Rewarding the Infamous

The Dixie Chicks won 5 Grammies, an example of a politicized entertainment industry rewarding the group's political loudness. The infotainment business is also rewarding another political hack - Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran has a radio talk show, as SouthofBoston.com notes, just five weeks after pleaded guilty to federal charges. (The crime was perjury.)

They go on to note other public figures on the radio.

Former congressman and Massachusetts Port Authority head Peter Blute did a stint on WRKO after being photographed on an infamous "booze cruise" paid for with public money.

In Rhode Island, former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci went on the air after he was forced out of office in 1984 for pleading no contest to assaulting a man he thought was his estranged wife's lover. Cianci won his old job back in 1990, then was convicted in 2002 as part of in a federal corruption investigation.

Cianci was colorful and corrupt. Only briefly a radio talk show host. Since he's currently still in the slammer, he was rewarded with a musical. Corruption is rampant in Rhode Island.

Allegations of impropriety are as common as full-moon tides in the Ocean State, and sadly, those allegations have been proven true with alarming regularity. Over the past fifteen years one governor has gone to jail; the mayor of another of the state’s largest cities has served prison time; and two state supreme court justices have resigned amid charges of unethical behavior.

In comparison, Blute looks like a choir boy.

Maybe the infotainment industry can get the Dixie Chicks elected. It would have to be in Rhode Island, though. The voters there don't seem to be too particular.