Hillary & The Dead Kennedys

This past week has seen a perverse conspiracy of events that strains the capacity for people of good will to avoid giving up on civilization all together.

It began with the sad news that Sen. Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. As the shock and trauma of that news was settling in, James Rosen of Fox News declared on air that this could not be considered a tragedy because he had lived (past tense) a full life. Soon after, radio Neanderthal Michael Savage decided it would be appropriate to play snippets of the 1980’s punk band The Dead Kennedys, which Savage said was “in respect” for the Senator. Finally, Hillary Clinton weighed in on why she persists in pursuit of a nomination she can’t possibly win:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

So while Sen. Kennedy is awaiting a treatment plan for an often fatal affliction, Sen. Clinton is using brother Bobby’s demise to remind voters that Sen. Obama might be felled before this is all over. If she has any conscience at all, she would be regretting tonight that she didn’t drop out of the race yesterday.

Dragging The Dead Kennedys into this has produced an unexpected benefit in the form of wisdom from their singer, and inspirational hurricane, Jello Biafra. For those not familiar with the band, they were an anarchic, brood of rebellious provocateurs. They chafed at anything hinting of authority. And they would have stuffed a slug like Savage down a garbage disposal if he looked at them funny back in the day. Biafra responded to Savage’s prank in an interview with The Phoenix:

“Obviously he took my song way the hell out of context and did it deliberately. But the bigger issue is Savage himself and how the hell he gets away with stuff like saying this…”

But Biafra went further to assail the broader problem of a media environment that has devolved into a nearly useless heap of bio-waste:

“It scares the shit out of me that the most popular radio talk-show hosts are all foaming-at-the-mouth, ultra-bigoted blabbermongers whom only North Korea or the Nazis could love.

But like it or not, Savage is the third-most popular radio-talk show host in this country behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Nobody from the other side is represented or promoted well enough by the big right-wing-owned radio networks to compete. That’s one of the ways they mindfuck the country into being so dumb they vote for people like George Bush, Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The real issue here is why aren’t the big candidates calling for media reform?”

~~~

“The damage was further compounded when your friend and mine Bill Clinton rammed through the Telecommunications Act of 1996, further deregulating how many radio stations and media outlets one corporation can own and what they can do with them and they greenlighted their long-held agenda to throw public interest out the window.”

Jello totally nails it. This problem is bigger than a radio crap dispenser; it’s bigger than a Fox News buffoon; it’s even bigger than a pathetic presidential candidate who is the only one that doesn’t know she’s lost. The problem is the media and, were it fixed, these other travesties would be mere annoyances.

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4 thoughts on “Hillary & The Dead Kennedys

  1. “Nobody from the other side is represented or promoted well enough by the big right-wing-owned radio networks to compete.”

    So, is that what he means by media reform? The big right-wing-owned radio networks promote the agenda of the left-wing? Businesses promote what sells; that’s how they stay in business. There are, in fact, whole radio networks which were designed to offset right-wing-owned radio; the problem is that virtually no one listens to them.

    • Some businesses promote what sells. Some businesses promote propaganda. The Smothers Brothers were canceled when they were the #1 show on TV. Phil Donahue was canceled when he was #1 on MSNBC. Clear Channel, Premiere, etc., decline to carry liberal shows even when they perform well in their markets.

      If alternative voices cannot get distribution, that does not mean that no one wants to hear them. It may mean that they are being deliberately shut out. Al Franken beat Limbaugh in NYC, but couldn’t find an outlet in L.A. That’s not the market at work.

      • No business promotes propaganda; they promote what is in their self-interest, i.e. what gets the most bang for their advertising buck. This translates into who has the most listeners/viewers.

        Leaving the Smothers Brothers aside, and positing that MSNBC wasn’t too conservative for Phil Donahue since they’re continually drubbed in the ratings to no apparent effect, let’s turn to Mr. Franken for a moment. From everything I read, Franken was supposed to “beat Limbaugh” on Air America in the first quarter, 2004 ratings. However, I don’t think that ever materialized; if it did, it didn’t last even as long as second quarter of 2004 for which I have seen the ratings. A spike in interest due to the newness of Air America, followed by a predictable decline perhaps?

        There isn’t a conspiracy to keep liberal commentators off talk radio; there is however, whether it’s Franken, Dershowitz, Cuomo, etc, etc a general lack of interest.

        • If you have access to radio ratings, check out Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller. They all have shows that are #1 or #2 in several markets. It simply isn’t true that there’s a lack of interest. The reason they aren’t bigger stars is that the radio conglomerates don’t give them access. Even in some markets where they would do well, they suffer because they only have access to weaker independent stations.

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