NO SMOKING LOOFAH: Geographically, Santa Barbara juts out more aggressively westward than any place along California’s infamous Left Coast. Even so, S.B. still manages to be the Center of the Universe. It’s uncanny. The most recent case involves Sean Hannity, the turgidly tumescent stuffed suit who now hovers as heir apparent to the Fox News throne forcibly vacated by news commentator Bill O’Reilly in the wake of his escalating sexual harassment scandals.
Most of us have long forgotten — or perhaps never knew — that Hannity got his start as a 27-year-old right-wing radio shock jock in the politically correct, lefty-wanker badlands of Isla Vista. For about a year — in 1989 — Hannity produced an incendiary and offensive talk show for KCSB called The Pursuit of Happiness. The marriage between Hannity and KCSB was, to say the least, never a happy one. The powers that be at the station yanked Hannity’s show after he and one of his guests — a so-called AIDS expert — blamed the AIDS epidemic then devouring America on the so-called fact that gay people were disgusting, ate fecal matter, and engaged in disgusting practices. When another KCSB talk show host called in to object, Hannity pointed out she was a lesbian mother. His guest suggested her child was conceived with a turkey baster. Hannity said he felt sorry for her son. It went like that.
It’s no stretch to say that this act of censorship by KCSB helped Hannity immeasurably. Hannity cried foul. The local ACLU took up his cause, a fact he conspicuously omits in the retelling of his political victimization. According to Stuart Holden, the attorney who represented Hannity, the case was a “slam dunk.” Holden noted the termination letter the station issued was “less than artful.” Station mangers did themselves no favors, commenting at the time that they would have considered their action censorship if a government agency did what they did. As Holden made clear, that’s exactly what they, in fact, were; KCSB, after all, was an extension of the UC system, which in turn was an extension of the State of California.