I have posted this letter from my friend Richard Krause to Robin Bertolucci Director of Programming KFI Los Angeles.
My letter to Robin Bertilucci this a.m. Handel is a dick - made this crack a little before 6 - a decent rant..
Dear Robin, I was appalled at a comment Bill Handel made this morning regarding the death of a legless veteran who died recently in a roller coaster accident. Having read the story in yesterdays paper I became familiar with the young man's travails, he having lost both legs while serving our country in Iraq in 2008 - three years of surgery and grueling therapy - an American hero in every sense of the word.So what did Mr. Handel have to say as we receive the Handel-on-the-news version of the story ? I paraphrase -:"Maybe he should have had those little hook things, like the planes that land on aircraft carriers" This is beyond distasteful and, I think, is revealing of a very real sickness in the mind of Mr. Handel. We all enjoy the occasional morbid bit of "black-humor" but his use of this very real tragedy in this way was just wrong - a young man and his family having suffered for years in their harsh new reality of a life of permanent disability - and should never be the object of mockery - which in its basest form this truly was. We may accept the premise - right or wrong - that this young mans sacrifice in his duties (and that of so many others) was to ensure the right of all of us to speak freely as Mr. Handel did this morning. We have all observed or heard statements that reveal the pitfalls of our first amendment as it is applied across the broad spectrum of American ideological thought (even to the seriously deranged) - so it is and should remain.
However we consumers do have a choice in this age of mass media - change the channel, turn off the radio/TV, drop the newspaper subscription...whatever. In my case this callous attempt at humor from the addled brain of your top-rated morning host leaves me few options but to do one of the above - even though Handel's recent slide does not reflect on his co-host's whom I uniformly admire and will miss for their insight and professionalism - and senses of humor. Beyond that I can think of only one other recourse and that will be for myself and other veterans of my acquaintance to contact advertisers on his program to make sure they are aware of their spokes-persons demented glibness - perhaps they will share in my outrage and censure this buffoon by redirecting their advertising dollars - at least to other programs on the clear channel network. I truly hope so. An on air apology might be nice but as it has been said "an apology is only worth it's weight in gold".
Sincerely, Richard C. Krause
