David Duke's Show Is Dull, Owner Says : Radio: The former Klansman comes across as far too reasonable on his New Orleans show, complains the station's conservative Jewish owner.

David Duke’s Show Is Dull, Owner Says : Radio: The former Klansman comes across as far too reasonable on his New Orleans show, complains the station’s conservative Jewish owner.

By WILLIAM BOOTH

May 31, 1993 12 AM PT

THE WASHINGTON POST

METAIRIE, La. — Robert Namer, conservative voice of New Orleans talk radio and owner of WASO-AM has a problem. His name is David Duke.

Namer, an Orthodox Jew, hired Duke to host a morning chat-fest on WASO-AM, where Duke holds forth five mornings a week on homosexual deviants, welfare cheats, liberal socialist Commies and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new bob.

Anti-Semitism? Racism? Bigotry? Those are not Namer’s problems with David Duke. His problem is that the former Klansman, Nazi sympathizer, gubernatorial contender and presidential candidate is dull as day-old bread.

“He’s way too dry,” Namer said, puffing on a cigarette at his office in nearby Covington. “He’s stiff. He’s not acting natural. He’s not being himself. . . . Or maybe, he is being himself, and that’s the problem.”

On talk radio, Namer said, no sins are greater than being dry, stiff and unnatural.

On a recent morning, Duke sat at his desk in this New Orleans suburb, the day’s newspapers spread before him. He looked trim in a blue knit shirt, gray khakis and tennis shoes, a phone cradled to his ear.

Live! Uncensored! On the air! He is taking calls for his morning show, “Conservative Hotline.” He calmly tells a caller that, while he never has been a defender of David Koresh, the deceased Branch Davidian leader, he also cannot endorse the bungled raid against Koresh’s compound by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

On this topic, at least, Duke comes across as reasonable, balanced, a virtual King Solomon. Namer said there is nothing worse.

“Opinions!” Namer shouted. “That’s what people want. Not on the one hand and on the other hand! They don’t want the news, they want to know what you think of the news, your spin, you know.”

Namer complained that Duke lets callers run his show. He does not manhandle. He does not rant. He does not insult. He reasons. Worse, he reasons in a monotone.

“He’s got no wit,” Namer said. No zap, no zippo, no zing.

Here, Namer said, “Let me show you what I’m talking about.”

On Namer’s show, “Hottalk: Voice of America,” which is about to be syndicated, the talk is far more inflammatory.

On this day, Namer spent considerable air time discussing gay proctologists, butch haircuts, lesbian cabals and the “liberal-socialist-Commie” Clinton Administration.

“As far as I’m concerned, this country doesn’t have a President,” Namer told listeners, describing Clinton as “public enemy No. 1.”

On his own show, Duke gives it a try. He describes to his audience sensational and unsafe sexual practices of some gay men before being interrupted by commercial endorsements for Kershenstine Cajun Deli-catfish “as fresh as can be”--and for the 25th reunion at John F. Kennedy High School--”you won’t want to miss that.”

But compared with Namer, Duke appeared almost clinical and detached, as if his anger comes not from the belly but from an old, dog-eared script.

Duke defends his style, saying that, in his five weeks on radio, he has learned a lot and that his talk show is “caller-oriented” and less caustic, “the real David Duke.”

Duke said he is not afraid to confront issues, including race. But Namer was not so sure. Race? “He balances it,” Namer said. Anti-Semitism? “He walks away from it.”

Namer said he gave Duke the job after Duke called Namer’s talk show and asked to be considered.

“I was stuck between a rock and hard place,” Namer said. He said he reasoned that, if he did not give Duke a shot, he would be accused of being scared of him and that people would say, “The Jewish-controlled media won’t give him a chance.”

But if he hired Duke, Namer said, “people would say I’m a racist and I’m a bigot.”

Namer, however, figured that people do not want to be told what to think about Duke, just to listen to him and decide for themselves.

On the Fourth of July, Namer plans to announce whether Duke stays on WASO-AM or gets the heave-ho. In the meantime, “obviously, for ratings and business,” Namer said, “this has been good.” Callers, the lines are open.