We Used To Like Ya

I was driving hither and yon this morning, and was about 3/4 listening a local radio station known for outside-the-rut programming.  Sometimes the stuff they spin at WSGE is better than other times (it's sometimes been pretty great), and this morning was on the leave-side of the take-it-or-leave-it scale.  At the top of the hour, in the mornings, they cut to a news package, and I'm pretty sure (at 9AM) it was "AP Radio News."

The headline story was over (brace yourself) Bristol Palin's Dancing with the Stars competition.  As with most so-called news programs, legitimate or not, I'm generally about 3/4 tuned out, and certainly couldn't care less about anything to do with DWTS, but in the last sentence or two the newsreader credited Miss Palin's success, in part, to the tea-baggers.

I've actually written checks in support of Public Radio stations in the past.  But, when I got home, I fired off this short email to the folks at WSGE:

To whom it may concern,

On a network news feed this morning from your station, the newsreader used a vulgar term of derision ("tea-bagger") as a backhanded slur against a group of common Americans whose collective sins amount to having the audacity to peacefully assemble in opposition to what they perceive as governmental malfeasance.  Although I don't actually belong to the Tea Party, I do have great admiration and affinity for their efforts, and I take umbrage at having the national media so-casually deride them.

Whereas I believe the news service is AP Radio News, and not your own production, I listened to the "DJ" return to the programming long enough to offer an apology for airing the offensive term.  None was provided.

I've enjoyed your station in the past.  I've even been a financial contributor to Public Radio in the past.  But, no more.  Plus, I will lobby my elected representatives harder than ever to work toward de-funding National Public Radio and the Corporation For Public Broadcasting.

Regards,

Ex-listener

The WSGE website is here.

I'm not the only non-liberal who sometimes listens to stations that provide the AP feed, I'm sure. Did anyone else catch this?

Caulton Tudor Should Resign Or Be Fired

Though I'd rather not drive any traffic to his ass-wipe reportage, or to his big Obama-loving rag of a McClatchey fish-wrap, the Charlotte Obscurer, if you want an example of biased, control-the-court-of-public-opinion drivel, look no further than today's column by Caulton Tudor.  (Sorry, I was gonna link to it, but you'll have to look it up yourself...See the sports section and bring your own barf bag.)

Tudor suggests that Butch Davis should resign or be fired as "the single most necessary step in the rehabilitation process for the school and the football program."

Of course, to make that assertion, you'd have to already believe in Davis' culpability in the matter, and to believe somehow that completely skipping the rest of the NCAA investigation to jump straight into (self-) punishment phase has any merit whatsoever.  Or you have to have personal reasons for wanting that to happen.

Tudor delivers his proposal as if it's somehow valient for Davis to fall on his sword, for the sake of the University's image, but you really have to read with mental earplugs to not hear the Anti-Carolina venom dripping on his keyboard.

Truly, does his body of work really suggest to anyone any measure of objectivity?

He seems to believe that if the players remain without eligibility and a coach has been dismissed, then all the coaches are hiding additional guilt, and by extension the University and all its students are also guilty, and every fan probably, too.

I never read his articles, because I know what I'll get if the subject comes near UNC: thinly veiled animosity.  I only clicked that link today because of the egregious headline and the consideration of ridiculing it in this space.

And to a point, I generally say, who cares?  Let the Pusspack and Blue-Pillow-Biting-Devils have their own propogandist, so long he can either keep to a reasonable level of bile-spewage or acknowledge his bias.  For someone like him to presume the authority over someone else's career, though, is insulting to anyone with a modicum of objectivity.  Where the hell does this guy get off?  What right does he have to call for Butch Davis' job, anymore than he has calling for yours or mine?

What divine edict placed you ahead of the investigative process and distribution of punishment, sir?  Mighty presumptuous of you Tudor, and mighty disgraceful.  I think you should quit immediately.

Of course, I submit that most readers already fired you and your paper long ago.