Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Jay Severin Says the Poor are Boring and Smell, and a Brighton Resident Calls Him On It

Brighton resident David Schrag heard Jay Severin on the radio the other day saying (yet another) idiotic, if not downright offensive, comment: "Poor people are boring and often smell."

Some listeners enjoy this kind of talk radio; others might laugh it off. Personally, I never listen to mean, nasty, and brutish acts such as Severin or Howie Carr. But Schrag called him on the remarks -- literally.

Schrag called into the show and got on for nearly six minutes, rubbing Severin's face in his own words and hypocrisy while producing a full transcript for his blog, The Schrug (not to be confused with his other blog, The Schlog, or his previous online periodical, The Schragzine):
David: OK, so can you define "poor" for me then? Because I just want to let these folks, you know, know who they are that you think are boring...

Jay: I’ll let you define the poor.

David: No, no. You’re all about "words have meaning." You know, you’re very precise in terms of language.

Jay: Indeed I am.

David: And so if you’re going to use a word like poor, I assume you know what it means. It’s a relative term, so what does it mean to you?

Jay: "The poor" is not a relative term. The poor are the poor.
Schrag was unsuccessful at getting Severin to define the term "poor", probably because Severin realized it would have caused many of his listeners to realize suddenly that Severin was insulting them directly. Ah, the dangers of engaging in class warfare when your livelihood is at stake!

Severin eventually hung up on Schrag. Not leaving it there, Severin launched into a six-minute tirade against the caller who could no longer defend himself, calling Schrag "some poor, friendless, unemployed... wanking dwarf... I think he probably smells."

Needless to say, Schrag is not unemployed. He's a local business owner and a member of the Brighton Board of Trade who does not frequent dungeons. Severin's show probably won't be getting much in the way of Brighton advertising dollars anytime soon. But at least Severin managed to hold onto his impoverished listeners.

2 comments:

Rob said...

Jay Severin is the typical right-wing talk show host. He is short on substance, but long on ego and ad hominem attacks.

Jos76 said...

This guy is such a fake. I can't understand how anyone can take him seriously. Let us not forget that "Jay Severin" spent the better part of his non-public life as Jimmy Severino. So, he changed his name, most likely so that it sounded less like an "immigrant name" and talks about his integrity all the time. Hey, Jimmy, let's talk more about Obama using his middle name so as not to fool anyone, but let's also talk about your past and self-hatred reflected in your name change. If we look into the Severino past, will we find Italian Immigrants? Were they legal? Did they all learn English. My guess is that there are some problems to be discussed there.
Jos76
www.jos76.wordpress.com