ProgressNowAction, a left-leaning advocacy group based in Denver, is promoting an online effort to pressure advertisers to stop supporting the KOA 850-AM radio show of Jon Caldara because Caldara used the term “bitch-slapped” on the air.
“The term itself is demeaning and offensive to women,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction. “It’s the kind of thing that minimizes the severity of domestic violence. We think it shouldn’t be used in any context.”
ProgressNowAction and Colorado Media Matters “must be working together to bring hyper-sensitivity to a new level,” Caldara said in an e-mail to PoliticsWest. “I am just thrilled to know that someone other than my mother is actually listening to my radio show.”
Caldara is also president of the Golden-based Independence Institute [1], a libertarian think tank.
Colorado Media Matters, which monitors the media and highlights what it terms “conservative misinformation,” posted on its Web site [2] an audio clip and partial transcript of Caldara’s Jan. 21 interview with conservative gadfly Ann Coulter.
On the air, Caldara played a snippet of the Democratic candidate debate interaction between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in which Obama said, “I can’t tell who I’m running against sometimes,” a reference to Bill Clinton.
Caldara termed Obama’s response “a spectacular line” and goes on to ask Coulter, “Was it fair to say this woman got bitch-slapped tonight?”
Coulter replies yes.
The ProgressNowAction online statement [3], titled "Tell Jon Caldara's sponsors: don't pay for hate," was also e-mailed to 3,000 people, according to Huttner, who said they have received 250 responses.
“We also tried to ensure that women’s groups would be sure to see it,” he said.
In May, ProgressNowAction targeted another KOA 850-AM host, “Gunny Bob” Newman for remarks he made about Muslims. A Denver Post story [4] at the time reported that “at least three metro-area businesses have asked radio station KOA-850 AM to pull their advertisements” from the show.
KOA is owned by Clear Channel Communications, which in the Colorado market also owns 760-AM "Progressive Talk" station, among others. Kris Olinger, a director of programming in Denver for Clear Channel, was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.