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Rally participants belittled
Re: "Saving the signal" ["The Front Lines," Aug. 29]. That article was horrible, as embarrassing a piece of journalism as any I've seen, just a non-stop pile of stereotypes and wrong information. Lines like "The slings and arrows of outrageous conspiracy theory flew through the crowd" and "Altering their radio station is like kidnapping their child" and "understand that KLSD's audience, though not overly large" all propagate the image of progressive talk-radio listeners as a small group of fringe conspiracy nutcases. I know they say that any publicity is good publicity, but I'll bet Larry Craig might tell you otherwise.
Wolff belittled the event, completely misrepresented the issues and mocked the people in attendance. I drove by on my way to work, listened to it on the radio; there were people of all ages, dressed in all manner of attire--hippie dress wasn't the way I would describe it, unless my intent was to minimize the seriousness of the rally, the intention of the rally and the serious underlying issue of a free and open society being warred upon by an elite, wealthy, powerful, conservative, corporatist power structure.
While "hippie" isn't a pejorative per se, in this context and in this manner, given that the mainstream media often accuses the left of being a bunch of dirty hippies, and thus to be ignored like they tried to do during the Vietnam War, it is a pejorative. And that has absolutely no business being included in a news article, a piece of journalism by a free press, if you will--you know, that free press they talk about in the First Amendment. It was a hit piece, plain and simple. I guess the writer didn't grasp the message about how KLSD's audience numbers around a million people; whether they listen or not, that is the audience KLSD is speaking to. And that audience is far from being a bunch of hippies, far from being a small group of conspiracy theorists, far from being out of the mainstream of America. This is a thoroughly serious issue that the media ignore at their peril.
Why do you think so many people get their news from the Internet? Why so many people create blogs that talk about the news, that research and study the events of the day? In part, it's because we have been shut out from the media. One radio station in San Diego to serve a third of the population (liberal, conservative, independent)? Two small newspapers? A couple of guys on TV? Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and that's pretty much it.
So, yes, Mr. Wolff, we are a bit mad, a bit concerned that the one AM radio station we can listen to might get changed to more dreck. I hardly think that's a laughing matter.
Mr. Wolff failed utterly to convey that in his article. Instead he employed rhetoric and failed as a journalist.
Gregg Rosner,
El Cajon
License revoked
Re: "Saving the signal" ["The Front Lines," Aug. 29]. Eric Wolff's article did not do the KLSD rally justice. He certainly took too much license when he characterized rally participants as "very angry hippies." What's up with that? Is Wolff vying for a job working for Bowtie Bob Kittle? I am not nor have I ever been a hippie, and I would say the same is true for most of the rest of the participants at the rally. (By the way, I'm the one holding the "Support the Truth, Save KLSD" sign in the picture that accompanied the article.)
I was willing to give Eric the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's too young to know what a hippie is rather than accuse him of stereotyping. But Wolff took further license when he used the phrase "their beloved KLSD 1360-AM." Use of the word "beloved" infers that there was sentimentality or something touchy-feely behind the rally.
Wake up and smell the coffee, Eric. Have you not noticed the country going down the drain while the media has been complicit, and that liberal/progressive radio is one of the few places where the truth is heard?
And why were you quoting Randy Dotinga of the North County Times, who said he didn't know that many liberals go to the AM dial? What a load of crap. Liberals/progressives will go to whatever source has good information, whether AM, FM, satellite, Internet or CityBeat. Randy and Eric apparently missed the part of the rally when local host Stacy Taylor said he receives e-mail from listeners all over the country. These listeners are apparently listening to KLSD via the Internet or are downloading podcasts.
Lastly, Wolff mentions that "the slings and arrows of outrageous conspiracy theory flew through the crowd." I'm a skeptic by nature, so I'm not prone toward buying into conspiracy theories. However, more than 90 percent of political talk radio is conservative. Something isn't right. It just doesn't stand to reason that only 10 percent of Americans are interested in listening to liberal/progressive radio, or that they won't spend money on advertised products. As it relates to KLSD, I would guess that Clear Channel has not operated KLSD in a manner consistent with success; it's like Bush's Iraq plan--they are either incompetent, crazy or have some ulterior motive. OK, I took a little license there, but not near as much as Wolff took in his article.
Dan Jacobs,
Mira Mesa
Head-scratcher
One other Pete Wilson puzzlement ["Editor's Note," Aug. 29]:
Prior to his election as mayor, Wilson was a State Assemblyman and a supporter of the Coastal Act statewide initiative that has been the bane of real-estate developers like the Irvine Company ever since.
Dick Bundy,
Mission Hills
Published: 09/10/2007
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