Talk Radio, Former KIRO Host Mike Webb Missing, Body Found

DO BLOGS KILL?

After Body Found In Seattle Home, Insane Accusations Fly






*** UPDATE: Remains Identified As Webb's, Death Ruled A Homicide, Many More Updates At Orbusmax, See Special Note Below ***

Do blogs kill?

That's the ridiculous question being asked by a number of hotheaded comment posters after a body was discovered at the Seattle home of missing former KIRO libtalker Mike Webb.

Rather than wait for the examiner's report (due later today and based on a DNA comparison), it's apparently easier for the perpetually- unhinged "progressive" set to play Blame The Blogger, suggesting Blatherwatch's Michael Hood is partly responsible:

(Seattle P-I Forum) Posted by AlbertCamus at 6/29/07 8:11 a.m.

Oh this is so sad. He was an abrasive personality on air but he also brought a lot of passion. He encouraged young people to participate in politics. Very few adults deign to talk to young people, afraid of the culture gap.

Don't know what happened to him to cause this crash & burn. There's a whole website out there dedicated to covering seattle radio talk show scene and taking particular pleasure in Mike Webb's hardship. There's also a few idiots here relishing the death of another human being.

From Blatherwatch's comments section:

Shame on KIRO for deliberately not talking about this subject.

This is a classic example of a corporation that doesn't give a rat's ass about the contributions (blood sweat and tears) of employees.

This blog is very much responsible for Mike's death.

I consider this blog the equivalent of passerby's on the Aurora bridge shouting "Jump...Jump...Jump" to a desperate sould ready to commit suicide.

Shame on all of you!

Posted by: Anti Kiro | June 29, 2007 at 11:37 AM


Yes, it made me kind of sick to see someone with the title of Blatherwatch standing outside of Mike Webb's house and being interviewed on TV all so concerned. My gawd how they have hounded him - what hypocricy! It was almost like an arsonist watching a burning fire that he lit and enjoying it!

Posted by: Mactwinny | June 29, 2007 at 01:21 AM


"Hood, this site and the hecklers who reside within were surely factors in whatever fate has befallen him."

Ok, so if he was murdered (which is unknown at this point) this blog had something to do with it?

Man, I wish I had started posting here earlier, if this place has such POWER!

Posted by: 8ball | June 29, 2007 at 01:41 AM


First off: Tonight, Hood showed just how sleazy and tacky an individual he really is. Of all the people who should have been on the evening news tonight, he should have been below the bottom of the list. He has a "bad feeling"? Good. He probably had as much to do with it as everything that Mike Webb legitimately brought upon himself.

Yes, Mike Webb had issues, of which we can only guess. His later shows were becoming more and more irrational. You couldn't talk to him unless you agreed with everything he said. He was as obsessed with President Bush as this web site is about KIRO. If he hadn't made a habit of heading out to the quickie-mart in the middle of his show, who knows? He might still be on the air over there.

Yes, Mike Webb is surely responsible for the situation he created. However, Hood, this site and the hecklers who reside within were surely factors in whatever fate has befallen him. Knowing Webb's obsession about being photographed, Hood nonetheless went out of his way to get, and publish as close to being first as possible, a picture of Webb in the courtroom. Webb's reaction to seeing Hood was predictable, and Hood gleefully reported on every moment of Webb's discomfort.

Were it not for Bla'M, would Mike Webb still be here? Who knows? I'm convinced it didn't help any though, and that's a sad commentary on this web site. It seems clear that the bulk of the content here is posted at the expense of others, and done so in the name of journalistic freedom.

Attaching political alignment to this site's contents isn't the point, though I'm sure there are those who have pretty strong opinions there. The fact that Hood had the nerve to show up on TV, acting the concerned citizen over anything having to do with Mike Webb shows what a totally worthless s**thead he is.

Posted by: rhumbaseat | June 28, 2007 at 11:52 PM

Somehow, if Blatherwatch's Hood hadn't so thoroughly covered Webb's past antics, which included a fraud conviction and his more recent disappearance, he would still be here today.

Does that make sense? Of course not. So what has possessed so many people to make this point, particularly with the evidence pointing to murder? Does Blatherwatch employ its own hit squad?


However this kill- the- messenger crowd might like to lay the blame, there's no sugar- coating Webb's past: a nightmare at work and reckless in his personal life with a clear self- destructive bent.

That said, nobody wanted this to happen to Webb, or anyone else. Thorough investigative reporting isn't a crime, but knee- jerk accusations not supported by fact sure are sleazy.


SPECIAL NOTE: both within media circles and in the community, the finger- pointing going on in Seattle today is sickening. Just about everyone needs to take a deep breath, relax and let the Seattle PD do their investigation.

Mike's "friends", some of whom were classic enablers of his outlandish behavior, are out of control and are doing everyone a disservice today. And some of his media enemies (he had many) have been on the air trying to rewrite history about their own supposedly terrific working relationships with him. That's just plain dishonest.

Here's a reality check:


-- Mike chose to live a risky, self- destructive lifestyle. There's just no way to dispute that. He got into scuffles with police, made enemies around town and carried a loaded gun. He often didn't pay his bills, including union dues, even when employed full- time and making a fairly substantial salary at KIRO.


-- In his professional life, Mike spent far more time undermining and sabotaging managers and co- workers than promoting his own career or even prepping for his show. Targeting certain employees, he impersonated his boss through phony instant messages to staffers, antagonized other hosts and drove AFTRA crazy, all while touting his supposedly superior "progressive" values. Webb also asserted on- air that President Bush should be "executed".

What happened to Mike was terrible, we all hoped he would get the help that he needed, but somehow that didn't happen. In the meantime, it is crazy to accuse people of murder, just as it is downright dishonest to declare him a saint over the airwaves today.

Webb house / police: KOMO

UPDATE: first "right- wing conspiracy" comments begin to be posted:

I'd bet almost anything whoever did this was a conservative extremist who couldn't take anymore. If that was the case, this only goes to prove some of Mike's points. Some people simply cannot handle the truth. There were people that threatened his life on air - proof positive that some of those who claimed those views Mike professed against also had character issues as well, and the two all too often seem to go hand in hand.

In particular, though, Mike being anti-war and anti-violence only to be killed by violence further proves his message.

Posted by: Mark L. | June 29, 2007 at 08:37 PM

UPDATE: even the mainstream media (MSM) has been swept into the nuttiness. Hood has emailed your Radio Equalizer regarding a Seattle Times interview: "Times reporter Jonathan Martin said, 'you know I have to ask you, this- but did you have anything to do with this?'"


FOR Boston- area talk radio updates, see our other site.

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