Last month, Cleveland radio host Kevin Kiley cooked up the hottest of takes regarding the fitness of females to serve as football coaches. Kiley’s rant migrated from illogical to cartoonish, culminating in an argument that women shouldn’t vote on the Pro Football Hall of Fame, either.
His station, 92.3 The Fan, never disciplined Kiley. He’s nevertheless out, following a resignation that he claims was tendered in November.
“My principles, their principles of doing business they don’t match,” Kiley said in an interview with WOIO-TV, via Cleveland.com. “It was tough for me to work there. . . . In 35 years I’ve never been censored and I shouldn’t have been censored for this. You shouldn’t accept censorship ever. You should make sure the people on the radio are telling you the truth as they see it.”
Via Deadspin.com, Kiley claimed that the station censored him by refusing to allow the host to respond to criticism of his comments about female coaches.
He shouldn’t have been prevented from responding to criticism of his comments; he should have been prevented from saying anything. If 92.3 The Fan was going to allow him to remain on the air (it shouldn’t have), why shouldn’t he have been given even more rope?
Absent the additional hot takes that would have come in response to people who exercised their First Amendment right to call him a moron, a misogynist, and/or a misfit, some other station will be more likely to give him a spatula-shaped microphone so that he can serve up some more.