Bartholomew's Notes

David Corn has some fun with conspiracy theorist Avi Lipkin:

…here’s the mother of all right-wing conspiracy theories: Obama is scheming to bring tens of millions of Muslims—perhaps up to 100 million—from the Middle East into the United States in order to turn this country into an Islamic nation by the end of his second term.

Fortunately, this diabolical plan has been exposed by an American-born Israeli named Avi Lipkin, who says he once was a translator for the Israeli government, and an outfit called Special Guests, which books conservative commentators and advocates on popular television and radio talk shows. Lipkin’s website claims that since 1990 he has lectured on various topics—including the threat of Islam and Israel—in over 1000 churches and synagogues in the United Sates, Canada, England, Greece, Israel, and other countries. His bio notes that he heads the Judeo-Christian Bible Bloc party in Israel.

I blogged on Lipkin and his “Judeo-Christian Bible Bloc” in 2006. Lipkin can be hired alone or as part of a double act with none other than Walid Shoebat; according to the Special Guests website:

This is an interview opportunity you do not want your audience to miss. Call Special Guests today. Walid Shoebat and Avi Lipkin are available as guests individually or together as a panel.

Shoebat and Lipkin were also co-promoted by Special Guests last month, alongside the former mayor of Shiloh in Israel, as pundits on Egypt:

CONTACT: Amy Reis or Lynne Campbell of Special Guests at: 630-848-0750. Avi is available by phone for radio or via satellite from Jerusalem for television.

…Conducting Talk Show interviews on this topic are a panel of guests (pick one, some, all or none) including Middle East policy analyst, Avi Lipkin, an Israeli citizen, former member of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and a former translator inside the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.

…Regarding the recent so-called ‘leaderless’ protest in Egypt, Avi Lipkin stated, “There is no doubt that if the Mubarek regime falls, the only group powerful enough and cohesive enough to rule Egypt will be The Muslim Brotherhood.

This would be a repeat of Jimmy Carter’s toppling of the Shaw [sic] of Iran and the ushering in of a fanatic government with The Muslim Brotherhood who has promised a war with Israel.”

…And former terrorist Walid Shoebat, who discusses street protest through the eyes of a terrorist. He knows up front and personally just what the behind-the-scenes leaders are doing to fan the flames of the so-called leaderless protest.

Lipkin and Shoebat have appeared together before: in 2007 they were part of a “prophecy conference” alongside Jack Hibbs, John Higgins, David Hocking, and Jacob Prasch. As I’ve blogged previously, Shoebat, like Lipkin, claims that Obama is a Muslim: this is why Obama supports access to abortion, as part of a plot to weaken the USA. Shoebat has also worked with Glenn Beck’s “end times prophet” Joel Richardson to spread the idea that the Bible predicts the coming of a Muslim anti-Christ.

Corn also gives some background to the Special Guests PR outfit:

According to its website, the organization has collaborated with the National Right To Life Committee, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the Second Amendment Foundation, and other conservative groups. The site boasts, “We regularly place guests on radio shows including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity Radio, [and] Michael Savage.” The group says it only promotes causes that “are pleasing to The Maker, our Creator.” It asks potential clients, “What is your special message? Is it helpful to humanity? Is it God-honoring?” Apparently, it pleases God to accuse the president of covertly plotting—and implementing!—a Muslim takeover of the United States.

The organisation was also discussed by Karl Grossman of FAIR in 2006:

Speaking of the politics of media, it’s a clear and daily demonstration to me of how the right, far more than the left, realizes the importance of communication… The most active PR operation that pitches us is Special Guests.

…The president of Special Guests is Jerry McGlothlin who, he explained, at 22 got into “the art business printing lithographs of starving artists” and became a millionaire. After he utilized his intense energy to sell a lithograph to Thomas Madden, a former vice president of NBC who went into PR, “Tom told me, ‘You’re a natural for PR.'”

For a time he was partners with Madden, one-time PR director for ABC and author of the memoir Spin Man.

A key event for Special Guests occurred in 1988, two years after its founding, when McGlothlin was able to get Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry booked on the Oprah Winfrey Show. That national television exposure “launched” Terry and his anti-abortion drive as “a national movement,” said McGlothlin. This convinced him that he could not only “make money” through PR, but “you can move social causes! You can change the world!”

Since that TV appearance, he proudly noted, 80,000 people have been arrested in protests against abortion, twice the number, he said, arrested during the civil rights movement. One of those arrested was McGlothlin. He is not only a PR man but someone who believes in the causes and people he promotes.

He finds getting access to media “easy as pie for me now. I know the people; I know the producers.” He rattled off names of producers at the most popular TV and radio programs in the United States, and told of his clients in recent weeks getting on NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS’s Morning Show…

In July 2010, Joe Ciarallo of PRNewsner noted a “pay-per-placement” ad in a trade publication:

We’ve heard of “pay-per-placement” PR agencies before… Nothing new there.

However, we can’t recall seeing an advertisement that implies in such a direct manner that one can pay to get on big name TV and radio shows such as those hosted by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, as well as conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

…When asked if he needed permission to use the media personality’s pictures in his advertisement, which basically implies that you can pay to be on their shows, McGlothlin responded, “I really don’t know.”

McGlothlin did say his company has booked a couple hundred thousand placements per year, including affiliates. “We book very frequently on ‘Fox and Friends’ and other programs on Fox News,” he said.

“We book time to time on CNN and MSNBC, although most of our guests run right of center so it’s easier for us to place them on Fox News,” he continued.

McGlothlin clarified further in the comments under the post:

At Special Guests we do not guarantee any particular show on any particular day, but if we don’t book it, the client doesn’t pay a cent.

…Major book publishers outsource publicity work to us since they know they have a fixed flat rate for the work we do, either on a ‘per interview’ basis or on a flat weekly or monthly basis. No expenses, no hidden fees, no bad surprises and no long term commitment. Satisfaction 100% guaranteed or give a 7-day notice to quit. But with clients who have been with us longer than 15 years, it shows that sometimes the best binding long term agreement is no long term agreement at all!

Pay for play PR? Think of it like this: People scoffed at ‘penny ante; keyword search marketing in its infancy but Google and Yahoo are now mainstream (our ‘keywords’ are: politics, breaking news, Obama and religion!) players in the advertising industry.

Perhaps the future of PR is what Special Guests has been doing for the past 22 years: Charging a fair price per interview and NOT CHARGING A DIME unless we deliver.

A December 2010 press release announced that

Jerry McGlothlin president of Special Guests Inc… announced the release of a new public relations guide entitled: How to Become a ‘Special Guest’on Television & Radio Talk Shows and Turn it into A Personal Gold Mine.

…Since his public relations firm Special Guests, which specializes in placing clients as guests on popular radio and television talk shows began in 1984, McGlothlin has represented and booked a virtual who’s who of well known newsmakers, politicians and celebrities.

Everyone from George Foreman, Deborah Norville, The Duchess of York – Sarah Ferguson, Johnny Carson side kick the late Ed McMahon, as well as former president George W. Bush. CEO’s from fortune 500 corporations have also made splashes on network shows like Oprah, The Today Show, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Rush Limbaugh among others, thanks to McGlothlin.

…Special Guests is considered by industry insiders as the top Talk Show PR firm in the United States.

Special Guests also has a  “television division” called CleanTV, where McGlothlin presents news items such as “John McTernan documents how disasters of biblical proportions happen in the United States each time our nation’s leadership pressures Israel to give up their God-given Promised Land”. As Gerald B McGlothlin, he is the registered owner of 888WebToday, which describes itself as “Your Daily Conservative and Christian Online Daily News Resource”, and of Faith Issues. Both sites offer boilerplate populist-conservative religious and general commentary, with 888WebToday also publishing various press releases.

Back in 2004, another person named Jerry McGlothlin found fame as the “Napkin Man” after attempting to sell a napkin made moist from Alan Keyes’ sweat. However, this Special Guests page shows that the PR-man McGlothlin curiously became his namesake’s promoter.

Name variation: Gerald McGlothlin

(H/T Ed Brayton)

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