As part of his bid for the now-open seat in WI-06, state senator Glenn Grothman is making the rounds of right-wing media to burnish his credentials as a weapons-grade wingnut. That's to be expected. What raises some eyebrows is where he decided to make one of his first stops--a Christian media ministry that once allowed a caller to go into an ugly racist rant on-air. If Grothman didn't know about this incident beforehand, then basic decency demands that he denounce this in no uncertain terms.
People for the American Way noticed that two weeks ago, Grothman stopped by the Milwaukee studios of VCY America, an archconservative Christian television and radio network based in Milwaukee. It operates WVCY-TV, channel 30 in Milwaukee, as well as a network of Christian radio stations fronted by WVCY-FM in Milwaukee. He was the special guest on channel 30's weekly call-in program, "In Focus"--and as you might expect, threw a copious amount of red meat to the audience. He claimed that John Kerry's denunciation of Uganda's odious anti-gay bill upset God, that ENDA gives unfair advantages to gays and harrumphed that climate change is a myth. No surprise there, considering his history. Watch the whole thing here.
Back in 2012, PFAW noticed that a guy from Waukesha, Wisconsin called into VCY Radio's flagship program, Crosstalk, and declared--loudly--that ending Jim Crow had been a baaaad idea. He said, "They gave blacks equal rights and that was a bad path and now look where we are. If I don’t feel like I want to hire a black man for my business I’m in all sorts of trouble, and now it’s going to be some homo who is gonna have to get a job because I can’t do nothing about it." One would have thought that even if the call screener had been asleep at the switch, host Jim Schneider would have shut this guy down once it was obvious where he was going. But he didn't. I diaried on this here, but don't take my word for it--listen here. The screed starts at the 33:24 mark.
At best, this was a complete failure at every level of the safeguards that are put in place to keep all types of racist garbage and other offensive bilge from getting on radio talk shows in the first place. The question is--did Grothman know about this beforehand? And if he didn't know, will he denounce this and refuse to appear on VCY until corrective measures are taken? Both are very valid questions to ask, I think.