Change-up.
Looking to get my blood flowing on a groggy Monday morning, I tuned in Peter Boyles and his KHOW 630-AM talk show, expecting another riff on illegal immigrants.
Lo, Pete ended his own streak, choosing instead to attack President Bush and his sudden renewed interest in the gay-marriage debate.
Boyles no doubt surprised many listeners by raking Bush over the verbal coals for supporting a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to a man and a woman.
“You’re being had, you’re being played with,” Boyles said. “George Bush doesn’t give a rat’s patoot about this (issue).” It is, he proclaimed, merely a distraction for real issues that are dragging down the Bush presidency, issues like Iraq and, oh yes, illegal immigration. In Boyles’ world Bush=sagging popularity=illegal immigration.
But he’s right when he says that “we have enormous problems in this country” and that this is all a White House smokescreen to take our minds off Iraq and other issues.
When he puts his mind to it, Boyles is as good as any talk-
show host in the country at pinpointing the gut of an issue. If he rides it into the ground occasionally, it’s the price we have to pay.
Not that he and I don’t have disagreements on media coverage of the immigration debate and Boyles’ fixation with it. He crabs that this newspaper has become Izvestia, mimicking government positions, when it doesn’t cover to his liking a billboard unveiling – which ranks right up there in photographic excitement with a check passing. “Our sign was very, very tiny,” he complained.
And he didn’t like it that last week I referred to it as “his” billboard, even though he is the most visible media proponent here of “defending our borders” and the fact that most of the money for two billboards put up last Thursday came through his efforts at the radio station. Perhaps he’s just being modest.
On Monday, Boyles turned his attention from illegals long enough to rattle some conservative cages, asking his listeners, “What’s wrong with two guys who love each other getting married? Why do you care?”
It was a nice change of pace. But Peter, as a friend, here’s my advice: Lose that “Federico to the Rescue” parody. It’s lame, it’s off-key and, worst, it’s not funny.
Around the dial
As I reported last week, ManiaTV, the local 24-hour streaming television network, has landed comedian/prankster Tom Green for a weekly late-night show, starting June 15. “The perfect personality for our network,” said CEO and founder Drew Massey in announcing the signing. … A big deal: “SportsCenter” takes time out of its busy schedule to cover pitcher Roger Clemens’s first comeback pitch with the Lexington Legends in a Class A game (5:05 tonight, ESPN). … Quotable: “I don’t have journalistic standards and neither does (The Post).” Peter Boyles
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
