Pete Buttigieg Interview with Country Radio Host Stopped from Airing

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Country radio host Blair Garner describes himself as “not a political guy,” but when Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg reached out and asked for an interview on his show, “The Blair Garner Show,” the host agreed and invited him to his studio in Nashville where they spoke for twenty minutes. But when Garner wanted to air the interview, Cumulus Media, which nationally syndicates Garner’s show, blocked it from being broadcast at all.

Garner, unhappy with Cumulus’s decision, posted a Soundcloud link to the interview on Twitter and composed an Instagram post explaining why he spoke with Buttigieg and why he thinks a free public discourse is important. “The best way to a reasoned, thoughtful position on any topic, is to hear from both sides,” Garner said.

Link to tweet

?s=20

Garner added that he was initially surprised Buttigieg wanted to appear on the show, “since country music tends to lean in a conservative direction,” but said he was “extremely flattered” at the offer.

“One of the few truly viable candidates in the race raised his hand and asked for a place at the table. I was willing to give him that seat,” Garner said. “I would have also given a seat to any other viable candidate, from both sides. The only condition? They must also value and appreciate our listeners, and never treat them as pawns.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cumulus-media-refuses-to-air-pete-buttigieg-interview-861706/

[maxsolomon]

1. "Don't rile the horses", decrees Cumulus

And only one thing riles the horses out in the "Real America" of Mainstream Country Music - them Dang Librul Soshlyst Homos.

[BeyondGeography]

2. What fucking bullshit

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. This sentence really resonates with me:

"They must also value and appreciate our listeners, and never treat them as pawns.”

You mean, don't treat them the way your corporate owners do?

[Amimnoch]

4. Get thee out of my head!!

LOL, my thoughts exactly! Was the first thing that I thought of when I read it!

[murielm99]

5. I understand what he is saying, Peggy.

I have some friends and political contact acquaintances in a nearby large city. They are all African American Democrats who work their butts off for us. Many of the politicians around here only talk to them when they need their votes. They get used as pawns all the time.
Their needs and concerns never seem to be a priority.

We should not be doing that to anyone. We need to open our own hearts.

[magicarpet]

6. Buttigieg is plugging away...

... making his face recognizable and his policies known.

Smart guy,.. good head on his shoulders.

[CrispyQ]

7. They don't want rural America to hear what real democrats say.

Corporate America would rather that rural America believes what Rush says that democrats say.

[Princetonian]

8. America is an oligarchy not a democracy.

Proof positive right here.

[Blue_Tires]

9. I really want to know why so much energy is spent

trying to court the folks who hate us and aren't voting for us anyway... Whatever happened to just making sure we get out the Dem vote??

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Pete Buttigieg feels that everyone needs to hear our Democratic message...

whether or not they agree with what we have to say. He also thinks that many of them are perhaps persuadable and given the chance, will receive his message. He thinks they (the few) don't hate us but are wandering and would accept our viewpoint.

This is how you bring the country together: by talking to everyone, including those on the other side.

And of course, he knows full well that getting out the vote is critical. We can do more than one thing at a time.

[Celerity]

11. +10000

[Blue_Tires]

15. If they voted for Trump last time around

I'd already write them off as a lost cause, but that's just me....

[SMC22307]

12. Many Rustbelt voters perceived Hillary as ignoring them.

I applaud Buttigieg for trying to reach as many voters as possible... get out the Democratic message.

[Blue_Tires]

14. ...So they decided to vote for a fucking racist out of spite?

Makes perfect sense.

[SMC22307]

16. Even Hillary admitted that calling them "deplorables" was a mistake.

And the Donald Trump machine knew how to tap into their anger/dissatisfaction like nobody's business. They voted for Fat Nixon because they thought he was listening to them. You may not like it or understand it, but the next Dem prez candidate better learn from it.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Meanwhile Trump calls us all traitors and communists

and enemies of the people and that we're not 'real' Americans and everything else under the sun and there's no outrage whatsoever. And yet for all their faux outrage, those bumpkin cultist pieces of shit have done nothing but prove Hillary 100% correct the last 3 years...

Why are we still trying to play by a "rulebook" that the GOP burned up years and years ago?

[SMC22307]

18. Republicans have always tried to portray Dems as...

not "real" Americans. This is not unique to Trump. Think back to the Bush years and what they called those of us who protested the illegal invasion of Iraq. Think back to the '60s and Vietnam. Who are you expecting outrage from?

No doubt, Hillary was right about them being deplorable. But calling them that was a really dumb thing to do.

Good question about the rulebook. We're told to go high when they go low, but I feel like they're slaughtering us. It's war with them and our leadership still doesn't seem to understand that. Thomas Frank laid all of this out in "What's the Matter with Kansas?" published fifteen freakin' years ago, but it's like very few in Dem leadership positions are grasping the severity.

Someone on DU once gleefully posted that all will be right with the world when "old white men" die off. Newsflash: There's no shortage of young white men and women drinking the GOP Kool-aid (see Turning Point USA's Teen Summit) and they're terrifying.

[StevieM]

19. HRC did not call rural voters deplorable.

And I don't think the actual deplorable comment was as big a deal during the election as the media made it out to be after the election was over.

People were more concerned with the fact that she fell down on 9/11.

[SMC22307]

21. No way.

People don't pay enough attention to what's going on in social media-land. And Hillary admitted that using it was a costly mistake.

[StevieM]

22. Then she's wrong too IMO.

It never rose to the level of Mitt Romeny's 47 percent comment. I don't even think it was as big of a deal as Barack Obama saying "they get bitter and cling to their guns and religion."

I think the voters understood what she meant, that their were many people who were unfortunately responding to a truly deplorable campaign that Trump was running. In fact, I think that it was the one time in that entire race that Hillary was treated fairly.

[SMC22307]

23. Right-wing media blowhards lost their minds over the comment...

coupled with e-mails, Benghazi!11!, the Clinton Foundation, and on and on and on...

She should have spoken more clearly in stating that Trump was running a deplorable campaign, not by calling his supporters deplorable. I think you're giving voters waaaaay too much credit.

[StevieM]

20. I disagree that rural voters felt ignored by Hillary.

They stopped listening to her because they became convinced that she had somehow broken the law and gotten away with it.

In other words, she got swift boated.

[LAS14]

13. This is great! I read recently that it is essential for a candidate to "go viral" at some point.

This got me to listen to a venue I hadn't even known about! This is going to get Pete a lot more listeners than the original plan, I bet.