On KFKA, guest hosts Kaminsky, Sanders "mix[ed] ... up" names of bin Laden, Obama several times

Summary: Discussing a recorded message purportedly from Osama bin Laden, 1310 KFKA guest hosts Ross Kaminsky and Christopher Sanders several times used the names of the Al Qaeda leader and Sen. Barack Obama interchangeably. After doing so, Kaminsky claimed, "That was not intentional," while Sanders stated, "Maybe we ought to just call the presidential candidate Hussein, and call the other one Osama."

Guest hosting the March 21 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show, right-wing blogger Ross Kaminsky and co-host Christopher Sanders each called Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "Obama," or vice versa. While discussing a recent recorded message purportedly issued by bin Laden, Kaminsky said, "Obama -- Osama -- I said Obama. That's pretty funny. That was not intentional." Sanders later made a similar reference, declaring, "I'm mixing 'em up too." Sanders then added, referring to Sen. Barack Obama's middle name, "Maybe we ought to just call the presidential candidate Hussein, and call the other one Osama."

Later, Sanders said, "You know, if you get Osama -- or Obama as president dealing with Osama, Obama's already made it clear he's gonna surrender. You know, I'm suspicious that the guy's not really black, he's a Frenchman. Just a Frenchman with a good tan. Because the guy's message is, I will surrender as fast as I possibly can."

Kaminsky, whose blog Rossputin.com provides links to national and local conservative sources such as the Drudge Report and the Independence Institute, is a former "[f]ellow" of the "free market" Heartland Institute. Sanders, according to the September 6, 2003, edition of the Rocky Mountain News (accessed through the Nexis database), helped arrange a June 2003 meeting for [former Republican] "Gov. Bill Owens ... Republican legislators [and] David Horowitz, a controversial and outspoken Los Angeles conservative."

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Kaminsky and Sanders previously attacked Democrats and smeared Sen. Hillary Clinton while guest-hosting Oliver's show on May 30, 2007.

Colorado Media Matters also has noted (here, here, here, here, and here) repeated instances of Newsradio 850 KOA radio hosts Mike Rosen and "Gunny" Bob Newman interchanging the names "Obama" and "Osama."

From the March 21 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

KAMINSKY: All right, well, we're gonna come back to Obama a little later in the show. A couple other things in the news from, I guess it was yesterday. Obama -- Osama -- I said Obama. That's pretty funny. That was not intentional. Osama bin Laden put out a message that appears to be in his voice. The White House press secretary said that it seems like it's his voice. And he said a couple interesting things. One thing he said was that the publication of the cartoons about the prophet Mohammed in Denmark last year was a greater crime than Western forces killing Muslim villagers. And he said that the reckoning for it will be more severe. And what's particularly interesting about that, besides how insane it is, you know --

SANDERS: The guy's off his meds.

KAMINSKY: -- it's a bigger sin to have drawn a cartoon of Mohammed than to have killed people. But the interesting thing about it is, it's a direct threat at Europe. Whereas in the past, I think you might remember a year or two ago, he almost offered Europe a truce, in a way, to --

SANDERS: Oba -- Osama -- I'm mixing 'em up too. Maybe we ought to just call the presidential candidate Hussein, and call the other one Osama. Osama is fairly smart about this. I mean, you do an attack on the United States and squadrons of B-52s show up over your house. We may not get you, because you live in a hole that you dug in the back of a cave, but we do let you know we care. You do something to Europe, the French probably surrender; you know, the Germans grouse about it; the Italians make dinner. It's -- you know, nothin' happens to you. They'll just sit around and ring hands while drinking wine.

[...]

KAMINSKY: You know, what's interesting to me is when Osama says that Iraq is the perfect base, that's sort of interesting in terms of American politics. You would think that sort of plays into McCain's hands. The Democrats will say, "Well, it would never have been a base for them if we hadn't taken out Saddam, blah, blah, blah." But that's the weaker of the arguments compared to what McCain will be able to say, like, "See how important Iraq is now. There's no point in reliving the past, whether we should or should not have gone in. We did. We have what we have now." It's kind of interesting to see bin Laden do something that, I think, could reasonably be argued to be helping the presidential candidate that he might least prefer.

SANDERS: Well, there's another argument to be made. There's that old saying in the '60s: What if they gave a war and nobody came? You know, if you get Osama -- or Obama as president dealing with Osama, Obama's already made it clear he's gonna surrender. You know, I'm suspicious that the guy's not really black, he's a Frenchman. Just a Frenchman with a good tan. Because the guy's message is, I will surrender as fast as I possibly can. So you go deal with Europe, and they don't fight back. You know, where does that get you?

—C.H.