Frank Bruni’s questions for Howard Stern!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014

The undying law of the guild: One of our craziest citizens killed three people this weekend.

At the start of yesterday’s column, Frank Bruni reviewed the carnage. In the process, he asked a pair of questions which we found revealing:

BRUNI (4/15/14): Most of the hate crimes in the United States don’t take the fatal form that the shootings in Kansas over the weekend did, and most aren’t perpetrated by villains as bloated with rage and blinded by conspiracy theories as the person accused in this case, Frazier Glenn Miller. He’s an extreme, not an emblem.

This is someone who went on Howard Stern’s radio show four years ago (why, Howard, did you even hand him that megaphone?) and called Adolf Hitler “the greatest man who ever walked the earth.” When Stern asked Miller whether he had more intense antipathy for Jews or for blacks (why that question?), Miller chose the Jews, definitely the Jews, “a thousand times more,” he said.

“Compared to our Jewish problem, all other problems are mere distractions,” he declaimed, and he apparently wasn’t just spouting off. He was gearing up.

Miller is one of our craziest citizens. For many years, he’s been crazily fallen. His craziness has now produced tragedy.

That said, we were struck by those questions to Howard Stern—by what those questions say about the way the press corps works.

Everyone knows why Howard Stern had this crazy man on his program! For decades, Stern has defined the low-IQ, “shock jock” culture which has dumbed our world way down.

We Americans used to get our public discussions carefully sifted for us. Walter and David selected the topics. As a general rule, they didn’t make up crazy shit or fill our heads with crazy claims.

Stern is one of the people who changed that. By now, it’s hard to get a TV or radio show unless you’re visibly nuts.

Stern put this crazy man on the air because that’s what a loud and dumb shock jocker does. But even now, Bruni has to pretend he doesn’t know that.

Everyone knows how this system works. And no, it isn’t just Howard Stern. For decades, it’s been Rush and Sean as well. Increasingly, it’s Rachel and Matthews too.

Bruni will never tell you that either. Like everyone else within the guild, he didn’t tell you about Matthews’ disgraceful conduct in 1999 and 2000. He certainly won’t tell you now.

The press corps never discusses the press corps. We’ve told you that for many years. Most people can’t see that it’s true.