KHOW's Caplis and Silverman failed to mention that Rep. Bruce founded right-wing group to which he donates salary
Summary: While interviewing their guest, state Rep. Douglas Bruce (R), about reports of his having overstated his January per diem request by $750, 630 KHOW-AM co-hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman on February 21 did not challenge his statement that his legislative salary "is going to charity." Bruce founded the "educational organization" to which he reportedly is making the donation -- Active Citizens Together -- and he is the registered agent for the group, which advocates "lower taxes," "less government," and "more personal freedom!"
On their February 21 630 KHOW-AM show, co-hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman uncritically allowed their guest, Republican state Rep. Douglas Bruce (Colorado Springs), to state that his legislative compensation "is going to charity" without noting either the political nature of the organization to which Bruce reportedly is making the donation or the fact that Bruce founded the group -- Active Citizens Together (ACT) -- and remains its registered agent.
As Colorado Media Matters noted, the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post made similar omissions in February 21 articles reporting on Bruce's having overstated his January per diem request by $750. Caplis mentioned the News article on the topic when he introduced Bruce.
From the February 21 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:
CAPLIS: Chris Barge writes a piece in this morning's Rocky. It says, "Bruce: 750 overcharge an error." The story reads in part: "Representative Douglas Bruce made much of his decision to wait until five days after the opening of this year's legislative session to be sworn in despite appeals by his own party that he start on time. But records show that the Colorado Springs Republican charged per diem and received payment as if he had started on day one. The bottom line: Bruce overcharged the state $750. He passed it off Wednesday as a clerical error." And then the story goes into more detail, including some reaction from our guest, Doug Bruce. But since we have him here, let's get it right from the representative's mouth. Representative Bruce, welcome back to 630 KHOW.
BRUCE: Hi.
CAPLIS: Well, appreciate your time today, and I understand from Brad [Lopez, producer] that you're willing to take some calls.
BRUCE: Happy to do that. I do need to clear up something at the start -- two things. First, you omitted the fact -- and I have the article in front of me -- that all of my salary and all the per diem is going to charity. So this is not a case of my trying to rip off the taxpayers or do anything improper. That's the first thing -- there's nothing gonna be going into my pocket. And that's been true for my three years as county commissioner. So, I think that's important for people to understand, that I didn't have any, you know, bad intentions or anything.
CAPLIS: Well, that's why we invited you --
BRUCE: The second --
CAPLIS: -- on the show, so you could make your case directly to the people.
BRUCE: And that's why I accepted.
As Bruce noted, the News article to which Caplis referred reported that "Bruce said he intends to donate his entire $30,000 legislative salary as well as his per diem payments to the charity Active Citizens Together." On its website, however, ACT describes itself as a "non-profit educational organization" that "allows concerned citizens" to learn how to promote such causes as "lower taxes, less government, more accountability, and more personal freedom!":
This organization allows concerned citizens to band together to learn how to protect our rights and to work for lower taxes, less government, more accountability, and more personal freedom!
Active Citizens Together is a Colorado non-profit educational organization whose mission is to educate the citizens of Colorado on the workings of government and how they can influence government at all levels within the state of Colorado. [emphases added]
In addition to not mentioning ACT's name or ideological agenda, Caplis and Silverman omitted Bruce's ties to the group. Bruce incorporated ACT as a nonprofit corporation on December 19, 2001; according to a filing with the Colorado Secretary of State, the group was organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which covers organizations created "exclusively for charitable, educational, religious or scientific purposes." An amendment to ACT's articles of incorporation states that "ACT is dedicated only to citizen education." As of the most recent annual report -- dated December 24, 2007 -- Bruce remains ACT's registered agent, and the street and mailing addresses listed for him as registered agent are the same as those listed for ACT.
—E.B. & J.F.B.
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Comments (6) Show
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I have no idea why they would be protecting Bruce. He clearly gets under their skin (especially Caplis'...which gives me a tiny bit of respect for the guy) and neither are a fan of his.
As an aside, and Caplis did this with Bruce, am I the only one who finds Caplis' little 'yeah yeah' thing he does whenever someone tries to make a point that you can tell Caplis obviously hates extremely irritating? It's condesending to the extreme.
I hope it is a very tiny bit of respect, Nate, and I agree about the extreme condescension. I believe Caplis is more of a Doug Bruce than Doug Bruce is. Caplis cites irony and berates Bruce for not respecting others and not playing by the rules, when Dan is the master of this himself, a real irony of ironies. Douglas Bruce sanctimoniously kicks at a photographer, when Caplis verbally kicks people around all the time. One of my favorites was when his producer did his usual start of music into a commercial break, but Caplis happened to start or lengthen one of his anti-abortion rants. The unbelievable level and palpable anger of Caplis when he said with such dripping viciousness, ‘Never do that to me again!’(sic) was amazing. It was so grossly mean and over the top to a coworker trying to do his job, that it was much more of a ‘kick’ and abuse than Doug Bruce could ever manage. Classic pretense by Caplis.
And Caplis says it is not his style to call anyone a ‘nut’, and is troubled by Craig referencing Bruce that way? Caplis famous memory is getting selective again, because even if a few people may or may not deserve it, Caplis has called the Iranian president a ‘nut job’, Howard Dean a ‘nut case’, Linda Tripp a ‘nut’, and any supporters of Ward Churchill his ‘nutty followers’. Again, some may or may not deserve it, but there’s no need for Dan to lie and say he won’t use that label and try to spin it like he has any kind of piety. Dan has also told Silverman ‘you are crazy, you are wrong’, and as mentioned before, he has called into question the sanity of Jake Plummer and Cindy Sheehan, and probably a few others. I’m glad Caplis’ own son has recently called Dan ‘whacked’ on the air during Dan’s self serving and annual nepotism-fest, and I couldn’t agree more. Smart kid.
As far as Caplis ‘yeah, yeah’ habit, yes, it is annoying. But he has several annoying habits, and he’ll even do the ‘yeah, yeah’ to people he agrees with on occasion, seemingly just to keep his mouth moving. He will also let his Chicago vernacular get out of control. He’ll also do a very regular ‘eh eh eh’ just for emphasis, usually, or to do what he won’t allow others to do to him: To interrupt them. He’ll constantly swallow hard like he’s gulping for air, as if he loves the sound of his own voice so much, he forgets to breath or something. Professional broadcasting in action. (By the way, is it clear yet I’m not Dan’s biggest fan? It is? Oh, just checking, lol).
And I’ve also learned that is OK to even criticize the physical features of women, as Caplis does in making fun of Angelina Jolie’s lips, of all things. Funny, though, I’ve never seen photos where Jolie’s lips were not very full, while Caplis says they are blown up like balloons or something. Even more interesting is that pillar of society, minion, and employee of Caplis, George Brauchler, shows it is OK to criticize physical features of others. Brauchler compares Rep. Udahll’s eyebrows to Elmo, even using a Muppet voice during the criticism. I guess it is now safe to mention that more than one person has told me about the remarkable resemblance of Caplis to Dopey of Snow White fame. This must be a fair comparison, and I never would have used it, but it must be OK according to Dan’s own crony—the same crony who got into the plugola game that Caplis has perfected. George mentioned, along with Dan’s law partner when he was a guest of Brauchler’s while he sat in for Caplis, that they do lots of drunk driver law suits. They couldn’t wait a few weeks for their self-serving radio ads to hit KHOW, where they direct people to their web site, presumably for drunk driving prevention tips? A quick Google search would give anyone better information, but they sure tout their law suit factory once you get to their site. It really is a bit unseemly and despicable, and I hope they pay full price for those ads.
And Dan is the guy who wants to be your senator. Just my opinion.
I pray Caplis runs for the Senate and that the Repubs are stupid enough to nominate him. Talk about a guy who would get trounced. Thanks to his radio show there is too much out there on tape that the average person would object to.
Plus, he was laughing at the fact that the people for legalizing pot got "only" 40% of the vote. I doubt Caplis could manage that.
Unfortuanately, even though I may disagree with the Repubs on a lot I don't think they are that dumb.
Great work NEWMAN and NATE. Thanks. I remember the show that NEWMAN referenced, where sniffer's boy called him on his global warming doublespeak. It was great! I just hope his boy didn't get verbally pounded on the way home. And yes, it is annoying when sniffer employs the "yea, yea" thing. He got it from bush, who got it from tony snow. (My guess, any way. snow started using it as ps, bush picked it up after that.) As far as not calling bruce on the charity scam, my best guess is that it caught them by surprise. Silverman rarely does ANY research going in to a show, but instead relies on his instincts and "flies by the seat of his pants". sniffer does research right wing sources before his witch hunts, but I'm guessing he didn't look too hard at bruce before the show. Now, had that been a Democrat "double dipping" with the per diem, guarrantee sniffer would have caught it, and would be talking about it for 2 weeks. Anyways, it's always a pleasure to read you two.
Hi Nate and thanks Letkemann. Hey, I thought of another Caplis annoyance: When he uses his mocking voice to explain his own spin on other people’s thoughts and motivations, including Silverman’s. I’m sure you’ve heard it, as it sounds something like a cross between Rush Limbaugh’s braggadocio and the pouting voice of Shirley Temple. It is very strange and very childish.
Nate, I think our prayers are canceling each other out, because I absolutely don’t want Caplis running for any office, even dog catcher, which, by the way, he may want to run and win before he aims as high as the U.S. Senate. Yes, it would be nice to see him spanked in a political race, but he is getting way too active in republican circles, hanging out with traffic jammer George Bush (at the very time Dan complains about Dem elites, I might add), attending fundraisers and so-called leadership conferences, and speechifying to anyone who will listen. He already has the republican standard-issue pretty blonde wife, so we can only hope that the powers-that-be will indeed nix his plans. In office, Caplis would make Rick Santorum look like reasonable soft spoken centrist, in my opinion. I’d be perfectly happy to hear him drop the candidate innuendo so I too can revert back to my own juvenile ways and just occasionally flip off my radio when he’s ranting, but until his political pipe dreams are quashed, I’ll guess I’ll be exercising my constitutionally protected anonymous political speech..
Maybe it would be fun to see him run. We could see what all the ambulance chasing and plugola did for his finances. Caplis also swung the door wide open to inquire about spousal political views with his excessive Michelle Obama criticisms, so it would be nice to know Mrs. Caplis’ views on politics, abortion, birth control, stem cell research, and the like. After deriding Barack Obama’s level of experience, it would be very interesting for Caplis to explain why his utter lack of experience makes him qualified for the senate. Other than Dan’s CU student government experience which included a melee and quitting when he didn’t get his way, he only had a failed statehouse run many years ago, if memory serves. He ran small law practices and ran his mouth off. He really has no government or legislative experience or even big business experience…None. And why he continues to say he had a bright future if he stayed a Democrat until he left the party is a mystery. What a joke to float his own name for one of the highest offices—except the joke would be on us if he ever comes close.
But you’re probably right, and it will never happen, and he can continue to stroke his 50,000 watt ego on the public airwaves. But Caplis says people are tired of politics as usual. Funny, he never divulges the mystery person he claims talked him into considering a candidacy. He’s already got the behind-the-scenes smoke-filled room aspect of politics up and running, and a hand full of special interests he defends at all costs, even his credibility. Caplis would be politics at its insidious worst.
Also, if this was new politics, the moment he said "Right now I'm focused on the 2010 U.S. Senate race and (taking on Ken Salazar.)" he would have done the honorable thing and went off the air, so not to have any ethical conflicts whatsoever. He most certainly is a declared, if not formally declared candidate, at least in his own mind, and it is wrong for him to be on KHOW in this way. Politics as usual, indeed. Just my opinion.Uh oh, Caplis addresses the subject again and in case some feel I beat the plugola thing a little too hard, a more common example of the practice in the broadcast business ‘is a disc jockey giving unpaid publicity to his or her personal sideline business’.
Caplis quote yesterday: (To a caller, who said he wanted to transfer his case to Dan’s office): Caplis: ‘Whoa, whoa, wai…I’m not soliciting stuff here’.
Compare that to another actual quote of Caplis from way back on his radio show (emphasis added): ‘I open the show by mentioning that I’m a plaintiff’s lawyer, I’ve mentioned it, I haven’t counted, but at least five other times in this show. I mention it so often that people accuse me, with some degree of truth, of doing it as self promotion, as free advertising, for my law practice….’
How do lawyers put it, was he lying then or is he lying now? Just my opinion.1 - 20 |