|  Is
syndicated radio shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller a libertarian
or a conservative? He says he's a libertarian -- except when he says
he's a conservative. Or when he says he's a Republican. Or when he says
he's both. Or all three.
The Chicago-based Mancow, whose Mancow's Morning Madhouse is
syndicated on 25 stations around the country, said on Fox News' Fox
& Friends, "I'm not a Republican. I'm a Libertarian"
(December 6, 2005). However, he told CNSNews.com that he's a "conservative,
Bible-thumping radical who curses" (November 1, 2001). But in that
same interview, he said, "I'm more Libertarian than I am Republican,
but people don't really understand what Libertarian means." However,
he told The Illinois Leader, "I'm a conservative libertarian
kind of guy in a very liberal city" (February 23, 2004).
However you label him, Mancow sure sounds like a libertarian. Except
when he sounds like a conservative.
On the libertarian side, Mancow has displayed a distinct distrust of
government. In his 2003 autobiographical book, Dad, Dames, Demons,
and A Dwarf, he wrote: "I can feel the clock running out on
the American experiment of freedom. Has it already happened? Every cop
in Amerika today...can throw the Constitution out the window. Any cop
can break down my door at any time without a warrant as long as they
say the word 'terrorism.' Or 'drugs.' Against the Bill of Rights? You
bet it is." He told CNSNews.com, "I'm very worried about the
loss of freedoms, especially after September 11. It seems to me that
some of that cost [to fight terrorism] may be the loss of freedoms."
Mancow is also a supporter of the Second Amendment and an opponent of
censorship.
On the conservative side, Mancow supports prayer in government schools.
"The prayer in our schools should be the individual prayer of each
child, prepared by that child's parent or clergy or spiritual adviser,"
he told CNSNews.com (November 1, 2001). "But there should be prayer."
He has suggested that he opposes free trade. "How can an American
worker compete [with] India where there's no union, no health care,
and they pay a dollar a month?" he asked on his show (October 22,
2004). And Mancow has been so fervently in favor of President George
W. Bush's invasion of Iraq that critics have called him "a mouthpiece
of the Republican shill machine." He even suggested that critics
of the war such as DNC Chairman Howard Dean "ought to be tried
for treason." (Fox News' Fox & Friends, December 6,
2005.)
However, Mancow's fans seem less interested in his politics than in
his perverted sense of humor. And in that department, he's been so successful
that he has advanced rapidly from a humble start at a one-watt station
in Missouri to his current status as a nationally syndicated rival to
Howard Stern.
Mancow (born: 1966) graduated from Central Missouri State University
in 1990 with a degree in theater. He got his first radio job on KOKO-AM
in Warrensburg, Missouri. He later moved to stations in Kansas City,
Monterey, California, and San Francisco. It was in that latter city
in 1993 that Mancow made national headlines. After President Bill Clinton
infamously stopped airline traffic at the Los Angeles airport so he
could get a $200 haircut on Air Force One, Mancow drove his radio station's
van to the middle of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. There, he
parked the van while a sidekick got a haircut, stalling traffic for
hours. That "political statement" earned Mancow a $500 fine
and three years probation.
In 1994, Mancow moved to Chicago where his Mancow's Morning Madhouse
quickly became the city's top-rated program. The show features celebrity
interviews, prank calls, parody songs, and bantering with station staff.
By 2005, the show was broadcast in 25 cities on the Free Speech Radio
Network. The show's gutter-mouth content has drawn sharp criticism and
fines from the FCC for indecency. Like Howard Stern, Mancow has been
accused of being racist, sexist, homophobic, and politically incorrect.
In 2001, Mancow announced that he was considering mounting a Republican
campaign for lieutenant governor of Illinois. He later changed his mind,
and told CNSNews.com, "Let's be honest -- being lieutenant governor
would be a step down for me from radio."
Billboard magazine honored Mancow as the Radio Personality
of the Year in 1995, 1996, and 1997. In 2005, Talkers magazine
named him to its list of the "100 Most Important Talk Radio Show
Hosts in America." He is a weekly contributor to the Fox News Channel's
Fox & Friends, and has appeared on Entertainment Tonight,
Politically Incorrect, and Late Night with David Letterman.
--
Bill Winter |
