most nimble roots you've ever seen.
Update [2006-3-30 20:22:20 by Mike Stark]: firedoglake and Crooks & Liars are both part of this effort. (truth is that Jane Hamsher at fdl put all of this together... the rest of us are proud as hell to be her acolytes)
Taylor Marsh (the next firedoglake/glenngreenwald/name your favorite new blogger) and Steve Gilliard are key players too.