Who are our most influential talking heads—and why should we care what they have to say?
by Katie Allison Granju
Talking heads. Pundits. Commentators. Spin-doctors. News analysts.
Whatever you call them, they have come to be as much a part of the American political landscape as bumper stickers, baby-kissing, and barbecues. Here in Knoxville, our long Appalachian tradition of forthrightly speaking our minds has led to a thriving punditry scene in which local commentators and their audiences mix it up in an attempt to affect both politics and policy-making. With Hallerin Hill's highly-rated daily morning radio show on WNOX 990, and the two weekend political gabfests on WBIR and WATE, as well as an abundance of local print and Internet analysis available, Knoxville has more political cross-talk happening each week than any other city in the state, according to some media experts.
More than simply reporting the news as it is made, a few of Knoxville's best-known commentators have become newsmakers in their own right. Their stated views on today's hot topics have become a major part of the larger social and political spin cycle that drives public opinion. Who are Knoxville's most influential talking heads? Here are three of Knoxville's primary pundits (all of whom, coincidentally, appear on WATE's Political Roundtable) and what they have to say about themselves.
George Korda: King of All Knoxville Media?
It's a Monday morning in a bustling, affluent Bearden beauty salon and the radio dial is turned to Knoxville's top-rated daily talk radio program, The Hallerin Hill Show on Dick Broadcasting's WNOX Newstalk 990. As they sit waiting for their perms to set and nail polish to dry, salon patrons are listening to Knoxville's favorite talkmeister, Hallerin Hilton Hill, laugh and banter with his regular Monday morning sidekicks: Democratic politico Dennis Francis and conservative Ingram Group flack George Korda. On this particular day, Korda is particularly animated on the topic of President Clinton's sexual misconduct, and he minces no words as he blasts the president and those who would defend him.
"You tell 'em George!" nods an enthusiastic young male hairdresser dressed in the latest goth attire. "I really like George Korda. He's never afraid to be blunt."
The middle-aged tennis mom whose hair the stylist is streaking blonde looks up from her magazine long enough to disagree. "Good Lord, I get so sick of George Korda. He's everywhere. I can't turn on the news without seeing him or hearing him. I mean, who died and named George Korda God?" Thus relieved of the burden of her opinion on George Korda, she returns to flipping through the pages of Ladies Home Journal.
Love him or hate him, the area's most prolific pundit, George S. Korda, has managed to create an unrivaled Knoxville multimedia presence through which he is able to offer his spin on the issues of the day. Currently, Korda serves as political analyst for WATE-TV, appearing each Monday to discuss current political happenings for the enlightenment of Channel 6 viewers. On Sunday mornings, Korda can be found seated at WATE's popular weekly pundit-fest, Political Roundtable, along with Theotis Robinson, Warren Gooch, and Susan Richardson-Williams, as well as Roundtable host Mike Hammond. And in addition to his Monday appearances with Hill, Korda hosts his own talk show, State Your Case, each Saturday morning on WNOX. Korda's sphere of influence as a commentator has now widened to cyberspace, where his column, "Political Insight with George Korda" appears regularly on the Knoxville webzine, Lamarket.Com, produced by Lamar Outdoor Advertising (hence the appearance of George Korda billboards around town). As if all of this pontification doesn't keep Korda busy enough, he also has a high-powered "day job" with The Ingram Group, arguably the state's most prominent public relations and consulting firm, with offices in Knoxville and Nashville. In this role, Korda is paid by Ingram's well-heeled clients for his opinions on how to maximize their business or political potential. Clearly, people care what George Korda thinks...or at least he has been highly successful in convincing a great many of us that we should care.
"Everyone thinks that they are an editor or a political analyst," laughs Korda when asked what has allowed him to take the lead role in interpreting and spinning the news for Knoxvillians. "Everyone has an opinion on the news and thinks they are qualified to give it. I like to think that why I have gone from being a guest on various programs to a regular analyst is that my background allows me to both inform and entertain. I try to demystify the political process for people. I mean, a lot of people seem to think that politics works something like the X-Files, when really, it's just people like you and me looking at problems and making decisions based on what they see."
Seated in his surprisingly modest downtown Ingram Group office, surrounded by sports and political memorabilia, the slightly rumpled, gray-haired Korda seems an unlikely media star, local or otherwise. With his distinctly un-TV appearance and aggressively informal speaking style, Korda comes across as somebody's press secretary—a behind-the scenes kind of guy—which is exactly what he was in a previous career incarnation. Korda explains that he came to Knoxville in 1987 to become Director of Information for Republican Mayor Victor Ashe after having served as press secretary for Ashe's infamously unsuccessful 1984 senate campaign. In the years leading up to his association with Ashe, Korda began his career in communications as a military journalist, writing for such publications as Stars and Stripes, and traveling throughout Europe as a staff member to the U.S. Army's Chief of Public Affairs. After leaving the military in 1977, Korda became a reporter for a Brevard County, Florida, newspaper, which led to his move to Tennessee in 1981 to become Director of Information for the State Department of Commerce and Insurance. In this role, he began making the political connections that would eventually bring him to Knoxville. Along the way, Korda claims that he never envisioned himself becoming a well-known TV and radio pundit.
"It just sorta happened," he says with a shrug. "It started when the former news director at Channel 6 had me on as a guest panelist on the show Tennessee Reports. Afterwards, he asked me how I thought the station could beef up its political coverage. I suggested that he hire more people who had actually worked in politics. One thing just led to another."
Korda believes that much of his growing success comes from the fact that he knows what East Tennesseans want from a commentator and how to deliver it to them.
"Whether you do radio or TV analysis, you have to understand that it's showbiz," says Korda. "You have to spotlight issues that people are going to want to talk about. For example, on an upcoming radio show, I'll be discussing the debate over the use of the Confederate flag. As guests I'll have both the Reverend Harold Middlebrook (a prominent local African-American activist) and a representative from the Sons of Confederate Veterans. That should get pretty lively."
In the case of his multi-faceted association with WNOX, Korda says that he got his break through Hallerin Hill, whom he knew from Hill's coverage of city politics while Korda was with the Ashe administration. Hill invited Korda to start making regular guest appearances on his talk show, which eventually led to Dick Broadcasting's Director of Programming and Operations, Mike Hammond (who also serves as moderator for WATE's Political Roundtable) asking Korda if he would like to host his own weekend opinion show.
Whether by luck or shrewd calculation—and most Knoxville media-watchers believe its the latter—Korda has managed to carve out a remarkable niche for projecting his take on the news of the day. His voice and visage have become inextricably tied to Knoxville's punditry scene. With his broad platform for defining and publicizing local political and social agendas, Korda is able to cast his long, very conservative shadow over a wide variety of issues.
"Am I a conservative? Well, if being a conservative means being against minors having free access to abortion or against schools handing out condoms to teenagers, then yeah, I'm a conservative," explains an animated Korda. "Really, though, I consider myself a pragmatist more than a conservative."
Korda's red-hot disrespect for President Clinton and many of those who work for him—including Victor Ashe's 1984 senatorial opponent, Vice President Al Gore—is a constant theme when he is on the air. But Korda saves some of his strongest rhetoric for social issues. Feminists, gay activists, certain environmentalists, and trial lawyers have all been subject to his blistering public commentary. And don't even get him started on men who don't take responsibility for their own families.
"Personally, I think that flogging on a public square isn't enough for any man who doesn't support his family," says the passionate traditionalist.
According to those who know Korda, his personal and political views took root during a difficult childhood. They point out that, in contrast to many of the WASP-y Republicans he has supported over the years, Korda wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
"George doesn't often open up to others concerning some of the harder personal things that molded him and his views," notes one Korda friend. "I don't think that he was handed many breaks on his way up. And few people know how much he values his role as a husband and father. He has a soft spot for children and he hates going out at night. For a TV and radio personality, he is actually a very private person."
Theotis Robinson: The Outsider
While George Korda has landed in Knoxville with a blustery splash in recent years, fellow local pundit Theotis Robinson has been quietly and consistently offering his progressive spin on a wide variety of social and political issues for the past three decades. As a longtime area civil rights activist who—as a college student—played the leading role in breaking through the barrier of racial segregation at the University of Tennessee, the dignified, articulate Robinson is a Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist, a popular guest speaker, and a regular commentator on WATE's Political Roundtable. In each of these roles, Robinson—who describes himself as a "moderate to liberal Independent"—often finds himself to be something of an anomaly in the mostly-white, mostly-right East Tennessee media.
"On Political Roundtable, it is sometimes me against the rest of them, although occasionally someone will cross over and take my position," he says.
Viewers have come to enjoy the lively, sometimes rancorous debate that frequently erupts between Robinson and his political antithesis, George Korda. The two men rarely agree on anything, and their styles of getting their points across—with Korda playing the pit bull and Robinson generally staying unflappably cool—provide an entertaining counterpoint to one another.
"One of the things I really enjoy is mixing it up with Theotis on the air," says Korda. "He hates it when I call him a liberal Democrat. This really irritates him since he says he's an Independent. But he knows I have great respect for him."
According to those who are on the set when Political Roundtable is filmed, these arguments can become fairly tense at times. Moderator Mike Hammond says that he considers it part of his job to "pull the panelists back when I sense that they are on the verge of saying something in the heat of the moment that they might later regret." (On at least one occasion, however, conservative Democratic commentator Warren Gooch literally pounded the table and stormed off the set after a rather innocuous remark was made by another panelist regarding Gooch's friend and political hero, Al Gore.)
As the only left-of-center voice on Knoxville's punditry circuit, Robinson says that he sometimes feels like he alone carries the banner for the significant minority of local citizens who want to hear a more progressive analysis of the day's news. But he takes issue with those who want to align him with a particular political party.
"I am not a Democrat. This is a misconception," says Robinson in a tone of voice that implies he has been asked to define his political persuasion more than once. "But I do provide a different point of view than other local analysts. Even the Democrats who appear on radio and television in Knoxville are often not that different from the Republicans."
Some of the stated positions that have set Robinson apart from his fellow Knoxville pundits include the death penalty (he staunchly opposes it), city-county unification (he opposed it) and the Citizens' Review Board (he favored it). Although Robinson has been a Clinton apologist on many occasions, he recently made what his fellow local commentators considered a surprising about-face after the Lewinsky imbroglio came to light. According to one observer, "an audible gasp" was heard on the set of Political Roundtable during the taping in which Robinson offered the opinion that the president should resign.
"I think we all just about fell out of our chairs when Theotis said that," remembers Mike Hammond.
In addition to single-handedly carrying the progressive torch among local news analysts, Robinson, along with WNOX radio host Hill, is one of only two minority commentators who are given any air time in the mainstream Knoxville media. And according to Robinson, when it comes to issues of special concern to the area's African-American community—such as police brutality—he often feels that he is the only voice speaking for Knoxville minorities' concerns.
"One of the problems I run into is trying to make sure that certain African-American issues are brought to the table for the community to be made aware of," says Robinson. "With issues that specifically pertain to the black community I sometimes find my colleagues unprepared to have a discussion on the air."
Asked to explain the glaring dearth of minority spin-doctors in the Knoxville media, Robinson is calmly unequivocal.
"One can only assume it's intentional."
WNOX radio pundit Hill disagrees. He attributes the lack of diversity among Knoxville commentators to simple economics. Hill says that market research drives the hiring decisions made by media organizations and thus, the mix of local commentators accurately reflects the diversity of the community at large.
"There are sins of commission and sins of omission," opines Hill. "I don't think that the mix of people you see is intentional in a negative way."
Additionally, Hill believes that the fact that he himself is African-American should have little to do with his own on-air analysis of issues.
"Once I was in a meeting and someone came up to me and said 'You're the black Rush Limbaugh!'. I just thought to myself, why did you have to say 'Black'?," says Hill. "I have worked hard to be known for the job I do, regardless of race. That just has nothing to do with my show."
Susan Richardson-Williams: The Feminine Mystique
Unlike Hallerin Hill, Political Roundtable's Susan Richardson-Williams—Knoxville's lone female talking head— says that she has no problem calling attention to that which sets her apart: her gender.
"Men tend to treat women differently and this can offer an advantage," says Richardson-Williams. "I have certainly drawn on this advantage in my work doing news analysis. I would be crazy if I didn't. But the longer I'm on the show, the more comfortable the men have become throwing me hardballs on the air."
Richardson-Williams, another Ingram Group principal, has been described as "Knoxville's ultimate insider." She is a longtime, well-known Republican party activist with strong ties to local, state, and even national political figures. She served as Tennessee's Commissioner of Personnel from 1995 to 1996, and says that she considers Governor Don Sundquist "a good friend, a valued friend." Prior to her work in the Sundquist administration, Richardson-Williams spent seven years raising millions for UT's Department of Women's Athletics. She worked on numerous Republican campaigns since the early '70s and has been a member of Leadership Knoxville and the Republican National Committee. In 1995, Sundquist appointed her to the UT Board of Trustees. According to sources, Richardson-Williams actively pursued a visible punditry position with several major Knoxville media organizations when she returned to Knoxville after serving in the Sundquist administration. Her persistence paid off: as a regular commentator on WATE-TV, she's now one of Knoxville's most recognizable spin-doctors.
Seated in her office overlooking Gay Street, the energetic, forty-something Richardson-Williams is surrounded by photographs and mementos of both her family (she is the married mother of three) and her long and varied career, as she discusses her relatively new role as a local commentator. "This is really the first time I've done something like this [analysis and commentary], although I did handle news and media for Bill Brock [as the senator's state press director from 1973-1977]," she explains.
Richardson-Williams makes no apologies for her ongoing Republican activism as she interprets and analyzes the news for Knoxvillians. "Can I honestly get away from being a Republican when I'm doing the show? No. But I don't make excuses. Politics has been my life's work. I like to think that my expertise in this area is the reason people care what I have to say about current events in the first place," says Richardson-Williams.
Although Richardson-Williams is a Republican, she says that her views frequently stray from the conservative party line, leading to what she describes as "an interesting chemistry" among her fellow commentators.
"I'm a fiscal conservative, but a social liberal," explains Richardson-Williams. "For one thing, I'm pro-choice, which you may hear me talk about in regards to the news we discuss. I also have no issue with anyone's sexual preference. That's their own business, not the government's. I'm an environmentalist as well, although I wouldn't necessarily stop 3,000 jobs for a snail darter."
Richardson-Williams says that she would very much like to see more women being asked to provide commentary and analysis in the Knoxville media, remarking that she sees a "definite shortfall" in this area.
"I often hear that there is no one else qualified to tackle the issues, but there are plenty of women in Knoxville—in politics and business—who could provide a range of experience and points of view on the air if they were only asked to join the discussion."
Mike Hammond agrees. "I've been in broadcasting here for 25 years and I think we tend to get lazy. It's easy to ask the same people to appear on the air and provide analysis over and over," says Hammond. "I'd like to see more voices and opinions being heard."
Conflicts of Interest?
The fact that two of the small handful of influential individuals setting the agenda of Knoxville's broadcast media spin-cycle both work for the city's most high-powered public relations firm—The Ingram Group—raises obvious questions. Predictably, in a city the size of Knoxville, the topics discussed on the commentary programs are either tangentially or even directly related to issues of interest to Ingram's powerful client base. Because of this, some other public relations professionals in town believe that Ingram's virtual lock on the punditry scene puts the firm's competitors at a distinct—and distinctly unfair—business disadvantage, providing Ingram clients with de facto free product placement.
For example, when Ingram represented Knoxville's minor league baseball interests, this topic found its way onto Political Roundtable. And some critics assert that Ingram's long history representing Victor Ashe's political interests means that possible Ashe opponents, such as former state Sen. Bud Gilbert (who now provides weekly commentary on WBIR-TV's weekend political program, Inside Tennessee), can't get a fair shake on the air. Both Korda and Richardson-Williams were dismissive of Gilbert's chances in any potential campaign against Ashe. Additionally, it has been alleged that The Ingram Group's ongoing association with perennial presidential candidate Lamar Alexander unreasonably colors the "political analysis" of Korda and Richardson-Williams. As one example, while the vast majority of commentators across the country see Alexander's admittedly well-funded candidacy as little more than a footnote to the 2000 race, the two Ingram employees have used their air time to try to convince viewers that Alexander is a strong, viable candidate for the Republican nomination.
But Richardson-Williams and Korda both insist that any time Ingram client interests arise on the air, viewers/listeners are informed at the outset of the discussion of the potential conflict of interest.
"Our responsibility to disclose our interest in what is being discussed and how we present it is absolute. We always disclose," says an adamant Richardson-Williams. "I have once asked Mike Hammond for a moment or two on the show to talk about something that Ingram was involved in, but only because I personally felt like it was really good for the community as a whole to know about it. There are times when our clients would love us to mention their issue on the air, but it just isn't going to happen."
If conflict of interest in local commentary is a problem, The Ingram Group isn't the only potential offender. UT professor Bill Lyons, who has provided on-air political analysis for WBIR Channel 10 for the past two decades, also operates a well-regarded Knoxville political polling firm, Decision Resources. Lyons, whose firm has represented many area candidates, and Victor Ashe in particular, admits that he hasn't always clearly disclosed the exact nature of his business's political connections as he presents his spin on the issues, but he says that this is because, as a political science professor, his analysis tends to be more academic in nature and based less on the personalities involved in local politics.
According to Korda, pure objectivity isn't the point of punditry anyway.
"People want my opinion. And my opinion comes from my background. They know that. If you were to take the concern about objectivity to its logical conclusion, reporters should never vote," says Korda.
Are We Listening?
After looking at Knoxville's punditry scene and hearing from its most well-known characters, one is left with the question of the ultimate influence of those we hear and watch each day offering their personal opinions on the news. Do we listen to the pundits? And more importantly, does what they say ultimately have any effect on public policy?
According to Dr. Paul Ashdown, a journalism professor in UT's Department of Communications, Knoxville's top pundits do likely play a role in what issues Knoxvillians are talking about. "The pundits probably have more impact in setting the agenda," says Ashdown. "They essentially tell you what to think about, not what to think."
It appears that, although East Tennesseans—in the tradition of Cas Walker—do love their opinionated media personalities, they also tend to make up their own minds in the end. Korda says that his audience has no problem letting him know when they actively disagree with the ideas he promotes. Once he received a very "vile, vulgar" voicemail message at home regarding his work as a pundit. And while out one evening, a "fan" approached Korda, pointed at him and said simply, "You, George Korda. Terrible. Just terrible," and then walked away shaking his head.
Mike Hammond says that commentators shouldn't take themselves too seriously. "Personally, I think we in this business give ourselves way more credit than we deserve," he says. "We may spark interest in an issue or a view, but look at the unification debate. All the media in town took a stand in favor of unification and look what happened there. People in East Tennessee definitely make up their own minds."
| 
