WRKO firing sets off debate on speech issue
WRKO fired radio talk show host John DePetro and his engineer yesterday after DePetro called Green-Rainbow Party gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross a "fat lesbian" on the air.
The firing set off a debate among radio talk show hosts, listeners, and academics about the ever-changing boundaries of appropriate speech on air.
Two weeks ago, nationally syndicated host Rush Limbaugh, whose show is also on WRKO, sparked outrage, but kept his job, when he accused actor Michael J. Fox of exaggerating his symptoms of Parkinson's disease in a public appearance.
DePetro, who said in an interview that he was "stunned" by his firing, apologized on air shortly after making the remark on his show Thursday morning, and then called Ross that night to apologize. But in an interview yesterday, DePetro defended himself and slammed management for firing his engineer, an act he compared to "clubbing a baby seal."
"He had nothing to do with it," said DePetro, referring to his engineer, James Kiesling. "He should not have been terminated. I take full responsibility. If you want to fire me, OK. I know what I signed up for. But taking it out on him?"
Kiesling could not be reached for comment.
According to a tape of his Thursday show, DePetro was venting about the previous night's gubernatorial debate. "I could go now a lifetime without Grace Ross," he said. "She has nerve. This whole business of 'well since we're being ignored,' " he said, mocking Ross's effort to get equal time in the debate.
"No, you're irrelevant. Get off the stage!" he continued, directing his remarks to Ross. "I couldn't stand her at the end. At one point I was about to yell: "Will somebody tell that fat lesbian to shut up. . . .
"Shut up. Go home," DePetro said. "Burger King is looking for another third-shift person to work the grill. Enough."
"I was traumatized by you being on the stage," he said of Ross.
WRKO station management announced its decision to fire DePetro yesterday. "I have no doubt that terminating John's employment was the right action to take," said Jason Wolfe, executive vice president of Entercom Boston, which owns WRKO.
"In the context of what he said and the tone with which he said it, the comments were completely inappropriate, derogatory, and will not be tolerated," Wolfe said in a statement.
DePetro served a two-day suspension in July after he used a homosexual slur to describe Matthew J. Amorello, a former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman. "I had told John after his suspension in July . . . that any further comments of this kind would be dealt with in a severe way," Wolfe said.
DePetro told the Globe that he was expressing his frustration that Ross and independent candidate Christy Mihos had eaten up so much time during the debate and that Ross was complaining that she was being ignored.
"I didn't violate any laws," he said. "There was no obscene language. I know it's mean, but she is technically obese and lives an alternative lifestyle."
DePetro sought to make a comparison between his remark and other potential characterizations. "What if someone yelled about Kerry Healey being a spoiled, white [expletive] or Mihos being an arrogant, wealthy egomaniac," he said. Of his remark about Ross, he said: "It's amazing. I was sharing my thoughts."
The firing triggered a debate about whether radio has gone too far and whether people have grown weary of radio shock-jocks, whose bad taste may draw listeners, but can also backfire.
In 2003, two WEEI radio talk show hosts, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan, were suspended for two weeks after comparing an escaped gorilla to a Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity student.
After Dennis said Little Joe, a gorilla that had escaped from Franklin Park Zoo, was "probably a Metco gorilla waiting for a bus to take him to Lexington," outraged minority leaders called for the hosts' termination. Entercom, which also owns WEEI, pledged to fund scholarships for Metco students and provide time for public service announcements for Metco and affiliated groups.
Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist and a WRKO personality, has referred to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy as "fat boy" and coined "fat Matt" in reference to Amorello. Jay Severin, a host on rival WTKK-FM, has called Al Gore "Al Whore" and Hillary Clinton "a lying [expletive]."
"I think people have had enough of the mean-spirited nastiness," said Janet Kolodzy, chairman of the journalism department at Emerson College. "This political season, there's been a lot of feedback from people about the political process. They're upset about negative ads. They're upset about attacks that have nothing to do with issues."
But some talk radio analysts say they don't think the termination of DePetro signals a new era of civility. "I think stations are constantly changing and constantly reeling their hosts in and reeling them out," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers Magazine, a talk-media trade publication based in Springfield.
Some specialists said they were surprised DePetro was fired.
"That seems like well within what has come to be acceptable language on talk radio. Certainly it's uncivil and rude, but when was that not what they were looking for?" said Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
Added Harrison: "You never know what's going on behind the scenes. Sometimes a host is on thin ice with management and they use any infraction as an excuse to sever ties."
DePetro's ratings have been modest, but a station spokesman said the ratings didn't lead to his dismissal. According to a summer 2006 survey by
Meanwhile, Ross, who is openly gay, yesterday called DePetro's comments "rude and insulting," not only to her, but to "a whole segment of our population. I'm running for governor and I have bigger issues to worry about than whether one talk show host says something offensive and acts like a kid in the schoolyard."
She applauded WRKO management, "not necessarily for the action, but for setting standards."
"I thought that what he said was inappropriate, and I'm very sorry that he said it," added Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. Mihos said he was listening to DePetro's show when he made the comment. "That was just a crass remark," he said.
Deval L. Patrick declined to comment.
Matt Viser of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 
