Melanie Morgan

Melanie Morgan is the chairwoman of the "pro-troop," pro-Iraq war group Move America Forward. Until March 2008, she also hosted a conservative radio talk show on KSFO in San Francisco, California, owned by ABC Radio Networks/Citadel Broadcasting.

Morgan also works with Russo Marsh & Rogers, a public relations firm that specializes in electing Republican candidates; with help from the Pentagon, ran "Truth Tours" to Iraq for right-wing US media personalities; and receives funding from Iraqi Kurds to run advertisements on American television stations thanking the United States for the war. Morgan is chairwoman of the Russo Marsh & Rogers-run pro-war lobby Move America Forward.

Morgan is a "frequent guest on Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS, she has appeared on the BBC and in newspapers and broadcasts worldwide." She "also spearheaded the 'You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy!' tour and the campaign to recall" Governor Gray Davis.

She is a columnist for WorldNetDaily. She is co-author with Catherine Moy of the book America Mourning (WND Books, October 2006, ISBN 1581825404). Until March 2008, she also hosted a conservative radio talk show on KSFO in San Francisco, California.

Calling for the death of the editor of the New York Times
Morgan gained national notoriety in the summer of 2006 when she suggested that Bill Keller, an editor of the New York Times, be killed in a "gas chamber" for the crime of "treason" after the Times' reporting on US government spying on Americans. In a July 2007 appearance on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Morgan repeated her claim that Keller and other journalists who reported on the government's SWIFT program for tracking terrorist bank transactions "should be tried for treason. If they were found guilty of treason, I would have no problem with them being executed."

Questions about her radio show
San Francisco-area blogger "Spocko" wrote, as Move America Forward readied for a counter-protest of the peace group Code Pink:
 * When I wrote last week about Morgan's heavy promotion on the ABC Radio station, KSFO, of her counter protest to Code Pink's action I was hoping that someone higher up in the ABC Radio corporation or within Citadel Broadcasting would pay attention to Morgan's use of the public airwaves for this action. ...


 * Maybe someone should clock how much time is devoted to Move America Forward and its requests for money or to sell merchandise on Morgan's site. Check out the week before Sept. 15th or the weeks before today just to give two recent examples. 4-5 minutes an hour, hour after hour, day after day. That must add up.

In March 2008, Morgan announced that KFSO's owner, Citadel Broadcasting, "decided not to renew [her] contract as part of the company’s announced across-the-board financial cost cutting."

Published works

 * With Catherine Moy, American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War--Torn by Beliefs, WND Books, 2006. About the book.

Contact information
Email: Melanie AT RMRWEST.net (Russo Marsh & Rogers PR firm)

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Ann Coulter
 * Bill O'Reilly
 * Glenn Beck
 * Move America Forward
 * Rush Limbaugh
 * Russo Marsh and Rogers

External resources

 * Bio of Melanie Morgan on the KSFO website.
 * Profile: Melanie Morgan, NNDB.com.
 * "About Melanie", MelanieMorgan.com, undated, accessed July 2007.
 * "Melanie Morgan – Chairman", Move America Forward, accessed July 2007.
 * Melanie Morgan in the Wikipedia.
 * Reports mentioning Morgan from Media Matters for America.
 * Melanie Morgan postings on YouTube.

Interviews

 * "A Lot to Lose," CBS News 48 Hours, May 25, 2000 (transcript available on the LexisNexis news database), profiles Morgan's struggle with her addiction to gambling.
 * Transcript: Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC, August 16, 2005.
 * Partial Transcript: "'Peace Mom' Cindy Sheehan Exposed," Hannity & Colmes, October 16, 2006.

Articles by Melanie Morgan

 * Article archives at WorldNetDaily.com.
 * Article archives at FrontPageMag.com.
 * "Where's the Outrage? (...no, not Chandra)," CalNews.com, August 30, 2001.
 * "It's Time to De-Fund the UN," FrontPageMag.com, December 28, 2004.
 * Melanie Morgan, "Relocate Gitmo – to Hyde Park!," WorldNetDaily, December 19, 2008.
 * Melanie Morgan, "Our war on terror – in Moraga, Calif.," WorldNetDaily, January 16, 2009.
 * Melanie Morgan, op/ed: "Obama Report: Gitmo is Humane, Abides by Geneva Convention," NewsMax.com, February 23, 2009.

General articles

 * Troy Roberts, "A Card Game Leads To Ruin: Playing Poker Starts As A New Kick", CBS News, October 22, 1999.
 * Troy Roberts, "Morgan Takes Back Her Life: In Rehab, She Gets The Shakes", CBS News, October 22, 1999.
 * Peter Byrne, "Unintended Consequences. Right-wingers cooked up the Gray Davis recall only to see it hijacked by a political moderate named Arnold," San Francisco Weekly, August 20, 2003.
 * Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC (Hardball with Chris Matthews), August 1, 2005, which features an interview in which Morgan, recently returned from a 10-day tour of Iraq, squares off against Iraq war veteran Paul Rieckhoff of Operation Truth.
 * Bob Geiger, "Melanie Morgan: Coulter's Twisted Sister," BobGeiger.com Blogspot, August 17, 2005.
 * Joe Garofoli, "She reopened debate about war, and, boy, is she hearing about it," San Francisco Chronicle, August 18, 2005.
 * Deborah, "Arianna Huffington v Melanie Morgan & Hannity," News Hounds, August 26, 2005.
 * "Melanie Morgan: 'You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy'," NewsMax, August 30, 2005.
 * Taylor Marsh, "TPM MUCKRAKER is On the Job updated," TaylorMarsh.com, March 30, 2006.
 * "Hardball Guest Says NYT Editor Is Guilty of 'Treason,' Advocates 'Prison For 20 Years'," Think Progress, June 27, 2006. Includes video link and transcript.
 * Joe Garofoli, "New chapter in battle of words over tracking terrorist financing. House plans debate to praise program, snipe at exposers," San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 2006.
 * Greg Sargent, "Right Wing Talk Show Host Says 'Any Newspaper Editor' Who Publishes Classified Info Should Be Murdered By Family Members of Slain Troops and Sent to 'Hottest Corner of Hell'," The Huffington Post, June 30, 2006.
 * "MSNBC regular advocates murder of newspaper editors," Think Progress, June 30, 2006.
 * "Olbermann named Melanie Morgan 'Worst Person' for suggesting NY Times' Keller might deserve 'gas chamber'," Media Matters for America, June 30, 2006.
 * Greg Sargent, "Melanie Morgan Clarifies: Only Editors Convicted of Treason Deserve Death Penalty," The Horse's Mouth Blog/The American Prospect, July 10, 2006.
 * Joe Conason, "Electrocute Bill Keller! No, hang him! The moronic hosts of GOP-connected radio station KSFO get big yuks calling for 'traitors' in the press to be killed -- all brought to you by Disney," Salon, July 14, 2006.
 * Bill Berkowitz, "At Russo Marsh & Rogers the 'truth' is always on tour," Media Transparency, July 23, 2006: "Helping Move America Forward report the good news from its 'Truth Tour' in Iraq, and working on PR for the Kurdistan Regional Government, has given the California-based firm an opportunity to shape public opinion one story at a time."
 * Aaron Glantz, "Critics Suspicious of Kurdish Representatives on US Tour," Free Speech Radio News, July 28, 2006.
 * Aaron Glantz, "Kurdish 'Thank You' a Republican Stunt?" Inter Press News Service, July 31, 2006.
 * Ellen, "Hate-Mongers Sean Hannity and Melanie Morgan Appoint Themselves Arbiters Of Anti-Semitism," News Hounds, August 8, 2006.
 * Joe Garofoli, "Fanning the Flames. Melanie Morgan's swing from liberal to right-wing radio shouter may not have happened overnight, but it's permanent -- and profitable," San Francisco Chronicle, October 8, 2006.
 * Bill Berkowitz, "The mouth that roars: Reaching for the national spotlight, conservative radio talk show host Melanie Morgan zeroes in on Cindy Sheehan", Media Transparency, October 18, 2006.
 * Jamie Glazov, "American Mourning," FrontPageMag.com, October 26, 2006.
 * "Gold Star Families Take Secret Trip to Iraq. Delegation provides SacUnion with an exclusive account of trip," The Sacramento Union, November 3, 2006 (updated November 25, 2006).
 * "CLIPS: Right-wing radio host Melanie Morgan: 'We've got a bull's-eye painted on [Pelosi's] big, wide laughing eyes'," Odeo.com (includes link to Media Matters for America), November 28, 2006.
 * "Melanie Morgan: Muslims Guilty Until Proven Innocent," News Hounds (infowars.com), December 6, 2006.
 * Pamela Troy, "The War Against Meaning," The Smirking Chimp, January 8, 2007.
 * RJB, "KSFO's Melanie Morgan Hates The Weather," Words Have Power Blogspot, January 9, 2007.
 * Mike Stark, "Game. Set. Match. Morgan caught astroturfing her own radio show," The Daily Kos, January 11, 2007.
 * Mike Stark, "Surreal KSFO 'Special Broadcast' defies description," Daily Kos, January 12, 2007.
 * David Neiwert, "Bloggers in Wonderland" and "Losing it," Orcinus Blogspot, January 12, 2007.
 * Hail Ripley, "KSFO / Melanie Morgan's Hypocrisy - (liveblogging)," Daily Kos, January 12, 2007.
 * Tad Whitaker, "Conservative firebrand: Radio talk show host sparks controversy", Marin Independent Journal, February 11, 2007.
 * Black Cell, "Jon Soltz Plays Smash Mouth Football With The Repug Melanie Morgan on PBS," AlGore.org, May 8, 2007. re VoteVets.org's Jon Soltz
 * "Morgan made up military law, calling Soltz 'a hypocrite and a liar'," Media Matters for America, August 14, 2007.
 * "Morgan named 'Worst Person' for attacks on VoteVets.org's Soltz," Media Matters for America, August 16, 2007.
 * "Attacking 'crackpot' Media Matters, Morgan now accuses 'hypocritical cockroach' Soltz of violating 'spirit' of Army rules," Media Matters for America, August 17, 2007.
 * F. Vyan Walton, "KSFO's Melanie Morgan Threatens head of VoteVets with Violence," OpEdNews, August 20, 2007.
 * Matt Corley, "Morgan Echoes Limbaugh: Soldiers Like Iraq War Vet Jon Soltz Are ‘Anti-America’ ‘Fake’ ‘Posers’," Think Progress, October 2, 2007. re Rush Limbaugh
 * Spocko, "Who is Melanie Morgan's Minder?," blog "Spocko's Brain," October 17, 2007.
 * Press release, "Gold Star Mom heads to Guantanamo Bay! Pro-Troop Group Brings Holiday Cheer to Gitmo Troops," News Blaze, December 18, 2008.
 * Judi McLeod, "Simple Justice not Social Justice: Keeping the Flame of America Burning in the Dark," CanadaFreePress.com, January 18, 2009.
 * Joan Walsh, "Searching for surprises at my local tea party," Salon.com, April 15, 2009.
 * Joe Garofoli and Carla Marinucci, "Anti-tax rallies in San Francisco, Sacramento," San Francisco Chronicle, April 16, 2009.