RUSH: Yesterday, remember there was the story about Dan Price, who has the credit card processing company out in Seattle. Back in April, you know the drill here, he announced that he read $70,000 is the magic salary. Everybody that makes 70 grand is pretty happy, pretty productive, and so he made a decision that everybody in his company in Seattle was gonna be paid $70,000, including him.
He was earning over a million. He cut his own salary down to 70 grand. New hires got 70 grand. The most experienced people there got 70 grand. The slackers got 70 grand. The great workers got 70 grand, everybody got 70. Now the place is falling apart. He has admitted it didn’t work. He’s now having to rent his home out he is in such bad shape. But if you live in Norfolk, Virginia, and you were watching WTKR-TV eyeball channel 3 at four yesterday afternoon, you would be convinced that all of this is my fault. (interruption) Well, because it was reported.
I mean, this is another great lesson here in how little you can believe even your local Drive-By news. The first thing they do, they claim that I called Dan Price a communist. I did not call him a communist. And even if I did, so what? But I didn’t. Meanwhile, Price is the guy who told the New York Times he’s in trouble. The New York Times admitted that me — I — and two other critics were right about this, and they did that even without any snark, and yet to your local Drive-Bys, Dan Price is the hero, and guess who the villain is? Your beloved host, El Rushbo, who had nothing to do with this, other than accurately predicting it wasn’t gonna work. The infobabe here is Barbara Ciara, and here’s the report about a reported backlash against Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price.
CIARA: Dan Price, the CEO of a credit card-processing company, proposed a plan to pay his workers a minimum of 70 grand each. He recently made the announcement to a cheering crowd of his employees! But not everyone is too happy about his ambitious idea. Two longtime workers angry that new workers would make as much as veterans, quit. Some clients have also bailed. They fear they will be charged more to compensate for all the salary bumps. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is even calling Smith (sic) a socialist and communist for making everyone’s pay the same. Meanwhile, Smith says he’s taking a personal hit, but he’s hopeful his plan will work and inspire other businesses to make the same move.
RUSH: Now, what is this infobabe missing in this story? She’s reported this as though this just happened yesterday. The story is two months… Well, April-May, May-June. It’s four months old. The guy’s been doing this for four months. She starts out saying, “[T]he CEO of a credit card-processing company, proposed a plan to pay his workers a minimum of … recently made the announcement to a cheering crowd…” Well, yeah, four months ago. But the lawsuits and the employees bailing is four months after the plan was implemented, not because the plan was proposed.
It’s because the plan didn’t work. He’s being sued and employees are bailing because it didn’t work, not because he implemented the plan. I don’t know how I end up in this story on WTKR-TV. I mean, I’m honored to be there. Don’t misunderstand, I’m honored to be in the story. But I don’t know how this is about me. What in the world do I have to do with it? All I did was accurately characterize, back in April, what this was and why it wasn’t gonna work, and I was proven to be true.
I tell you, folks. (sigh) You know what happens? They read Media Matters and they get these little tidbits and they think it’s news and they think it’s current and they run with it. So, anyway, if you live in Roanoke and you saw that report at four o’clock yesterday afternoon, I just wanted to correct the record. It’s close, but it’s not right. And me being in this obviously is to portray me as a villain. This guy is a nice guy.
This guy, he’s paying everybody the same! He’s the guy wants everybody to be equal. I am the villain to come along and rain on everybody’s parade. And even… (interruption) Well… (interruption) Is that right? Listen again. I didn’t catch that. I need to… We’re gonna listen to this again for one thing. I’m not gonna tell you what it is. Let me just see if she says that. Play this one more time.
CIARA: Dan Price, the CEO of a credit card-processing company, proposed a plan to pay his workers a minimum of 70 grand each. He recently made the announcement to a cheering crowd of his employees! But not everyone is too happy about his ambitious idea. Two longtime workers angry that new workers would make as much as veterans, quit! Some clients have also bailed. They fear they will be charged more to compensate for all the salary bumps. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is even calling Smith (sic) —
RUSH: Oh!
CIARA: — a socialist and communist for making everyone’s pay the same.
RUSH: Oh!
CIARA: Meanwhile, Smith says he’s taking a personal hit —
RUSH: Oh, yeah.
CIARA: — but he’s hopeful his plan will work and inspire other businesses to make the same move.
RUSH: Right. Right. She keeps calling him “Dan Smith.” His name is Dan Price. The last two times she mentioned his name, she calls him “Smith.” The broadcast engineer was exactly right. That’s why we had to listen to this a second time. It’s Dan Price. He gets called “Smith” the last two times he’s referenced. Anyway, that would be Barbara Ciara, who is the infobabe there at WTKR-TV News Channel Eyewitness News 3 with the latest on news from April.