Jan 14 2011
LA’s Local Shock Jocks Refuse to Tone Down Rhetoric
In the wake of president Obama’s speech this week on the massacre in Arizona, there has been a national dialogue on the political discourse in the US. Many are pointing to the deluge of violent and militaristic rhetoric heard daily on right wing am radio and even Fox News, as influencing Americans. A Quinnipiac poll this week found that 52 percent of Americans think that unstable people are more likely to engage in violent acts because of “heated political rhetoric.” But those on the right have been scrambling to paint Jared Loughner, in custody for the shooting, as a lone lunatic, even going as far as to call him a leftist. There seems to be little self-reflection in the right-wing media itself. Even here in Southern California and the Los Angeles region, local shock jocks John and Ken have only sought to escalate the rhetoric. Unfazed by the events of Arizona, the am radio duo are gearing up for their “heads on a stick” campaign which is aimed at Republicans in the state who might attempt to support Governor Jerry Brown for putting a tax measure on the ballot later this year.
GUEST: Chris Newman, Legal Programs Director at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a group that has taken on the John and Ken show in the past.
ERRATUM: During this program, Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar erroneously said that John and Ken burned an effigy of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In fact, they shredded an effigy of the former governor.
20 Responses to “LA’s Local Shock Jocks Refuse to Tone Down Rhetoric”
The left wants Americans to tone down
our gripping about problems that
matter to the U.S. and the American citizen because it hurts their illegal causes.
Nut cases are going to continue their havoc when they blow a fuse whether we speak or not.
We are not going to stop.
Loughner’s friends have all claimed that he was a loner who lived in his own vaccum. He didn’t listen to talk radio, watch cable TV news, or worshipped Sarah Palin.
John and Ken can be annoying as heck, but anyone with a functioning brain in their head can see their heads on stick routine is political satire. They’ll be able to discern “militant” language like “tax revolt” or “taking down the government” in their proper context.
What can be said about the left? Their President turned out to be Bush lite, and his woeful policies energized the right wing. Liberals were shellacked in the midterms, and now they’re grumbling about toxic climate and target maps that they employed in the past.
John and Ken are highly paid “advocates” for the rich and connected. They regularly insult and lash out at teachers, nurses, state and federal public servants and immigrants to shift the blame from the greedy and selfish, who have contributed to the recent calamities that have befallen our country. Those who are educated and not influenced by cheaply conceived airway propaganda know that it was the economic policies of greed that have led to the recent disruption of our economy. Instead of calling out the corporations and Wall Street, they work to deflect blame on those that have no connection to the corruption and collective rip-off of the American people. They are anti-labor, and would have you believe that it is the fault of those who loyally and earnestly work for a living to earn meager pensions as the root of our problems. Obviously they are paid enough by Clearchannel Radio to shamelessly sell out their neighbors and friends, while they and their ilk serve their corporate masters, hawking goods(Cadillacs)and services(gold purchasers and salespeople) for their sponsors. John and Ken tirelessly work to ensure that they and their greedy pals don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes that are vital for maintaining our society. They’re not concerned of course, as long as their corner of Southern California is working out fine for them and their respective families. They don’t care about California–neither is even from this state, yet they project their twisted views upon the ignorant, emotional and predisposed(stupid) on a daily basis.
KFI is fascist radio.
Thank god no one pays you for this, I would rather listen to shortwave radio weather updates.
This is an example of what KFI thinks about public servants:
Subject: Murdered Deputy and the way KFI radio reported it
Hi Michelle,
I understand that you are the producer at KFI radio. It has come to the attention of our family of 8000 Deputies in the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Dept that you and your staff are unresponsive to the feelings voiced by Deputies over the reporting of the murder of our Deputy March.
Can you imagine the pain in loosing a spouse to such a violent murder and then, not even a day afterward, hearing critical commentary on your husbands actions in combination with the song “I Shot The Sheriff” repeatedly played? How does the widow explain that to her daughter who is also listening and suffering the pain of loosing a father? Shameful!
I have been a long time listener of KFI radio. No Longer! I know who your regular sponsors and have used many of them. I will listen the remainder of the week to note your other sponsors. It is my intention to have Deputies from the department write letters of protest to your sponsors for advertising on your radio station with the intent to boycott their services or products.
Respectfully,
Deputy (omitted for O.com)
I listened to some clips of your show slamming John and Ken. Do you realize how ignorant you sound? Do you realize that, following your own theory, your rhetoric is just as dangerous as the rhetoric you accuse the right wing of? Are you forgetting that President Obama has used violent political rhetoric? Violent quotes of his are well documented and all over the internet, yet you curiously don’t bring that up in your radio show.
John and Ken did not cause the tragic events last Saturday. Neither did Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, or any other politician or radio host. Loughner’s horrific actions are his responsibility, and his alone.
Your guest, who supposedly had “encounters” with John and Ken, had in truth never even spoken to them. Yes, John & Ken said that we shouldn’t pay for ILLEGAL (interesting how you kept leaving that minor detail…illegal…out) immigrant students to be educated. And yes, they have a “Heads on Stick” segment. Any SANE and RATIONAL person knows the title of the segment is a metaphor for personal responsibility, as it always has been, and wouldn’t for one second take it literally. Except, apparently, extreme left wing radio hosts with an hour a day of airtime to fill up.
As far as citizen taxpayer dollars going for eduction for illegal immigrants goes, I pay taxes for my child and my LEGAL neighbors’ children to get an education and healthcare if they cannot afford it on their own, not for children whose parents won’t bother to become legal and pay their share. (Let’s face it…it’s WON’T…not CAN’T.) And people who think this way are the bad guy? Really? If you want to pay for illegal immigration education, healthcare, food, etc…, go ahead. Put your money where your mouth is and send your contribution to the IRS and the State out of your paycheck. Stop trying to take mine. I, as a hard working citizen, spend my money and time trying to make sure my child becomes a responsible, moral, educated adult who will contribute his fair share to society. Why are people who raise their children this way demonized by the left wing?
To top it all off, now we, as a society exercising our Constitional right to criticize our Government, are inciting violence in crazy people? That doesn’t fly, not for one second. Webster’s definition of crazy is full of words like “Irrational, Erratic, Insane.” These words do not define most of the American public.
The events of Saturday Jan 8, 2011, with no doubt were heinous crimes and will go down as one of the saddest days in American history. However it should be highlited that Loughner is flat-out crazy. Nothing anyone said was going to influence him one way or another. The blame lies with the man that pulled the trigger, no one else.
The most disturbing message that kept coming across in your broadcast was the dismissal of personal responsibility. If we are not responsible for ourselves, who is?
The last poster clearly didn’t listen to the actual program. Chris Newman never said that he had personally spoken to John and Ken. The “encounters” were the various protests and boycotts held by the NDLOE against John and Ken’s show a few years back, including in 2007.
Back at that time, John and Ken openly derided the protests on the air, and made fun of the protesters. So while they don’t know Newman personally, they absolutely do know about the actions taken by his group, which they didn’t like very much at the time.
The hostile actions which Sonali and Newman speak of are the multiple ones we hear about all the time which come after more impressionable and angry people listen to the kind of hate rhetoric regularly heard on John and Ken’s show.
By the way, their own show about this segment took the time to ridicule Sonali’s name, nationality and accent while they were at it. John and Ken then went on to yell that they didn’t burn an effigy of Schwarzenegger while admitting that they did put one through a shredder and beat a pinata version of another one.
Now, nobody is saying that Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin directly caused Loughner to commit murder. What is being pointed out is that Loughner did not commit his crimes in a vacuum. He certainly didn’t get his wild ideas about currency and the illegitimacy of government on his own. He heard this stuff from other people, and he picked up on the various bits of angry rhetoric sprayed out on the show every day. Loughner didn’t suddenly come up with this plan all by himself in a void somewhere. He was encouraged every step of the way.
In free societies people are judged by deed, not words. There is no proof Jared took inspiration from anyone, despite what people want to believe.
This is the same argument people used against video games and rap music causing violence. Inserting talk radio into the pool doesn’t change much.
Jared Loughner absolutely took inspiration from many people around him – particularly those espousing the political positions he specified as his. He, like many angry and impressionable people, fell for a brand of right wing conspiracy theory that conflates Gold Standard, literacy and various other issues with some kind of supposed plot to enslave everyone. It’s the same level of nonsense that encourages people not to pay their taxes because someone says that the 16th Amendment wasn’t ratified.
The issue isn’t just talk radio – it’s how the nasty and violent rhetoric heard every day on the radio can get drilled into the heads of the faithful listeners or “dittoheads”…
Yes, Bonnie, the left would like you to tone down your gripping. And while you’re at it, please tone down your griping as well. And learn to spell English since folks on your side want to make it the “official language” (which is really stupid.
When Bush was at war, people on your side said it was treason to criticize the President. Well, the current President is at war, ergo by your side’s own logic, you are committing treason. Maybe you should be sent to Guantanamo too.
Kind regards
Wow, Obama’s violent quotes are all over the internet! Now there is a valid source of information. I’d love to see the verification of those violent quotes, and not just as posted by some narcissistic self-centered ego-maniac from Fox noise.
What I don’t understand about the right wing fringe’s hate for Obama is that he is following 98% of Bush’s policies. Are you all really so worked up over a 2% difference? Man, you’d all be really pissed if we ever got a true liberal in there.
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