Radio host's words punished: WHAM suspends Lonsberry for reputed remarks about mayor.

ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE ^ | (September 23, 2003) — | By Joseph Spector and Rick Armon

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Late last month, Lonsberry made the first comment after an orangutan briefly escaped from a cage at the Seneca Park Zoo. “Headline: Orangutan escapes at zoo, runs for county executive. Fascinating stuff,” Lonsberry said.

Lonsberry's joke sounds remarkably like the "plot" from the Warren Zevon song, Gorilla You're a Desperado:

Big gorilla at the L.A. Zoo
Snatched the glasses right off my face
Took the keys to my BMW
Left me here to take his place

I wish the ape a lot of success
I'm sorry my apartment's a mess
Most of all I'm sorry if I made you blue
I'm betting the gorilla will, too

I hope the Mayor's supporters don't hear that song; they'll want to dig poor Warren up (he died earlier this month) and charge him with a "hate crime."

[governsleastgovernsbest]

The radio host can claim his intentions weren't racist, but at the very least they were dumb and in poor taste.

[Sacajaweau]

Hitlery and Scumee brings this mayor a moneybag everytime they hit town. We had 41 murders in Rochester this year. This town will have the Ferry soon and won't people be surprised when they land here.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I agree it's not particularly funny. However, as I said, it strikes me more as a bad rip off of an old novelty song (and from what I've heard of Lonsberry's "bumper music," he's probably a Zevon fan) with connotations that he should have thought through but didn't.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

(Clark/Kerry/Hillary- The Elders of Zion?)

Don't forget Madeline Albright. She discovered her identity a few years ago too. ;-)

[ModelBreaker]

This is something that bothers me about resurgent conservativism, including the talk show hosts. Good manners take care of all sorts of problems in society. Conservatives don't have to stop having good manners in order to avoid being politically correct.

PC is not about stopping stupid 6th grade slurs on the radio. It is about supressing the truth. The 6th grade slurs detract from the truth.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Good point, she has officially been added. We're getting close to a minyan!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

There might be a way for him to explain away the music. The problem is that, according to the article:

"Late last month, Lonsberry made the first comment after an orangutan briefly escaped from a cage at the Seneca Park Zoo.

“Headline: Orangutan escapes at zoo, runs for county executive. Fascinating stuff,” Lonsberry said."

There's really no explaining that away.

[doodad]

I have never understood why black people get so upset with the "monkey" thing. As if they thought they did look like monkeys. John Rocker, in his infamous tirade, made a comment about a monkey in the outfield or something like that. My black coworker was aghast. I asked him if I called him a pig or a weasel was it racist and he had no answer. Some people do look like some animals, but I for one don't think that entire groups of people look that way. < cagney> you dirty rat </ cagney>

[governsleastgovernsbest]

We can try to understand why the reaction is strong, but there's no denying that it is. Lonsberry surely should have known better.

[Jack Wilson]

Where is the ACLU?

[af_vet_1981]

“If you look historically at a lot of the racist insults against African-Americans who were slave descendants, comparing us to apes, monkeys and orangutans was common,” said Baugh, who is black. “If anyone wants to argue it’s a generic insult, that’s more far-fetched than saying that kind of insult should not be taken as” a racial slur.

I agree. The burden of proof is on Lonsberry.

[Chad Fairbanks]

"... I am not a racist. But then racism is in the eye of the beholder, not in the heart of the speaker."

Ummm.... that is a liberal cop-out. Regardless of the tasteless comments you made, Racism is NOT in the eye of the beholder, but IS in the heart of the speaker. Only left-wing agitators filled with guilt would say what you just said.

[jigsaw]

Lonsberry's Response in his September 23rd Column:

MY LATEST MELTDOWN

I have reverse-Midas syndrome. Everything I touch turns to crap.

Here’s the latest example.

I’ve been suspended from one of my radio jobs. A midday show at WHAM radio in Rochester, New York. Pretty much, I’ve turned my name to mud at the station and in the company that owns it.

The largest radio company in the nation.

And the company that employs me at my other radio job, on KNRS in Salt Lake City.

It’s all pretty ironic, actually. Last week in the dark of the night as I scratched in my journal before bed I reported that I’d had a good show in Rochester, that things had gone well and I was satisfied and grateful.

Shows what I know.

In the closing moments of that show, in a little thing called “Listeners On The Loose,” where people spout off for 15 seconds and I spout back, I had apparently called the mayor of Rochester a monkey. Actually, I think it was an orangutan. We had been speaking of an orangutan earlier in the show. That’s why it came to mind.

It was an off-the-cuff comment in an off-the-cuff setting. Rapid fire. My intent was to say I thought the mayor of Rochester was an idiot.

But the mayor of Rochester is a black man.

And apparently, I had said something similar a couple of weeks before.

And apparently there was someone taping the program. And that someone provided an excerpted transcript to the “Democrat and Chronicle,” a newspaper in Rochester. The newspaper found the comments racist and so editorialized on Saturday.

By Monday someone else was sitting in my seat.

So that’s where things stand.

Hoisted on my own petard, as they used to say. Back when they knew what a petard was.

It’s an interesting and potentially life-changing predicament. I’d been kind of focusing on radio in recent years as a career and livelihood and to have the real possibility of that evaporating in an instant isn’t fun.

But that’s life.

Part of me is hurt that anyone would think I was a racist. Though I’m not sure anyone really thinks I am a racist, I suspect they are merely saying I am a racist. If you get the difference.

But that’s on them.

What’s on me is the fact I said something that got me in trouble, caused my coworkers grief and gave the wrong impression. I am not afraid to offend people on purpose; I want never to offend people accidentally. One is acceptable, the other is not. One serves a purpose, the other inflicts a needless hurt.

My words clearly were wrong. And I am sorry for them. I sincerely apologize to anyone who might have been genuinely offended.

I am not sure how many that would be. The program is, after all, heard by tens of thousands of people and has one of the largest black audiences of any radio show in town. And yet after the two things were said on the two programs there were absolutely no complaints. None. Not to me, not to bosses, not to sponsors, not to anyone.

Not for days afterward, not until the controversy had begun. And then there was one call. From a person who typically calls to complain. One call from tens of thousands of listeners.

So I’m not sure how much real heartburn the comments caused and how much they led people to think I was a racist.

But that’s probably not relevant.

I specifically would say to the mayor that I have no ill will toward him because of his race. I completely oppose his candidacy for county executive, I believe he has been an atrocious steward of the city. I disagree with him politically. I don’t think he is an orangutan, I think he is a jackass. [Emphasis mine.]

And I suspect he thinks the same of me.

And we are each probably right to some degree or another.

If the mayor was offended, thinking I was making reference to his race, I apologize. That was not my intent or desire.

But I think what’s at play here is just hardball politics. Not just the politics of the ballot box, but of basic philosophy. I am the most effective conservative voice in Rochester. I have been for more than a decade. I have caused discomfort for people throughout the political, educational, non-profit, business, labor, religious, liberal and activist communities. I have enemies aplenty.

And I gave them the rope to hang me.

But somebody was running tape. Somebody was recording the program, looking for the rope. This somebody then secretly took the quotes to the newspaper. The newspaper has not identified its confederate, or that person’s stake in the matter. My hunch would be that it might be one of the two political parties – both have cause to be angry with me – or one of the campaigns for local office. If I am criticizing a candidate or party, in the run-up to the election, what better way to silence that criticism than to get me canned?

At the newspaper, whoever it was, found an eager audience. Specifically, on the editorial page. A page I have attacked for years, and which has attacked me for years. An editorial page that is the most prominent liberal voice in Rochester.

So that’s what happened.

I’ve apologized.

And I would also point out that for 15 years in Rochester, as a columnist at two newspapers and as a radio host, I have been in a position where my views, thoughts, personality and character have been on almost daily display, with all their warts and flaws. I would say in my defense: What have those 15 years said?

Have they said I am a racist?

Can anyone honestly say that they have?

I have a clear conscience. I am not a racist and I meant no offense by what I said. This is an offense by accident, not an offense by character. I am on the air seven hours a day in two cities talking and talking and talking. To judge that by what was said in five seconds is unfair and wrong.

Someone told me that what I said could only be a sign of racism or stupidity. Well, someone who is either racist or stupid should not be on the air. I don’t believe I am either of those things.

But it’s not my call.

So I will close by saying two things.

The first is that I am and have been grateful. It has been a privilege to be on the air at WHAM. If my time there is done, or if it lasts another 40 years, the only words on my lips as I walk out the door will be, “Thank you.”

The second is something I have said literally hundreds of times on the air. Something that has never been reported by the paper. It is my philosophy on race. It is a verse from a song I learned at my grandmother’s knee.

“Jesus loves the little children. All the little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white. All are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

That was His philosophy, and it has always been my philosophy.

No matter what the newspaper says.


- by Bob Lonsberry © 2003

[Redbob]

I dunno - anybody got a picture of Wm. Johnson?

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I wouldn't say he looks simian.

[DoughtyOne]

To: DoughtyOne

Bedtime For Rino!

< removed graphic >

Molon Labe, you fascist ape!
16 posted on 09/23/2003 1:16 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR ((R)nold's like a chrome plated Yugo - all show and no go! McClintock for Governor of California!)


Mayor Brown will just have to grow up and take it in stride.

[Sacajaweau]

That's the best damn picture of him that I've seen. I'm not at all sure it's recent. Did Hillary send her airbrush specialist?

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

I'm glad I moved from Rochester in 1998.

Life is much better in Las Vegas!

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

I agree about the above photo.

Johnson usually looks like a scruffy drunk in front of Nick Tahou Hots!