Time to Kick the Talk Show Hosts and Pundits to the Curb

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

I must apologize to Susan Monday in advance.  It is her show on WDEL 105.9 Talk Radio this morning (12 DEC 18) that inspired what you are about to read.  Despite this article's blanket statement to kick talk show hosts and pundits to the curb, SuMo, as her fans affectionately refer to her, is an exception in the otherwise bland and bigoted landscape of talk entertainment.  There should be more of her and less of almost everyone else.

Did I say bigoted landscape?

Yes, I did.  Let's start at the beginning.

SuMo did a segment on our so-called president's reality show performance yesterday where he threatened a government shut down if he didn't get his way on the border wall.  The calls poured in well past the segment's allotted time.  Listeners were fired up.

Before continuing, let's fill in some facts and historical background.

• Trump's claim that ten terrorist suspects were apprehended at the Mexican border is fiction created out of convoluted facts.  In a nutshell, a report on 2017 terrorist or possible terrorist encounters worldwide stated about seven people on the terrorist watch list per day were caught trying to enter the country.  Most planned to fly in.  None planned to walk across our southern border.  Through various administration officials' misrepresentation, including through Pence's office, that figure was twisted over a course of the year to ten individuals stopped at the Mexican border.  The North Platte Telegraph breaks the creation of a lie down in detail. 
• A 2017 State Department report showed no credible threat from the Mexican border nor a credible threat that Mexican drug cartels have been infiltrated by known terrorist groups.  In fact, the report suggested we should be more concerned with threats coming across our northern border.
• No proof nor statistics were offered on Trump's claim that immigrants from Mexico bring disease to this country.  In fact, our own government through the National Institute of Health acknowledges Mexico's excellent vaccination program as having achieved a 94% vaccination rate.  The Houston Chronicle reports Mexico's vaccination program beats the US program.  Mexico boasts a 96% fully vaccinated rate for ages 1-4 whereas US children run a vaccination rate of about 71%.  
• The current crisis in Latin America, primarily the countries of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, is largely a result of our making.  Since the days of Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick diplomacy style and our support of unsavory dictators, we helped the Latin America countries (particularly Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala) build corrupt governments that keep the populace in poverty through terror and violence.  The question should be what and to what extent, if any, should we bear responsibility to the people of Latin America for our past mistakes and bad policies.
• The current influx of "immigrants" from Latin America is not immigration.  They are asylum seekers wanting refuge from the poverty stricken and violent environment in their countries, an environment we were instrumental in building over the last hundred or more years.  There is a very important legal distinction between "immigrant" and "asylum seeker."  One simply wants to come here for a better life.  The other is fleeing danger.  Being returned to their country could mean imprisonment or a death sentence.

When SuMo gave the background of Trump's reality show starring him and his sidekicks, Pelosi and Schumer, she asked her listeners what they thought.  The calls flowed in with no unexpected surprises.  Initially, Trump supporters dominated the line cheering his ploy at transparency.  The Democrats have to be exposed for the open border advocates they are.  Those are disease ridden criminals, rapists, and terrorists trying to enter this country illegally and need to be stopped - not welcomed with open liberal arms.

Get the picture of bigotry rearing its ugly head?

The very human trait of labeling boxes, stuffing everything and everybody who fits the label into the box, and making generalizations of what one would expect to find in the box is hard wired in all of us.  Prejudicial thinking is what helped early man make sense of the world and avoid danger...and, more importantly, death.

"Oh, good Lord," some of you are thinking.  "The drunk redneck is justifying prejudicial thinking."

Think about it.  Most people are instinctively fearful of snakes.  Even those of us who know that garter snake in our garden is completely harmless will still get jumpy around it.  Heck, a puppy that has never seen a snake before is jumpy on its first encounter with a snake.  Preliminary research suggests that several million years of coevolution with spiders and snakes has made us (and most higher mammals) instinctively fearful of these creatures because the few that are poisonous are extremely deadly - (Are We Born Fearing Spiders and Snakes?)  We see a garter snake in our garden and prejudicial thinking kicks in.  There's no time to pause and determine if the snake is deadly.  By the time you figure it out, you might be dead.

"Snakes are slithering evil out to kill me," you think.

The logical side of your brain kicks in.  "Just a harmless garter snake," you reason.

If you let the the logical side of your brain rule and allow the garter snake to continue on its way doing whatever garter snakes do, you've acknowledged your prejudicial thinking and overruled your instinctive reaction.  If you kill the snake in spite of knowing the facts about the snake, you took your prejudicial thinking to bigoted thinking.  Some might even call you an ophidiophobist.

Our fear of spiders and snakes might be our most keenly developed mode of prejudicial thinking, but other examples abound.  As a kid, the Brussels sprout Mom and Dad made you eat nearly gagged you to death.  When Mom and Dad served you any other vegetable that looked or smelled like a Brussels sprout, you already decided you wouldn't like them because they were going to gag you to death just like the Brussels sprouts did.  Prejudicial thinking at work.

An FOIA request to NSA for their profile of a
typical SuMo listener returned this pic.  Dang
government's been spying on me.

The Trump supporters calling in regurgitating the empty rhetoric that defines Trump and his administration is expected.  The passionate emotional calls from our immigrant listeners on Delmarva is expected.  They feel threatened by the prejudicial thinking that crossed over into bigoted thinking by the Trump supporters.  I reckon this is what one calls reality talk entertainment. Had the segment ended with the callers, there would be no article to write.  But the drama didn't end with ill-informed callers playing the talk show circuit.

The callers, like you and me, have full time jobs, are going to school, raising families, and living life that we are experts in.  If we need medical advice, we might Google some stuff to get an idea of how concerned we need to be, but ultimately, we go to the doctor for consultation and the final answer.  If we need legal information, we might Google some stuff to see if we're on the right track, but ultimately, we go to a lawyer for consultation and the final answer.  (Word of advice - avoid any lawyer Trump has hired.)  As individuals, we don't have time to become an expert in everything except the life we're living every day so we rely on others for the information we need or want.

Fortunately, we're social creatures and rely on others to be the expert and others rely on us when they need expert advice.  We rely on doctors to give us sound and current medical advice.  The doctors, in turn, may rely on us to suggest the best product that might fit their needs or the best home treatment plan to prevent pest damage to their homes.

Likewise, we rely on politicians to make the best calls on economic, security, and foreign relations decisions.  We rely on news people to give us accurate, unbiased stories that help shape our opinions of how well our politicians know their jobs.  SuMo's segment on Trump's reality show with Pelosi and Schumer  taught us our elected officials aren't experts at much of anything.  She also taught us the news people and talk show hosts are far from being experts.

First up is Trump's reality skit with Pelosi and Schumer.  Our Constitution is very clear on what the role of the President is.  Bullying congressional members with the threat of a government shut down if the President doesn't get his way is not among the duties our Constitution lists, suggests, nor implies.  In fact, our Founding Fathers and colonial leaders were obsessed with creating a governmental system that would prevent a despotic leader from seizing control and overriding the authority of any of the other two branches of government.  Threatening to shut down the government is a treasonous act undermining the very foundation of our democracy by nullifying our Constitution. So sad none of the callers called out Trump on his behavior regardless of their stance on The Wall (capitalized in deference to Pink Floyd).

Again, it is not the responsibility of a talk show host to step in and "set people straight," so to speak.  Her responsibility is to keep the dialog going in an entertaining (and hopefully respectful and informative) way.  The bedrock of a democracy is let the people be heard regardless how wrong or how right they are.  But a line was crossed when the segment included a call in to another talk show from a news reporter for Delaware 105.9.

Rob Petree, a news reporter for Delaware 105.9, called the Jim Bohannon Show, a nationally syndicated program carried by Delaware 105.9, to voice his opinion on Trump's wall the night before.  While Mr. Petree is entitled to his opinions, when his opinions are showcased on the platform of being a news reporter who should know something more than the rest of us, he better have the facts straight.  He's the expert the rest of us look towards to validate our own opinions or to reshape our misinformed opinions.

In the recorded segment SuMo shared, Bohannon referred to democrats as "slimey."  In a couple of short segments, Bohannon painted himself as the Archie Bunker of the anti-world.  Instead of being funny and lovable as Bunker was in this world, Bohannon was inciting and hateful as you would expect Bunker to be in the anti-world.  My first reaction was what the heck is a news reporter listening to such garbage for let alone calling in to it.  (Bohannon is a throwback to the late eighties Morton Downey Show, the host being credidted as the father of trash TV.)  My second reaction was a definite vow to never listen to a Jim Bohannon show.  Fifty years in broadcasting and the best he achieved is sewer slug that occasionally comes to the surface to exhale his foul breath for some sort of ratings success.

Petree then threw out all the empty rhetoric Trump and his administration spews on a daily basis.  For me, Petree is one of those experts I should be able to turn to for the unbiased facts.  Instead, he ignored the facts and history and reinforced the idea we should have something to fear from those brown skinned, Spanish speaking troublemakers at our southern border.  He ignored the facts and history as he rambled on with his opinion. 

Did SuMo cross the line for dragging Petree's late evening call to the Jim Bohannon show out or did Petree cross the line when he allowed his performance to be put on display?  Considering his near boastful tone as he shared his call-in experience and reiterated his opinion on The Wall, SuMo did an excellent job.  Petree let the ball drop.  In another thirty years, I'll be dead and Petree might be an award winning journalist.  He's young and has a lot of learning ahead of him and experience to gain.  That's my way of saying that what I have to say doesn't mean much and we all make youthful mistakes. But his performance today was disappointing, at best.

Sumo is, and probably always will be, an honorary drunk redneck.  Even if she meets an untimely death within another hundred years, she'll retain that title.  Petree is learning his trade and one call to a talk show shouldn't be the yardstick by which we measure his professionalism.  You, the reader, hopefully learned a bit about our predisposition towards prejudicial thinking, how to recognize it, and how to look past it when you're on the public stage, whether you're calling in on a radio talk show or jabbering on social media.

Me?  Well I learned I need a bathroom break and another beer after about every 250 words I type.  I also regret that a new contract I have agreed to in my job means I won't get to listen to the Susan Monday Show any more except on holidays or vacation because the contract messes all my hours up (I'm self employed).  If SuMo loved me as much as she loves all her listeners, she'd start working the holidays so I don't miss her show.

Ok, I'm practicing the guilt trip tactic old people use to get their way.  I'm surprised Trump still uses the youthful bullying tactics instead of the elderly guilt trip tactics.  Nowhere else but in this article could I get away with using that line.


TL;DR folks:
A review of Susan Monday's talk show the other day.  What do you expect as a summary?  Ok, we got Trump, bigotry, more Trump, and more bigotry, but the take away is there's more to being a talk show host or a pundit.  There's a certain degree of public responsibility.  SuMo has it nailed.  Most everyone else can be kicked to the curb.  If you get a chance, listen to Susan Monday (SuMo if you become a big fan) M-F, 9 am - noon on Delaware 105.9. 


For your listening pleasure:


Posted by A Drunk Redneck