the bad lieutenant, or, how I learned to love the media wars

John Carlson whined this afternoon--there's nothing unusual about that, but I'll get to back to that in a moment.

(Ever notice how conservatives, and conservative Christians never stop painting  themselves as victims? They're always picked-on by the liberal MSM; martyred by secular humanists; brutalized with the foot of the worldly on their necks. No matter that Christianity dominates the non-secular lives of Americans. No matter that Republicans dominate the conversation and the government--they still play the part of the righteous underwhelp yearning to be free.).

I've parenthetically digressed--you can tell I'm a liberal...

The bad news for the Seattle talk radio listeners is that Lt. Bryan Suits has returned from the trenches. For those of you not in the know, he's a conservative talk jock who'd only worked the m-f, 6-9 pm shift at KVI a short while when his reserve unit was called up and he was sucked into the vortex of the Iraqi War.

Many of us local TR junkies had been praying for just such a sucking vortex.

Suits, who talked for years at giant KIRO before stepping down to the runt KVI, is the kind of talker who puts up a impenetrable wall of words.  And while he, himself seemed mesmerized, the rest of us were comatose. What's more, as is typical of such talkers, his lecture topics inevitably circled back to himself.

It's not that Suits is a bad lieutenant, it's that he's a boring lieutenant. And I, for one, am not anxious to hear him in his patriotically correct new role as war hero with new monologues and a soporific new vocabulary of Army acronyms.

Suits' likes firearms, war stories, hunting, and himself; so his broadcast soliloquies are thick with military jargon, ordinance obscurata, self-quotations and politically incorrect shock-value sagas about critters he's shot. He's clever verbally, but he's as tedious as he is masculine, and draws callers with the same world view.

Now he's back from Iraq, and one of these weeks we can expect him back on the air, though Fisher Broadcasting hasn't announced just when. He'll probably go back to his old spot from 6-9p, replacing the timid liberal, Alan Colmes who was just a proverbial turd in the KVI punch bowl anyhoo.
 
So what was Carlson complaining about?

It seems that when Suits' plane from Iraq landed Tues. at Ft. Lewis, KOMO TV (also owned by Fisher Broadcasting) had Suits' bride Rachel wired for audio to catch the passionate newlyweds' reunion close-in for the 5 o'clock news. Although that seems a little risky for the family hour, it's definitely a made-for-TV heart-warmer and you'd think Dan and Kathy would make a big deal of one of their own stepping off the plane from the war and into the arms of his wife and loyal listeners. And it sounds like Fisher was geared to do just that--except when cameras came in close to the smooching Suitses, they were never even identified in the script.

The King County Journal, on the other hand, shot a pic of the couple and ID-ed Suits as a KVI talk host.

So what happened?

Its seems there is--if not bad blood--at least strained relations between the KOMO TV newsroom and their conservative little brother. Insiders tell me that the straight-laced KVI is the butt of the jokes for the cynical newsies and because KVI is located on a floor far below, the TV talent has never developed the kind of collegial relationship with KVI colleagues as they have with the KOMO am radio staffers located on their floor.

What's more, when Gov. Gregoire obliquely suggested that heated TR rhetoric might have added to the atmospherics that produced the death threat she received last month, Carlson and conservative talk jocks took great umbrage. They hated it so much they beat the topic like a bongo for days and days hinting broadly to audiences that Gregoire hated and feared them and would censor talk radio if she could.

When KOMO TV asked for an interview with Carlson on the story, he wouldn't cooperate. So they ran file footage of him and said he refused comment. Carlson was indignant, saying on air that it made him sound guilty of inspiring the threats against Gregoire's life.

Carlson is a capable communicator--he could have given the interview, of course, and made his case. But he chose conservative martyrdom instead; riding it like they rode Hillary's remark about the "vast right-wing conspiracy."

It's rare to see smelly internecine media laundry get aired like this, especially on the airwaves. It's fun for observers like me, but it points out the cultural conundrum of running a flaming red radio station in a deep blue city.

Comments

[pops]

Out of fairness I should point out that John Carlson does us all a favor each day by keeping all the cranky ass lil' ol' folks inside for a few hours. That way the rest of us can take the trash or mow the lawn without having to have that "Oh hi Henry, really? Somebody was on your lawn again? And you think it was some kids? Huh, well I'll be darned!" conversation for the 100th time with old fart next door.

Thus it is possible to derive a benefit from Mr. Carlson's program without buying into his politics or even turning the radio on.

However a round of hearty boo's should be aimed at the The Big Blue 4 for even bothering to take the elevator one floor down. The second they spoke to Carlson they put hi m in the driver's seat. He can say no and then go on the air and tell everybody how he stared down the dirty yellow dogs of the MSM. He gains by doing nothing and the journos at KOMO should know that by now - assuming they just look like temps and they aren't really temps.

Where us libs need to get smart is to suggest to the MSM that when this comes up they need to go find the right winger bloggers and ambush them. By the time it's all over they'll only have their ilk to complain to.

Why?

Carlson has a bully pulpit and most people, even the ones with Internet connections, think 'blog' is just a silly made up word. Thus they get a couple of minutes of dame and a whole lot of shame.

Think about it and get back to me.

BTW - congrats on the write up in Bill Virgin's column.