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July 14, 2010 12:06 AM UTC

Anti-Churchill talk-show hosts have differing opinions on McInnis

  • 78 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

It seems like an age has gone by since the Denver media, gamely led by the bygone Rocky Mountain News, was in full-bore media frenzy over a CU professor named Ward Churchill.

And who was leading the frenzy, calling for the firing of Churchill after it was determined he committed plagiarism, and sometimes even before this was determined? Denver’s top-rated talk show hosts. Those guys.

KHOW’s duo of Caplis and Silverman was out in front of the pack.

The Rocky Mountain News reported in 2007 that Dan Caplis cut a vacation short to broadcast the Churchill firing. Caplis told the Rocky at the time: “This is the people’s victory, and talk radio played a part in it. But that’s what we’re here for. We shouldn’t be bragging about it – we just did our job. If we don’t do our job, bad guys like Churchill win.”

Asked today whether he thought McInnis should withdraw from the race, Caplis responded:

“Fair question…. The same standard should apply to a candidate for any higher office as applies to a university professor. Plagiarism is extremely serious. Now we just have to see what the facts are. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to talk to Scott on the show today. Absolutely the same standards should apply to a candidate as a university professor.”

Caplis is an arch conservative who considered a gubernatorial run himself. For a talk-show host like Caplis, who openly supports McInnis and opposed Churchill, you might say, if you were Ward Churchill, that the chickens have come home to roost.

I asked his co-host, centrist Craig Silverman, if he thought McInnis should withdraw. Silverman first questioned McInnis about what he did for the Hasan Family Foundation after the paid fellowship was mentioned in the Denver Post, eliciting the response from McInnis that a “series of in-depth articles on water” were written.

Like Caplis, Silverman called for Churchill’s firing, but strictly due to the plagiarism issue, not because of his inflammatory essays.

“I have lots of thoughts on the subject,” he told me. “I’m going to formulate them and let them spill forth on my radio show [KHOW, 630 AM] between 3 p.m. and 6. We are going to be talking about it big time, as Dick Cheney would say.”

UPDATE: Silverman later said on the radio that the plagiarism is devastating to McInnis. He suggested Caplis should throw his hat in the race.

KOA talk show host Mike Rosen was also on the Churchill war path, saying over and over and over that the case against Churchill had nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with plagiarism, an act of unforgivable academic misconduct.

In an Aug. 3, 2007 column in the Rocky, Rosen wrote: ” The party line of Churchill apologists is that he was really fired for expressing his beliefs and that the findings of CU faculty panels that investigated his serial academic fraud were merely a ruse. Nonsense. Churchill is a proven liar and cheat.”

Via email, I asked Rosen if he thought, in light of his previous criticism of Churchill, that McInnis should step aside. Rosen said:  

“No. Not comparable.  Churchill’s behavior was far more serious.”

You might think that KHOW talk-show host Peter Boyles, who polluted the air with the Jon Bonet Ramsey case, would have been one of the anti-Churchill leaders, but he was more restrained at the time.

Today, when I asked him if McInnis should go the way of Churchill, he told me, “That’s a great question. You know, I read Crummy’s piece, and I’m not trying to dodge ya, I don’t know enough about it other than what I read in Crummy’s piece. Nobody’s better than Crummy.”

He went on to say:

“The worst campaign I ever saw was Bruce Benson, until I saw Pete Coors, until I saw Bob Beauprez, and this one is the icing on the cake.”

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78 thoughts on “Anti-Churchill talk-show hosts have differing opinions on McInnis”

  1. Churchill had a very long and well documented history of plaigiarism and research fraud.

    So far, McInnis has been shown to have sinned once.

      On the other hand, firing a tenured professor is much harder than just pulling the “Maes”  lever on a voting machine (if we still have machines with levers.”

     McInnis may not survive this, but even if he doesn’t, this can’t be equated with the long and fraudulent history of Churchill.

       But that, of course, is cold comfort to Republicans at this point.

    1. that this was a single youthful indiscretion that happens from time to time to gentlemen of culture.

      I guess you don’t remember that McInnis served in Congress in the same political party and at the same time as Tom Delay when Jack Abramoff was stacking the halls of Congress.  It seems a tad naive at this point to assume that it is a single act of corruption or incompetence.  

      1. But on the subject of plaigiarism, all we have on McInnis at this point is the one case.  Don’t celebrate your indictments before they happen;-)

        1. is potentially enough to cause McInnis to be disbarred, or at least have his license to practice law suspended for a period.  So, I don’t buy the idea that it’s small potatoes.

            1. from my friends with some expertise in legal ethics as applied by Colorado’s Office of Attorney Regulation (although I think suspension is more likely than disbarment).

        2. today of Scooter being loose with those pesky attributions.  Apparently he liked presenting material as if they were his own thoughts.

          These multiple reported examples have surfaced rather quickly and people now know what to look for so don’t be surprised if more are discovered.

    3. Churchill was exonerated in a courtroom.  He may not have been the most conscientious scholar, but people are awfully quick to throw around charges of plagiarism which were thrown out in court.

            1. In the beginning of the internet (1993), there were two sites for Colorado politics:  Colorado Luis and Makesmeralph.  Rutt Bridges.  Wellington Webb.  Ben “Switchhorse” Campbell.

              Dick rambles when he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  Don’t be a dick.

      3. The jury found that he had been wrongfully terminated not because he didn’t plagiarize, but because the University only investigated the charges after his 9/11 essay brought highly unfavorable attention to the school.

        That means that they didn’t find that the charges of plagiarism were false. It only means that the investigation was politically motivated. Political motivation doesn’t void the finding of plagiarism.

        1. actually it does mean exactly that legally.

          Aristotle would have failed a freshman philosophy midterm because there’s no such thing as objective justice.

          1. It means the plagiarism was irrelevant to the cause of his being fired. The court later did not award attorney’s fees or force reinstatement because of the history of plagiarism.  Churchill was a complete fraud.

          2. Lay off the bong hits for a minute. You’ll be a little less paranoid.

            Feeling a little more clear headed? Good. Your assignment – find the quotation in the verdict that overturns the university’s findings that Churchill plagiarized. In a legal finding, that would be explicitly stated. Be sure to cite your source, as independent verification is necessary to validate your finding.

            If you can’t do this, just come back here and admit you were wrong.

            Sound fair?

            1. They knew he was a plagiarist and a fraud before they gave him tenure. They should have had that ugly, fraudulent, dimwitted albatross around their necks forever.

              1. They knew he was a plagiarist and a fraud before they gave him tenure.

                 They gave him tenure, with none of the usual protections and none of the usual qualifications, because they fell for two deliberate lies:

                 1-Ward claimed the University of California was trying to lure him away with the offer of a tenured position.  It wasn’t true–UC wasn;’t anywhere near that stupid.

                  2-Ward claimed to be Native American and they were desperate to fill a racial quota.  As it turns out, he is not and was never native American (in the sense of an American Indian.)  He only played one in protest marches.

                1. but I do agree with Thilly that they should have been stuck with him. You’d expect a University to do at least a little checking before granting tenure with so many highly qualified people stuck in dead end part time associate professorships these days. The idiots who bought this guy’s bull ought to be fired.  

  2. what a toadie he is – he wanted to bash the NAACP and their resolution about the Tea Baggers and other topics and Craig started off on McInnis; Dan doesn’t want to rock his R boat and seems very hesitant to hash out the topic.  He’s all about bashing Hickenlooper instead, totally unable to stay on the McInnis story.

    Craig’s mentioned twice about Dan maybe being asked into the race (the thought of Dan the Martyr governing anything makes me want to puke!) which makes me laugh; Dan’s  a trial lawyer – one of the most hated of professions by those really righteous Rs.  After Shifty McInnis, lawyer/lobbyist that he is, do you think any R would ever trust another lawyer?

    1. He was practically falling over himself praising McInnis for being “man enough” to respond to the charges.

      As if McInnis really had any choice whatsoever. He had to say SOMEthing.

      So what does he say? “Blame my research associate.”

      It’s very clear that he personally guaranteed to the Hasan Foundation, AND told the media, that all the work he was paid $300K for was original. That was flat out untrue: not only did he hire some stooge to do the work for him, but he didn’t even do elementary reviewing to make sure that the stooge hadn’t plagiarized on McInnis’ behalf.

      Or, more likely, his stooge really DID tell McInnis that he had simply provided the good Congressman with some “background” that the Congressman had to gin up so as to make it less traceable.

      No, McInnis is certainly no model of integrity – that’s clear.

  5. Spinning hard- but consistently.

    Not his fault, the inf was in public domain, he accepted it, mistakes were made, he’ll talk to Hobbs and Hasan Foundation soon

    1. First he said he’d hired a couple of assistants then backtracked to just one and Craig caught him on it.

      He’s created a lot more controversy by his non-answers, at least that’s my opinion.

      If he hasn’t quit the race by the end of this week, he’s even more arrogant and snobbish than I thought.

      1. How much was the assistant paid?

        How much of the work did the assistant do?

        Did Mcinnis do any of it?

        Is he going to give the Hasan Foundation their money back?

        Mcinnis said it was all the assistant. and his own fault for not catching it.

        Nothing to see, really.

        1. He was asked several times just how much of the work he did, and he said he didn’t know. John Ferrugia asked him if he did even 50 percent of it  – “I don’t know.”

          I’m tempted to start a poll that asks, along a scale of 0 to 100, just how much of that work was actually penned by McInnis. But just tempted 🙂

  7. There are a ton of voters who are unemployed or underemployed. A ton more that has a close friend or family member in that boat.

    And when they hear he was paid 300K for copying someone else’s work – when 300K is riches to all those people – that’s going to have people really pissed. It plays into the whole rules are for others issue.

    1. I have a question for you, David.  As a small business owner, does the uncertainty coming from Washington..(ie, will cap and trade pass? What about the extension of Bush Tax cuts?

      What about the cost to employers of the new health plans?

      What impact could new regulation on the financial industry have? ) cause you to hesitate before hiring new people?

        1. I have heard this argument from the Republicans.  Quite frankly, I thought it might have some merit.  I have never had sole responsibility for meeting a payroll, so I didn’t know.

  8. caplis said they only reason he was on talk radio was to adovocate for his agenda and his candidates.   Nice to have that out in  the open.

    When it was rumored that Ed Schultz might run for the vacant Senate seat in North Dakota, I believe it was Fox News, demanded that if Schultz were going to run that he leave his show immediately and they asked for an immediate yes or no response to a possible Senate race.  I don’t know the rules.  I believe that declared candidates do have to leave their entertainment/political shows, but I am not sure.  Personally, I would hate to see the republicans stagger forward and then have the forerunner drop out and caplis drop in late in the game.

    If McInnis stays in the race, I will credit another win for talk radio.  When I finally shut them off, C was saying how great McInnis was to step up and allow them to interview him….as opposed to Hickenlooper…etc.etc. etc.

    1. Caplis was bragging about how he clearly doesn’t avoid conflict because he teams up with someone who disagrees with him all the tine.  Then a caller called in and said that while the McInnis plagiarism stuff was troubling, they have to defeat Hickenlooper in November because he didn’t warn whites that they were being targeted for violence by blacks.  Silverman didn’t challenge the caller; he asked if the caller would vote third party.  Yeah, he’s a great foil for Caplis.

      Does anyone have any idea WTF the caller was talking about?

      2. … well, they’re not sure about the “because” part but it probably has something to do with Obama, Sanctuary Cities, and the Trilateral Commission.

          1. For the kid that was killed by the same group on a front lawn in Centennial.

            This was the real deal, and it was dangerous, and even some of the off-duty cops that work downtown are pissed that they weren’t told about it.

            I’m a Hick supporter, but this was a really fucked up deal.  

        2. concealing the nature of that investigation was to

          1) not tip off the assailants

          and

          2)Build a stronger case against them.

          in the end it worked out well.

          The Violent BIGOTS went to jail.

          the other BIGOTS harp on that they weren’t forewarned. (never admitting the case would have been blown if they were forewarned)  

          1. Have no idea what you’re talking about on this.

            Have names of the defendants that have been convicted?

            Any of them been re-arrested for the same thing?

  9. boyles says the following almost everyday.

    “The worst campaign I ever saw was Bruce Benson, until I saw Pet Coors, until I saw Bob Beauprez, and this one is the icing on the cake.”

    I don’t know what this means.  Vote for republicans, they always run bad campaigns?  

      1. Whenever I hear him called Scooter, I think of my brother’s dog dragging his butt across the living room floor.  Then it kind of morphs into Scott McInnis dragging his butt across dry leaves on the forest floor.  

        If you’re wondering where the leaves come into play, it’s because that stupid hunting video with him crawling on his hands and knees through the woods is still burned on my brain.  

  11. McInnis is a douche.

    But he’s not in the same universe as Churchill. Ward’s history of bullying, plagiarizing, making up history, and being a total fraud outweigh any indiscretion of McInnis’ tenfold.

    That said, drop out, Scott. You’re an embarrassment.

    Caplis gets in the race, Hick is going to get a run for his money.  

    1. Really?

      Does he have some secret persona alter ego or is he really the way he is on air?

      He’ll motivate the base, but he practices the most blatant and weak kneed form of hackery – and I don’t think he can carry the middle.

      1. years and years and years and years (did I mention years) of audio files chalk full of toxic comments that will push even more moderates to Hickenlooper.

        Dan Caplis is by no measure a winner.

      2. But he has a lot of notoriety and money, and he’s someone Hick never planned to run against.

        Plus, a lot of the things he said that you think would upset the general voting public are in my mind inside baseball, or things that would only outrage folks that wouldn’t vote for him anyway.

        It would certainly be closer than Maes or McInnis.

    2. Now that we’ve established what they are, we are merely negotiating over the price.

      McInnis has an equally sordid history, filled with payoffs to family members, lies about campaign funds and breast cancer research, lies about charity, elk meat (but I repeat myself), and a lucrative career hustling the Hasans for more than a quarter of a million dollars. The fact he did much of this while artfully dodging from whatever abortion position most benefited his political career to the next ought to be equally as disturbing as Churchill’s antics.  

      1. Churchill was a college prof teaching.  Part of the college experience is to learn and think. He did his part there.

        Scooter was a legislator and wants to play one again.  When I am asked what makes politicians and elected legislators of all levels different my reply is simple.  They make laws that affect our lives. That is power and that is why legislators are different from you and I.

        1. Part of the college experience is to learn and think. He did his part there

          He taught incorrect information.  He used others’ works and represented it as his own.  He bullied students that disagreed and staff at the college.  He advocated violence.

          The only thing Churchill taught was how to be a shitty human and an absolute fake.

          McInnis is pretty standard shithead politician. This is disgraceful, but not in the same ass-head universe as Wardie.

            1. As long as McInnis doesn’t get elected, he’s only affecting his circle.

              Wardie was teaching kids at CU.

              Scooter might be a jerk and a fraud, but Churchill is a horrible human being.

              1. Scooter was elected, and this morning’s Post article shows he’s been swiping for a while. At the very least it shows that he was unqualified for the job, since plagiarists simply can’t have any real grasp on complex issues.

                But then again, I doubt Congress was ever free of unqualified individuals in their ranks.

  12. I couldn’t put my thumb on it until remembering another money issue McInnis had funneling thousands of campaign dollars through his wife to pay for everything from plane tickets, K Street steak dinners to cell phone and cable bills.

    McInnis must have also written the book, How to Make Mo Money Without Using Yo Money!

    Mo’ Money! Mo’ Money! Mo’ Money!

    1. Dan Caplis is an unashamed HACK!

      I thought it funny when his own poll said it was ok for president Obama to go golfing once a week.

      Caplis was not happy and changed the subject.

      Digging for gold in a salt mine…

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