"After broadcasting for a year on a Santa Cruz AM station, left-of-center talk show host, Peter Werbe, had his program suddenly yanked from KOMY-AM without even notification to him or his network. The many listeners who called the KOMY management were told that the show had no sponsors and few listeners. The station never sought ads for the program, but the management said it aired Peter’s program to balance its bevy of right-wing shows. However, even without any promotion, the show had a growing audience as evidenced by the high number of calls Peter’s program received daily from the station’s broadcast area.

Facing growing complaints from the Santa Cruz audience, on Oct. 6, the KOMY station owner took to the airwaves and denounced the show and its host, and “apologized’ to the people of Santa Cruz for having him on “his” airwaves. Then, dogged by what was becoming a community issue in Santa Cruz, KOMY owner's mother, Kay Zwerling, similarly denounced the show and Peter during an on-air editorial, October 16, to explain why the station had dropped the program. She specifically mentioned its left of center content, Peter’s criticism of the Bush administration, and his questions about the attacks on Afghanistan.

On Oct. 18, station owner, Michael Zwerling, called Peter an "asshole" on the air because the station was receiving hundreds of emails from as far away as Korea, Britain, and France as well as from KOMY’s local listening area. Local residents have written the owners that they are considering a license challenge, as well as a complaint for the owner's language." --Peter Werbe, 10/22/01

"When President Bush told CIA workers that the enemy not only ''underestimated'' America, they ''misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too,'' not a word was uttered. When he uttered his favorite malaprop three times in three sentences, not a titter was heard. The ''mis'' take was edited from the CNN transcript. It was dropped from the excerpts in most newspapers. It appeared in a rather gentle piece in The Washington Post suggesting that things are back to normal when the president is back to mangling his words. --Ellen Goodman, 10/4/01

September 26. "There seems to be an answer to how someone, presumed to be a terrorist, was able to call in a threat against Air Force One using a secret code name for the president's plane on the day of the attacks. As it turns out, that simply never happened. Sources say White House staffers apparently misunderstood comments made by their security detail." This statement by CBS News calls into question the rationale given for Bush's delay in returning to the White House on Sept. 11. Bush Watchers have reported this paragraph had later been deleted from the story, but we have no way of checking, since the entire story attached to http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,311414-412,00.shtml has been deleted from the web site and replaced by another story.

September 28. FLEISCHER AIDE ADMITS HE WAS MISQUOTED BY THE WHITE HOUSE, BUT FLEISCHER STANDS BY HIS WARNING THAT MAHER SHOULD WATCH WHAT HE SAYS. "On Wednesday, Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, denounced Mr. Maher, saying of news organizations, and all Americans, that in times like these "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do." When the White House later released the official transcript of Mr. Fleischer's briefing, the portion of his comments urging people to "watch what they say" was not included. When that sparked yet another round of discussion over Mr. Fleischer's comments, Anne Womack, an assistant to Mr. Fleischer, said yesterday that the transcript did vary from the remarks Mr. Fleischer made. She called it "a transcription error." (The error has not been changed as of noon, Sunday, Sept. 30.) Mr. Fleischer had earlier noted the President's criticism of Representative John Cooksey, Republican of Louisiana, for remarks that were considered disparaging to Arabs. Mr. Fleischer said last night that his suggestion that people "watch what they say" referred to both Mr. Maher and Mr. Cooksey. --NYT, 9/28/01

September 27. "On the same day last week that "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw sat down to interview former President Clinton, executives for the program received unexpected phone calls from senior communications staffers at the White House, expressing disappointment about the decision to spotlight Bush's predecessor. While not asking the network to refrain from running the interview, they expressed the feeling that the Sept. 18 interview with Clinton would not be helpful to the current war on terrorism. Neither NBC nor the White House would comment on the phone calls, but sources familiar with the calls confirmed that they happened." --Jake Tapper, 9/27/01

September 27. About Bill Mahr's recent comment on "Politically Incorrect," Bush spinner Ari Fleischer said: "There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is." Based on the documentation of the quote in Salon today, it appears that the official White House version, to which you are linked, has "watch what they say" deleted.

MEDIA COVERAGE OF ASHCROFT HEARING RESTRICTED BY REPUBLICANS IN VIOLATION OF HOUSE RULES... After Ashcroft finished speaking [at a House hearing in which Democrats indicated that some of what Ashcroft was requesting was unconstitutional and excessive (“Past experience has taught us that today’s weapon against terrorism may be tomorrow’s law against law-abiding Americans,” Dem Conyers said.)], committee Democrats called civil liberties and free-speech advocates to testify, including representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way, which have echoed some of Conyers’ concerns. But while Ashcroft’s testimony was open to television cameras, the committee’s Republican staff ordered camera crews to leave, including those of C-SPAN, the public interest network available on cable television systems nationwide, NBC News’ Mike Viqueira reported. Print reporters and members of the general public were allowed to remain, meaning the speakers’ comments could be reported, but none of them would be available for Americans to see or hear for themselves. House rules state, “Whenever a hearing or meeting conducted by a committee or subcommittee is open to the public, those proceedings shall be open to coverage by audio and visual means,” Viqueira reported. --NBC, 9/24/01 (The original link was http://msnbc.com/news/632335.asp, but the story is no longer there. 9/26/01)

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