Controversial Kalispell radio station goes silent as bankruptcy officers seize property

Source: Missoulian

KALISPELL - A controversial talk radio station was silenced to static on Thursday, when bankruptcy officials seized and closed Kalispell's KGEZ, owned by John Stokes.

Stokes has been a center of conflict for years, with supporters praising his anti-environmental message and critics decrying what they said were extreme and uncivil rants. He was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Initially, Stokes made headlines by referring to environmentalists as Nazis, and burning green swastikas outside his station, but in recent years he became more well known for his legal wranglings.

The most dramatic of those was a $3.8 million defamation judgment against him, when jurors decided last year that Stokes had knowingly made false on-air comments about his neighbors, Davar and Todd Gardner, and that he had done so with malicious intent.

Read more: http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_4d7bd374-a96a-11de-a58a-001cc4c002e0.html

But, in this case, somehow I don't mind as much.

Defamation is not covered by freedom of speech...

to broadcast sports or something equally innocuous.

John Stokes, as is his right, can stand on a soapbox outside his house and bark at the moon after a breakfast of right wing crap.

Most likely, he will continue to make a comfortable living, supported by right wing organizations that never met a demagogue they didn't like.

:)

You reminded me of a DVD I watched a few years back.

P.O.V. - The Fire Next Time



Online Video Guide - The Fire Next Time

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