Heckle and Jeckle: Dishy no Takey
Earlier this week, KTLA reporter Sam Rubin pulled a boner, suggesting that hiring illegal alien nannies is so common that even Heckle Kobylt of the Heckle and Jeckle Show may have done so at some point. Heckle and Jeckle were outraged, as was Heckle’s wife, who screamed at him on the air. Heckle threatened to sue him, insisting he would do so if Rubin did not retract the statement on the air on the very next day.
Rewind to October 6, 2003, the day before California’s historic recall election. A stunt woman named Rhonda Miller surfaced with new, potentially explosive (though hotly disputed) charges about now-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Within hours, Heckle and Jeckle gleefully produced Rhonda Miller’s mile-long rap sheet, which featured convictions for everything from forgery to prostitution. There was only one problem: it wasn’t the same Rhonda Miller. Miller’s attorney, Gloria Allred (a piece of work in her own right, but that’s another story) contacted the show the next day, went on the air, and pointed out some of the clearer discrepancies (e.g., birthdate), and demanded an immediate retraction. Heckle told her KFI was running an investigation of its own, and until such investigation was completed, no retractions would be forthcoming, thank you very much. Approximately a week later, KFI finished their own little investigation, and concluded that yep, it was a different Rhonda Miller after all. Oopsie. Heckle and Jeckle then retracted their claim, one week after had ceased to matter, and six days later than they could have retracted it if Allred had insisted on the same schedule they demanded of Rubin.
Heckle and Jeckle: sometimes useful, always idiots.
May 6th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
Rubin did in fact call in and retract and apologize. If he were a regular blog-reader, he might have remembered the Rhonda Miller story, and talked about it.
H&J (sometimes known as J&K) are in the buisness of rabble-rousing, something they do quite well. The audience for deliberate, measured, reasoned discourse has long since dwindled to the point where it only happens on the midnight-to-6 slot. And even there there are exceptions.