Jim Gifford

Jim Gifford
6 AM - 9 AM

Send Jim Email

Jim Gifford is the Operations Director of the Midwest Family Radio Stations in St. Joe and Benton Harbor. He also serves as Program Director for WSJM AM/FM and anchors the morning news with Moody in the Morning. Jim’s a Buckeye by birth and education - but has happily called Southwest Michigan home for over 15 years. Married for 30 years to a wonderful lady with 2 grown kids and a cat. Real life includes sailing, kayaking, biking, golf and reading. And way too much TV. Especially during the football season. And basketball playoffs. And sweeps months.

Jim's Blog

The Fun Continues.....
I heaped praise on John Stewart and the Daily Show in my last blog for taking CNBC to task on how they covered the lead up to our financal mess.

Here's another take on the whole thing. From Joe Scarborough. Who is not a Stewart fan. Probably because Stewart digs up junk on Scarborough pretty regularly when he is turd farming.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-18/how-jon-stewart-went-bad/

The comments that follow are pretty entertaining too!! 03/19/2009 11:17:00am

> more

Cramer vs. Stewart
I don't know if you had a chance to catch any of the Comedy Central Smack-down of CNBC over the last 2 weeks.....but if you haven't, you should. Comedy Central http://www.thedailyshow.com/ has the whole series and there are tons of excerpts and postings on You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=john+stewart&aq=f too.

This was John Stewart's finest hour. finally giving some national exposure to the joke that our financial investment system has become. His assertion that there are 2 Wall Streets.....the one we all have our 401K monies invested in....and the other, behind the scenes - hedge fund and derivatives - Wall Street that was using all of our money to fund their 'games' was spot on.

I've brayed at Moody repeatedly over the years that Jim Cramer and CNBC's circus like approach to investing couldn't possibly be good for investors or the nation as a whole. To quote Stewart...."it's not a f*&%ing game". Unfortunately, too many people in powerful and influential positions thought it was.

I only hope that this helps the current administration restore proper regulations and integrity to the institutions of investment and finance.
And aren't we all breathing at least a little bit easier knowing that there won't be any talk of 'privatizing' Social Security any time soon? Could you imagine what a disaster THAT would have been? 03/16/2009 10:51:00am

> more

More Calm Post - A Site for Skeptic's Eyes
Are you a skeptic? Not a conspiracy theorist (a group of people who are at best singularly informed and at worst, nuts) - but a skeptic.

Me too. A sometime cynic, but most often skeptic. I mean, really, could YOU send your gold jewelry off to somebody you saw on TV and really expect to get back what you deserve? Well, maybe in a sense you would...but anyway....

Lots of people are media skeptics - and with good reason. Especially in this day and age where even the major news organizations are relying on people's cell phone videos and twitter posts to bring you the news. Hell, I'm a media skeptic and I'm IN it!

Check out http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/ . Seems at first blush to be pretty fairminded in it's examination of media shenanigans and inadequacies.

In fairness to the current state of journalism, however, this is what you're going to get when the profit is more important than the product. Ratings, web visits, and circulation rule. So you're either doing stories the masses will watch (lowest common denominator stuff), or you're doing whatever you can (what's convenient) because of a lack of staffing.

And the band played on...... 02/24/2009 09:25:00am

> more

Time Marches On
Was back home (Ohio) last week to see my Dad. 88 and recovering from major surgery to deal with some circulatory issues.
It's very difficult to watch somebody who has been the person you've looked up to and the anchor of the family all these years struggling and in so much pain.
Certainly not an uncommon situation for us middle baby boomers, though.
The 5 of us have been able to keep it pretty lighthearted, and I think he appreciates that. But not as much as a good homecooked meal - after 50 days in the hospital!!
Most distressing part of the visit? Five middle aged siblings and spouses sitting around talking about our freakin' ailments, medications and benefits - or lack thereof!! Now THAT was distressing! 02/23/2009 02:01:00pm

> more

Women Drivers
The parking lot sequence in this thing is hilarious. It's actually funnier if you turn off the god-awful, annoying music. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygtBxhFc24A 02/17/2009 09:01:00am

> more