Neal Boortz ridiculed a learning-disabled nine-year-old boy today--help the child get some justice

[civildisoBDence]

Earlier today I posted about a truly despicable act--http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2972417&mesg_id=2973608">talk radio host Neal Boortz repeatedly ridiculed the speech impediment of a nine-year-old boy on his show today. The story is a bit complicated, but here goes.

This week, a piece of green ice fell through the roof of a tire shop in Lula, Georgia. Reporters on the scene recorded the shop's owner and his son responding to the bizarre event. (The ice probably fell from a jet...)

Enter Boortz, who replayed both father and son on his show and mercilessly ridiculed the way they talk. The father has a thick country accent, the boy has both an accent and a speech impediment. I'm not talking a little ribbing here--Boortz replayed the child at least six times, mocking him each time and laughing at the fact that he'd never do more than "fix tires" (as if there's something wrong with that.)

Later, a caller criticized Boortz for this. Boortz let the guy speak, then basically said, "Go back to your low-paying job"--again, ridiculing working people like the nouveau-riche boor he is.

Well, I googled the news story and found the family, called their tire shop, and learned more about the child. He's nine and has some very difficult challenges to overcome. The father is a single parent, the boy has a severe learning disability, and the family has to fight just to get basic services for him at school.

Boortz may not have known about the disability, but he sure heard the speech impediment. What an asshole.

I've also contacted some people in the media, including the general manager at Boortz's station, WSB in Atlanta, who told me he'd listen to the show and respond accordingly. A local news anchor is also looking into the story. I emailed Keith Olbermann and some other cable news personalities, but who knows how many thousands of emails they must get.

Boortz richly deserves to be Keith's Worst Person in the World next week. That should be just the beginning.

Wouldn't it be poetic justice if Boortz were forced to apologize to the boy, and maybe even fork over some of his precious cash to a family in need?

Help me out here. Boortz works for Cox Communications, the owners of WSB Radio.

Here’s who to call or email at Cox Communications:

David Grabert
Director of Media Relations
[phone]
[e-mail]

And here’s who to call or email at WSB Radio:

Dan Kearney
Vice President/General Manager
[phone]
[e-mail]

Does anybody know where I can get a transcript or audio tape of this morning's Boortz Show? It sure would help me out...

I'm not going to let this go. Boortz went too far, and he should pay in an appropriate way. Maybe he should be suspended, or fired--who knows.

What he did sure went beyong David Shuster's "pimping" gaffe or Don Imus' "nappy-headed hos" remark...

Here's more on the story at my blog...

[Prefer]

1. God I feel horrible

I was mocking the father when I saw it on the news tonight. I didn't see the boy. It was just that he had a great heavy accent. I was trying to figure out how you talk like that.

[kestrel91316]

2. This is why we need to bring back tarring-and-feathering, the stocks,

and the whipping post: for wealthy asses who ridicule poor handicapped children.

[civildisoBDence]

5. Better yet--do you remember Zell Miller telling Chris Matthews,

"I wish we still lived in a time when you could challenge a man to a duel"?

I wish I could challenge Boortz to a duel...maybe if people were held accountable for their actions, our culture wouldn't be sliding down the toilet.

[Hoyt]

3. Boortz got his start writing speeches for Georgia's bigoted governor Lester Maddox.

He was a POS then, and still is.

Sadly, radio stations will carry his program as long as uneducated/callous/bigoted listeners continue tuning into his hate show.

Lucky for us, Limbaugh and wannabe Boortz are too ugly for TV.

[civildisoBDence]

4. Faces made for radio...not that I'm one to talk

You should see the lovely emails I've been getting from people who condone Boortz's behavior.

You meet the nicest people on the Internets!

[Marr]

6. How conservatives ever managed to sell themselves as 'workin' people', I will never know.

They make so little effort to disguise their disdain for working class people.

[civildisoBDence]

7. And yet so many working class voters really, really hate liberals

Go figure.

[Laelth]

8. Boortz is a boor.

Nice investigative reporting on your part. Thanks!

:hide:

Anybody need a Georgia attorney?

-Laelth

[civildisoBDence]

9. I MIGHT know someone who needs a Georgia attorney...

the father of the child Boortz trashed!

I'd bet my bottom dollar that WSB and Cox Communications would pay a pretty penny to keep a lawsuit like this out of court, and out of the public eye. Shoot me a private message if you're interested...

[DainBramaged]

10. Would be poetic justice

Guys like Booooortz are the reason they make baseball bats.

[civildisoBDence]

17. Ha! Might knock some sense into his head.

Or yank some brains out the other end.

[salin]

11. "Media bias still favors liberals".... hahahahaha

last line on a previous post on your blog on McCain.

And what does the allusion to an "AlGore Hillary staying in" mean?

http://newsprism.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/mccain-comeback-kid-redux/

[Rosemary2205]

12. Go ahead - give the bully some free press.

If we just stop listening to the bullies, and simply stop buying from their sponsors, they will go away.

I am a cubite in Atlanta and a cuber nearby keeps WSB on at as low a volume as she can and still hear it. There is this odd anomoly in the accoustics that actually amplifies the sound right into my cube where it stops. I get WSB radio all day.

I heard the show you are talking about. It was vintage Boortz. Nothing any better or worse than his usual swill. If anything, he probably pissed off his own base a little inferring that the kid would make a perfect "jack man" on a NASCAR pitcrew - but I have heard things just as nauseating on DU.

[MasonJar]

13. Most of us have accents in this country, which are the normal voice

of the region that we come from. It is nothing to be ashamed of; in fact the regional dialects represent a history of the language in our land. No one speaks Shaw English in this country, even boors like BOORtz. As Shaw says in his famous play Pygmalion, the Americans have not spoken English in years.

[aikoaiko]

14. Is there an audio of this incident yet?

I'm still waiting to hear it for myself.....

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. Thanks for caring.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. Just sent emails.

[JBhutto]

18. He did make a ligitimate point....

I can't say I'm a neil boortz fan, but he was making a ligitimate point with the georgia kid. He certainly wasn't very tactful in making the point, but I also don't think people should be jumping on him just because it came out that the kid happened to be learning disabled. I'm sure there are a ton of kids who actually do have such a thick southern accent and are perfectly fine, which is a problem since they are going to be looked at as dumb and uneducated when they grow up.

[KamaAina]

19. This seems to be a pattern with these guys

remember Rush the OxyMoron mocking Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's?

edit: spelling