Marketplace of Ideas Blog

The big question in the Green Bay area today is: Should he be fired or not?

Well, of course he should be fired. His offensive line is going to get his quarterback killed, his defense reeks, his team can’t win the big game …

What? You're not talking about Mike McCarthy?

The subject actually is WTAQ (1360 AM) talk show host Jerry Bader, who begins a two-week suspension today before, according to a frequently played announcement, his fate is determined upon his return.

Bader's suspension is the result of his reporting, and then recanting, a rumor about the personal life of Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, who pulled out of the Democratic governor’s race (leaving one candidate you’ve never heard of) one week ago for “very personal reasons,” she said Monday, that are not tied to her health or her family’s health or her marriage, she said later in the week.

The obvious first point is that Bader should not have posted what he did. (Apparently he didn’t actually report the rumor on the air, but a piece of speculation was on a podcast, followed up with another podcast that was removed one day later when Bader said he “lost confidence in the sources that provided information” a day earlier.)

It is pretty remarkable to go ahead with the kind of rumor Bader reported without having more than one source for that rumor. And, of course, anything that makes print or a broadcast is basically impossible to retract. (Parents know that.) Moreover, it is debatable whether alleged family issues have much to do with an elected official’s or candidate’s fitness for office. There frankly were all kinds of reasons to oppose Lawton’s candidacy that have everything to do with Lawton the elected official and candidate and nothing to do with Lawton the person. (The same can be said about the silly rumors that Obama is not actually an American citizen.)

For what it’s worth, Lawton hasn’t handled this particularly well. The phrase “very personal reasons” does nothing other than to generate speculation, which, in addition to Bader’s recanted rumor, centers on whether pressure from a certain white house in the District of Columbia got her to leave the race. Lawton then said a two-week Bader suspension was inadequate, saying that such “irresponsible, inflammatory rhetoric” gave Green Bay a “provincial backwater” image, which is an interesting thing to say of an area where she lived for many years.

That is rich. Apparently Lawton doesn’t watch MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, whose “Countdown” wishes the political death of everyone to the right of Ted Kennedy, or listens to Air America, whose hosts make Bader sound like Mr. Rogers. (The latter I can understand, since Air America is trying desperately to avoid auguring in, which is why you don’t hear it on very many radio stations.) I didn’t hear anything from Lawton after the New York Times insinuated a relationship between Republican presidential candidate John McCain and a lobbyist.

Lawton's reaction to this episode ironically illustrates why she made the right decision to pull out of the gubernatorial race. Politics is a collision sport, and rightly or wrongly, rumors and worse things are part and parcel of running for higher elective office. Someone who is the number two elected official in the state should have known that well before now. Because government is too large and the stakes are too high, election campaigns usually have the ethics of professional wrestling. (See Doyle, James.) When a candidate gets upset at rumors more than one year in advance of an election, that should make voters wonder what kind of elected official the candidate will be when much more important things than scurrilous rumors occur.

I've heard Bader on only a couple of occasions. I am in favor of any talk show host who puts politicians' feet to the fire. I also am in favor of live and local, as opposed to syndicated or voice-tracked, radio. The people like Bader who comment on issues affecting their local listeners is unfortunately rare in Northeast Wisconsin. I don't know what the political beliefs of the family that owns WTAQ are, but certainly if WTAQ fires Bader, that will give ammunition to those who want to get right-wing commentators off the air. (WTAQ, by the way, also carries Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage.) Regardless of the political beliefs of WTAQ's owners, they should not want to give special interest groups the impression that they will fire one of their employees for saying something on the air that offends someone's sensibilities. There is always an alternative for those who don't like what they hear — other radio stations.

If Bader is fired, this ironically could be good for his career if a radio station owner is willing to deal with the question of whether this was a slipup or a new ethical point of view.