Loss of a local voice is a lamentable development
by Barry Henderson
In mid-September, the folks at Citadel Broadcasting dumped the WNOX Radio morning talk show that had been hosted for several months by the estimable Frank Cagle, erstwhile political columnist for the News Sentinel and one-time communications and policy adviser for the failed Republican gubernatorial campaign of Van Whatshisname.
Cagle had a good radio show, and that's saying something. Talk radio is the bane of modern communications in many ways, but Cagle had it going pretty well by the time the show was canned. Good guests, good subjects and lively commentary without a lot of rancor is the formula he was using. It didn't work out. (On the street downtown the day the news of his show's demise came floating down from the ivory Citadel, Cagle was asked what happened. "I wanted to spend more time with my family," he said, with an expression on his countenance so wry you couldn't have cut through it with a straight razor.)
Cagle was and is a right-winger. For years his column on the NS Saturday editorial page was the most readable thing in the paper. He's back in there now every week, and it's still what to look for on Saturdays, in spite of his politics. His writing, like his airtime, is intelligent, articulate, incisive and usually wrong, but often cleverly so. It's something to shadow-argue with on a weekend morning.
The radio show was the only discussion of local political and social issues worth listening to around here, and it's gone in favor of...what?
Neal Boortz is what. Boortz's syndicated radio harangue on every conceivable issue and non-issue of national and international import or insignificance has taken the place of the local production, which broached a range of issues that are actually relevant and meaningful to the listeners. What Citadel or its advertisers didn't like about that must have something to do with the cost of local production, which exceeds that of airing something from syndication.
Neal Boortz has been on Atlanta radio for something like 35 years. He's a right-winger with not so much an edge as a blunt instrument. Boortz calls himself a libertarian, thereby giving all legitimate libertarians a bad name. I'd mention that the late Lewis Grizzard, a friend of mine for years, was also a friend of Neal's, but one shouldn't speak so badly of the deceased. Personally, I've been listening to Boortz on and off—thankfully, mostly off— for more than 30 years.
What Citadel wanted of him is a mystery, unless they sought to simulate a direct pipeline from Fox News at a cheaper rate. Like Fox's smarmy media minions, Boortz is entertainment, not infotainment, and only to those who are enamored of an incurable smart-ass.
His Internet home page carries the disclaimer: "ALWAYS REMEMBER... Don't believe anything you read on this web page, or, for that matter, anything you hear on the Neal Boortz show, unless it is consistent with what you already know to be true, or unless you have taken the time to research the matter to prove its accuracy to your satisfaction...." His preaching to his choir is made easy thus.
One day this week his initial website revelation included the passage: "I wish to announce today that I have never been fondled by Arnold." Oh.
Cagle's messages of conservatism, including his oft-repeated opposition to an income tax as a part of state tax reform, were never so painedly glib or useless as Boortz's observations. As I said, Cagle is fun to argue with. To be certain I knew why, I called Frank and asked him about his broad philosophy of punditry.
"I'm very wary of conventional wisdom, and I guess my basic political philosophy is contrarian," he says. "When everybody has agreed on something it makes me want to take another look at it. It worries me when things are not thought through thoroughly. I try to find things that maybe haven't been looked at. If I can't bring something fresh into the mix or bring a new viewpoint to something, why should I bother?"
On his own political persuasions, Cagle says, "I'm a fiscal conservative, a free-enterprise capitalist and a civil libertarian." He states it as though those facets of his political persona aren't abundantly clear to his readers or his former listeners. On his dread of an income tax he cites his position on taxation in general. He's agin' it, more often than not, in the classic libertarian style: "The more resources the government has, the more it can interfere in your life."
So we go back and forth, Frank and I. He thinks toward minimal government. I think toward maximizing its positive effects. It's why the political system works. It's the same argument that takes place among taxpayers and their representatives every day in and around government at all levels all around the world.
Neal Boortz adds nothing to the argument. His hopeless cynicism and jerk-off rhetoric deserves no attention at all from thoughtful people, and his radio show deserves no airtime in this market. Is anyone listening?
October 9, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 41
© 2003 Metro Pulse
| 
