July 12, 2013 11:47 AM UTC

Post Publisher Singleton and Talker Boyles Enjoy On-Air Love Fest

•  
• by: Jason Salzman

(Why do people like Boyles keep coming back? Because our “civic leaders” let them – promoted by Colorado Pols)

If I’m Post Publisher Dean Singleton, it’s hard to bear hug Peter Boyles.

Since Boyles began his downward spiral with the paranoid right, he’s done more than his share to mindlessly trash The Denver Post and journalism as a profession.

It’s not as bad as his attacks on Muslims and illegal immigrants, because, unlike those people, journalism exists to be attacked. But still.

But this didn’t stop Singleton from slobbering all over Boyles (and vice versa) on Boyles new KNUS show this morning.

Boyles introduced Singleton as “one of my favorite people in the world.”

To which Singleton said how much he missed Boyles on the air and joked that he had “no one to beat me up.” (Is there a union exec out there?)

Boyles told listeners that when he got fired, Singleton “was there and made sure I was ok.”

“Hey, I treasure your friendship,” Singleton responded. “You get me up every morning, and you know, you can’t have a carnival without a carnival barker.”

But I don’t want a carnival on the radio! Do you?

“We love our carnival barker,” Singleton told Boyles.

Really?

“You know what?” Boyles said with at least a handful of people listening to KNUS at 6:30 a.m. “I miss seeing you. Are you in town for a while?”

“I’m back,” Singleton replied. “This is the first time I’ve heard you on 710. We’ve had a lot of fun times together, and done a lot of fun things, and I wanted to welcome you back to the air, me and Colorado missed ya.”

Not the Muslims or the undocumented immigrants or, I would venture to say, most of the rational-minded journalists at The Denver Post. They didn’t miss him.

Still, we can agree that almost any local radio show is better than no local show. And even if Boyles is bad in many ways, he’s not all bad.

I’m just hoping Boyles stops himself from going to the deep end, and tearing down vulnerable people and institutions, as frequently as he did at his last job.