The Left's War On Free Speech

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at this below from Mike Stark, it probably isn't the first time he's issued a threat upon which he doesn't have a prayer of delivering.

I don’t mean to be a dick, but the truth is by the time the 6-7 minute segment is over, CNN will want to hire me as a sanitation engineer because I will have mopped the floor with Mr. Riehl… Mike Stark

Hopefully I'll have a few minutes tomorrow courtesy of CNN's Reliable Sources to point out that from throwing pies at conservative lecturers and guests, to physically assaulting Jim Gilchrist of Minuteman fame, see Hot Air and Michelle Malkin for more on that - to trying to shut down The Path to 9/11 and now the KSFO incident while Dennis Kucinich talks about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, this is all in fact part of the Left's on going effort to shut down conservative rhetoric whenever and wherever they can.

It appears that political hack Mike Stark, now allegedly offended at some conservative speech via KSFO in San Francisco displayed no such sensitivity as to what went out over the air in the case documented in this photo when he made sure some vulgarity made its way into a broadcast of Fox's Hannity and Colmes.

As you can see from the bragging about it later while still holding the sign, it wasn't an accident, but another planned political stunt lacking in the kind of principle which would allow a clown like Stark to be genuinely outraged over the issue at KSFO.

But like any good unhinged Moonbat and Marxist, he hopes to parlay the buzz into a full scale war against Disney as a means of hurting corporate America while at the same time attempting to silence another bit of conservative speech.

I just purchased the domain "DisneyHatesYou.com".  I'm building a bulletin board for people to upload photoshops, stories and videos of their bullshit experiences with Disney.  From that central repository, I'm encouraging all of you to copy and paste.  Copy the photoshops and stories from DisneyHatesYou.com and paste them into the other sites you visit.

Individuals like Mike Stark and whoever Spocko is would have us believe this is a case of being outraged with a sliver of over heard speech, but is it? Here's Stark as far back as March all but declaring war on Conservative talk.

As many of you know, I've kind of fallen into being a talk radio "specialist". Recently, in addition to making my own calls, I've recruited others to join in "call-ins" to Bill O'Reilly's show. Our efforts resulted in a huge embarrassment for Bill. We provided fodder for Olbermann's show and even Howard Stern ridiculed O'Reilly for his hubris and arrogance.

... A committed troupe of talk radio callers can make a huge difference in shaping public opinion.  Public opinion, in turn, can influence events.

Update [2006-3-30 20:22:20 by Mike Stark]: firedoglake and Crooks & Liars are both part of this effort. (truth is that Jane Hamsher at fdl put all of this together... the rest of us are proud as hell to be her acolytes)

Byron York already exposed Stark here at NRO as a political dirty trickster attempting to sway elections, as he may have accomplished, in part, with a pre-planned assault on the George Allen campaign during which he physically assaulted a campaign worker only to ask Allen if he had "spit on his wife." Mike Stark - don't look for him under any definition of class.

“Recently I’ve been thinking about how to put these ‘guerrilla tactics’ to use where it matters: winning elections,” Stark continued. “After a lot of thinking, I’ve developed a plan that will impact one election in a big way.

Stark has been working away in the kitchen too long brewing up recipes to silence political speech that he opposes. It's time to turn the lights on in there so that, as with any other cockroach in any other kitchen, bugs like Stark are forced to direct their energy toward running for cover, as opposed to attacking the constitutionally granted rights of conservatives to freely express their point of view. And that includes attempts at humor, whether one ultimately finds them funny, or not. 

Comments

[Darth Malice]

McCain's war on free speech.

[splashtc]

Poor Stark-must have been abused as a child -needs to control everything now. What's his family background.

[Phoenix]

"What's his family background?"

Reptilian. Hatched.

What is with this guy and going after Disney? What's the point of that? Maybe Goofy goosed him and left him with some rage.

[Captain Joe]

Sounds like a true lib commie pinko asshole.

[Lewis B. Sckolnick]

You just do not understand these good hearted dingbats.

[Dave]

Good luck Dan, slam it to this moonbat! We believe in you.

Dave
SevenStripes.com

[Cindi]

Stark's only backround is being picked on from first grade on. I know, I know, reaching far with this one. But really, take a look at the guy. Would you not have humiliated him at every turn?

Heh.......revenge of the nerds?

[Purple Avenger]

Why is he attacking Disney? Disney is extremely left wing and pro-gay.

[Cindi]

Not Gay enough? LMAO. How much is to much anyway?

[Jack Bauer]

Why is he attacking Disney? Disney is extremely left wing and pro-gay.

Because ABC dares to own and operate numerous Talk Radio stations who emply conservative hosts.

Such as KSFO San Fransisco, where Stark Raving Mad got his butt kicked when he took on Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan.

As they reported last week, despite Stark and his alias Spocko trying their little hearts out to intimidate various advertisers, the show is running on maximum spot coverage of 16 ads per hour.

[SDN]

Does anyone think that there is going to be a civil conversation with people like this? Does anyone think that anything short of guns is going to stop them from disrupting other people's lives?

[Darth Malice]

SDN,in a few decades we will be in a full scale Islamic insurgency right here in America

[Freud]

Have some understanding for the man,bald and moonfaced is not going to cut it in the gay community,this is simply displaced frustration.

[Sister Toldjah]

Go Dan! Getting ready to watch the sparks fly now.

[Sister Toldjah]

Good job, Dan - hope someone got that on video!

[IlsaKoch]

Excellent job. As far as I'm concerned, the more talk radio hosts urging "unpleasant" things to happen to liberals the better. Rodgers and Morgan are nothing less than patriots.

[Terry Gain]

Dan,

It was great to see your handsome face on Reliable Sources. You clearly outclassed that leftist moron. I don't think CNN is about to hire Stark -for any job- anytime soon.

[mad_cow]

Nice job, Dan. You were very credible as I knew you would be. I'm so glad you were able to bring up the childish, idiotic stunt Stark pulled on Fox. Only childish idiots could take him seriously after seeing that. Fortunately for him there is no shortage of childish idiots.

[Phoenix]

Yay, Dan! You made that dufus say out loud: "Hannity sucks ass." I laughed out loud especially at how demurely you set him up: "I don't mean to plug my blog, but I have a picture of Dufus on there with a sign..." - not exactly verbatim.... ha ha. (Hannity does suck ass, but so does Allan..)

Best? Your smile as they faded out. I LOVED IT!

:}

[Charles Johnson]

Dan, you are a fucking idiot.

I guess I missed your concerns with vulgarity when Mr. Cheney told Mr Leahy to "FUCK OFF", and when Chimpy and Cheney called a NYT reporter an "asshole" over an open mike.

Funny how selctive your hearing is when you have your head shoved up Chimpy McDecider's butt, ain't it?

[Barry White]

Dan-o sez:
"it wasn't an accident, but another planned political stunt lacking in the kind of principle which would allow a clown like Stark to be genuinely outraged over the issue at KSFO."

Shorter Dan-o:
Because Mike held up a sign with a bad word, the fact that KSFO regularly broadcasts hate speech is therefore a non-issue.

Got that?

[Mike Stark]

# Brian Sussman tells caller to say 'Allah is a whore'
# Melanie Morgan and Ann Coulter say liberals should be executed
# Coulter and Morgan say Bill Keller should be executed - mock execution of Keller on air
# Officer Vic wants to send a hit team after photojournalists
# More laughter about Bill Keller in the electric chair
# Talk-show host is offended because Sen. Obama is a 'halfrican' -- talk show host does not consider Sen. Obama Afro-American
# Paint a bullseye on Rep. Nancy Pelosi?
# More bullseye talk about Rep. Pelosi
# Morgan says 'hang the NY Times editors'
# KSFO crew wants to kill liberals
# KSFO crew says liberals should be 'stomped to death'
# KSFO crew says 'gonna track that e-mail down and do something unpleasant to his cojones'... then Melanie does a live spot for Brite Smile
# KSFO caller says Bill Keller should be 'lined up and shot'. KSFO crew says 'skip the trial'
# KSFO says 'unpleasant things are going to happen to stupid liberals'

I really don't see a problem with KSFO's delightful banter.
I can't imagine why their advertisers would leave when they actually get to hear what KSFO broadcasts on a daily basis.

It is just so WRONG for people like Mike Stark to inform those advertisers of what gets said with their money.

Poor, poor Mike. Poor, poor Disney. I shed a tear.

[Purple Avenger]

"for people like Mike Stark to inform those advertisers "

Don't advertisers have radio's too? I saw a cheap one at Big Lots for $2 the other day.

[DougJ]

Hey, guys, I'm on the other side here (a lefty blogger) and I just wanted to check in to say a few things about your appearance today:

(1) I like that you agreed that taking down the ISP was heavy-handed.
(2) I don't think it made sense for you to go after Mike personally, since you knew he'd come right back at you.

To expand on number 2, I think it's a mistake to view things as right versus left -- when it comes to the media, it's just as often bloggers versus traditional media When you go around attacking each other as bloggers, it plays into the whole "crazy blogger" meme.

Remember -- in the blogosphere, right and left agree that there are a lot of problems with traditional media (we don't agree 100% about what the problems are, but we agree on that more than most would think). Let's not undermine each other when we can avoid it

[Dan Riehl]

Remember -- in the blogosphere, right and left agree that there are a lot of problems with traditional media

I appreciate your sentiments, Doug. The problem is Stark isn't about critiquing the media. He only targets sources on the right. Were he more balanced, I certainly would have followed suit.

[old trooper]

Charles J.

I would gladly give you a poke in the snoot if I could bring you to your senses, however, your senses make no sense at all.

We will keep you safe here and when you come running for help, you will be safe here.

AIRBORNE but retried.

[J]

Mike Stark you still have no class

[J]

I am sure Mike Stark has gone to advertisers on Randi Rhodes show. Oh thats right she doesn't have advertisers as no one listens.

If a radio show is on and no one hears it...is it a radio show?

[inmypajamas]

Maybe some posters don't know but the troll "Charles Johnson" is using the name of the owner/writer of the conservative blog "Little
Green Footballs", one that is regularly attacked by lefty moonbats. How very clever.

Also, IlsaKoch just doesn't ring true - another lefty troll trying to provoke remarks for Media Matters, the Daily Kos, et al to cut and paste?

Two of my biggest fears of the Democrats regaining power were that they would pursue their childish insistence on useless investigations into pre-war intelligence and their indulgence of their impulse to silence opposition, starting with talk radio. Looks like both my fears have been realized, in spades. Stark and his ilk are well-funded with friends now in Congress and Rockefeller's intelligence committee is diving into re-hashing the past for the gazillionth time when our intelligence should be focused on our present challenges, such as Iran's influence in Iraq. We are in for a few bumpy years, I'm afraid.

[Jamil Hussein]

The issue isn't free speech, and all the wingnuts attempting to mask this issue as such know it.

The KSFO issue is about right-wing hate radio being exposed for the cesspool that it is, to companies that have been blissfully unaware of the toxic brand of stupidity that they have been sponsoring.

So spare me the crocodile tears about "free speech".

[Watergate]

Here's a really good clue: anyone who uses the phrase "hate speech" or "hate radio" is against free speech. Those phrases are used to justify government action to silence a particular viewpoint. The KSFO issue isn't YET a free speech issue, but it will be soon. Just count the minutes before it is Exhibit A in a Congressional hearing on a bill to revive the horribly mis-named "Fairness Doctrine." That's where this is going.

[Rick]

"Excellent job. As far as I'm concerned, the more talk radio hosts urging "unpleasant" things to happen to liberals the better. Rodgers and Morgan are nothing less than patriots."

Ah...Ilsa Koch, of the National Socialists? Shoo...we wingnuts don't welcome your kind. But DU has the welcome mat out.

Cordially...

[Dammitman!]

Funny juxtaposition on memeorandum.com right now.

One link is to Dan Riehl, slamming an unknown local activist as an agent of "the Left's war against the First Amendment"...

The very next link is to comments by William Kristol -- an adviser to the President and Vice President, with a weekly gig on national television --who is outraged that critics of the war do not just shut up. The President has made a decision and it is up to them to choose between supporting the President or wanting the troops to be killed.

Obviously, the threat to the First Amendment comes from Mike Stark.

[Khameni is Dead?]

Watergate sez: "Here's a really good clue: anyone who uses the phrase "hate speech" or "hate radio" is against free speech. Those phrases are used to justify government action to silence a particular viewpoint."

Baloney, watergate...nobody is calling for "government action". This is about the right of companies to pick the appropriate venues for advertising their products. If those advertisers choose to leave when a Disney radio station that sells itself as a "family" station is shown to regularly spew out hateful rhetoric like:

"Indonesia is really just another enemy Muslim nation. ... You keep screwing around with stuff like this we are going to kill a bunch of you. Millions of you."

or:

"Now you start with the Sear's Diehard the battery cables connected to his testicles and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his fucking head off. "

Maybe, just maybe, the companies that are leaving KSFO in droves aren't thrilled with the fact that same voice that just merrily chatted away about frying someone's genatalia and blowing their fucking head off is trying to sell their products? Ya think?

But meanwhile,back in wingnutville, Dan is really ,really concerned about bad words on signs...

[Phoenix]

"This is about the right of companies to pick the appropriate venues for advertising their products. "

Give me a break. As if advertisers need Mr. Public to tell them what's appropriate? Gee, I guess I shouldn't have dropped $5 for that really sweet penis. Pass the dunce cap.

[Bush Shrugged]

I am a little confused.

Who is attempting to quash free speech? The blogger who supplies clips of KSFO to advertisers, or KSFO for shutting down the blogger's web site under false copyright issues and using legal threats in an attempt to silence him.

Can you say irony, Dan?

[JohnnyReb]

Phoenix:
As if advertisers need Mr. Public to tell them what's appropriate?

Um, no, but letting those advertisers what kind of trash talk they are sponsoring certainly isn't a free speech issue.

The Free Market can be a real bitch.
(And you do look stunning in that dunce cap.)

[Rick]

"The Free Market can be a real bitch."

As Air America employees & investors weep real tears.

But a good point, and I'll count you as not favoring the resurrection of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine."

Cordially...

[Phoenix]

Oh. Thank you, JohnnyReb!

I love my pointy little hat, but now I'm passing it over to you so you can explain what you're talking about with that doo-doo about we the people letting advertisers know we don't like trash talk. Don't you think advertisers can make up their own minds about what they want to sponsor?

I like that the free market is a bitch. Keeps prices down.

[JohnnyReb]

Phoenix:
Don't you think advertisers can make up their own minds about what they want to sponsor?

That's exactly what they did, after they found out what was being said by the hosts on the Disney Family/Fry Your Testicles channel.

The advertisers were being duped, plain and simple - once they found out they were sponsoring hate talk, they bailed.

So what's the problem?

[Dan Riehl]

So what's the problem?

Uh, the problem is only one bailed. And they'll likely be back if they want to reach that market, which they will.

[Bob King]

I feel a little caught in the middle here; as a Prog-Lib I've got feet in both camps. But I personally do draw a bright line at hate speech.

Indeed, making someone lose their brains and resort to the sorts of drooling lunacy served up as a regular diet on KSFO is to me a great big blue ribbon that says "I win." I mean, if you seriously suggest that "killing liberals" is a good idea, it pretty much means that their ideas are too dangerous to the the ideas you wished were true... but aren't.

I should add that I've seen this before. Vietnam era. Other side. Remember "baby killers" being screamed at returning draftees?

Same-same. This is the point where I stop listening, because if there's any truth buried in the crap - well, I hope I find it somewhere else, because life is too short to spend it having bile spat at me in anybody's cause.

Anyway, nobody is attacking their "free speech rights." They are attacking their right to be paid to speak, with the assumption of impunity.

Now, I know better.

And I also know there's not a single point made by KSFO that could not be made better by someone who wasn't using hate speech.

The moment you start attacking the person, instead of the idea, you have lost the argument. Everyone who doesn't already agree tunes out. Eventually, even those who agree become embarrassed to be associated with the viewpoint. And that political viewpoint, whatever it's validity, starts circling the drain.

And I see this as a serious problem. I don't LIKE the idea that there's nobody out there who can validly check my arguments. An honest argument on the merits of the case; that's a service to the American people. It's also good clean fun. But it's kinda like hockey. If you won't let the other team on the ice, it's just masturbation on skates - and after you've established that it can be done in the first place, I think most people lose interest rapidly.