Salem's Phil Boyce Responds To CNN Report

According to a CNN report, executives at Salem Radio pressured their hosts to support Donald Trump during the 2016 election and even fired one for failing to do so.

Given the fact that media bias is a frequent show topic for most conservative talk show hosts, the idea that a conservative radio company like Salem had some sort of “speech code” for their talent where if they didn’t support Trump they’d be canned fits into a perfect “gotcha” moment for CNN, a favorite target of many talk shows.

Elisha Krauss

But some parts of this story don’t quite add up, according to Larry O'Connor at The Washington Times.

Phil Boyce

Elisha Krauss was one of three hosts on The Morning Answer on KRLA 870 AM The answer in Los Angeles. Her co-hosts were liberal radio veteran Brian Whitman (a staunch opponent of Trump) and conservative wunderkind Ben Shapiro who after leaving KRLA went on to digital super-stardom with his very popular podcast and The Daily Wire website. Krauss went on the record with CNN telling the details of her dismissal at the hands of Salem execs which she believes was due to her criticisms of Trump.

The one remaining member of the Shapiro/Krauss/Whitman morning show is Whitman, the liberal who was the loudest, most vociferous critic of Trump. O'Connor opines if Salem was looking to do some sort of purge in the name of ideological purity, what’s the liberal Trump-hater doing with the plum gig doing mornings in LA?

Phil Boyce, Senior Vice President in charge of Talk Programming for Salem says it had nothing to do with ideology and all to do with good radio.

“Elisha was let go because she failed to develop chemistry with Brian Whitman,” Boyce told O'Connor. “Brian was a keeper, very talented and also against Trump."