Debate on KSCO Saturday Over Talk Host's Hillary Clinton Joke

This story has been hot all week, getting picked up nationally, about the local talk show host who told a joke suggesting it would be good if Hillary Clinton got shot.

Ordinarily, I might ignore the hype, especially because so much of it has been hateful. But I feel a responsibility and an opportunity to put out my views and face the other side face to face, and goofy as he can be, I like the station's owner Michael Zwerling, who hosts the 10 a.m. Saturday show. I don't know of many other radio station owners to still talk to their listeners.


You wouldn't believe some of the detestable mail and phone calls I've gotten. But I've also found over the years that if you address the people who write them, they often turn out to be better than you think (example below). This one was better than some of the others, which included anti-Semitic rants.

Bill Maher did a great segment on "Real Time" last week about how people have become so much more rude on the Internet. His conclusion was that people are angry and frustrated at their loss of economic power. Those who felt all these years that they were middle class, are actually poor. And those who felt they had the power to change things have discovered just how little power they have.

So they take it out by cursing at people anonymously on the Internet.

Here's a conversation I had yesterday, with someone who anonymously sent me a horrible text...but now I think we might end up coming to terms. 

This text came in at 7:28 p.m. Thursday, as I was finishing covering the fire on Seabright.

"YOU are a bonafide piece of SHIT."

My first thought was to respond with some equally rude words. My second was to send it to my friend at the sheriff's department. My third was to have some fun.

I answered at 7:46: "Thanks hunni. Love you too."

I figured if I was dealing with some hyped-up gun-toting guy that would drive him nuts.

Instead, I got this: "Lol good sense of humor....But way overblowing the georgia thing.

Then: "NOTE to brad, don't let people post your phone number...."

I went on to tell the texter that I would be on the radio Saturday, so they could talk to me then.

And then I got the most shocking response:

"I am happy to hear that you will be on the show to explain it all, by the way, I am Petie, I am going to try very hard to call in as well. I have an 11 yr old and a 1 year old so, we'll see if i can get the little one down for a nap."

It shouldn't surprise me. I'm a person with passionate feelings and I'm just as angry about a host thinking it's a joke that Hillary Clinton gets shot as this reader is that I'm infringing on someone's right to free speech. 

Throughout my career -- especially as a music critic at the Mercury News -- I often found the people who most vehemently argued with one of my reviews (and I did get death threats) turned out to be some of my later best sources and friends. They just didn't censor themselves very well at first.

So what would make the mother of two send a text with a swear word to a stranger? I'm going to ask her when she calls in.