SCOT LEHIGH
Severin fails to own up to his wordsHERE'S TODAY'S question: How dopey does WTKK radio talkmeister Jay Severin think "the best and brightest" actually are? Or, to put it another way, what happens when one of the year's most dishonest defenses collides with one of talk radio's most worshipful audiences?
Now, I occasionally listen to "Extreme Games" on 96.9 FM, and there are some moments that lead one to conclude that Severin is no idiot. Of course, other days argue equally strongly for the contrary proposition -- and last Thursday was clearly one of the latter. After a caller suggested that the United States should befriend Muslims who live in this country, Severin noted that he had an alternative viewpoint: They should be killed. The problem for Severin was that some members of his audience, which he calls "the best and brightest," are Muslim. Several found his call for their death jarring enough to cause them to pick up the phone come Monday, particularly after a Sunday Globe story quoted a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations alleging, erroneously, that what Severin had said was, "I've got an idea, let's kill all Muslims." One Monday caller said he had almost driven off the road when he heard Severin's remark. And further, that he had contemplated "coming to your broadcast and saying . . . `you know what? I am a Muslim, kill me,' because that is precisely what you said." "It is not what I said," Severin insisted. As the man challenged him to replay the controversial remark, the host could be heard telling his producers to turn the caller down. Shortly thereafter, Severin noted: "As to the matter of whether I said, `Let's kill all the Muslims' or `Kill all the Muslims,' those words were never uttered by me." No, they weren't. The Globe has subsequently published a correction. But though the station wouldn't give the Globe a recording of the show in question, reporter Michael S. Rosenwald got it from a service that monitors radio shows -- and that recording makes it clear that Severin was essentially taking refuge in a technicality. Here's what Severin did say: "I have an alternative viewpoint. It's slightly different than yours. You think we should befriend them. I think we should kill them." Let me slip into Jay's didactic mode. That, best and brightest, is what's known as a distinction without a difference. The words may vary slightly, but the sentiment is the same. The way Severin wiggles away from those comments is to insist, as he did to me yesterday, that he really meant Muslim terrorists. "I was never talking about, have never talked about . . . citizens, people in this country who live among us and who are not our enemies," he said. In fact, as listening to the recording makes clear, the truth is exactly the opposite: Before he made his remark, Severin was talking precisely about Muslims living in this country. Indeed, he had made several references to "the majority of Muslims" in the United States, who, he said, are loyal not to the United States but to their religion and who are ready, when the time comes, to take over the country. Point that out to Severin and he starts turning semiotic somersaults. The context that matters is not that of the actual conversation but previous discussions on his show in which he has made clear that not all Muslims are enemies, he says. On Monday, Severin offered a classic nonapology apology: "I certainly regret any discomfort that may have been caused by the misunderstanding of my remarks." Here's the blatant hypocrisy. Severin sells himself as a straight shooter, a determined truth-teller. If he truly were that, he would have admitted that he said something morally appalling, and he'd have offered a manful apology, with no weasel words, qualifiers, or escape clauses. Instead, Severin has played the charlatan, hiding behind a Clintonesque denial and trying to fool his audience into thinking he has won a great victory in the small correction of his quote. He hasn't been vindicated, and his faux populist palaver is complete intellectual dishonesty. On Monday, the Muslim caller, hearing the host's extreme semantic games, understood precisely what was going on. "This is your demise, Jay, because you are not being truthful," he said. Now, there's a listener actually worthy of the best and brightest moniker.
Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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