Steve Young

McCarthy's Ghost
The Bush Administration summons the spectre of Tailgunner Joe, and Ed Schultz reaps the benefits
by Steve Young

Oct. 22, 2005 -- HOLLYWOOD (apj.us) -- First, a disclaimer: I'm heard on Schultz's L.A. outlet, KTLK.

Now, to business...

I want to know who in the White House is working for Ed Schultz, the Jones Radio progressive syndicated talker (KTLK in L.A.). It's got to be someone up near the top, because there's no way any low level personnel could have could have delivered this type of publicity gold for "Big Eddie," the fishin' and huntin' Fargo, North Dakota progressive.

If you're among the majority of Americans, you've probably never heard of Ed Schultz. The Pentagon has taken care of that. Are the White House and the Pentagon this stupid... or is Karl Rove that distracted? Does anyone wonder why the Democrats aren't doing anything? Why throw a life saver to a killer shark that's killing itself?

Some details:

The Chief of the radio division for Armed Forces Network told Schultz's distributor, Jones Radio, by e-mail that, "AFN Radio has squared away everything on our end to begin carrying the first hour of 'The Ed Schultz Show' each day, beginning Monday, October 17, 2005."

A week ago Friday, Schultz highlighted the staged teleconference between President Bush and U.S. soldiers in Iraq, a "spontaneous" (heh) event that was rehearsed by Pentagon Communications Director Allison Barber.

On Monday morning, the day the Schultz show was to be first aired on AFN Radio, Barber called to tell Schultz's producer that the okay was not actually that okay and they would get back to them when and if it will become okay, okay?

Okay?

It's about the most incredible stroke of luck a on-air personality could hope for.

Schultz continues to get more media hype than Jones Radio could afford to ever afford to buy for him. Democratic Senators sent a "what the hell are you doing (or not doing letter)" to Donald Rumsfeld. The issue was brought up on the House floor. This week, more people learned about Schultz's show than listened to his show in a year... even if he was heard on Armed Forces Radio!

This is the greatest boon to progressive talk radio since Bill O'Reilly and Fox News sued Al Franken. Franken never could have sold as many books without the foolish, ego-driven lawsuit -- which was thrown out of court, but not before Franken's book ("Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them... A Fair and Balanced Look At The Right") needed a couple more reprints.

Schultz's show had been under the Pentagon's microscope for quite a while, leading Ed to believe the last minute cancelation is, um, questionable. "This is pure get-back," Schultz told me. "This had been a long term effort. They had our tapes and demo for months. They knew exactly what they were getting. They‘re just afraid of letting me talk to the troops."

Perhaps this was just a publicity stunt by George Clooney to promote his new film, "Good Night and Good Luck," which details the infamous Army-McCarthy hearings during the good ole Blacklist days. It's not that the White House nor the Pentagon is calling Schultz a communist. They're just not going to let anyone in the military overseas hear Schultz call anyone anything.

Of course there will be those who will say that NPR balances the Rush ("I am political balance") Limbaughs, Laura Schlesingers and Focus on the Family's James Dobsons heard on AFR. But they are the same people that say that FOX News is fair and balanced. Bottom line: there is no liberal talk personality to be heard on AFR. The fact that there is no more even-handed "leftie" than Schultz heard nationally makes the possibility of balancing out the far right harangues of Limbaugh, et al, as much of a long shot as Al Franken and Bill O'Reilly having high tea.

This past Wednesday, Schultz, who is presently heard on over 100 stations, was to appear at a Capitol Hill press conference to discuss his good fortune. But unfortunately, his flight out of Fargo was delayed keeping from getting him to Washington in time. Anyone who might think that the White House had anything to do with that would probably think that Tom DeLay had something to do with having Homeland Security track a Texas Democrat legislator's plane to Oklahoma.

So it seems that Schultz becomes another (as Schultz agrees) "victim" of this administration's attempts to quiet dissent (which Schultz doesn't believe he perpetuates).

Meanwhile, how do I get the Bush Administration to try and cancel my show? I could use the ratings...

Steve Young, author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" takes the KTLK 1150AM mike every Saturday, 1-4 PM and read every Sunday in the LA Daily News Op-Ed page (right next to Bill O'Reilly).