As vivid as my memory of 9/11/01 is the shock that resonated in the hearts of Americans on 9-12. And, for some in New York, the memory of the bigotry expressed by a two-man team who were the cash cows for sports radio station WFAN, Mike Francesa and Chris “mad dog” Russo, hurt, but in a different way/12
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That 9/12 drive home is scorched into my memory almost as much as the 9/11 drive, Not because of the still-opaque black curtain obscuring the view of downtown Manhattan or the sandpaper-like air that continued to fill my lungs every time I inhaled, but for the hatred coming from the car radio. Instead of trying to unite the country against the terrorist threat of al Qaeda, hosts of one of the top radio shows in Afternoon Drive, in the biggest radio market in America, spewed venom against a relatively tiny ethnic group in America: the Jews. Usually, that kind of hatred would lead to a suspension.
However, rather than discipline Mike and the Mad Dog for their bigotry, the radio station covered up the incident by “conveniently” losing the tape of that day’s show. Maybe the dog ate their tapes and their homework; maybe it was an act of God, or maybe it was their claim that a missing tape was more full of crap than a porta potty on the last day of a state fair.
As I did every drive home from work on Sept. 12th, the car radio was tuned to N.Y. Sports radio station WFAN and Mike and the Mad Dog. These two were entertaining, not only because of their extensive sports knowledge but also because it was train wreck radio. A sports disagreement could turn into a loud sports argument at any moment. The two never seemed to like each other.
But this day, the day after the attack on American soil, The subject wasn’t sports. Instead, the two decided to launch a fact-deprived commentary blaming both Israel and American Jews for the attack on America the day before.
As they went on, Francesa opined Russo agreed that American Jews needed to prove their loyalty as Americans and choose between Israel, which Mike called “a failed experiment,” and the U.S. The two bigots suggested Jews in America should take a loyalty oath to the country to prove that they were loyal to the U.S. and not Israel. The two ration bigots denied it ever happened, Even though the comment was heard by hundreds of phone calls.
The comment was not only absurd but hateful. Israel is a close ally of the U.S. There would never be a reason for American Jews to even imagine a reason to make that choice. Italian Americans, like Francesa, will never be asked to decide between America and Italy.
Francesa made his loyalty statement for one reason and one reason alone: he is anti-Semite. And his then partner Chris Russo isn’t much better.
Mike and the Mad Dog: The Early Years
N.Y. Post columnist Phil Mushnick blasted the pair more than once for their denials.
In a rare case of concentrating on their mission instead of working to elect Democrats and pushing progressive causes, the Anti-Defamation League, which was flooded with calls, sent a letter to the station that said in part:
“Since September 12th, ADL offices in the tri-state area have been flooded with calls complaining about comments made by “Mike and the Mad Dog” show hosts Mike Francesa and Chris Russo. The complaints focus on the hosts suggesting the motive behind the World Trade Center attack is U.S. support for the State of Israel or, more importantly, suggesting a divided loyalty for American Jews between our country and Israel.”
As of November 2009, the ADL never received a response from their message:
“From: ADL Media [mailto:ADLMedia@adl.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 11:42 AM
Subject: RE: Abraham H. Foxman’s letter to WFAN in 2001
As far as we can recollect, we had no response from WFAN”
For the ADL, this was a very rare move for ADL president Abe Foxman. Usually, he spent his time trying to become a power player in progressive politics rather than the organization’s mission, especially as it applied to the reason it was initially created, the protection of the Jewish people. He did have his organization push for significant issues of defamation, like re-electing the most Anti-Semitic president in my lifetime, Barack Obama—Thst Abe, Whatta guy.
When the N.Y. Post’s Mushnick wrote about the incident in the weeks after 9/11, the sports talkers took to the airwaves to express their denial.
A year after the 9/12 bias attack, Mushnick responded:
“… Francesa’s claim that I fabricated quotes, then attributed them to him is a total lie because I never quoted either Francesa or Russo in that column. I couldn’t quote them because WFAN claimed that it did not tape that particular segment.
But I did hear them – first-hand, not “second or third-hand” – then wrote a column critical of them for characterizing the 9/11 attacks as the fault of Israel, and by extension, American Jews……The fact that no tape was, in Francesa’s words, “ever found” – he failed to mention WFAN’s claim not to have taped the segment I wrote about – was used by Francesa, Monday, as proof that I fabricated a story about him.”
Like Mushnick and thousands of others, I heard Mike and the Mad Dog with my own ears.
In a 2009 column, Mushnick added:
Days after the 9/11 attacks, Francesa, global affairs expert (it’s a gift), launched two bigoted, backwoods and facts-depraving commentaries blaming both Israel and American Jews for America’s peril at the hands of terrorists.
Francesa also said the Jews he knows are disloyal Americans in that they would go to war to defend Israel but not the United States.
In the wake of an attack on the U.S. by Islamic lunatics, Francesa even called upon American Jews to prove their virtue as Americans, to choose between Israel, which he called “a failed experiment,” and the U.S. As a third-generation American Jew, whose great-uncle was a WWI doughboy, and whose father was a WWII Naval Lt., then commander of the Staten Island chapter of the Jewish War Veterans, I was, shall we say, displeased by Francesa’s determination that the time had come for me to swear allegiance to the United States.
On Sept. 23, 2001, the above appeared in this column. In WFAN’s response, on behalf of Francesa, station boss Mark Chernoff denied that Francesa said any of that — despite thousands, including WFAN staff, having heard what I’d heard. My challenge to produce those tapes was ignored.
In 2015, Francesca (who now does afternoon drive on WFAN solo) responded to a caller who asked about the call for a Jewish loyalty oath. Francesa continued his cowardly lie, “Anything that was brought up is utter nonsense.”
The big break came in 2017 when Deadspin’s Nick Martin listened to the WFAN tape for six hours, and the two cash cows anchored the station’s broadcast. They were on from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. My first thought was how Nick Martin could listen to six hours of Mike and the Mad Dog without beginning to foam from his mouth and needing to be institutionalized.
But the actual tapes of the Sept. 12, 2001 Mike and the Mad Dog broadcast were seemingly not preserved and never made available. Mushnick asked WFAN for them and was stonewalled. The director of the 30 for 30 couldn’t locate them. Chernoff told us that WFAN doesn’t have them in an archive..
Mr. Martin found a copy of the two sitting in plain sight, where anybody could listen. It’s at the Paley Center for Media, a museum established by longtime CBS president William S. Paley in 1975 to preserve television and radio history.
Paraphrasing Martin’s report, the two haters did spew Antisemitism, but there was no mention of a loyalty test. There is no reason for Martin to have lied in his report. However, a few of his lines cast doubt on the tape’s veracity he was allowed to listen to.
A Paley Center librarian explained that they only accept broadcasts from their copyright holders, meaning that at some point WFAN must have directly given the Paley Center the 9/11 Mike and the Mad Dog broadcasts.
OMG, WFAN found the tape, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A MIRACLE !!
But why did they tell all those there was no tape? Why didn’t they share it immediately? I can’t answer that question, but after watching all those real-life murder programs where the Detectives and Attorney Generals provide commentary, three words come to mind, “chain of evidence.” Who touched the tape between 9/12/01 and when it was given to the Paley Center. Where’s Perry Mason? He could get the truth.
There’s another question:
The Paley Center doesn’t own the rights to the programs they archive, and so recording things from their collection is not allowed
Why did WFAN “find” and release the show tape so reporters couldn’t get their own copy of the tape and give it to a tech guy who would examine it to determine whether or not changes were made to the recording? Craig Carton, a former WFAN radio host, cast doubt on the recordings themselves. In his podcast, Carton claimed
‘Francesa did, in fact, call on Jewish New Yorkers to take a loyalty oath following the 9/11 attacks and said high-ranking executives called for the tapes to be destroyed.”
There is a caveat to Carton’s rant: he was almost as close to Francesa as Russo.
The ADL received hundreds of phone calls about the 9-12 broadcast.
Reporters, such as Phil Muchnick, along with many citizen journalists, blasted the broadcast.
The tape provided to the Paley Center that Nick Martin listened to was suspect.
Here’s the critical piece of evidence that no one has been able to refute; Have all those .listeners who heard the 9-12 libel, including mainstream media reporters, citizen journalists, and people complaining to the ADL, heard the anti-Semitic call for American Jews to choose between the U.S. and Israel and take a loyalty oath to the United States, crazy? Or are Mike Francesa, Chris Russo, and the former Management of WFAN lying? As someone who heard the libel with his own ears, I vote for the lying option.
