Michael Smerconish
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Michael Smerconish is the Philadelphia radio market's premier talk host who is heard daily on Infinity Radio's 50,000-watt WPHT, found at 1210 AM. The program reaches Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Smerconish is also a frequent guest host for Bill O'Reilly on the nationally syndicated Radio Factor. For several years, Smerconish has been a popular columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. In 2003, author Bernard Goldberg re-published one of Smerconish's Daily News columns in his book Arrogance, a follow-up to his bestseller Bias. Smerconish is a familiar face on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN where he provides commentary on current events.

Michael Smerconish graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Lehigh University and then attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Thereafter, at the age of 29, he became the youngest sub-cabinet level appointee to the Administration of George Herbert Walker Bush when he was named Regional Administrator of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He maintains an of-counsel relationship with The Beasley Law Firm in Philadelphia.

Smerconish is the author of: Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11. About that book, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "Flying with his family, Smerconish, a radio talk-show host and newspaper columnist based in Philadelphia, twice had his eight-year-old son chosen for 'secondary screening' -- and was twice able to substitute himself without incident despite his carrying odd-looking electronic broadcast gear. Mulling the ease with which he made it though the process, he then learned of a federal policy to fine airlines 'if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning.' (The actual testimony from an airline industry rep was that the Justice Department said a screening system would be discriminatory if it flagged more than three people of the same ethnic origin.) Contacting the Department of Transportation, Smerconish was told secondary screening is random or behavior-based. Tracking down the decisions that led to these policies in detail -- and decrying the policies themselves -- Smerconish argues that the U.S. should give some weight to stereotypes. His hero is an immigration inspector in Orlando who, in 2001, stopped a Saudi national (likely the 20th hijacker) who became visibly upset when asked why he lacked a return ticket. Designed to provoke Congress to address the tension between nondiscrimination and airlines' capacity to refuse passengers, this book, with its senatorial foreword, may do just that."

In promotion of Flying Blind, Smerconish appeared on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, CNN's Paula Zahn, and MSNBC's Scarborough Country. He was also interviewed on countless major market talk radio programs. C-SPAN's popular Book TV program recorded a one-hour presentation made by Smerconish at the Union League of Philadelphia, and re-broadcast the speech several times on national cable television. Smerconish also spoke to the City Club of Cleveland, a presentation then re-broadcast to hundreds of radio stations in the Midwest. Philadelphia Magazine positively reviewed Flying Blind with a several page pictorial.

Smerconish accepted none of the proceeds from Flying Blind, choosing to give his advance and all royalties to The Garden of Reflection, a 9/11 charity in his home community built for the 17 individuals from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who perished at Ground Zero.
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Blog Entries by Michael Smerconish

Mission Accomplished

(243) Comments | Posted May 6, 2012 | 6:43 PM

Thank you, Navy SEALs, for killing Osama bin Laden. And thank you, President Obama, for turning them loose to do their job, just as you said you would.

This past week, an Obama campaign Web commercial featuring Bill Clinton, quotes Mitt Romney, in 2007, downplaying the significance of...

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Mort tragique de Trayvon Martin: des appels au 911 qui en disent long

(5) Comments | Posted March 27, 2012 | 11:01 AM

Les bandes audio du 911, publiées à tout vent dans Internet, pourraient suffire à inculper George Zimmerman en relation avec la mort tragique de l'adolescent Trayvon Martin, survenue le 26 février dernier dans une rue de Sanford, en Floride. Des analyses vocales détermineront si Zimmerman a proféré une insulte raciale...

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Tale of the Trayvon Martin Case 911 Calls

(2545) Comments | Posted March 25, 2012 | 6:32 PM

Pending the outcome of some voice analysis, there is arguably enough evidence in the 911 tapes to warrant the arrest of George Zimmerman in connection with the Feb. 26 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The voice testing is needed to determine if Zimmerman uttered a racial slur while in...

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Boycott Won't Rush Him Out

(640) Comments | Posted March 18, 2012 | 8:52 AM

Though the advertising boycott of Rush Limbaugh is significant for its size and scope, it will ultimately prove ineffectual in dislodging him from his commanding perch above the talk-radio world. That kind of movement would require a different type of acquiescence, namely on the part of program directors, not advertisers....

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The Unfaithful Candidate

(557) Comments | Posted February 27, 2012 | 7:55 AM

Mitt Romney has missed several golden opportunities to turn this campaign's religious fixation to his advantage.

Given that polls show he faces prejudice among a sizable share of primary voters because of his Mormon faith, you would think Romney would be eager to try to redefine the role of faith...

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A Response to Sean Hannity

(1999) Comments | Posted February 12, 2012 | 11:21 AM

Sean Hannity has implied that if President Obama had his way, Osama bin Laden would be alive. Earlier this week he had this exchange with Frank Luntz:

HANNITY: I know the president will say, 'Well, we got bin Laden.' Putting that aside...

LUNTZ: And the public gives him...

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What Phil Knight Did NOT Say

(192) Comments | Posted February 6, 2012 | 5:36 AM

Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight delivered quite a broadside to the Penn State board of trustees on Jan. 26 during the memorial service for Joe Paterno.

As evidenced by the thunderous reaction, his comments provided a salve to mourners, but when viewed unemotionally, his words were misleading at best....

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Sandusky Will NOT Stand Trial. Now About Curley and Schultz...

(138) Comments | Posted January 8, 2012 | 11:09 AM

Permit me one New Year's prediction about which I am absolutely certain, and two for which I have a strong hunch.

The sure thing: The Jerry Sandusky/Penn State scandal will be "the" state and local issue of 2012. Not even Pennsylvania's role in the presidential race will be able to...

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Sandusky's Devastating Interview

(175) Comments | Posted November 20, 2011 | 10:11 AM

Outrage.

That's all I could think of when watching Bob Costas interview embattled former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky. And I was personally outraged, but I also had a book title in mind.

After O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of murder, famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote a book called...

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See Something, Say Something

(315) Comments | Posted November 13, 2011 | 12:11 PM

Among the many things that need to change in the aftermath of the Penn State scandal is Pennsylvania law.

First, the commonwealth needs to require that any witness to child abuse call the police. Second, the statute of limitations for civil claims against child abusers needs to be expanded.

Consider...

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The Remaining Penn State Question

(657) Comments | Posted November 10, 2011 | 6:19 AM

There is one line amid the 23-page grand jury presentment that marks the depth of the alleged depravity in the Penn State scandal. As a father of three sons, it makes me sick to read.

Here is the context:

It was about 9:30 p.m. on March 1, 2002 -- the...

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Gaining Inspiration From Flight 93 Crash Site

(41) Comments | Posted September 11, 2011 | 7:07 PM

Each of my trips to Shanksville, Pa., has been inspiring, for different reasons.

My first trip was six years ago, when the Internet was ablaze with criticism of the planned memorial to the passengers and crew of Flight 93. The project was then in the design phase, and some saw...

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Michele Bachmann Marriage Pledge Loses Her a Young Conservative

(1070) Comments | Posted July 17, 2011 | 2:17 PM

Michele Bachmann, meet Ben Haney.

In other circumstances, Ben could have been a real asset to your campaign. He's a 28-year-old Republican with experience as a traveling advance man for John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008. Ben was born and raised in the critically important suburbs of Philadelphia. Having...

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Lazar Greenfield's 'Semengate' Stuns Scientific Community

(1946) Comments | Posted April 25, 2011 | 9:12 AM

Last week, New York state characterized freeze tag, Wiffle Ball, kickball and dodgeball as potentially hazardous, thereby subjecting camp providers overseeing those games to state regulation.

Out West, the NCAA is at odds with the University of North Dakota over the continued use of the nickname "the Fighting Sioux"...

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Donald Trump, Birthers, and O.J. Simpson

(1579) Comments | Posted April 8, 2011 | 8:55 AM

Every time I hear Donald Trump talk about President Obama's birth certificate, I think of O.J. Simpson.

The conspiracy theory invented by Simpson's defenders was every bit as loopy as the fantasies concerning Obama. Remember the O.J. defense ruse?

Years before the murder, conspirators would have had to incite Simpson...

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Thoughts on Yesterday

(720) Comments | Posted January 9, 2011 | 10:46 AM

Perhaps you heard Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a 50-year veteran of law enforcement, say:

When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this...
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Let Specter Investigate the Flotilla Mishap

(100) Comments | Posted June 7, 2010 | 11:42 AM

Over the weekend, Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, rejected calls for an international investigation into his country's raid of the now-infamous flotilla headed for Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was less definitive on Sunday: "I told the United Nations secretary general that an investigation of the facts has to...

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Sestak and the Reporter Behind the Story

(413) Comments | Posted May 26, 2010 | 9:19 PM

Larry Kane still has game. The veteran journalist who recently celebrated his 45th year in broadcast journalism, the guy who in his early twenties accompanied the Beatles on their first tour of the United States, is the one who first thought to ask Joe Sestak whether the White House offered...

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Arlen Specter -- A Political Outlier in a Congress of Lemmings

(159) Comments | Posted May 17, 2010 | 6:47 PM

He has angered me, too.

In my case, it was in 1987, when Arlen Specter was torpedoing the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork. I then believed Bork was qualified. At the time, Specter said he had "substantial doubt as to how [Bork] would apply fundamental principles of constitutional law."

...
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How to Get Civility in Washington Back on Track

(159) Comments | Posted May 12, 2010 | 1:57 PM

Bob Schieffer delivered a commentary on Face the Nation last Sunday that made me think of Joe Biden and Arlen Specter. Yesterday, I got the opportunity to tell the vice president why he had come to mind.

"Not long ago," Schieffer said, "a staffer for a congressional leader actually...

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