Washington Post Veteran Disparages Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin as ‘Right-Wing Nutjobs’ with ‘Wacky Conspiracy Theories’

January 13th, 2012 12:15 PM

Another bit of evidence emerged Thursday about how deeply ingrained anti-conservative hatred is inside America’s newspapers, even amongst those who don’t cover politics.

John Kelly, a Washington Post lifestyle columnist inside the “Metro” section best-known for raising money for Children’s National Medical Center and Sunday “Answer Man” columns about DC-area history, used the passing of a local radio legend to disparage syndicated radio hosts as “right-wing nutjobs unspooling their wacky conspiracy theories.” (Hat tip: DCRTV)

The gratuitous slam came in a short item marking the passing of Bill Trumbull, half of the “Trumbull & Core” afternoon radio show of light-banter and pop music carried by WMAL-AM (630) from 1976 to 1996.

During most of its tenure, the show aired from 3 to 7 PM, hours now occupied by Sean Hannity (3-6)  and Mark Levin (6-9). The station also runs Rush Limbaugh at noon after the 9 AM local show from conservative host Chris Plante.

Instead of limiting himself to praising Trumbull, Kelly, who founded the paper’s “KidsPost” section, decided to throw in how he detests conservative hosts and charge they spread “conspiracy theories.” From “John Kelly’s Washington” column for Thursday, January 12:

Radio silence

I worked my way through college 30 years ago delivering pictures to Colorfax photo stores around the D.C. area. We delivery drivers had a fleet of Ford Pintos at our disposal, eventually upgraded to...Chevettes. The options extended no further than an AM radio in each car.

The only thing that kept me sane as I stewed in D.C. traffic each afternoon was listening to Bill Trumbull and Chris Core on WMAL. Theirs was a gently funny program: Top 40 music and the sort of light, friendly banter that wouldn’t last five minutes on today’s WMAL, which is full of right-wing nutjobs unspooling their wacky conspiracy theories.

Trumbull died Tuesday at 77. It was nice having him in the car with me all those years ago.