What Margery Is Afraid To Tell You
by Brian Maloney, November 10th, 2008 at 09:30am
Let’s face it: Margery Eagan’s performance at the Boston Herald has been spotty for some time. Occasionally, the WTKK talker makes a decent point or two, but it’s usually followed up with a crappy piece that probably isn’t worth publishing.
In particular, she has an obsession with the appearance of other women, coming across as catty and petty. That is still evident in her references to Sarah Palin.
In Sunday’s Herald, however, she’s played defender of evil, attacking those who dare to question the increasingly-creepy cult forming around Barack Obama.
Clearly, the body-snatchers have full control over Margery, so she’s gone on the offensive, accusing cult critics of suffering from “Obama Derangement Syndrome” (itself a cheap rip-off of Michelle Malkin’s Bush Derangement Syndrome of a few years back).
Subject to the Herald’s standards (which must have been relaxed a bit to run this rubbish), it’s her column, so that’s not my objection.
In two places, however, she’s completely out of line. See for yourself:
Meanwhile conservative talk radio, having failed to prevent Obama’s election, has launched the undermine-him-right-out-of-the box squad. My Herald colleague and fellow WTKK 96.9 FM talk radio host Michael Graham has his own Obama resistance movement, warning about civilian police forces and mandatory youth indoctrination, etc.
Personally, I love Michael. Politically, I think he’s out there.
“So Michael, are you deranged?” I asked him yesterday.
“Just because you’re paranoid, huddled in your bed in the fetal position doesn’t mean somebody’s not out to get you,” Michael said.
Deranged? I let you be the judge.
First, Margery wants you to think that conservative talk radio “failed” to defeat Obama, despite being burdened with John McCain, a candidate the right never wanted.
And if Rush Limbaugh and others are so ineffective, where does that leave Margery Eagan? She fails to note in her column that in the most recent Boston ratings, Rush is now beating her program in the critical 25-54 demographic.
That’s thanks to a 22% drop for her team, versus a 44% gain for Rush over spring 2008 figures.
Second, many talk programmers I know would be quite uneasy over the way Eagan has used her column space to attack a fellow host so directly. An oblique reference to The Felon in Howie’s column is one thing, but at most stations, Margery would be in hot water this morning with management.
The problem is that she’s undermining WTKK’s image and credibility by making a co-worker out to be a nutcase. A station’s brand name can be damaged this way.
Obama cultists will be looking for a variety of ways to attack resisters in coming weeks and months and Margery has offered her own approach, weak as it may be.
Entry Filed under: WTKK
22 Comments Add your own
1. Cap'n Spackle | November 10th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I heard a little of a Whatshisname and Margery show rebroadcast last night… Hey Marge: Do you have any idea how CATTY you sound when you’re talking about Sarah Palin? Were you picked on by some prettier, more popular girls back (way back) in high school or something and this is your twisted way of striking back?
[aside: The term Bush Derangement Syndrome was coined by Charles Krauthammer, not Michelle Malkin.]
2. Brian Flaherty | November 10th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I enjoy your stuff Brian but I disagree with you that Howie makes “oblique” references to Finneran. Perhaps he does in his column but he hammers him on his show.
Another potential nail in the coffin for M&E - Rush can now be heard on wrko.com.
3. Brian Maloney | November 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Howie takes shots at him, but Finneran is also a convicted felon.
WTKK doesn’t need to have its hosts dragged through the mud in the print media by another one of its hosts. That was a mistake by Margery that most stations would not appreciate.
4. Chris | November 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I hate Margery about as much as she hates Palin, but she knows what the score is. She knows she’s despised. If she still goes to work each day with a smile knowing this and knowing about the health of her industry, then more power to her.
5. Celtic Frost | November 10th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Even a queer like me can see what’s afoot on this front: Margery is feeling her age (55? 56?). So she resents Sister Sarah for being so much prettier and more desirable to hoi polloi - formerly Margery’s target audience!
So she makes ad hominem attacks in order to regain her perch as the “hot chick” for the unwashed masses.
Yawn.
6. Laurence Glavin | November 10th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
The three-digit lottery number in the Illinois State Lottery on November 5th was 666….you can look it up! That was the first full day of Obama’s President-elect-hood. (And the same day his victory speech was heard in the Eastern Time Zone.)
7. Joe from Brighton | November 10th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
All one has to do is look at Sarah Palin and then look at Margery Eagan, and it all becomes clear.
Margery is not a good-looking woman. Jealousy is a tough thing to get over.
8. Huh? | November 10th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
what the hell are you throw-backs
talking about? Do any of you really
know? Just grasping is the way it
looks.
9. WRKO Staffers | November 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I have it on good sources that Margery’s recent swing far left-ward is actually something that is planned out at WTKK. This is not to say that she doesn’t believe the things she says but she has been playing it up of late. This is happening for a reason. Also, she and Severin have come to blows. This is all in a desperate play for ratings. Anyway, it is kind of funny that Margery went from ducking under the covers/afraid to go into Boston after 9/11 to being a left-winger this year. She is adrift and really doesn’t know what she thinks.
10. RosannaDanna | November 10th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Oh, where do I start? She is so pathetic, sad and desperate not to mention truly dumb and untalented in both jobs. She is menopause age and apparently not aging well. She’s like one of those horrible jealous girls in high school. I actually feel sorry for Braude being saddled with her. Then, of course, there’s “Ask the Governor” and Martha Coakley days where Margery just drools. Who thinks this is good radio?
11. Cap'n Spackle | November 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
RKO Stuffers said “she and Severin have come to blows.”
Ha, I’m sure if it came to that, he’d come out on the worse end of it all. He likes show tunes.
12. WRKO Staffer | November 10th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Those Ask the Gov./Ask the AG shows are not good radio because Eagan and Braude basically just act so pleased to have the officials on their shows. It is really a good deal for WTKK, they get to keep “connected” to important state officials (who knows what benefits that has but I’m sure it doesn’t hurt) and the state officials are provided with a forum to promote their office and be treated as royalty. Check out McPhee’s “Ask Mumbles” segment too. This is another example. McPhee will go on and on about holding pols accountable but she goes soft with the mayor. Regarding Margery, apparently, there are some grumblings at her new persona. Some feel that she has been arrogant to callers and is turning “unlikable”. Remember, Margery calling card was that she was the “every-woman”. Now that she has recently come across as shrill and self-righteous, some are beginning to question her ability to keep listners. Also, I have heard other grumblings that she is getting increasingly lazy on the air. She doesn’t speak loud enough at times and she’ll go on long-winded tangents about silly things which she doesn’t realize take a lot of air time. They have increased the commercial breaks too. All in all, the show is really at a crossroads. I know some people at WTKK aren’t too happy with Margery.
13. Skunky | November 10th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Good on ya Rosanna! You nailed it! I have to thank Frau Eagan for being the catalyst of me finding AWESOME talk radio. I used to listen to “Eagan & Braude” (the name proves I have been listening since 2001) and then found Dennis Prager and Michael Medved. In contrast to her crappy show I was FINALLY enlightened with radio greatness. She is such a pathetic and untalented HAG, as a conservative I dream for the day Braude gets his own show. He knows his stuff (that’s why even HE makes fun of her and treats her as a “SLOW” affermative-action type hire in the sidecar motorcycle.) and he’s the meat of the show. He can debate excellently, and she is left to shower herself in her own retarded thoughts and spittle.
Why WTKK doesn’t give Braude show is beyond me. Eagan is a useless bore…she’s the radio version of someone you pick last for kickball. When you listen to their promos they NEVER use “clever”, “brilliant” and “thought-provocing”…instead they say “amusing” and “comical” ‘cuz Eagan is a saaaaaaaad joke.
And she HAS swung her ideology like a wishy-washy Charlie Brown (she looks more like Pig-Pen)…I have NO RESPECT for her and laugh at how stupid she is and how she can’t speak properly. She’s a lunkhead! An envious lunkhead!
14. Skunky | November 10th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Oh, and I want to add that I am THROUGH with “Pundit Review”…the ONLY show I now, um, USED TO listen to on sucky WRKO.
I miss Gregg Jackson and I have been very aggravated with the “moderate” tone Kevin has brought to the show. I’m gonna find out where Gregg is broadcasting in Cali and listen to him instead. He’s more my cuppa.
Kevin, I don’t want your show cancelled, but you’ve lost a avid listener because I’m not interested anymore. I’m gonna listen to John Gibson re-runs on my XM Satellite or Podcast of Andrew Wilkow.
15. Nortelcrank | November 10th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I can hear her dentures clacking when she talks.
16. aging cynic | November 11th, 2008 at 6:25 am
I noticed Finneran making a crack about Howie’s sealed divorce records the other day, so the Felon appears to be for real in his paranoia for the White Whale of HLC. What to say about Margery? Like most “progressives”, she has no sense of humor. There’s a reason Air America died. Graham, agree or disagree, is FUNNY. He actually made a living doing standup. Marge needs to be reminded that she’s entitled to her own opinion but not her own facts.
17. Celtic Frost | November 11th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Bri-dude, didja notice that Michele McPhee is writing again for the Herald?
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1131515&format=text
What gives there???
18. Massgopguy | November 11th, 2008 at 10:59 am
“Paranoia”? Why Magery, didn’t you read about America Serves and the Civilian National Security Force on “The Office of the President-Elect’s” website before it was sanitized?
Gotta love Cache.
19. the real Barbara | November 11th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
aging cynic, I caught a few minutes of the felon’s show this morning and he was all over the sealed Howie issue, his “co-host” Holly asked if he was bitter, LOL! The felon seems to have a real stick up his butt about Howie’s personal life, I guess maybe he’s jealous of Howie being big time radio, being in the RHOF and having three times the audience the felon can only dream of having. You could hear the venom in the felon’s voice when he made the crack about Howie this morning.
20. Al Bowlly | November 11th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Margery has just become a jerk. Trying to distract from increasingly weak performances in print and on the radio, she has sunk very low. She’s a sad figure who I imagine will drift from view in a short time.
21. Larry | November 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Marge’s constant giggling is enough to make me hit the button right after Michael Graham. Her Herald columns are just a rehash of her listener’s comments on radio. The biggest mistake TKK made was expanding the program to 3 hours. The program is getting sillier each time I hear it…Really trivial topics seem to abound. She comes across as a scattered airhead. Her columns in the Herald have no substance and are so predictable. I can’t figure why a failing newspaper would not try to put its best writers in print instead of showcasing the lazy uninspired efforts of Margery Eagan.
22. RosannaDanna | November 12th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Skunky, I like Michael Medved. Can you post times and stations? Thanks.
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