Michael Hartmann (Soziologe)

In spite of your apparent esmmrrabsaent about garnering (only) some 60 to 100 legitimate listener votes before the vote padding got out of control, I was actually quite impressed with the response. Your voting audience was also proud. You should have been proud too instead of attempting to hide the count. On the other hand, it is easy to understand why Karel might been be offended by your poll since I suspect you gave him no official notice of it. It is also understandable why he might have chosen to make a few contacts with his fan club to keep you from disrespecting his show. It wasn't really fair to pit Karel and the National hosts against your show on your home turf. Your primary competition is KGO's Ron Owens. Ron is a supposedly left of center host but over the years success has turned him towards being an obnoxious conservative. That and your show being more local makes you the clear winner of this contest even though Ron has a better ability to draw big names (Bill Press often fills-in when Ron is on vacation).In my estimation, your poll (flawed that it was) ended in a virtual tie between you, Randi Rhodes, and Stephanie Miller. Karel's audience is more difficult to measure on your site being that he is a drive-time host and because he draws your cyber audience away with a video-cast and interactive chat of his own that is only available on his website. Unlike you, Karel also has a terrestrial signal to much of the densely populated S.F. Bay Area on KKGN. In addition, each weekend for six hours KGO allows Karel to repeatedly mention his weekday show. I therefore suspect Karel's numbers do in fact kick your tail (even if the last minute counts that soared him to the lead and that caused you to retroactively end the poll were padded). I don't know who padded Bill Press' counts. I suspect PD might have in jest once he saw Karel's counts soar. I voted for Mike Malloy. I did so in part because I feel you tend to underestimate Mike's ability to tap into the anger and frustration of the working-class (much in the same way the Koch brothers have with their “AstroTurf” Tea Party). Republicans understand that emotion gets votes. Democratic leaders tend to be too academic (and too ignorant when it comes to the sciences that must be understood to actually successfully protect the environment). I wish more of our elected Democratic leaders would feel and express emotion like Mike does (and I wish more were scientists and engineers instead of liberal arts majors and lawyers). I like Mike, but then I also like most of your national hosts. Unfortunately, Mike is prone to go too far past the line of good taste. While in my opinion he does not cross that line any more than a host like Stephanie Miller, it does make his show unsuitable to air when young children are likely in earshot. Nine or Ten P.M. is a good time to like Mike.If I really had my druthers, I'd have you syndicate locally produced shows by hosts like Stacy Taylor and/or Christine Craft (both fill-in KGO hosts). Let them sell airtime on their own shows in lieu of payment for their services.