Saturday, May 05, 2007

Fraley hits nail on the head on McGee

Brian Fraley puts into words why I was hoping the McGee story would not get big:

Michael McGee, Senior’s radio ’show’ has been on thin ice for a long time.
This is how his show works. He himself sells sponsorships and then he purchases the airtime from his station. That arrangement hasn’t been working out so well lately. It has been especially troubling since the easy flow of public monies via OIC was cut off to McGee. Sponsors just don’t want to be associated with his garbage.
But failing on the basis of the marketplace of ideas would be embarrassing. To go down as the Warrior, he needed to be the victim of a white backlash.

For several months on the radio and on this and other blogs I’ve commented that his schtick is victimhood. Now that he’s said something outrageous enough to lose his airtime, he can proclaim he is the victim of conservative rich white men, thus further cementing his position in the pantheon of people kept down by ‘the man.’

There is one diference between my thoughts on this and Brian's, and that is that I'm not sure he'll lose his airtime. And even if he does, he'll resurface. There is only one explanation for why McGee went on Fox 6 and continued his inflamatory line-because he stands to benefit from it. He doesn't care what most of Milwaukee thinks. He cares about what a small, hateful segment thinks. That's his target market.

It's out there, now. Continue to light him up, folks. The only hope for keeping him off the air is if his own listeners and supporters find him too radioactive and walk away from him. Unfortunately, I think this might just end up bonding them to him even tighter.

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