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Hannon, Bates take on talk show host By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings While wrangling over budget solutions to the state's 2001-2003 biennium, Ashland's legislators said conservative talk show host Lars Larson wasn't making their job any easier. As a case in point, Larson's show - hosted on Portland radio station KXL, and heard locally on KCMX 880 AM - had in recent weeks weighed in with its own views on solving the budget crisis in Salem. Workman's compensation for state workers, for example, could be reduced, according to Larson, who noted that state unemployment compensation had net expenditures of $143 million last year, and was sitting on a reserve of $1.6 billion - a supply of money that would last the fund for 11 years. Larson suggested by trimming the 11-year reserve requirement would free up that budget surplus, which could be applied to other government programs. Sen. Lenn Hannon (R-Ashland) said the proposal was impossible, thanks to court decisions upholding the 11-year rule. "I asked the revenue office to go through and identify what funds - where and what - could be tapped. The Legislative Revenue Office said none were available," Hannon said. "What is clear is that workman's compensation needed to have a certain amount on hand. What's odd is that people seem to think we have easy access to money, and that's just one area. It's not like that. The 11 years is what the courts have ruled, not what the Legislature has chosen to establish. It's what the courts have decided. So it's not a matter of what the Legislature chose to do this last week, last month or last year. This has been going on for a very long time," Hannon said. Larson said changing laws was a legislator's job. "The Legislature changes 800 laws every session. When they say it's locked in, it's just not true. They change statutes all the time. When they changed House Bill 5100 in their - fifth I think it was - special session, it took them all of two weeks," Larson said. "If they want to do it, they do it. If they don't it's impossible. It's like dealing with little kids." Larson is one of several KXL talk show hosts. He shares the station's airwaves with other conservatives, including Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, author Michael Savage, who has a weekly show on MSNBC as well, and Laura Ingraham. According to KXL Program Director James Derby, Larson is by far the most popular host, with Savage "running a close second." Derby estimates that Larson, who is also heard on 15 affiliate stations, garners 300,000 listeners a week. That's bigger than KXL's entire audience, which comes in at 240,000 listeners a week. "Lars has the most listened to talk show on KXL. He does better than Rush, he does better than Howard Stearn," Derby said. "What's great is that he is most popular with males, 18 and older. We really want that demographic." That reach has influence on voters, according to Rep. Alan Bates (D-Ashland), who said he "gets calls all the time" from Larson's listeners. "I get calls saying why not take all that money that's sitting around in reserve funds and balance the budget. The thing is, that money is not really sitting there. "There was a discussion that we have billions up here in trust funds. Those funds are required to help us maintain bond issues. So you can't just step in and take those monies. That was tried back in the 80s, and we ended up having to pay back twice that with penalties and interest," Bates said. "The problem with talk shows of that nature, whether they're far left or far right, is that they try to take what I believe are very serious issues and make them into entertainment. Instead of a calm, logical discussion, where you listen to all sides of an argument and try to make a rational decision on the facts, it just because Vaudevillian. As a result, people end up with a situation they believe to be true, when it isn't." Larson said politicians frequently try to dismiss him by questioning his journalistic credentials. "It's a cheap argument for a politician to say I'm not a real journalist, that I'm just an entertainer," Larson said "It's true that I do undisguised, unvarnished advocacy. But day-to-day journalists and general reporters do advocacy without knowing it." Larson cites opinion columnists like Molly Ivins, Maureen Dowd, and David Broder as fellow advocates. "I put myself in their category. As long as what I'm doing is labeled as opinion, it's still journalism," Larson said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -