6-3-25 - 6am - Boulder Public Radio Rabbit Hole

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, Michael, is there anything new or different though
the Colorado father and you being someone in the know,
is there any truth to Ukraine hitting a bridge of
some circumstance in Russia. I don't know what the reporting
is on that, and hopefully you could tell us more
about either of those.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
About who hitting a bridge in Russia?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Ukraine hitting a bridge in Russia.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Ukraine hit that. Ukraine destroyed that bridge that connects part
of I don't remember whether it's Kaliningrad and Crimea or
but anyway, there's some gigantic bridge that Putin made a
big deal of. But this is like, that's like three
or four years ago. They well, probably three years ago
at least at the start of the Ukraine Russia War.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
I know they did a whole bunch of strikes recently
into the death.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Those air force. He's mentioning a bridge. That bridge was destroyed.
I'm gonna say maybe two years ago, and it was
fascinating because Putin was so proud of that bridge that
he actually did a ribbon cutting, something that he's not
really prone to do, and he went there, did the
ribbon cutting, did all of that, and then a couple

(01:12):
of days later or whatever the length of time was. Afterwards,
the Ukrainians just bombed the crap out of it and
destroyed it. Beautiful, Yeah, it was. It was wonderful. It
was absolutely wonderful. So I received an email. Well, actually
I've gotten two emails from this listener now who wants
to remain anonymous, which I understand why.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
But okay, fine, nobody wants to admit that they listened
to you.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, I think, actually, when I tell you what this
is about, then there's a part of me that's grateful
they sent me the information because it did cause me
to go down a rabbit hole. But two, are you
really scared? I let me read you the subject matter

(02:01):
urgent news tip.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Who.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Now, I'm not a journalist, so I'm not really looking
for news tips. But I'm like, okay, I'm you know,
I'm hovering over with the email address, trying to figure
out whatever I can figure out. And the entire subject
line is urgent news tip colon Boulder Radio KG and

(02:28):
you quote resistance calendar. And here's the email again, starts out.
The email starts out, now, urgent news tip. Oh so,
urgent news tip Boulder And there's a combination of which
again with all due respect to the person that listens

(02:51):
and wrote this, sometimes people need to step back and
look at what you've written. Not I mean, you obviously
need to read what you've written, but you need to
look at visually how does your email appear, because this
is almost like a hostage, you know, like a ransom

(03:14):
note kind of email, because it's a combination of different
sizes of fonts, bold fonts, small fonts, tiny fonts, and
then some hyperlinks of course.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
Which they're typing as Joe Biden would talk.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, okay, yeah, Now having said all of that, I'm
going to use what he has sent as part of
the content today. I just want to remind people that
it's like when people send me an email that's one
solid paragraph, that is, if you printed it out, would

(03:53):
be two pages long. I got news for you. I
don't read that. You need to make your emails. And
this is true. Not I'm not talking about me, I'm
talking about an email you send to anybody, just in life,
just in life in general. You want anybody to read
your email, it needs to be readable, you need and

(04:15):
it needs to look I didn't even want to use
the word professional presentable. Thank you dragon. It needs to
look presentable. Otherwise I spent probably several minutes, you know,
hovering over URLs to make sure that they weren't spam.

(04:36):
And I mean doing all the stuff you know that
any IT organization, you know, any IT person would teach
you to do, or that she would, you know, like
in my case, always trying to teach my mother what
to do when she gets, you know, funky emails. But
the substance of the email is actually pretty good. But
if I were just to forward this email or just

(04:57):
you know, without putting a person's name, forward to Dragon,
have just Dragon formatted it exactly the way it's done
in the that I received it and put it on
the website, you go, yeah, that's kind that's probably crazy.
There's probably some crazy there somewhere. But having again, I
want to emphasize, having again said all of that, you know,
you've you've you've captured my attention, and you've got.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Still read it, and you're still talking about.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
It, still read. I still read, I'm still talking about it.
I just think that if you had sent this to anybody,
if you'd sent this maybe to your friends, or you'd
sent this, say to a news station, which is you know,
trying to feel you know, like if you'd send it
to KDVR Channel nine or anybody else, it's probably one

(05:41):
of those emails that an editor would have read and
deleted just boom uh, simply because of the formatting, the font,
everything else, and and plus the fact you don't want
anybody to use your name. But anyway, let me go
through the email. So I'm not I'm not going to
try to just know that if I were to describe

(06:02):
every single line, uh, and the font and whether it's
bold or regular or whatever, you'd realize that Okay, yeah,
it's pretty pretty eup and weird.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
I have to come in there.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Take a look, okay, urgent news tip and in parentheses
minor correction to email of yesterday. The Resistance calendar remains
published on the Boulder KG in you home and newspages
closed print and then in here's here's mister Redbeard. Here's the.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
It's not too crazy, but it is a little odd
for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, little lok right right, little lot right, the type
that makes you stop and think do I need to
open this or not open this? Right? Right? Right? Okay,
So urgent news tip. Uh, let's see Boulder Radio KG
in your resistance calendar taxpayer funded via Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

(06:59):
I have an urgent national news tip for you to break.
I don't break national news tips. Number One, Colorado Public
Radio at All are suing the Trump administration over the
executive order canceling funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Well,
that's not an urgent national news tip. That's pretty much

(07:20):
been out in the public domain for Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
We all know that.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, we all know that. Number two. The day of
the June first tarroist attack KG and You Boulder, Colorado
had a resistance calendar on its main homepage and NewsPage
that included pro Palestine events attached image. Then in giant
font KG and you Boulder Radio resistance calendar, and then

(07:47):
it goes through to lists several things, and then there's
some I think probably irrelevant. I don't know how it's relevant.
I can make it of it. But statement from Boulder
County Commissioners Boulder County, the Bolder County Commissioners are aware
that Boulder County, along with Colorado, almost every Colorado county

(08:09):
and the cities of Boulder, Lafayette, and Longmont has been
listed as sick has been listed as a sanctuary jurisdiction
on the Department of Homeland Security website. The Department of
Homeland Security website makes baseless claims without providing details. It
uses inflammatory language, likely designed to scare people in turn

(08:29):
communities against one another, kind of like people that send
me emails do no. KG and You is not part
of Colorado Public Radio, but is funded by the taxpayer
via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. KG and You. Boulder
host events that are also promoted by the Party for
Socialism and Liberation, and there are a couple of links.

(08:51):
In fact, I've checked those links and their safe links,
and in fact that is true. The bias of Boulder
and You should be used in the federal court cases
to evidence bias of CPB funded radio stations. Please help
make this taxpayer funded KG and Your radio bias public.

(09:13):
It is not right or ethical to use taxpayer funds
to publish resistance calendars. Best signed signed name, Please keep
my name confidential. Well, let's first talk about the funding
aspect of all of this. It's fairly common knowledge among

(09:35):
all of my listeners, the national and the local audience
that I'm opposed to a lot of taxpayer funded activities,
including something like radio or TV stations. Those are clearly
private enterprises that ought to be funded by advertising, sponsorships,

(09:56):
whatever they can do to pay for the airtime that
they use to broadcast whatever they broadcast, whether it be
you know mod or you know Sesame Street or I
don't care what it is, go find your own private
funding for that. I don't think that we should be

(10:17):
funding those types of things. But let's think about specifically
kg and U. KG and u's vision, according to their website,
the Boulder Community Broadcast Association, Inc. Envisions an actively engaged

(10:37):
global community rooted in mutual respect that's interesting, working together
to advance a more equitable, just an environmentally sustainable society
that ensures all people's access to and participation in independent media.

(11:00):
Wait a minute, if you're going to claim to be
independent media, then why are you. I was going to
use the word reliant, but they're not totally reliant on
public funding, but they do get public funding as part
of their funding mechanism. Their mission. Kg and U is

(11:22):
an independent, non commercial community radio station's license in Boulder
and Denver and dedicated to serving this listener. Blah blah
blah blah, blah. We seek to stimulate, educate, and entertain
our audience to reflect the diversity of the local and
world community. I remember that word diversity because if you
want to remember their their mission statement was about people
working together. However they work, they wouldn't work together to

(11:45):
advance a more equitable, just, and environmentally sustainable society. So
that might give you a little bit of a clue
that perhaps their political ideology is looks over left shoulder,
looks it looks way over the left shoulder, over away
over the left shoulder. Oh, oh, my gosh, you know, dragon,

(12:09):
I've looked so far over my left shoulder that now my, my,
h my next hurting. And I need to go back
to QC Kinetics because they did such a good job,
you know, injecting me with whatever the stem cell stuff
that they do. That it was an amazing process and
really helped my neck. But now, trying to be dramatic
on radio, I now clicked my neck again, So I

(12:31):
got to go back to QC Kinetics. So we got
that we seek to stimulate, educate, and entertain our audience
to reflect the diversity of the local and world community,
and to provide a channel for individuals, groups, issues in
music that have been overlooked, suppressed, or underrepresented by other media.

(12:53):
I didn't know that I suppress other media. Do do
we suppress KG and You?

Speaker 3 (12:59):
Of course we did.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Okay, do we suppress like PBS and Corporation for Public
Broadcasting and whatever? The what's the Colorado Public Radio? Do
we suppress them?

Speaker 3 (13:10):
Sure?

Speaker 4 (13:10):
You can get that little light switch that turns on
and off their signal.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I forget about that. See, I don't have my key card,
doesn't go to that room, so I can't do it.
You have to do that. The station KG and You
seeks to expand the listening audience through the excellence of
its programming without compromising the principles stated here. And they've
been serving Denver and Colorado for over forty years. Blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah. I don't care. So

(13:37):
KG and You, a community radio station based in Boulder, Colorado,
receives public funding primarily through grants that come from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a private nonprofit that
distributes federal funds. So the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a

(13:58):
private nonprofit organization, call it a you might call it
a non government organization, and in GEO is one of
those money laundering organizations that takes federal tax dollars and
then distributes that federal money to public media stations. Public
media stations, I think in some countries they call that

(14:21):
state run media. Yeah, so we'll refer to it as
state run media. So here's what I know about KG
and u's public funding. It's the recipient of CPB Corporation
for Public Broadcasting funding, specifically through what they call community
service grants. Now, I couldn't find exact annual figures for

(14:43):
KG and u's CPB funding. It's not really explicitly detailed
in the sources that I can find, But I did
find a place where it says that on average eight
to ten percent of public radio station revenues annually across
the entire So for a station like KG and U,
that funding is probably critical. I mean, ten percent is

(15:06):
pretty critical, but represents probably a smaller portion of its
budget compared to the listener support that it gets, which
accounts for, according to some sources, primarily Corporation for Public
Broadcasting over seventy percent of its funding. Now, just as
a reference point, call out of public radio reported federal

(15:29):
grants making up about five percent of its projected revenue
for FY twenty twenty five. That's about one point four
million dollars out of roughly twenty eight million dollars. Now,
KG and you, which obviously a smaller station, likely gets
less in absolute terms, but the percentage could actually be

(15:49):
higher when you think about rural or like KG and
U eight community station, because some receive up to fifty
percent or more of the revenue from federal grants. Now,
I found a twenty twenty five discussion that shows that

(16:10):
KG and US reliance on Corporation for Public broadcasting funding
was highlighted as part of its infrastructure support, particularly for
the EAS, the Emergency Alert system, which obviously is facilitated
through public radios interconnections Like we all do, I mean
private and public radio and television stations, anybody that's you know,

(16:33):
using the airwaves has an interconnection with FEMA for the
emergency alert system. Well, that alone suggests that Corporation for
Public Broadcasting funds are used not only for programming, but
obviously for some of their operational and technical infrastructure. Because,
for example, our infrastructure here which the EAS system uses

(16:59):
to broad cast the EAS signals when there is an emergency,
which we have to do the training all the time,
which I find absolutely ludicrous, but it's nonetheless hilarious that
infrastructure has to be provided by iHeartMedia as part of
our licensing agreement with the FCC so that we can

(17:23):
broadcast those EAS signals when it becomes appropriate to broadcast
those signals. But there is no specific information in any
of the sources I can find about any direct funding.
So it looks to me like KG and use funding
all comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Now look

(17:46):
at it on an annual basis, without any precise figures,
there's a rough estimate that suggests a KGNUS Corporation for
Public Broadcasting funding is somewhere in the range of fifty
thousand to two one thousand dollars annually, depending on what
its operating budget is for any given year, which is
probably under two million dollars on any given year, which

(18:09):
is pretty typical. Now that's just an estimate. Now, KG
and You, though is not involved in these lawsuits against
the Trump administration. That's Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio.
There's a shocker and KSUT Public radio. They're the ones
that filed in federal court in DC against the Trump

(18:31):
administration because they want their money. Now, let's go to
what's on the calendar of a publicly funded radio station.

Speaker 5 (18:41):
I wonder if the Sundance Festival is rethinking moving to Boulder, Colorado.
If they are, I'm sure poul Us and Jonah Goose
will make sure Boulder gets cleaned out for the Sundance Festival. No,
not for the Colorado citizens or Boulder residents, just for
you know, tax money.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
I doubt seriously that the Sundance Festival is considering, for
one nano second, withdrawing from Boulder or Estas or that
whole area, the whole area where they're going to be,
primarily because of all the taxpayer money they're going to get.
So why would they withdraw? They're not going to do that.
But what I will find interesting is how much will

(19:27):
anti gunner Jared Polus put into taxpayer funded security for
the Sundance Festival. Yeah. I won't know how much they're
going to do that. We're gonna talk about guns later today.
And it's kind of interesting because one person, just one
armed individual, could have stopped that carnage in Boulder. But hey,

(19:51):
what do I know. Let's go back to KG and
you So, a listener sends me this email urgent news tip,
and they you know, because I'm a sucker, I get
sucked into it. And sure enough, you go to KGNU
dot org and under calendars you'll find the resistance calendar. Now,

(20:14):
I know today we're broadcasting live right now on Tuesday,
June third, And the calendar that I have pulled up
right now is dated May twenty nine, and it's for
the dates from May twenty nine through June five, so
through later this week. Here here's the description. In an

(20:35):
effort to amplify the work being done on the streets
every single day by dedicated change makers standing up for
justice and speaking out against those in power who are
attacking our friends and neighbors, We're going to start posting
a resistance calendar to our website on Thursdays. Here are

(20:56):
some of the events, actions, and protests happening in Colorado
over the next seven days. Now, some of this is
past tense. Fiddy May thirtieth, what protest outside gave Evans office?
Who is organizing some group called Indivisible Northern Colorado n
O c O I haven't looked them up yet because

(21:18):
I just I just don't care. Right now, when Friday
May thirty, starting eleven am, where give's the address in
North Glenn? Why?

Speaker 3 (21:29):
See?

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I love this. They got the they got the what, who, win,
where why? As opposed to the who where? When? Why?
But you know, at least they got the five ws right,
well done, KG and you organizers say, quote, we gather peacefully.
We gather peacefully. It gave Evans North Glenn office every
Friday between eleven am and one pm to urge him

(21:52):
to have the courage to speak with us, his constituents.
We plead with him to defend our freedom, our constitution
and our democracy checks we're not a democracy, right, okay?

(22:14):
Just want to make sure we protest Gabe Evans's weakness
as he remains silent in the face of the staggering
level of corruption and other unconstitutional actions of this administration. Now,
on Saturday the thirty first, you could have gone to
what is called stop Starving Gaza. Now this one caught

(22:38):
my attention because of the who Jewish Voice for Peace,
the Colorado Palestine Coalition shoes off Collective and Doctors against Genocide.
You know, I got to talk to my doctors because
all my doctors are a member of Doctors for Genocide.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
You know, I gotta I don't those damn doctors. I know,
the just.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Sometimes they just go nuts. In fact, when i'ms a
Jew too, one of my doctors is a Jew and
he's a member of the Doctors for Genocide. How about
just we're all against genocide? How about that? That was
on Saturday, May thirty first, at five o'clock. That was
down on Wine Coop outside Union Station, you know where
all the shootings occur. So that's a great place to
have a protest. Why, here's what caught my eye. Organizers say,

(23:29):
join Jewish Voice for Peace and allies as we break
our twenty four hour solidarity fast and calling Israel to
stop starving Goza. I thought Hamas was starving Gozma. I'm
so confused. And then join Jewish Voice for Peace. Oh,

(23:53):
Jewish's Voice for Peace? Now what is that? I had
to look it up, had to do digging because it's
kind of hard to find out a lot of really good,
good information about Jewish Voice for Peace. It's based in
the United States. It is self described as a Jewish
group that advocates for Palestinian rights and opposes Israeli or

(24:19):
Jewish policies. Okay, all right, so I guess that's like
an American that opposes American policies, or you know, like
Christians or Protestants that are posed. Protestants, all right, really
have a hard time with this one. They particularly opposed

(24:39):
the occupation of Palestinian territories. Huh. I got out my
atlas and he went to Google Maps, and I kept
searching for Palestinian territories. I couldn't find them. The organization
was founded in nineteen ninety six by three Jewish students

(25:00):
from UC Berkeley. Did I say more? It identifies as quote,
the largest progressive Jewish anti Zionist organization in the world.
They have thirty two thousand dues paying members as of
last year. Their stated mission is to organize US Jews

(25:21):
in solid solidarity with the Palestinian Freedom struggle, to reject
Zionism and support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, the
BDS movement. Now the Jewish Voice for Peace claims Jewish identity,

(25:41):
but it's anti Zionist stance. And then it has partnerships. Yeah,
their partnerships are the electronic into Fada humh and into
Fodda and electronic into Fada. So Jews are hooked up

(26:02):
with an into fada. Does your brain hurt? Yet? Mine
certainly does. And they are also hooked up with al Awada,
which means that, m maybe it's a fringe group and
it's not authentically Jewish. I mean it serves as a

(26:24):
front for non Jewish agendas. And then you go on
and you start trying to find out more about it,
and then you find out that Jewish Voice for Peace
they're funding sources. Well that's pretty interesting. But before we

(26:44):
get to that, the vast majority of its members and
the staff they claim are Jewish. They emphasize their commitment
to building a thriving Jewish community rooted in justice and equality.
It frames it's anti Zionism as a Jewish act of
solidarity with Palestinians, drawing on a tradition of obviously leftist Judaism,

(27:09):
but critics argue that it's rejection of Zionism, which is
a core tendent for many Jewish communities, and of course
it's alliances with groups that are accused of anti Israeli
extremism kind of push it outside the mainstream of Jewish institutions.
Even the Anti Defamation League has criticized Jewish Voices for

(27:33):
Peace for advocating for the eradication of Jewish connections to Israel.
Now let me restate that again, for advocating the eradication
of Jewish connections to Israel. Israel is a Jewish state,
So you want to there was I found a post

(27:56):
on xts by Caroline Glick. She claims that JVP is
a front group run by Attim Basien, a Hamas affiliated figure.
But I can't find any corroboration from that, so I
just throw that out there is some people believe that
they have a direct connection to Hamas. But then when

(28:19):
you dig further into their funding, yes, they get a
lot of grassroots donations, and then they get money from
private foundations. According to their own nine nineties about eighty
five percent of their funding comes from individual donors, an

(28:40):
average contribution of sixty dollars. Two years ago, they reported
revenues of about three point three million and expenses of
two point seven million. But then you go to the
NGO monitor website, they identified point four million dollars in

(29:02):
grants and donations and the funding comes from.

Speaker 6 (29:09):
Next great choice, Dragon Queen's Radio Gaga can't go wrong
with that song. Let me add another one to the playlist,
Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall Part two.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
We don't need no education. Never mind the teachers.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
Hey PBS, Hey NPR, leave the taxpayers alone.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
All in all, you're just another brick in the wall.
I wonder to kind of where that was going to
end up, and it ended up in a perfectly good spot.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, well, no I'm talking. I'm not talking about you.
I'm talking about the talk back. I'm not giving you
any credit. Good grief, what do you think this is?

Speaker 3 (29:53):
I played it. I deserve credit the.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Guy that says I, I don't know, I just play. Yeah. Then,
now now you come back and will I'm.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
The one that chosen exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, you're so full of crap. You're not even here
today anyway, your mind so god gone. I came in
this morning, and usually I mean I found stories already
on my console. He's not back there. You know, it's
like time to record some stuff, and you know, we
don't have a production meeting, so I have no clue
how the program's going to go. Today because I just
I can't. I have no idea, Like what does my

(30:28):
producer want me to do? Is if I give a
round to ask what my producer wants to do? And
what's he.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Doing stealing office supplies?

Speaker 2 (30:34):
He's stealing office supplies today, Yes, he needs a folder. Now.
We used to have a giant cabinet that had office
supplies in it, and we can always get like a notepad,
or we could get you some paper clips, but now
we can't find them anywhere. We can't find anything anywhere
trying to be locked up somewhere. In fact, when I
came in Saturday, apparently fedexa delivered or office depot or

(30:57):
somebody gigantic carton of copy paper, and I thought, ooh,
copy paper, I could use some of that.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
This one box is fine.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
You know, Actually I hate the paper we use it.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Oh it's terrible. It's so whimsy and terrible.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
If it's like winning on toilet paper. Ye, so trust me,
I don't steal the copy paper from.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
iHeart because which is really said, though, is if we
get the fancier paper, it jumps, it jams up the machines.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Well that's because nobody maintains the machine.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
That's accurate.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
I mean, the machines are always like no toner, no toner,
this one doesn't work, this one doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
So let's go.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Back to the Jewish Voice for Peace or what was
Jewish Voice for Peace. You know what your ideology is
based on, your sponsors, your funding, who pays the bills? Well,

(32:00):
Jewish Voice for Peace. Now, remember this is the group
that KG and you. A publicly funded not totally but
a partially publicly funded radio station has on their website
a resistance calendar. Hmmm, stirring the pot much. I can't

(32:23):
say much about that, because that's what I try to
do every single day. But I rely on my sponsors.
I rely on a publicly traded private organization, the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund more than five hundred thousand dollars. Now. The
reason I point out the Rockefeller Fund is because they

(32:46):
support the BDS movement, and in fact, they are probably
prolonging the Israeli Palestinian Hamas conflict by funding these politicized NGOs.
Rockefeller Brothers Funds is a horribly Marxist organization. And then

(33:07):
this one, which I know will come as a complete
shock to you, the Open Society Foundation. Yes, the Soros group,
the Schwab Charitable Fund four hundred and forty eight thousand.
They don't provide much transparency. You heard of this one.
Of course. You have the Tides Foundation, yes, another Marxist organization,

(33:30):
and the fire Doll Foundation and Pomegranate Foundation smaller contributors,
but they're tied to Kathleen Paratus, a former j Street
board member, another leftist group. So you follow the money trail,
drip drip, drip, drip drip all the way down to

(33:51):
KG and you your tax dollars along with leftist organizations
are helping fund they resistance calendar. And oh, by the way,
where did the nut job on the Pearl Street mall
get his information online?

Speaker 3 (34:07):
Mm?

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Hmmm yeah, online