Posts with the tag 'Tommy Taxes'
No, I’m not making this up, nor is it an early April Fool’s joke. WRKO’s resident morning show felon and former Democrat House Speaker Tom Finneran has actually got the nerve to petition President Bush for a pardon!
Apparently, the fact that Tommy Tune Out was caught red-handed committing perjury is irrelevant, the Bay State’s Hack-In-Chief has enlisted the support of four ex-governators in his appeal to the outgoing president.
From The Globies:
Former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran, seeking to cleanse the stain left by his 2007 conviction for obstruction of justice, is angling for a last-minute pardon from President Bush and has lined up a group of former Massachusetts governors to back his request.
Finneran submitted an application for a presidential pardon last month, and the four governors - Democrat Michael Dukakis and Republicans William F. Weld, Paul Cellucci, and Jane Swift - followed up with a letter to the White House praising his integrity.
Finneran has already been “severely punished,” the governors wrote, citing the loss of his state pension, the suspension of his license to practice law, and his firing from a lucrative private-sector job.
“And he has suffered daily taunts and ridicule of those who believe that every elected official is the equivalent of a common thief,” the governors told the president in their letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe. They assured Bush that Finneran has “seen the error of this episode” and is truly sorry.
How could Team Swifty really believe The Felon was punished? Other than ridicule in the local press, he hasn’t suffered a bit. Despite tiny ratings, he makes a fortune as WRKO’s failed morning show host. They had to shut down the entire newsroom in order to pay his bloated salary!
Did he spend time in prison? Who are we kidding here?
Though I’m not surprised Tommy would try to pull this stunt, why were these former governors willing to help? He certainly doesn’t deserve it.
Tags: Boston, crooked politicians, Entercom, Globies, massachusetts politics, New England, Thomas Finneran, Tommy Taxes, WRKO
January 9th, 2009
In a news story announcing Tom Finneran’s hiring, the felon himself makes the case that he’s already accustomed to taking critical calls:
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.
Tags: Beacon Hill, Julie Kahn, talk radio, Tom Finneran, Tommy Taxes
January 11th, 2007
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.
Tags: Beacon Hill, Boston, California, San Francisco, Tom Finneran, Tommy Taxes, Willie Brown
January 11th, 2007
In their press conference this morning, we’re told WRKO management announced that Tom Finneran would not start his new morning drive talk show until mid-February.
If that’s really the case, then they’ve lost the one advantage they’ve had going into this deal: the current wave of publicity surrounding the now-convicted felon.
Why the delay? If this guy’s really ready to go, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t start on Monday.
Five weeks from now, Finneran’s troubles will be old news, the spotlight will be on something else and news of his hiring will be stale and boring to the local media.
Add to that the lack of a natural talk radio audience constituency for Tommy Taxes and this show should prove to be Dead On Arrival.
Tags: talk radio, talk show, Tom Finneran, Tommy Taxes, WRKO
January 11th, 2007
