When will we get our message across to the media that they lose by showcasing so-called "conservative" talk show personalities, who engage in hate speech and incitement to violence? Here at Daily Kos we diary over and over, email over and over, but the trend worsens.
On the flip is an email I sent this morning to MSNBC. It's the strongest I've ever sent, and I meant every word of it.
UPDATE: Evidently Coulter got to use her bullhorn again on the Today Show this morning, the highest rated show on television. MSNBC seems to feel putting on dangerous extremists will bring in viewers. We need to tell them they're wrong.
To the Programming Executives at MSNBC:
I've watched with dismay as your network has made the unfortunate calculation to switch from real news, to opinion shows with a right-wing bias. Last night while watching Olbermann -- the only centrist voice left in your line-up of Republican partisan "newspeople" -- I had to endure repeated commercials loudly trumpeting Ann Coulter's appearance on Scarborough at 8PM. As I'm sure you know, Ann Coulter has repeatedly referred to Muslims as "ragheads" and made thinly veiled threats of violence against them. She has also "joked" about shooting Bill Clinton. I could go on but I know you are aware of her remarks, and you are also aware that it crosses the line over and over into virulent hate speech. And yet I see her, and others like her, given legitimacy and free air time by the executives at MSNBC.
Then this morning as I turned on the television to switch to CNN, I caught the egregious Don Imus, demonizing Hillary Clinton as "satan," and hearing one of his idiot court jesters imitate Bill Clinton talking about "humping" his interns.
Have the executives at MSNBC no shame? I'm sure you have made a calculation that this type of programming will raise your ratings. I hope you are wrong. I used to watch MSNBC and now only watch Olbermann. I plan to cancel my subscription to Newsweek, also owned by your corporation and will use every avenue at my disposal to urge others to take similar action.
The demonization on the right of "liberals" and Democrats -- read, anyone who opposes the right-wing of the Republican party and its rabid, extremist base -- by prominent television personalities is feeding into a dangerous trend. An unexpected turn of events could propel these unbalanced persons -- encouraged by your programming -- to actually act on these impulses. If you think it couldn't happen here, you are wrong. If that happens, know that the media -- Fox and MSNBC in particular -- will be culpable, as if they themselves had engaged in it.
You are playing a dangerous game by consciously airing programs that egg on the extremists in this country. Don't become responsible for political violence and persecution by continuing on this path.
That was my email. I couldn't bring myself to watch the Coulter segment on Scarborough last night, but the ad said she would be discussing her belief that liberalism was a "religion," and should have it's own church; then a picture of a stained glass church window appeared on the screen, apropos of nothing. How asinine -- we're stuck in a ruinous war, the stock market is tanking, children don't have health insurance, the deficit baloons, and this is what we get on the so-called "news" channels. What a disgrace.
I'm sure I will get no reply to this email. It will only have an impact if the network gets thousands of emails voicing protest, and they receive them over and over until they realize they must change.
Please go to msnbc.com and click on "contact us." Write them an email; it only takes a minute. We can't stand by while powerful media organizations take us down a very dangerous road. They are playing with fire by giving hate speech a huge audience. Someday soon things may get out of hand. Talk may eventually lead to action. It's time to push back.