Yeah, why DON'T we hear more about G. Gordon Liddy?

I remember hearing, during the height of the Don Imus blowup last year, that the I-man was going to appear on the Rev. Al Sharpton's syndicated radio show. My first reaction: "Al Sharpton has a radio show?"

So when I read this morning Steve Chapman's column in the Chicago Tribune about John McCain's chummy relationship with unrepentant Nixon fixer and convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy, including the tidbit that McCain had recently appeared on the G-man's radio show, my first reaction was, "Wait. G. Gordon Liddy still has a radio show?" And then: "Why aren't we talking about this?"

Well, I'm a hired media critic, so I can answer my own question. The reason we don't talk about McCain's association with unrepentant violent radicals is the same reason we don't talk much about Joe Biden's campaign-trail gaffes. Namely, neither Biden's garrulousness nor McCain's consorting with far-right crazies gives most people new information about either man.

Liddy links: His radio show | His speaker's bureau

In other words, John McCain has already been linked to Rev. Hagee and other elements of the religious right. He's bragged about being pro-Bush (back when he was trying to win primaries). The idea that Liddy -- a creepy guy who once plotted to bomb the Brookings Institution -- adds a new wrinkle to this is a narrative than only dedicated Democrats could sustain for very long.

On the other hand ... maybe we should be talking about Liddy, at least until McCain stops talking about Bill Ayers. What changed it for me was Sarah Palin's relentless attacks about Barack Obama's alleged links to the former Weather Underground bomber -- "palling around with terrorists" will one day be used ironically, I predict, perhaps to name a punk band or a website -- and was reinforced by Ayers' name surfacing in the last presidential debate.

Chapman's excellent column reminds us that not just media folks in the tank for Obama feel a sense of outrage over the McCain campaign's hypocrisy. Chapman owes allegiance only to his personal beliefs, which are libertarian to their core, and this aloofness from any political party serves him well at times like this. (Compare with Frank Rich, whose columns I could practically write now.)

Chapman writes:

Liddy, who as a convicted felon is forbidden to possess a firearm, has bragged about keeping guns in his house and using them for target shooting. When I asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms what an ex-con could get for firing a gun, even at a target range, I was told it's a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

For at least a decade, this unreformed criminal and enemy of democracy has been McCain's loyal friend, supporter and contributor. It may be a mystery just why the Republican nominee consorts with a lawless radical. But it's no mystery why he doesn't want to talk about it.

Great point. For the next 12 days, when someone mentions Bill Ayers, I will think G. Gordon Liddy.

Previously on TV Barn: I reviewed Rory O'Connor new book about shock jocks and observed that Imus 2008 edition was just as outrageous as ever but no longer pulling in the kind of media attention as before.

Comments

[wendell]

There seems to be a certain protective covering given by most Media entities to even the slimiest public character once they "have a radio show" or similar feeble connection to The Media. I've seen this apply to scumballs of the Left, Right and Undefinable Fringe, although the Right has been using it much more frequently (Did I see the IMO Unpunished Perpetrator of Treason Oliver North referred to as an Imbedded Reporter? Yes, I did.) It's like an informally accepted membership into a Secret Club and explains FoxNews hiring 37,214 "Commentators" in the last year.

But the "his own radio show" syndrome may also involve a very sensible caution in dealing with a credible threat. Anyone with a syndicated radio show aired more widely than KCOK in Tulare, California (a radio station that does exist and where I did Farm Reports for a few weeks in 1978), does not have to have a Limbaughian audience to be dangerous. Every Radio Talk Show Host with the freedom to rant continuously for three hours (less Preparation H commercials) to an audience in the tens-of-thousands is playing non-stop in the ears of at least a few hundred lonely, unstable guys who own more than 2 guns (and Liddy has more Vets with PTSD in his audience than most). It's a simple safety rule that you avoid throwing rocks at a tiger in an enclosure that's less than 10 feet deep and you avoid provoking Liddy into making you the sole subject of his show for a week straight (especially if you're anywhere near Kansas. BE CAREFUL AARON.).

[wendell]

On reflection, the comment above may represent less my own reasonable concerns than the not-so-reasonable concerns of N.Y.-or-L.A.-based Media Managers who are already as fearful of assigning their reporters to Kansas as to Iraq.

[???--AB]

[James Poniewozik]

We *have* heard about Liddy--if we watched McCain's interview with David Letterman. And while i don't watch every interview McCain does, it's the first I recall his being asked about it. Further to your theory about the influence of late-night shows in this election.

[wendell]

???

!!!

Just wondering if I was channeling the stereotypical attitude of stereotypical Big City Media types toward stereotypical Flyover America. Which is not so much stereotypical as quad-channel-typical.

[Ed Szewczyk]

The McCain-Liddy relationship is probably more substantive and is definitely more recent than any casual relationship between Obama and Ayres. Liddy is every bit as reprehensible and unrepentent as Ayres. As a matter of fact, Ayres has actually managed to accomplish some good in the world, while Liddy still sits around fetishizing his guns. Nonetheless, the mainstream media talk endlessly about Obama-Ayres, but adamantly refuse to ask McCain about Liddy and are extremely reluctant even to report on it when someone else, like David Letterman, does their job for them. Neither relationship is relevant to any issue in the election, nor do they reflect anything in particular about the character of the candidates. If McCain is going to bring up Ayres, however, then his absolute hypocricy should be revealed by asking him about Liddy. The stone wall put up by the mainstream media demonstrates the double-standard favoring right-wing Republicans. Political journalists seem to cower and quiver whenever right-wingers engage in their long-standing game of "playing the refs."

[Editor K]

Okay, you got me - I thought Liddy was dead.

Anyone else from the Nixon era still around?