The ’Trump Interruption’ Won’t Slow Down Michael Medved

If you get into an argument with Michael Medved, you’re going to lose. Not because he’s a bully, but more due to his fecund mind. 

He’s kind, Yale-trained, written 14 books, and has seen more movies than you’ve had hot dinners. Let’s face it, he’s smarter than us. 

Talker Glenn Beck called Medved the most decent member of the media. Medved has been on the radio every day without interruption since 1996, with one exception for an illness in 2015.

“I was admitted to Yale when I was 16 years old. I took a leave from school to work for Robert Kennedy,” Medved said. 

“I was 19 years old and was very taken by Kennedy when he ran for president.” Medved still admires RFK and was thrilled when he entered the 1968 race for the White House. My girlfriend was in California and I came out and worked on his campaign,” Medved explained. “There was a great sense he was going to be the next president. I think he would have won. Of all the Kennedy brothers, he was the one who was sincerely religious.”

Medved said campaign workers sweated all day to get people to the polls, then went to the victory celebration. Robert Kennedy came to the Ambassador Hotel and gave his speech. Medved still recalls everything about that night. He stood two rows back from the spot RFK gave his speech.

Working for Robert Kennedy was an admitted thrill of a lifetime for Medved. It did come with its share of grief.

“I remember calling out, ‘We love you, Bobby.’ You can hear me yell that out on the tape,” Medved said. “Then Kennedy said it’s on to Chicago and we’re going to win there. He flashed a peace sign. Everybody spilled into the hallway or went to get a drink. Then I heard what sounded like the popping of balloons. Everybody says it’s like firecrackers, but it sounded like the popping of balloons. Then there was horrible screaming.”

Medved said he will never forget the scream that came from the kitchen area. From the front of the room to the back, and then back to the front. 

“Everybody knew what had happened,” Medved explained, considering Robert Kennedy’s brother had been assassinated just a few years before. “The FBI locked the building. I did not witness the actual shooting, but I was in the front of the room. I think I was interviewed three times by the FBI. They asked me who I knew there.”

Medved said the Ambassador Hotel was a rather seedy place and has since been torn down. They have since built a school on the site named for Robert F. Kennedy.

It was RFK’s assassination that made Medved become deeply involved in politics.  After graduating from Yale, he went to Yale Law school where his study partner, briefly, was Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

He didn’t finish his law degree, instead leaving to work as a head speechwriter for academic and activist Joseph Duffey in his unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.

As a respected film reviewer, Medved started out doing a weekly segment on CNN from 1980-83. He once proclaimed Plan 9 from Outer Space, the worst movie of all time, which has since become a cult classic and sprouted the film Ed Wood.

While still doing his show Sneak Previews, Medved wrote, Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values, which came out in 1992. 

“The gist of that book revolved around how the entertainment industry is out of touch with the American public,” Medved explained. “To its own detriment and the country at large. People in the entertainment industry believed they were reflecting back to the country what they were interested in seeing, and that just wasn’t the case. Hollywood broke faith with its public, creating movies, television, and popular music that exacerbate every serious social problem we face, from teenage pregnancies to violence in the streets. It’s all baloney. What you see on TV is not the reflection they sought.”  

When Hollywood vs.America came out, it was widely discussed on shows like Nightline, NBC news, and CNN. Rush Limbaugh must have seen one of them and called Medved to be one of his first profiles for the Limbaugh Letter. The publication already had a huge circulation at that time. 

“I never met Rush, didn’t know him. I’d listened to his show a bit,” Medved said. “In any event, the interview went well and went out to hundreds of thousands of people. James Golden, who had worked with Rush for many years, asked me to guest host the show during Christmas break in New York. It was surprising to me.”

Golden told Medved he’d read What Really Happened to the Class of ‘65? He must have liked it. Medved later guest hosted for Limbaugh more than twenty times. A few months after that as he was giving a lecture in Seattle, local folks from KVI, a conservative station, asked him to come in and subsequently offered Medved a job. He started his show on KVI in 1996. That year in the fall, he was contacted by Salem Media.

“I always liked Seattle. I used to come up here with my parents when I was a kid. It has always had a magical tinge to it. The radio station KTTH was created around me. I was the first hire at the station. I’ve been conservative for a long time and I write about this extensively in Right Turns, which came out in 2004.”

Before what Medved referred to as the ‘Trump Interruption,’ his show was one of the top 10 most important radio shows in the country. What he means by the interruption is his vocal and unrepentant views on Trump as a politician and a man.

“At our peak, we had 300 affiliates, but it’s fewer now,” Medved explained. “There are so many other alternatives these days. When I’m on the air, I just can’t pretend. I have to be true to my feelings. A lot of people are able to say things they don’t truly believe.”

Medved liked it when President Ronald Reagan said, “I’m conservative, but I’m not angry about it.” I was a fan and admirer of Reagan. There was no contradiction in being a Reaganite. There’s a big difference between a Reagan and Trump follower. My wife and myself have reached a point where we find it difficult in this world of conservative media. There are some people who are genuinely insane.”

He said people he’s known, worked with, respected, and brilliant people, have succumbed to the whole ‘Trump’ business. 

“I think it’s the path of least resistance,” Medved said. “I’m still a conservative but I agree with Trump on very little. I didn’t vote for him either time, and I hope he doesn’t go through with his plans to run again. To use a movie analogy, all I can relate to with the Trump and MAGA true believers is Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You see people that look and act normal, but there is some kind of malevolent force that’s taken them over.” 

Medved met Trump one time. He was sent to cover one of the Republican debates in Las Vegas. In the press room, Trump came by after the debates to gladhand some people. Medved said Trump was surrounded by a phalanx of beautiful women like Melania, Ivanka and Hope Hicks. 

“He’s going around the room saying hello,” Medved explained. ”I was in the broadcast booth and he offered his greeting.  I said I was Michael Medved. He said, ‘I know your stuff. I love your stuff.’ He must not have known I’d just written a column describing him in extremely unflattering terms.”

Don’t worry, Trump didn’t read it.

Jim Cryns

Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.