Posted on 08/28/2008 7:13:53 AM PDT by AnnaZ
by John McCormick and Steve Schmadeke
DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air.
"WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers."
Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an article for the National Review that looked at Obama's ties to Ayers, a former 1960s radical.
The magazine had been blocked in its initial attempts to obtain records from the University of Illinois at Chicago regarding the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Obama chaired and Ayers co-founded. The school later reserved its position and made the records available Tuesday.
Obama's campaign is urging supporters to call the radio station to complain.
"Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of political discourse," the note said.
"It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our public airwaves," the note continued. "At the very least, they should offer sane, honest rebuttal to every one of Kurtz's lies."
Zack Christenson, executive producer of "Extension 720 with Milt Rosenburg," said the response was strong.
"I would say this is the biggest response we've ever got from a campaign or a candidate," he said. "This is really unprecedented with the show, the way that people are flooding the calls and our email boxes."
Christenson said the Obama campaign was asked to have someone appear on the show and the headquarters declined the request.
"He got into the files just yesterday, so we wanted to have him on to find out what he found and, if at all possible, we wanted to get the Obama campaign to get their side of the story," Christenson said. "That's why the uproar is kind of amazing, because we wanted the Obama campaign's take as well to kind of balance it out."
The show's producer said the calls dropped off after the show's first hour. He did not have a count of calls, but said it was "non-stop."
Obama's campaign has launched similar offensives against stations that have run campaign ads that it did not like.
Posted by John McCormick on August 27, 2008 11:02 PM
Free speech is OK as long as it’s theirs. Disgusting..
The Obama campaign can go to Hell. They should stick to designing fake Greek temples, and leave free American citizens alone.
Good luck shutting them up!
WGN in Chicago is one of the biggest radio stations on the planet.
I was listening to them on Tx last night.
in Tx
Here’s Milt Rosenburg’s e-mail page at the WGN website. Time to counter-flood with e-mails of support for WGN for having the courage to air the truth about obama!
http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&contact_id=29&Itemid=3
Obama tactics sound like those employed in some banana republics, if true
Kurtz talked about what he had seen in the documents and it was illuminating to see where Obama and Ayers had spent the money.
Milt Rosenberg, who might be the most serious, erudite talk host anywhere in the country (psychology professor at Chicago/Yale, etc.) did talk about the Obama campaign’s email. Rosenberg has been on the air for ages, doing a staid, very factual, educational program (Extension 720)and never has faced attempted censorship like this before.
Rosenberg talked about interviewing Obama earlier in his career, describing him as a “young man with impressive speaking skills, though I was much less impressed with his thinking skills.”
OK did that. Anywhere we can hear the show on replay? I heard it was dynomite.
” a slimy character assassin like Kurtz “
Wow, that is a stretch!
Obama is making the Clintons look like amateurs..............
Just sent the following e-mail to Rosenberg:
“I would like to thank you for having the courage to look into Stanley Kurtz’ story regarding the relationship between Barack Obama and known domestic terrorist William Ayers. Please do not back down before the threats and intimidation fostered by a presidential campaign bent on concealing the truth from the American people.”
Think this is juast a passing, clumsy attempt at censorship?
Just wait until Jug Ears gets into the White House Peoples Temple To The Glory Of The Obamassiah.
yeah obama has make good use of that voice, but the brain power behind needs some basic training
Actually, given his speech in Berlin recently and the adoration of the Germans, I'd say it sounds more like the 1930s in that toddlin' little town in eastern Germany.
Were you listening to the Cub game? That’s why WGN is one of my car radio keys. Most evenings, we can get decent reception in Central Indiana if there are no thunderstorms around.
The Obama-nazis are doing this everywhere. Any criticism of Obama gets labeled a “smear”.
No. No cubbies here L0L
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