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
They are almost the same tactics that he used against his opponents in running for state senate in Illinois. He used every objection he could come up with to systematically dis-qualify every DEM primary opponent from the ballot so that he essentially ran unopposed to the election. THEN he aimed his sights at the REPUBLICAN opponent. He was able to pull some strings in the Illinois judiciary and got his opponent's SEALED DIVORCE RECORDS UNSEALED and release some embarrassing info to the public, so that he essentially dropped out.......OBAMA IS WORSE THAN CLINTON EVER THOUGHT ABOUT BEING! JUST WAIT TIL HE GETS THE IRS AND THE FBI AND THE REST OF THE POWER OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UNDER HIS CONTROL! ROBERT MUGABE WILL LOOK LIKE A WANNABE.................
” a slimy character assassin like Kurtz “Wow, that is a stretch!
They also call him a "right-wing hatchet man" and a "smear merchant".
*rolls eyes*
” a slimy character assassin like Kurtz “
Do they project much?
That page has a link on it for listen now, which will give you the podcast of last night's show. You might want to look at the links on the left hand side, to two articles about Obama the community organizer which give even more disturbing information about the Obamessiah.
The Left can’t stand conflicting opinions. They view themselves as the most enlightened and most moral people in America. If you don’t agree with them, you’re unenlightened and immoral. Why should they listen to anyone else?
Doesn’t matter how big they are when gov’t guns are involved, ie, when the fairness doctrine is the law of the land.
Just look at the language the Obama camp uses!
What a bunch of guttersnipes!
Did you ever see anything like that from a Republican Presidential campaign?
These punks are street thugs.
And their hysteria is showing!
The only time he lost was to Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther.
WGN has survived a looongtime
I’d love to know who is the power behind Obama. Soros? There has been money and power pushing him for many years. Chicoms?
If Nobama cannot stand the heat in the kitchen right now, what in he%% will he do when he has to deal with dictators from other countries???
IF Bambi gets elected, or possibly even if McCain is President,
the Fairness Doctrine will again be attempted,
but this time, it will go to the USSC and be struck down.
There’s a lot of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Remember Clinton’s Indonesian connection?.........
Seems like his mentors and helpers were radical leftovers from the 1960’s. People like that never learn anything, and they never stop trying to impose their ideology on everyone else.
What’s interesting is that Milt Rosenberg is a professor at the University of Chicago. He’s center-left—hard to categorize, perhaps even a bit center-right, fairminded, genuinely curious to know things. He’s not some lunatic fringe right-winger.
And he knows Hyde Park. I don’t know if he actually lives in Hyde Park or not, but he knows the whole neighborhood from decades of experience. So he comes right out of Obama’s backyard, so to speak. Which means he knows Billy-Boy Ayers’s backyard, so to speak.
I was very pleased to see him give a platform to Stanley Kurtz.
That the Obama folks tried to bully him and WGN is very telling. I don’t think they’ll get away with it. I don’t expect Rosenberg can be intimidated—he’s way too much of a fixture. I’m a bit surprised that the Obamaites tried it. But then again, their lawsuit against the 527 Ayers ad was also a bullying tactic that may well backfire, so perhaps they really don’t realize what’s good for them.
Or perhaps they’re desperate.
Well. If it ever happens, look for the internet to be hardest hit.
Its a lot harder to shut down the shortwave airwaves, unless you use jammers like China does
Thanks for the link....
did my small part...sent message and feel ;-)
“Obama tactics sound like those employed in some banana republics, if true”
Recall that the Clinton campaigns and WH tenure had a goon squad devoted to intimidation of critics and girl friends. I believe Rahn was on that squad, plus others who are in big-time jobs today.
I have never seen a black Cesar.
What I find strange is that he and his wife hate whitey so why imitate them?
It would be more genuine if he dressed as a Kikuyu or a Luo king, or a Caliph, or a calypso king.
Awesome!
^5!
What a bunch of guttersnipes!
Did you ever see anything like that from a Republican Presidential campaign?
I actually wanted to comment on that aspect, so thank you for bringing it up.
For all the screeching about "right-wing attack dogs" and "vast right wing conspiracies", no Republican campaign, nor the party, has ever, to my knowledge, said "sic 'em" to their supporters.
This is why the left's claim to "grass roots support" is always such a sham... they're the ones with the unions, the bussing, and the intimidation.
False spontaneity, false outrage, and miles and miles of projection.
Dems continue to win the prize for stupid. By making such a big deal over this they guaranteed WGN a bigger audience then they otherwise would have had. The also now are faced with the claim they were offered a spot on the show to rebut and turned it down.
Apply the same “stupid” to the libs trying to stop the ad about Ayers from running.
It’s been reported that Bill Clinton has called Obamarama a “Chicago thug”. This whole tv - radio browbeating is sort of thuggish.
I am listening to the WGN conversation with Stanley Kurtz as I write.
I encourage everyone to listen to it and to tell your friends to do the same.
I heard of a new group that needs to be exposed-—Gamaliel Foundation.
Here is the link to the WGN podcast of the program.
http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44075&Itemid=467
Affirmative action for Columbia and Harvard. Editor of Harvard Law Review but no articles written. Three book deal with seven figure advance. Annenberg Fund presidency with Bill Ayers for six figure salary. Street Organizer. State Senator. U.S. Senator. Presidential candidate. Something smells.
“WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears,”
I can’t believe WGN radio would be smearing terrorists.
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