appleton kmj

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Ray Appleton

Appleton, in addition to being on the air from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., is the host of a two-hour weekday show from noon to 2 p.m. on KMJ, Fresno’s most popular AM radio station.  KMJ General Manager Patty Hixson farms several hundred acres in Fresno County and is clearly sympathetic to growers.  In addition, KMJ is flooded with pesticide commercials during Appleton’s morning and noon shows so there is also an economic reason to champion the cause of the West Side growers.

The KMJ website section on Appleton shows pictures of him taken earlier this year purportedly sneaking into the Delta export pumps and turning them on.   While no doubt  intended as a humorous stunt, if Appleton actually did this it would be a criminal act, probably a felony.  Some of his grower callers are threatening civil disobedience.

His erratic behavior on the show, raging one day, confident and predicting victory the next, is typified by a July 10 posting on his blog at the website:  “Many of you ask me how I can handle all the pressure from the Water War.  I get this all the time.  I’m surprised that many of you feel that I am pressured.  Yes, I know I’ve have had my moments on the air where I have been a bit out of control. Yeah, that’s always a lovely ‘bit’ for live radio when it’s real and I assure you this, for me, has never been more real. “

Here is a sampling of Appleton’s inflammatory comments on the air in recent weeks:

On  July 7, the House Appropriations Committee rejected an amendment by Rep. Nunes to suspend the Endangered Species Act and restore water exports from the Delta at “historic maximum levels.”   Appleton, on his show the next day, excoriated the Democrats on the committee and said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Monterey, was “a weasel.” He has called Rep. Costa a “traitor” on the air. He told listeners that Congress was “terrified” of Rodriguez and that, as Act Two gets underway, “we are now deferring everything to him [Rodriguez].  From now on he’s going to be calling all the shots [for the Coalition].”

Appleton has called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “the Antichrist” and slandered Rep. George Miller of Contra Costa County in similar terms.   Appleton claimed that “law enforcement” had estimated the July 1 city hall water rally crowd at 11,000 people, without naming which law enforcement agency or officer had made this alleged estimate.  In contrast, the Fresno Bee and the local TV stations said Fresno police had estimated the crowd at 4,000.

Appleton has called the United Farm Workers Union the “enemy” of farmworkers and claimed if Cesar Chavez were alive he would be in the radio booth with Appleton advocating for more water for growers.

Appleton continues to claim that Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) is not indigenous to the Delta, that it is only on the Endangered Species Act Threatened List, and that smelt are plentiful throughout much of  America.  He is right that the Delta Smelt is only on the Threatened List but wrong about it occurring elsewhere in the United States.  Delta Smelt are members of the Osmeridae family (smelts) and, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Delta Smelt is found only from Suisan Bay upstream through the Delta in several counties.  Once abundant, their numbers have plunged in recent years, in large part due to reductions in freshwater outflow (i.e., water exports), and being ground up (“entrained”) at the massive Delta export pumps near Tracy.  Other causes in the population decline include pollutants, competition and predation from non-native fish.  There are other species of smelt in the Osmeridae family in other parts of America (some grow to eight inches in length) but they are not Delta smelt.  Using Appleton’s logic here, the analogy would be that it is okay if Polar bears go extinct because there are eight species of bear (black and brown bears for starters) in the Bear Family (Ursidae) and because if you’ve seen one bear you’ve seen them all, right?

Appleton takes considerable pride in being the “new best friend” of Paul Rodriguez and loves to entice his listeners with tidbits about Rodriguez but says he cannot say everything he knows.  He told listeners recently Rodriguez had recently been fired from the movie “Family Wedding” starring America Ferrara, even after Rodriguez had completed shooting for his part, but said he couldn’t talk about it on advice of both Rodriguez’s lawyers and KMJ lawyers.  The inference was that Rodriguez was fired because of his political activism for the Coalition.  When Rodriguez came on Appleton’s show a few days later Appleton never asked him if he was fired from the movie.  If Rodriguez was, in fact, fired for exercising his free speech rights, that was wrong.

He told listeners on July 7 that Rodriguez had become so disheartened over the Fourth of July weekend he was thinking of quitting the coalition but later changed his mind.   Appleton also told listeners Rodriguez was feuding with his agents.  “Well, Paul is having a little bit of a crisis with his agent right now, so he’s got that on his back as well because the agents are having a cow because he’s not fulfilling some of his commitments,” Appleton said.  “Paul is getting it from all sides, and I’m trying to be protective of him.”

Appleton appears unconcerned that blabbing to listeners that Rodriguez is  not keeping his business commitments might be a bad idea.  Appleton later told listeners Rodriguez had fired his agents and retained new representation.  When Rodriguez was next on the show, Appleton never mentioned any of this.

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