The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney

17 January 2008

Bob Grant Award Withdrawl Leads To Boycott, Outrage

BOIL OVER

Over Disrespect Toward Industry Legend, Hosts Hopping Mad





*** NEW: Who's Standing Up For Bob Grant? ***


For an idea of just how much outrage the undignified withdrawal of conservative talk radio legend Bob Grant's lifetime achievement award has generated, even one liberal host has now openly denounced the move.

Meanwhile, a number of major talkers have now vowed to boycott the upcoming Radio & Records Talk Radio Seminar 2008, scheduled for Washington DC in March. Mark Levin (pictured left), Neal Boortz and Lars Larson announced today that they will not attend as a result of the incident. Many more defections are expected.

But what about the rest, including CNN's Lou Dobbs, ABC's George Stephanopoulos and Bob Schieffer of CBS News? Do they support this cowardly and classless move in order to serve the interests of the politically correct?

Some are asking your Radio Equalizer whether those scheduled to appear on the panel with Al Sharpton will still be attending, including Jim Bohannon, Rusty Humphries, Jeff Katz of WBT/ Charlotte, Mancow, plus libtalkers Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz. Efforts to reach some of them have so far been unsuccessful.


Even Air America "progressive" talk Lionel (normally a frequent target of this site) finds the move outrageous and denounced it on the air:


LIONEL: Bob Grant was one of the initial conservatives [in radio] before conservatives were cool. I'm not talking about whether you agree with him, to say [that], you don't understand the business of radio if you care about whether you agree with him. Bob Grant came across as a curmudgeon, the angry white guy, the pissed- off white guy, and that was [his] schtick. When I say 'schtick,' not that it wasn't genuine, that's who he was.

[...]

I swear to you, [Grant's comment about Ron Brown] was misunderstood. He meant to say something but it came out [wrong]. Remember, [Disney was] looking for [an excuse to fire him].

[after reading R&R's announcement that it was withdrawing the award] Give me a [bleep] break, you impuissant, feckless, spineless, atesticular weasels. Because some nutcase with an e-mail account complains about [the award], you don't have the balls to say, 'We're not endorsing what [Grant] said. He's been in radio for sixty [bleep] years! That's the issue!' This, dare I say, PC hyper-faux sensitivity is getting out of control. Everybody has no guts. No matter who it is, Imus, Rush, if they say something [you don't like], fine, turn it off! Turn it off!"


He then went on to say that if this watering- down continues, talk radio will become bland and boring. Remember, folks, that was a liberal host making those remarks.


Meanwhile, there is a stunning silence on the right, where some conservatives are apparently more worried about being labeled racist by the Sharpton mob than standing up for the man who paved the way for today's biggest right- leaning hosts.

Perhaps they should take a look at what Boortz has to say about the subject:


The standard at R&R, I guess, is that no award will ever be made to anyone who has ever uttered a statement that contradicts the values of R&R. What does that mean? That means that R&R just absolutely loves and totally agrees with every statement ever made by Al Sharpton.

Why? Because R&R is loudly trumpeting an appearance by Sharpton at the R&R Talk convention in Washington in a few months. From their statement about Bob Grant we must assume that Al Sharpton has never said anything that contradicts the values of R&R and the respect R&R has for the community. Now that's amazing.


From here, it is up to the rest of talk radio to speak out against this outrage and shut down this convention right here and now.


FOR New England regional talk radio updates, see our other site.


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2 Comments:

  • Did you see on www.wabcradio.com that 77WABC will be giving Grant a lifetime achievement award at the Talkers convention in June? At least Talkers and 77WABC have a bit more integrity and respect than some other trade publications. The release is here: http://wabcradio.com/Article.asp?id=550120

    By Blogger Chuck, at 18 January, 2008 09:57  

  • Chuck, Grant WORKS for WABC!

    They have not one iota of "integrity and respect" regarding this situation.

    They are opportunists seizing a fleeting moment to capitalize on outrage and boost their flagging station's stature among their own "converted", at little cost or risk to themselves.

    Which, when you think about it, is very much what the "old" Imus would have done, if presented with a similar opportunity.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 18 January, 2008 16:33  

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