KVOR's Michelli announces farewell; Colorado Media Matters recaps his misinformation and bigoted speech

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

News Radio 740 KVOR host Joseph Michelli announced on his June 11 show that June 18 will be the final broadcast of The Joseph Michelli Show. Michelli stated that this is "[t]he final week of Michelli. I'll be gone a week from Monday on the 18th." Michelli did not disclose the reason he is leaving KVOR.

Since August 29, 2006, Colorado Media Matters has documented numerous instances in which Michelli has promoted conservative misinformation and used bigoted speech on his show:

  • Discussing a Colorado ballot initiative to increase the state's minimum wage, Michelli on August 29 called minimum wage earners “dumb and incompetent.” Michelli later apologized, but claimed that he made the remark “cloddishly” and meant it as a “sort of rhetorical question” that posited a viewpoint he did not necessarily hold.
  • Again arguing against the minimum wage increase on September 5, Michelli falsely claimed that “the unemployment rate is somewhere around 40 percent in France.” In fact, France's unemployment rate was 8.9 percent, 78 percent lower than Michelli claimed it was.
  • On October 3, in response to a caller who claimed “blacks have been holding a grudge since they were shipped over here,” Michelli posed the question to African-Americans: “Would you rather be in Africa right now?”
  • During an April 6 “Make it your own Friday” broadcast, Michelli echoed numerous conservative talking points and falsehoods on a variety of topics, such as Social Security, illegal immigration, global warming, and the expiration of President Bush's tax cuts. Michelli falsely claimed that Social Security is “veritably bankrupt”; applied a controversial Heritage Foundation study about low-skilled households in the United States to only illegal immigrants; agreed with a caller on the debunked assertion that global warming is caused by the sun and not by human activity, despite evidence to the contrary; and echoed a false conservative talking point claiming that if Democrats in Congress “don't extend this tax break it's going to be equivalent to the greatest increase in taxes we've known.”
  • Discussing on April 10 the controversy over radio personality Don Imus' reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as “nappy-headed hos,” Michelli told a caller, “I think there's something to what you're saying” when the caller suggested that the controversy over Imus' slur stemmed from “the blacks wanting equality so much that they want our approval.” Michelli also tried to shift the blame from Imus to the basketball players by disparagingly suggesting that the women's reaction to Imus' comments revealed low self-esteem, saying, "[M]y self-esteem is so good that somebody I've never heard of can't really take it away from me."
  • On April 27, Michelli called homosexuality “unnatural” and agreed with a caller who equated homosexuality to “bestiality,” "[p]edophilia," and “necrophilia.”
  • Echoing conservative talking points, Michelli on May 16 distorted the intent of two pieces of state legislation that Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter recently had signed into law: one that allowed second-parent adoptions and another that generally required science-based standards in the state's sex education curriculum. Referring to the former, Michelli stated, “We now have laws in the state of Colorado that promote same-sex partners and ... adoption.” Regarding the latter piece of legislation, Michelli falsely stated that the bill “makes it clear that you can't just do abstinence-only [sex education], even if you're a small school district.”

From the June 11 broadcast of The Joseph Michelli Show:

MICHELLI: 740 KVOR, Joseph Michelli Show -- the drive home. The final week of Michelli. I'll be gone a week from Monday on the 18th. So let's wrap it up with so many exciting stories this week. Let's kick it off.