He's
B-A-A-A-C-K
By Sheila Samples
25 Ocotber, 2006
Countercurrents.org
"Words ought to
be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking."~~John
M. Keyne
Much to the dismay of the Bush
Crime Family and the Flying Monkey Right, their most fervent nemesis,
talk-show host Mike Malloy, will return to progressive airwaves on Monday,
Oct. 30 -- a whole week-and-one-day before the mid-term elections. When
you consider the corruption and scandals oozing like slime from the
right over just the past week-and-one-day, Malloy's return is not a
moment too soon.
Mike Newcomb, a Pheonix physician
and award-winning radio host, has joined Sheldon and Anita Drobny, the
original co-founders of Air America Radio, to form the progressive Nova
M Radio,Inc. Network, which will feature the popular Malloy
nightly from 9 p.m. - midnight ET on 1480-AM KPHX Phoenix, the nation's
5th largest city and 15th largest radio market; and on 1380 KDXE-AM
Little Rock, Ark. More information on podcasting, Internet streaming
and archives will be posted in the interim on the Nova M site and on
Malloy's website.
Earlier this week, Malloy
said, "We're starting out on two stations, but we're already getting
requests from affilliates over a wide spectrum, such as Seattle, Portland,
San Diego, Madison, Ann Arbor...This is for real," Malloy said.
"We're in it for the long haul. We just sat down together and said
'Okay, dammit -- We've had enough of this. We're gonna fight back!'"
Newcomb, Nova M CEO and Chairman,
couldn't agree more. He and the Drobnys plan to lease or to own and
operate radio stations across America. In his Introductory
Letter to "We the People," Newcomb announced
that Joe Trippi, of Trippi and Associates, has joined the Nova M team.
Newcomb said Trippi, who changed electoral politics forever by his revolutionary
use of Internet fund-raising and campaigning during the Howard Dean
presidential run, will help Nova M Radio to "reach out to millions
of us who share common values and common goals."
Internationally renowned
pollster John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International, will
co-host a weekly one hour show, “The Pulse of the Nation.”
Newcomb said Zogby will poll particular hot-button political issues
and cultural issues, and each program will include expert guests and
audience participation. At the end of each show Zogby will reveal the
poll's secret results so listeners will know if they have their fingers
on “The Pulse of the Nation.”
Nova M on-air talent will
be liberals who share the goal of "promoting freedom, social justice,
economic justice and peace worldwide," according to Newcomb who,
in addition to his own 9 a.m. - Noon show and that of Malloy, snapped
up Peter B. Collins, a well-known broadcaster and media consultant from
San Francisco who will hold down the 6 - 9 p.m. slot.
But Truthseekers know that Malloy, whom they see as one of the last
true patriots in this country who dares to speak truth to power, will
set the Nova M agenda. There, Malloy will be -- as Jon Sinton, co-founder
of Air America and former president of programming, said upon Malloy's
AAR firing -- "the heart and soul" of the network.
Speculation -- even a conspiracy
theory or two -- continues to swirl around Malloy's abrupt dismissal
at Air America. It came just one day after Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld announced that those who dared to speak out against his war
were "terrorist appeasers" and "Hitler supporters,"
and needed to be silenced. Some believe that pulling the plug on Malloy
was a shot across the bow of all liberal media outlets -- a warning
to progressive radio and TV hosts to "watch what they say..."
Others are convinced that
Malloy's "Katrina Anniversary" special -- incisive, stripped
of all spin, a stark look at the total ineptness of the administration's
response to the tragedy and continued cruelty toward this nation's poor
and displaced -- is to blame. Or maybe it was his Aug. 3 two-and-a-half-hour
interview with Webster Griffin Tarpley, author of the 1992
"Unauthorized Biography of George W. Bush," and a meticulous
historian who presented an iron-clad case that 9-11 is the handiwork
of the Bush cartel.
Investigative journalist
Wayne Madsen
reacted immediately to the Malloy firing by announcing his site would
no longer link to Air America.
"We will not provide
portals to those who claim they are liberals and progressives but serve
as information gatekeepers and censors for the global media elites and
neo-con types," Madsen wrote. "The sacking of Malloy and the
party purge of (Rep Cynthia) McKinney are all part of the censorship
in this country -- censorship that is aided and abetted from the ranks
of so-called Democrats. This country will not return to an even keel
until we not only cleanse the neo-cons and fanatic right-wingers from
our midst, but also those who claim "progressive: credentials but
are, in fact, lickspittles for the corporate elites."
Madson told me that he believes
Air America's "major problem is spelled D-L-C." He said the
healthiest thing the Democrats could do is "conduct an old-fashioned
proletariat-style purge of the Fifth Columnists in their midst."
However, as Rumsfeld says,
"who knows?" With Malloy, it almost comes down to "pick
a subject." Malloy has been around the block more than once --
his credentials are rock solid. He is a former writer for CNN and CNN
International, a newspaper editor and publisher, and rock concert producer,
among other endeavors. In addition to AAR, Malloy's radio gigs include
WSB in Atlanta, WLS in Chicago and the now defunct I.E. America Radio
Network. Malloy is passionate -- outraged by what is happening to his
country, He is concerned not so much with right or left, but with right
or wrong. He literally speaks for all progressives in this nation --
even those who have not heard him -- and relentlessly follows the truth
wherever it leads. Sometimes his words are a little wild, as they ought
to be because, like Madsen, Malloy seeks neither to please nor entertain;
but to shock the sleeping masses with the raw truth before it is too
late.
Whatever the reason, it was
brutal -- an unexpected, crippling blow to the midsection, and tens
of thousands of late-night AAR listeners reeled from the shock of having
Malloy ripped unceremoniously from their midst. And it was just as sudden
for Malloy, who was fired at mid-day on Aug. 30 while he and his producer-wife
Kathy Bay were en route to the WGST studio to substitute for the vacationing
Randi Rhodes. Malloy said Sinton, himself in shock, called and said,
"They terminated you -- effective immediately."
"I couldn't believe
it," Malloy said. "I was driving on the freeway and I pulled
over to the side of the road so I could concentrate on what Sinton was
saying. But all he had been told," Malloy continued, "was
that it was a budget cut."
According to Malloy, who
was the lowest paid on-air talent, that's just so much "batsqueeze."
He says his AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists)
representative, Peter Fuster, and AAR attorney Bill Schapp had worked
out a settlement agreement that had resulted in a two-year contract
approved by Air America CEO Jim Wiggett.
"It was a relief to
me," Malloy said. "I had been working for the past 10 months
without a contract. They had totally underpaid me -- far less per year
than the agreed amount -- and had violated their agreement with AFTRA.
I was just glad it was over, and we could get on with the business at
hand." However, Malloy said that, upon returning from vacation,
CFO Bob Ennis, formerly with Rupert Murdoch's right-wing NewsCorp, allegedly
tossed the contract aside and said, in effect, "No deal. We're
firing him."
That proved to be a futile
gesture because Malloy says, "They can't get rid of me. I'm like
a cork -- I just keep popping up." His past shows are archived
at The
White Rose Society, and immediately upon his firing, Head
On Radio began streaming his shows from 10 p.m.- 1 a.m.
nightly, with material going back as far his early I.E. America radio
days. Also, an in-depth interview with Malloy is available on the Protean
Media site.
Malloy is quick to point
out that Air America's current problems do not stem from its sterling,
progressive on-air talent such as Randi Rhodes, Sam Seder, Rachel Maddow,
et al, but rather with mismanagement in the head shed where it sometimes
appears that nobody is in charge. According to an Associated
Press release, Air America has been plagued with financial
woes since it launched two years ago. After months of denial and reports
that problems had been solved, the station filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection on Oct. 13. The list
of its debtors runs for a whopping 26 pages.
Or perhaps the problem is
that everybody's in charge, which would explain why one guy would give
Malloy a new two-year contract on Aug. 11, and another would pull the
plug on him a scant two weeks later with no advance warning.
That old Army adage, "don't s**t in your mess gear," is elementary,
and I suspect AAR honchos will be mighty hungry by the time they realize
that people flocked to their electronic table seeking only the Truth.
With Mike Malloy, that's what they got.
And, beginning on Oct. 30,
that's what they'll get at Nova M Radio. Night after night. A veritible
feast.
Sheila Samples
is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information
Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
Contact her at: [email protected].
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