Monday, November 1, 2010

Will Dan Fagan Be Back on the Air Today? Of Course - Plus Other Miller Debris

I. After a one-day suspension for electioneering, KFQD-AM Radio talk show host, Dan Fagan, will be back on the air today during his regular time slot. He will have more listeners than usual, mostly praising him for his undaunted "courage" in the face of the big, bad, mean, vicious Lisa Murkowski machine, headed by that ubiquitous attack dog, John Tracy.

I sort of defended Dan here last week. On Saturday, Craig Medred wrote another twice-as-long-as-necessary essay defending Dan for The Alaska Dispatch.

Dan has as much right to free speech, after all, as does Fred Phelps.

II. Funniest article so far, tying Joe the Teabagger's storm trooper fetish, his obsessions with kiddie porn, the bondage thing with the handcuffs, and the cabin in Willow all together into a nice package, by my friend TBogg. An excerpt:

Back before semi-hirsute Joe Miller quit before he was fired from his government job, he started complaining that everyone was out to get him and that sea monkeys were stealing his lunch money and other such nonsense which, in Alaska, passes for “sane enough for government work”. He may well have felt threatened by, say, the Russian mob who operated right across the street in Russia or possibly by Barack Obama’s ACORN Time Traveling Swat Team attempting to thwart the takeover of America in 2012 by Grifter-Americans, but more likely he is just a paranoid schizophrenic which is probably why the military put him on waivers with two years left on his contract.....
III. Alan Boraas has once again showed that he's a keen observer of the interplay in Alaska between members of the militia movement, the Tea Party, and millenialist Christo-Fascism:

Militias went dormant during the Bush Administration and have resurfaced with the election of President Barack Obama. The Alaska Citizens Militia takes its ideology from a strict reading of the constitution backed by fundamentalist Christianity although, as far as I know, not Christian Identity in the mold of the Posse Comitatus. The two constitutional provisions most cited are the Second Amendment "right to bear arms" and Article One providing for a "well-regulated militia." A second Alaska militia is now forming in the Fairbanks area.

The Alaska Citizens Militia claims about 200 members and has a 20-acre compound in Nikiski where they wear camo and shoot guns on weekends. Unlike most Alaskans, many of whom also wear camo and shoot guns on weekends, Olson's group is in training for the Tribulation. In 1995 he told Christianity Today: "Where do we get this idea we are supposed to let a corrupt government get worse and worse. Our Lord told us to contend for the faith and occupy until he comes."

IV. This isn't another defense of Dan Fagan, but Media Matters (where they're keeping up the pressure to get Andrew Breitbart removed from ABC's coverage of election evening and night) has documented over 600 recent instances where FAUX News contributors have either slanted heavily toward the GOP, or have boldly gone where Dan went last Thursday.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Broadcasters have a higher obligation than say a newspaper publisher, or a blogger.

KFQD leases a public resource, and although what Fagan did probably isn't illegal in the eyes of the FCC, it certainly was irresponsible in the eyes of the community (at least for some) for which the station serves.

Bookey simply made a business decision, as it is his right to do so.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anon@7:12 am - People who read generally compare other publications to what a blog or alternative news source offers. But people who depend heavily on just radio or television can't quickly switch to another station to compare and contrast the source and the slant.

There's no handy Google application when it comes to non-print media in terms of real-time comparison.

I'm thrilled I don't have to rely on just one channel, station or publication to inform me. Then again , it is such a TIMESUCK to keep up with the spin doctors and whatever Sarah Palin is.

Martha said...

This is simple really.

This isn't about "free speech", this is about whether you represent an unbiased, genuine news organization or you don't.

You are either "news" broadcast,paper TV program, magazine etc., or you are not.

Fagan's employer has made their distinction by having him back on the air.

They are NOT "news", the are a teabagging propaganda broadcast, just as FOX is a republican/teabagging propaganda cable TV station.

lemonfemale said...

I am not in your normal demographic, just so you know. Fagan is a talk show host. He is guaranteed to be expressing an opinion rather than simply reporting the news. He has the right to do that. Now, if he starts picketing the funerals of private citizens and telling their parents they are currently roasting in Hell, then someone should sue the socks off him. Until then, though ...
(Anyone interested in reading up on Fred Phelps should read "addicted to hate" http://www.blank.org/addict/ )

sallyngarland,tx said...

Palin/Miller are defending this vote fiasco because they had a hand in it (C4pee posted for it)but this gives them an excuse if things go bad.

I really hope McAdams wins just like I hope TX elects a Dem Gov. I am sure Alaskans get tired of having to
defend their state, just like Texans, because of some of their
politicians and the people who believe their garbage and vote for them.

Anonymous said...

Please promote McAdams to Native American site. Help them get to polls. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Please read and share:

"WHERE THE DEFICITS CAME FROM"
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/11/01/where_the_deficit_came_from.html

and its source article

"What’s really behind that $1.3 trillion deficit?" by Justin Fox Harvard Univ (Blog on Reuters)
http://blogs.reuters.com/justinfox/2010/10/25/whats-really-behind-that-1-3-trillion-deficit/

[Justin Fox is editorial director of the Harvard Business Review Group and author of The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street He normally blogs at http://blogs.hbr.org/fox/]

VERY INTERESTING CONCLUSION after a very good data modeling and economic analysis.