When I got into the car this morning to drive to work the radio was set to the local “rock” station. There was some sort of syndicated show on – the typical schtik with 3 crass, ignorant guys and one woman who generally disagrees with the idiots. I really didn’t think much of it until the ring leader of this little troupe decided that he wanted to talk about Angie Zapata. That got my attention.
This crew is called “Rover’s Morning Glory” and, as you might guess, the main star is Rover. Others of his crew include Dumb, Dieter, and Chocolate Charlie. If you go to their website you’ll notice that they’re featuring 3 stories right now that give the level of “entertainment” that this show provides:
- Dieter tries to breathe own farts – watch Dieter try to breathe farts from a tube up his ass
- Is Dumb Dying, or just fat? When Dumb presses on his fatty shins it stays indented for minutes!
- Dumb’s Long Toenail – watch Chocolate Charlie eat Dumb’s long toenail
In other words, this is NOT Talk Radio.
The reason I waste my energy on these people at all is that they spent a good 15 minutes saying things that they need to be held accountable for. They explained the Angie Zapata story in the most disgusting, vile way possible – making sure to refer to Angie as a “man”, a “he”, a “he/she”, a “thing”, and an “it”. They explained that her murderer was justified in being angry and in killing Angie. In fact, Rover said, if he were on the jury he’d vote to acquit. They implied that others would be justified in similar actions, and that Angie deserved it. It was disgusting, irresponsible, and crossed any boundary of decency.
I “joined” their show on their website – that’s the only way to send these buffoons a message – and wrote to them telling them how disgusting their treatment of this story was. I wrote a note to the manager at their flagship station, WMMS in Cleveland, too. I wrote to the National News Director at GLAAD to try to get them involved.
Newsday printed an article today titled “Does Shock Jock Hate Speech lead to Violence?“ Of course it does. They used the recent Unitarian Church shooting in Knoxville as an example.
Someone who goes as far as shooting up a church is obviously mentally unbalanced. But where might Adkisson have come up with such ideas?
Might the shooter have heard talk-show host Rush Limbaugh say that “liberalism is the greatest threat this country faces” and “the Islamofascists are actually campaigning for the election of Democrats” and that riots at the Democratic Convention would be “the best damn thing that can happen to this country.”
Might the shooter have heard talk-show host Sean Hannity say in 2006, “There are things in life worth fighting and dying for, and one of them is making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn’t become the speaker.”
Worth dying for? Adkisson did tell police he never expected to leave the church alive. Books found in his home included Hannity’s “Let Freedom Ring,” as well as “Liberalism Is a Mental Health Disorder” by Michael Savage, and “The O’Reilly Factor” by Bill O’Reilly – both outspoken right-wing talk show hosts.
Are these pundits entitled to their beliefs? Of course. And as a firm free-speech supporter, I can’t advocate censoring them. But with the Tennessee murders fresh in mind, I can’t help wondering: Did their anti-liberal rants help push Adkisson over the edge?
When I asked Rory O’Connor, author of a study of shock jocks and hate speech, for his take on the shootings, he replied, “Sure, these guys hold some responsibility for what happened, but we all hold responsibility – particularly anyone who hasn’t stood up and spoken out against hate speech. We’re all contributing to the climate where people are being dehumanized because of their beliefs.”
It’s got to stop. I’ll do my part. There’s no way that the Zapata family needs to hear this kind of ignorant sludge from these idiots.
On another topic, I received an email from my friend Stephanie Ann Blythe in San Francisco titled “T’s Meet with Congressman Miller”. She explains:
On Tuesday a group of us met with Representative George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. The meeting was arranged and facilitated by the Transgender Law Center and the Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa County in response to reports that Miller did not know any transgender people in his district. Kristina Wertz of TLC introduced the group and Dr. Judy Lively led off as our keynote speaker. As each one of us told our stories of transitioning in the workplace we were able to bring up issues such as bathrooms, health insurance, Real ID, transgender youth, being married and supporting families as well as employment discrimination. It was clear that our stories made an impression on him. He spoke about the recent hearings and the difficulties in securing the votes needed to pass an inclusive ENDA. He’s well aware of the uproar with HRC but he’s not taking sides. We had thirty uninterrupted minutes with him plus the photo op (see attachment). The planning sessions for this meeting were organized by TLC and can be model for groups that want to meet with and educate their elected officials.
Here’s the photo.
Lastly for tonight, another big step for transgender representation in mainstream media. The headline “‘Top Model’ to feature transgender contestant” says it all (read the article here).
Well – I’m tired. Day 2 on the job was a good one. The people in this group have been wonderful. I’ve been taking all kinds of CBT courses (Computer Based Training) that I need to complete to get access to some of the tools I’ll need. It’s certainly not exciting (yet), but I’m certainly not complaining.
Donna,
Sounds like three sicko’s to me. Please let us know what kind of answers you get!
D
I’m guessing it was a typo on your part, but the flagship station for the loathsome-sounding Rover’s Morning Glory is WMMS-FM in Cleveland, Ohio which is owned by Clear Channel Communications based in San Antonio. Could you tell us what the call sign of the station you heard the broadcast on was so that we might direct complaints to their management?
As someone who not only hugged Angie’s Mother and shared her grief, but also as someone who lost a very dear friend to transphobic-motivated murder, there simply must be consequences for the vile statements by the persons you mentioned. Statements such as these encourage others to commit violence against us. Free speech is one thing, but along with that comes the need for being responsible for one’s words. No one has the right to scream “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. Why? Because someone could be hurt or killed in the melee. Irresponsible words by people with an audience exacerbates the intolerable violence against us, and it must stop. It simply must stop. To me, this is an act of terrorism.
I couldn’t write anything to the station or to those idiots. So, I hope that I hear from someone who has. I read a little on their webpage and it sounds like they like to cause trouble. Like standing on the top of a car going down the street. Sounds intelligent to me, haha. I think the likes of this group ought to be banned from radio. The kind of information and rhetoric they give out can and will be harmful to people. I hope GLAAD steps in to get hold of their sponsers to get them kicked off the air.
So I saw a posting on that bastion of good taste, Ain’t It Cool News about the America’s Top Model thing this morning. I made the mistake of clicking the talkback. That stuff causes cancer. Serves me right.
Here’s the phone number for WMMS in Cleveland – (216) 520-2600. E-mail this guy for programming buzzard@wmms.com
From Clear Channel’s Diversity Policy: Our ZERO TOLERANCE policy that prohibits discrimination extends beyond our employees, into each and every market in which we conduct business. We operate openly within a corporate culture that allows each and every Clear Channel employee the opportunity to excel. Are you ready to join our team?
Clear Channel Corporate Phone #:
Clear Channel
200 East Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone 1-210-822-2828
I just found this information and will be making calls tomorrow. I hope others follow suit.
[...] at Donna Rose’s Donna Blog, she reports on what she heard on the radio going into work on the 13th: When I got into the car this morning to drive to work the radio was set to the local “rock” [...]
I heard you this morning on Rovers Morning Glory. The fact that you can’t acknowledge that “Angie” was really a man is proof that you’re not proud. Being proud of what you are means owning it and being proud of it. It makes no matter how “Angie” wanted to live life, the truth is she knowingly deceived another person. No matter what your lifestyle is that is not right. The fact that you can’t say that proves that you believe its ok. Should “Angie” have been killed. Absolutely not. Should violence as extreme as this be tolerated, absolutely not. The guy who committed this crime will have his day in court. The criminal justice system will work his situation out.
Imagine if this happened to you. You have sex with someone and you don’t know that they have AIDS. Wouldn’t you be angry when you found this out? Of course. Deception is deception no matter how you or anyone else tries to spin it. I am sure this comment will not be posted here but I wanted you to read my thoughts.
I am a big fan of Rover’s Morning Glory…I did not listen to the show on Wednesday, but I heard about this blog on their program a little while ago. Here’s what I have to say:
Look at it from the non-transgender point of view. You guys consider Angie a female. Now, I’m not saying I would say Angie was a girl, but I’m not saying Angie was a guy either. And, no, that does not mean I’m calling Angie a heshe or anything. It’s just that I can understand the logic behind considering Angie either gender. In this blog, I suppose I’ll refer to Angie as a “she”, because that won’t anger people.
She or not, though, many people who aren’t part of your community are going to look at it like this: Angie had a penis. I’m not trying to be crude, I’m just stating a fact. And to most people, that would make Angie male. Now, let’s say you’re a straight man. Someone you believe to be fully a woman starts servicing(sp) you. Then you find out that this young girl has a penis. Chances are, you’re going to be angry.
You guys may consider Angie a girl, but most people would feel the penis and think “This girl’s a guy!” I can understand how her murderer would be angry and I agree with Rover at that point. Should the guy have killed her? Definately not, and he deserves to be punished for taking someone’s life. Because-I don’t care how humiliated you feel-it’s just wrong to kill someone. But at the very least, Angie should have used a little more common sense. She may not have known about his criminal record, but as an eighteen year old girl it’s just a bad idea to try to get with a thirty year old guy. And I understand what Donna said on the radio about “She was 18 years old. And eighteen year olds are immature and stupid”. But as an eighteen year old girl myself, I would have enough common sense not to go after a guy who had thirteen or fourteen years on me.
There’s somewhere I need to be in ten minutes, so let me just say one more thing. This is directed at Donna:
Assuming it was actually you on the radio and not someone claiming to be you, thanks for calling in this morning. I don’t think a lot of people would’ve had the guts to call into a show where their view isn’t widely accepted.
In any case, I’m more on your guys’ side with this case and good luck with getting the guy locked up (I don’t know much about this case, so if it happened…sorry I’m behind)
~Lyn
Listen here you wanna be man and your crappy glued on beard…Im glad this happened and I believe all you freaks need to look in the mirror…Guys that want to be woman are probably the ugliest woman alive…woman that want to be guys….just Fu**ed up….
Rover Fan – And people who listen to morning shows like that are stunted children in adult suits.
And people that read these ridiculous blogs about a whiny bitch who is a pig are worth nothing more than on of my a**hole hairs….Frunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkis
Rover Fan, you’re just being immature. And rude.
First off, what you said doesn’t even relate to Angie’s story. And the second thing is that it was rude and extremely uncalled for. It doesn’t help Rover and the gang and it definately makes all of us listeners look bad.
To Tara and everyone else, I’m sorry about what he said (even though I don’t even know who he is, past a fan of RMG). Most of us Rover fans are better people than that. I hope you don’t look at this one bad example as how all of us behave, because most of us Rover fans are decent people.
Oooh, thats my son, my wife behind him, and then myself barely visible behind her. Thanks for posting that!
You miss are completely RETARTED. The overly sensitive pc culture is going to be the end of this country.
As for the dead tranny……NO ONE CARES except dead trannys mommy and daddy.
Rover was trying to be funny and move past a topic that some retarted overly sensitive (possible tranny) like yourself would flip out about.
So in closing stop being a whiney liberal and if you don’t like what you hear CHANGE THE FUCKING RADIO STATION AND LEAVE US UNWASHED HEATHENS ALONE.