Furious Giuliani vents on air after WABC adds a disclaimer before his show

Originally published at: Furious Giuliani vents on air after WABC adds a disclaimer before his show | Boing Boing

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The disclaimer translated: “Dear Dominion and Smartmatic, please, pretty please, don’t sue us for the defamatory statements made by the nutcase to whom we give a platform.”

I don’t know if this gives them much protection. The callers are one thing, but the station is paying Giuliani in the same way the Faux News pays its hosts (and both Faux and the hosts are getting sued).

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What did the caller tell the producers to get on the air?

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So he’s upset over a disclaimer that’s show/announced on most every show with persons not in the employ of the broadcasting company expressing opinions?

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Can’t blame them for not wanting to get sued into anti-matter.

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Wait, what? He has a radio show on WABC? WTF? This sounds like a public pressure campaign waiting to happen…

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Wait, this is a surprise? He’s just now learning that stations often use such disclaimers before shows which might have controversial content??? This is not new or different, I hear these things all the time. Acting like it’s some brand new “insult” to his dignity is hysterical.

Edit: Also, way to go Art, challenging him right out of the gate.

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I’m not sure, but the callers aren’t being paid by WABC, If it can be shown that the producers made a good-faith effort to screen the calls then that – plus the standard disclaimer in effect long before this – should cover the outlet.

As for Giuliani, I’m sure they’d fire him now if they could do it without incurring a costly lawsuit from him. The addition of his name to the disclaimer is a probably a stopgap measure while the execs and in-house counsel run cost-benefit scenarios.

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where was the furious venting?

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After listening to the audio clip, I agree that “furious” isn’t the right term. “Pissy”, “butthurt”, and “whingey” are more accurate descriptors.

Also, the disclaimer is extra amusing because WABC really piles on the fact that Giuliani is a lawyer. They’re no doubt setting up their future defense that they supposedly hired him as a host in part because he’s the kind of person who should know better than to make totally groundless defamatory statements.

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“That’s enough about ME, let’s talk about me”

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It was on the back end of the program.

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If you don’t like disclaimers before an interview, then don’t be such a filthy little liar.

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Wait a second, he has a radio show that anyone can call into? This sounds like all sorts of fun for trolls and liberal activists.

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Isn’t this completely bog-standard “cover our ass” legal boilerplate? Isn’t Rudy supposed to be a lawyer? Does he have a brain-eating fungus or something?

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Well, a brain eating molecule of one sort or another…

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No but seriously, we’ve only seen him drunk for years.

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Huh? GIuliani is probably an at-will employee/contractor for WABC. They can fire him whenever they want. But WABC is the right-wing MAGA talk-radio channel in the populous NYC area. And they want to continue to reap that sweet, sweet undereducated, alt-right demographic money. They’re just getting a little skittish about being sued by Dominion and/or losing advertisers if Rudy goes (too) loco.

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If you don’t think Giuliani would sue them if they fired him – even knowing he was an at-will employee* – you don’t know the kind of arsehole he is. Finding another attention-hungry right-wing NYC arsehole to fill his slot in their “alt-right, all the time” talk radio format wouldn’t be difficult, either.

In addition to the CYA factor, their adding him to the disclaimer without telling him might also have been an attempt to goad him into ragequitting, which would save them from paying whatever penalties and severance are specified in his contract.

[* not a sure thing when one’s contract is negotiated by an agent or a pack of lawyers. The employer still has the upper hand, but it’s a very different kind at-will employment than normal workers deal with. You usually have to pay employees like this lots of money to make them go away.]

Lest we forget, East Germans experienced terror for decades from the Stasi and their brief, all-encompassing disclaimers.

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