It is time to put on my ranting hat so here goes.

I am sick and tired of hearing how we would be acting so different if we had to use our real names. I cannot think of one thing that I have said that I wouldn't say if you knew my full name. I have similar conversations with my friends about the Bears, Bulls, and most other sports stories that get around here. I just don't have a microphone in front of me with a one way conversation going on. I am pretty sure that I am just like most of the hosts when they started there career. I have opinions and this gives me a forum to share them. I am not always right and sometimes there is no right or wrong but what makes sports great is that it can elicit emotion.

So why does it matter if I signed my name? How accountable are the current people on the radio? There are certain lines they can't cross but I have heard B&B hinting that they know people who gay, but not naming the name. When a caller defends Illinois basketball they can say "So you defend felons?" even though to the best of my knowledge J. Smith has not been convicted of a felony. Mike North can say racially insensitive comments that offend many people and get away with it. He can threaten to sue listeners. There are certain things that they can't say on the air because it is either slanderous or illegal but those things are easily avoidable and you can push them to the limit. Sean Salisbury has a list of things that he has done that have gotten him suspended but not fired.

You know why some people from sports radio have embraced or started to embrace this board and others have tried to take it down? It is because some of them still remember why they got into sports talk radio. Some of them still love to talk sports and for others, it is a job.

It is no coincidence that the two shows that complain about "Internet people" are the ones with the most one-way discussion going on. The Mike North Show has turned into a show where the opinion of Mike North is accepted and rarely challenged(except for politics). B&B rarely ever argue and use the same tactics when someone brings up a good point that goes against the opinion they have shared. I have never heard them say "That is a good point, I never saw it that way" and I have been a fairly regular listener to B&B. When a caller called yesterday and said that Bruce Weber was able to make a difference in Luther Head's life by giving him a second chance the conversation turned into "So you support felons?". I am not a Illini defender but I actually thought that was an interesting point. The other strategy that they use is to talk to people that aren't that good at making a point on the radio, gang up on them, and cause them to say something stupid. They then say that is how everyone who thinks that is. Compare this to MJH, where all opinions at least seem to be welcome. Harry can say things that people don't agree with, and they are allowed to respond.

What they don't like about this forum is that it is almost completely unregulated. Bigfan probably doesn't agree with a lot of opinions, but everyone is free to give them and then be ripped apart for them. This is the heart of what sports talk radio is supposed to be. For the first time, there is a group of people who can circumvent the call screeners and mute buttons used by radio hosts.

This board is not going away and neither is the internet. You can choose to use it to make your show better(MJH) or take an adversarial stance against it but it really won't matter. B&B is actually an enjoyable show much of the time but there are other times when it is unbearable. Mike North, when talking sports, is also not bad. B&B don't need our help as the show gets pretty good ratings and probably as good as they can get against MJH but Mike North would beat Mike and Mike if he had simply listened to the people here. I personally would love a local sports show in the morning.

I give credit to people like Mac, Drinky, Rock, and others who come here and use it as a tool. They get it and I think they still remember why they got into the sports radio business.

The internet is not going away so "just take it".

Now I can take off my ranting hat.

So what is your real name?

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I'm bringin Sellars back..

Dragan Tarlac

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Rick Keady

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"Someone put too many farts in this engine! It's about to explode!" - Tracy Jordan

Vann Swanson, better known to my wife as dumb shit.

Me and the Family.

(standing on my office desk)

"O Captain! My Captain!"


(Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap....)

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"Someone put too many farts in this engine! It's about to explode!" - Tracy Jordan

It's not that I don't agree with you but, as a counterpoint, take the way Larry Holmes was treated on this site. There were a few people who chose to run him off the board.

I understand Dan's argument to be that anonymity is bad because it creates lack of accountability. He is correct. However, it is also correct that there is a certain level of "cyber accountability" that exists on any good message board. If I say something stupid or out of line here, I can expect to be called on it.

I am a huge B/B fan, but how do they take accountability? They dont, the hang up on people. I shared this story before, but I will do it again, when Danny was going after Alford, I went to the Iowa message board, he encouraged me to start crap there and email the replys to him, that was ok, but a message board discussing him, his show and station is off limits? Thats just being thin skinned and childish.

He is accountable because you know his name, where he works, a telephone number to reach him at, etc. I can post anything on the internet and simply disappear but the radio hosts words are attached to him in some way.

GD that might have been a valid point 2 years ago, but things have changed pretty dramatically around here since it went to registered users only. OG and his family no longer post under 27 aliases each.

some of you all know my first name. take the K off of spmack and spell it backwards. that's my last name. so there.

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I'm one of about twelve blacks in America with the last name of Ferguson. Good Irish name.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

My real name is Dan Bernstein.

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It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a goddamn shame.

http://www.TheCommittedIndian.com/

that's a bunch of shit...

this from the station that encourages people to use fake names like walt williams neck and such...

o.k.,
so.....where's the accountability there?

espn knows my last name. it's in all of my emails under the from: heading. i don't email the score....

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@audioidkid

I think it's scottish

Vegas Ferguson?

You were awesome man!

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You know me like that.

This board is more fun than hosting "Idol."

I could only assume your beer of choice would be" Mickey's big mouths" there KID??..Nothing like a fine Irish Malt liquor.

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"NEED a friend...Buy a dog"..

I think hosts are just scared because you can do everything you do on sports radio on a message board, without waiting times or explaining yourself to some screener.

More or less, it's the same thing. That's why I find it hilarious when a Bernstein or someone thinks people on message boards are losers or scum.

Kid Cairo are you related to the Ferguson that does news on Channel 5 I think? Renee Ferguson?

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Then basically he is saying the callers and listeners are scum as well... Callers are anonymous for the most part as they use a fake name on the air... Bad move insulting the people who actually in turn dictate Bernstein's pay range in accordance to listeners.

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"You know 'that look' women get when they want sex? Me neither" ~Steve Martin

Somebody said it earlier. It's about "control" for Bernsie and Pappy. They have none here. Sometimes people here are crude, rude, arrogant and obnoxious. Hell, sounds like the B&B show.

I don't think people slander these radio hosts here. I can't think of any examples of slander. Even what Pappy threatened to sue that was not slander. I mean it's easy for Bernsie and Pappy to dismiss "internet people" (LOL, that would be a great horror movie title. Attack of the Internet People). Sometimes the truth is told here.

Plus these "internet people" e mail Bernsie all of the time for "Who You Crappin". Dan reads those all of the time. That's an anonymous guy on the internet ripping somebody. Dan gladly reads on the air.

This site is basically a giant "Who You Crappin" board. But Dan and his fellow hosts get ripped here. That doesn't sit well with them so it must be garbage. But it's no different then when Dan picks up an email or let a caller on for WYC.

You notice how alot of the producers like this site. It's one of the few places they can see their bosses get exposed. LOL.

Nothing less than the best for me Stu!


No but Renee is one of the twelve black Fergusons in America. I think she's #8 but I could be mistaken.


I don't think I could get used to wearing a kilt in public.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

Aren't the twelve black ferguson's a secret society that is rumored to have started the ADD epidemic in white children in the early late 1990's?

But you're arguing against your own point here. Holmes fled the board because posters were holding him accountable for his erroneous, self-aggrandizing claim that he "broke four major stories while covering the Bears" in 2005. Board members challenged him to list the stories. He couldn't, and that was the end of him. He later claimed on his show that Mitch wouldn't let him post here anymore, but we all know that's another lie.

To me, the Holmes incident is actually a microcosm of how this board functions within the landscape of Chicago sports talk radio. The hosts may attack the board for the lack of accountability it allegedly engenders, but they're really angry for the inverse reason--because we act as a force of accountability.

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I am a big fan of Holmes. His Bear coverage has improved dramatically over the years and I look forward to his reports during the year.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Nice to see Laurence posting again.

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Oh no BF, you started it now....anyone that has a nice thing to say about Holmes will be flamed on!

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My lace curtain Irish Grandma was right. There is no accounting for some folks personal tastes.