With renewed public outrage, the attempt by disgraced former Democratic House Speaker Tom Finneran to win a presidential pardon for his felony perjury conviction has opened up a huge can of worms locally.
During a phone conversation with a local media person Friday afternoon, I asked why The Finne-felon doesn’t simply wait for Obama to take office to mount his campaign. Why would Bush, a Republican, feel compelled to help an entrenched Massachusetts Democrat?
The quite logical answer: given the nature of The Felon’s crime, lying about his racist gerrymandering scheme, a pardon could prove politically sensitive for the Obamist Regime. That’s why the race is on to get this done in the next ten days.
Meanwhile, fellow WRKO talker Howie Carr isn’t waiting for Bush’s response, if any: his latest Boston Herald column, published in Saturday’s editions, offers his strongest language yet. Calling Finneran a “maggot”, Howie’s truly unleashed here:
The Four Stooges said Felon Finneran has been “severely punished.” Really? He’s still making big money for his wretched radio show, which we call “Sweet Sixteen,” because that’s generally about where it finishes in the ratings. The Felon usually runs neck and neck with “The River,” and sometimes he even edges the Manchester N.H. soft-rock station. Sometimes. His show is so compelling it now goes off the air at 9 instead of 10, and they’re trying to prop him up with a co-host.
Finneran should be breakin’ rocks in the hot sun. He fought the law and the law won. Although I still remember the day he was “sentenced,” and how Judge Rick Stearns was almost apologizing for having to ask him the questions every convicted felon has to answer.
Are you on drugs this morning, wiseguy? You do know you can’t own a firearm anymore, maggot. But no, it was all “Mistah Speakah” this and “I know this is a silly question but . . .” I was there in the courtroom hoping to make a victim-impact statement. See, I was at the courthouse the day Felon Finneran told his string of incredible whoppers about his racist gerrymandering scheme in the city of Boston.
I was shocked, shocked, I tell you. I tried not to let it destroy my faith in the integrity of the Massachusetts Legislature. But I can’t get over it. Then last year, the Felon speculated to Gov. Patrick that I should be taken for a one-way ride in the trunk of the governor’s Coupe Deval.
Just out of curiosity, I looked up “maggot” and discovered that Howie’s actually being a bit too kind to the Felon. He might even owe the little guys an apology.
That’s because the worm-like insects actually have an important medical benefit for patients suffering from flesh wounds, particularly for those who no longer benefit from conventional antibiotics, as a result of resistance.
That’s maggots 1, The Felon 0.
What is his benefit to society? He’s spent his entire life taking what he can from us and giving back not a damn thing.
Nonetheless, I think this kind of Bostonian public battle is healthy. After the damage The Felon has done to Massachusetts taxpayers, ethnic minorities and governmental ethics, why shouldn’t it be payback time?
By contrast, in “nice” Seattle, local newspapers would be scolding us all for a lack of “civility” and imploring everyone involved to get back to traditional Scandinavian pursuits, such as making stinky lutefisk. There, political scores are settled through pathetic backstabbing, while in Boston, it’s a good old fashioned fistfight.
Of course, all of that “niceness” has both of their daily papers in even bigger trouble than ours. They have two boring broadsheets, while we are burdened with just one.
You know the routine: whenever Beacon Hill and City Hall Democrats are in meltdown mode (with no better example than this), we inevitably begin to see media grumbling over Howie Carr’s job having become “too easy”. Watch for that this week and report back here with your findings, please.
What’s stopping other local hosts from picking this low-hanging fruit, however? Other than The Felon, who will defend these creeps until the end, this corruption fiasco should be great for all of them.
When confronted with the reality that his Beacon Hill friends are disgusting crooks, The Felon at first tried to defend their corruption. But when pressed on the issue, the arrogant convict snapped and once again resorted to dropping the S-bomb.
He also declared himself more than ready for the rough- and- tumble of talk radio, saying after 26 years in public life he’s accustomed to “people calling in and criticizing.”
The problem is that unlike talk radio, where these calls come directly from the public and go right out over the airwaves, Finneran had a full staff on Beacon Hill to insulate himself from this kind of heat. And, given his legendary arrogance, Finneran likely has one of the thinnest skins in politics.
And here, he really must have had reporters laughing at this comment:
Finneran was accused of lying under oath in a lawsuit that stemmed from a legislative redistricting plan.
Finneran said today he made a mistake and is now paying the price for it.
No, Tommy Taxes, thanks to Julie Kahn and whatever sleazy deal got you this job, you’ve paid no price whatsoever.
A huge problem with Boston’s media environment is that it is notoriously insular and provincial, to the point where not having worked in other parts of the country is actually a bragging point.
As exposure to different markets can earn one a great deal of industry respect, Boston’s insider media sentiment is the opposite of what reporters, hosts and TV anchors will encounter elsewhere.
As a result, what you don’t see in coverage of the Finneran hiring is a good perspective on just how many times other stations have tried and failed at this very strategy in the past.
A fantastic comparison can be made between Finneran and Willie Brown, the former California State Assembly speaker who ruled the Golden State with an iron fist for at least as long as Tommy Taxes ran Beacon Hill.
Brown’s immense power scared many Californians to death, to the point where some of his legislative supporters were removed in recall elections. Later, he became mayor of San Francisco, taking his flamboyant style and engaging personality to the Northern California city.
A far more interesting character than Finneran could ever hope to be, Brown moved into a high-profile morning drive position on San Francisco’s KQKE The Quake after leaving his mayoral post.
Teamed with comedian Will Durst, Brown’s morning drive show was a spectacular failure, despite his clear compatibility with the station’s liberal audience. It didn’t last a year.
Given that Kahn previously worked in San Francisco, she has even less of an excuse for not understanding this key point.
Finneran, on the other hand, is a square peg in a round hole at WRKO and will encounter an entirely hostile audience, if anybody actually sticks around long enough for his February debut.
Had WRKO’s current management team had the experience necessary to program a major talk radio station, this point would have been obvious. Instead, left to these amateurs, mistakes that others made long ago in other markets are now being repeated here.
For over 25 years, Boston’s WRKO has been a national news-talk trendsetter, providing for New England a rare dissenting voice against Boston’s entrenched media and political establishment.
From the legendary voice of the late Jerry Williams, to Howie Carr and others heard today, it continues to provide a rare check on the excesses of Beacon Hill’s powerful elite.
In turn, WRKO’s fiercely loyal listeners have rewarded the station with consistently high ratings and substantial revenues.
And now, with Massachusetts facing single-party rule and few opportunities for speaking out against the tax-and-spend agendas of Governor Deval Patrick and his legislative partisans, WRKO is needed now more than ever before.
Without any apparent business-related reason, however, WRKO as we know it is now facing sudden extinction. In recent months, we’ve seen multi-sided debates between callers and hosts disappear, while fluffy, non-controversial programming takes its place.
We’ve seen WRKO’s entire newsroom shown the door, including award-winning anchors and reporters, for reasons that still remain baffling.
And we’ve also noticed an obvious clampdown on conservative opinions, in addition to an apparent edict against criticism of Governor Patrick outside of Carr’s program.
In its place, there are news reports that the ultimate Beacon Hill Democrat Party insider, convicted felon Tom Finneran, will soon be handed the all-important morning drive slot, despite his incompatibility with the station’s audience and lack of full-time talk radio experience.
Next, we wonder how long it will take before industry leaders Rush Limbaugh and Howie Carr are also removed from the station’s lineup.
Beyond that, WRKO is for the first time ever run by local managers without any experience programming talk radio. With their flawed decision-making, that lack of format expertise shows. In addition, it appears that one local executive is attempting to impose her own tastes on an unwilling audience.
While we understand that airing Red Sox games will likely boost evening ratings, there is simply no justification for throwing away the rest of the station’s schedule, especially when there’s no evidence that planned changes could improve the station’s ratings and revenue.
Watching the wholly unnecessary implosion of a great heritage talk radio station is sad, but hopefully preventable. Now, WRKO’s many listeners must make their voices heard, before it is too late.
Despite the new felony conviction of a sleazy, unpopular former Democrat Party legislator, a key WRKO / Boston manager continues to dig in her heels on a dubious programming move, seemingly without regard for the damage it will do to the station.
Meanwhile, disgust over former Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Finneran’s felony conviction yesterday continued to generate anger today, particularly over the light “punishment” received for his guilty plea on perjury charges.
Somewhere in the definition of arrogance lies a propensity for saying things even the speaker knows aren’t true, a tendency to intentionally overreach, even when it’s not necessary, to remind everyone else that you can get away with anything.
That may be the best explanation for why Tom Finneran lied on the witness stand in a civil suit challenging a legislative redistricting passed by the House in 2001. Even in a town that has produced such paragons of arrogance as Billy Bulger and John Silber, Finneran’s arrogance can be breathtaking.
Everyone knew Finneran’s fingerprints were all over the redistricting map; that’s how the redistricting process works. But, when called to testify about the action, he said he had no role whatsoever in designing the map in question.
That part of Finneran’s testimony was so unbelievable that the judge questioned it in a footnote in the opinion ruling the new districts violated the civil rights of minority voters in some Boston neighborhoods. That footnote inspired an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office and an indictment of the then-house speaker for perjury. The case was closed yesterday, with Finneran pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.
If not for WRKO’s interest, however, Finneran really would take a hit, as he is losing his pension, right to vote, carry a weapon or run for office. In addition, his plum job overseeing the state’s biotech council is now said to be on shaky ground.
As a result, it’s really WRKO’s Julie Kahn who is determined to ensure that Finneran escape punishment, as she’s standing at the ready with a pot of gold to reward a notorious Beacon Hill crony.
This is despite Finneran’s lack of talk radio experience, in fact, he’s yet to do a single show on the increasingly- troubled station. Nobody knows if Finneran could last a month without realizing just how difficult it is to host a daily drivetime talk show, much less be entertaining or compelling. Most former politicians fail in talk radio for this very reason.
As an insider with many fellow crooks to protect on Beacon Hill, Finneran is the opposite of what one would consider a potentially successful host to be. Instead of taking on corruption, he’ll be there to defend it, as a convicted felon himself.
For an example of what does work, look to WRKO’s Howie Carr, (seen in this photo) who has spent decades skewering the very people Finneran protects, with the ratings to back up his rhetoric. He spent most of yesterday’s show lambasting Finneran, with callers in full support of Carr’s position.
That’s why this deal, which would pay Finneran many times more than even experienced hosts could ever expect to make, appears dirty more than anything else. At the salary level on the table now, even the best potential ratings and revenue could never hope to make up for his high cost. Finneran may very well end up making more than Carr, which smacks of shady dealing in itself.
In addition, in a concession to his clear lack of attributes for hosting a daily morning drive show in a large market, Finneran will likely be paired with a co- host. That brings the overall cost into the stratosphere, up to Air America levels.
Beyond the sleazy Finneran deal, Kahn has been busy rearranging WRKO’s schedule to fit her own liberal political beliefs, rather than maintaining the conservative programming that has served the station very well for years. That’s despite the utter failure of libtalk in the Boston market.
One WRKO host even switched his previous on- air opposition to moonbat Governor Deval Patrick to a supportive stance, which probably saved his job, at least for the short run. However, the moment his views conflict with Kahn’s, even by accident, expect him to go as well.
Clearly, at no point is there any consideration of what would build an audience or an advertising base, it’s simply one of the nation’s worst radio managers forcing her own will upon a listenership that is already scrambling for alternatives.
Due to her clear lack of programming expertise, Kahn has yet to learn what will be a painful future lesson: you can’t force an audience to listen to what are your own personal tastes.
Julie, if you have any questions about this, simply contact the many former Air America executives who are now busy clogging unemployment lines in New York City.
Thomas M. Finneran, the former speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who pleaded guilty yesterday to obstruction of justice, will likely lose his $416,000 a year job as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council after its board of directors meets Monday to decide his future, according to a person familiar with the board’s discussions.
Finneran is hoping to keep his post as the state’s top biotechnology lobbyist despite pleading guilty to a felony, said another source who is close to him. Allies and legislators have been calling board members to express their support for Finneran.
But the guilty plea makes Finneran too much of a liability to keep as spokesman for an industry dealing with important regulatory and public-relations issues, said the source familiar with the board’s discussions. The 20-member panel, which includes executives from biotechnology and drug companies with offices in Massachusetts, is ultimately expected to ask Finneran to resign.
Finneran is in discussions with the radio station WRKO to host a talk show, a job he was hoping to take while keeping his biotech post, said a person close to the former speaker.
AMAZING: Finneran hopes to “phone in” the radio job while keeping the biotech position! Apparently he has no concept of prep time or what it might take to pull off an entertaining daily show. This is already shaping up to be a major disaster.
