Mike Fleming: Tool or Moron?

I make myself listen to the first half-hour of the Mike Phlegming show, just in case he has big local news. Usually, I turn him off right after that. The longest I've listened to his show on purpose has been an hour. Trust me, it was painful.

Anyway, right off the bat today, Phlegming announces the name of Herenton's baby-mamma, and where she works. Her phone number is now unlisted. He even talks about paternity tests, which I won't repeat. He then crows that he knows her street address, but he won't give that out! No sir, he has scruples. The public has a right to know, but apparently not that much.

I haven't listened to WDIA today, but I'm sure she's been outed over there, too. If the hosts won't say, plenty of callers will, just to out her. Scanning the 5PM news shows, I didn't see any stories naming her, but I might have missed something while changing channels. None of the news websites are naming her yet. Haven't read the Commercial Appeal yet, either.

So why does Phlegming feel the need to identify the woman? He claims the "public's right to know." Nah, I don't buy that for a second. It's about him getting back at the Mayor and looking good to his audience. Pure and simple. The man is such a waste of airtime and opportunity.

He almost always takes the easiest and cheapest position on whatever the topic of the day is. Criminals? Kill 'em. Politicians? Corrupt! Black Memphis pols? Idiots! Taxes? Too high! You name it. He's a glib button-pusher and about as deep. Partly, it's the nature of his show, where things have to hustle along pretty steadily. But I also think it's just Phlegming, that he's not an especially deep thinker.

He talks tough but, for example, during the Income Tax Wars he went after House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh daily for his efforts to pass the tax. When Naifeh appeared on his show, suddenly it was all niceness and "thank you" and obsequiousness. Having slammed radio talk show hosts the day before, Naifeh made a special point of exempting his friend Mike. It's like that time after time when he can get people to appear on his show. Not that many do.

Sometimes Phlegming will ask questions that don't seem connected to anything except making some obscure point. When he had County Mayor AC Wharton on, around the time of a previous John Ford blowup, he threw out a question, out of the blue, asking if AC had helped to write Ford's letter of apology. What? Sometimes it's pretty clear he's carrying water for some Republican interest, like with Mayor Rout's son and the Young Republicans.

There is his problem with vocabulary. Everything is idiotic, stupid, garbage, moronic, etc. He speaks in superlatives: it's always the "most" idiotic. "I can't believe it!" Oh, the list goes on and on. I can't count the number of times he gets lost in a sentence he's contructing, only to flounder around before making a lurch into a finish. You can tell he's a writer at heart and not especially good at thinking on his feet.

There are problems with his program format and time. Since its so packed full of ads and promo or news breaks, he's constantly against a break. It forces him to cut off callers or finish their thoughts for them to hustle them along. He has to repeat things for new listeners dropping in during their drive home, which eats up time.

Phlegming's bad about abruptly changing topics. After a break he'll come back and, even though he's promised to take calls, he'll start up on something new. When he takes a call, if the caller wants to talk about something previous Phlegming will cut them off and say something inane like "You've got to keep up on this show!" There's no rhyme or reason for it.

A recent example: When he broke the news yesterday about Herenton's child, he said something like, "The baby doesn't have a name yet." Even though it's four months old, just because the Mayor didn't disclose his name Phlegming jumps on that to encourage callers to offer their own suggestions. So childish.

If anyone out there can forward Arbitron numbers, I'd like to see them. I'd like to know just how many listeners he has. Especially as compared to shows on WDIA, and to morning shows. The station brags he's the most listened to, but that's against a pretty small pool: him and the James brothers on WDIA, I think. That's not saying much.

Well, 680AM inaugurated the Air America schedule today. They are also talking about having a liberal local call-in radio show. I'd listen to that, at least to start. It mostly, as always, depends on the host. Pretty much anyone will be a step up from Phlegming, even across the political aisle. And maybe if they give him some competition, he'll either improve or lose his slot.

We can hope.

INSTANT UPDATE A quick scan of the 6PM news shows that the woman is not being named. Good for them! It's not germane to whatever points about Herenton that need to be made.

INSTANT CORRECTION My bad! WREC/3 is identifying the woman. Tools.