register
| Blog: William J. Kelly - Political Attention Whore |
 |
 |
| Written by Larz | |||
| Thursday, 14 October 2010 09:39 | |||
|
I have been asked a couple of times why Chicagoland Radio & Media didn't mention the story from a couple of days ago where "reporter" William J. Kelly angered true reporters WLS-TV's Charles Thomas and WBBM-TV's Jay Levine, while they were doing a quick street interview with Rahm Emanuel. The fact is, this is a non-story. This is just William Kelly jumping up and down like a spoiled brat, looking for any kind of attention he can get. I chose to not give him that.
William Kelly posted up a video of the incident, where he claims he was prevented from asking Rahm Emanuel simple questions. Rahm's own people, seeing that Kelly had NO press credentials asked who he was. He them stumbled about for an answer and claimed he was from WIND radio. He then stalked Rahm Emanuel asking heated questions no politician would ever answer. When Rahm stopped to speak with two class acts, Chicago television's Thomas & Levine, Kelly tried muscling his way into the TV shots and would not let Emanuel finish an answer to either reporters questions. Knowing that Kelly was purposely ruining both WBBM-TV & WLS-TV's work, Jay Levine turned around at one point and angrily said to the ever-grinning Kelly, "Let him finish or I'm gonna deck you!" Unfortunately, neither Levine or Thomas ever "decked" Kelly. THAT would have been a newsworthy story and one that every journalist would have applauded. Kelly, of course, is using the incident to say that the evil liberal media is keeping him from asking Rahm Emanuel the tough questions. It was all a big conspiracy to get poor ol' William Kelly. The truth is, had Kelly been a true journalist or reporter, and had been respectful of Emanuel and those around him, he would have gotten his questions answered. Kelly didn't care about the answers, though. All he cared about was getting some camera time and publicity for himself. That is all Kelly has ever cared about. So who is William Kelly? Here is how he actually describes himself on his own blog: "A little about me? OK, here's somethin....Southsider, comedian-entrepreneur/pioneer, populist folk hero (in-progress), trouble-maker (ie. rule breaker), beer lover, avid whiskey consumer (not good), proud capitalist, shameless patriot. And...last but not least, I'm Irish. Hell yeah!!" Who is he really? The name and face may be familiar to many Chicago television watchers. He has been the host of a pair of local television shows, "Upscale Chicago" and "Sportsholic." "Upscale Chicago" used to air on (Correction: "Upscale Chicago" did not run on WMAQ-TV, but on WFLD-TV for five years. My apologies to the good people at WMAQ-TV.) "Sportsaholic" was a 30 minute show where Kelly would visit various sporting events & activities around northern Illinois and make comments about them. Sometimes he would participate in various sporting activities, although with Kelly being toothpick-skinny, he isn't exactly the most athletic person. The show aired late at nights once or twice a week on Comcast SportsNet in the overnight hours when the station airs repeats or infomercials. Kelly also created a short-lived radio version of his "Upscale Chicago" show which aired on WCKG-FM. His latest radio show has him trying to be a Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck radical called the "Kelly Truth Squad," which airs for one hour on weekends on WIND-AM. He is a failed stand-up comedian, having made a few attempts at comedy on local stages for a short time many years ago. He also is a failed politician. He has tried a few times to get elected to public office on the Republican ticket. He has tried for everything from Senator to Comptroller to Alderman. He has failed miserably every time. He simply isn't likable, believable or trustworthy -- which makes him completely unelectable. Doesn't mean he won't stop trying. He'll do anything to stay in the public eye. In high school, teens who would do anything for attention were called "attention whores." William Kelly is far from high school, but he is every bit an attention whore. His whole adult life has been Kelly saying "Look at me! Look at me!" However, the word "whore" doesn't exactly fit Kelly. That word on its own brings up images of prostitution. Kelly is certainly no prostitute. Prostitutes take money for their acts. Kelly is much more of a prostitute's "john." He pays for every act. Kelly's "Upscale Chicago" show? He pays the local networks for the air time and his TV production company makes the show. Kelly's "Sportsaholic" show? Same thing. 100% brokered. His "Upscale" radio show? 100% brokered. His current far right-wing talk show on WIND-AM? 100% brokered air time. No radio or television station in Chicago has paid him for his so-called "talents." Kelly must pay them to be on their airwaves. His political campaigns are basically brokered, as well. He uses his own money to finance them, plus whatever contributions he can raise by the few foolish enough to donate to it. He will do anything to be "seen" and be considered as somebody bigger than he truly is. With his WIND-AM weekend radio show being 100% brokered, he is NOT an employee of WIND Radio or Salem Communications. He is simply an advertiser on their station. For him to break into a press area trying to do an "attack" interview on Rahm Emanuel, claiming he was with WIND Radio was wrong. It is an embarrassment to WIND Radio to have somebody claiming they represent the station and then act in such an unprofessional way. It is also a violation of the brokered programming contract that Kelly signed with Salem & WIND. Will WIND remove his radio show, as is their right under the contract's clause? They absolutely should, but it probably depends how much the under-performing station need Kelly's money each week. Only WIND-AM General Manager Jeff Reisman knows for sure. Since Reisman comes from the sales end of radio and his main job there is to maintain a certain level of revenue, I have a feeling that Kelly will be back on the air there on Saturday, railing against the evil liberal media once again. He also will be patting himself on the back for all of the publicity he got himself this week from that evil liberal media. Jay Levine and Charles Thomas were right in getting upset with William Kelly's antics. Rahm Emanuel's people were right with getting upset with William Kelly's antics. Anybody would have been upset with that behavior and the way he lied his way up to the Chicago Mayoral candidate and interrupted others from simply doing their jobs. I could care less about William Kelly's politics. I do not care at all if he likes Obama or Emanuel or Brady or Quinn or anybody else. I don't care about how he votes. I don't care about what he likes. I don't care about what he thinks. I don't care about his arrest record. I don't care if he goes home at night and sleeps with goats. What I do care about is how he continually claims to be a professional broadcaster, when he is not. What I do care about is him claiming he is the victim of a Rahm Emanuel grand conspiracy against him because Emanuel would not answer a wild question about being a "multi-multi-millionaire" thanks to an Obama stimulus bailout of Wall Street (which was actually started by the previous Bush administration). What I do care about is Kelly claiming he is a victim because Jay Levine threatened to "deck him" if Kelly didn't stop acting like obnoxious three-year old. What I do care is that Kelly makes his problems out to be something political, when it has nothing to do with politics at all. The only person Kelly has to blame is Kelly himself. Kelly is not a victim. The only "victims" are those who have to watch, listen, or be around him as he makes a jackass out himself publicly. (Note: As I do not wish to give the man the attention he so desperately craves, the YouTube video mentioned above is not included here. No links to any of his many websites are included either. It's bad enough I had to type his name a few times. I feel the need to wash my hands now because of it.) 
|
| Recent Articles: |
|---|
|
