COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
Speaking before the Vero Beach City Council this past week, Charlie Wilson, a former candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, the Saint Lucie County Tax Collector’s Office, the Indian River Hospital District Board, the Indian River County School Board, the Vero Beach City Council and the Indian River County Commission spoke of bitter, defeated candidates. When Wilson uttered those words, it occurred to me that for once he was speaking from a position of both knowledge and experience.
Earlier that same day, taking advantage of his weekly free 12 minutes of air time on the Bob “Dr.” Soos radio program, Wilson was addressing another subject about which he has some knowledge – smear campaigns.
Wilson’s comments were so utterly outrageous that Bob Soos and the management of WTTB should be ashamed of themselves for continually giving him a platform from which to spew his venom and misinformation.
It seems the less people take Wilson seriously the more disoriented and bizarre he becomes, and the prouder Soos seems to be to have him as a regular guest on what is supposedly a serious “news magazine.”
Ironically, Wilson, who has authored a number of blogs, including The Charlie Wilson Report, The Vero Beach Business Directory, The Indian River Report, and Wheeler and Wilson, said, “Don’t believe anything you read on a blog or a pretend newspaper.”
In response to Soos’ observation about what appeared at the time to be a thin field of candidates for the coming City Council election Wilson said, “It’s been a financial disaster for me to be involved in the whole thing, and I know it’s been a drain on everybody else. So, why would somebody want to step up for a practically volunteer position for the kind of personal attacks that we suffer on a regular basis from people that don’t have very high journalists ethics.”
As of Friday, four candidates have filed to run for two seats on the Vero Beach City Council and more will likely file before the Sept. 6 deadline.
Drawing on his knowledge of smear campaigns, Wilson then said, “Those are the parts of smear that you need. You need something that is at least half, partially true. But you also need a carrier. And that’s what we have with the introduction into Indian River County with a carrier to produce the message. It doesn’t matter whether it makes money or not. There’s a scene in the movie Citizen Kane where the guy walks into the wealthy newspaper producer and says, “Sir, we’re losing $1 million a year, and Citizen Kane says to him, ‘Well, in 60 years I’ll be broke.’”
It appears the management of WTTB may have advised Wilson to only refer to Inside Vero indirectly when he is attempting to slander our reporting. So, Wilson’s new on-air term for Inside Vero is a “carrier.”
Later in the day, when he came before the City Council in a meeting moderated by a Vice Mayor who will allow personal attacks on anyone and everyone but herself, Wilson was more comfortable referring to Inside Vero by name, and to me personally, describing me as “a left-leaning attacker of the Tea Party.” Well, you don’t have to be “left-leaning” to have differences of opinion with the Tea Party.
The remainder of Wilson’s comments on Soos’ program, apparently sanctioned by Soos and the management of WTTB, are so outrageous they deserve to be published verbatim.
In getting in his final digs for the week Wilson said, “When you’ve got a person with more money than he needs and a mission and a frail ego then you’ve got a dangerous combination. So that’s what you’ve got now. You’ve got an issue of importance. You’ve got people on the attack and you’ve got a carrier. It’s not going to get any better. If you don’t answer them in cases like this it just keeps getting more and more outrageous because nobody ever challenges them.”
In an October 16, 2009 column titled “The omnipresent, ever-changing Charlie Wilson,” Larry Reisman, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers editorial page editor, wrote, “Wilson can be charming, self-depreciating and mean at almost the same time. He’s an enigma. Lord only knows what he’s really about…”
Wilson is right. As long as he is on the loose and on the air and at the podium, it would be wishful thinking to expect a return to civility.
Indian River Guardian 
WTTB should be ashamed that they give free air time to this (to put it kindly and mildly) loose cannon,.
Thank you Mark Schumann for continuing to keep the public in the know about this misguided human being. I have been doing this for years on my blog, Bea-isms.
I think we are all giving this Wilson character way too much importance by even trying to point out how evil and mean and untruthful he can get. Wilson seems to get more caustic with each passing day and the Professor of Baloney is too kind of a description for him.
I agree with you that Bob Soos should be ashamed to give him a forum on a weekly radio show. I think WTTB/Bob Soos/Jim Davis or whoever should put me on the air once a week to re-cap Bea-isms. It sure would appeal to more folks than the Captain Kangaroo (aka Charlie Wilson)
I am happy to say that I do not tune in to his garbage on that
radio show. It is bad enough that I listen to his ranting’s and ravings when he goes to the microphone at City Council and County Commission meetings.
Yes, it is true that most of us have lives beyond Charlie Wilson. I’m with Bea Gardner in that his visits to VBCC podium and to the IRC Commissioners meeting even exceed my limits of tolerance. He can rant all he likes but every time he’s allowed to do so while others are threatened with physical ousting from the room, it is a black mark against whoever allows it. There is no WTTB preset on any of our radios. What a shame – it used to be such a good station – one with integrity. That saying about one bad apple in a barrel – one Charlie Wilson on WTTB sure does apply similarly.
I agree with Bea Gardner that the people of this community have been far too tolerant about the Professor of Baloney. He showed himself for who he truly is when he engaged in fraud to become an elected official even though he was not in compliance with the residency requiremnts.
No voter should tolerate anyone who lies about their residency and attempts to follow the Charlie Wilson example.
Charlie Wilson is a perfect example of what every politician should not be. Bob Soos has a great comity show when Charlie is at the mike. Who can believe anything he says when he calls himself Professor of Baloney. Doesn”t that tell it all.
Mucher,Wilson, Herran, Flarety craft arguments which submerge, ignore or disregard any opposed perspective. Dismissive of reasoned and meaningful dialogue, the response is to denigrate and demonize any alternative view.- personalizing their venom. Such is the tactics of the mean spirited, and near hateful.
In the Lincoln/ Douglas debates regarding slavery, there was a abyss between them – but never personal.Lincoln lost that election in Illinois, but not the next as President.
Vero Beach deserves better than PO Box and IRC residents dictated its future,
.
It has seemed for several years now that, as soon as groups like the one behind the “sell at any cost” initiative start using smears, begin having biased “reports” publicized by a fake news outlet like 32963, and generally start spreading falsehoods, their next step is to accuse everyone else of their own tactics. They cannot address the opposing facts or contradictions in their own bloviations.
In prior years, Charlie actually called out the likes of Mayfield, Solari, and their family of “Concerned Citizens” co-conspirators for their self-serving sleazy campaigns. He is well aware of how damaging and cruel these venomous words can be. I am so very sorry that he has chosen to join their ranks, perhaps because the tactics are so successful, but I hope we can still overcome the lies and big money that Feheranty wields [thx to FPL] by remaining factual and truthful instead of dropping to their levels of ugliness.
Anyone who previously served in office is branded as “bitter” and to be disregarded. That is such a terrible disservice to the many people who worked so hard and tried their best to do what was right. Re-writing history is another handy — and dishonest — tool they use even though the public record directly contradicts the statements they make.
I’d hazard a guess that most of us are not in any way bitter about not being in office. Certainly that would apply to me. But it is Wilson himself who is the one most angry about not sitting on the dais.