Not a good day to be a progressive sports fan in the Pacific Northwest - the Sonics have chosen to partner with local hate radio KTTH 770 AM as their flagship broadcast station - read the
announcement in the Seattle P-I.
More after the flip.
I guess the Sonics (and owner Howard Schultz) have no problem being associated with right-wing hate speech advocates like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham and their ilk... I find this a strange business decision from a company owned by Schultz, whose other company (Starbucks) has a 100% BuyBlue.org rating.
Do they think no one will notice? Or care? WTF?
For some reason this has me pissed off in complete disproportion to its importance, so I
phoned the Sonics broadcasting department - they are NOT expecting anyone to call them on this crap.
The person the receptionist passed me back to was quite flustered, but after 30 seconds of hemming and hawing found her talking points - good partnership, good for both parties, change is difficult, etc. I was polite, but told her flatly I would not listen to the Sonics on KTTH. I also asked her if she would take a few minutes to listen to O'Reilly or Savage, or just look for a few minutes at their web sites, and see if that is a brand they want to align with. She didn't have any response.
If you live in Seattle, follow the Sonics, or are just fed up with the normalization of right wing hate speech radio, why not contact the Sonics with a little feedback?
Seattle Sonics & Storm
351 Elliott Ave. W., Suite 500
Seattle, WA 98119
Phone: (206) 281-5800
E-mail:
fans@sonics-storm.com
If you send emails, include links to some of their sites:
Michael Savage
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html
(His
homepage has photos/videos of beheadings and murders - not for the squeamish)
Laura Ingraham
http://www.lauraingraham.com/public/
Bill O-Reilly
http://www.billoreilly.com
Let's let the Sonics know their alliance with right wing hate radio is not something we can support.