A Carnival Barker Who Preys on the Vulnerable

Since longtime Denver talk-radio host Peter Boyles began his downward spiral with the paranoid right, he's done more than his share to mindlessly trash The Denver Post and the profession of journalism.

It's not as bad as his attacks on Muslims and illegal immigrants, because, unlike those people, journalism exists to be attacked.

But this didn't stop Denver Post Publisher Singleton from slobbering all over Boyles (and vice versa) on Boyles new KNUS show this morning.

[Listen to Dean Singleton on KNUS 710 AM's Peter Boyles Show 7-12-13]

Boyles introduced Singleton as "one of my favorite people in the world."

To which Singleton said how much he missed Boyles on the air and joked that he had "no one to beat me up." (Is there a union exec out there?)

Boyles told listeners that when he got fired, Singleton "was there and made sure I was ok."

"Hey, I treasure your friendship," Singleton responded. "You get me up every morning, and you know, you can't have a carnival without a carnival barker."

But I don't want a carnival on the radio! At least a destructive one, like Boyles has evolved into. Do you?

"We love our carnival barker," Singleton told Boyles.

Really?

"You know what?" Boyles said with at least a handful of people listening to KNUS at 6:30 a.m. "I miss seeing you. Are you in town for a while?"

"I'm back," Singleton replied. "This is the first time I've heard you on 710. We've had a lot of fun times together, and done a lot of fun things, and I wanted to welcome you back to the air, me and Colorado missed ya."

Not the Muslims or the undocumented immigrants or, I would venture to say, most of the rational-minded journalists at The Denver Post. They didn't miss him.

Still, we can agree that almost any local radio show is better than no local show. And even if Boyles is bad in many ways, he's not all bad. If you've followed Denver journalism, you can't help but admire Boyles, at least what he used to be.

I'm hoping Boyles stops himself from going to the deep end, and tearing down vulnerable people and important institutions, as frequently as he did at his last job.