More on WILK’s Steve Corbett…and Rev. Brewster’s grandstanding

Recently, WILK Newsradio host Steve Corbett attacked me on his radio program and WILK’s Facebook page because of my comments regarding Rev. Brewster of Mount Zion Baptist Church. I recently saw Corbett at a public education rally and was dismissed once again. Corbett didn’t want to have a conversation in-person and never bothered to invite me on his show although he was quite happy to attack me on-air and on WILK’s Facebook page even though I was vindicated after Rev. Brewster’s town-hall meeting that he has promised was cancelled on two occasions.

Steve Corbett (pictured above), a self-professed liberal even though he endorsed McCain/Palin in the previous presidential election after Hilary lost her bid for the Democratic nominee for president, is a local newsradio host on WILK Newsradio — a primarily conservative radio station which features the national figures of Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh — who recently attacked me on air dismissing me as a “professional atheist” and, on the WILK Newsradio Facebook page, used the phrases “self-absorbed sense of self-importance,” “childish need for instant gratification,” “get over yourself,” and “grow up” addressing my comments concerning the grandstanding of a local preacher and the false hope he is giving to people of this community following the shooting death of a local 14-year-old boy. This was quite, on my estimation, unprofessional and rude [for a radio show host to say something like this to one of his listeners and frequent callers].

Yesterday, when I attended a public education rally, I saw Corbett and was utterly dismissed once again. I approached Corbett and, after introducing myself, told him that I was quite disappointed with his recent reaction to me. He replied, in quite a stern voice, saying, “I’m trying to listen to this” (referring to listening to a speaker at the rally). I stood next to him for about ten seconds, walked away, and saw, after I returned to where I had been standing, him walking away from where he was standing and speaking with other people (namely politicians in the audience). Apparently, once again, Corbett doesn’t want to have a conversation and just wants to be dismissive.

When speaking with a friend about this issue, she noted something I really didn’t think about at first. It is quite rude, she noted, for a radio show host to see one of his listeners at a public event and not have even a quick discussion. There was no “I’ll talk to you after the rally” or “I’ll talk to you after this speaker,” but rather flat-out dismissal.

I find it quite interesting that Corbett — a person who presents his radio show as an open forum for discussion of all sorts of ideas from all sorts of callers who are encouraged to call in — is so dismissive in-person and on his radio show. To make matters even worse for Corbett — considering he was so upset about what I had to say about the vapid words and grandstanding of Rev. Brewster (I’ll get more into this later) — he never even bothered to have me on his show despite my open nature and his possession (or quick googling of) my e-mail address.

I had noted, in my comments about Rev. Brewster that Corbett became so angry about, that Rev. Brewster was grandstanding in the name of his faith. I was recently even more vindicated on this matter. Rev. Brewster pledged to have a town hall meeting on Wednesday of last week to address violence in NEPA following the death of Tyler Winstead. The Wednesday meeting was cancelled and was delayed until Friday…and the Friday meeting never happened. I didn’t see one media report on the meeting, a time or location was never announced, and Rev. Brewster has said nothing about it in local press [and he’s been quite active there].

A recent article in The Times-Tribune noted:

As he promised during his Easter service, the Rev. Brewster said he was commissioning a town-hall meeting with city officials in the wake of Tyler’s death to seek concrete solutions to the area’s problems and not just rhetoric. He said he expected the same interest and attendance when it comes time to sit down and address the region’s most pressing problems.

As we can now see quite clearly, Rev. Brewster’s words were just rhetoric; he hasn’t delivered on his promises of “concrete solutions to the area’s problems” despite pledging to have a town hall meeting on specific dates. It seems that Rev. Brewster, as I said earlier this week, is just a grandstander. Steve Corbett was so angry when I had said that…and I was right. We still, though, need earthly solutions to our earthly problems.