Jerrel Jones, owner of WNOV-AM, announced that former Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee is off the radio station's lineup -- for now.
From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Jerrel Jones, the owner of radio station WNOV-AM (860) has barred talk show host Michael McGee from the air indefinitely because of the "disgusting" remarks McGee made Thursday morning about the death of Katherine Sykes.
Sykes, the mother of Charlie Sykes, the host of a conservative talk show on WTMJ-AM (620), died Tuesday in a fire in her Mequon home.
During his "Word Warriors" program Thursday, McGee said Katherine Sykes deserved her tragic fate and suggested that her son was responsible.
I don't know. Jones has barred McGee from his station "indefinitely."
"Indefinite" couldn't be more vague.
I think Jones is expecting the dust to settle after a while. I have no doubt that in due time Jones will welcome McGee back. He just won't predict when that will happen.
...More than 100 people called WNOV management on Friday to condemn the remarks and demand that McGee be barred permanently from the airwaves.
Jones pulled McGee from his usual morning slot on Friday but has not decided whether he will be banished permanently.
"I thought the statement was terrible," Jones said Friday afternoon. "It was ridiculous, and the timing was absolutely deplorable.
"The remark was disgusting."
Jones said he would meet with McGee this morning to discuss the former Milwaukee alderman's offensive comments and the prospects of his return to the air.
I really don't like how Jones is phrasing his comments.
"The remark was disgusting" sounds as if McGee uttered an offensive sentence or two. That's not the case at all. McGee made lots of disgusting REMARKS.
I don't see how Jones could ever allow McGee back on his radio station. There's no way that McGee will apologize. He won't do an "Imus on Al Sharpton's show" mea culpa. He won't meet with Charlie Sykes to beg forgiveness the way that Imus met with the Rutgers women's basketball team. McGee would never do the right thing.
Jones has to know that. I don't think it's enough for Jones to condemn McGee's REMARKS.
The fact that Jones hasn't already permanently banned McGee from the air tells me that he has no intention of doing so. I think that McGee's return to WNOV is a done deal.
McGee has bought his air time for a least a dozen years on the station that Jones has owned since 1972.
Jones took McGee's show off the air for a short period in 2004 after he used an obscenity during "Word Warriors."
Jones said he has not determined whether he will allow McGee back this time.
"I am going to make sure that never happens again," Jones said. "I will guarantee myself that.
"I don't know just what course of action that will have to take."
The only way that Jones can guarantee that McGee will never do something like this again is by never allowing him to come back.
McGee and Sykes have clashed on their respective programs, and the elder McGee has accused the WTMJ radio host of attacking his alderman son and the black community.
This really bugs me.
Why is The Journal Sentinel carrying water for McGee?
I've never heard Sykes make any sort of racially-motivated or baseless attacks on the black community or Junior McGee.
In fact, Sykes is a tireless advocate for School Choice, a program that offers educational opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach for some kids in Milwaukee's black community.
Any criticism that Sykes has directed at Michael McGee, Jr. has been entirely legitimate.
McGee, Sr. and Sykes are in totally different leagues.
The Journal Sentinel reports as if they should be considered on the same playing field. That's an insult to Sykes. That's typical of The Journal Sentinel.
...Jones referred to the long-time rivalry while discussing the situation Friday.
"I'm saying, if you keep punching a guy's kid, and you keep punching a guy's kid, when he gets a chance, he's going to throw a blow," Jones said. "He threw a low blow."
Jones said he believes McGee's remarks were meant to hurt Charlie Sykes and not meant to demean his mother.
Good grief.
The Journal Sentinel comes awfully close to blaming the victim here. Jones is rationalizing McGee's behavior. Naturally, he claims that McGee threw the low blow because Sykes had mercilessly beaten Junior McGee.
That's crap.
It's crap that Jones would say it, and it's crap that The Journal Sentinel would print it, failing to report the idiocy of Jones' explanation of McGee's ugliness.
Jones reliance on the rivalry to explain that McGee didn't really mean to disrespect Katherine Sykes is lame. It's a feeble excuse.
If his intent was to hurt Sykes, that doesn't make it OK, or any less offensive.
The Journal Sentinel Editorial Board weighed in on the matter.
That doesn't make up for virtually ignoring the story for a day.
If not for Drudge and Michelle Malkin exposing McGee and revealing him as a vile person to the entire country and beyond, I bet the paper would still be ignoring it.
The Board was shamed into commenting.
In its editorial, Outrageous speech," the board praises Jerrel Jones.
It was tough for Jones, "who had to balance McGee's right to free speech."
I'm sure it was also tough for the Editorial Board to defend Sykes; but the deplorable nature of McGee's comments was even too much for the Board to excuse.
For McGee to call Sykes names when he is grieving is offensive enough. But to say on the air that a woman who died tragically somehow deserved it for no other reason than being the mother of someone with whom you often have publicly sparred is something else. That goes beyond what most people, no matter who they are, consider acceptable behavior.
It's interesting that while the editorial condemns McGee and offers a few quotes, it fails to cite some of the most vile statements from McGee -- that Sykes "killed his mama," that "He got tried of waiting for that money."
McGee's most outrageous speech is left out.
In any case, it was the right thing for The Journal Sentinel Editorial Board to do, to swallow hard and actually side with Sykes.
The question: When will McGee be back on the air at WNOV?
It's hard to say, but he I think there's little doubt that he will be back.
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