Talk Radio Gives Platform To Racist Callers
What did AM 620 WTMJ conservative talk show host Jeff Wagner think would be the reaction earlier Wednesday afternoon when he asked his audience between 1:15 and 1:30 p.m. to respond to and discuss a report that Milwaukee homicide victims were overwhelmingly male and African-American?
Wednesday evening Update: Here is the podcast:
I took these notes when driving:
Darla from Oconomowoc: "It's the whole black culture thing." Kids see thugs, "they become thugs."
Bill From Slinger complained about kids with low-riding pants.
Kurt (Curt?) from Sheboygan: "There is no morality in the central city."I heard no one call in from the City of Milwaukee.
Sandy from Racine about the choices "they" make: "This is what they know...this is how they live...They don't have any gratitude....This all starts at home."
Wagner did say at one point that people shouldn't generalize, but as guidance to the audience, that was weak and disingenuous.
And he got in his licks at central city elected officials Wagner said weren't as outraged as he thought they should be, slyly talking about some from the same family (read: the Coggs' family, I suppose) - - a pretty gratuitous shot.
He knew what he'd stir up, and it appeals only to the fears of his audience while insulting everyone else, victim families included.
As Wagner is fond of saying in other circumstances - - just because you can do or say something doesn't mean you go ahead with it.
And also quoting one of his stock phrases: shame...shame - - on his program and Journal Communications for airing the 'topic' and callers.
4 comments:
He does archive podcasts. Sadly I forced myself to listen to 1 of his shows almost in full one day.
I'm thankful that we have bloggers like you James and John Peterson and radio shows like Sly who are calling JW,MB,VM and CS on the carpet for their anti Milwaukee stances. MB claims to be "STANDING UP FOR MILWAUKEE". Nothing could be further from the truth.
The truth is: all of these right wing propagandists are using the methods incorporated by the Nazis ( not calling them Nazis) in that they use "propaganda presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed." " Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively."" it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favorable to its own side..(,...)" The receptive power of the mases are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble." "all effective propoganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed in stereotyped formulas. " These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward." excerpts from Mein Kamp
No doubt his intention was to spark demands from wingnuts for a "Stand Your Ground" law so as to protect themselves from dark skinned people.
However, according to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economics Research, such laws led to pistol packing wingnuts standing their ground against each other:
"Using homicide data from 2006 to 2008, the years after a wave of legislatures passed such laws in 2006, the researchers found that “Stand Your Ground” laws, which provide protection for deadly use of force in self-defense in a public place, results in a “significant increase in the number of homicides among whites, especially white males.” The results are found to be specific to “Stand Your Ground” laws and the effect doesn’t extend to other laws passed in the interest of self-defense."
“According to our estimates, between 4.4 and 7.4 additional white males are killed each month as a result of these laws. We find no evidence to suggest that these laws increase homicides among blacks,” the researchers write in the paper. “Our findings raise serious doubts against the argument that Stand Your Ground laws make America safer.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/156095/new_study%3A_%22stand_your_ground%22_laws_lead_to_increased_deaths?akid=9007.77792.5rDGVG&rd=1&t=12
Well, there are a lot of people who have trouble with minorities, at least if you ever read Eugene Kane's columns comment sections. I am always surprised that they don't delete the comments, they are very racist. It explains a lot.
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