CNN reportedly considering talk show for Michael "Nation of Sissies" Smerconish
On January 14, the Philadelphia
Inquirer reported
that Philadelphia-based radio personality Michael Smerconish "is putting
together a talk-show pilot for CNN." The Inquirer
noted that Smerconish "is a frequent guest on CNN, as well as NBC"
and that "[a] CNN rep says the network asks for many pilots and generally
does not comment on them." In addition to hosting his own radio talk
show, Smerconish has been a guest host
for MSNBC's Scarborough Country
and Westwood One's The Radio Factor with
Bill O'Reilly, during which he has made several inflammatory
comments about Muslims, immigrants, and women:
- On the June 20, 2006, edition
of Scarborough Country,
Smerconish trivialized
reports of detainee abuse at
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
as "naked pyramid pictures" and at the Pentagon detention
facility at Guantánamo
Bay as
"play[ing] Christina Aguilera music a bit too loud."
- On the April 10, 2006, edition
of Scarborough Country,
Smerconish suggested
that "maybe law enforcement ought to step in" at pro-immigration
demonstrations and
consider "gathering ... up" illegal immigrants. Smerconish wondered
why there was "zero discussion" of "gathering them up"
at the demonstrations, when "[a]ll I keep hearing is how would we
ever find them?" He then suggested that law enforcement officials are
being hypocritical by refusing to "gather[] ... up" illegal immigrants
because they would "step in and do something about" a rally of
"pot smokers,"
who "wanted decriminalization" of marijuana, or "scofflaws" with unpaid
parking tickets.
- On the April 4, 2006, broadcast
of the Factor, Smerconish claimed that
political correctness has made the United States "a nation
of sissies," and that "sissification" and
"limp-wristedness" are "compromising our ability to win the
war on terror." (He later blamed "the
sissification of America"
for the sentencing of Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to life in
prison instead of death for his role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.)
- On the November 23, 2005,
broadcast of the Factor, Smerconish called public prayer
by Muslim men at a sporting event "wrong," adding that they were
playing "a game" to remind the audience of terrorist attacks. He
also asserted
that educating women means "they're not going to be around to instill
these lessons in their kids."
Additionally, while hosting MSNBC News Live on August 10, 2006,
Smerconish asked
former 9-11 commissioner and former Rep.
Timothy Roemer (D-IN) if the foiling of an alleged terrorist plot by
"individuals of Pakistani descent" against airliners taking off
from Britain would "cause the administration and the Department of
Homeland Security to say, 'We're at war with radical Islam and that fact
should be taken into account when we're trying to protect our borders and
our airports.' " He added: "I guess that I am referring ... to
that dreaded 'p' word: 'profiling.' " Smerconish also asked MSNBC
political analyst Pat Buchanan: "[I]f it turns out that these
[purported terrorists] are elements of radical Islam, do you think
Americans will finally have the stomach for profiling terrorists?"
— R.D.
Posted to the web on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 05:34 PM ET