John Ziegler (talk show host)

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John Ziegler

John Ziegler (born March 28, 1967) is the evening (7-10 PM) host of a radio talk show called The John Ziegler Show on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles, California. Describing himself as "more libertarian than conservative, more conservative than liberal, and more cynical and skeptical than anything else", the program discusses not just the traditional political issues of a talk show, but also other issues such as his personal life and his frustration with the world. Ziegler's show is advertised as Getting it Right at Night.

He has been a strong supporter of President Bush's policies following 9-11, but his support of the President has lessened following the Terri Schiavo controversy and Bush's liberal stance on illegal immigration. Ziegler is also an agnostic.

1 Segments
2 Celebrity interviews
3 Controversies
4 Biography
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Segments

A regular feature of the show is Ask John Anything, a monthly opportunity to ask Ziegler about his opinions on anything, which usually ends up into a discussion about his personal life. Ziegler has said the most frequent question he receives for the Ask John Anything segment are from people who want to know why he and newscaster Leah Brandon are not dating each other. On one occasion he expressed annoyance at having to answer the question of how much he earned per year - $145,000 (2006). Other features include What Have We Learned This Week, a review of the guests and topics covered on the show in the previous week, Sounds of the Week, a Friday countdown of five sound bytes that aired during the week and are either newsworth or comical, ending the show with an audio clip from President Bush (where Ziegler concludes that "tonight, like every night that, even though we are now ____ days since 9/11, still no sign of Usama bin Laden, may we some how still live in a nation where...", followed by a soundbyte from a Bush speech: "We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.", and a soundbyte from The Path to 9/11 miniseries asking "are there any men left in Washington? Or are they all cowards?"). and the banter between Brandon and Ziegler, which is similar to that of a "morning zoo" radio show.

In early 2006 John Ziegler and his newscaster Leah Brandon purchased a horse called "Luckie’s Revenge". After improving its health Leah tried to move the horse to her house. This created a conflict between John and Leah in June 2006 because the horse was not adjusting to Leah house and Leah felt that it should be moved back to the barn. The conflict between the two was about who should pay for this new cost and was a segment on the show on June 7, 2006.

[edit] Celebrity interviews

Ziegler is characteristically more blunt than most talk show hosts, not letting his guests or public figures get away with the usual softball questions so common in interviews. When Arnold Schwarzenegger called into his show on the eve of the special election in 2005, Ziegler told the optimistic California governor that there was little doubt all propositions would lose the next day. Post-election, Ziegler was convinced that Schwarzenegger would move to the political left because of the influence of his wife Maria Shriver and his desire to be re-elected. Following Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech with his bond proposal, Ziegler commented that "48 hours ago we all thought USC was the greatest football team in the nation, that the coal miners were found alive, and Schwarzenegger was allegedly a Republican."

Ziegler recently interviewed actor Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13) at the American Film Renaissance to discuss Operation Iraqi Children that sends schools supplies to children in Iraq. Sinise commented that he sadly believes it may take another 9-11 to wake-up our country to the evil that is out there. Ziegler is the self-proclaimed pastor of the First Church of Tiger Woods and has said Tiger is probably the greatest argument for the existence of intelligent design over evolution. Off the air, Ziegler enjoys playing golf.

[edit] Controversies

2005 was a year of confrontation for Ziegler, who devoted large portions of his show playing audio of his personal confrontations with Robert Blake, Jesse Jackson (whose bodyguard broke the KFI microphone), O.J. Simpson, Senator Barbara Boxer^[1] and even Mark McGuire. The year concluded with Ziegler broadcasting live while surrounded by people protesting the execution of convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams and chanting "racist" to Ziegler, ultimately resulting in KFI security demanding his show wrap earlier than planned for that remote broadcast.

Ziegler was suspended for two days after words were exchanged with John Kobylt, whose 3p.m. to 7p.m. program with Ken Chiampou precedes the Ziegler program.

A transcript of the Sept. 11 broadcast shows at 6:55 p.m. Kobylt pitching to the upcoming Ziegler show and Ziegler responding, "Hey, John, exclusive information – stuff you won't hear anywhere else – about how ABC caved on the "Path to 9/11" movie last night. Plus we'll talk to a teacher who is having some difficulty locally teaching about 9/11 and I'll also explain … there are two great mysteries as far as I'm concerned. Why George Bush is so incredibly soft on illegal immigration and why someone as smart as John Kobylt has his head up his ass on Iraq."

Kobylt responds, "Get out … get out … get out, or I'm going to throw something at you." Moments later, Kobylt said, "I'm sick of you coming in here every day and bugging me. Get out of here."

Ziegler responded, "You're wrong on this John," an apparent reference to his views on the war in Iraq. Kobylt responded, "Either turn off his microphone or I'm getting out. Get him out … get him out. John, I just asked you five minutes ago not to … bug me anymore. Okay? I asked you … I ask you every day. Get out of here. God almighty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to see you put on a GI uniform and go fight in Baghdad. God … go … out."

The exchange ended with Ziegler saying, "Fine. Take care of it tomorrow." Ziegler was suspended by station management for two days, but kept his job.

In late 2006, John Ziegler drew nationwide attention for being the first to actively criticize John Kerry for the infamous comment that "You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." (Ziegler had seen it played on a local TV station.) He posted the audio on his website, and it was picked up by bloggers and the Drudge Report on its way to becoming worldwide news. Ziegler took credit for publicizing the story.

[edit] Biography

John Ziegler grew up in the small village of Washington Crossing, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In 1985, Ziegler graduated from the Catholic Holy Ghost Preparatory School located in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.^[2]

After graduating from Georgetown University in 1989 with a degree in Government and a minor in Theology and Philosophy, Ziegler became a sportscaster, moving his way up to a full time position at WTOV in Ohio.^[3] He left the position to write a book about high school football in Steubenville, Ohio called Dynasty of the Crossroads. After the book, he took a position as a sportscaster at WRAZ in Raleigh, North Carolina, but was fired in 1995 after making a joke about his belief that O.J. Simpson was guilty. After the firing, he spent days watching the Simpson trial, going into depression after the verdict was returned. Ziegler has said that during this period of depression, he considering killing Simpson, carrying out the justice that he felt the system failed to uphold. Ziegler revealed on his November 21, 2006 KFI broadcast that he once had a romantic relationship with Kim Goldman, sister of murder victim Ron Goldman, who has also been a frequent guest on the show commenting on topics related to O.J. Simpson.^[4]

He then began a career in talk radio, working at various stations before ending up at WWTN in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was fired for making comments about Tiger Woods that an employee of the station found derogatory. He later ended up at sports talk station WIP, and after Ziegler defied an order by the station's program director not to use the racial slur nigger by spelling the letters of the word out, he was fired again. He then began writing columns for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News and hosted a sports talk show on CN8, which later resulted in his winning an Emmy.

In 2002, wanting to return to radio, Ziegler was hired by Louisville, Kentucky radio station WHAS. Once again, his tenure did not last long, as during a Ask John Anything segment, he discussed the physical attributes, intimate attire, and genital grooming of Darcie Divita, a former Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader and WDRB morning television host with whom Ziegler had a relationship until Divita broke up with him. WHAS fired him on August 27, 2003, and Divita sued for $2,700,000, claiming libel and defamation of character. However, on May 24, 2005, Ziegler was found not liable for damages, as most of the comments were true and Divita was deemed a public figure by virtue of being a television personality. The case is currently on appeal.

In 2003, while still employed by WHAS, he joined forces with Louisville Democrat and current 3rd district Congressional Representative-elect John Yarmuth to debate political issues on the weekly WAVE program Yarmuth & Ziegler, with Yarmuth taking the progressive side and Ziegler, the conservative side. This gig lasted through November of that year. In 2006, Ziegler supported the Yarmuth election campaign for Kentucky's 3rd congressional district, both financially and as a political advisor. Yarmuth won the election to Congress.

On January 12, 2004, Ziegler began work at KFI as a late evening host. He moved to the current 7-10 p.m. slot on February 21, 2005. Subsequent to his experiences of being fired and sued for saying what he believes was the truth, he has authored another book, The Death of Free Speech, which argues that American discourse has suffered because of political correctness, and that these taboos are not consistently enforced. In the April, 2005 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Ziegler was the focus of a cover profile written by David Foster Wallace exploring his show as a window into how American talk radio works. On January 12, 2006, Ziegler celebrated his two year anniversary at KFI, the longest period of time he's worked at a radio station without getting fired.

In addition to radio work, Ziegler occasionally appears on Scarborough Country and writes op-eds in the Los Angeles Times.

On November 26, 2006, Ziegler filled in for Matt Drudge on his nationally syndicated Sunday night talk show. In the first segment, he played Michael Richards's tirade without editing out "The N-word".