Walsh whines about ‘losing’ national radio show

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who announced a primary challenge to President Trump over the weekend, said Monday evening he has ‘lost’ his national talk radio show.

Appearing on CNN, Walsh was asked how his primary challenge against Trump has affected his conservative radio show, distributed by the Salem Radio Network.

“I just found out that I lost my national radio show, so that’s gone,” Walsh told CNN anchor John Berman. “But I figured that might happen.”

“You lost it — why?” Berman asked.

Walsh estimated that “80-90 percent” of his audience supports the president. And said that it was hard to be a conservative radio talk show host if most of your listeners support Trump.

“I knew that, John, when I made this announcement yesterday, that it could be in jeopardy,” the ex-congressman said.

“So no more radio show at all for you?” Berman followed.

“No more radio show, but that’s OK,” Walsh said. “I’m going to campaign full time. … This was a difficult thing to do, yes, but I believe it’s urgent because this president is a danger. We cannot let get elected for another four years.”

Salem Radio Network announced earlier Monday that it was canceling national distribution of the show effective Sept. 26.

“This announcement does not affect Walsh’s local program airing on AM 560 The Answer in Chicago, however, Walsh’s program will have to be removed as soon as he becomes a viable and legal candidate for President,” the announcement states.

Walsh kept saying that he thought his show ‘might’ be in jeopardy and Berman was feeding him the straight lines pretending to be shocked by Walsh ‘losing’ his show but unless they are both absolute idiots, which is always a possibility, then they are both very aware of the “Equal Time Rule” which requires broadcasting stations to give equal time to his opponents for the same price if a fee is involved.

So if Walsh kept his show, anyone that broadcast it would be expected to give up hours of programming to his opponents, which could conceivably include the huge democrat primary field and there are not enough hours in the day to accommodate them all. The Equal Time Rule has been around since the Radio Act of 1927 which was broadened to include Television in 1934.

The equal-time rule was created because the FCC was concerned that broadcast stations could easily manipulate the outcome of elections by presenting just one point of view, and excluding other candidates.

Walsh’s attempts to paint himself as ‘brave’ for putting his job on the line was quickly called out by former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee who pointed out the Equal Time rule and along with tweeting: “I didn’t “lose” MY radio or TV show when I ran; I gave them up.”

Well of course! You can't be a candidate for public office & host radio or TV show-would subject the station/channel to provide time to opponents & the station/channel would be making a campaign contribution. I didn't "lose" MY radio or TV show when I ran; I gave them up. https://t.co/xVt8XcritW

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) August 27, 2019

Walsh’s campaign really needs to rethink their attempts to paint Joe as a ‘brave’ man for running against Trump. Being fed straight lines and lying about what he already knew in an attempt to look heroic just makes him look silly.