TIME - "Conservative Talk Radio vs. Grieving 11-Year-Old" Re HCR

[TomCADem]

If its not RW radio urging Americans to boycott American cars to protest President Obama's efforts to save the auto industry, its RW radio attacking folks like Cindy Sheehan or a boy who lost his mother to a treatable disease:

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/03/19/the-worst-of-conservative-talk-radio/?xid=rss-topstories

Aren't there better and tougher targets for Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck than an 11-year-old boy without a mother?

Marcelas Owens, a young boy who's been appearing on TV and at press conferences with Democrats who are trying to sell their health care plan, is a new fascination for some right-wing pundits, who have been saying incredibly cruel things to and about the Owens' family and tragic history. Owens' mother died in 2007 of pulmonary hypertension – a rare condition that requires constant expensive medical care - after she lost her fast food restaurant job and her health insurance. The family's representative in the Senate, Democrat Patty Murray, talked about Marcelas at President Obama's recent bipartisan health care summit and ever since, the boy and his grandmother have been granting interviews and speaking up in favor of Democratic health care reform.

* * *

Limbaugh: "Now this is unseemly, exploitative, an 11-year-old boy being forced to tell his story all over just to benefit the Democrat Party and Barack Obama …And, I would say this to Marcelas Owens : 'Well, your mom would still have died, because Obamacare doesn't kick in until 2014.'"

Beck, on the pro-reform group that brought Marcelas to Washington, DC to talk about health care: "That's the George Soros-funded Obama-approved group fighting for health care…Since all of the groups are so concerned and involved now, may I ask where were you when Marcelas' mother was vomiting blood?"

[Maru Kitteh]

1. I believe Laura Ingrahm accused him of lying about the whole thing

They're a classy bunch.

[Zomby Woof]

2. The dumbest thing about Rush's statement

Is that he is tacitly admitting the current system is a failure, because it says she would "still have died", and furthermore, it admits Obamacare could work, because it would have prevented her death if this was already 2014.

He and his shitstain followers are scumsucking chuckleheads.

[Hekate]

3. It's on their blog? How about they put this story inside the print edition of the magazine?

Regarding Marcelas' age: I was pretty young myself when I wrote my first LTTE -- and I didn't include my age by my sig, either. Public speaking would have been a lot harder, at least at first, but if my mom had died and my grandma was standing beside me in support, you bet I'd have been able to speak out -- and the words and thoughts would have been my own. I believe in Marcelas.

This kid is brave -- the RW talking heads are lousy cowards.

Hekate

[KharmaTrain]

4. Hate Radio Has Become Completely Unhinged

A couple of business reasons. First, radio listenership has been literally dying off for years...especially AM that has led the corporates who own most of these stations to turn them into one big relay with just a handfull of show...each one more obnoxious than the next. It's a ploy to call attention. The outrage is intentional as I was once told by a consultant "people like to listen to anger...it's talk radio's "hot hits"". It's like the Shock jock phase where each jock had to outgross the previous one. Management sees this as getting promotion, not creating hate...and with it they try to capitalize.

Be assured Rushbo's bosses rarely cringe with what he says...they know that he brings ears to the party and they don't care how he does it. Others follow this cue as each market has a rushbo wanna be whose role is to "rev" up the audiences and are far less skilled or tactful as Rushbo on how a good sliming is done. Most just echo what they hear others say...amping up the hate that way. Either way, it's intended to hold that shrinking audience and reinforce their listening habits through hate. There's little balance in most places so one hatefest just fuels the next and the next.

Looking at those teabagger videos from yesterday, you could see the talking points and disinformation flowing. Between faux noise and hate radio the two reinforce these lies between each other. It's the ultimate example of McLuhan gone wild.