From wackbag.com:
To The Listeners, Pests, and Members of Wackbag;
We all knew this day would come. The Opie and Anthony Show is threatened by people who want to control what everyone should say. Don Imus was fired for making a bad joke about a sympathetic diverse losing woman's basketball team, JV & Elvis were suspended indefinitely from FreeFM for satire on Asian accents and now some special interest groups will say they are offended to gain publicity and fame for their cause because a homeless person commented on what he would like to do to Condoleezza Rice.
So we should give them what they want but expose them as the hypocritical, anti-free speech and political correctness police that they are when they come out of their hiding spots. Also, preemptively, we should contact Opie and Anthony’s bosses and people of the companies why they should stand with them and have a backbone for a change. People only write letters when they are told things are offensive and the silent majority loses when they remain silent. These special interest groups who claim to know better think everything should be nice and not be made fun of. But sometimes humor that might offend is refreshing.
So to prevent only the minority from ruling the majority please write, email and call these people. Remind them it is important that a corporation would stand-up for the users of their product and not succumb to the demands of people who do not. You have enjoyed The Opie and Anthony show and now they need our help>>
No apologizes for people that do not listen or do not want The Opie and Anthony Show to continue speaking out.
+Templates/Suggestions
To help in your letter writing, included is some of the letters that fellow wackbaggers have written:
--------Suggestion 1 by Jolie:
Dear Sirs,
It is with extreme sadness that I feel compelled to even write to you regarding this issue, but in light of the recent instances of radio shows being taken off air due to "inappropriate" content, I feel I must.
I have been a long time fan of the Opie and Anthony show. They are the only reason I subscribed to XM Radio, and they are the only reason I continue to subscribe to this day. Having recently bought a car with Sirius rather than XM, I have had a chance to listen to the competition, and I must say, if it were not for Opie and Anthony, I would cancel my two XM subscriptions tomorrow and go with Sirius instead.
That said, it has come to my attention that Opie and Anthony may come under fire for a recent segment involving a discussion with a homeless man. I did not hear this segment live today, however I had a chance to listen to it this afternoon, and while I can understand why some people might get offended by this, it did not seem there was anything illegal in the content, merely offensive. I will be extremely disappointed in your company if you choose to take permanent action against Opie and Anthony in light of this "offensive" and "inappropriate" content.
I am fully aware of the risk I take every day listening to the Opie and Anthony show. I know very well that they are likely, on a daily basis, to say something that will offend someone - and I continue to listen because in addition to their brash comments, they are funny and I enjoy the content they provide. I also know that I, as a consumer, have the ability to change the channel or turn the radio off if I do not like the content I am hearing on a given day - and there have been times where I have exercised that ability during this show. It should be left up to the individual consumer to choose the content they like from the wide array of content available on satellite and free radio, and those who are offended by comments made by Opie and Anthony should not be given the ability to decide which content I am allowed to listen to.
Please do not bow to special interest groups in this matter. It is a known fact that many of these groups are extremely well organized and have internet form letters to use to make complaints to a variety of people during events like this - but they do not speak for me, and I would hazard a guess that they do not speak for the majority.
Thank you for your time,
----------Suggestion 2 by distortion9:
Mr. (All of them),
Sir, I will keep this short and get right to it. I'm hoping that you plan to stand by your radio talent and also stick up for me as a customer. Yes, I am a fan of the Opie and Anthony show but, as you very well know, there are bigger issues at stake here. I promise to support you and XM radio but, you can not sell me out and expect me to continue being a customer.
I am absolutely fed up with censorship and refuse to support anyone that is not willing to stand up for the Rights we are granted as Americans. Period.
Sincerely,
Paul XXXXXXX
Radio ID # XXXXXXX
-----------Suggestion 3 by Awful Me:
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is _________________, I am an XM Subscriber and currently have ___ subscriptions under my account. My account number is ____________ .
I am a fan of XM general, Opie and Anthony in specific and more importantly, I am a strong supporter of Freedom of Speech.
I realize you will get grief from protesters and those that want Opie and Anthony removed for your airwaves. Please stay strong and do not give in to these special interest groups.
Remember, most of them are not subscribers, I however am. I pay for your service and support your sponsors. Buy caving in to the demands of the few, you lose the support of those of us who are actually using your service.
While you MAY lose a few sponsors, by bowing down to the demands of these groups, you WILL lose customers.
Sponsors will come back, dissatisfied customers will not.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerly,
---------Suggestion 4 by Barbwire Mike:
To whom it may concern:
Today there seems to a be a storm rising up against talk show hosts Opie and Anthony. Even though the "offending bit" happened on XM, I've already seen from the way Imus was treated that CBS isn't very gung-ho about sticking up for their talent.
I URGE you not to make the same mistake with Opie and Anthony.
The Imus controversy was started by a few loudmouths who got press while the silent majority stood silent. However, the second he was yanked the grassroots campaign to save this country from special interest pro-censorship forces began.
And it's been growing.
I promise you... we will not be silent this time.
We WILL boycott your advertisers. We WILL stop watching your programming. We WILL utilize all legal means at our disposal to get the word out to everyone. We WILL turn the blogosphere into a campaign against your corporation unlike anything the network has ever experienced before.
Or... we will praise you for putting your foot down and sticking up for the right to be entertaining in the face of self-righteous and self-serving "community leaders" or political groups (left wing and right wing) with their own agendas that couldn't care less if our rights and freedoms are trampled all over as long as they get their names and faces on television.
I'm one person, so even if this is being misconstrued as a threat I realize I alone can't make a difference.
But trust me... there's an army of us. The time for apathy and compliant silence has passed.
Please do the right thing.
Sincerely,
------Suggestion 5 by cigarsanscotch,
If CBS is smart it will stand firmly behind the morning radio duo of Opie & Anthony. By not supporting Don Imus during a throw away comment made in jest, CBS radio has opened the floodgates for petty grievances by small handfuls of people trying to empower their own personal agendas via special interest groups. This is murdering revenues for your struggling radio division. The amount of on air censorship is ridiculous and it is stifling the ratings of your moneymaking talents.
By supporting O&A during this non story involving Condi Rice, you will increase your listener ship. This is basically free advertisement and that will draw listeners (young male demo mind you) in to your stations that carry the show. It is just a matter of remaining strident and riding the additional attention to profit. At no point did Opie, Anthony or any member of their staff condone or promote **** or violence towards women. They were merely reacting to the ramblings of an obviously unbalanced homeless man who was making the comments in jest himself. I heard it live and like the majority of people heating it was laughing at the over the top, absurdity of what was being said and at no point inferred any seriousness or threat during the segment.
Edgy radio if allowed to be done properly is a huge ratings and revenue grabber. I think that CBS needs to remind it's sponsors of the ineffectiveness of actual boycotts by special interest groups. If you need a case in point. refer to the Michael Richard fiasco. Although he was on stage in a comedy club, he made statements out of anger that were obviously not part of his routine that were in fact offensive and racist. If ever there was a high profile screw up that was it. Even after his apology, Sharpton/jackson called for the boycott of the soon to be released Seinfeld Season 7. As far as Seinfeld goes, that was the weakest season to be released. Guess what? It outsold every other Season by a longshot. I guess the "bad" publicity helped, and that was a legitimate inflammatory story.
If O&A are further censored or fired, I will completely stop listening to your stations and get my entertainment through satellite radio and my Ipod. There are many other loyal fans to Opie and Anthony and free speech that will be more than happy to neglect your stations in the Arbitron diaries if you disappoint us again.
(update)
Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed so far, but PLEASE - DO NOT E-mail any CBS officials anymore!
That is actually hurting the cause, as many CBS officials were not aware of the situation until they got 1000's of e-mail from us!
For more information on what you can do to help visit http://peopleagainstcensorship.org/ Or check out any of the OnA Fan-sites listed on http://www.opieandanthony.com.
Thank you very much!
--Wackbag.com staff