The Chickens Coming Home to Roost
The ruckus surrounding KSTP's Ron Rosenbaum continues to grow. For those unaware, here's a summary from the Pioneer Press:
The flap centers on a comment Rosenbaum made Oct. 28 during an on-air interview with [St. Paul Mayor Randy] Kelly. After Kelly downplayed Finney's chances of winning the mayor's race, Rosenbaum said, "That's another way of saying, 'Get your shine box, Chief Finney.'"
St. Paul Police Chief Finney happens to be black and many in the city, all with various agendas to advance, are trying to portray this as a racial sleight on Rosenbaum's part and as a mini-scandal for Kelly, for his non-response to Rosenbaum's comment.
The NAACP sees an opportunity to make demands and threats:
The group is threatening an economic boycott of KSTP-AM 1500 and its advertisers if Rosenbaum does not apologize... "We're not going to give our money to anybody that demeans us," said Nathaniel Khaliq, president of the St. Paul NAACP. "If it's not dealt with right away, we are going to have some problems."
Media critic Brian Lambert is using it as another excuse to bash conservative talk radio (of which Rosenbaum isn't even a member):
"..why not [go after] bigger, more obvious targets like, say, Rush Limbaugh -- a guy with 14 million listeners a week who routinely uses Jesse Jackson and other black leaders as devices to race bait, deride affirmative action and whip up real-time antagonisms against minority-friendly legislation?
Lambert goes on to describe his preferred target as:
Limbaugh and Michael Savage and any of a dozen other prominent gasbags constantly driving coded wedges between the races
A dozen? Not to go into Rocky Mountain Spotted Owl mode again, but, who who who is he talking about? Are there even a dozen talk radio shows on in this market dealing with substantive issues? Or do we have to assume he's talking about all conservative talk radio. Like that racial bomb thrower Dave Thompson. Or that wild-eyed polemicist Dennis Prager.
Then, a few days ago the St. Paul City Council, which is lousy with political opponents of Mayor Kelly, passed a resolution condemning Rosenbaum's remarks:
Council Member Jay Benanav (who lost to Kelly in the most recent mayoral election in St. Paul) sponsored the resolution that, without naming radio host Ron Rosenbaum, condemned his remark as racially insensitive.
"It's important that the community hear from us and recognize what was said was inappropriate," Benanav said. "We have a community that's now 40 percent minority, and they deserve to have us speak out loudly and clearly when inappropriate comments are made.
What's this - the government attempting to initimidate and influence what can and cannot be said in the media? Don't wait up for me as I stand by and wait for Tim Robbins and Jeanine Garafolo to release weepy statements on behalf of Rosenbaum's right to free speech and righteous dissent.
