Lip service on Tibet

Jim Vicevich hung up on me again (third time). And he's lying about it as I write this.

To his credit, Vicevich, who hosts a right-wing talk show on WTIC-AM, is trying to bring attention to the crisis in China, in which the government is slaughtering Tibetan protestors. In the process, Vicevich has been haranguing the "mainstream media" for not covering the story. He's wrong on that, as he is on many things, since the story has received prominent placement by most major media outlets. For some strange reason, he's also taking the opportunity to slam liberals for trying to bring attention to genocide in Darfur, while "ignoring" Tibet. I think he'd be surprised to find that support of Tibetans is a longstanding issue in liberal circles.

He has suggested boycotting the Olympics, or at the very least having the athletes skip the opening ceremonies. Both good suggestions. Both suggestions unique for a free market conservative, since most of them are afraid of breaking market ties with China.

But when I called (and I will admit I did use radio "nomme de microphone" Greg from Hartford), and suggested that he could actually make a moral decision and ban all commercials for major Olympic sponsors from his show, or quit, he acknowledged he could do that but it would be a major financial hardship for him. He got angry when I suggested that he could make a decision between life and livelihood, and, for some reason, asked me if I know a single Tibetan. When I said I did (and I do know Bumhba who owns Little Tibet in Middletown), Vicevich hung up on me, and went on for minutes about how I had set a trap for him.

He can call it a trap, but when a radio host spends a good portion of his day accusing "liberals" of not caring, of not having the moral courage to stand by decisions, of not having the guts to walk the walk, then it seems legitimate to question his credibility on an issue he claims to "care" about.

You can talk all you want, but when it comes to making a decision that would involve a sacrifice, well, maybe a few dead Tibetans are less important than the income from a McDonald's ad.

This attitude goes hand in hand with the chickenhawk conservative attitude of supporting any war those conservatives don't have to fight in.

BTW, Vicevich declared, on air, that I had lied about what I wanted to talk about to his screener. That's not true. The screener asked what I wanted to talk about, and I said "Tibet." I did give an alias because Vicevich is reputed to have a blacklist of folks he refuses to talk to on-air. I'd be happy to be on his blacklist, but for a radio host who pretends to want to hear all sides of an issue, it's a strange practice to avoid callers he disagrees with.

My only regret is that I may have upended Vicevich's campaign in support of Tibetans.