Most Talk Hosts Tread Carefully Around Ted Kennedy Illness

TED DREAD

For Talk Radio, Kennedy Illness Presents Potential Minefield







Are some topics just too risky to mention in today's "gotcha" media environment?

Even typically fearless talk show hosts have been treading carefully around news of Ted Kennedy's cancer diagnosis, with some avoiding the issue entirely. Could one wrong move ruin one's career?


Above image: beyond talk radio, some viewers are wondering why MSNBC appears to be stalking the Kennedy family in Hyannisport.


While it might be easy to bypass the topic in other parts of the country, in New England, it's a different story altogether. Given the family's history in the region and continuing influence, how can it be ignored?

At our other site, which focuses on New England talk radio and media issues, readers have been debating whether regionally- syndicated Boston mainstay Howie Carr has suddenly gone soft.

After years of pounding Ted K, including creating a website called Fatboy.cc to aid in this effort, Carr has abruptly discontinued criticism of Kennedy and is considering taking down the site. He's asking readers for their opinions.

What has particularly irked some listeners is how Carr has been quick to censor callers who fail to abide by his new rules. Others, however, have praised the notorious bomb- thrower for his restraint.

Answering some of his critics, Carr told the audience on Tuesday that station management had not issued an edict regarding Kennedy discussions.


Beyond New England, Rush Limbaugh allowed a caller to bring up the subject on Wednesday's show, with these results:

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I'm really glad I had the chance to talk to you. I wanted to talk about Senator Kennedy for a minute. I know he had some bad news this weekend, and I would ask people to pray for him, but I hope that Barack Obama doesn't see this as a kind of political opportunity or some kind of sympathy vote. I think that would be wrong.

RUSH: What do you mean?

CALLER: Well, I think about eight years ago -- you'll have to refresh my memory -- I believe there was some kind of tragic incident with the Minnesota --

RUSH: Oh, yes, Paul Wellstone.

CALLER: Yeah. And I wouldn't like to see something like that, you know, happen again.

RUSH: You wouldn't?

CALLER: Well, I think that would be wrong, basically.

RUSH: Yeah, you're right, it was 2002. It was right before the midterm elections in 2002, Paul Wellstone was unfortunately killed in a plane crash, I think on a campaign stop, campaign trip. The Democrats held a memorial for him after the funeral in Minneapolis, and a bunch of Republicans from the Senate, his colleagues went, and they were booed out of the place. And then Tom Harkin got up there, and it ended up being a campaign rally to elect Democrats because that's what Paul would have wanted.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: And to enact this legislation because that's what Paul would have wanted, do it for Paul, do it for Paul. Look, the Democrat Party, they're funeral crashers. We've done our share of parodies on this. But who else, the Clintons went down and crashed somebody's funeral. Coretta Scott King, the Clintons went down there and they crashed her funeral. They turned that into a political event.

So far, however, most of the criticism has been reserved for syndicated talker Michael Savage, who has the left in a tizzy after playing "California Über Alles" by the Dead Kennedys during his show.

It was followed by a long rant that actually had little to say about Kennedy himself, but did mock Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) over his tears for Teddy on the Senate floor.

Whether Savage stepped over the line is open to one's own interpretation, but it's hard to side with the left, when they openly celebrated the death of Ronald Reagan just a few years ago.

Unlike Kennedy, who killed a young woman in his car and Byrd, who joined the KKK, Reagan had nothing in his personal background that could account for their unending vitriol.

And it's rather obvious Savage intentionally pulled this stunt to infuriate the Soros- backed Media Matters crowd, which happily took his bait.

Sure enough, the OUTRAGE (!!!) machine is cranked up to "11" once again as various left- wing sites demand to know how it could possibly be okay to criticize a liberal saint without being removed from the airwaves.

Meanwhile, Savage is laughing all the way to another ratings victory. How could our lefty friends be dumb enough to fall into his obvious trap?

UPDATE: Front Page has a recap of the left's greatest hits upon hearing of conservative deaths.


And on a side note, those lyrics were stunningly prescient, as Savage himself pointed out:

California Über Alles Über Alles California

Zen fascists will control you/
100% natural/
You will jog for the master race/
And always wear the happy face/
Close your eyes, can't happen here/
Big Bro' on white horse is near/
The hippies won't come back you say/
Mellow out or you will pay/

California Über Alles/
Über Alles California/

Now it is 1984/
Knock knock at your front door/
It's the suede/denim secret police/
They have come for your uncool neice/
Come quietly to the camp/
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp/
Don't you worry, it's only a shower/
For your clothes here's a pretty flower.../
DIE on organic poison gas/
Serpent's egg's already hatched/
You will creak, you little clown/
When you mess with President Brown

How did they so thoroughly peg California's freedom- hating, bureaucracy- loving future? Or recognize that yesterday's hippies would become tomorrow's oppressors? They were decades ahead of their time.


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


Your Honor System contributions keep this site humming along. Thanks again!


Technorati tags: ted kennedy cancer talk radio rush limbaugh michael savage howie carr boston new england talk radio savewrko.com fatboy.cc