Dissent Must Be Crushed

Speaking of radio…

Up in Saint Cloud, Andy Barnett – host of the excellent “Hot Talk” morning show – was fired for holding a liberal politician’s feet in the fire asking a liberal politician about her stance on abortion.


Leo from Psycmeister’s Ice Palace, a St. Cloud resident and one of Minnesota’s better bloggers, has the story:

If you can’t beat them, silence them.

Andy Barnett, of KNSI-AM 1450’s morning show, Hot Talk, has been fired.

I listened this morning to Barnett’s interviews of two St. Cloud City Council Ward 3 candidates, John Libert, and Karen J. Langsjoen.

Langsjoen displayed her mean spiritedness right off the bat when Barnett mispronounced her name (well, who the hell wouldn’t?)

(A radio host who’d done all of his homework in a heavily Scandinavian area, replies the Norwegian-American blogger. But then, if everyone on the air who flubbed a name got fired, Hugh Hewitt would be working at a Burger King in Pomona)

Langsjoen, whom one could tell is as liberal as the year is long, took great umbrage with Barnett’s quizzing both her and Libert on their stances regarding the sanctity of life.

To put it mildly, Langsjoen had a cow, saying that Barnett had no call to question city council candidates on their stance toward abortion.

Barnett countered that it was indeed relevant on a number of levels; including the notion that many of KNSI’s conservative listeners (yes, KNSI is a station heavily geared toward conservatives) would assess the pro-life stance of candidates as a barometer of the candidate’s character; additionally, Barnett brought up the fact that the Council may have to choose city employees’ health plans, and voters may be interested as to whether Langsjoen would approve a plan that paid for abortions, and/or domestic partnerships (read: Gay civil unions)

What a concept – candidates actually being asked tough questions, and, in a relatively conservative area like Saint Cloud (outside the University) in an interview MCed by an overt conservative, being asked questions that matter to the right.

Immediately following the interview, Langsjoen apparently stormed into the offices and threw what could be described as a whiny hissy fit to Leighton Broadcasting ‘s general manager John Sawada, who, after reportedly apologizing to Langsjoen up and down, fired Barnett.

First of all at the start of the interview, Langsjoen had stated that she “always was interested in getting into politics.”

Word to Langsjoen: If you can’t take the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.

Radio’s an ugly business. I’d be interested in hearing Leighton Broadcasting’s rationale for this firing; it seems on the surface to be simple caving in to political pressure.

Which is nothing new in the world of radio.

But caving in to some pissant City Council candidate?

Read Leo’s piece for the rest of the details; expect more from the rest of the St. Cloud area blog community.

8 thoughts on “Dissent Must Be Crushed

  1. Mitch, you need a better grade of enemies. If the best you can manage is an obsessive compulsive verbal diarreac like Peevish/Mikey/PB/JBow/whatever, and a fat delusional infantile pig like Eva Young, you’re not ready for the big time.

    🙂

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