A Pythonesque KKOB

marjorie says...

The allegations of vote-buying by Heather Wilson and Darren White are incredibly serious. Check out f-brilliant for the full scoop. In a nutshell, the allegation by former NM Governor Dave Cargo is that those two campaigns paid people to attend the Republican Party ward conventions in February, at which time delegates were chosen to attend the Party's statewide convention in March. When KKOB Radio reporter Laura MacCallum tried to report the story, her boss said...No Way...and she subsequently quit in protest (This is right-wing controversy of the highest order folks...peer in the window and see for yourself!).

For further blogosphere commentary see FBIHOP, DfNM, & Clearly NM. As for myself, I just want to briefly *dish* on the memo that KKOB Boss Pat Allen sent to MacCallum explaining why he yanked the story. From the f-brilliant blog:

“From: "Pat Allen" <pat.allen@mail.citcomm.com>
Reply-To: <pat.allen@mail.citcomm.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:22:27 -0800

laura,

i pulled the cargo stories. i'm troubled by his motivation as he was not selected as a delegate. unless there is an official investigation of criminal wrongdoing related to these meetings then the story is going nowhere.

it's also a very inside politics story that i don't think has much importance to our listeners.

also, don't you think if there was anything to it the bloggers would have picked this up, let alone other news agencies?

this is the kind of story that has to be fully developed and verified before it can air.

pat allen news director 770 kkob radio, Albuquerque”


MacCallum rightfully responded with outrage to Allen's memo:

“We’ve billed ourselves as the news leader, and now we can’t do stories unless other news outlets and bloggers do them? That’s not right,” MacCallum said. MacCallum wrote her resignation letter after reading Allen’s memo.


m-pyre readers: Have we just stepped into a Monty Python movie??

I just want to say: You Go Girl!

Ha! Ok, yes, I think all of this is very serious. But when it comes to ultra-right KKOB, this is some seriously absurd mud, and its kind of nice on occasion when my impulse to laugh outweighs my desire to cry.

You know, it doesn't surprise me that Allen thinks KKOB listeners wouldn't find important the "very inside politics story"...that's what's often called the "ethics story" by other people.

And did it not cross Allen's mind that Cargo not being selected as a delegate had something to do with Wilson and White paying a lot of people to show up and prevent people like him from being chosen? No, we don't know the facts...in either direction. That's why it's called...getting at the truth, as in "news." But who has time for that at KKOB?? Thankfully, the public can count on us bloggers to keep the flame burning!

As for MacCallum, well, she's exhibiting some of that naivete I'm famous for...

Sigh.

As to the R's...well, all I can say is...read it and weep. It is truly serious, and Whitney Cheshire's reluctance to address the charges without a formal complaint makes me think there is something to the allegations.