a short monthly column on media and politics that Tracy and I coauthored for In These Times:

Calling One Wingnut

Mike Stark’s battle with Bill O’Reilly started last October when he called O’Reilly’s daily radio show to tell listeners to visit the “true no spin zone”: watchdog group Media Matters for America. O’Reilly, who has long vilified Media Matters, immediately cut Stark off, pronouncing, “We got another nut on the air.” He threatened to trace the call and pay Stark a visit at his home.

In late January, Stark launched Calling All Wingnuts a combination blog and organizing Web site that provides tools for progressives to counter misinformation spouted on the radio airwaves.

Stark and his volunteers, dubbed the “Wingnut Spinners,” soon began a new call-in campaign after O’Reilly called for the firing of his MSNBC competitor Keith Olberman on the air. After calling in—to a call-in show—“Spinners” began receiving return calls from Fox News’ security department, which threatened legal trouble for their alleged “harassment” of O’Reilly.

Olbermann has since picked up this story on his nightly show, “Countdown,” and has begun to rake O’Reilly over the coals. So far, O’Reilly has not sicced Fox security on Olbermann.

Reaching Out to Local Media

Stark has also offered his tips on talking back to conservatives to the Roots Project, a new effort to influence Congressional members where they live by contacting the media that serve their districts. The first outreach campaign harnessed blog readers living in Kansas, Maine and Nebraska to write letters to the editors of papers in those regions, urging local senators to investigate the illegal NSA wiretaps.

Jane Hamsher is coordinating the Roots Project through her blog firedoglake. She says organizing calls into local conservative radio shows is the next frontier.

The Roots Project also hopes to engage and showcase regional progressive bloggers. “We don’t want it to be outside agitation,” says Hamsher. “We don’t want to send 1,000 people from California pouncing on West Virginia. Our ability to drive traffic through to a West Virginia blog and have them be the point person—that’s where we can be the most effective.”