October 14, 2010 09:00 PM UTC

Rosen Blames Sirota for His Mosque Remarks

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• by: Colorado Pols

Conservative Denver radio host and Denver Post columnist Mike Rosen had a rough week of bad press (or perhaps good press, since we still think he did this on purpose) for suggesting that someone should hijack an Iranian plane and fly it into a mosque in New York. So what’s his excuse?

Apparently it’s David Sirota’s fault, as Westword explains:

According to Rosen, the audience attending the face-off involving him, Sirota and KHOW’s Peter Boyles earlier this month understood his tongue was in his cheek when he said, “I think they should be allowed to build it, following the hijacking of an Iranian plane right into that building and blow it to smithereens.” And there was a good reason for that, he believes.

“The people cheering or laughing after I said that were mostly my listeners,” he says. “And that surprised me. There were 400 people in the room, and I thought Sirota’s left-wing minions would dominate the hall. But there were so many more of my listeners than I’d expected, and they knew I was being ironic.”…

…As for Sirota’s spotlighting of the comment on the Huffington Post, Rosen says it was worse than a violation of collegiality; he and Sirota both work for Clear Channel stations. “It was grossly unprofessional,” he maintains…

To recap, Rosen makes a horribly insensitive comment in a public debate, and it’s Sirota’s fault for telling people about it? Uh…yeah.

And of course, as Rosen says, listeners “knew I was being ironic,” insinuating that it was your fault if you were offended because other people knew he was “being ironic.” Instead of blaming Sirota or others for this, maybe it would be best to just say, Hey, I made a bad decision and said something stupid in a poor attempt to get a laugh. I apologize.