Simone WilsonCash is cash. And cash toward a noble cause, no matter who's behind it, is cash worth accepting. You'd think the L.A. City Council could appreciate this — they're more than willing to let sketchy lobbyists make it rain on far less noble bank accounts, e.g., those of their own re-election campaigns.
But these same political interests are apparently hindering the LAPD manhunt for San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow's attackers. The LA Daily News reports that Tom Leykis, an infamous L.A. radio icon known for encouraging his aging-bro listener base to treat women like disposable sex dolls (in the smartest, most amusing way possible, we must add), tried to donate an eyebrow-raising $50,000 to the reward fund for info leading to their arrests, currently at $200,000. But Leykis alleges that Councilman Ed Reyes, in charge of accepting rewards, had a staffer call him Wednesday and say…
… “they couldn't acknowledge rewards from private individuals.”
Private individuals? Or private individuals who institute TGIF traditions like “Flash Friday,” (the original #FF!), in which the girls of L.A. are told to flash their tits to male passerby? Leykis' “shock jock” style drew ire from many an irate feminist, along with sympathetic Times reporter Bob Baker, who wrote in 2002:
“You don't usually get congratulated on Tom Leykis' syndicated radio show unless you're, say, a caller describing the way you talked your unexpectedly pregnant girlfriend into having an abortion — and then dumped her. Or unless you're a woman with a lascivious tale to share, like the law clerk who boasts about tripling her pay by engaging in masochistic sex with the partner of another firm.”
In light of his past (and his future; his Hot Talk show will return to L.A. airwaves in April 2012), Leykis believes his reputation precedes him at City Hall.
“I haven't had a radio show on the air in two years,” he tells the Daily News. “I've lived in L.A. 23 years. I've always had a good relationship with the LAPD, especially in Hollywood where I live. … I thought I was doing the right thing, but now I'm being treated with what sounds like disdain.”
Stow's alleged attackers; Credit: LAPD
He points out that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was allowed to donate $125,000, even though the team is a “limited liability company” and McCourt probably doesn't even “have enough money to make payroll on May 31.”
As usual, he's harsh, but he has a point.
Like Schwarzenegger, we tend to see Leykis as more of a magnified truth — a purposefully over-the-top showman broadcasting from his mental manhole. (A mindset has in common most of the L.A. douchebags we met at Cabo Cantina last night, mind you.) If we can elect a serial groper and condomless neanderthal to the highest seat in California, we can help prod Stow's attackers out of the shadows with cash earned off the oft-pathetic male existence.
Reyes' refusal to take the money is political correctness in all the wrong places. May the City Council is just embarrassed because, combined, the whole lot of them threw in the same amount as one over-the-hill talk-show host.
OK, time for a cringeworthy career highlight:
Today, Leykis sings a more serious tune: “Why play politics with a reward? Is there a reason why [McCourt's] money is good, but mine isn't? And an average person can't get involved in offering reward money? Why not?”
[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]
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