Radio host Bill Cunningham: "[W]e need more teachers beating people"

[LynneSin]

Bill Cunningham was on Hannity and Colmes discussing the incident in Brick NJ where a teach abused a student who did not want to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. This is just shocking the response Cunningham gave:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200503040003

ALAN COLMES (co-host): Look, is it OK? Do you have a First Amendment right not to stand up during the Pledge of Allegiance or "The Star Spangled Banner"?

CUNNINGHAM: Alan Colmes, I think if you're a 16- or 17-year-old miscreant, and you don't know the sacrifices of American soldiers from Iwo Jima through Fallujah, if you have no idea what the red, the white and the blue stands for, I think to have the chair pulled out from under you is the least of what should happen.

And back in the good old days at Deer Park High School, Alan Colmes, the board of education would have met my derriere, and Ma Cunningham would have beat me about the face and head if I had done similar things.

And I think it's reprehensible that you sit there and defend someone like this who has no right to be a clown. That kid was a clown, and he got exactly what he deserved.

COLMES: I bet you were never a clown in school, huh, Bill?

CUNNINGHAM: Never at all. I followed the American way.

COLMES: Look, are you OK with the idea that a school, a government school, a teacher in a government school, could whack your child, could hit your child, could physically harm and without your permission as a parent? That would be OK with you?

CUNNINGHAM: No problem. In the good old days, back when AIDS was an appetite suppressant and when gay meant you were happy, back in those days there was discipline in public schools. But not today.

We need more of that old-fashioned religion, and we need more teachers beating people about the face and head, especially on the derriere. If we had more of that, believe me, we'd have less people thinking like you .

<<<MORE including Sean Hannity jumping in and supporting Cunningham>>>

[w13rd0]

1. Seems Cunningham has problems distinguishing...

his head from his ass. Perhaps one is firmly lodged up the other.

[LynneSin]

2. Perhaps if we beat him more he wouldn't have that issue

:shrug:

[atommom]

12. You took the words right out of my mouth!

[sendero]

3. Ah yes...

... the dreaded recto-cranial inversion syndrome. Ususally fatal for rational thought.

[LizW]

4. "...about the face and head..."

"especially on the derriere. If we had more of that, believe me, we'd have less people thinking like you."

That is one of the most honest statements I've seen from a Republican in a long time. He says what they all believe. If government agents were allowed to beat people, even children, about the face and head, eventually everyone would be thinking like Republicans.

Do we GET THIS people???? He wants to control how we THINK -- not just how we speak or act, but how we THINK, by using physical violence perpetuated by government agents against our children and us.

:scared:

[LynneSin]

5. Scary this isn't getting more press with comments like that

Basically this guy is advocating torture. Let's beat the kids into being brain dead repuke loving adults.

Scary ain't it

[KharmaTrain]

10. Wanna Bet He Was A Spoiled Kid...

I can smell one of these goons a mile away now...somewhere in his 30's or early 40's...never popular in school but Ma and Pa Cunningham (chances are they divorced) pampered him and never came close to a "beating" but grew up a spoiled brat who found his mouth got attention where his brains and looks didn't.

He's waiving the flag, but I'll bet he was too young for Vietnam and too old for this fiasco...grew up yelling "U.S.A." at stupid hockey games, never came closer to a battlefield than a video monitor and would rather send your kid to fight a war than ruin his nice new flag lapel.

He found if he sucked up to the Repugnicans, he could get a nice paycheck playing mouth on radio & TV (lots of these goons drove out truly talented communicators) and now is in his glory as this regime knows it has a lock on the corporate media and the alternative Xtian/Hate Radio empire that operates along side it.

Hopefully this poor excuse for cellular structure isn't married and doesn't have the capacity to breed. This would save the planet a lot of problems. LOL.

[LynneSin]

11. You just summed up 99.9% of these repuke windbags

:D

[SmokingJacket]

6. There've always been idiots like this...

but they didn't used to get air-time, and people laughed at them or avoided them. He's spouting the kind of crap my insane crotchety neighbor who killed people's cats used to come up with.

"Back when gay meant you were happy"??? What, did he grow up in a Dick and Jane book?

[skippythwndrdog]

7. Cunningham being Cunningham.

He's a radio host in Cincinnati, on www.700wlw.com from 12:30 until 3:00. He's also a successful owner of a couple of sports bars/grilles. His wife is a very respected judge, and he's actually a lawyer. Listen, you'll be entertained. If you listen, you'll see that he's more of a shock-jock than anything, and Hannity and Colmes brought him on so that people would talk, just as we are now. If you meet the guy at one of his eaterys, he's actually pretty calm, cool, and collected. Everybody here knows that his radio schtick is just that, a schtick. Around here, most take him with a grain of salt, and listen because they want to hear what he's going to say next. Heck, WLW is a huge station (Clear Channel, though) and I used to listen to him when I lived in Louisville because I thought he was nuts, and wanted to hear what he'd do next. Don't worry about Bill Cunningham...he's just in it for the attention.

[LynneSin]

9. Sorry but no

This isn't Howard Stern telling his listeners the get boob jobs or doing outrageous stunts (which Sterns takes responsiblities for everything he says). I don't care how respectable this Cunningham guy is - he is telling listeners that Teachers need to beat children. That your kids possibly beating beat by a teacher. I don't think so - that's totatly NOT cool and folks should be outraged. He is inciting balance something that even Howard Stern would not advocate.

We need to out him on this type of behavior because you can guarentee there are teachers who have heard what he said and are thinking "Yeah, I should beat kids when they don't listen to me - it is ok to do that"

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG

[skippythwndrdog]

13. See, we've fallen into the trap...

he is an entertainer...nobody around here takes him seriously, as he is known for saying things just to get a reaction. Seriously, listen today on the internet, you'll see what I mean. He's pure entertainment.

on edit: basically, his job is to be controversial. That's what brings in listeners, 1/2 who love, 1/2 who hate. He makes these statements to start controversy. He drives me up the wall, but I have to listen at least once or twice a week, just to hear what he's going to do.

[bleedingheart]

8. I am all for discipline but that can be accomplished without beatings

[atommom]

14. Even if he is saying it just to shock people, it's still true that there

are many who will hear and agree. I'm seeing more and more of this harsh punitive attitude (which used to be mostly restricted to grumpy old men no one listened to). Is it a political tactic? If harsh punishment is what we need to set people right, then rendition and torture aren't so bad ... they're disciplinary tactics for people who have been bad. Likewise, protesters need to be punished, too. Anyone, in fact, who isn't acting like a True American needs a good beating or three. THEN our society will be right with God.

<sarcasm OFF>

If you follow this argument to its logical conclusion, it's pretty damn creepy.

[SillyGoose]

15. Wow -

this must be the compassionate conservatism this crowd is so famous for. <sarcasm>

You know, I have no doubt that if some teacher were to beat Cunningham or Hannity's kid "about the face and head", they would be screaming from the rooftops about it. What kind of message are these Neanderthals sending by promoting the assault of young people? This is sick. These people need to seek professional help for their urge to hurt children.

Anyone remember a thread a week or so ago showing an advertisement for "the Rod" - a device made specifically for hitting children which was, of course, promoted by some fundie nutcases.