Why in the world do you think he had to justify that memory? Memories can be faulty, they can be incomplete, but they are not the same thing as opinions.
Shepherd wasn't hired to critique Fred Allen, and he didn't. He was hired to write about Vic & Sade.
You're making a proverbial mountain out of a molehill.
Why in the world do you think he had to justify that memory? Memories can be faulty, they can be incomplete, but they are not the same thing as opinions.A man who made a fair part of his broadcast and print living trucking in memories---for his fiction and non-fiction alike---and had a reputation for having an outstanding memory might be expected at minimum to remember just a little more of something he chooses to zap. Or, at least, to be honest enough to say he wasn't a fan when zapping.
In the big scheme of things it amounts to nothing much in the end. But as an old-time radio fan and, as it happens, a professional journalist myself (I work freelance now, kind of a shadow, but I like that after having been burned out of the phoniness of the profession over a decade ago), such disingenuity drives me nuts
Old Time Radio Researchers Library, J
Scroll down when you hit the J's, hit The Jean Shepherd Show, and have a grand old time! There's one from 1957, a boatload from the 1960s, and a nice selection from the 1970s.