A Brief Pause to Rally The Troops

I don't have time to go into the specifics of this, but I wanted to sound off on a couple of things related to it.

There's a big story going around -- at least, it's going around in those circles who are willing to report on it -- that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius took a cue from DNC head honcho Howard Dean as to what could be done politically to gain some points from the recent Greensburg, KS tornado disaster. Sam Brownback is apparently involved as well, in one form or another.

I only have limited knowledge of the whole affair, so I refer you to Bryan of Hot Air, who seems to have the best roundup of the battle so far.

Here's the part I want to put my two cents in on.

The radio show which has stuck their necks out the most with this story -- America's Morning Show, hosted by Jim Quinn and Rose Somma-Tennent -- has been a fixture in the Pittsburgh morning radio scene for a long time. We're talking at least a couple of decades here, if not more. Longtime readers of this site know that I have referenced them in many posts past.

I myself have been an avid listener since about 1998 or so, after moving into the area about two years prior, when they were hosted only on local radio station WRRK 96.9 FM. Within the last couple of years, they have started gaining national-level attention (by way of involvements with such political talk luminaries as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, as well as being aired on XM radio channel 165) upon attaining syndication at their new home, Pittsburgh NewsTalk Radio station 104.7 FM.

In the years that I have listened to them, I have never had any reason to doubt their bonafides as far as credibility. They have always conducted themselves as professionals, and have always been the first to make note if they have any doubt about the veracity of the news they put out. And this incident is no exception.

They have several sources that they use to check out possible show material, and (if what I understand is correct) have made extensive use of one source in particular in verifying this one. I do not believe that they would keep a source active if they thought for one second that they were being lied to.

This morning (as I was taking the kids to school), they announced on air that they have been threatened with legal action -- personally -- by a law firm representing the DNC Headquarters, if they do not immediately cease and desist from their work on this story AND put out a complete and total retraction of all material they have issued on the subject. Needless to say, they have rejected these demands.

However...they continued in their announcement that, if it is discovered that their source in this issue gave them false information, or sandbagged them in any way...they would happily not only retract the story on air, but also PUBLICLY reveal the identity of the source him/herself. (As earlier stated, they do not appreciate being lied to.) And I have never known these two to take a stand like this without following up on it.

In other words, it is my humble opinion that they would not go to air on something like this without doing their level best to be able to back it up first, or at least let everyone know that it's still a developing story that they're in the process of checking out.

There. That's my say on the matter.

I again refer you to the above link to Bryan's post, as he himself has personally been in touch with Jim & Rose to get their side of the story.