Bee-otch of the Day

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

6.10.20 Bee-otch of the Day: Warner Bros.

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Warner Bros.
Age: 97
Occupation: entertainment giant
Last Seen: Burbank, CA
Bee-otched For: gone with the recycle button

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Throughout the golden age of cinema from the silent era until the late 60s/early 70s, short subject cartoons kept audiences entertained.

These roughly seven-minute masterpieces showcased Popeye punching Bluto into the sky after he ate a can of spinach. They introduced us to the whimsical world of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the ever-lasting battle between a cat named Tom and his arch nemesis, a mouse named Jerry. And yes, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang. Many of their creators would be known by a last name basis: Disney, Hanna and Barbera, Fleischer and Lantz.

Obviously, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series from Warner Bros. are probably the best-known short subject bunch. Usually when the WB shield zooms towards us in a tunnel of red circles, we're in for seven minutes of fun and cleverness.

True, the original theatricals - produced between 1930 and 1969 - have had their issues with censorship and political correctness. Warner's first cartoon star was a stereotypical black boy named Bosko. Amazingly enough, his cartoons were still shown on TV as recently as the early 90s on Nickelodeon. Some had issues with Porky Pig's stutter and wanted him eliminated from the LT roster. Cartoon Network even pulled old Speedy Gonzales cartoons from their channel 20 years ago because they thought he offended Hispanics. However, a push from the Latino community reestablished his shorts to the network a few years later.

Today, legally, you're most-likely able to see the old LT/MM shorts on Boomerang, Cartoon Network's retro-friendly sister, along with co-owned Tom and Jerry shorts as well. On the internet, Warner has forced YouTube to remove many of their shorts from their site, but other sites like Vimeo are loaded with prints of Warner shorts of varying conditions. You can even find some shorts that haven't been on TV in decades, like those in Warner's famous "Censored 11", which were eleven shorts yanked from television over 50 years ago because of their stereotypical depictions of black people.

But now, Warner is at it again.

Earlier this week, the company announced that their new Looney Tunes Cartoons series on HBO Max will still be loaded with the typical cartoon violence: TNT (as in dynamite and not their sister cable network), anvils and Acme-brand badness. But, both Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd will be without the things that they've long-treated like security blankets: their guns.

In one of the shorts called "Dynamite Dance", Fudd is chasing Bugs around with a scythe. Yes, that nasty, sharpy, pointy thing that the Grim Reaper walks around with.

The reason for the lack of guns is totally unclear. Some think that it's to honor those who have been victims of gun violence. But then again, Warner-owned TBS did show "A Christmas Story" just weeks after Sandy Hook.

But, it's not the only cutting Warner's been doing. HBO Max also temporarily removed the 1939 classic "Gone With the Wind" from their roster in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. For years, some claimed that the movie glorified slavery, though Hattie McDaniel was the first black actress to win an Oscar for her work in the film.

Yes, gun violence and treating blacks like shit is simply not cool. But, neither is censoring history. I know, Warner Bros. owns both Bugs Bunny and "Gone With the Wind". They also own Bosko, Speedy Gonzalez, "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson in blackface and Mammy Two-Shoes, Tom and Jerry's owner. They have every God-given right to do whatever they want to their movies since they still own them. If they want to treat "Gone With the Wind" the same way Disney treats "Song of the South", that's all up to them. They know that even if they take Bugs Bunny's carrot away from him, people will still watch his movies. However, I - like many old school cartoon fans - am a purist. I don't like watching anything that's been overly censored because some view it as kid's crap. There's millions of people older than I am who all love Looney Tunes and don't like to be treated like kids. We all know. What was accepted in 1940 isn't accepted today. If Disney made a movie with blackface characters voiced by white people, the NAACP and others would be pissed.

With all the censorship at HBO Max, I wonder if people are saying, "That's All, Folks!"

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Tuesday, June 9, 2020

6.9.20 Bee-otches of the Day: America's sports leagues

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: America's sports leagues
Ages: various
Occupations: sports organizations
Last Seen: many major cities
Bee-otched For: waiting too damn long to realize that Black Lives Matter

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It was a painful day in our nation's history. Six years ago, a black man named Eric Garner was beaten to death by a motley crew of police officers. While doing so, he uttered "I can't breathe". There were protests, and one person took a huge stand: Colin Kaepernick.

When Colin took a knee to the National Anthem, some said that he was taking a stand against police brutality. Others, like (ugh) Drumpf thought that he was a traitor and was disrespectful toward America. Since then, he was released from the San Francisco 49ers and has not played for another team since. You can say that he's to sports what the Dixie Chicks are to music.

The NFL bowed to their owners and conservative fanbase by forcing all their athletes to stand for the flag no matter what. Yes, it's one of those things where they tell the players that they're role models and need to set a good example for our children. Nothing like telling people that the First Amendment is just a piece of yellowed paper.

And then came George Floyd. And well, we all knew the outcome of his death from a cop who was allowed to kneel... on his neck.

The mass protests and rioting has caused NFL commissioner Roger Goodall to finally admit that his league was wrong all along. The attitude to suppress players making a positive statement has forced people to take further and more-damaging actions, especially after Floyd's death on Memorial Day.

But it's not just the NFL that's been under fire.

Last weekend, NASCAR admitted that they haven't done enough to help the African American community. During last weekend's race, the league's only full-time African American driver, Bubba Wallace wore a Black Lives Matter t-shirt. He didn't win the race, but afterward, his fellow racers embraced him.

This week, Wallace is calling on NASCAR to ban the use of Confederate flags. Many have looked at the flag as a symbol of racism. Others claim that it was simply a sign of southern pride, especially on TV shows and movies like The Dukes of Hazzard.

Of course, NASCAR has long been looked at as America's whitest and most conservative sports league. Not only is Wallace the sole black driver in their main cup series, but NASCAR has been noted for having races with the NRA as their main sponsor. And yes, the fact that during their first race of the season, Drumpf was their Grand Marshal. If I was being forced to follow the president in a race, I would have done the right thing and tapped his sorry ass into the wall.

When NASCAR was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they turned to virtual racing. Kyle Larson, one of the league's most-popular racers made a horrible mistake when he used the n-word during a race. As a result, he's been suspended indefinitely and was fired from Chip Ganassi Racing.

The main thing saving NASCAR right now is the fact that normally this time of year, there's baseball, plus playoffs from the NBA and NHL. But since all three of the aforementioned are sidelined due to COVID-19, we're stuck with NASCAR and wrestling. For the past several years, NASCAR's fanbase has been getting older and still quite white. NASCAR's lack of diversity has indeed hurt the sport, whose history is rooted from moonshiners from the south. True, the WWE has done well with people of color and even women. But sadly, even the organization's patriarch is a racist asshole and one of Drumpf's buddies.

Look, sorry to sound like Barbara Walters, but this is 2020. It's sad to know that racism is alive and well here in America today. I'm happy that Roger Goodall did a good job by acknowledging the NFL's shortfalls, but it's not enough. I totally agree with black leaders that it's time for an NFL team to hire Colin Kaepernick to set a good example. But like I said, since many NFL teams are owned by white billionaires, it may never happen. But, if more people take a knee to support our underprivileged African Americans, it wouldn't just do Colin good, but for the good of others, too.

Black Lives Matter. Not just in sports, but in life, too.

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Monday, June 8, 2020

6.8.20 Bee-otch of the Day: Bob Goodrich

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Bob Goodrich
Age: 79
Occupation: failing businessman
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: getting rid of only one tiny egg in his basket

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I think we're all familiar with ghost towns and the reasons why they are that way.

When the gold rush ended, many towns ceased to exist. Some towns were sacrificed for man-made rivers. Centralia, PA was once a thriving town of 2,000 citizens. Thanks to an underground coal mine fire that's been raging since 1961, all but a few of the town's buildings have been razed due to government domain. Despite being unsafe to live, Centralia still has about a dozen residents. In the 1860s, Singapore was a small, yet thriving town by Saugatuck here in Michigan. Its main industry was timber. After they chopped down miles of trees to supplement Chicago after their 1871 fire, erosion caused mass amounts of sand to cover the village. Today, what's left of Singapore is covered by the Lakeshore Sand Dunes.

Yes, we can talk about the Upper Peninsula's downfall of the copper mining industry, which has left many places turned into ghost towns. We can also talk about other environmental disasters that left towns like Picher, OK deserted as well. But, just imagine that there's now another factor creating ghost towns: COVID-19.

Just last Thursday, Woodland Mall here in Grand Rapids reopened for the first time since the coronavirus hit. The mall - which received a $100 million facelift last fall from owner PREIT - was supposed to add some new stores last Spring. Sadly, COVID-19 changed those plans. Evenmore, other stores packed it up and left, like Dough Life (like real people would want to pay big bucks for a wad of cookie dough) and TGI Fridays.

However, the mall's biggest ghost town now is its 14-screen theater which was a Celebration Cinema until the virus hit. The subrun theater never made a profit in its 12 years as a Loeks family O&O. So, when the lease expired, Celebration walked away. The question now is that in this society trying to kick COVID-19 to the curb once and for all, will it reopen with new owners?

I walked by the theater on Thursday and it felt apocalyptic. They still had posters for "Knives Out" and "Dolittle" filling the displays. True, Grand Rapids' other cinemas are still closed, at least until June 15. However, Governor Whitmer gave the OK to allow theaters to start showing movies in northern Michigan on Wednesday. However, there's really no movies to show. As a matter of fact, the Loeks' only open movie theater is Muskegon's Getty Drive-in, which is currently showing four movies you can watch from home: "Trolls World Tour", "The Invisible Man" and "Sonic the Hedgehog", plus the original 1978 "Superman" with the late Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder.

Right now, it looks like some of the biggest theater chains are now saying that they might be out of business by the end of 2020. AMC might be looking at bankruptcy and so is Detroit-based Emagine Entertainment, which owns several luxury theaters. According to Box Office Mojo, only a handful of movies are expected to be released next month, like the much-ballyhooed "Tenet", out on July 17. Question is, is that how many people will be seeing it and other Hollywood flicks given the risks that COVID-19 is still around, plus the fact that many theaters will have to severely limit seating?

How ironic that I mention Emagine. According to their bankruptcy documents, they were supposed to be the main suitor of the bankrupt Goodrich Quality Theater chain, based here in Grand Rapids. GQT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year after owner Bob Goodrich admitted that when he remodeled his theaters several years ago, he was hoping to regain that money through ticket sales. However, despite Hollywood producing many hits, it was not enough to pay off his debtors. Already, GQT is in talks to sell their 102-year-old Cadillac 4 in Cadillac, MI to the non-profit Footliters group, who plans to still show movies along with live performances.

Like a good farmer, Goodrich didn't put all of his eggs in one basket. Too bad one of those baskets is his faltering Public Reality Radio network of stations. Since Goodrich fired popular Southpaws host Darren Gibson in 2016 and many of the station's other hosts, WPRR has emerged as a station nearly 100% of west Michiganders don't give two rat's asses about. Yes, it serves as a leftist voice in a sea of right-winged BS, it's just too bad that voice sucks up to the establishment.

Now, WPRR is one station less here in west Michigan. Starting today, their translator at 95.3 here in Grand Rapids - which covers most of the city - is now simulcasting WGVU-FM 88.5 out of Allendale. WGVU-FM's signal only covers Grand Rapids' west side due to its power only being 4,000 watts from a tower 20 miles west of town. As a matter of fact, there's some short-spacing between 88.5 and community-run 88.1 WYCE in Wyoming and Blue Lake's 88.9 WBLU here in Grand Rapids.

Goodrich sold the 250-watt translator for a mere $50,000. That's probably less than stuffing one of his auditoriums with new seats, but it's something. WPRR still has a translator at 102.5, which covers the north part of Grand Rapids. WPRR also simulcasts on 5,000-watt 90.1, which covers a vastly-rural area west of GR.

As I've said, I used to like Bob Goodrich. However, his bad business decisions of alienating good, hard-working people like Gibson, Mary Harrington and others, along with firing all of his under-18 workers at his cinemas cost him severely. Tragically, he's simply turning into another Matt Hanlon, allowing somebody like Tyrone Bynum who ran another station into the ground, WMFN 640 to run his radio station. He's getting what he deserved.

In a previous post, I mentioned that Emagine would be a great suitor for the Woodland Mall Cinema. I guess that's not gonna happen now. Now, PREIT will have the dubious task of not just wondering what to do with the shuttered TGI Friday's and that sushi joint, but how to fill a 14-screen cinema when no theater chain is doing well. I just hope that it doesn't become a fucking megachurch.

Only time will tell if WPRR will survive or not, and my spidey senses are pointing to 'no'. Thanks, but if I want to listen to good, high-quality talk radio, I'll listen over the web to a podcast like this one.

When you air a radio show called "The 99%ers" and nobody's listening, you might as well do the right thing and sell the ranch.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Thursday, June 4, 2020

6.4.20 Bee-otches of the Day: Democratic National Committee

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Democratic National Committee
Age: 192
Occupation: the nation's supposed left wing
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: being the reason why Drumpf is president

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There's an old saying that makes people think regarding choosing the next president of the United States.

That saying is "are you better off now than four years ago?"

Let's see: four years ago, we didn't have to deal with a pandemic. Unemployment was low and people were getting raises. And then came an orange-faced asshole who vowed to make America great again.

Needless to say, COVID-19, companies struggling to stay afloat and watching a black man get kneeled to death by a white police officer is not making America great at all. It's turning our country into a laughing stock globally. America now has around a 1/3 of the world's coronavirus cases and a 1/4 of its deaths. And when America was about to be set ablaze with COVID madness, Drumpf simply turned the other cheek in ignorance.

Today in Minneapolis, George Floyd's funeral was held. Hundreds of family members and celebrities turned out to pay their respects while thousands more packed outside to aid in the mourning. The service ended with 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the amount of time it took a racist Minneapolis cop to kneel on Floyd's neck, ultimately killing him.

The more I think about Drumpf, the more I long for the days of Obama. Granted, he wasn't perfect. Obamacare did force health insurers to cover those with pre-existing conditions. But, it didn't solve our nation's long-standing health crisis. Obama couldn't stop the Tea Party and their buyout of politicians who fought for lowering taxes for the wealthy. And, he couldn't stop the NRA and the fact that they were also buying politicians who were pro-gun. As a result, we had Sandy Hook and other school shootings under his aegis.

And let's not forget what happened in Flint all those years ago. Obama came to talk to locals with them hoping to throw now-ex-Gov. Snyder in jail for tainting their water. Instead, Obama pretended to sip some Flint water and proclaimed that it was fine.

We all knew the outcome: Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by 10,000 votes. As a matter of fact, she lost the midwest while Drumpf was stumping through the region, telling factory workers that their jobs were safe under him. She lost in neighboring states as well and not by much, either.

I've said it too many times, over and over. Most of America are leftists. Maybe not totally far to the left, but they have some leftist values. However, since I was born, we've only had two Democrats as president and both were centralists. The rest were ignorant, pro-war, pro-gun, anti-middle class Rethugs,

It was a tragic day when thanks to the superdelegates and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Hillary got the Democratic Party nomination and not Bernie Sanders. People knew that Drumpf would win the presidency even if Hillary won by millions of votes. During the debates, Drumpf hammered her for supporting the Iraq War and other right-winged shit she supported over the years.

The sad truth is that Hillary lost simply because true Democrats and leftists don't want a president who is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It's like tuning a radio to a rock station and they're playing Maroon 5 or a hip-hop station spinning Johnny Rebel country records. It's alienating their audience, plain and simple.

Americans want real healthcare and not having to pay out-of-pocket to a middle man. We also want a livable wage and a good-paying jobs. When I think of "Make America Great Again", I think about protecting the unions, protecting the middle class and forcing billionaires to pay higher taxes. It's sad that Jeff Bezos probably didn't set foot outside his $150 million Los Angeles mansion once when the pandemic was raging. Yet, his workers were risking life and limb getting Amazon packages sent out. Plus, it's embarrassing when you go to the bathroom and there's some idiot with a stopwatch timing your potty breaks.

Granted, Hillary would have been a trillion times better than Drumpf as president. But, her mistakes cost her. She bowed to health insurance companies and other Republicans. It explains why disenfranchised lefties who didn't want to vote blue no matter who either didn't vote or voted third party or even Drumpf. Look at what we got.

I know. If Joe Biden ran in 2016, he might have won big time since he was the vice president. But, he had to mourn the loss of his son. Thanks to the pandemic and ailing health, Bernie Sanders had to give up his run for president. With his track record with China and sexual assault allegations, plus the fact that he's helped to build prisons, it's sad to know that the only reason why people would vote for Joe this November is because he's not Drumpf.

Folks, there was a reason why FDR served four terms as president. He got us out of the Great Depression and he got us through World War II. He wanted to give us free healthcare, good-paying jobs and even a free house. Sadly, he died and all of his ideas were given to to other countries around the world. Why can't modern Dems be like him? Simple: it's because it's all about their money and their wealth. They claim they'll fix the world's problems until their wealthy buddies give them money to shut up.

Yes, Old Man Biden is a step up from Drumpf. Not to mention that polls have him in the lead over the Orange Shitgibbon. But, IS he the best alternative? Regretfully no. He's a step up, but in all honesty, I might not vote for him. But, if Biden becomes president, good. This country can't afford six more months of Drumpf, let alone an additional four years.

As I've said over and over, the lesser of the two evils is still evil.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

6.3.20 Bee-otch of the Day: Donald Trump

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Donald Trump
Age: 73
Occupation: hypocrite
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: going to church

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For years, I was told that you should never compare a US president to Hitler and that the only person you should compare to Hitler is Hitler himself.

Also, I grew up being told that dissing the president is very unpatriotic.

But thanks to Drumpf and the last several Rethuglican presidents before him, I've thrown all that logic down the shitter. It's safe to say that this week, Drumpf's attitude towards the Black Lives Matter protesters is so bad, I hope to god that IF he's elect-er, I mean, CHOSEN for a second term, he won't be firing up any ovens.

The fact that on Twitter, he called Antifa a terrorist group shows how extremely far to the right he is. He's way to the right of Attila the Hun, and - dare I say it - Hitler and the devil. Maybe he truly is Satan himself.

The fact that he's forcing our nation's governors to enable the National Guard to stop rioting and to enact curfews makes the world laugh at us. The fact that he's turning peaceful protests into militant attacks on us shows that he's doing this to protect the big businesses that inhibit downtown areas. Oh, no! A Target was looted! Aaaaaaannnnnnnd how much money are WE THE TAXPAYERS giving to big corporations like Amazon and the oil companies?

And let's not get started on his photo-ops of him holding a Bible that he doesn't own at a church that he doesn't even attend. There were protesters and his crew had the cops tear gassed them out of the way. The fact that yesterday, he and Malaria visited a Catholic Church shows how pathetic he really is. Simply put, he's pandering to the people he simply hates. But, they got him in the White House in 2016.

It's funny that Drumpf played into the late 2000s bullshit that Obama was a Muslim from Africa. Yet, unlike Drumpf, Obama is a devout Christian. Now, I hear the cries of those who blast him because his former pastor was the "God Damn America" guy. And who is Drumpf's pastor? He doesn't have one, but his religion advisor is a fucked up televangelist.

Today, Drumpf's former Secretary of Defense, James "Mad Dog" Mattis compared the Orange Shitgibbon's response to the protests to the work of the Nazis. He also says that the so-called president is trying to divide the nation. Well, no shit!

Well, ladies and gents, there you go. Drumpf just brought back the past. He brought back a pandemic similar to the one we had in 1918, riots similar to the ones we had in 1967 and a financial crisis similar to the one we had in 1929. Just today, one of my favorite restaurant companies, Barfly Ventures which owns the Hopcat chain of brewpubs and Stella's Lounge here in Grand Rapids had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As it was, the company had to shutter one of their Detroit Hopcats. Sad, since I do love Hopcat's food, especially their crack-er, cosmic fries. If Drumpf wasn't so fucking ignorant towards COVID-19 and the racism destroying America, we wouldn't be where we are now. But, hey! The country's billionaires made major coin during the crisis!

Look, I'm no fan of organized religion. Hell, I just read that Joel Osteen marched with George Floyd's family in Houston. Yep! Nothing like a fake pastor using this tragedy to make his rich ass look good. Also, I don't like the fact that many churches simply do it for the money and hide their pedophilia. But, I gotta give religious leaders credit to tell people that what Drumpf did showed that he's the "Jesus loves me, but not you" type. But, Drumpf knows that the goons who voted for him in 2016 will do so again simply because he's a celebrity and nothing but.

Yes, Drumpf IS Making America Great Again... for the billionaires.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

6.2.20 Bee-otches of the Day: Sinclair Broadcast Group and WWMT-TV Kalamazoo

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Sinclair Broadcast Group
Age: 49
Occupation: right-winged broadcaster
Last Seen: Hunt Valley, MD
Bee-otched For: being AWOL in Grnd Rapids

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Here in west Michigan, we're the most-news-friendly TV market in the state.

Let's face it: Detroit's CBS O&O, WWJ-TV 62 doesn't even have its own news department. The only original news broadcasts in the Motor City come from FOX-O&O WJBK-2, Graham Media NBC WDIV-4 and Scripps ABC WXYZ-7. Here in Grand Rapids, we have Sinclair CBS WWMT-3, Nexstar NBC WOOD-TV 8, TEGNA ABC WZZM-13 and Scripps Fox WXMI-17.

When the melee between cops and Black Lives Matter protesters hit downtown Grand Rapids Saturday night, three out of the four big TV stations did their best to cover it. The winner of the evening was WOOD-TV, whose coverage continued well into the early hours of Saturday morning. Despite some technical glitches early on, the NBC station quickly rebounded with their coverage. Weekend anchor/weekday reporter Leon Hendrix was a real rockstar, manning the news desk from 6 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning solo. WZZM 13 and Fox 17 were on most of the night, cutting though network programming. However, they both ended their coverage briefly to show syndicated repeats (Fox 17 showed a Friends rerun) before going back to riot coverage around 2 a.m. or so.

Needless to say, all the reporters, camera crew and others broadcasting from the battleground deserve multiple pats on the back for risking life and limb during the altercation. As a matter of fact, a cameraman for WOOD-TV was attacked by somebody for destroying an ATM. Nonetheless, these reporters hustled to dodge pepper bullets and tear gas.

But sometimes when Rome burns, Nero plays the fiddle.

Of west Michigan's big four stations, only WWMT was absent. They were the only news station in west Michigan not to break into network programming. Instead, they simply saved everything for their 10 p.m. newscast on the CW 7 subchannel and 11 p.m. news on NewsChannel 3. Instead, the station aired a 48 Hours repeat. After the 11 p.m. news, it was Ring of Honor wrestling, mandated from their parent company, Sinclair.

On Monday night when protesters in downtown Grand Rapids were out past curfew, 8, 13 and 17 showed the line of cops running and arresting them. WWMT, on the other hand was showing a year-old episode of Wheel of Fortune. Instead of allowing their viewers to see history tragically unfold, they felt that it was more important to show a program on repeats due to COVID-19.

So while 8, 13 and 17 were doing their duty of informing the public about the destruction going on downtown, 3 felt it was more important to show unimportant network reruns and subpar wrestling. Funny how they call themselves "NewsChannel 3" and they don't put news first. Yes, stay classy, guys.

But, what do you expect from a station that's owned by Sinclair?

Yes, WWMT is the second-oldest TV station in west Michigan and they have the worst owner. By default, they have the most-biased newscasts because of the must-air stories their parent company force them to air, like Boris Epshteyn's bullshit commentaries and the so-called Terrorism Alert Desk. Also on Sunday mornings, the last half-hour of Face the Nation is moved over to CW 7 so they can show another Sinclair must-air, Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.

So, why didn't WWMT break into programming to show their footage of the riots? Is it because they're technically a Kalamazoo station, even though their not-so-legal ID has them saying "Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek"? Is it because they didn't want their reporters and staff to get hurt? Is it because breaking into riot coverage would mean less ad dollars for the station and their company?

Well, this is Sinclair we're talking about here. Recently, they were slammed with a colossal FCC fine of $48 million for their botched buyout of Tribune Media. Not only that, I guess Tribune was beyond pissed that their deal fell through and ended up selling most of their company to Nexstar. Here in Grand Rapids, Nexstar already owned WOOD-TV 8 and low-rent Battle Creek ABC outlet WOTV 41. Since Tribune owned WXMI, it would have put Nexstar over their ownership caps for west Michigan. This was why WXMI ended up in the hands of Scripps.

It's no secret that I'm no fan of Sinclair, a company whose patriarch, David Smith was busted for soliciting prostitutes in the 1990s. The company is known for transforming their local newscasts into shitty knock-offs of Fox News Channel to pander to the MAGAts who soak it up. Thanks to Reagan's elimination of the Fairness Doctrine and Clinton's Telecom 96, there's no real fair and balanced television journalism anymore. Instead, we have cookie cutter bullshit from companies like Sinclair. Not only that, they've created fake companies so they can also own more stations in the same market, like they did in Traverse City and Flint.

Even when WWMT was owned by their previous owner Freedom Communications, I wasn't a huge fan of them. To me, WOOD-TV was always the lesser of all the news evils, even if they kissed the Devos family's ass and have a climate change denier for their chief meteorologist. I can't stand Juliet Dragos on WZZM 13 and 17 is, well, a Fox affiliate.

Look, when you're not there for your viewers, people will revolt. In a way, it's like if a tornado touched down and the station simply kept airing regular programming. Downtown Grand Rapids was a disaster area Saturday night and WWMT needed to be there for their viewers. Yes, they're legally a Kalamazoo station first and foremost. But since they are Grand Rapids' de facto CBS affiliate, they need to represent them, too. Shame on them for not being live during the riot.

Somewhere, John Fetzer is spinning in his grave.

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CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Monday, June 1, 2020

6.1.20 Bee-otch of the Day: Donald Trump

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Sunday morning on Chuck69.com.

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Name: Donald Trump
Age: 73
Occupation: thug
Last Seen: Washington, DC
Bee-otched For: favoring bad cops over humans

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We've all seen the meme with Fred Rogers, smiling with one of his trademark cardigan sweaters and a tie. The image has the caption, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Since the murder of George Floyd by the knee of a racist cop in Minneapolis a week ago today, many major towns and cities have faced the wrath of protests that escalated into clashes between normal, everyday human beings and ballless cops. We've seen it happen not just in Minneapolis, but Detroit, New York - where police vehicles mauled protesters - and now, my hometown of Grand Rapids.

What started as a peaceful demonstration Saturday evening for Black Lives Matter turned into chaos. As 2,000 people marched to downtown, cops started to circle the demonstrators like buzzards, making them very uncomfortable. What the pigs did was simply rile up the protesters, causing them to loot stores and even vandalize the city's Police Department building. The police even pelted the protesters with tear gas and pepper bullets As of this writing, downtown Grand Rapids is loaded with broken windows, graffiti reading everything from "fuck the police", "fuck 12" and "ACAB".

Granted, what happened in GR is nothing comparing to Minneapolis, where buildings burned to the ground. A few police cruisers did catch fire along with a few dumpsters. But, that was it.

It's also worth noting that downtown Grand Rapids - despite being Michigan's second-largest city - doesn't have many chain stores unlike other major cities. It does, however have plenty of office buildings, bars and restaurants and small, family-owned shops. Still, many of those businesses affected were family-owned and struggled since the outbreak of COVID-19.

On Sunday afternoon, scores of volunteers boarded up windows, swept glass and wiped away graffiti downtown. Mayor Rosalynn Bliss enacted a 7 p.m. curfew that day. Tonight, another protest was held, complete with police and National Guard personal. Grand Rapids' black police chief Eric Payne tried to talk to the protesters, but he did not join them in solidarity when asked. When 7 p.m. hit, both police and military started to target the protesters by shooting rubber bullets once again. At least one person was hit, showing off his mark to TV reporters. Several arrests were made and by 7:30, the streets were emptied.

But back to Mr. Rogers' quote, it was tough to find who the helpers were on Saturday night. To me, this simply reminded me of the movie "Joker" from last year. We all grew up knowing that The Joker was an evil nemesis of Batman, along with The Riddler, The Penguin and Catwoman. But, in "Joker", he was simply the lesser of the evils. Why? He was the victim of a broken, fucked-up system.

And regretfully, so were the protesters. And obviously, the pigs who shot tear gas, pepper bullets and whatever else into the crowd were definitely not on their side.

And to make matters worse, we have an inept leader who isn't on America's side, either.

Yes, the Tweeter-in-Chief was making some feckless tweets from the White House shitter these past few days. One of them lovingly said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts!"Amazingly enough, he's not the first person to say that quote. Back in the 1960s, it was used by many segregationists, including four-term Alabama governor and failed presidential candidate George Wallace. Of course, we all knew what happened to him. Thankfully, Wallace was never elected president. However in 2016, the south rose again.

It's plain and simple: Drumpf is a racist and ignorant, plain and simple. I don't want to hear that he talked to George Floyd's family when they claimed that he was talking all over them. Calling the protesters "thugs" isn't cool, either.

Tonight at 6:45 p.m., Drumpf walked onto the White House front lawn to tell the media and the world that he was going to bring more military and police onto the streets of cities hit by rioters. He of course referred to the protesters as "thugs" and talked about how important the Second Amendment was in this situation. To me, this reminded me of the Kent State protests and this infamous picture .

The point is, is that most of the protesters here in Grand Rapids seemed to be people in their 20s and younger. This is a huge portion of the general population that's long been underserved. It's a sad state of affairs that this is a city whose cunt of a mayor calls herself a "Democrat" and has bowed to billionaires like the Devoses. Grand Rapids is a melting pot. We have whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians, plus refugees from Africa, Vietnam and Bosnia. Yet, this is a city that's run by Hollanders and the Christian Reformed Church, who misuse the Bible to tell gays, women and people of color that they don't have a spot at their table. Assholes who worship a man who told people that wealth is a sin and healed the sick and yet they do the opposite.

Folks, you say shit and you get hit. What the protesters did this weekend is karma to a system that has oppressed them for ages. Instead of the American Dream, we're squeaking by while billionaires profit off of their workers. I'm almost 40 and I can't start a family because every girl I meet online has two or three jobs. They're riddled with massive amounts of college debt. In the days since Reagan, unions have been busted, the middle class is now the working poor and for the first time in ages, fewer people are having children. With the way things are going, it's not going to get any better, especially since the main person going against Drumpf this fall is somebody who is weird around women and has also done damage to blacks by building a ton of prisons.

While I feel for the country, I will say that I did adhere to Mother Rogers and found some helpers. Flint has been a town ravaged by constant factory closures, weak mayors and pRick Snyder forcing their residents to drink tainted water. The last thing the city needed was a riot. On Saturday, with weapons in their hands, several Flint cops did the right thing. They dropped their weapons and hugged the protesters. If the police truly were our friend instead of protecting the 1%, we wouldn't have all the rioting here in America today.

Look, we need police to be our friends. We need them to be there when somebody's breaking into our homes or if we've been shot. However, I think many of us have had bad experiences with the police. I've only been given a tiny amount of cease and desist orders since I started blogging 21 years ago. Two of them were from people associated with the police. One was from a reserve cop who had mental problems and was harassing me on a popular message board. The other was from the son of an officer in Traverse City whose other son murdered an innocent teenage girl and is in prison for the next three decades. And guess what? The father of the murderer is still a cop. Just because you wear a badge doesn't mean that you're above the law. This blog is protected under the First Amendment. I do not provoke violence or bigotry on here. If you have a problem with me, karma will kick your ass. Trust me. When you allow yourself to fail, I know that I've won.

Shit like the uprising here in Grand Rapids this weekend is why I started this blog. I know what it's like to be underserved. I'm happy to say that many of the people who've tried to bring me down have had karma hit them. HARD. The people of Grand Rapids and America have spoken. There's a lot that needs so this country can heal. Having a president who sides with pigs, racists and those who bear Gadsden flags is not it. We need to move forward. We need to heal.

Wake me up when 2020 ends.

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