KSFO
The Spocko debacle rages on: Last year, the website Spocko's Brain posted clips from ABC-owned radio station KSFO's morning show out of outrage at its content. In one of the clips that offended Spocko, white host Lee Rogers (pictured) specifically describes torturing a minority:
Now you start with the Sears Diehard the battery cables connected to his testi*les and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his bleeping head off.
Instead of responding to addressing Spocko's complaints (one obvious idea: say that the company respects KSFO's right to free speech), earlier this month, ABC owner Disney sent a cease-and-desist to the ISP that hosts Spocko's Brain, arguing that the clips were an infringing use of Disney's content. Disney thus ironically curtailed Spocko's right to free speech while leaving its own shock jocks free and clear. So Spocko's Brain gave a fuck-you to Disney by e-mailing the show's advertisers including AT&T, quoting offending KSFO clips.
Following Disney's C&D, Spocko's ISP shut down the site, but Spocko found a new host and has brought the site back. In the interim, leading blogs Daily Kos and Boing Boing picked up the story and an army of bloggers ripped Disney apart for stifling Spocko's free speech. (Again, Disney chose to make the issue not about the letters and whether they count as harrassment, but about whether Spocko is allowed to use show clips to support his argument.) MediaPost picked up the story last Friday, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a leading free-speech group, agreed to defend Spocko if ABC or KSFO sues him. The EFF argues that Spocko's clips were fair-use, noninfringing samples of the show. (Friends of the EFF say that the foundation avoids losing cases, so this show of support is a good sign for Spocko.)
If Disney successfully sued Spocko, it would set a chilling precedent silencing critics of it and its affiliates. (That's why the EFF cares enough to defend Spocko.) Even if the matter doesn't go that far, Disney will have to gauge whether taking legal action against Spocko's new web host will be worth it — or whether it will force a judge to stop Disney from doing so, robbing it of a tool often legitimately used against clear-cut infringers.
Meanwhile, on the radio show at the heart of it all, KSFO's Morning Show, the hosts this morning insulted the "crackpot-leftist-crazed bloggers" calling for the show's cancellation. They also refer to e-mails from Media Matters readers. While the blogger coverage doesn't help Disney, the repetition of all this bad publicity in MediaPost, the industry news outlet read by media buyers and advertisers, should scare the company the most.
