Silver City Talk Show Cancelled
In my last post I ran a couple of quotations highlighting the Republican agenda of total annihilation of liberals and everything they stand for. They don't want to defeat us, they want to destroy us. There is no room in their game plan for debate or compromise.
We went to Silver City, NM this week for a short getaway and encountered a prime example of the Republican strategy when we got there.
For a couple of months, Silver City radio station KNFT had been running a liberal talk show called Radio Free Silver. KNFT runs the usual destroyer talk shows, including Limbaugh, Savage, and O'Reilly, so RFS was intended to provide a little balance. KNFT advertisers started to complain about RFS, so KNFT pulled all advertising from the show and required RFS supporters to pay $600 a month to continue running the program. The supporters quickly came up the the money, and RFS continued to run -- for another week.
According to the Silver City Daily Press, 20 to 25 advertisers threatened to pull all their advertising out of KNFT unless RFS was cancelled. The owner, Matt Runnels, caved. He cancelled the show this Monday, July 19, while the show was on the air. He was faced with a loss of nearly $10,000 a month in advertising revenues. He was not pleased with canceling RFS, but as a businessman he had no choice. "It's a shame that, in America, we can't have someone with an opposing view," he said. "It wasn't like RFS was preaching anarchy... If you don't like what you hear, push the button. There's a lot of programming out there." Here's a link to the article: http://www.thedailypress.com/artman/publish/article_1263.shtml
The advertisers who threatened KNFT with a boycott remain unidentified so far, but they include, according to the Daily Press, "car dealers, bankers, pizza business owners, all-terrain vehicle sellers and furniture store owners."
Kyle Johnson, RFS host, called the action "Economic Terrorism." The Grant County Peace Coalition published a statement on their website: http://www.gcpeacecoalition.org/rfs/black_monday.shtml
It's ironic -- for years Silver City has successfully marketed itself as a highly diverse and tolerant town, ranging from Hispanic copper miners to newly-arrived upscale artsy-craftsy retirees. Silver City has a thriving alternative community -- food coop, herb stores, art galleries, natural restaurants. In the 2002 gubernatorial election, Grant County (of which Silver City is county seat) had the third-highest percentage of people voting Green in the state.
The next step, I would imagine, would be to find out who the offending advertisers are and organize a boycott. If my bank had pulled that stunt, I would pull every penny out in a heartbeat. Not to mention finding a new pizza supplier, etc. "He who lives by the sword might be in for a big surprise." In the long run, it might be necessary for Silver City progressives to start their own community radio station. A true community station, unlike the PBS monoliths.
I bet nationwide, dozens of these little incidents happen every day. The destroyers are ruthless and, as we already know, don't believe in diversity or democracy. I'm glad we're finally starting to fight back.
We went to Silver City, NM this week for a short getaway and encountered a prime example of the Republican strategy when we got there.
For a couple of months, Silver City radio station KNFT had been running a liberal talk show called Radio Free Silver. KNFT runs the usual destroyer talk shows, including Limbaugh, Savage, and O'Reilly, so RFS was intended to provide a little balance. KNFT advertisers started to complain about RFS, so KNFT pulled all advertising from the show and required RFS supporters to pay $600 a month to continue running the program. The supporters quickly came up the the money, and RFS continued to run -- for another week.
According to the Silver City Daily Press, 20 to 25 advertisers threatened to pull all their advertising out of KNFT unless RFS was cancelled. The owner, Matt Runnels, caved. He cancelled the show this Monday, July 19, while the show was on the air. He was faced with a loss of nearly $10,000 a month in advertising revenues. He was not pleased with canceling RFS, but as a businessman he had no choice. "It's a shame that, in America, we can't have someone with an opposing view," he said. "It wasn't like RFS was preaching anarchy... If you don't like what you hear, push the button. There's a lot of programming out there." Here's a link to the article: http://www.thedailypress.com/artman/publish/article_1263.shtml
The advertisers who threatened KNFT with a boycott remain unidentified so far, but they include, according to the Daily Press, "car dealers, bankers, pizza business owners, all-terrain vehicle sellers and furniture store owners."
Kyle Johnson, RFS host, called the action "Economic Terrorism." The Grant County Peace Coalition published a statement on their website: http://www.gcpeacecoalition.org/rfs/black_monday.shtml
It's ironic -- for years Silver City has successfully marketed itself as a highly diverse and tolerant town, ranging from Hispanic copper miners to newly-arrived upscale artsy-craftsy retirees. Silver City has a thriving alternative community -- food coop, herb stores, art galleries, natural restaurants. In the 2002 gubernatorial election, Grant County (of which Silver City is county seat) had the third-highest percentage of people voting Green in the state.
The next step, I would imagine, would be to find out who the offending advertisers are and organize a boycott. If my bank had pulled that stunt, I would pull every penny out in a heartbeat. Not to mention finding a new pizza supplier, etc. "He who lives by the sword might be in for a big surprise." In the long run, it might be necessary for Silver City progressives to start their own community radio station. A true community station, unlike the PBS monoliths.
I bet nationwide, dozens of these little incidents happen every day. The destroyers are ruthless and, as we already know, don't believe in diversity or democracy. I'm glad we're finally starting to fight back.
posted by Gordon Solberg at 5:55 PM
1 Comments:
i heard about this today in albuquerque. had a short discussion with a co-worker about it. i lived there when i was 3 (in 1953) he attended NM western for a year in 1964. we were both shaking our heads in disgust. i told him it was a great place when i was there - i said he must have ruined it but he assured me it was still a great place when he left... so it must be your fault gordon... you were there last. what the hell did you do to silver city?
-dusty
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