"Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the
assault of thoughts on the unthinking." --John M. Keynes
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 Phoenix 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.
to midnight ET on 1480-AM KPHX Phoenix, the nation's fifth 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. to 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 ironclad 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 neocon 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 neocons and fanatic right-wingers from our midst,
but also those who claim "progressive: credentials but are, in fact,
lickspittles for the corporate elites."
Madsen 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
report, 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 to a
variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net.