Hi there!
Published by Mike Stark February 24th, 2006 in UncategorizedI’m realizing from the comments that I am getting that I am just now “meeting” a lot of you for the very first time - Mike, from C&L put up a link to the site and sent y’all on over here.
If any of you are interested in making these kinds of “guerrilla” calls into the belly of the beast, here’s a piece I wrote for FireDoglake… some tips and tricks.
There are a coupla neat things about this.
First, when you are on talk radio, you aren’t preaching to the converted - you are truly reaching out to millions (for most national shows) of people that probably a) haven’t heard the point of view you are espousing and b) in many cases, get all of their news from talk radio.
Secondly, every second you take away from the wingnuts, is one less second they have to propagandize to their zombie base…
Listen… I’m not sure if any of this has had any real effect, but I do know that Hannity has about four million listeners a day. Rush has more. I’m not aware of any other way to talk to that many people - I mean Chris Matthews has less than 400,000 viewers a night. Think about that - you have the chance - every single weekday - to talk to 10 times more people than Tweety…
Get to it. Record it. Send it to me. I’ll post it.
13 Responses to “Hi there!”
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Thank you for providing this public service. You are a true patriot.
Rush on the ports was awesome. You totally ambushed him. Well done.
I had hope for htis site, but I listened to three of your calls and I’m not really sure you have accomplished anything. They were all pretty lame. Please direct me to one where you make a point that resonates - closest you came was “coalition of the bribed requires bribes”
You are going to have to be more clever to cut through the fog on these shows.
I think you’d be better off spending your time at Starbucks talking to customers one at a time.
Dan,
What can I say? Everyone’s a critic. Make your calls, record them and I’ll post them for you…
HEy Mike:
We’re on the same team here (want a better America, think the Admin is a disaster, think rightwing nutjob radio facilitates the problem), my frustration is that O’reilly, Limbaugh, etc so control the exchange that I didn’t feel like your point got across.
Good on you for trying
Thanks Dan,
and I don’t take it TOO personally - I mean, i can’t… this is the internet!
But I do invite you to call and record these shows. I mean it when I say that I’ll post your calls - I like the idea of flooding the airwaves with people on our side… we’ve abandoned a key battlefield and I’d love for more people to step up and take it back…
Mike:
Like Dan, I listened to 3 or 4 of your calls yesterday and didn’t find them particularly effective. Do you have one or two that you are most proud of? There is nothing I want to hear more than somebody befuddling these nutjobs.
-Mick
Damn this website resonates with me. I had a great time calling Bill Amay, one local in a litany of Nazi broadcastors on WRAL here in Raleigh N.C. I told the screener that I wanted to talk about the greatest strenth Rupublicans have over Dems., that being loyalty. Got on and mentioned Scooter Libby’s legal problems and his book with references to pedophilic bestiality. Also mentioned the need to stand up for Jeff Gannon like he did for the president. Bill pretended not to know about Jeff, so I was able to help a little on that score. Then Bill sarcastically says basically, “So we should do like the democrats when they stood behind that lying, rapist Clinton.” I said “exactly. Though I think the real way to deal with a Monica type incident can be seen in the case of Margie Schoedinger.” “Thanks for your call Buddy.” Even before finding your wonderful work, I had fantasized about getting local thinkers to deluge his program one day. If a dialogue could be developed, it may force unresolved issues from the 60’s or further back to the forefront. Two days ago, I was in CupaJoes in Raleigh (best coffee, can smoke, used to be a great place for me to study) discussing politics with Clay. 50ish, working class wm without medical benefits, does construction work and is victimized by the very conservative elements he champions. I’ve pissed him off real good before. In mentioning the S.C. primaries and the smear on McCain, he stood up and said, “I guess we’re all just a bunch of goddamn rascists.” Walked out. Our last conversation must have unsettled him a bit as he called for the extermination of the radical left, communists calling themselves progressives, Kerry, etc. I said I think you’d like Kurt Saxon, a little to nutty for my tastes, but you’d like the tips on violence. After he made yet one more call for jihad, complete with finger pointing, I said, “See, there you’ll go again. You’ll talk about human rights and liberties, but deep down you’ll got nothing but violence, destruction and death.” He invited me outside. I’m 46yo and weigh 145 lbs. Unlike a real ruffian, I checked my pockets as I followed him out and damn-sure enough-had some of the sacred herb on me. I stopped on the sidewalk beside Hillsborough St. to keep it fairly public. His tirade was that there’s no use even trying to talk to me, blah, blah, and then he declared us mortal enemies. I said, “Well, I’m glad you didn’t bring a gun.” As I turned to walk off, he swung at me. Threw from the hip telegraphing a lead right. I stepped in behind it and threw a left-right. Then struggled for and retained my balance and was going to get back in the flow, but suddently we were chest to chest. My torn button up and pulled back muscles attest to what was happening. Did an immediate take-down by scooping one of his legs. Established superior position on the way to the pavement, then he squirmed the wrong way giving up his back and he was in a chokehold. I informed him that he was going to get us arrested. Kept him controlled without choking him viscously or trying to hurt him. Girl screamed for me to stop-I said I’d like to but I’m going to need some help. He was able to say he’d stop so I got up and went inside to get my bookbag and leave in a big hurry. Felt like a fool but was more interested in not getting arrested. I live in an aluminum housetrailer and now I’m fighting in public. Am I in denial about being a redneck. May have lost my hangout because I’ve never had a mortal enemy and that may be a good thing to avoid. This just proves to me that if a credible progressive movement begins in this country, there is a very violent idiocy here not to be discounted. Obviously, I am not the one to advise on how to win them over to humanity.
Hey Mike, great idea and I really like that you started a website to call attention to what you’re doing. I am thinking maybe we should start organizing mass “call ins” where a group of us agree to call in to O’Liely or Limbag or any of the other local or national shows and do the same as you. We could really get our voices heard if we did this en masse and organized what day and time we would call in. I think it would be easy to do and effective. Maybe we could use your site here to organize such events.
Anyway, thanks for this. I think it’s important since most of these shows never want the opposition to be heard.
Not ready for prime time, pal.
Hey Mike.
While I most definitely not agree with the (almost) naysayers above I was wondering about the following:
What if you were to put together a band of, what should we call them…..how about ‘Merry Pranksters’ who could take this whole thing a little bit ‘Further’ by calling in concertedly from points, from all over your fair country to really rock the ChickenStalkers world?
____
And, if you were to do so, I think it would be considered one more badge of honour for the soul previously known as Mr. Kesey.
Not only is this a brilliant idea, but inviting others to do the same makes you a freakin’ genius!
Mixter
This sounds like fun, so I thought I’d give it a try this week. The conservative criticism of the statistical methods used in the CBS poll seemed like an easy target. I know a little about statistics. Maybe this is not the most important issue, but I’m just getting started.
I warmed up by practicing on a conservative blogger’s site.
I admit I was being a bit of an ass there. But that was good practice. All these conservatives read from the same talking points. On a blog, you’re not on the spot to have you best points ready immediately. You can think before responding.
So i called a local show called The Flipside today. The host had earlier claimed the CBS poll was invalid because more Democrats were polled than Republicans. I’m very comfortable because I can counter any of the talking point he’s likely to bring up. I didn’t record the call, and it probably didn’t come through as well as I thought, but this is my best recollection of the details:
Told the host I was calling about the CBS poll that showed a 34% approval rating for GW. The host repeated his criticism - more Democrats than Republicans polled. I asked if he had read 14 page PDF CBS released describing the statistical methods used. He still doesn’t know if I’m on his side or not, so he answers no. I tell him that when polls are conducted randomly, you always get responses from a sample that doesn’t exactly represent the population. And if you’re honest, you take that into account with statistics. And I say that’s exactly what CBS did.
He’s on the spot now. He says “Oh they did?” I say, yeah, you probably shouldn’t criticize the statistical methods used in a poll if you don’t know what you’re talking about [I should have come up with something better here]. He says he took statistics in college. I say you must have gone to [Texas] A&M. [We’re in Austin, that’ll go over big with listeners]. He says he just believes the poll was biased [the same thing I heard on the right wing blog earlier in the week]. I ask if he believes the poll was biased or if he has evidence the poll was biased.
I know I’m going to get cut off soon. They’re talking over me. I should have raised my voice. I go for the money and say You and Oprah stick to your feelings, I’ll stick to the facts [totally obnoxious, i know]. He hangs up. I quickly turn my radio back on. He’s in spin mode saying that CBS probably over represented Independents too (!?). Says I’m crazy and he can’t believe he took my call. And that he can’t believe I compared him to Oprah - I’m happy because this confirms that my last comment didn’t get cut off.
It was fun. It really helped me to use a wingnut’s blog to hone my argument before making the call. I encourage everyone to give it a try. Especially with these local shows. The hosts are not all that bright. They just repeat what they’ve heard on the national shows.