Let’s face it, things are not going very well for right-wing radio these days. Rush Limbaugh has been reduced to a national laughingstock, while Sean Hannity is best known for simply repeating talking points handed to him by the RNC. Where is the innovation? The fight? The good ol’-fashioned hatred that will sustain the righties into a new era?
Well, my fellow Minnesotans can puff our chests up with pride, because we’ve got a budding right-wing radio superstar right here in our own backyard, broadcasting daily at KTLK-FM.
Minnesotans know KTLK as the radio station that made the head-scratching decision to abandon reasonable talk and go to an all-right-wing-nonsense-all-the-time format right before the collapse of the Republican party. With the aforementioned Limbaugh and Hannity, along with Jason “North Carolina is Infinitely Superior to Minnesota, What With its Low Taxes and Family Values, Which is Why I’m Getting the Hell Out of There and Coming Back to the Cities” Lewis, KTLK is the sort of radio dinosaur that would have been really popular in 1994, but now languishes down with KOOL-108 (the oldies station) in the ratings.
But Chris Baker aims to change all that. The new morning drive host and Texas import is making a name for himself nationally, and doing it the old-fashioned way: by saying crazy crap.
You may remember Baker from his previous assertion that basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson had faked testing positive for HIV, because as everyone remembers, in the early 1990s nothing was cooler than pretending to have AIDS. Now, most radio hosts would kill to have just one crazy statement like that, driving the ratings and whipping up conservative resentment of multimillionaire basketball players who have spent their retirement building up the poorer areas of Los Angeles through investment. But not Chris! No, he’s just getting started.
According to the George Soros-controlled Media Matters, in his brief time in Minneapolis Baker has:
- Said that the murder of transwoman Latiesha Green was the media’s fault, saying, “I believe the media and the rest of the enablers out there, they have this guy’s [sic] blood on their hands because they create this false sense of reality and they enable people who need serious psychological counseling.” Because nothing says Liberal Media Conspiracy like the argument that people should be able to live their lives without being shot.
- Said, “I don’t think homeless people should vote. Frankly. In fact, I have to be very honest. I’m not that excited about women voting, to be honest.” Honestly!
- Suggested his gal Sarah Palin “shoulda had a little cleavage going” during her debate with Joe Biden. (Thank goodness she didn’t, it could have killed Rich Lowry.) Baker continued to show the kind of not-sexism that the GOP showered upon their veep, saying “[S]how your stuff, you know what I’m saying? Use all your assets….By the way, I noticed a panty line on her. … When they turned to walk to the podium, I saw a panty line.”
- Said of Code Pink protesters, “I’ll tell you, though, in the speech — the best part of the speech was when those Code Pink nuts — another bunch that ought to have all their tubes tied. All right? I can’t stand these Code Pink broads.”
- Called Thomas Beatie, the transman who has become pregnant twice, a “mutilated lesbian.”
- And while he didn’t say it himself, he promoted a video of a pastor who called Barack Obama’s mother “trash” for having a child with a black man.
Heckuva guy, huh? He also, just for the record, argued for the use of ax handles and machine guns against RNC protesters who, as far as I can tell, broke a window at Macy’s and…well, that’s it. Misogynistic, transphobic, racist — I assume homophobic, since it really is part and parcel of that worldview.
Of course, Baker is hardly alone in using sexism and hate to sell his agenda — it’s pretty much expected on the right. But for a guy to do so much in such a short time…well, it’s inspiring to all the hatchet men and haters on the right. Baker has set a high bar for his fellow wingnuts to clear. And I shudder to think what he’ll do next. Because while I suspect Baker doesn’t believe half the stuff that comes out of his mouth, we all know that a lot of his listeners do — and Baker has given the thumbs-up to violence against women and transpeople, given the green light to attacking liberal protesters. He’s opened the door to a lot of hate and evil. But that’s what the best right-wing talkers do, now, isn’t it?
Aw man, why do they always have to come from Texas? Can’t we have another Ann richards or Molly Ivins instead?
At least my own local (Houston) right wing nut job, Michael Berry, keeps about 90% of his right wingedness grounded in reality.
multimillionaire basketball players who have spent their retirement building up the poorer areas of Los Angeles through investment.
Hm – just about everything I’ve heard about Magic has been related to his celebrity and his AIDS status. What’s he been up to with this?
RonF,
Seriously, you haven’t heard about Magic’s work to bring businesses into poor and minority communities? Heck, they name the businesses he starts after him, both officially and colloquially: the Magic Johnson movie theaters; the “Magic Starbucks” in LA (this even got mentioned in a movie, the interracial romance “Something New”), etc. The idea is to make it possible for people to spend their money within their communities, thereby encouraging jobs and investment there. It may just be something more well-known in urban/suburban areas with significant African-American populations.
I think of MJ as generally a philanthropic type so i’m not surprised, but I hadn’t heard of it either.
“I believe the media and the rest of the enablers out there, they have this guy’s [sic] blood on their hands because they create this false sense of reality and they enable people who need serious psychological counseling.”
I kinda-sorta-not-quite agree with this statement. I think the right word is sympathize. I sympathize with this statement. It is pretty clear to me that a person who would go so far as to commit murder over how another person relates to their own body and how this other person presents themself in gender terms must have some serious mental disturbance. And when the media presents a certain group as weird and threatening, and discussions of the group are framed in terms of an us-versus-them culture “war”, it really could be enough to send people on the edge over it. However, until brain science reaches a point where we can fix such problems physically as well as we can fix a broken arm, the deterrent effect that a policy of personal responsibility can have on some percentage of such murderers, as well as the social need to condeme such acts against a vulnerable population weigh in favor of not transferring blame to the media.
And don’t try to argue that Baker was blaming the media for enabling the victim. If he were THAT crazy, HE would be the one in need of serious psychological counseling.
Decnavda, before I saw your last sentence and realized you were being satirical, I was about to be surprised at your misreading :-)
Oh, never mind. I got the satire a minute too late!
PG, no, I hadn’t heard. But then I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to celebrity/entertainment news. Perhaps out in L.A. that’s harder to do.
I’m glad to hear it, mind you. It’s good to know that there are celebrities out there who are putting their money into something other than their own luxury.
RonF,
I don’t pay much attention to celebrity news either. I do pay attention to news about minority communities.
Well, apparently the Chicago papers aren’t spending much time covering what Magic Johnson is doing in the minority communities of LA. At least, not in the non-entertainment sections.