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This NewsBusters article purportedly debunking Spocko's take on KSFO's hateful gibberish has been getting some acclaim in Greater Wingnuttia. Let's play with it.

It's a long article, comprised mostly of whine and straw. Noel Sheppard argues that the sound files Spocko sent to KFSO's advertisers documenting their adolescent shrieks are taken out of context, that Spocko is an illiterate, that liberals are trying to shut down conservative speech, and that the Liberal Mainstream Media are big and mean and Spocko is taking orders from Nancy Pelosi about the Fairness Doctrine.

Bullshit.

1. Sheppard's claims about Spocko's "out of context" clips are stupid.

Sheppard wants to use this as the place where we take evidence. Fine.

In that post, by my kindest count, there are nine audio links. Sheppard challenges the context of two. So he's down by seven. Go ahead, do the math your own self: he's got a shitty case.

First, embarrassingly, Sheppard tries manfully to put a positive spin on a demented call for testicle torture. Now, this may come as news to Sheppard, but when you say (paraphrasing) "let's look at the context in which he said 'let's hook his dick up to the battery cables,'" you have just lost any claim to the moral high ground. No, seriously. Even Michelle Malkin's guest posters get this simple point. (Fun Actual Quote: "Now you start with the Sears DieHard, the battery cables connected to his testicles, and you entertain him with that for a while, and then
you blow his bleeping head off." Classy!)

As for the one about calling "Cheverolet's product shitty," well, maybe Sheppard has a case there, though Chevy perhaps still might not be thrilled by such larking. But... one for nine, hooray.

More seriously, Sheppard simply doesn't address how overjoyed Chevy might be to having their product associated with comments like "just stomp their bleeping guts out," or, even better, this gem:

Indonesia is really just another enemy Muslim nation. ... You keep screwing around with stuff like this we are going to kill a bunch of you. Millions of you.

That's called genocide, you know. Not that many advertisers use genocide-themed commercials, for some reason.

Sheppard is an ass. Where's the exculpatory context for that one, sport? Where's the humor in the "call Allah a whore" remark?

Sheppard invokes "context" when it's convenient and ignores it when it isn't, and in the instance of the testicle torture quote, manages to come across as depraved. Well done!

2. Spocko's letter has typos. Omigod. Sheppard invokes the dreaded spelling flame!

It takes a pretty refined sensibility to get all huffy about a few misspellings right after you've just argued that there is a proper "context" for testicle electrocution. Feh. (You also kind of look like a snotnosed little priss when you put a "sic" after a misplaced apostrophe in a plural possessive.)

Anyway, two can play this game. It's fun! Here's Sheppard:

This is especially true for the proprietor of Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas, who resides in Berkeley, and most certainly should have been cognizant of the rather obvious satire being purported by the KSFO crew.

Put aside for the moment that Sheppard doesn't understand how Daily Kos the site works, and thus that dragging Kos into this is pretty silly. Instead, enjoy Sheppard's claim about the KSFO crew's "purported" satire while he scurries off to find himself a dictionary, the poor dope.

3. Sheppard pretends that Spocko and the Left don't get the distinction between wee little plucky KSFO and the Big Bad Totally Liberal MSM:

complaining that this station presents right-of-center views is akin to carping and whining about a classical station playing Beethoven.

By contrast, as cable outlets like MSNBC and CNN, as well as the major broadcast networks, don’t advertise or promote themselves as being liberal – in fact, they feign impartiality whenever questioned on the subject – it is significantly more fair and appropriate to point out to viewers across the country when program hosts and guests are allowing their biases to dominate and impact the content of the issues being presented.

Straw man. The substance of Spocko's complaints are to do with crazy crap like raving about killing millions of Indonesians and hooking testicles up to battery cables. Nobody gives a rat's ass if KSFO wants to be "conservative." The problem is the psychotic burbling.

Anyway, there's no such thing as the "Liberal Media." But since this is a central tenet of the Wingnut Faith, there's no point in debating it. What is more to the point is that Sheppard is trying his damnedest to distract from the issues at hand, that is, what the KSFO hosts actually said, the right of advertisers to know what they're paying for -- and the legitimacy and downright creepiness of KSFO and its parent companies slapping Spocko with a bogus legal threat.

It's also funny how Sheppard wants to paint Spocko as "an anonymous coward," a nonentity whose campaign has had no effect... but also as a Terrible Threat. You know, Mike Stark wouldn't have gotten involved in this, and neither probably would have we here at OBI to the extent that we have, if KSFO and ABC and Disney hadn't sent out that threat and gotten Spocko kicked off his ISP. I find it hard to believe that they would have done that if Spocko wasn't having any effect. Unless, of course, they are the real cowards in this affair. Could be!

4. Sheppard has a lot of irrelevant bullshit about how this is all some crazy liberal plot, because Mike Stark has a freelance deal with Air America and how Media Matters doesn't yell at Don Imus. (Imus as a Liberal Media icon is pretty rich -- see, well, Media Matters, here, here, here, or here.)

Spocko isn't being paid for this. Nobody at OBI is being paid for this. Mike Stark isn't being paid for this. Noel Sheppard and the KSFO loons n' goons are being paid for this.

Power to the people. But if that Sheppard tripe is the best these clowns can muster, well, let's hear it for wingnut welfare, I suppose.

Cross posted at Whiskey Fire.