KVI bleeps no-no in Bush talk

By David Postman
Seattle Times chief political reporter

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But a part of Bush's speech yesterday about Iraq was too hot for even KVI. An alert engineer used the station's seven-second delay to mute the offending words.

Had Bush gone wobbly on Iraq, or worse, John Kerry? More nice things to say about Bill — or even Hillary — Clinton? A wardrobe malfunction, maybe?

No, what Bush did was mention talk-show giant Rush Limbaugh, the best-known conservative talk host in the country.

Rush, as Bush called him in a speech at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, isn't ever heard on KVI.

Not anymore, at least. He once was the station's syndicated star. But since October, he has resided down the dial a bit at KTTH-AM (770).

"We just don't generally expose or promote talk-show hosts on other stations," said KVI program director Paul Duckworth.

The Limbaugh mention came in a speech where Bush was touting what he sees as progress in Iraq:

"Today in Iraq, more than 170 newspapers are being published, and I saw the other day that they've even got talk radio. I don't know if they've contacted Rush yet," Bush said. According to the official White House transcript, the audience laughed.

Duckworth said he heard from only a few unhappy listeners.

One was Nigel Featherston, who e-mailed the station after hearing the speech on KVI and later the same excerpt on KTTH, on the Limbaugh show.
 
Duckworth e-mailed him back to explain the competition issue, which did not satisfy Featherston.

"You censored the President of the United States because he mentioned your competition?" Featherston wrote. "If I were you, I would rethink that petty policy, and focus on providing a stronger host in that time slot to compete with the Rush Limbaugh show."

Duckworth points out KVI was the only station to air the entire — or almost the entire — Bush speech yesterday morning. He said he could understand the negative response if the station had censored something Bush said about Iraq.

"I'd certainly agree with that. But for crying out loud, it was a brief mention of our competition," Duckworth said.

At KTTH they were playing excerpts, including the Limbaugh plug, and laughing at KVI's editing.

"Just because someone isn't playing on your team, you can't deny they exist," said station manager Ken Berry. "This is just taking it to the height of nuttiness."

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com