THE UGLY
Carol LaGrasse, land rights advocate in Upstate New York: She had been on several times and was ready to come on again when, during the pre-interview discussion, she started going off on the collapse of WTC 1 and 2. I couldn’t believe my ears. Where did that come from? I asked her if she were claiming the towers were melted to the ground by jet fuel. She responded in the affirmative, then questioned what was wrong with me that I would doubt that story. She began running her mouth about being a civil engineer—which she is; just not sure about the civil part—and how plenty of buildings had melted to the ground throughout history. I asked, “Name one.” She replied, “I don’t have to.”
Gee, what a surprise.
I asked her if we could just get past this issue, which had nothing to do with her appearance, to get back to the business of land rights issues. She refused. I hung up.
Leonard Peikoff, author of The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America: This was a case, sadly, of being more hurt and disappointed than angry. The episode did teach me, however, to look for the same behavior in guests who think they are coy by feeling you and the show out for the expected return for their appearance, namely, heavy book sales.
I e-mailed Peikoff with an invitation to come on our live show out of WDCF/WZHR. He initially responded that he was interested and requested certain information. I sent him what I had, to include the range of the show (suburban Tampa) and my website’s statistics package. He came back with a refusal, stating he was very busy the week of the proposed appearance.
Now two things: 1) Why didn’t he just tell me right from the beginning that the date of his appearance conflicted with his busy schedule? 2) Did he take it for granted that I wouldn’t ask him when he wasn’t busy and schedule him then? Of course, I didn’t do that because he had insulted me by lying, in that, he used being busy as a blowoff. Instead of giving him the jab back, I just dropped the issue.
And I have to say, from that point on, I learned there are usually only two kinds of guests: One who desires firstly to get the information out, and if he can sell some product in the process, then great. The other wants, chiefly, to sell product, but if it’s determined that the volume of sales isn’t there because the audience isn’t deemed large enough, then no appearance is made, no information is imparted.
Andrea and Jeff Garland, residents of New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and activists who were extremely critical of the National Guard’s actions or inactions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Andrea Garland, particularly, made some scathing charges on the couple’s website getyouracton.com. She stated that “Our government is killing the people of New Orleans. By witholding supplies, they are ensuring more deaths, and I hold them complicit.”
She also posted: “I can be reached at 254.640.8441 - feel free to call me or give my number to any media that needs a contact person to talk to.”
So I called and set up a live interview to be conducted from the AM stations. As is my custom, I called them minutes prior to their appearance to lock them into the Telos. I first rang her number. No answer. I called Jeff’s number. No answer. For the sake of the show, I had to kick in Plan B, but I was concerned for their welfare, not knowing if some tragedy had befallen them. When I got home, I called them both again. No answer. I e-mailed them asking if they were okay. No response.
They were apparently fine. But they didn’t have the decency to tell me what happened or offer an apology for stiffing me.
I even tried to contact them by e-mail in late 2007, being polite—actually phony—by suggesting something must have technically gone wrong way back when, then asking if they would come on to recall their experiences and what things are like in New Orleans nowadays. I kind of knew that they wouldn’t respond. And they didn’t. They really should put up a new website: getyouracttogether.com.
Ralph Schoenman, author, show host and pompous ass: I never listened to him. I never will. I contacted Schoenman by e-mail at the behest of a listener. In his reply, he stated—after apparently checking out my website—that despite my belief in secret societies, he would still deign to come on as a guest. He took some other smarmy swipes, but I swallowed hard, put them all aside and eventually called him at the number he gave me. He picked up. I explained who I was and that I wanted to set up a day and time for a pre-record. He informed me he couldn’t talk just then because he was listening to a show he had just taped.
Are you freaking kidding me? I thought. Like you can’t pause the recording? Can’t tell me a time I should call back? And why are you listening to yourself, anyway? Is it the love for the sound of your own voice? That was the end of that.
Bob Chapman, publisher of The International Forecaster: Chapman had been a regular guest for five years, but a listener in Canada, one who had been a subscriber to Chapman’s periodical and had been in regular communication with him, alerted me to what appeared to be some questionable practices on Chapman’s part. The listener, whose name is Robert, had sent me information, mostly anecdotal, from others who had been burned by Chapman’s tips. Things turned very serious, however, when Robert passed along the charges laid against Chapman by the Securities and Exchange Commission. That was enough for me to cut off our relationship. Later, I found that Chapman had indictments against him in 11 states dating back to the eighties. Had I known of that at any prior time, I would’ve dumped Chapman immediately or never had him on.
It was also very sad for me to learn that a couple near where I live was left in financial ruins following Chapman’s advice.
And a further tragedy was witnessing the reaction by many paytriot show hosts to Robert’s evidence. Though many hosts dumped Chapman, others simply defended Chapman with nothing other than ad hominem attacks against Robert, which made absolutely no sense.
The irony of all ironies, however, was when Chapman began appearing on many GCN and RBN shows with hosts he had badmouthed to me.
Priceless.
Kurt Nimmo, now a paid lackey for Alex the Mouth: Nimmo had run his own site, posting essays for some time. A listener suggested having him on. I did have Nimmo come on several times. Everyone seemed to enjoy his appearances. I also found him easy to deal with and likeable. The last time I invited him on via e-mail, he responded with a bit of a cryptic refusal, stating that what he really did best was write and that he didn’t think he interviewed that well. I wrote back, stating, while that didn’t sound at all like him, I wouldn’t ask him again. Within days, he popped up as some kind of blogmaster for Alex the Mouth. Ah, then I was able to make some sense out of his oblique rebuff. And I don’t have to explain further.
Jeff Wells, who describes himself—as is stated on his blogspot—as a “cautiously pessimistic Canadian author and satirist.”
Wells was a very bright and likeable guest who had been on several times. We had planned to do a show having something to do with the McMartin preschool case. On my server, I had put up a past interview I conducted with Jackie McGauley—whose daughter had attended the McMartin school and claimed to have been an abuse victim—so Jeff could listen and make note of whatever he wished for our forthcoming interview.
I then called him to set something up. My call came not long after the death of one of Jeff’s parents and the birth of his child. When I called, I got his wife. I congratulated her on the birth of their child and remarked about the cycle of life, in which one family member is removed and another brought into the world.
That little bit of philosophical banter was met by his wife with the warmth of an icicle.
No big deal, I thought, maybe I spoke out of turn.
She handed off the phone to Jeff, who was just as terse and cold. I asked him about a date for an interview, and I got the yoddie-yoddie about it not being a good time and that I should try him later.
I said that was fine and that I’d get back with him at a later date. But I knew something was up. I just didn’t know exactly what.
Well, a month or more down the road, when I thought the time might be right, I contacted him by e-mail instead of calling. Why e-mail and not call? Because I knew the interview wasn’t really going to happen, but I was curious to find out how he would weasel out this time.
And, sure enough, I got the rhetoric . . . Well, I’m busy . . . this isn’t a good time . . .
I e-mailed him back, stating that it was he who had indicated I should try him later, and that I had done what he had requested. I let it go at that.
Interestingly, at that same time, Mauri (who was previously mentioned in this article), contacted me with regard to, what she deemed, was a very dark shift in the posts on Wells’ blogsite.
She didn’t know if he lost or abdicated control of his blogsite to shadowy creatures, or if he had abandoned the site over fears for himself and his family because he was forced to move his original site to another cyber location. I checked out the site. I guess some of the threads turned a bit weird, but I’m no blog aficionado anyway, so I just clicked out.
I never found out what the deal was with Jeff’s big chill, but an honest response from him, no matter how harsh toward me, or even a simple no, would’ve been acceptable. Instead, I got the puke treatment and lost the respect I had for him.
And, now, as we continue with the countdown, please understand that the following personages committed no great offense other than displaying they had the class of a dead dog.
(Four tied for eighth place)
Have you ever heard of FIRE? Probably not, right? FIRE is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. I happened upon the organization while I was cruising around the Internet looking for possible guests. I contacted FIRE and had to deal with a staff person as a liaison. (Apparently, all the members of the FIRE brain trust are really really busy people.) After an undue amount of back-and-forth e-mails necessitated by a three-way communication, I was offered 20 minutes with one member of the brain trust because he was really really busy.
My experiences this far along as a show host told me this 20-minute thing was a quasi-brush off; therefore I no longer wanted any of the brain trust on, so I wrote the liaison to the effect that this is the point where I could get clever and ask for a time when the member of the brain trust wasn’t going to be really really busy. Then I continued that this was a cheesy way of telling me nobody there was very interested. I said to forget the whole thing. The person wrote back expressing what seemed sincere regrets that we couldn’t get something going. I replied that it was satisfaction enough not being told I had it wrong.
Henry Louis Gomez, who dedicates his resources to debunking heroic representations of Che Guevara. By e-mail, I contacted Gomez about coming on to speak to the real Guevera. I told him I thought the topic was extremely interesting and that I held no strong notions about Guevara either way. After checking out my website, Gomez replied that, despite his disbelief in conspiracies and his projection that we would not agree on many issues, he would still grace my show with his vocal presence.
Now I don’t care—and neither should he—whether or not we would agree on any other issues. That had nothing to do with anything. I just wanted him to share his information on Guevara. I wasn’t asking for us to be best friends. Cheeez.
Once again, I tried not to puke and asked him by e-mail for a date and time.
I didn’t hear from him.
Just to bust chops, I e-mailed him nearly two months later and asked what day and time looked good. To my surprise, he extended his regrets about not getting back to me earlier and that, forthwith, he would offer a day and time.
As far as I know, some month or year in the future, old Henry might just get back to me with that day and time because six months later he hadn’t done so.
Michael Webster, crack reporter for rightsidenews.com, who had written a story about the violence and chaos on the Mexican border. The link had been sent to me by a listener. I e-mailed the site and was told by an editor that Webster would gladly give me an interview. I then e-mailed Webster with a forward of his editor’s reply to me. In the e-mail, I gave Webster my phone number, which he called, then, by e-mail, he told me the number was bad. I checked. I had indeed transposed two numbers. I apologized and gave him the corrected number. He never called. I e-mailed him (and this was in mid November) as to the status of the prospective interview. He said we should wait until after the holidays. Innately knowing this was not going to happen, I e-mailed well after the holidays, stating that I hoped he wasn’t taking the show, the audience, and me that lightly and that I’d still like to have him on.
And Webster, like old Henry, just might get back to me some fine day in this or the next decade.
Jim Marrs had been on The Untamed Grassy Knoll as a guest of Gorightly. But, when Marrs indicated that he wanted to use the hour to plug his book about the JFK assassination, Gorightly, who would’ve done point duty had Marrs wanted to discuss UFOs, aliens, etc., then deferred to me.
We had some glitches during the show, but it went smoothly between Marrs and me. In the wake of the interview, a listener wrote me and said Marrs might talk about the Vatican and the Society of Jesus and that I should try to get him on my regular show. I wrote Jim to that effect and never got an answer.
Another listener e-mailed also suggested that I try to get Marrs on alone on my show. I explained what had happened and told him I thought there was little chance of his coming back on for whatever reason. The listener said that because he and Marrs had e-mailed in the past (as Marrs will apparently do if you buy his books), he would intercede on my behalf. He did e-mail Marrs and never heard back.
What was the problem? The Vatican and SOJ topics? Perhaps Marrs’ displeasure with the glitches? Or perhaps Marrs’ association with Alex the Mouth?
We’ll probably never know.
I reserve a separate place for Susan Lenox among these characterless characters, not because the stunt she pulled was so egregious, but that she fancies herself as a true Christian and pulled a stunt as rank as the aforementioned heathens had.
You know, in all these cases, it simply came down to this: a little honesty. That’s it. No big deal. But, apparently, it is a big deal for these types.
In lining up guests for the13-hour Knollapalooza in July 2008, I was told by The Informer that he couldn’t be sure whether he would be available to do a live or taped interview because he had just gotten news of the imminent death of a close relative living out of state. I told him I would try to get a last-minute replacement. I e-mailed Lenox, who hosts the Sound Body program and whom I had e-mailed on several occasions but without a response. She didn’t respond to this one either, but her husband, James Lloyd, who had been a guest of mine, interceded and gave me a more private e-mail at which to reach Lenox.
Eventually, Lenox and I had a conversation for over 30 minutes, during which we spoke about what her topic would be, the format, etc. One of things I told her was that there could be callers. She voiced no objection. We were good to go, it seemed. I immediately e-mailed my webmaster to change all the Knollapalooza-related items on my site so The Informer would be replaced in the lineup with Lenox.
At some point in the ensuing hours after our conversation, and at a time when it was a good bet that I—in the Eastern Time Zone—would likely be asleep, Lenox—in the Pacific Time Zone—sent an e-mail backing out of the appearance, citing that she could not take calls because she was being stalked.
I kid you not.
The excuse was so pathetic that, when I wrote back, I asked her what the real deal was. I reminded her that the call-in format was mentioned up front during our conversation and that she did not object. I also told her that if she really wanted to come on, she would’ve asked if I might be able to make some other arrangement, which I had done with four other guests for the Knollapalooza. But, obviously, she did not give me that opportunity because the call-in thing was nothing but a flimsy excuse for whatever her reason was for canceling.
So what did happen after our conversation? Did she go to my website and decide my show wasn’t the kind she wanted to be on, or that my website wasn’t Christian enough for her tastes, or that the guest lineup for the Knollapalooza wasn’t to her liking?
The bottom line, though, was that she lied about her reason to pull out and, after all, ain’t that the Christian thing to do?
Thankfully, The Informer was able to do a pre-record and the show was inserted back into the lineup.
(Two tied for tenth place) Arthur Evangelista and Rebecca Sutherland have done good work.
Evangelista, a former Food and Drug Administration agent, came on as a whistleblower to expose corruption in the agency. Sutherland wrote a piece about what might have been the real reason law enforcement invaded the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints near Eldorado, Texas.
Both Evangelista and Sutherland included me on their global e-mail lists as a recipient of information they chose to disseminate. I don’t know if they had started this practice somewhere in proximity to their appearances on my show or perhaps had been doing this for some time, then just added me because of our newly formed connection.
Regardless, the information they passed along was largely garbage.
And this issue of people passing along very questionable material and not doing even the most simplistic checks would become a major problem for me.
First of all, who are these people that they consider themselves gatekeepers for the dissemination of anything? They sent along stuff they considered essential, but barely did any of the information have any value except to fire up the rumor mill.
Evangelista bit on the embarrassingly fabricated story that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had been assassinated in January 2008, though in December 2008, he lively accepted Time’s award as person of the year.
Right after Evangelista had e-mailed the story, I checked it out and wrote back to him that the story was garbage. I cautioned him to check his information out before sending it along, that encountering intriguing/salacious information was not cause to share it with anyone.
Evangelista was not happy with the criticism, but it certainly didn’t deter him.
He moved on to sending out old, bogus and/or highly questionable stuff about 9/11.
Again I challenged him on why he was sending this crap out. I stated he clearly must have been new to this arena not to know that what he was offering up as good information was both old and bogus.
This time he flipped out on me, as was witnessed by Andy Senior, who I had made witness to the exchanges by bcc. Evangelista claimed he was not new to 9/11 fact and fiction, but what he shared bespoke otherwise. His e-mail was exceptionally long, and as he continued to write, he became noticeably angrier and angrier until he blew up at the end, stating he was cutting me off from his e-mail list.
Now that’s a loss.
Sutherland sent along the loopy George Green bilge and the authorless, fake story about the U.S. granting China eminent domain as collateral if the U.S. folded financially. Then she’d send me—despite her acknowledgement of the I-man’s work—the usual paytriot fare: got to get our government back, got to restore the Constitution, vote for Ron Paul, states should secede from the Union, and on and on and on . . .
She definitely harbors delusions of being our fearless correspondent on the front lines.
God save us.
