The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin canceled all of its advertising on WIBA-AM in Madison after Conservative talker Vicki McKenna defended 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse was charged with intentional and reckless homicide after a shooting incident during a Kenosha, WI protest. Two people were killed. On her show, McKenna said Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense. McKenna also encouraged “patriots” and “militia” members to get their guns and ammo and head to Kenosha to defend life and property.
You can listen to the audio HERE
Group Health Cooperative Chief Business Development Officer Allan Wearing told the paper McKenna had the right to say what she wanted to say about the Kenosha protests. And he had the right to pull his funding from her radio station. “There should be some consequences. This was over the top.”
McKenna’s show airs on WISN-AM in Milwaukee and WIBA-AM in Madison.
Gary…maybe if you figured out how to use a computer you would have found the link.
You go Girl. Us real AMERICANS had had enough of 13% of the population running things. The TAIL will STOP wagging the dog
McKenna is another in another in a long long line of Rush Limbaugh…or in her case, Laura Ingraham, wanna-bees. Pander to the Christian right, be as divisive and insensitive towards others as you can be, and hope you get noticed enough. Don’t be concerned that your irresponsible comments are toxic, just go for the fame and the money. Sell-out baby, for the money!! … Well, advertisers are waking up now and realizing that being associated with toxic right-wing shows, will do them more harm than good.
Sadly, it sounds like Group Health as already committed young Mr. Rittenhouse to “Death Row.” Uh, I mean…”Life imprisonment.” Typically, they jumped to a forgone conclusion before hearing the complete story.
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Whatever happen to responsible broadcasters ?
Great question? I guess it depends on your generation.
Gary – The SoundCloud pops up in the middle of the MJS link but perhaps go to WIBA/iHeart and listen to at least the first hour of the podcast. The one minute and change excerpted does not catch the entirety of her comments.
For the most part this is just another example of cancel culture from the usual suspects. The Journal Sentinel is a typical fish-wrap that doesn’t provide as much journalism as Mark Belling and Dan O’Donnell do on WISN. Large enclaves in The Peoples’ Republic of Madison would prefer dead air to WIBA. One Wisconsin Now is looking to further their liberal agenda.
And of course the stooges (Group Health and Ho-Chunk Gaming) were happy to appease the tsunami of listeners (or at least the 5 activists who would never move their radios off of NPR) whose sensibilities were violated.
Listen to what? There is no audio. RadioInk ought to get its stuff together better. Stick to print you don’t do radio too well.