How about "legitimate" or "forcible" murder?

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Aug 23, 2012 at 09:16:15 AM MST

But they've been a bit more iffy on the question of how serious it was for Akin, who's vowing not to drop out of the Missouri Senate race, to distinguish between "legitimate" rape from other kinds.

"If you're a guy, and you throw the word 'legitimate' in front of rape, you're in trouble," KLZ radio host Jason Worley told listeners Monday. "You're already in trouble."

In trouble? As if you were asked to take out the trash by your wife and you forgot?

Conservative talk-radio hosts turn off not only women but also Hispanics?

by: Jason Salzman

Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 09:34:00 AM MST

But they're also a serious drag on the GOP's appeal to Hispanics.

"I'm still looking for that immigrant who came to America who had a burning desire for free birth control," said KLZ talk-radio host Jason Worley on the air Wednesday. "I haven't found them yet. If we do find them, I will offer to put them on the air, so we can get the ditsy college girl from Illinois who can come on and go, 'Yah, what I'd like for freedom and liberty is, ahh, free birth control, Yeah me!'"

Olvera is also on the Board of Directors for Colorado Hispanic Republicans, a new group trying to recruit Colorado Hispanics to join the GOP.

Asked by Worley "what message is catching on in those Hispanic communities," Olvera answered:

"Well, we don't really talk about [Republican] party issues," she said.

My tax cuts versus your sick kids

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Feb 23, 2012 at 12:23:00 PM MST

When it does, reporters should be all over it, not to play "gotcha," but to help real people (none of whom read this blog) understand how different communications "frames" illuminate competing worldviews about government and values.

For example, on KLZ's Grassroots Radio Colorado Feb. 17, the hosts and Colorado Rep. Robert Ramirez got into an honest discussion about how the GOP should talk about poor people and budget cuts.

Ramirez started off by saying, "The Democrats have a benefit. Everything they say makes somebody feel good about something in their life. When we say, 'we got to quit spending so much, we can't take any more money to pay for those poor kids,' it doesn't sound as good."

He has a point. This makes the GOP sound like they aren't very concerned about the poor.

Ramirez went on: "We have to say something more like, we need to spend the money responsibly to be able to help people the most, and not just waste dollars in places they aren't helping anyone."

So the frame here is that government is the bad guy. It's wasting money in useless dark places, some of which may sound like they're helping kids, but they're really not.

Ramirez continued:  

But when somebody says, you're trying to kill children, you have to say, that's an interesting comment. Honestly, we have to spend the money the best way to help the most people. So it doesn't matter what they say, we have to, one, stay on message, and we have to keep the message in a positive arena, not negative against the other side. And that's the key, positive towards our message versus negative against them. Negative doesn't work.

Introduction to Tea Party radio show features losers and misinformation

by: Jason Salzman

Sat Jan 07, 2012 at 12:06:35 PM MST

And, of course, you want to be extra actual factual so you don't annoy the progressive media critics who listen to your show and hear your introduction over and over and over.

Colorado's flagship Tea Party radio show, KLZ's Grassroots Radio Colorado (5 - 7 p.m. weekdays, 560 AM), has an intro that features a quote from failed Senate candidate form Nevada, Rep. Sharron Angle, saying:

"We have a fearful society right now. What they're afraid of is that what we are going to be passing down to our children is not liberty and freedom, but debt and deficits."

Angle sounds sincere and all, but she's ill-informed, because, by definition, you don't pass government "deficits" down to your children.

On radio, Ramirez says spite and retribution were motivating Carrera

by: Jason Salzman

Mon Dec 05, 2011 at 06:30:49 AM MST

So even conservative talk-show hosts, like Jason Worley and Ken Clark on KLZ's Grassroots Radio Colorado, should at least make a pass at presenting the issue with some measure of decency and fairness.

I know, it's talk radio, but still.

Free from the pesky Great Society, China is economic model for Tea Party Radio, Coffman, Bachmann

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Dec 01, 2011 at 11:05:00 AM MST

This summer, I had a good honest conversation with Ken Clark, co-host of Grassroots Radio Colorado (KLZ 560AM), about what would happen to kids if the state of Colorado required their parents to pay more for their children's government health insurance.

Clark agreed with me that there's a risk that some kids' health would suffer, but he said there are risks with running up more government debt too. (Sen. Greg Brophy has said the same thing.)

Then my on-air conversation with Clark moved to the bigger picture. He talked about how individual generosity, not government, should replace the safety net in America. That's a theme you hear a lot on conservative talk radio, and often Ayn Rand's name gets tossed in the mix.

Around the same time I had my conversation with Clark, Rep. Mike Coffman published an op-ed in the Littleton Independent taking a similar stand, but pointing to a place where the economy is booming in the absence of the economy-killing safety net.

Coffman refers to the China, which he presents as a model free-market economy, saddled unfortunately with political repression.

Denver news outlets lie there as Gardner, Gessler, and Whitman abuse them

by: Jason Salzman

Thu Nov 03, 2011 at 08:38:05 AM MST

I mean, if journalists don't defend themselves, who will? Academics? Maybe, but who cares?

And if only the marginalized and irrelevant characters are defending journalism, you have to think the profession will sink even faster than it is now.

In July, for example, Rep. Cory Gardner said on Grassroots Radio Colorado that "the media" is biased against people like him who believe in "smaller government," but as far as I know, no journalist has reported why Gardner believes this, much less responded to it.

Last week, Secretary of State Scott Gessler said "a lot of the mainstream media" are "fine" with Republicans as long as they "don't make waves." But if Republicans, presumably like Gessler himself,  "challenge the status quo," then then the media get upset.

Here's a chance for journalists to explain 1) whether they've been "upset" at Gessler, and 2) why their coverage of him has been in the public interest.

But no such stories have been written, even though Gessler's attack on the media appeared in The Denver Post's Spot blog.

Then over the weekend, The Post served up a story about Gerry Whitman lashing out at the media during a farewell news conference, saying the news media's portrayal of his department was "just ridiculous" and stories about excessive force have been overblown.

Another opportunity for journalists to stand up for themselves! But I noticed little or no such self defense in the article.