Democracy Has Prevailed.

December 16, 2009

RIP Fred Honsberger


Via the Post-Gazette:
Longtime KDKA-AM radio talk host Fred Honsberger died this morning. He was 58.

The station reported that Mr. Honsberger died at home following a lengthy battle with medical issues.
It probably goes without saying that Fred and I had real philosophical differences. Back when he had his TV show Honsberger Live I was a frequent caller and we argued pretty much all the major issues of the day. And, that goes to one thing that I highly respected about Fred: he wasn't afraid to hold up his opinions to criticism. I know that I was bumped up in the caller queue so that we could go at it. He wasn't an O'Reilly who cut people off when they were making real points (though he didn't suffer fools gladly). Fred relished the challenge. He was also extremely gracious when I met him in person.

Many may know that David and I had a blog before 2pj which was all about refuting Fred's TV show. Fred read it daily. He had me on his radio show even after he knew that I was "Liz Adobe" on the old blog.

It might not even be a stretch to say that there may have never been a 2pj without Fred Honsberger as I had developed a fondness for blogging at the old blog but wanted to stretch beyond the limitations about writing on Honsberger's chosen topics of the day.

So, RIP Fred. I will miss not having the chance for one more go-round. You gave as good as you got.
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4 comments:

Maria said...

NOTE: I'd like to post an RIP at the old blog but I can't remember any log-in info for it.

Anonymous said...

My mom just told me this.

RIP Fred.

Michael E said...

The "Honsberger is a liar" site should be taken down. He is no longer around to defend himself. Every time you do a search for his name, that site pops up on the screen.
Have some respect for the dead.

Maria said...

Michael,

I do understand where you're coming from, but I have to disagree for the following reasons.

Fred knew about the site and read it daily while it was active. If he had wanted to "defend" himself against anything on it, he had ample opportunity to do so.

Fred had met both David and I after the blog went inactive. He not only never asked us to take the blog down, he gave us Honsberger mugs. I believe that he got a kick out of the blog. Furthermore, he linked our current blog on his KDKA radio page. He certainly had no animosity towards us because of the other blog.

Fred loved debating the issues. He could not have been a radio star for so long without a passion for that. And, the things that we chronicled are no less true just because Fred passed far too soon.

Moreover, when a famous person dies you don't go back and scrub the past. For example, when an actor dies, no one goes and erases all their bad reviews. When a famous person dies, you don't go and burn books/articles critical of them...well, not in this country anyway.

Lastly, nothing ever really disappears on the Internet. Even if we took the site down it has been cached.

So for all these reasons, I believe that it would be wrong to take it down now.