Just for a change -- and in keeping with our policy of working as hard to praise good things as we do to condemn bad ones -- here's a small Game Plan, to show our support for a local television station that is using its brain and making decisions that are good for democracy!
In a nutshell: bad guys want to run ads conflating the Iraq War and 9-11 and confusing "supporting the troops" with "supporting the war." It's really about telling lies to bolster the Republican in Minnesota's upcoming Senate race. And local TV station KSTP, realizing the ads are deceptive, REFUSES TO AIR THEM.
You have to know the conservatives are saddling up to ream these guys. Let's beat them to it by praising them. Let's just love them to death!
Talking points: DON'T make it about left vs. right. DON'T make it about the war or Bush. DO make it about journalistic integrity and honesty and courage and standing up to those who will harass them for doing the right thing. DO tell them they should be proud to work for a company with that kind of courage and integrity.
Their webpage is focused on their newsroom, and I can't find a webpage for their parent company, so let's plug away at these and if you get a better contact, please post a comment:
atissue@kstp.com
advertising@kstp.com
community@kstp.com
programming@kstp.com
promotion@kstp.com
Switchboard: (651) 646-5555
Newsroom phone: (612) 5TV-NEWS (612-588-6397)
Newsroom fax: (651) 642-4409
SUPPLEMENT, 10:53 AM PT: I just got off the phone with the assistant to KSTP General Manager Ron Hubbard. She was appreciative of the support, and said that the balance of calls over the past week or so has been about half and half. It's nice to hear that both sides are being heard from! And, of course, even nicer if we can tip the balance towards overwhelming support. Don't take up too much of these people's time, but at least we can give them the ability to tell their advertisers that the public supports their decision.
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3 comments:
Another idea to help this station out is if someone on the ground out there can let the station's advertisers directly know how happy they are to see advertisers supporting honest journalism, etc., since this is a strategy that haters use to scare money away from media outlets they disagree with.
p.s. I think we ought to focus on a partner in the MSM to try to bring about change. I am working with MSNBC, especially Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. I like what Chris has been doing recently. I think AMERICAblog's pressure on him has paid off, and I intend to stay in close contact.
T2,
I also blogged about this issue today.
I hope that you understand that the Hubbard family is a fairly right wing clan here in the Twin Cities.
While I appreciate you shedding light on this, it's falling on deaf ears (re: the Hubbards).
We're, for the most part, smart enough around here to know that this campaign is Grade-A bull dunk.
Peace,
ZR
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