2004 MEATHEAD
AWARDS
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
by Judith
Haney,
The one and only judge in the contest!
Meathead Terry "Let's-Slim-Free-Speech-Fast" Olson,
Genital - er - General Manager and Prissy Vice President of Marketing of Slim-Fast Foods,
which is a subsidiary of the Dutch conglomerate Unilever NV, told the world on July 15,
2004, "we do not condone the manner in which Ms. Whoopi Goldberg conducted herself at
the Kerry fundraiser. Her views do not reflect the views and values of Slim-Fast. We are
disappointed by the manner in which Ms. Goldberg chose to express herself and sincerely
regret that her recent remarks offended some of our consumers. Ads featuring Ms. Goldberg
will no longer be on the air."
What the prissy Meathead
Olson didn't announce was that in May, 2004, Slimfast, was sued in the County of Shasta,
Redding, California, (Case #224797) accused of deceiving and poisoning consumers.
Danny Abraham, best-known for
creating Slim-Fast foods, almost single-handedly created the phenylpropanolamine,
PPA, diet pill market naming and designing his pills Dexatrim to look like that of
an amphetamine, Dexedrine.
PPA, used by millions as an
appetite depressant, has killed hundreds, caused strokes, and left users with life
threatening disabilities because it raises the user's blood pressure.
Slim-Fast has a history of
killing and disabling it's customers through the use of PPA and aspartame. Slim-Fast has a
further history of failing to issue, widely distribute, and publish warnings to users that
it's defective products could kill and disable them. We invite Meathead Terry Olson to
respond to this charge and we will publish anything the little George Bush loving, prissy,
pimp has to say. Meathead Olson can practice "free speech" at USNewsLink
... and so can we!
KEEPING
IT IN PERSPECTIVE: The so-called 'men', i.e., Bush and Cheney, who Meathead Olson
defended when he fired Goldberg have each gone on the record saying the following
vulgarities to and in front of reporters:
Bush to Texas reporter when
asked what he and his father George Bush, Sr., were discussing, Bush's reply was
"PUSSY."
Cheney to Senator Patrick
Leahy in the presence of other senators and reporters: "FUCK YOU."
Meathead David Let's Present The Entire Story Deniston Smith, President of
Sinclair Broadcasting, in a letter to Senator John McCain dated
04/30/2004, wrote:
"It is "Nightline's" failure to present the entire story, however, to which
Sinclair objects. "Nightline" is not reporting news; it is doing nothing more
than making a political statement. In simply reading the names of our fallen heroes, this
program has adopted a strategy employed by numerous anti-war demonstrators who wish to
focus attention solely on the cost of war. "
In USNewsLink's ongoing effort to "present the entire
story" we have chosen David Deniston Smith as our second Meathead of 2004.
We believe Mr. Smith was
disturbingly misguided and altogether insensitive to the American public when he chose to
exercise censorship of the public's airwaves for the purpose of depriving millions of
viewers the privilege of hearing the names read aloud of America's sons, daughters,
husbands, wives, children, sisters, and brothers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Smith has
inflicted his own twisted and warped ideas of what constitutes a political statement and
chosen to redefine honoring America's war dead as objectionable content.
However, when one takes Mr.
Smith's actions in this regard and views them in the overall context of how he thinks,
acts, and lives the rest of his life, it is easy to understand how some one like him could
undertake such blatantly anti-social, morally corrupt, and possibly, illegal, actions.
An examination of Mr. Smith's
personal history and background reveals he has a history of hiring a prostitute in
Baltimore, Maryland, and engaging in oral sex with her while driving the streets of
Baltimore in a Sinclair Broadcasting owned Mercedes Benz.
In this regard, Mr. Smith has
shown his contempt for the law, a disregard for moral conduct expected of those who
possess licenses to broadcast across the public's airwaves, and a disregard for the
painful effect his actions have on others, including the stockholders and directors of his
company, his business associates, and more importantly those of his immediate family.
Mr. Smith has
a rap sheet in Baltimore, Maryland.
On August 13,
1996, Mr. Smith was observed by a Baltimore Police department sex sting squad in the act
of having oral sex with a prostitute while driving around Baltimore in a Sinclair
Broadcasting company car.
Mr. Smith and
his prostitute who identified Mr. Smith as her "regular date" were arrested for
committing acts of sexual perversion.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
August 17, 1996, Saturday, SOONER EDITION
David D. Smith, president and chief executive officer of Sinclair Broadcast Group, was
arrested this week in his hometown of Baltimore and charged with a misdemeanor sex
offense. Sinclair owns WPGH, the Fox affiliate in Pittsburgh, and programs most of WPTT.
The Baltimore Sun reported that Smith, 45, was arrested Tuesday night in an undercover
sting at a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes.
On Thursday night, Sinclair issued a statement that Smith's arrest was unrelated to
company business and ''The company will continue to operate under the direction of its
current management.''
- Broadcasting official
charged in sex stakeout
Sinclair president, woman arrested in company car
Published on: August 15, 1996
Edition: FINAL
Section: NEWS
Page: 2B
Byline: SUN STAFF Peter Hermann
The president of Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which owns the local Fox
television affiliate, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with committing a perverted
sex act in a company-owned Mercedes, city police said.
David Deniston Smith, 45, of the 800 block of Hillstead Drive in Timonium, who also is
Sinclair's chief executive, was arrested in an undercover sting at Read and St. Paul
streets, a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes, Baltimore police said yesterday.
Smith and Mary DiPaulo, 31, were charged with committing unnatural and perverted sex act.
Smith was held overnight at the Central Booking and Intake Center and released on personal
recognizance at 2 p.m. yesterday. DiPaulo's bail status was not available.
Officials at WBFF-TV (Fox 45) and Sinclair, one of the fastest-growing broadcasting
companies in the nation with 28 television and 34 radio stations, would not comment
yesterday. The company had $126 million in sales in the first half of this year.
Police said undercover Officer Gary Bowman, on a prostitution detail, was talking to
DiPaulo about 9: 15 p.m. in a car at St. Paul and Read streets. She left the undercover
car after telling Bowman that ``she had just seen her regular date driving in the area,''
according to court documents.
Police said DiPaulo ran across the street to a 1992 Mercedes, registered to Sinclair, and
got in on the passenger side. Police followed the car onto the Jones Falls Expressway,
where they said they witnessed the two engage in oral sex while Smith drove north.
Police said they followed the car back to Read and St. Paul streets, where they arrested
Smith and DiPaulo, who lives in the 700 block of Washington Blvd.
USNewsLink feels a whole lot better
now that we have "presented the entire story."
The
War According to Sinclair
Press
Clips
by Cynthia Cotts
April 30th, 2004 4:50 PM
Editor's
Note: Last night a janitor found the following memo in a dumpster inside the headquarters
of Sinclair Broadcast Group in Hunt Valley, Maryland. He showed it to his mother, who
faxed it to Press Clips, with the humble suggestion that her son, an anti-war and
legalization activist, would make an excellent candidate for a profile in the Voice.
Because of the explosive nature of the purloined memo, we have decided to withhold the
identity of the source.
ABC
Nightline Smear [DRAFT PRESS RELEASE]
The Sinclair Broadcast Group announced
on Thursday that it will censor the April 30 edition of Nightline, in which Ted
Koppel plans to read aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in Iraq. We think
Nightline's ratings stunt is the moral equivalent of terrorism. As we will
elaborate in this weaselly and unsigned statement, our decision to snuff out Nightline
is a patriotic gesture aimed to tranquilize taxpayers and prevent them from recognizing
the boondoggle in Iraq. As Sinclair CEO and president David Smith likes to
remind us, serving the public interest is not in our self-interest.
No
organization holds our media industry and the executives who use it to line their pockets
in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support a mendacious
effort to cover up the alarming number of Americans who have died in Iraq, Mr. Koppel is
using simple, indisputable facts—names and photos of the dead, no less—to
dramatize the war and give viewers a chance to judge its consequences. However, an
informed citizenry is anathema to the corporate state, and we suspect that many of those
currently working toward this goal have financial connections to Al Qaeda. Dick Cheney
informs us that we are not alone in this viewpoint. As a result, we have decided to
preempt the broadcast of Nightline this Friday on each of our ABC affiliates.
Sinclair
owns 62 stations in 39 markets, including eight ABC affiliates. If that sounds like a
monopoly, it is, and we got it the old-fashioned way—we shilled for it. In 2004, we
gave 98 percent of our political donations, or $65,434, to GOP causes. We applaud the
GOP's support for deregulation, and we intend to return the favor by cheerleading for the
war. Unlike the bad news bears at ABC, we think of ourselves as the Good News Network. In
case you haven't heard, 98 percent of Iraqis are thrilled by the U.S. occupation. We have
hundreds of hours of footage of people who were paid to say so.
According
to published reports, our reps have declined to be interviewed by ABC. It's true we don't
trust them, but we're also trying to boost our own ratings by broadcasting a "full
debate" in the same time slot Friday night. We call on viewers across America to
boycott ABC and, if possible, switch to our channels. At Sinclair, you'll hear lies that
are crafted to bolster the profits of warmongers and their media partners. As a bonus,
we'll be showing photos and reading the names of Al Qaeda operatives who are believed to
be secretly funding the anti-war effort. According to our deep throats, one such operative
was spotted in a Georgetown restaurant last month, dining with John McCain.
ADDITIONAL READING ABOUT SINCLAIR BROADCASTING'S MISUSE OF THE PUBLIC'S AIRWAVES:
- Tonight, ABC's
"Nightline" will pay tribute to
U.S. troops killed in Iraq by airing a 40 minute special – the names of the
fallen will be read by anchor Ted Koppel as their photographs appear on screen. But
Sinclair Broadcast Group – the country's largest owner of TV stations – will not
allow its ABC affiliates to air the show. In a statement, Sinclair claims the special
"appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the
United States in Iraq." While Sinclair claims it is pre-empting Nightline because
it is an attempt to "influence public opinion" the record shows that Sinclair
media has repeatedly leveraged its control over the airwaves to manipulate public opinion
in favor of the President Bush's right-wing agenda.
-
- SINCLAIR REQUIRES
JOURNALISTS TO READ PRO-BUSH STATEMENTS: In September 2001, Sinclair Broadcasting
required its affiliates to air messages "conveying full support"
for the Bush Administration. At a Baltimore affiliate, WBFF "officials required news
and sports anchors, even a weather forecaster, to read the messages" which included
statements such as "[the station] wants you to know that we stand 100% behind our
President." Several WBFF staffers objected on the grounds that reading the statements
would "erode their reputations as objective journalists" because it made them
appear to be "endorsing specific government actions."
-
- SINCLAIR REFUSES TO AIR AD
HIGHLIGHTING 2003 BUSH ERROR: In July 2003, Sinclair
broadcasting refused to allow WMSN TV – its FOX affiliate in Madison, WI –
to air a DNC advertisement that featured a clip of President Bush making the false claim
"Saddam
Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa" in his 2003 State of the Union Address. Three other Madison stations,
including ABC, NBC and CBS, readily agreed to air the ad. The Madison CBS affiliate, WISC,
said the advertisement was "no worse than any
other political ad."
-
- SINCLAIR PRODUCES
CENTRALIZED RIGHT-WING CONTENT FOR 'LOCAL STATIONS': In a controversial business
practice, Sinclair broadcasting has fired much of the staff for the local affiliates it
owns and produces content for its local stations from a central facility outside Baltimore
and airs it on "local" news broadcasts. The centralized content features nightly
commentary by Sinclair corporate communications chief Mark Hyman. Hyman regularly refers
to the French as "cheese-eating
surrender monkeys," the so-called liberal media as "hate-American
crowd," and progressives as "the lonely left" On one recent commentary,
Hyman called members of Congress who voted against a recent resolution affirming the
righteousness of the Iraq war "unpatriotic
politicians who hate our military." You can see all of Hyman's commentary's this
month HERE.
(Read more from American Progress about the problems of media
consolidation.)
-
- SINCLAIR AIRS FAKE NEWS
BROADCASTS PRODUCED BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION: In March, it was discovered that the Bush
Administration was producing "television news stories, written and paid for by the
government, which have the
appearance of legitimate news segments delivered by independent reporters" and
distributed them to local newscasts as a way of promoting Administration policies –
including their ill-conceived Medicare prescription drug law. On the broadcasts, a public
relations professional named Karen Ryan pretended to be a reporter. Among the stations who
aired the Administration propaganda as news: WPGH in Pittsburgh "the Sinclair Broadcasting station
that fired much of its news staff in favor of feeds from a centralized newsroom in
Baltimore."
-
- SINCLAIR EXECUTIVES MAJOR
BUSH CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS: Sinclair executives have contributed more than $16,500 to
President Bush since 2000. This year, Sinclair CEO David Smith gave President Bush the
maximum
$2000 contribution. Before soft money contributions became i legal, Sinclair
Broadcasting gave more than $130,000 to
the President's political allies but no money to his political opponents.
-
- WOLFOWITZ NEEDS TO WATCH
NIGHTLINE TONIGHT: One person who should be sure to tune into Nightline: Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Appearing yesterday before a congressional committee
Wolfowitz was asked how many soldiers had died in Iraq. Revealing a shocking insensitivity
about the extent of the casualties in Iraq in the highest reaches of the Pentagon,
Wolfowitz replied "It's
approximately 500, of which - I can get the exact numbers - approximately 350 are
combat deaths." In fact, 722 American troops have died during operations in Iraq
– 521 from combat.
What Sinclair Doesn't Want
You to See on Nightline
Sinclair's rationale for the censorship of
Nightline is explicitly political: "Before you judge our decision, however, we would
ask that you first question Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of the 523
troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private
citizens killed in terrorists attacks since and including the events of September 11,
2001. In his answer, you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled for
this Friday." A response statement from ABC said that the network did broadcast a
list of the victims of the September 11 attacks on the one-year anniversary.
This is not the first time that Sinclair's
conservative political leanings -- 98 percent of its 2004 political contributions have
gone to Republicans (MediaChannel.org, 4/29/04)-- have led the company into journalistic
controversy. In February, a Sinclair news crew was sent to Iraq to cover the "good
news" that was allegedly going unreported in the rest of the media (Baltimore Sun,
2/18/04). And shortly after the September 11 attacks, Sinclair executives required
stations to air editorial statements in support of the Bush administration (Extra!,
11-12/01).
Sinclair controls about 60 TV stations,
including eight ABC affiliates, some in substantial population centers:
WSYX-- Columbus, Ohio
KDNL-- St. Louis, Mo.
WXLV-- Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, N.C.
WEAR-- Mobile, AL & Pensacola, Fla.
WLOS-- Asheville, N.C.
WCHS-- Charleston & Huntington, W.V.
WGGB-- Springfield, Mass.
WTXL-- Tallahassee, Fla.
Sinclair may claim that it honors the memory
of the dead members of the military. It evidently prefers, however, that they should be
remembered without being mentioned-- a dishonorable position for a media outlet in a
democratic country.
ACTION: Contact the Sinclair Broadcast Group
and share your thoughts about the company's decision to censor the April 30 Nightline
broadcast for political reasons.
CONTACT:
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Phone: 410-568-1500
Sinclair-owned TV station WLOS has announced
that it will pass along email messages to Sinclair-- send your comments to:
WLOS
news@wlos.com
 Meathead Steve "I'd do it again" Irwin, a clear and present
danger to children and animals, recently achieved immortality among people around the
world by recklessly endangering his one-month old son Bob by holding him in one arm and
feeding a large gator with the other. And if that wasn't enough to land the criminal in
jail for child endangerment, he then put the baby out as bait for the gator by placing the
baby on the ground within a few feet of the gator.
An
unrepentant Steve Irwin vowed on Sunday, January 4, 2004, to continue exposing his
children to crocodiles, despite the furor over his criminal acts.
In a
bizarre television interview, the Crocodile Hunter apologized for the stunt, which has
been criticized worldwide, but said that he would "do it again" – when the
cameras weren't rolling. "I'm a professional, mate, and have been working with
crocodiles since I was hatched out of the egg," he told a bemused Tracy Grimshaw on
the Nine Network's A Current Affair. "I would be a bad parent if I didn't
teach my kid what was in the backyard . . . and share my surroundings with my children.
"The
big mistake I made was I thought people would understand that where I live is very
different to other places, it's just not normal."
However,
officers from the Queensland Department of Families and Occupation Health and Safety
expect to visit Irwin to question him about the incident.
Editor's
Note: Two things in this sorry scenario that are "not normal" is Steve Irwin
and the Australian government's refusal to protect the baby whose life he recklessly
endangered. The baby's life will continued to be endangered so long as he is in the
custody of his demented, do anything for attention, father! By the way, where was the
baby's mother during her husband's public display of criminality?
2006
Meatheads
2005
Meatheads
2004
Meatheads
2003
Meatheads
2002
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