Todd Schnitt

One of the TV shows I watch fairly regularly is Keith Olbermann's. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, or all of his viewpoints but I really do like his feature "Worst person in the World". If I had no nominate someone locally it would be DJ Todd Schnitt, who actually has two radio shows one for a FM station morning show, (where he is known as MJ Kelli) and one a right wing talk show on an affiliated AM station in the afternoon. This two-for is an example of how far talk radio has declined...there just are no training grounds for these hosts anymore, and to save money the conglomerates have these guys do double-duty, or network them so there are no local hosts anymore. This is an industry that is a shell of its former self, and now largely the purveyance of the angry, white uneducated male. NASCAR dad indeed.

Schnitt uses his last name as a running scatalogical joke...ad nauseum...with many comments like someone is "full of Schnitt", is a "Schnitt-head", etc etc. If you are over the age of four you probably get the double-entendre'. I mean...puh-leaze. Schnitt's web site also has an extensive list of anti-global warming sites, (he is very anti Al Gore.) I plan on reviewing some of his "experts" at a later date.

Schnitt replaced two more successful hosts in his afternoon slot. Glenn Beck parlayed his Tampa stint into a national radio network and runs a poorly-viewed TV show on CNN. Its eminently forgettable and "Glennie" is often on Olbermann's Worst Person list, many times at the top.

One prior host of this slot was Bob "Mad Dog" Lassiter, possibly the finest host ever heard in the Tampa Bay area. Bob was no liberal, conservative nor even a libertarian. He was Bob, and had his thought-out own opinions on everything and did not follow anyone else's thinking. His motto could have been "question everything".

The thing I really liked about Bob was that he would pretend to hold a very controversial position, that would get angry liberal and conservative listeners to both call complaining and then Lassiter would force them to defend their position, which often proved to be defenseless, rooted in bigotry, racism or group-think. Schnitt pretends to do the same (often claiming to be his own man, to not kow-tow to any party platform) but the fact is he is a conservative ideologue, and he doesn't even get his own joke. He's not popular enough to challenge Beck's success, nor is he thoughtful enough to ever challenge a mind like Lassiter's. (Bob died recently btw, and is sorely missed in both Tampa and Chicago the scenes of his two greatest successes. I miss him.)

So if you graded the last three hosts in this station's afternoon I'd give Lassiter an A, Beck a C-, and Schnitt an F-. Its a microcosm of just how far talk radio has fallen as time has passed.

So why talk about Schnitt today? Well he is suing another talk show host in the area, Bubba the Love Sponge for... wait for it... talking bad about him. Are you kidding?

He alleges Bubba (aka Clem) implied he was a child abuser, a liar, called his wife bad names and worst of all made jokes about Schnitt's physical appearance. For the record none of these allegations are proven true and may in fact all be false. Also, for the record, Schnitt is short, overweight and based upon classic stereotypes of beauty: physically unappealing. Lassiter's nickname for him was "The Demented Dwarf".

He apparently compensates for this by buying high powered sports and luxury cars, which he constantly references on his show. He also brings his wife on a lot, and often calls her during the show. In a way then she is part of the "schnitt schtick".

So the lawsuit. What is hysterical is that Schnitt has made a career out of attacking other people for their appearance and their personal missteps. He has mercilessly attacked Madeline Albright and Janet Reno for their appearance, will attack any celebrity who goes to detox as "all liquored up" and attacks any liberal or progressive politician out there. Gore is a liar, Pelosi blinks too much, Reid is a corpse...etc etc. No one on the "Democrat[sic] Party" escapes attack. Those of you who are sharp will recognize the purloined "democrat party" and not the proper "Democratic Party" designated taken from Rush Limbaugh.

I cannot stand Bubba the Love Sponge, he's just another example of the decline and near-death of talk radio. But you have to appreciate the irony of a Schnitt lawsuit about ungracious and gross things said. Its too funny. Here's hoping Olbermann learns of this. Perhaps Schnitt will finally claw his way up into neo-con stratosphere and displace Glenn Beck as Olbermann's Worst Person in the World.

...and rightfully so.