April 28, 2010 08:15 PM UTC

Boyles lets McInnis off the hook on AZ law

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• by: Jason Salzman

Pseudo-journalistic entities like talk-radio shows have to pin political candidates down when they make vague, chest-thumping pronouncements.

This is especially critical when they’re talking to candidates, like Scott McInnis, who’s

refusing to be interviewed by serious journalistic entities like The Denver Post.

We’ve seen over and over how talk-radio hosts let their favored candidates off the hook, and we suffer for it.

The latest example came this morning on KHOW’s Peter Boyles show.

Boyles let gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis rant about illegal immigration, and make it sound like he supports Arizona’s new law, but he didn’t bother to pin him down on what specifically he’d do and what he favors.

Instead, Boyles just listened and said stuff like “Yeah,” “hmm,” and “Oh,” and agreed with McInnis.

Yet McInnis didn’t say much that was meaningful, stating of the Arizona law, “I’d do something very similar.”

What does McInnis mean? We have no idea, because Boyles, who’s presents himself as Mr. Immigration-detail-guy, didn’t bother to ask.

Here’s the exchange this morning, 7 am hour at 35 min. 20 seconds on the podcast.

Boyles: Now, Jan Brewer in Arizona. I’m going to wave the magic wand. You’re governor.

McInnis: Yes.

Boyles: What would you do?

McInnis: I’d do something very similar. I’ll tell you the situation. The federal government has refused to act and finally some governor stood up and said we’re stopping the retreat, no more retreat. Federal government, if you’re not going to do it, we are going to do it because it has impacts to all of the parties involved in the state of Arizona. Now I’ve looked at a lot of material that’s come out in the last 24 hours on that, and by the way, if a person has a driver’s license or a  government ID there’s a presumption of citizenship. That’s not the issue. The issue is, the government refuses to acknowledge that illegal means illegal.

Boyles: hmm.

And here’s a governor that stood up to it and said, Look if you have a system that’s going to work you have to have some kind of repercussions or some kind of circumstances or consequences when somebody steps outside the system illegally.

Boyles: Yeah.

McInnis: And so I think this governor, I know she’s catching all kinds of flack,

Boyles: Oh.

McInnis: Most of it is unfair, most of it is race guard. Most of it is all this kind of stuff, but the fact is somebody finally stood up and said the federal government needs to do what they are required to do. And the federal government is just not doing it. And I think, what, they have a poll just yesterday that said 75 percent of the people in Arizona said it’s about time somebody and said, “come on government.” Get this taken care of.

Boyles: Overwhelming. Greater than 70 percent. So that would mean a lot of Democrats. A lot of Latinos. I mean, Al Sharpton rallying from New York.

McInnis: People want a system that works, and people understand that if you let people go outside the system or you kind of become politically correct, and that’s what’s entered this whole picture. It’s too much political correctness. Let’s just kind of turn our eyes the other way. And the states can’t take it because they’re the ones that get stuck with the burden of it. They’re the ones that have the costs, the communities, etc, etc, etc. So I think the governor stood up and a lot of people said it’s about time we stopped the retreat. Federal government, do what you are supposed to do.

Boyles: Alright.