Politics

Toledo Blade Owner Regrets Ted Nugent Invite, But Won't Yank It

July 28, 2014, 2:07 PM by  Alan Stamm

Allan Block, 59-year-old owner of The Toledo Blade, is a baby boomer who was in college during the mid-'70s and should know at least a bit about Ted Nugent -- a rocker from Detroit who has toured annually since 1967 and has 34 albums that sold 30 million copies.

But the chairman of Blade Communications admits in his paper that until recently "I knew nothing about Mr. Nugent’s music, his political views, his history." He read up when an outcry flared after The Blade booked the "Motor City Madman:" to play next month at its 31st Annual Northwest Ohio Rib-Off.

Even in its own event announcement last April, the paper describes the 65-year-old guitarist as "controversial Detroit rocker Ted Nugent." Heated objections arose from the local NAACP, Toledo Community Coalition, letter writers and gun control advocates. "Nothing goes worse with good food than the virulently racist rhetoric of a man who has no regard for the dignity or rights of others,” says the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.  


"The very high standard for uninviting him was not met," says the chairman of Blade Communications.

All that leads Block, a grandson of his company's founder, to say in a four-paragraph statement published Sunday : "I am sorry the Blade invited him."

Still, it's rock on next month at  the Lucas County Fairgrounds in Maumee, Ohio.

What I learned did not, in my opinion, confirm him to be a racist — he seems to have animus for many different groups equally. . . .

Although I will not support inviting him again, in my judgment the very high standard for uninviting him was not met in this case. . . .Calling President Obama a “subhuman mongrel” does not make Ted Nugent a racist, as this kind of personal name-calling against a president of the United States is part of a long tradition of political slander that goes back to the founding of the Republic.

Three days before the Blade-sponsored event begins, Nugent was scheduled to perform at a tribal casino in north Idaho. The hosts unbooked him last week. "We know what it’s like to be the target of hateful messages and we would never want perpetuate hate in any way,” explains Chief James Allan, chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.


Read more:  The Toledo Blade


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