Supertalk Mississippi (97.3 FM) sent out message yesterday in its daily email to listeners of The Gallo Radio Show:
"7:05 a.m. Have a group of Republican leaders stabbed conservatives? SB 2736 targets radio and tv stations advertising contracts in a bill that's referred to "under the Dome" as the SuperTalk Bill. Can't believe this is happening? Join me at 7 a.m. as we log the names for our own bit of history on the Ides of March! This is basically the same bill that was pushed by Billy McCoy, Jamie Franks and the Democrats to silence opposing views, except this time it's coming from a small group of Republicans!"
The irony here is simply too rich. Mr. Gallo accuses the Senate leadership of turning into Democrats. Oooooooooooook. Lets see how this all got started. Supertalk decided to get involved in Republican intraparty politics as it became the personal radio network for Phil Bryant and Billy Hewes last year. Supertalk stopped being a reliable conservative talk radio station but instead decided to attack other conservatives who just didn't happen to be on the Bryant team.
The lineup featured more guests from those two campaigns than their Republican opponents. Columnist Bryan Perry was booted off the air after he started working for the Dennis campaign while Bryant and Hewes cronies played Ed McMahon on a regular basis. Who can forget Mr. Gallo using Bill Minor columns to attack Tate Reeves? One of the more memorable episodes was when Tate Reeves appeared on the show but one would've never known it as Mr. Gallo talked over him, down to him, around him, and through him during the entire interview. Billy Hewes appeared on a regular basis. Then as fear set in as they realized Hewes would lose the race, the station went all-in for Hewes, pumping him constantly and slamming his opponent. Some sources told JJ the station owner was a Bryant ally, others said he was trying to play kingmaker in the Republican Party, and others have said he had no choice as the Bryant team forced him to do this if he wanted to keep his funding (Which I can totally believe knowing how one set of advisers around him operates.). It doesn't matter why Supertalk went after Reeves, the point is when you try to kill the king, you better kill the king. In Supertalk's case, it didn't kill the king and is now paying for it.
Even more ironic is the message whining about conservative backstabbing. Oh really? Last time I checked, conservatives were about limiting government and cutting spending, not corporate welfare. Seethespending.org reports state government agencies spent over $6.5 million in advertising dollars on Supertalk since 2004. So now a conservative, who advocates cutting spending and bashing liberal Democrats on a daily basis, is defending the government showering millions of dollars on a private business.
How many radio stations in Mississippi would love to get that advertising money? Tell you what Paul, why don't you put your money where your mouth is: Instead of trying to keep the gravy train for Supertalk, why don't you advocate the state bid out the contracts? You know, let Supertalk compete with the rest of the radio stations in Mississippi. The free market. Capitalism. The ideals you espouse 3 hours a day 5 days a week. Competitive bidding for government contracts is a true conservative position, if one is inclined to argue for state advertising. That is a conservative position or is bashing crony capitalism just limited to Billy McCoy and beef plants? To paraphrase Nietzsche, did Mr. Gallo look into the liberal abyss and become what he fought?
However, someone else has noticed this fight because a nice-sized ad appeared in yesterday's Clarion-Ledger (posted above). The ad was posted by some group called "Stop Mississippi Waste". The website is dedicated exclusively to cutting spending on first Supertalk and then all state advertising. The ad points out the $6.5 million spent on Supertalk and the website claims state government spent over $11 million in 2011 just on advertising. $6.5 million.
While everyone is whining about the bill, lets take a look at what this bill actually does:
1. No agency shall spend money advertising programs on radio or television.
2. Ban does not apply to programs funded by federal grants (anti-drug ads are one example)
3. This does not apply to free public service announcements provided by stations.
4. Bill does not apply to universities or junior colleges.
5. The bill does not apply to legal advertising or ads for employment.
6. Charges the State Personnel Board with establishing guidelines for the purchasing of all advertising, whether it be radio, tv, internet, or newspaper, by state agencies.
So thus the question that must be asked is this bill a "stabbing" of conservatives by conservatives? Is such advertising a gravy train for the well-connected? Can a conservative defend government spending millions of dollars on advertising with no bids? Mr. Gallo and his owner are big boys. When you get that kind of money, you can take that kind of heat. Supertalk is the station jumped into the middle of some nasty fights. Its somewhat hypocritical to complain about conservative "stabbing" when the station was teaming up with Bill Minor to attack conservatives on the air. Supertalk can defend receiving advertising money, just don't do it while hiding behind conservatism.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Republican FOOD FIGHT!!!
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17 comments:
It's pathetic to hear so-called conservatives whining because they might have to stop feeding at the trough of our tax dollars.
I'd like the bill even better if political talk radio was excluded.
As you point out so well, the " opponent" of the host's point of view gets talked over and shouted down and the station becomes no more than a continuous ad for one party or the other. And, that is telling. It'd be different if one station carried Rush and Maddow but that isn't how it is working out.
I find it amusing that conservative talk radio stations oppose government money going to PBS because of " liberal bias" since they get government money when conservatives can channel (pun intended) the dollars to them.
I'm satisfied with the exceptions otherwise.
The entire Presidential campaign has been a Republican " food fight" and the term applies. Everyone is fighting for the political " food" not for principles or ideals with the exception of Ron Paul.
The real hypocrisy here is that Tate and Merle are pushing this simply as retribution and that is ironic because Tate would never be LG if he had not spent $3.2 Million Dollars promoting himself under the guise of promoting MPACT.
Don't worry, Feel won't sign a Supertalk bill.
The Governor's veto probably wont stop this one. It is new language that can be placed and re-placed as general law in any number of bills, including Bryant's pet legislation. He cant veto everything.
Don't forget that this bill has to make it through the House, too, before it goes to the Governor.
Bill could be a good one EXCEPT newspaper was not included. Assenine (sp?) to say---cutting the spending, but only cut it in 2 of the 3 places.
Does the state do any advertising with newspapers? I'm not saying they don't but I don't recall seeing any. Perhaps some classified advertising, but ol' Haley even skipped that step.
If the Governor opposes this bill then it undercuts his ability to ask other to make cuts and sacrifices. The teachers in this state are taking it in the shorts and the service they provide is more important then hearing MBN tell us about meth labs.Or DHS telling us where they've parked the cheese wagon this week.
Besides DHS should be spending money with Charlse Evers over at WMPR 90.1 or WJMI 99.7 fm, WKXI 107.5 FM. Fish and Wildlife should throw Miss 103 a bone every now and then.
This spending with Super Talk is nothing but a slush fund for (certain)conservatives.
Quiet as it's kept Clear Channel(Miss 103) and ICBC (WJMI< WKXI) are the only stations around here that could justify "on paper" receiving the money SuperTalk is receiving based on the ratings book.
The law should ask for the demographic the agency is trying to reach and the station should be able to submit that info as part of the contract. If that info is not there. The contract the agency and the station has is pretty much a slush fund.
The present expenditure is not fair to taxpayers, state workers or education funding and in some cases unnecessary in these austere times.
Time for republicans, conservatives to drink from the bitter cup we've been passing around.
Another nail in the coffin to the good ol boy network otherwise known as the ole miss network. I am a conservative who thinks that they shit in their own butter churn.
We Ole Miss people don't churn our own butter. We have the Cow College graduates to do that for us.
DHS and MSU :
Great partnership.
MSU makes the cheese and DHS gives it away to the
overweight "disadvantaged".
This indigestion of yours Kingfish sure is beginning to acquire the tint of being personal.
This year's group of politicians has already shown a propensity to spend. The House created a new 100K job for a lackey for the speaker and then proceeded to increase Feel's budget for staff. I'm not quite understanding where the austerity is? I feel like I'm in Greece.
Interesting, ain't it, how Galleaux had WLBT's exec on the air yesterday to bemoan this bill. As if WLBT had a horse in the race, which, in this case, they do not. Nobody is talking about eliminating required public service announcements but Galleaux and the boys didn't have enough sense to restrict the ads to that. It was all about name recognition and making sure certain names stayed before the public. I don't know about the term 'slush fund' but, somethin' ain't right. And, in the words of Kim W., somethin's gotta be did about this!
Do you want to know how to tell if any radio show is biased? Listen to a show from 6 months ago. For the most part, the message is the same. When that happens, you know that they have been on the air too long.
For this reason, I stopped listening to the "Johnny one notes" at WFMN. Gallo, JT(minus Dave) all sound the same this year or last.
For the politicians compelled to advertise there, I feel sorry for you.
I'm don't want to pay for the government programs themselves, much less advertising them. Ads that I should watch for deer on the side of the road?? Ads that I should wear my seatbelt?
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