Lynn Cullen Leaves 4802 - And The P-G Leaves Out Some Important Stuff

From today's P-G:

Longtime Pittsburgh talk show host Lynn Cullen confirmed Tuesday she is quitting as a panelist on WQED-TV’s “4802.”

Ms. Cullen echoed her sentiments from a day earlier, when she said on her Pittsburgh City Paper podcast, “I am not again ever going to do that show.” A tense verbal exchange with panelist Heather Heidelbaugh, attorney and Allegheny County councilwoman, was the last straw.

You can watch the last-straw exchange here.

And here's how the P-G characterized it:

The program kicked off with a discussion on recent protests to raise the U.S. minimum wage. Ms. Heidelbaugh, a Republican, said she didn’t believe raising the wage was realistic. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Cullen prefaced remarks saying, “I feel so passionately on this issue that I’m going to try to keep myself in check as I address it.”

Some of the others chuckled, as Ms. Cullen is not known for being soft-spoken. She decried large companies’ failure to pay a higher living wage and said that capitalism is an economic but not “moral” or “ethical” system.

This starts about 4:25 in.  What the P-G gets wrong (or, to be more correct, doesn't address at all) is that Cullen's assertion that capitalism was not "a moral system" was misheard (or perhaps deliberately misinterpreted) by Heidelbaugh  as "capitalism is an immoral system."

Big difference.  It wasn't a simple disagreement.  Heather Heidelbaugh spent most of the time arguing stuff that Lynn Cullen didn't say and Chris Moore seemed to dump blame on both parties equally.

Here's my transcript:

Cullen: I feel so passionately on this issue that I’m going to try to keep myself in check as I address it.

Moore: That would be a first.

Cullen: Ok, everybody wish me luck.  Here we go.

Moore: Good luck.

Cullen: Bruce alluded to it.  We have a business model going here now that benefits the wealthiest corporations in the world.  And that business model is: You hire people do not pay them a wage that allows tehm to keep a roof over their head, to clothe their children, feed their children and generally just survive.  It's not a living wage.  And we, the other little guys all over the country, the tax payers, will subsidize.  We will give them foodstamps.  If you are Walmart, if you are McDonalds and you are employing millions of people who can not make it and the rest is picked up by you, you -

Kraus: Us.

Cullen: - you, me, you, everybody else.  This is, if that's not the essence of corporate welfare, what the heck is?

Moore: Ok.  Katie, Katie, what do you say about this?

Cullen: There's also a moral issue.  I want to, I want to bring up a moral issue.  I really do.

Moore: Alright.

Cullen: I really do.  Capitalism is the triumphant economic system globally.  It is.  But it is an economic system.  It is not an ethical system.  It is not a moral system.

[Gasp off-camera]

Cullen: It -

Heidelbaugh: That's despicable, but go ahead.

Cullen: No -

Heidelbaugh: Capitalism is not an ethical system?

Cullen: You just said that what I just said was despicable?

Heidelbaugh: Yes.

Cullen: Tell me why.

Heidelbaugh: Because Capitalism, more than any other form of government on the globe-

Cullen: It's an economic system.

Heidelbaugh:  - has raised more people out of poverty.

Cullen: It's a - Heather, is it a moral system or an economic system?

Heidelbaugh: Why don't you go down to Cuba and live in Cuba where there's socialism and everybody lives in poverty?

Moore: Heather, Heather, Heather.  Why is it that when someone complains about our system in America -

Heidelbaugh: No, she said capitalism was a dirty word!

Moore: I understand what she said-

Cullen: I did not!

Moore: Excuse, excuse me, excuse me--

Heidelbaugh: You did.

Moore: Excuse me, excuse me, why is it when someone says oh, some criticism about the American system, someone else says, "Why don't you leave?  Get out the country."  Why is that the only answer?

Heidelbaugh: No, what she, no, that's not what I said -

Cullen: Heather, I sto-

Moore: Yes, you did.  You said, "Go to Cuba."

Cullen: - because what I said was -

Heidelbaugh: If she really like socialistic system, she ought to look at Cuba!

Cullen: Did I say socialism?  What did I say? I said it was the triumphant -

Heidelbaugh: You said capitalism was horrible.

Kraus:  It's an economic system.

Cullen:  Excuse me, Heather, Heather.  Stop.  I did not say capitalism was horrible.  Did I?  Did I?  No.  I said Capitalism was an economic system.  That is all I said.  I said it is not in any way an ethical or moral construct or system.

Jones Goldman: Is there an economic system that's moral?

Cullen: That's what I said.  I am saying is that if we agree to throw our lot in with an economic system, of capitalism -

Heidelbaugh: Go head.

Cullen: - then it behooves us to make sure that people are not being run roughshod over those in its employ.

Moore: Alright, let's allow her a chance to respond.

[Cross talk]

Moore: Hold hold hold it, Lynn.

Cullen: And I can not believe that you're looking at me like that.

Moore: Lynn, Lynn, Lynn.

Heidelbaugh: I think what you're saying is so irresponsible.  And if we want to talk about morality I think it is morally incomprehensible because capitalism has, in fact, granted people in this country the opportunity to pull themselves up out of poverty.  You look at every socialistic construct, as you call it, and it is morally bankrupt.  The people are poor because you know what socialism is?  Socialism doesn't understa -

Cullen: You been to Europe lately?

Heidelbaugh: I have been to Europe.

Cullen: The people are poor?

Heidelbaugh: I have been to Europe

Cullen: The people are poor?

Heidelbaugh: They have capitalism there, what are you talking about?

Cullen: What are you talking about?

Moore: Excuse me.  There are some European countries, Sweden and others, that have higher tax rates -

Heidelbaugh: But they're capitalistic.

Moore:  - that have social programs, they have a lot of socialistic programs that support the community and people enjoy that even with higher taxes.

Jones Goldman: And many are imploding.  The National Institute of Health in Great Britain is imploding.

And at that point they more or less changed the subject - but the room continued to be tense for the rest of the half hour.

As you can see, Heather spun Lynn's assertion that capitalism is an economic and not a moral system into "She said capitalism was horrible."  Something Lynn did not say.  Later she accuses Lynn of saying that capitalism is morally bankrupt.  Something else Lynn did not say.

It was painful to watch.  Painful to transcribe as well.

Another interesting event happens about 12:20 minutes in:

Heidelbaugh: When you talk about "our side" I find it offensive, ok?

This is a response this at 11:12:

Cullen: Your side doesn't understand the value of labor.

So Heather finds it offensive for someone to lump all conservatives together with a collective criticism.  She must've forgotten that in the discussion of unions (at about 9:50), this happened:

Heidelbaugh: You [gesturing to both Cullen and Kraus] never want to talk about union and how they feather their own beds.

Looked to me she was saying "your side never wants to talk about..."

That was only about 2 minutes and 30 seconds earlier.

Wanna know what the sad part of the story is?

Lynn's gone from 4802 but (as far as I know) after all this, Heather Heidelbaugh is still there.

Lynn Cullen: Back Again!

We get near daily hits from folks searching for info on where they can listen to Lynn Cullen.

Well, she's back -- not on the airwaves -- but live streaming audio courtesy of the Pittsburgh City Paper.

It will be a one hour, weekday show at 10:00 AM starting on August 18th. The shows will be archived and downloadable.

From the CP press release:

In partnership with Pittsburgh City Paper, local broadcasting legend Lynn Cullen will re-launch her talk show later this summer. And this time, she won’t be restricted by signal strength, broadcast schedules, or even the FCC.

[snip]

“I’ll be interviewing newsmakers and troublemakers. I’ll be providing an antidote to the incessant whining of radio’s doomsayers and fearmongers,” Cullen says. “I’m glad to be free of the constraints of commercial radio — and this beats screaming into a megaphone on Forbes and Murray.”

City Paper’s online audience has grown by 25 percent in the past year, thanks in part to a recent redesign and additional features. “Our Web site has experience exceptional growth over the past year,” publisher Michael Frischling says. “We believe Lynn’s show will be a key element in continuing this dynamic trend.”

“We’re excited to be able to restore Lynn to her audience — and to her rightful place at the cutting edge of local media,” says Chris Potter, City Paper editor. “Now, thanks to the magic of the Internet, she’ll be able to aggravate right-wingers all over the world, at any time of day or night.”

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Get On Board Lynn's Sanity Express

....

Really want to go to Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity in DC, but don't want to deal with the hassle of getting there? The Pittsburgh City Paper and Lynn Cullen have answered your prayers with Lynn's Sanity Express -- buses and metro passes to the rally leaving from multiple locations in the Pittsburgh area. You can find out all the details here (as well as order your tickets). Hmm, buses with Lynn Cullen, Chris Potter and like-minded folks headed to rally with Jon Stewart -- it's enough to make a tea-bagger weep. (And, don't forget to listen to Lynn Cullen Live at CPTV, Mon-Fri, 10:00-11:00AM.) [If this sounds like a paid advertisement -- it isn't -- I think of it more as a PSA for our readers. ;-) ]

Lynn Cullen

An astute reader sent me this link a few minutes ago.

From the P-G:

As of Aug. 30, longtime radio talk show host Lynn Cullen will no longer be on the radio.

WPTT-AM (1360) is switching to a new format and will be eliminating Ms. Cullen's show, which airs from 9 a.m. to noon.

Ms. Cullen confirmed today that her last day would be Aug. 29.

While she will be taking a previously scheduled vacation this week, Ms. Cullen said she plans to be on the air for her final four days, Aug.26-29.

"You don't just create an audience in this business, you create a kind of community," said Ms. Cullen, known as one of Pittsburgh's few liberal broadcast personalities, "and I need to be able to talk to this community about this and to try to assuage what I suspect will be frustration and anger at losing a voice that they felt spoke for them."

I wonder what the "new format" is going to be.

UPDATE: Johnny Mac's got some more info:

Now comes word that a classic, classy liberal talk show host, and a good friend of MacYapper's, will soon be off the air, apparently for good.

WPTT will soon flip its format to all Business Talk. Hosts will be local in the afternoon and syndicated the rest of the time. This project is being put together by local successful businessman Ron Morris who hosts the WPTT weekend show American Entrepreneur.

He will have local afternoon business hosts including the likes of former County Executive Jim Roddey, former GOP mayoral candidate Mark DeSantis, and Morris himself.

There's more, but you'll have to go to the maycapper blog to get it.

Announcement

I'll be on the Lynn Cullen show this Friday from 9 till noon. And when I say I'll be "on the Lynn Cullen show from 9 till noon" let me be more accurate.

I'll be hosting the Lynn Cullen show this Friday from 9 till noon.

Just me. Lynn will be off and I, your lowly blogger scribe, will be filling in for the day.

I plan to talk about puppies and sunsets and the devastating effect the cancellation of "The Gilmore Girls" will be having on our once-great Nation's already shredded cultural landscape.

Just kidding.

I'm sure we'll be talking local politics, and I'm just as sure we'll be talking national politics as well.

No left on the dial

I know that David already blogged on the elimination of Lynn Cullen's radio show, but I felt compelled to blog on this too because: 1) I'm a fan! I've been listening to her on and off (job permitting) since I moved back to Pittsburgh ten years ago and I've been live streaming her show for the past couple of months at my new job. I get to work at 8:00, and let me tell you, I really looked forward to 9:00 rolling around. I agree wholeheartedly with John McIntire when he wrote "I always enjoyed Lynn most when she got pissed. Her outraged spontaneous ranting is inspired." The recent program she did after reading Vincent Bugliosi's new book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder was one such show. God, I loved it when she was firing on all cylinders! (Too bad the often quirky stream wasn't working the day she interviewed him.)

Lynn Cullen

2) Lynn and her producer Matt were real friends of this blog. David was invited to substitute host for Lynn numerous times and I even hosted once last fall (absolutely terrifying being responsible for filling up three hours).

We thank her for the opportunities that she gave us.

3) Damn it! We're losing "The Lone Liberal" local voice in the midst of a presidential election! No McIntire, no Cullen -- this sucks! And, didn't McIntire lose his TV show right before election season four years ago? Forgive a girl for feeling like there's a conspiracy (yeah, yeah, I know that radio stations change formats all the time).

4) I also must note that we're losing a unique female voice in an industry dominated by men.

[sigh]

"They say you better listen to the voice of reason.But they don't give you any choice'cause they think that it's treason . . .And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of foolstryin' to anaesthetize the way that you feel."
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It's official: Lynn Cullen is back!

Now @ WAMO
You may have heard some rumors and now it's official:

Talk host Lynn Cullen is returning to the airwaves.

Starting Monday, she'll host a two-hour talk show on WAMO-AM (860). It will air Mondays through Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m.

[snip]

Ms. Cullen said she's thrilled to be back. Being off the radio "through such historic times has been a long, silent ordeal for me," she said. Her last day on the air was the day Sen. John McCain announced that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska would be his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. "I missed all of that and the election. If I ever wanted to be on the air, it was exactly the six months I was pulled."

I certainly missed her voice during the election -- welcome back!

WAMO-AM's welcome here.

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Lynn Cullen Update

The P-G has some more information:

Cullen's show is going off the air because the 5,000-watt station is switching in September to a financial advice format, said Alan Serena, vice president and marketing manager for the station's owner, Renda Broadcasting.

And a few points worth making. The first about the station:

Serena said he wasn't ready yet to announce the specific lineup of the new format but said it will involve changing the station's call letters to WMMY-AM and will include a mixture of local and syndicated financial advice and call-in programs.

And the second about Lynn's show itself:

She said she had been told that she had the only program on WPTT that was bringing in significant ad revenue, much of it from such bedrock sponsors as Little's Shoes and Castle Windows. "The station is on for 24 hours, but my three hours were the only revenue-producing hours," she said.

Serena acknowledged her drawing power and said that when the station dropped talk-show host Doug Hoerth in December, it was partly because it hoped to cut costs enough to allow Cullen's program to survive.

That I didn't know. They booted Uncle Dougie (partly) for Lynn's show to survive?

I do want to echo what Maria wrote:

We thank her for the opportunities that she gave us.

Thanks, Lynn.

Lynn Cullen Show

The OPJ reported in early July:

We get near daily hits from folks searching for info on where they can listen to Lynn Cullen.

Well, she's back -- not on the airwaves -- but live streaming audio courtesy of the Pittsburgh City Paper.

It will be a one hour, weekday show at 10:00 AM starting on August 18th. The shows will be archived and downloadable.

Yesterday's show was pretty good - she had Chris Potter on.

Today, it'll be me.

I hope she's not setting a precedent of only having bald and/or balding men on but if Tony Norman's on tomorrow, we'll know for sure.

The show starts at 10AM. Just go to City Paper and follow the link with Lynn's picture on it.

Farewell Party for Lynn Cullen

Friends, advertisers and listeners will gather at the WPTT studio tomorrow, 8/29/08, Friday at 11:45 AM to give Lynn Cullen a fitting farewell.

Everyone is invited to attend, but please email Sue (sue@sitnscoop.com) and let her know if you plan to show up so they can plan for numbers --- she'll pass the info along to the organizers.

The studio is at 900 Parrish Street in Greentree. It is not really a secret, but try not to bring it up if you have an email exchange with Lynn.

(Grrrr! Wish I could go!)

Honors for Women in Media

Photo by @eileenss; event hashtag: #wgf
As I first blogged about here, the Women and Girls Foundation held a celebration on Saturday honoring Women in Media.

From the Post-Gazette:

Each year the foundation recognizes local women in a different sector of society who are making strides as innovators in their fields. The philanthropic group, founded in 2002 and dedicated to achieving gender equity in the region, in the past has honored women in science, sports, law and other areas.

I was very honored to be a member of the host committee.

The P-G article, naturally enough, focuses on honoree Post-Gazette columnist Sally Kalson. At the event, I went up to Ms. Kalson and shared a story with her. Back when the late Fred Honsberger had a TV show on PCNC, I was a frequent caller (as you might imagine, I took the opposing view on nearly everything). During one program, Fred was ranting about liberals and at one point he said, "It's liberals like Lynn and Sally and Maria..." (meaning Lynn Cullen, Sally Kalson and me). Along with feeling proud to be in such good company, I also thought that if Ms. Cullen or Ms. Kalson had heard that, they must be thinking, "Who the hell is Maria?"

The evening was lovely. Girls from the Women and Girls Foundation introduced each honoree by explaining how the person had inspired them (you can see the full list here).

The keynote address was given by Abigail Disney (award winning filmmaker and grandniece of Walt Disney). Disney's film Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which documents a peace movement called Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace who became a political force against violence and against their government, was screened that night. Disney will be producing a series about the effects of war on women and children for PBS.

It was also great that the Women and Girls Foundation made a real effort to include new media in both the honorees (Cynthia Closkey, president of Big Big Design, co-founder of PodCamp Pittsburgh and developer of iTwixie.com) and the host committee (I heart PGH, Ms. Mon's Salon, CivicsLab and The Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society). They also ran a slide show on a loop of the history of women in blogging put together by The Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society on flat screens and laptops scattered around the party site and in the main screening room.

And, most notably, they awarded a Special Award of Distinction to Virginia Montanez "for her innovative use of social media to raise awareness of the need for local political reform, and her critical role in rallying public support to save the orphans of the BRESMA orphanage earlier this year in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti."

It needs to be said that this event also serves as a fundraiser for the foundation, so if you didn't get a chance to attend, you can still donate to all the good work that they do here.
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No Bailouts for BP Rally Photos/Coverage

KDKA TV video @
http://kdka.com/video/?id=73157@kdka.dayport.com
As mentioned here, there was a rally yesterday in downtown Pittsburgh to protest BP.

The rally was hosted by the local chapters of MoveOn.org, Sierra Club and PennEnvironment.


Mellon Square, Pittsburgh, PA

Unfortunately, my camera is slowly dying and it took forever to "warm up" so no photos of City Paper talk show host Lynn Cullen or KDKA's Jon Delano. But, you can see Lynn interviewed in the link above.

As Lynn said on her show yesterday, she wanted to find some ray of light and so hoped that the BP Oil mega clusterfuck (my phrase, not hers) could be a "teachable moment." She spoke about the co-dependent relationship that we have with oil and how we've made a deal with the devil. She also mentioned an article in this week's City Paper about the dangers of drilling in the Marcellus Shale fields (of which we were all standing above).

It was raining cats and dogs leading up to the rally and for the first ten or fifteen minutes, so kudos to all those who braved the weather.

Randy Francisco, Sierra Club and Robert King, MoveOn
Joy Sabl gets creative as an oil-covered bird

Frack off!
(More photos after the jump)

Thanks, Lynn!

One of the many reasons why I listen to Lynn Cullen @ Pittsburgh City Paper:

Today she read the names -- first names only -- of the winners in the news from yesterday's election in PA.

They were all male.

Pennsylvania is like some huge black hole wherein the light from women cannot escape when it comes to running for public office.

[sigh]

One of the 2PJs ON THE AIR

I'm sitting in for Lynn Cullen this Tuesday (June 17). For the three or four people in the area who don't know it already, Lynn's show is on AMNewstalk1360.

You can follow the "Listen Live" icon to listen in on-line.

Announcement!

I'll be on Lynn Cullen Live tomorrow morning at 10:30.

I don't want to give anything away but don't be surprised if Lynn and I talk about the (still unconstitutional) 10 Commandments monument in Connellsville.

I'll be hosting for Lynn Cullen today

Lynn's off today so I'll be hosting the show in her place.

AM NewsTalk 1360 (click here to listen online)
Friday, October 12, 2007
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
PLEASE Call in at: 412-333-1360

Regular Friday guest, Jon Delano, will join me along with Bram Reichbaum for The Burgh Report and Sue Kerr for The Pittsburgh Women's Blogging Society.

I'll be hosting for Lynn Cullen next Friday

Lynn's off next Friday so I'll be hosting the show in her place (and my God have mercy on all our souls).

AM NewsTalk 1360 WPTT
Friday, October 12, 2007
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Call in at: 412-333-1360

Regular Friday guest, Jon Delano, will join me along with others to be named at a later date.

Thanks, Lynn!

Thank you, Lynn Cullen, for the shout out on the radio this morning. Your Italian lessons were not wasted as you got the name perfectly (The "cc" in Lupinacci is pronounced as "ch" is in English).

Can't imagine why you'd think I'd be talking about the Mayor on Friday. Why? Has he been in the news lately?

Scott Baker (formerly of WTAE) is now working for Glenn Beck

Beck and Baker from some or other wingnut broadcast.

First, credit where credit is due: I heard this story today on Lynn Cullen's City Paper broadcast.

It looks like former WTAE Pittsburgh news anchor Scott Baker is descending further down the rat hole of wingnut "journalism."

First some background.

If you recall, back in 2005 while Baker was still an anchor of the 5:00 PM news at WTAE, he credited himself as being one of Jeff Gannon journalism teachers. Gannon (James Dale Guckert) became controversial for being a "reporter" with White House press credentials who asked President Bush such an excessively deferential and factually inaccurate question that he was dubbed by Jon Stewart as "Chip Rightwingenstein of the Bush Agenda Gazette." It later turned out that Gannon had scores of nude photos on the Internet on gay escort sites.

Next, in 2007 Baker signed up to help launch BreitbartTV. Yes, that would be with conservative hack and serial liar Andrew Breitbart of the manufactured ACORN and Shirley Sherrod controversies.

Apparently not satisfied that he had fully plumbed the depths of wingnut "journalism" Baker has now signed on to help Glenn Beck start up his "news and opinion" website called The Blaze (Here's Baker interviewing for a job with Beck interviewing Glenn Beck.)

According to The Huffington Post:

Beck said he was frustrated with the way the media covered his "Restoring Honor" rally this weekend.

"Too many times we see mainstream media outlets distorting facts to fit rigid agendas," he wrote on The Blaze. "Not that you've ever heard me complain about the media before. Okay, maybe once or twice. But there comes a time when you have to stop complaining and do something. And so we decided to hire some actual journalists to launch a new website."

So, Glenn Beck and Scott Baker are are setting themselves up as the saviors of journalism.

I can't stop laughing crying laughing.

NOTE to City Paper's Chris Potter: Yes, I beat you at blogging on this story -- consequences be damned (but seriously, thanks for the mention on Lynn's show).
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2 Poliical Junkies ON THE AIR

One of our favorite local radio personalities, Lynn Cullen, is taking some time off this week and so her producers went out looking for fill-ins.

They called on Tony Norman and Tony Norman called on the 2 Political Junkies.

All of us will be ON THE AIR on Wednesday morning, 9 to 12 on Newstalk 1360.

The station does stream over the internet (see the link at Lynn's name above) so fear not, if you don't have an AM radio or if you're out of the area or if your AM radio doesn't pick up 1360 because you work in a bank vault, you can still hear us.