John Gibson Goes Shock Jock After Ledger Death: "Well, I Guess He Knew How To Quit You"

I'm not big on good taste, but I really have no idea why Gibson would go so hard after Heath Ledger.

I could see a radio host failing to show adequate sensitivity if, say, Michael Moore keeled over from choking on Ding Dong. But Heath Ledger? It's not as if the entire rightwing were in a froth from all those horrible slanders he'd thrown at conservatives. As far as I know, his big political statements were appearing as a gay cowboy eating pudding in a greatly overrated vanity project and doing drugs. Though on the latter, he kept it discreet. Until he died.

I'm not even sure we know yet if the death was drug-induced.

Anyway, far be it from me to scold John Gibson over some ill-advised remarks. But I don't get the shock jock chuckling thing when a fairly anodyne guy dies. A joke in poor taste should be funny enough to justify itself -- you can't fight the funny -- but just tossing out a somewhat-gloating ha-ha over a guy's death doesn't seem to rise to that level.

Eh, not the biggest deal. These guys have hours to fill and they don't work off of scripts, mostly. We all say crap like this all the time, but we're usually not miked up and broadcasting to hundreds of thousands of people when we do.

posted by Ace at 04:31 PM

| Access Comments