Pressed by a caller on his show who alluded to Colorado Media Matters debunking his false claims, 630 KHOW-AM radio host Peter Boyles insisted “I know I'm right about the things that these people think we're wrong about.”
Boyles on Colorado Media Matters: “I could find you people like the people who murdered Alan Berg that thought we were liars on the air too”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
Pressed by a caller on his show who alluded to Colorado Media Matters items that have debunked “over and over” 630 KHOW-AM radio host Peter Boyles's false claims -- specifically those regarding a speech U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) gave in Columbia, South Carolina -- Boyles insisted October 9, “I know I'm right about the things that these people think we're wrong about.” Boyles added, “I am saying that I am right because I believe that the things that we do are the correct and right things.”
After falsely claiming that his statements about Tancredo were “correct” and describing Colorado Media Matters as "three or four people on the left," Boyles added, “Now I can find you right-wing organizations, I could find you people like the people who murdered Alan Berg that thought we were liars on the air too, didn't we?” Berg was a Denver talk radio host and colleague of Boyles, murdered by white supremacists in 1984. As the Rocky Mountain News recalled in a June 19, 1994, article:
Berg was killed by a squad from a terrorist gang that called itself Bruders Schweigen -- German for the Silent Brotherhood. The news media called it The Order (it fit better in headlines), because it was patterned after a fictional racist gang of that name, which overthrows the Jewish-dominated government in a fantasy novel, The Turner Diaries.
After the caller asked Boyles, "[A]re you going to defend any of the things that they [Colorado Media Matters] accuse you of?," Boyles responded, “I simply don't care.”
Colorado Media Matters has documented numerous false and misleading statements Boyles has made. He repeatedly has claimed (here and here) that the League of the South -- an organization he identified on his September 13 radio show as a “hate group” and as “a separatist, racist organization” -- did not attend Tancredo's September 9 South Carolina speech, which was part of a fundraiser for the Americans Have Had Enough Coalition. In fact, while the League of the South did not sponsor the event, a September 14 Denver Post article reported, “About 25 members of the South Carolina League of the South, which advocates an 'independent Southern republic,' attended Tancredo's speech Saturday in Columbia, S.C., said league board member Lourie Salley.”
On his September 14 show, Boyles insisted his “friends ... couldn't find” an online invitation in which the League declared Tancredo “our guest.” And on September 15, Boyles falsely asserted, “The League never, on its website, claimed that Tancredo was their guest.” Yet as Colorado Media Matters noted, as of the morning of September 15 the South Carolina LOS continued to post an invitation on its website that read: “Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) will be our guest...Saturday September 9th.” The invitation remained on the site as of October 10.
In addition, while discussing Tancredo's speech, Boyles echoed The Denver Post in falsely claiming on September 13 that Tancredo “had no connection” to the Americans Have Had Enough Coalition, the organization that sponsored the event. In fact, Tancredo serves as the conservative group's honorary chairman, a fact that was clear from the organization's website home page.
Beyond instances of Boyles presenting misinformation regarding Tancredo, Colorado Media Matters has documented Boyles's false claim that Denver police are “mandated not to call” Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of the city's supposed "sanctuary" policy. In addition, Colorado Media Matters has noted one occasion in which Boyles agreed with a guest's false claim that Boulder's Daily Camera "never publishes the word 'illegal' before the word 'immigrants'"; another occasion in which Boyles incorrectly asserted that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) says “nothing” about illegal immigration; another instance in which Boyles baselessly claimed that Denver “gave out” 5,000 cell phones to the homeless; and yet another in which he wrongly asserted that “there was nothing ... about fining the private sector” in immigration-reform legislation passed by the Colorado legislature this year.
Boyles also described Colorado Media Matters as “a bunch of guys -- three or four people on the left -- that have a problem with me and Rosen and a couple of other people.” As Boyles suggested, Colorado Media Matters also has written numerous items about Newsradio 850 KOA host Mike Rosen's falsehoods, distortions, and misleading statements.
From the October 9, broadcast KHOW-AM radio's The Peter Boyles Show:
CALLER: OK, what do you know about Colorado Media Matters, Pete, anything at all?
BOYLES: No, I just -- they're a bunch of guys -- three or four people on the left -- that have a problem with me and Rosen and a couple of other people. Why?
CALLER: Well, the reason I ask is because they put you on there quite a bit.
BOYLES: Terrific.
CALLER: And they've said over and over the whole deal about Tancredo and this thing singing “Dixie” and being all that down there, and I'm not going to call you and try and throw that on you; I just want you to tell the --
BOYLES: Yeah, but you are, aren't you? You don't want to, but you are aren't you? And I -- and I'll tell you what, he --
CALLER: No I'm not Pete; I'm not speaking to --
BOYLES: Wait, OK, [caller] --
CALLER: They call you a liar constantly. I listen to it all the time, Pete.
BOYLES: [caller], [caller], all they have to do is pick up the phone and call the show.
CALLER: I understand that, Pete.
BOYLES: All right, so you don't -- we don't -- [caller] --
CALLER: That is a totally different topic as far as --
BOYLES: Yeah, but [caller], you just brought it up. And I am just telling you, there is an organization out there called Media Matters, and they're very upset with talk radio and they find -- and they call people liars. So fine.
CALLER: Yeah, they find people and call them liars. But are you going to defend any of the things that they accuse you of, then?
BOYLES: I don't -- you know what? [caller], I -- for a guy that doesn't know, you seem to know an awful lot. I simply don't care.
CALLER: You don't care that people call you a liar?
BOYLES: No, no. I -- look, the names -- most of -- do you remember when we went through -- when people believed John Mark Karr killed Pat -- killed Jon Benét?
CALLER: I never did; I never did.
BOYLES: I don't care about you, [caller]. Remember the things that were said to me?
CALLER: Absolutely, Pete. I was with you the whole way. I called you --
BOYLES: All right, do you think -- [caller], [caller], do you think that that troubled me?
CALLER: Well, yeah I do.
BOYLES: No, well I'll tell you what, when you --
CALLER: Because you thought that it was necessary to say how (inaudible) called you and --
BOYLES: So [caller], as much as I care, I know I'm right. And I know I'm right about the things that these people think we're wrong about. And that's --
CALLER: Why are you right, because Tancredo said you was right, so you just side with him?
BOYLES: [caller], I am not saying that I am right because Tancredo says I'm right, I am saying that I am right because I believe that the things that we do are the correct and right things. Now, I can find you right-wing organizations; I could find you people like the people who murdered Alan Berg that thought we were liars on the air too, didn't we?
CALLER: I remember that and I --
BOYLES: All right, now do you remember what they thought about us -- that we were lying about things, and they had their own little group and they thought we were liars? Well you know what [caller], there's all kinds of organizations out there including those people that think you're liars. Fine; this is United States of America. You can think whatever you what to think; you can haul coal in your mouth if you want to. But if you think that we're going to go around -- all these people have to do is call the radio show, and we'll have them on.
CALLER: OK.
BOYLES: All right; all right.