tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post8909293125084896506..comments2023-10-28T04:06:59.629-05:00Comments on Plaisted Writes: Clear Channel's House Racist Strikes AgainMike Plaistedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18184502941014520240noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-71551811827090545632008-12-27T00:58:00.000-06:002008-12-27T00:58:00.000-06:00Mike, in reference to Belling's segment on the Bay...Mike, in reference to Belling's segment on the Bayside kids dealing in prescription meds, you said:<BR/><BR/>"These are good kids from good homes, he [Belling] said, not like those bad kids from bad homes who spend all of their time ruining their own and the rest of our lives."<BR/><BR/>That's a complete mischaracterization of Belling's argument. They replayed that segment today (12/26/2008) on a "Best of Belling" show. I heard him say that those kids should be referred to the juvenile justice system so they can learn what they did was wrong. He also railed against the parents for failing to teach their kids such a lesson. Furthermore, he made the point that if this story involved inner-city (black) kids doing the same thing, it would not be newsworthy nor would there be big outcries to treat them lightly. He was criticizing those people who would try to treat the "privileged white, North shore kids" more delicately than some inner-city kid whose behavior, unfortunately, doesn't surprise anyone.<BR/><BR/>How can you criticize Belling when you are bending the truth (perhaps lying) to make YOUR point?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-26284502338524792182008-12-19T17:04:00.000-06:002008-12-19T17:04:00.000-06:00Belling was not saying only certain minorities are...Belling was not saying only certain minorities are criminals and everyone in those groups is a criminal. That's racism. What he was talking about is prejudice, which is not racism. I am prejudiced/presumptively suspicious of any large male walking toward me on the street at night. Their dress and skin color is certainly going to affect my perception of a potential threat as well. This is too bad, but it's way better than willing yourself into some kind of PC state of naivete/innoncence of the world or looking at your toes as you walk and getting mugged.<BR/><BR/>The interesting thing about Belling's remarks is how it makes quite a difference to its meaning depending on how you read the last paragraph, as quoted by Media Matters. If you're white, or if you're thinking in terms of a white Belling as the generic "You," it sounds like he's saying newcomers=non-whites, and then you may assume he is assuming the old-timers are whites. <BR/><BR/>I don't know what he meant there, but the truth is, in Milwaukee neighborhoods, crime stats are higher where stats on wealth and white residents are lower. My guess is that its more the wealth than whiteness that matters most, but they tend to correlate. This knowledge affects the thinking of every person in every area of the city, whether they are black, white, hmong, or something else--as it should. <BR/><BR/>After a decade of living in transitional neighborhoods in Milwaukee and having to deal with migratory drug houses, Belling's remarks seem to be a matter of stating the obvious. Blacks, Hispanics, or Hmong people moving into your Milwaukee neighborhood are a good enough indicator that trouble will follow that many onlookers (including other minorities) will stiffen up with a presumptive suspicion that may or may not be justified. More often than not, it is. And this is not good. Rather progressive, isn't it, of Belling to figure that out?<BR/><BR/>The problem that Belling, like most people--left or right--don't see is that it's more about class than race, and most Americans are very bad at reading class codes among groups they are not a part of. Plus, "black culture" in the last few decades has deliberately blurred some lines. <BR/><BR/>I am pretty sure that few east siders (definitely the liberals and baby boomers) can tell the difference between a real drug dealer and some teenager who adopts the drug-dealer aesthetic for his mode of dress. The panicky confusion--a mixture of fear and guilt--that sets in when such minds are confronted by such realities says a lot about Milwaukee. People here are so self-segregated and self-righteous about race, they don't know how to really relate. They can't distinguish a threat versus a non-threat.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-13924848841510425502008-12-16T21:57:00.000-06:002008-12-16T21:57:00.000-06:00If all the right wing is poisoned by belling's com...If all the right wing is poisoned by belling's comments, then all the left is poisoned by those of the left? What nonsense. <BR/><BR/>I wonder? Is it true that "when a minority person moves in. The answer is because sometimes it does mean an increase in crime."? If so, when is something both "true" and "racist"? is there some objective standard we might apply? Also, if a statement is "racist" and "true" is it then necessarily illogical or taboo as a subject for discussion in our free and open society? <BR/><BR/>Mike, your post seems to suggest that you can not only interpret belling's comments but also the reaction of the audience. Is that logical? Or, is your thinking, and writing, of the same calibre that otherwise would produce racist comments? Are you a lefty fundamentalist?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-72466959388023956692008-12-16T20:41:00.000-06:002008-12-16T20:41:00.000-06:00It must have been a supremely untalented team.It must have been a supremely untalented team.Other Sidehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06475658453374184885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-82411195904964537542008-12-15T20:48:00.000-06:002008-12-15T20:48:00.000-06:00So Mike admits knowing nothing about Belling other...So Mike admits knowing nothing about Belling other than seeing him at a Bucks game once...but yet he cherry-picks one item (a forwarded talking point from Media Matters no less) and all of a sudden Mike is an expert on him and surmises that Belling has to be a racist and the worst kind of racist? I wish I could make those kind of leaps because I then would have made the varsity basketball team in high school!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-6271968279290384212008-12-15T18:19:00.000-06:002008-12-15T18:19:00.000-06:00David asks a legitimate question: why do I think B...David asks a legitimate question: why do I think Belling doesn't believe what he says on the air? <BR/><BR/>The primary reason I think this is because he is otherwise too smart, too well-read, too conversant on other complicated issues to reduce things in his own mind to the black-and-white idiocy he spouts in front of the microphone.<BR/><BR/>Belling is not the only one who insults his listeners' intellegence - Sykes and the others do it all the time. For instance, when the GOP sends out a talking-point about, say, the supposed taint of "Chicago machine" and Illinois politics on Barack Obama, all the wing-nuts talk like they are totally convinced and, in fact, "worried" about this. But they know better -- they have read the articles all over the place that Obama directed his career above and around regular Chicago pols and was a distant as he could be from the dreadful Blagojevich. But they pretend to believe it in an effort to score phony political points.<BR/><BR/>Same with Belling and racism. I don't know anything about him personally -- I saw him at a Bucks game once -- but he is too much of a cosmopolitan city-dweller to believe that nonsense. He is being deliberately provocative, dangling the prize of validation before his needy audience.<BR/><BR/>Like I said, this makes him worse than a racist. Those willing to say ugly things they don't believe to stir up the emotions of those they think are manipulable and weak are the worst kind of demogogue, whether it's for ratings or political power. <BR/><BR/>Anyone who actually believes the racist nonsense spouted by Belling wouldn't have the capacity of talking for three hours a day on the radio. Belling has the brains and talent to do so, and chooses to manipulate people with what he doesn't believe rather than enlighten people with what he does. In radio, it's called "being a cynical hack". In politics, it's called fascism.Mike Plaistedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18184502941014520240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-82279523616373133682008-12-15T16:32:00.000-06:002008-12-15T16:32:00.000-06:00Hope, dreams, and peace signs don't sell ads nor d...Hope, dreams, and peace signs don't sell ads nor do they draw an audience.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-20656862840290708752008-12-15T12:59:00.000-06:002008-12-15T12:59:00.000-06:00I have witnessed the ability of Mark Belling to ap...I have witnessed the ability of Mark Belling to appeal to the lizard brains (Hat tip: Ariana Huffington) in our community and I have evidence that they exist from Racine to Port Washington.<BR/><BR/>A communications director told me once that a well crafted message of hope will always beat a message of hate. I hope that someone emerges in our community with that message.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-8844385664824520262008-12-15T09:32:00.000-06:002008-12-15T09:32:00.000-06:00I am truly amazed by the nastiness of Mark Belling...I am truly amazed by the nastiness of Mark Belling, not only to the community of which he belongs but even to his own listeners. His listeners, in this case the people who call in, seem to thrive on his discourtesy. He's abrupt and mean spirited. With all of this in mind, what I don't understand is the notion that he somehow doesn't believe what he's saying. Is there evidence of this? I find it difficult to understand how a person could say the things he says without somehow believing in what he's saying.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-87791257834403514572008-12-14T23:11:00.000-06:002008-12-14T23:11:00.000-06:00When it takes you 5 days (and Media Matters 3 days...When it takes you 5 days (and Media Matters 3 days) to determine that something that someone said days ago is now considered "racist" it probably wasn't racist in the first place. But hey, whatever fits your rationale. <BR/><BR/>I suppose it's also racist that a majority of criminals in our state's prisons are minorities. <BR/><BR/>Mike, tell us all why you don't live in the central city of Milwaukee...tell us without sounding racist like Belling.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20755638.post-86778359896153923402008-12-14T21:42:00.000-06:002008-12-14T21:42:00.000-06:00For those of us that can't bring ourselves to list...For those of us that can't bring ourselves to listen, would be good to see a posting of the advertisers again. Especially in these tough times, now's the time to take it to them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com