Scandals, Talk Radio

From Bwtm

Roger Allan Hedgecock

During and after the Cedar fire, shrill politicians pointed fingers of blame at firefighters rather than helping the community understand the inherent risks of living in North America's most fire-prone environment. Radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock tried to convince the public that it was the lack of helicopter water drops and firefighter incompetence that allowed the Cedar fire to spread as far as it did. Despite the fact that Hedgecock's perspectives were fatally flawed, another opportunity was lost to teach San Diegans that it is their responsibility to maintain a fire safe environment around their homes. During a post-Cedar fire community meeting, one citizen went so far as say that if the Fire-Rescue Department had been doing its job properly, more firefighters would have been killed. http://www.californiachaparral.com/btalkradio.html

In 1985 he was forced from office, after a retrial convicted him on one count of conspiracy and twelve counts of perjury involving, then-District Attorney Ed Miller asserted, improper campaign contributions; his first trial had ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. Hedgecock was alleged to have illegally failed to report over $350,000 in contributions from former Del Mar mayor Nancy Hoover, confidence man Jerry David Dominelli, and the last's eponymous J. David Company. (The J. David Company later imploded, after bilking investors of more than $82,000,000, in one of the largest Ponzi Schemes in the nation's history. Dominelli would later serve twenty years in Federal prison.)

Hedgecock's conviction was overturned after an appellate court ruled that the trial court had erred in its instruction to the jury regarding the issue of materiality in the perjury charges[1] and juror misconduct. To settle the case, Hedgecock, in an agreement with prosecutors, allowed a misdemeanor charge to stand (i.e, he did not plead guilty). In a common disposition for first-time probation cases in California, and other American states[2], the charge was dismissed after Hedgecock successfully completed a short period of probation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hedgecock

Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show Wednesday that he wouldn't trust that money donated to Haiti through the White House Web site would actually go to the relief efforts. He said Americans don't need to contribute to earthquake relief because they already donate to Haiti through their income taxes. http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/white-house-limbaughs-haiti-comments-really-stupid-radio-host-urged-people-not-donate

Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=34773