Listeners to the WMMS program Rover’s Morning Glory rarely find themselves torn between the Buzzard and NPR. Theirs, after all, is a brand of entertainment epitomized by the station’s thought-provoking “Hot Chicks on Toilets” web feature and by Morning Glory crew member Dominic Dieter, he of the backwards ballcap and intermittent brain activity.
So it was that Dieter spoke up on the April 27 program when a listener expressed worry over his gay teenage daughter. When Dieter advised the troubled father to have one of his pals “screw your daughter straight,” it was perhaps not quite the most offensive thing he’s ever uttered. It was, however, the remark the world noticed.
By Saturday, gay and lesbian groups across the country were calling for Dieter’s head — an event, it should be noted, that would make for fabulous ratings.
“It was appalling and dangerous for this show to tell a father that he should have one of his friends rape his daughter,” read a statement from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, whose members, as a rule, do not photograph themselves on toilets.
Meanwhile, the progressive website DailyKos urged readers to contact Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, claiming that Dieter may have violated a statute prohibiting “inciting violence.” (The blogger was evidently unaware that Dieter did not technically incite violence, and that Bill Mason does not technically respond to requests.)
On Monday, WMMS confirmed that unspecified disciplinary action has been taken, and the station aired a recorded apology from Dieter, presumably because he couldn’t be trusted to address the matter live. The station also invited Equality Ohio, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, to assume a seat on its “community advisory board,” which gets them a coveted vote in the Buzzard’s “Thong of the Day” feature.
“I honestly don’t know a lot about the station,” says Equality Ohio director Ed Mullen, “but I come from a family of rednecks, so I’m pretty good at talking to people like that.”
