Monday, April 30, 2007

Another fill-in about John Loftus



I recently was referred to another web page which had a take about John Loftus.

This was the comment that was placed on my blog!

Arkinsaw has left a new comment on your post "John Loftus thinks we are malicious This was the ...":

Wow! John is a bit delusional huh?

I have listened to a few of his shows and found him to be supremely arrogant. Nothing he says in his email to you is even close to what he spews on air.

Here's a link to my outrage at one of his shows:

http://www.mikemalloy.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=49189&highlight=loftus
I think I was a hundred percent right about what I wrote to Mike!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Peter B. Collins makes leap into charts

I had not heard Peter B. Collins till he got a slot on Nova M Radio. He has an excellent voice, a great conversational style and handles his callers with a immense dignity.

Before I could rate him, he lost his slot on Nova M, reason unknown to me.

I dropped him a line and he pointed me to his regular spot. I have been listening to him, although at a most inconvenient time here in Finland. He comes in after Randi Rhodes after 1 am and before Mike Malloy, who appears on here at 4 am.

I usually tune out of Randi at 12 midnight (as she is usually repeating herself incessantly by then) to tune in to the station which airs Peter B. Collins. So I have to listen to an hour of Ed Schulz. This is because I go to bed on the 1st floor with my headphones on and the computer in the cellar is tuned in to the station carrying Peter B. Collins. I then have to get up at 4 am to tune in to Mike Malloy.

At 7 am, I tune over to KGO to listen to the last hour of Gene Burns so as to listen to Bernie Ward, and following him Ray Taliferro. I listen to Bernie only when he has topics of international interest, which these days is becoming few and far between.

With these new schedules, my ratings have undergone some major changes.

Mike Malloy and Peter Werbe, who is now co-hosted by his former producer, Juline Jordan, still hold the top 2 spots. Peter B. Collins has moved in the third spot, and is followed by the hilarious Ray Talifeero.

Stephanie Miller has matured considerably and holds the 5th position. Her strong showing can be seen in that she has been asked to host a MSNBC show.

Bernie Ward, Robert F. Kennedy and Mike Papantonio, and Thom Hartmann follow in my ratings. Guy James, Nate Clay, Laura Flanders and The Young Turks hold the next spots.

These are followed by David Bender, Rachel Maddow, Betsy Rosenberg, Ed Schulz, Randi Rhodes and John Rothmann.

Ratings for the week ended 21st April 2007:

  1. Mike Malloy Show ***** 5 shows a week

  2. Nightcall hosted by Peter Werbe and Juline Jordan ***** 1 show a week

  3. Peter B. Collins ***** 5 shows a week

  4. Ray Taliferro ***** 5 shows a week

  5. The Stephanie Miller Show ***** 5 shows a week -

  6. Bernie Ward ***** 4 shows a week

  7. Ring of Fire (Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio) ***** 1 show a week

  8. Thom Hartmann **** 5 shows a week

  9. The Guy James Show **** 3 shows a week

  10. Nate Clay **** 1 show a week

  11. Laura Flanders **** 2 shows a week

  12. The Young Turks (Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Jill Pike) **** 5 shows a week

  13. Politically Direct (David Bender) **** 5 shows a week

  14. Rachel Maddow Show *** 5 shows a week

  15. Ecotalk (Betsy Rosenberg) *** 5 shows a week

  16. Ed Schultz** 5 shows a week

  17. The Randi Rhodes Show hosted Randi Rhodes ** 5 shows a week

  18. John Rothmann * 2 shows a week


Under new ownership, Air America Radio is making some big programme changes, so expect a turn up in these ratings during the next few weeks.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Shelby Drobny explains termination of John Loftus



With sparks flying, Shelby Dronby cooled things by giving his explanation for the termination of John Loftus.

Everyone:

The decision to drop the Loftus show on Nova occurred before this email. The show is more suitable for a different audience and that is why we made the decision. I have the a highest regard for John Loftus and the work he has done for whistle blowers and minorities. Unfortunately, intelligence should be apolitical and yet our audience is very political. It was my error and no one should take this personally.

The audience has every right to express its opinion about our shows and I would hope that you guys understand that nobody should take this personally. Thanks.

Sheldon Drobny
Co-founder
Nova M Radio

Monday, April 23, 2007

I reply to John Loftus



On reciept of the copy of John Lotus email to Shelby Drobny, I immediately replied Mr. Loftus.

Dear Mr. Loftus,

Firstly, I am quite sure Mr. Shelby Drobny did not make a decision to terminate your show based on one letter from one individual from Finland.

Secondly, I do not do anything or say anything behind the back of any body. I had the courage to send you a copy of my communication.

Thirdly, your perceptions about yourself are based on your personal opinion about yourself and your show, while mine are based on listening to your show as a listener.

I do not need to know your beliefs or any other data about you. I made my judgements based on the contents of your radio show that I heard.

Two quite different perspectives.

If I have in any way libelled you, my apologies.

If not, then you owe me an apology.

The truth hurts, but as you sow you shall reap.

It is wonderful that some people have the courage to call you on your opinions.

I think the content of your shows are in the public domain and available from Nova M Radio.

I think that I am quite capable of sorting this out in a Finnish Court of Law.

If you wish to do the same, kindly let me know and I shall send you the details of my attorney.

Yours faithfully,

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

John Loftus thinks we are malicious



This was the email we received from John Loftus when he received a copy of our email to Mike malloy which was copied to Anita and Shelby Drobny and he was fired the same night!

I recently received a false, malicious and defamatory email letter from Jacob Matthan of Oulu, Finland. This criminally libelous letter was addressed to me, Mike Malloy, Sheldon Drobny and numerous others. In this letter, Mr. Matthan accuses me of being a "rabid conservative", a "hate monger", and a "fascist."

In the first place I am a life long opponent of racism in every form, and have dedicate my entire adult life to fighting hate mongers. I am an Irish Catholic who has championed the cause of Muslims, Jews, Palestinians, African Americans, Native Americans and other victims of hatred and discrimination. Because of my strong stands, my family has endured death threats, poverty, and now Mr. Matthan's insults. I have been a Nazi war crimes prosecutor and am the subject of a forth coming feature film called "American Secrets" which exposes the secret fascist connections of American corporations. My forthcoming book, "The Witness Tree" exposes how the Bush, Walker and Rockefeller families economically supported the rise of fascism. To call me a fascist supporter is ludicrous. I am life long "Scoop Jackson" Democrat and a public and consistent supporter of liberal positions on human rights and the environment. For my staunch defense of these liberal positions, I have been denounced by Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan many others on the far right.

Next, Mr. Matthan calls me a promoter of the "Chalabi of Iran" and again "A Chalabi for every viewpoint that he holds." I assume this means that I provided my audience with VIP guests who discussed Iran from every point of view. On my show, I have hosted a feminist spokeswoman against Iran, a leader of the Iranian government in exile, and even a former member of the CIA. As the recorded archives of my show make clear, neither I nor any of my guests support the use of military force against Iran except as an extreme last resort. To compare us to Chalabi, who advocated the invasion of Iraq is as false as false could be. We oppose any invasion of Iran, as that would weaken the Iranian resistance in overthrowing the cruel and bigoted rule of the Mullahs.

Here is another of Mr. Mathan's distortions: "Today he was promoting how good setting up walls to separate people." I am in favor of any temporary measure that would save lives, but Mr. Mathan is utterly wrong to then compare my point of view to the communist dictators of Berlin. The Berlin wall was built to keep oppressed people in. The walls in Baghadad and Israel are to keep the terrorist oppressors out, and let the victims of terrorism live in freedom and peace. I pray that someday, all the walls may come down, but first the shooting must stop.

Next Mr. Mathhan charges: "Also, he has spent his time readying the world for Israel to launch another horrible attack on the innocent people of Lenanon." This is exactly the opposite of what my program has been saying: I am predicting that Hezbollah in Lebanon would attack Israel with long range rockets from a safehaven north of the Litani River, and that Israel would be unable to defend itself from the missile attack because the UN force in between the Litani and the Israeli border would block any Israeli ground incursion. Similarly, the Iranian donation of advance anti-aircraft systems to Hizbollah would counter any Israeli air strike. The UN has confirmed all of this from German, French, American and Israeli photographs of the rearmament of Hezbollah with long range Syrian and Iranian missiles in violation of the UN resolutions.

But in this critical eve of war, when peace could still be saved, Mr. Mathan turns things upside down and says that it is Israel who is planning to attack the innocent Hezbollan, and that I am "readying the world for Israel to launch another horrible attack." Mr. Mathan is not just mistaken, he is a liar. No reasonable person who has listened to my programs could ever come to such a conclusion. I do not and never have supported pre-emptive strikes, and have advocated that Israel return the Chalabi farms, release the three Lebanese prisoners and support the demilitarization of the Golan under Syrian soverignty as a peace park open to picknicking visitors from both sides of the border.

Now we come to the nub of Mr. Mathan's written charges against me: "The way, in my humble opinion, he promotes the "fascist zionist" agenda certainly does not merit my supporting the radio station." I am reminded that Martin Luther King said that those who claim they are only anti-Zionist and not anti-semitic, are only covering for their racism against Jews. I have been to Palestine and Israel many times, and have found that most people there do not want either Arab extremists, or Jewish extremists, they just want the tourists back so they can have jobs for themselves and their kids. People like Mr. Mathan who denounce peace loving people like me with smear words like "fascist zionist" are the true enemies of peace.

Mr. Mathan next says: "John Loftus is the Judith Miller of Talk Radio." I am not sure what that means, but Judith Miller will confirm that she and I are enemies. I always tried to uphold the highest journalistic standards of objectivity, accuracy and fairness. On the rare occasions when I make honest mistakes, I post my goofs publicly on my personal website so that people will know that they can always trust me to tell the truth. Because I stubbornly insist on telling the truhth, some senior offcials of the Bush administration have done everything in their power to stifle my criticisms, even to the point of launching an economic boycott against the charity which i head. WWW.IntelligenceSummit.org.

As a final insult, Mr. Mathans says "The only things missing from his programme these days is the "three cheers" for the war criminals Bush and Blair." Here, Mr. Mathan reminds me of another of my heroes, George Orwell who wrote: "the most powerful form of lie is the omission, and it is the duty of historians to ensure that those lies do not creep into the history books." As a former war crimes prosecutor, I must inisist that Mr. Mathan apologize for his omissions, and forward my reply to everyone who recieved his attack on me.

As a personal note, I must add how dissapointed I was to receive the following reply to Mr. Mathan's letter from the owner of the network: "The Loftus show will be cancelled. Tonight was his last show. Thanks for the feedback. " Many people reasonable people will understand this to mean that Mr. Drobny has publicly endorsed Mr. Mathan's lies, circulated his libel to others, and terminated my job. How sad. I thought that we were friends, and now he has supported Mr. Mathan is destroying my professional reputation.

I want a public apology.

Sincerely,

John J. Loftus
Attorney at Law

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Wow! That was fast!


(Cross-posted on Jacob's Politics Blog.)

After listening to the Mike Malloy Show today, I stayed tuned to Nova M Radio and there is a show called the John Loftus Show.

While listening to it, I wrote an email to Mike and sent copies to several people including Anita and Shelby Drobny, the founders of Nova M Radio, as well a Mike Newcomb, the CEO of the station. (I had listened to this guy for several times and each time it was worse than the previous time.)

Subject: Some musings from Finland
From: "Jacob Matthan"
Date: 04/21/2007 5:05 AM

Dear Mike,

I think it was on Thursday, when you did that show about the Alberto Gonzales hearings, I was thinking how great it was that you had a producer who was really the very best - Kathy. She tuned in some of the best and appropriate music and that show, in my opinion, rates one of the very best in your many years on the air.

It was wonderful that you complimented her on air that evening. I am sure most of us listeners appreciated what a great team you make.

You have held the No. 1 Spot on my Liberal Talk Show Ratings. 50% of the credit, undoubtedly, goes to Kathy!

The reason I write is not to pay compliments only, but to respond to your question as to why some of us may not be Radio as Founders. (I do not know whether a non US citizen. non resident of the US can in fact contribute, but that is not the issue.)

When Nova M Radio airs the rabid one-sided conservative views of John Loftus, immediately after your show, although I support liberal radio, I do not support hate-mongering the way John Loftus does on his program.

So far I thought Bill Wartenburg of KGO was the most professional hate-monger on the air as he uses his intelligence in such a morbid manner. John Loftus does it more subtly than Dr. Bill.

The other day I heard him bring on air the "Chalabi of Iran"!

I realised that he does not have just one Chalabi, but "a Chalabi for every viewpoint that he holds".

Today, he was promoting how good setting up walls to separate people were - of course he did not mention Ronald Regan's cry "Tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachov!"). Also, he has spent his time readying the world for Israel to launch another horrible attack on the innocent people of Lebanon!

The way, in my humble opinion, he promotes the "fascist Zionist" agenda certainly does not merit my supporting the radio station that pushes these views, even though that station gives you the airtime.

John Loftus is the Judith Miller of Talk Radio. It is a shame that he shares the same air space as you. The only thing missing from his programme these days is the "three cheers" for the war criminals, Bush and Blair.

I hope you understand my point of view. This may be part of the answer to your question why some of us have not supported Nova M Radio.

I have copied Mike Newcomb, Anita and Shelby Drobny and John Loftus on this email as also some major Liberal Talk Show Hosts (as Bccs).

Very best to Kathy, Molly and you.

--
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland


Within five hours I had this email from Shelby Drobny.

The Loftus show will be cancelled. Tonight was his last show. Thanks for the feedback.


I do not know whether I was responsible, but I am glad Liberal Talk Radio listeners do not have to listen to fabricated hate-speech. I think the appreciation of listeners views is the reason Anita and Shelby Drobny are successful in launching truly Liberal Talk Radio. How I wish Air America would cast aside its ridiculous ways.

Thank you Mr. Drobny.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Sam Seder going off Air America



I just learnt from The Washington Note, Steve Clemon's Blog that Sam Seder will be ending his regular talk show on Air America Radio,

I posted this comment of Steve's blog today.

Although Sam Seder is intelligent and has a great grasp of the liberal political approach, he was not a good Talk Show Host. Sam stuttered and spluttered and in many cases could not complete his sentences and thoughts, changing most of them mid sentence.

Compared to the truly greats as Mike Malloy, Peter Werbe, Guy James, Bernie Ward, Ray Taliaferro, Sam was more hype than a good talk show host.

That Sam is being taken off Air America was inevitable. Maybe we will see the truly great liberal hosts ( http://talkshowratings.blogspot.com/ ) come on the air and fake ones like Rhandi Rhodes (who loves the sound of her own voice and her ideas), Rachel Maddow and others follow the Al Franken and Sam Seder route OFF the air.


I am glad that he and Al Franken are off. Maybe the new management of Air America Radio will bring on the really good Talk Show Hosts - Mike Malloy, Peter Werbe, Guy James, and a host that I really like because of a great voice and a very strong positive approach to problems in the US - Peter B. Collins.

It was surprising he was taken off the new Phoenix Nova M Radio Station where he had a spot along with Mike Malloy. Even though the hours were difficult for me to listen to him, 2 am to 4 am, I enjoyed what little I heard from him. He will soon earn a great rating here.