If you’re expecting Tony Kornheiser or his guests to be critical of Washington Redskins owner Daniel Synder, think again.
John Feinstein explained that the radio host and Pardon the Interruption co-host put the squabash on bringing up Snyder.
“Someone asked an interesting question last week: Do I know the questions I’m going to be asked when I go on the radio. The answer is: not usually. I can guess based on what’s going on what I might be asked about but I don’t usually specifically talk to the host or the producer beforehand.
AdvertisementThe only exception to that in the past was when I was still on NPR where I actually wrote my own questions because none of the producers there knew the difference between a hockey puck and a basketball. (On the day Bob Knight was fired I called in to explain that I needed to be on the next morning and the producer who answered the phone said, “so why was he important? Did he coach Michael Jordan or something?”)
“Yeah, or something,” I answered.
The other exception goes in the other direction: Tony Kornheiser has specifically asked me not to bring up Dan Snyder on his show. I feel queasy about this but Tony’s my friend and it is his show. It isn’t as if there aren’t plenty of other forums for me to talk about Snyder and Snyder is one of those guys Tony simply isn’t going to go after – not because he’s paid by him but because he likes him.
Look, we all have blind spots. If you tell me something bad about Paul Goydos or Tom Watson or Gary Williams or Mike Krzyzewski or Mary Carillo or Joe Torre or Bobby Cox I’m not going to listen. Snyder is one of those guys for Tony. So is Mitch Albom, who we also disagree on. If I had a show and he wanted to come on and rip Watson’s politics, I’d probably say, ‘look, I’m sure I agree with you but the guy is my friend so let’s not go there.’ And he wouldn’t go there. So, Tony and I don’t talk about Snyder. We agree to disagree–vehemently.”
Snyder owns ESPN 980 in Washington D.C., which is the home of The Tony Kornheiser Show.
There was a time when Kornheiser wasn’t afraid to criticize Snyder but not since The Washington City Paper published a scathing article on the billionaire last November.
This is exactly why Kornheiser needs to bring back the “Internet Show.”