On today’s BradCast, resignation and evidence of corruption continue to dog the wildly unpopular incoming Trump Administration just days before his Inauguration; And is Comcast/NBCUniversal doing the bidding of the Mormon Church in Utah? [Audio link to show follows below.]
As we barrel towards what is certain to be an incredibly bizarre (to say the least) Inauguration Day for the historically unpopular Donald Trump, the Obama Administration has reportedly transferred out another 10 Gitmo detainees to Oman. In the meantime, a senior Trump White House appointee (and former Fox “News” contributor) has already resigned after revelations of massive plagiarism, as new questions about financial improprieties continue to mount for a number of Trump cabinet nominees and for the Trump Campaign itself.
Then, we are joined by former GOP Presidential candidate and gay rights activist Fred Karger, to discuss his latest campaign against the Mormon Church, which he believes should lose their tax exempt status revoked by the IRS due to participation in a number of anti-gay political campaigns and other corruption. Karger is charging that Comcast/NBCUniversal has blocked the airing of his new TV ad for MormonTips.com, after the media behemoth had previously agreed to run the 30 second spots in the state of Utah.
“I know how the Mormon Church operates,” Karger explains, describing his claim that the Church is behind Comcast nixing the spots. “They are all powerful, particularly in the state of Utah. It’s a virtual theocracy. They exercise a tremendous amount of power.”
“They don’t like me,” he notes. “I’m the guy that discovered their vast involvement in California’s Prop 8 in 2008 to take away gay marriage. I got them investigated and prosecuted by [California’s] ethics office because they only admitted to spending $2,078 on the campaign. Turns out it was hundreds of thousands of dollars they ended up reporting. Much more likely millions. So I’ve learned they are very dishonest, and they’ve have done things very secretively.” He argues that they’ve used their muscle to convince Comcast (which, he says, “controls something like 90% of the [cable television] market in Utah”) to kill the ads. “So they’re using censorship to quash our free speech and I’m going to be fighting back against them.”
Finally today: Is the Trump Administration planning to shut down the White House Press Room after taking office? Esquire reported over the weekend that the matter is under serious consideration and, in response, Trump’s top officials are not denying it…though they do appear to be lying about their reasons for it…
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[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_TrumpTwilightZone_FredKargerMormonAd_PressOutOfWH_011617.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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I’m all for taxing churches, but this is sort of personal for me since I live in Utah and was raised as a Mormon until I quit at 16, (48 years ago), because I saw the church as too capitalistic and, to be honest, I wanted Sundays off too. 🙂 My still very active 95 year old mom was great about it to to my surprise. She respected my decision completely.
Mormons aren’t the only church that gets involved in politics. Jerry Falwell and many others had/have a much larger voice and influence in the gay bashing scene and other anti-liberal projects then the Mormons ever had. Let’s be fair about this.
OK?
Brad:
I don’t remember a small hand being in the Twilight Zone intro. 🙂
The series holds up very well today. Rod Serling is a God. A – true – conservative.
Isn’t Harry Reid a Mormon?
He REALLY screwed the DEMS re: the “nuclear option.”
WTF were THEY THINKING?!
Did they not think this through?
Rather than “shoot themselves in the foot,” they should have had workshops on “Persuasion and how to use it.”
Or somebody should study tactics that LBJ used to sway the senate for support. Yeah, yeah, I know it isn’t the late 50’s or 60’s, but some things transcend time, like knowing how to get support from your opponents.