Seattle Blogs are brewing a storm over KUOW’s censorship of Cliff Mass. Besides the series of posts on The AVE, posts have now appeared at Sound Politics, Of Paramount Importance, Save Seattle Schools, Economic Freedom, Publicola, and Crosscut.
Perhaps the most acerbic of these comments come from Michael Hood over at Blatherwatch.He described Cliff mass as being dumped because he is KUOW’s “weather babe.” Leaving aside the odd inversion a feminist cant in Michael’s post, he walso fo0es on to say that “KUOW can’t stand controversy” and to quite KUOW’ Steve Scher as saying that “”Over time Cliff began inserting his opiniont his show (and the station) a heaving plenty of diversity… and not needing more from a UW Prof who happens to be KUOW’s version of the weather babe. Hood continues, “When the weather babe starts talking about sports, she’s outa there.”
With all due respect, Michael Hood knows a lot about commercial radio, but KUOW is not KIRO. KUOW is a UW affiliated PBS station. Someone must have complained to KUOW. Who was that? Why was that complaint importnat enough to get a popular and (I assume free) UW prof kicked off KUOW
Frankly, Mass’s story smells somebody over at the UW, or maybe in the Seattle Public Schools laid a media bomb. The KUOW producer told Professor Mass the UW School of Education had complained about Mass’s remarks, and told him they couldn’t have him talking about math without giving the “other side.” Recently, fate handed him the opportunity to give the other side to a story from the Seattle Times about in-state students refused UW admission, “Why straight As may not get you into the UW this year,” which laid the blame strictly on the economics of out-of-state tuition. Mass has also written scathingly about the mismanagement of math education by the Seattle Public Schools.
I wonder how Steve Scher of KUOW would respond to a freedom of information request?