COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Anyone who believes Charlie Wilson should have anything to do with a “Truth Squad” might consider the following dialogue, which took place between Wilson and Bob Soos Tuesday morning.

Explaining the dressing down he received at Tuesdays’s County Commission meeting, the self-described Professor of Political Baloney had little choice but to admit he didn’t exactly have his facts straight when he accused the County of wrongfully taking possession of a “deposit” from Windsor Development.

Wilson: I got spanked at the County Commission last week.

Soos: Yes, you did.

Wilson: For being on the Bob Soos show. They beat me with sticks and sent me out to the woodshed. That’s for sure.

Soos: Well, it’s not for being on the show. It’s what you said when you were on the show.

Wilson: Well, the disagreement is on the $1 million dollars that was awarded to the County from Windsor Properties. And, to be fair, they did show that the money, the $1 million was properly accounted for. Jeff Smith (Clerk of the Circuit Court) showed it was properly accounted for. They also showed they had offered the state the $1 million and the state declined it. That was a surprise to me. (But only because Wilson did not do his homework.) That was new information, and I’m glad they showed it to me. They were also very clear that Mr. Baird in negotiating for the $1 million had the full support and backing of the County Commission. Commissioner Solari, particularly, wanted to make it clear that gaining that $1 million from a business as wealthy as Windsor was perfectly acceptable, and that Baird had the backing of the Commission to do that.

Wilson had earlier alleged the payment from Windsor was a deposit that had simply been confiscated by the county.   On August 6, Wilson said, “They have now just taken that deposit and made it part of their personal capital, the same way they did with impact fees. They just confiscated that $1 million.”

Well, Wilson failed to do his homework, and as a consequence, was again on the wrong side of the truth.

One might assume WTTB station manager, Jim Davis, and radio host, Bob Soos, would know better than to let local truth contortionist Charlie Wilson spend 12 minutes of airtime each week misleading their listeners.

But apparently Davis and Soos are so desperate for audience that they are willing to let Wilson turn WTTB into the on-air equivalent of the National Enquirer.

For at least 12 minutes each week, Wilson, seemingly with the blessings of Davis and Soos, does his very best to trash what has been WTTB’s proud heritage of responsible broadcast journalism.

Rather than simply disparaging the reporting of Inside Vero, Wilson has taken to attacking me personally, calling me a “liberal,” and a “left-leaning Tea Party critic.”

For my part, I do no see Wilson as a left-leading, or a right-leaning wacko, just simply a wacko.  Month-by-month, week-by-week and day-by-day he seems increasingly disconnected form reality, uses his weekly allotment of airtime spinning one tale after another having little, if any, connection to reality.

If Soos would preface Wilson’s weekly segment with an appropriate disclaimer that it is likely to be little more than fiction, that would be one thing, but “Dr. Soos” is passing this character off as some kind of knowledgeable political pundit.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Since Davis and Soos no longer seem to care about preserving and protecting WTTB’s reputation as a source for truth and fairness, they can be expected to let Wilson come on their station each week to play the clown.  Anyone in need of some comic relief should tune in to WTTB each Tuesday morning around 8:30 to hear Soos and Wilson perform in the on-air theatre of the absurd.

In the mean time, Inside Vero will continue reporting the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable that might be for Wilson.