As our President’s stimulus package continues to drag the stock market down to decades-old positions and millions are becoming statistics as companies brace for the new tax burdens they will be facing, Yours Truly joined the ranks of those suffering under the Obama-Reid-Pelosi regime. What I am about to relate, I assure you, is NOT sour grapes…….but you take from it what you will.
I was told yesterday, almost ten years to the day after moving my radio talk show to the black-oriented Liberal WDAO radio, that the show needed to go in a different direction. What I believe, based on many signals, is that it meant it needed to go in the Obama direction. And that Kool-Aid didn’t wash down well with me at all.
Posted here is the sign that I stared at since the inauguration. It says that Obama must be referred to as President Barack Obama. And if a caller slipped through and just said “Obama”, or if I said “Obama Administration” I was called on the carpet. These weren’t negative references either, but commonly accepted terminology for all administrations. This was quite obviously a term of my employment.
My thoughts may have become all-too-apparent in my facial expressions as I wondered why, during the previous eight years, I didn’t see a similar memo when callers referred to George W. Bush as a war monger, drunk, moron or other tasteless terms. They called Bush everything BUT “President George W. Bush”.
And even though I tried my best to walk that thin line, I had several confrontations with the owner about my lack of support for the stimulus package. It came to the point that he suggested we just not talk about the economic plans at all if it meant dissension.
Heck, here I am, a white conservative talk show host on a liberal black radio station and for about two months prior to the most historic election battle in our nation’s history, we couldn’t’ talk about the Presidential race at all! We couldn’t mention Obama or McCain…….period! And we heard about it if we let a caller slip through and mention one of their names or the race itself. Is that what a talk radio show is supposed to be like? I must have missed that page in the manual.
Look, Jim Johnson (WDAO Owner and General Manger) is my friend and has been for 30 plus years. He can be a very nice man and has a good technology skill………..he can build a radio studio from scratch. I just question his motivation in handling this censorship issue the way he did. Look, it’s not a crime, or even a character flaw. It just means he could be shortchanging himself and the people of this community, both black and white.
Censorship on the public airwaves is bad enough. Being less than honest about your reasons for that censorship is even worse. I can only assume that WDAO has already gotten its marching orders from the Obama camp to begin the elimination of conservatives from the air before the “Fairness” Doctrine can kick in. At the very least I feel very comfortable that I have maintained my integrity throughout this situation.
WDAO was the only station left in the market offering a local balanced (until recently) channel for the community to speak out. I can only hope the other fine radio stations (some of which I have been affiliated with over the decades) decide to assume that role. And I encourage you to suggest that to them with a very loud voice. Or we may only hear what station owners, like my former employer, DECIDE we can hear!
Now in his 33rd year Mike Scinto has served as a radio talk show host. Call Mike at 937-506-4288. Email him at mike@themikescintoshow.com. And visit Mike Scinto at http://www.facebook.com or http://www.youtube.com/scintoonfilm.
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