Locking out Laura is bad for (1) Laura, (2) Laura's audience, (3) TRN and (4) America (not in order of importance).
Laura Ingraham isn't the only awesome advocate for traditional American values and morality, of course, but she is (1) the classiest, (2) the best and (3) the total package.
The bad news is that the Talk Radio Network (TRN) is still brazenly barring Laura from doing her show and foolishly trying to forcefeed Monica Crowley, a conservative blonde, but no Laura, the brilliant former law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas who not only took The Laura Ingraham Show to Iraq before The Surge, but then braved the wrath of MSNBC Hit Man Keith Olbermann and his ilk by dressing down the leftist media on The Today Show for biased Iraq coverage.
Locking out Laura is bad for (1) Laura, (2) Laura's audience, (3) TRN and (4) America (not in order of importance).
But there is some GREAT NEWS: (1) Laura just began a three-week stint on a new Fox Cable program called Just In that allows Laura to communicate with the people despite TRN and (2) Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post wrote an expose on Talk Radio Network's lock-out of Laura and the reaction of Laura's loyal listeners.
The conservative blogging community is agitating for Laura to return to the radio airwaves and very dissatisifed with TRN's replacements for Laura, who is irreplaceable.
TRN is crazy if it doesn't allow Laura back on the air immediately and then resolve its contract negotiations with her quickly and satisfactorily.
Laura has said over and over that her real love is radio and nothing is going to keep her off the radio airwaves and hers is a faithful audience.
We loyal Laura listeners trust that and are counting the minutes until the lock out ends and Laura is back on HER show.
TRN, make it so!
Laura's three-week stint with Fox started sensationally yesterday with interviews of Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Raymond Arroyo, but it is temporary: a short-term fix of sorts for the "healthy addiction" that is Laura's commentary on politics and the culture. God made Laura telegenic as well as terrific, but Laura's preference is to do her radio show and continue the conversation she began with her listeners seven years ago.
Mr. Kurtz asked me by email why I had "taken up the cause."
I replied:
"Because I've admired Laura's intellect, insight, courage, principled advocacy (and wit) since the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and when I find something objectionable, I'm inclined to write about it.
"Example: I was outraged when eBay put up for auction consecrated Communion hosts after Pope John Paul II's death and quickly posted an article at www.michnews.com calling for a boycott. A Fox News producer noted it almost instantaneously and I was a guest on Cavuto that afternoon. PS The boycott call worked!
"Also: Laura's views more closely mirror mine than anyone else who appears regularly on tv or radio. Monica Crowley and Tammy Bruce are NOT acceptable substitutes for a national treasure like Laura, in my opinion."
Mr. Kurtz apparently had become aware of my "Support Laura Ingraham NOW!" campaign and he boosted it bigtime in his article title "Ingraham Speaks Up About Her Silencing on Talk Radio."
Mr. Kurtz confirmed that Laura is "the most popular woman on political talk radio" and her sudden disappearance from her show this month was "not by choice."
Mr. Kurtz: "Ingraham's syndicator, Talk Radio Network, barred her from her Washington studio after talks about a new contract hit a snag, and some of her fans are mounting a campaign to get her back."
Mr. Kurtz further reported that contractual obligations prohibit Laura from saying much that she probably wants to say, but he made it crystal clear what really has been going on.
Mr. Kurtz: "'The fact is, they took her off the air,' says Eric Bernthal, her lawyer. 'There's no doubt in my mind they did it as a tactic in contract negotiations.' Ingraham said on her Web site: 'Rest assured, this absence is not of my choosing, nor is it health or family related. I am ready, willing and eager to continue the conversation we started seven years ago about politics and the culture. (Heck, if cancer couldn't keep me off the airwaves for long, nothing will.) . . . I would never voluntarily abandon you during such a critical time for our country.'"
Laura's current radio contract expires in September and she is contractually barred from negotiating with other syndicators until later this summer, Mr. Kurrtz noted.
To dispel misinformation that obviously is not coming from Laura and her supporters, Mr. Kurtz added: "'She's in perfect health and is in no way distracted by family matters,' says David Frum, the conservative author and a friend for more than 20 years. 'The rumors and suggestions being put out to the contrary are just absurd to anyone familiar with the situation. . . . She's adamant that she wants to continue her radio career.'"
To be sure, TRN has benefited from that confidentiality clause as well as "misinformation" about what really has been going on.
Dan Patrick, owner of Houston's KSEV-AM and a Republican state senator who is friendly with Laura told Mr. Kurtz that the situation is unique: "Talk radio is built around the relationship between the audience and the host, and it's a very personal relationship. I can't think of any situation where a host has disappeared with such little information."
Hopefully, folks who know what's been happening and who are NOT bound by confidentiality and/or non-disparagement clauses will provide the details.
When and if they do, TRN will be embarrassed, not Laura: Laura did not abandon her audience;TRN chose to disrespect its listeners AND Laura by taking her off the air at a critical time as a negotiating tactic.
Mr. Kurtz did not officially endorse my campaign to have TRN bring back Laura, but he very helpfully acknowledged it: ""Michael Gaynor, a New York lawyer, said in an online column: 'Let Talk Radio Network's Mark Masters himself know that we Laura fans consider keeping Laura off the air is utterly ridiculous and unfair.'"
Then Mr. Kurtz exposed the TRN owners as cultists:
"Talk Radio Network is owned by Roy Masters -- a British-born author and commentator who also created the Foundation for Human Understanding, a Christian organization -- and his two sons, including Mark, the company's CEO. Roy Masters moved the foundation from Los Angeles to Grants Pass, Ore., in 1983, sparking fears by some residents that the town would become the site of a religious cult. In a 1992 open letter, Roy Masters said he was a former Jew who founded a ministry that some unfairly viewed as New Age because of 'often mean-spirited media coverage.' Masters is the author of such books as 'How Your Mind Can Keep You Well,' which promotes 'a very special form of meditation -- a rediscovery of an ancient science that provides the answer to the serious problems of our time...."
Mr. Kurtz ended his article by quoting Laura's lawyer on the need to get out the truth about Laura's situation: "It's pretty important to have her fans, listeners, advertisers and affiliates all know that she wouldn't walk off the job."
It certainly is.
Laura's listeners know that in their hearts, but they deserve to know just how badly TRN has treated Laura.
Mr. Masters, will you dare waive confidentiality...or do you think you have confidential agreements with ALL witnesses to the dastardly things that TRN has been doing to the Queen of Talk Radio?
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.