Double Trouble

Can someone get Tom Finneran a career counselor?

Dear Tom Finneran:

Congratulations. No, seriously, well done. You plead to the felony, lose your political career, and then bounce all the way back by putting together one of the lamest shows in the history of the electric radio device. (No kidding. Your morning burbling on WRKO makes Howie Carr in the evening sound like The Mercury Theatre on the Air.)

Against all odds, you are not canceled after 15 minutes. And then, when it's revealed you want to lobby your old pals at the State House, you get your wrist slapped and give some vague assurances you might not do it. And then what happens? You do it!

There's failing upward and there's failing upward, and then there's you, my friend, the Neil Armstrong of failing upward. I hadn't followed the original "scandal" regarding your lobbying closely because, frankly, I think talk radio has the ethics and aesthetics of a tack hammer.

Still, I thought you'd learned a lesson. Then, lo and behold, I read that you've launched Finneran Global Strategies, which will lobby on behalf of (among other people) the Liquor Liability Joint Underwriting Association of Massachusetts. (Whew!)

These are the fine folks who will see to it that, if at my bar, I serve my sockless friend another 27 martinis and, on the way home, he runs his SUV through a convent door, scattering nuns like ninepins, I will be covered against the cost of straightening any of them out again.

(I pause to note here that, judging by its client list, Finneran Global Strategies is not yet by any means global. It is something less than continental.) And you've still got your radio show, too. This is some seriously fine country we live in, isn't it?

Charles P. Pierce

Next thing you know, we'll be caught having cocktails with The Empress and Coffee Boy!

Hey buddy, are you SURE it was a rerun? Isn't every Vay Cay show exactly the same?

Here it is:

- Hour One: Here are some jokes about Hillary's weight

- Hour Two: I'm a big shot DC political consultant, don't you know that?

- Hour Three: More jokes about Hillary's weight.

- Hour Four: I'm very important and as a favor to you would like to spend the next hour delivering a very important and profound lecture. You do miss college, don't you?

Boston TV news is little more than car crashes, fires and the latest shootings in Dorchester and Roxbury. And it certainly isn't interested in taking down well-connected insiders from our media-politics regime.

Foreign media outlets, including the BBC, almost always correctly call it Burma, while the NYT sticks with Myanmar, even "correcting" the US ambassador's wife when she uses the proper name.

To their credit, The Globies seem to be defying their New York masters and using Burma.

Again, it should never, ever be called "Myanmar" unless you enjoy seeing monks tortured as they fight for the freedom of Burma's citizens.

Thanks for letting me vent on this one. Now back to our regular programming.

When does his radio talk show begin?

Davis referenced this April poll, which shows Senator John McCain and Obama neck-and-neck in a November Bay State match-up, while Hillary would beat McCain here by 15 points.

Hey, we've already been burned once by Deval Patrick, why fall for the same tired act from Obama, his political twin?

But what if it turns out team rivalries had nothing to do with her vehicular rage? Will they apologize or retract it?

Otherwise, this is little more than fanning the flames for no reason beyond ratings. It's baseball, not gang warfare.

Here's the latest example.

Between Spackle & Paste on WRKO and now Huggy Bear on WTKK, the fun never ends around here.

Based on how they handle the events of the coming days, various Bay State organizations have a great deal to gain or potentially lose. Let's take a look:

Bay State Republicans: now completely shut out of power and without substantial numbers anywhere on Beacon Hill, the GOP needs to prove to voters that it still has a relevant purpose.

That can be accomplished here by firmly positioning itself as a fearless watchdog against abuses of power during a period of one-party rule.

During the DiMasi mess, it has been out in front and particularly noisy. Whether the party will show a new, competent side over the long term is anyone's guess. If London can elect a Conservative mayor, then anything is possible, even in Massachusetts.

Them Dems: could this be the new incompetent Bay State political party? How does one take the gift of single-party rule and screw it up this badly? Overconfidence is the culprit, the feeling that Bay State voters will overlook virtually any Democrat scandal.

Right now, they've become a fodder machine for pundits, a situation that will hurt them in November.

Newspapers: the DiMasi mess is unusual because the story was broken by the Democrat-friendly Globe, which normally serves to protect Beacon Hill's corruptocrats. The Herald has had to play catch-up for once, but has been all over it since Sunday's Globie front-pager.

This odd switcheroo might explain why DiMasi's political position is now so threatened: the beautiful people still read the Sunday Globe.

Talk Radio: a medium that was created (largely in Boston!) as a natural citizen watchdog has now been so badly compromised that area listeners no longer trust it. All three local talk stations have been tripping over each other to see who could suck up to Beacon Hill the most, with embarrassing results.

Rather than serving as a voice for Massachusetts voters and taxpayers, all three stations now actively fight them, with perhaps a couple of exceptions on the schedule.

Think about it: while The Felon defends local crooks and WTKK features hour-long suck-up fests, THE GLOBIES went after DiMasi. When the Boring Broadsheet is more trustworthy than WRKO, WTKK and WBZ combined, we are in SERIOUS trouble.

While the commonwealth's most powerful political figure goes down to defeat, all of these players need to have battle plans in place.

And when Sal gets the boot, I've little doubt that a local talk station will be waiting in the wings with a mega-bucks contract. How did the situation deteriorate to this point?

UPDATE: I'd left out a whole category here, that of local television news. During Friday's 11pm newscasts WCVB-5 reported on the alleged threat against a female lawmaker by a colleague, but ignored the DiMasi scandal. WHDH-7 focused on the harassment angle but worked in a mention of Sal's troubles.

But hey, aren't car crashes on Route 3 more important?

Just try and sneak below Reese's record-low ratings! Based on data obtained by SaveWRKO, Hopkins scored the kind of numbers any last-place team would envy.

In the 25-54 adult demographic, the New Jersey hip hop promoter turned in a stunningly tiny 0.6 share for the 10am hour, followed by an even more miniscule 0.3 at 11am.

By contrast, Howie is still generating a 2.6 in afternoon drive, while Michael Savage gets a 3.0. Morning drive as a whole (6-10am) is down to a pathetic 1.1.

At least it wasn't a Kennedy.

Unless you're new to this site, however, it should be clear that Entercom management will not fire His Crookedness. That would mean CEO David Field admitting to a mistake, something that isn't likely in our lifetime.

Actually, focusing on Finneran's future is a mistake, as there is a much larger issue facing WRKO: a staff that has come to resent arrogant company management so much that it is cheering the station's ratings nosedive.

When there's no support from within, you know an operation's days are numbered.

Just as a station can't force people to listen to bad programming, crappy managers can't compel employees to like them. When WRKO completes its high-profile collapse, that's the lesson all of us must learn and appreciate.