It looks like Scott Voorhees wanted some attention for his mid-morning talk show on Omaha's KFAB radio.
Well, he's going to get it.
Why? Because Scott Voorhees is the kind of radio talk host (right wing, naturally) who will go on the air some 36 hours after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died of brain cancer and say this:
Well, he's going to get it.
Why? Because Scott Voorhees is the kind of radio talk host (right wing, naturally) who will go on the air some 36 hours after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died of brain cancer and say this:
"Had John and Bobby not come along, we don't hear from Ted Kennedy.
"If John and Bobby do not come along, Ted Kennedy is nothing more than a blotchy-face, alcoholic murderer who spends life in prison like anyone else would have had he not had that last name and those familial associations."
OF COURSE, Voorhees was referring Thursday morning to Chappaquiddick and the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969. And what Voorhees takes to the airwaves to state with certainty happens to be something no court ever determined and no prosecutor ever alleged.
In this country, there is a high bar for libel of a public figure. That standard -- "reckless disregard of the truth" -- also happens to describe Voorhees' on-air pronouncements. If Kennedy were not dead, the radio host would be in deep doo.
Have I mentioned the senator was less than two days deceased?
To wit, there are some things, things about basic human decency, that your parents usually impart by the time you're old enough to get in front of the microphone at a 50,000-watt radio station. Apparently, Voorhees missed "human being school" the day Mom and Dad lectured on "How Not to Be a Boorish, Mean-Spirited A-Hole."
Unbelievable. Yet somehow typical of the depths to which radio -- especially talk radio -- has sunk.
I'VE BEEN IN OMAHA for a while now. I'm well aware of the legacy of KFAB, and of the local legends who once took to the airwaves via "The News Beacon for the Great Midwest" -- names like Walt Kavanagh and Lyell Bremser.
And I think I can say one thing with the same certainty -- and with a certainty that's better placed -- that Voorhees called Teddy Kennedy "a blotchy-face, alcoholic murderer." It's this: If Kavanagh (who ran the news department at KFAB) and Bremser (who ran KFAB itself) had been alive to hear Thursday's shameful misuse of the public airwaves, it likely would have killed them.
It simply would have been inconceivable to giants who built a legendary station over their long careers that someone could go on their airwaves -- the public's airwaves -- and engage in such casual cruelty and verbal bomb-throwing.
And you have to think that, somewhere deep in his subconscious, Voorhees knew what violence he was doing to the legacy of 1110 on Omaha's AM dial . . . and to civilized public discourse.
"I take no pride in making these comments after Sen. Kennedy has passed away," he said toward the end of the program. And a bit later, this:
In this country, there is a high bar for libel of a public figure. That standard -- "reckless disregard of the truth" -- also happens to describe Voorhees' on-air pronouncements. If Kennedy were not dead, the radio host would be in deep doo.
Have I mentioned the senator was less than two days deceased?
To wit, there are some things, things about basic human decency, that your parents usually impart by the time you're old enough to get in front of the microphone at a 50,000-watt radio station. Apparently, Voorhees missed "human being school" the day Mom and Dad lectured on "How Not to Be a Boorish, Mean-Spirited A-Hole."
Unbelievable. Yet somehow typical of the depths to which radio -- especially talk radio -- has sunk.
I'VE BEEN IN OMAHA for a while now. I'm well aware of the legacy of KFAB, and of the local legends who once took to the airwaves via "The News Beacon for the Great Midwest" -- names like Walt Kavanagh and Lyell Bremser.
And I think I can say one thing with the same certainty -- and with a certainty that's better placed -- that Voorhees called Teddy Kennedy "a blotchy-face, alcoholic murderer." It's this: If Kavanagh (who ran the news department at KFAB) and Bremser (who ran KFAB itself) had been alive to hear Thursday's shameful misuse of the public airwaves, it likely would have killed them.
It simply would have been inconceivable to giants who built a legendary station over their long careers that someone could go on their airwaves -- the public's airwaves -- and engage in such casual cruelty and verbal bomb-throwing.
And you have to think that, somewhere deep in his subconscious, Voorhees knew what violence he was doing to the legacy of 1110 on Omaha's AM dial . . . and to civilized public discourse.
"I take no pride in making these comments after Sen. Kennedy has passed away," he said toward the end of the program. And a bit later, this:
"Again, I don't feel real good about some of the comments I've personally made this past hour, but for those of you who've E-mailed and said, 'Scott, I'm glad you said 'em,' thank you very much for your listenership and your E-mails."
YEAH, WHAT'S THE USE of behaving really badly atop a really bully pulpit if you can't incite many others to unshackle their Id as well. If I were a postmodern talk-show host, I'd call someone guilty of that a cynical, exhibitionist soul murderer.
Or perhaps an addle-minded, power-drunk mind murderer.
Whatever. The final verdict in "The People v. Voorhees" will belong to history, and I fear its final pronouncement will be as straightforward as it is devastating.
Guilty of murder in the first degree.
And the victim?
Oh, I don't know. Civility . . . society . . . the intellect . . . radio . . . take your pick.
5 comments:
Problem is Voohees is right and everyone knows it in this case.
Ah, the logic of the lynch mob. No arguing with what "everyone knows."
Because if you do, "everybody" will just hang your commie ass, right pally?
Dear Anonymous,
Like your boy Voorhees does with callers who disagree with him, I cut you off.
Here's the difference: Thursday, he was cutting people off for starting to make too much sense. Today, I cut you off because you make no sense whatsoever.
If you don't want to get gonged, you need to raise your game above taunts of "you're just jealous" and "you're a nobody." If being "somebody" on the radio means, nowadays, selling your soul, I guess anonymity can be a good thing.
But the bottom line is that this ain't talk radio, and your s*** don't fly here. Raise your level of discourse. Make sense. Devise a rational argument for going on the air to make libelous accusations against just-dead people -- statements that would have been actionable a mere 36 hours earlier.
Really, you're like a comedian who isn't funny, so he starts saying "motherf*****" every other word, because drunks will ALWAYS laugh at "motherf*****."
"In this country, there is a high bar for libel of a public figure. That standard -- 'reckless disregard of the truth -- also happens to describe Voorhees' on-air pronouncements. If Kennedy were not dead, the radio host would be in deep doo." -- I don't believe that the death of a public figure necessarily stops liable actions coming forth. Why is that not happening in the case? Perhaps there was truth to the statement...
"And I think I can say one thing with the same certainty -- and with a certainty that's better placed -- that Voorhees called Teddy Kennedy 'a blotchy-face, alcoholic murderer.' It's this: If Kavanagh (who ran the news department at KFAB) and Bremser (who ran KFAB itself) had been alive to hear Thursday's shameful misuse of the public airwaves, it likely would have killed them." -- You infer that the current radio station owners and/or the news director are pathetic examples of management compared to the 'old days' for not doing anything to Voorhis. Maybe they are not because there was nothing done here that can be proven as liable or that it wasn't anything more than an expression of opinion.
Anonymous,
Then again, why should we take the word of someone who doesn't know the difference between "libel" and "liable"?
I think that's a reasonable question.
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