The Gist

The Naugle Debacle

Well, I think I blew it with the Jim Naugle interview. I say this in retrospect, after playing it back. Many callers to the show right afterward said that he'd have hung up anyway, having realized that he was being challenged -- and some thought I did the best I could given his robotic recitations of bogus claims, while others even thought that it was a great interview (they didn't want to hear him going on and on). But others believed that I was too combative, should have let him speak more and gave him the excuse to hang up. I didn't agree with them at the time, but after playing it back I've changed my mind. It was going okay until a point where I became frustrated and really pushed him to answer a question rather than divert -- at that point I did become too combative.

Particularly for folks in Fort Lauderdale, who were really keen on seeing him challenged on the issues, I really feel crummy about it. You all should have gotten more than a ten minute interview and a hang up.

It's sometimes difficult with many of these sleazy and shady characters to strike the right balance of challenging them, not letting them use the forum to promote propaganda, and letting them have their say and hang themselves on their own words. Mostly, they do hang themselves -- such as my interview a few weeks ago with Warren Throckmorton, who promotes his own kind of gay aversion therapy under the name of "sexual identify therapy" --- unless your anger gets the best of you. Most of the time, I have to literally pull myself away from the mic, and when I do it's a more interesting interview. That's what I should have done in this case. That's not an excuse -- it's my job to be able to carry on conversation with these people and expose their agendas -- just some insight into how it all works from my end, and why it doesn't always work.

UPDATE: Let me just point out here, for those just joining us and those who didn't hear the interview, that Naugle did the interview from his car, on the cell phone, with his daughter or granddaughter in the car, who can be heard in the background. Yes, there was a child (had to be between 5 and 9 years old from the sound) in the car, while he's talking about sex in toilets while driving -- this from a man whose whole campaign has been couched as protecting kids from sexual activity! Also, he actually thought he hung up the phone but he did not. We played it again today, and after he stopped talking, while the phone was on the car seat or whatever, you can hear the child talking to him, live on the air across the country, and that went on for half a minute to a minute, while I'm saying, "Is he there? Hello?" Totally perverse.