- Henry County, which features the more conservative areas of WMVA's broadcasting region, has gone for Kaine in '05 and landslide for Warner in '01 (61-36!).
This, coupled with the fact that I personally know my father (Virginia Tech c/o '76) complained to Mr. Wyatt, makes me doubt the "no complaints" claim.
Be that as it may, Mr. Wyatt also stumbles on another point as I see it. He makes note that his station serves no one from the "Blacksburg communities". I find that interesting, because as a Tech alum myself, I consider myself a lifelong resident of the "Blacksburg communities", as well as a lifelong tie to the school community which suffered the horrible tragedy. There are many Virginia Tech alums and former members of that community living in WMVA's listening area, including current Martinsville Mayor Kimble Reynolds (also chair of the local Hokie Alumni Chapter). This statement just flat out smells bad.
Unless this gets drummed up in the Martinsville Bulletin or the Roanoke Times, most folks won't know about it or how to complain.
They also add comments by Michelle Malkin and others. Remember, these comments were made before some family members had been notified that their loved ones were dead or injured. These are our family values conservatives.
A recent article in the Sunday Post, describing the Swiss system which arms its citizenry so they have an ever-ready militia, told the story of an insane gunman who killed 14 in the town of Zug in similar circumstances. Everyone is a soldier in Switzerland, yet still the slaughter occurred, giving lie to the smug assumptions of conservative talkies that the answer to random violence is to arm everyone. Only in America... and Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and so on, are weapons so widespread and violence so extreme.
These neocons, who are acolytes and proselizers for the Dark Ages, keep bringing up the passengers of Flight 90 who, it is assumed, rushed the armed hijackers of their airplane. Let's be sure we know exactly how that happened, and let's remember that, by the time that happened, they had, through cell phone conversations, already learned of the other three airplanes hitting their targets--- so they were in some measure forewarned, unlike the youths in the classrooms.
Mr. Boortz is, like most of his ilk, preening himself for being "politically incorrect," making a self-righteous ass out of himself, and should be dismissed.
Another example to support your argument was the recent death of a NY State Trooper during a firefight with a suspect in the shooting of another Trooper. The trooper and his fellow officers were highly trained, and still this awful accident occured. Imagine how much greater is the chance for an accident when the people with guns have little or no training.
According to the Daily Press out of Hampton Roads, Boortz's show is carried locally on WNIS-AM 790. (AM? So the audience demographic is 17 listeners?)
As most will recall, Boortz criticized Seung-Hui Cho's victims for not charging at him. When a listener called the show and said he was offended by the comments, Boortz mocked him on the air. Boortz later half-apologized: "I wasn't angry on what I was saying ... just with how I was saying it."
Lisa Sinclair, general manager of WNIS-AM 790, said Tuesday afternoon that she had not seen the delegates' letter, but she made it clear that, while she disagreed with Boortz's comments, she had no intention of pulling his show."He came on and apologized, at least somewhat," Sinclair said.
"In the heat of the moment, he was giving his perspective," she said. "This is still a free country, and we are still allowed to speak freely as far as I know."
Sinclair said she was aware of at least a small handful of listeners who called WNIS to complain about Boortz's comments.
So, another station will continue to profit from venom.
In the last meeting of the year the 27th student senate passed a resolution to condemn Neil Boortz for his disrespectful words about the victims of Virginia Tech and calling on all radio station in Virginia to boycott Boortz.
***Student Government has followed the lead of Virginian Delegate Stephen Shannon of Fairfax and Delegates Chuck Caputo and James Shuler of Fairfax in officially condemning the talk show host for his behavior and requesting all Virginian radio stations to boycott Boortz's show.
***
Good for them.