Impressive. This blog has been operational for barely two weeks now, and already some slimeball scammer attempted to spam the comments area.

I’ve been wanting to explain why the comments area is moderated; that is, human approval is required before posted comments are world-viewable. I made this decision early-on in my research of blogs, having visited so many blogs that had older postings completely taken over by porn and pill spam comments. I swore any blog I operated was not going to have that garbage cluttering things up, and so even before deciding on WordPress for the underlying software, I knew whatever I used would require comment moderation.

But I had no idea the disgusting thieves would get here this fast. I suppose I should have realized that chickenboners who can’t make an honest living without attempting to steal other people’s resources would find us quickly, but I guess I was hoping there was still some honor on the Net.

The really depressing thing is there isn’t much I can do, other than firewall off the Israeli netblock where the scum resides (or at least the computer the scum was using), and report to the upstream. I’m serious about a take-no-prisoners attitude; if I get spammed from a provider, I’ll firewall off that provider until they agree to deal with the problem. In this case, it’s probably a hijacked computer (we’re back to that scum-sucking thief part), so I expect to see more as the days and weeks progress. The only good news is, it’s pretty unlikely you will have to see these disgusting advertisements. (If anyone cares, this one was for some phony pharmacy ready to sell sugar pills to any fool stupid enough to fall for their scam). It makes more work for me needing to approve the legitimate comments that are posted, but it’s well worth the effort if I can protect the blog, and you, from having to deal with scam advertisements like this. Besides, it has to be easier to approve legitimate posts than to run around after-the-fact trying to delete spam messages that were allowed into the blog.

It honestly amazes me how scum like this can survive…you’d think they’d forget how to breath, as brain-damaged as they clearly are.

Wow, I am feeeling honored right now. I received a form letter from Jay Kernis, Senior Vice President for Programming. It’s the same paternalistic clap-trap that’s posted on the website; you know, “I know what good for you much better than you do” and the like, coupled with a bunch of PR nonsense (”Our news programming is now stronger and deeper than even just a few years ago;” well, glad to know you think so).

It is then followed by a press release from “Bob Edwards” (clearly, he didn’t come anywhere near the words in that release), telling us how wonderful it was that they booted him off the show. I’m only sorry another news organization didn’t send Edwards an offer so he could avoid dealing with this organization.

Tellingly, the form letter closes with, “We deeply appreciate that you care so much; without passion such as yours, public radio would not succeed.” I’d like to paraphrase that; with decisionmakers such as you, Mr. Kernis, public radio as it exists now doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance of surviving.

Last weekend’s On the Media looked at this story (although it would have been interesting to hear an investigation about why this decision was made) in an interview with Bob Edwards. Although Mr. Edwards and I disagree about pressuring local stations to force change within NPR’s executive suites, it is clear when listening to this interview that Edwards is just as confused, disappointed, and even hurt by this decision as the listeners of Morning Edition. You can hear the interview at http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=realimpact/wnyc/raotm/otm032604e.ra with your RealAudio player or read the transcript sometime tomorrow (Tuesday) at http://www.onthemedia.org/.

Again, I urge you to put pressure on your local NPR member station by withholding your financial support from them this year, and telling them exactly why.. And Bob, if you read this, understand this is not out of pique or anger, and is not suggested to “get back” at anyone. I maintain that only by putting pressure on the local stations will changes be made in the hierarchy of NPR…and after this senseless and damaging change, clearly pressure needs to be placed on the board of NPR to stop this nonsense. They clearly don’t care about hearing from their listeners, so maybe hearing from the local stations that they are losing funding and support from their listeners might shake some things up.

Or, if you want me to pay for something, you’d damned well better give me what I want, not what you think I should want.

From Seattle PI: Bill Radke (host of KUOW’s “Rewind”) comments on the “reassignment” of Bob Edwards, and the listeners who are loudly complaining.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/saturdayspin/166511_radke27.html

I still think the only way to get to the dim bulbs who caused this mess is to withhold support from the local stations, and let them pressure the NPR board.