Boortz suggested that Katrina victim turn to prostitution

Written by Sam Gill

Published

On the October 24 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, Neal Boortz suggested that a victim of Hurricane Katrina currently housed in an Atlanta hotel consider prostitution. “If that's the only way she can take care of herself,” Boortz posited, “it sure beats the hell out of sucking off the taxpayers.” The woman was featured in an October 23 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article; Boortz repeated her first name on the air.

From the October 24 edition of Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal Boortz Show:

BOORTZ: Somebody just put a story in front of me. Let me tell you, aside from the looters, one of the things I was talking about earlier this morning was a huge article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which is a left-wing rag, about Hurricane Katrina evacuees in a hotel in Atlanta. Her name -- the female is Rolanda. She has a 1-year-old baby and her boyfriend, who apparently likes to lounge around on the bed without a shirt on. Well, at least that was the picture in the newspaper. And the whole story was about how worried Rolanda is that she'll be kicked out of her taxpayer-paid hotel room. She might get kicked out. I mean, it says right here, “Rolanda is worried about being evicted from the hotel. She says, 'We have a place to stay. We have food. The only worry is how long it will last.'” That's all she's worried about, the only worry. And it goes through the whole article here talking about how fed up Rolanda is with FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] and how she spends all this time on a computer looking for more free housing. Not one mention in the entire story anywhere about the “W” word, W-O-R-K, work, job. I dare say she could walk out of that hotel and walk 100 yards in either direction on Fulton Industrial Boulevard [the street on which the hotel is located] here in Atlanta and have a job. What's that? Well, no, no, no --

ROYAL MARSHALL (Atlanta radio host and former engineer of Boortz's show): Watch out, Neal. Those people who know Fulton Industrial Boulevard think you might be suggesting something a little risqué.

BOORTZ: Well, that's true. Well, you know what? [laughing] Now that you mention it --

MARSHALL: That's not the way.

BOORTZ: If that's the only way she can take care of herself, it sure beats the hell out of sucking off the taxpayers.

MARSHALL: Watch out, man. It's the same thing, technically.