Wingnut Spinners
Published by Mike Stark February 27th, 2006 in UncategorizedUgh.
Hate to sound so negative, but today’s effort was really not as effective as I hoped it would be. For those that don’t know, I wanted to coordinate calls to Bill O’Reilly’s show that would take over his first hour lamenting the fact that he’s seen fit to go after Keith Olberman’s job.
Ugh.
It didn’t work out so well.
Four of us got through and talked to the screener, but only two of us made it on the air.
The first person to be cut was defeated because the talking point he tried to get past the screener was obviously rascist and incendiary. Rule #1 of talk radio: be interesting, not inflammatory. When you are trying to get on, don’t try to be too cute. Impersonating a red-neck or Nazi won’t win you any points… Instead, come up with something salient - from the liberal or wingnut perspective… For instance, on today’s show, the topic was The Politics of Hate… To get on the air you could have said that
- the same people who attack racial profiling are against the port deal
- people opposing the port deal have plenty of reason to be concerned about terrorism from that part of the world - it may be politically incorrect to say, but terror is a dominant export from that region of the world
The point is that there are plenty of not-so-cute ways you could’ve gotten on the show today…
The second guy that got through but never got on was simply unfortunate. He came up with a good reason to be put on the air and waited for his chance. The show went to the 1/2 hour news break - a three or four minute segment of dead phone time. The caller held through it the break. The screener came on the line and said “Thirty seconds”. This was supposed to be a warning for those of us holding to be ready to talk to Bill, but the caller thought the screener was, in fact, Bill. He thought he had thirty seconds to say what he wanted to say. Of course the caller launched his broadside on Bill for going after Keith. The screener listened carefully and then said, “Uhm, this isn’t Bill - it is the screener. Now that I know what it was you were going to say, I’m gonna hafta let you go.”
That’s pretty funny.
You can hear the two of us that did get on in the post below this one.
As disappointed as I am with the way the first attack of the Wingnut Spinners went, I am not discouraged. We are going to have to work out some kinks… but now I’ve got a solid list of people willing to fight, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to use it. Every success and failure will be posted and critiqued and we’ll learn and evolve into an effective force.
Stay tuned.
10 Responses to “Wingnut Spinners”
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First try with just a day or two of notice? Two isn’t bad. Five would have been better. But I wouldn’t complain about two.
I mentioned some stuff on dKos that might help:
First, coordinate online using irc or something very similar. Help in real time to get people online. You may want to post a quickie set of one liners to get on the show for that day. And you may want to enlist a helper on these call-in days.
Second, can’t you use *66 or *67 or some other star code to repeatedly redial a number that is busy? I know you used to be able to do that (and I used it to some effect for radio call in contests:)
If you are keeping a separate list of folks interested in this concept, include me. Today was a no go, but I may be able to in the future.
Mike-
I couldn’t get through this morning - don’t lose heart though, this is only the first day.
Believe me, it’ll be better. And as far as recognizing your voice, I always find it fun to disguise your voice by impersonating a celebrity.
I used to get by the screener pretty well when I did my Clint Eastwood impression…
It went fine. I only found out about the action at 9:30AM and I managed to get on the air. I was Ed in Augusta. I think we need to have a more coordinated attack. Have setup points and then have the other callers pile on.
It is going to be harder than it looks. I got on, but I still screwed up what I wanted to say.
Even one days notice to all of the Spinners will mean better results. Even if we only have one real success every few weeks, it will help to change the discourse and the way the wingers produce their shows.
Mike -
Terrible news about your failed radio insurgency. Four people out of 77,000 on Daily Kos actually tried to help you - though many, many more made public claims that they would. Hmm - big surprise there. Then one of your troops got caught in the razor wire, and another spilled his guts under interrogation. Don’t worry - 50% is a totally acceptable rate for a failed operation.
Better luck tommorrow, old chap. Please keep wasting precious hours on hold; the RNC thanks you!
Actually 50% is consiserably higher than today’s new approval ratings for The Twig, at 34.
And for that the RNC must be thanking who, exactly?
I enjoyed following the operation from afar - thanks.
.
Elephuck you.
Elephant,
Real name you punk ass chimp or are you just another Yellow Elephant? My part took 20 minutes today. I’m completely satisfied with this as a first effort. I pitched in and then I went to work. I had a great day today…I made almost 22K plus I got to irritate Falafel boy and motivated another member of the bedwetter brigade to troll Calling All Wingnuts.
“Flow with the go.” Rickson
Elephant is actually Christopher Flickinger, pictured here. He is very beautiful in a totally manly heterosexual way.
I called Hannity today - I was very calm, until he called me a liar when I said I used to be a republican until I saw the video of Bush looking under desks and tables for WMDs. Then I lost it - the last 2 years of listening to him lie, I yelled that the tax cuts on the backs of his listeners are GREAT for him, that he is a fool, we are losing in Iraq, there is almost a civil war, that he lies to his listeners, they need to know that. I don’t know how much got through, because I was yelling at him.
I may have sounded like a lunatic, but you know what - after he cut me off and said, very weakly, “Get off my phone, you dope, I wish Mark Levin was here to say that,” Hannity’s voice was shaking. For some reason, perhaps my absolute disgust and anger, he was very shaken up by my call. I just said the truth about him and his motivations with a righteous anger, and he was really shaky. The next caller, stroking him, calmed him down. You could hear the relief in his voice that he had someone on his side after crazy Suzanne lost it on him.
It was fun!!! I am going to do it again this week. Don’t be discouraged. It takes a lot of courage to call a national show. I call local all of the time, but only have called national a few times, and as soon as they start talking over you, and insulting you, they beat you. So I decided that there was no way dumbass Hannity was going to speak over me. And I shook him up.
Mike I have nothing but admiration for your approach. This is an important and needed effort in subverting the conservative propaganda machine. Even the failures count. It will pop some listeners bubbles just to hear discord on the line.
You and the callers are on the front lines. This anti-American propaganda should have been confronted long ago. But it wasn’t, and your group is a young, young effort . It’s a fantastic idea, and the urgency is real - it’s amazing what was accomplished today: a salvo back.
Be patient as it builds. This is good stuff. People are overcommitted in general, many support this idea heartily, but their time is full until we can shift our schedules to find a slot for helping with this.
Think of it in WWII terms: You have just landed in North Africa, and your troops are inexperienced. The Germans are laughing. They won’t be for long.
Today a few of your fighters became more seasoned. You are setting up base, learning the parameters of the field. Training and logistics take time. You are another front opened against the enemies of American ideals. Congratulations all around.