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
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.
bump
And they are soliciting the DOJ to prosecute the group that created the Ayer’s ad. Pathetic.
This man has been being prepped for this role for a long time.
Riddle me this.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2069538/posts
The $64K question is “who is pulling this man’s strings”?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2069538/posts
“Team Obama continues the leftist tradition of silencing, rather than confronting, free speech. Pathetic.”
Yup. I understand them not being happy with opposing views, but intimidation like this is creepy, scary, truly frightening.
Anyone who thinks McCain and ‘our side’ is “is just as bad” as these leftwing brownshirts needs their head examined.
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