Nest of Pervs and Reprobates?

During the day, when I'm not sleeping off the night shift or a Big Beer Night, I like to listen to WNYC, the local NPR affiliate. To be honest, it was one too many Kars4Kids commercials on the local news station which drove me to listen to commercial free radio. At any rate, the station has been wracked by a succession of harassment scandals... Last week it was the insufferable John Hockenberry, whose show I found to be a cesspit of 'both-siderism'. Turns out my instincts about him were right, he was a bully, particularly towards women of color. This was pretty evident from his tendency to interrupt women who were guests on his show.

This week, two additional hosts were suspended due to improper conduct-midday talk-show host Leonard Lopate, who was and weekend music show host Jonathan Schwartz got put in the penalty box, with Lopate apparently being escorted out of the building right before his noon show today. I always found Lopate's show to be hit-or-miss, he specialized in long-form interviews, so if his guests weren't of interest to me, I'd turn him off. Come to think of it, he did seem to have a tendency to interrupt guests, usually to show off how 'clever' he was. That being said, when he was 'on', he was on- having a thirty-two year radio career is quite the achievement, though it is now tainted by this scandal, and the suspicion that he was protected by a management which found women to be expendable.

I have come to the conclusion that all 'boomer' men should be swept from positions of power in the media, that women should be put into positions of authority. For too long, stale pale male voices have dominated the airwaves, and creeps like Bill O'Reilly, Matt Lauer, John Hockenberry, and possible Leonard Lopate need to be ditched in favor of new voices, ones which haven't been corrupted by power and the sense of entitlement it brings.

At least the radio station has been upfront about these scandals, giving a considerable amount of airtime to coverage. That being said, if Brian Lehrer turns out to be a creep, I'm gonna smash my, smash my radio:





Yeah, we want the airwaves, and we should turn them over to new voices.