Seattle Talk Radio Host Murdered

The body of Mike Webb, a late-evening talk radio host for Seattle's 710 KIRO for many years, was found in the crawl space of his home today. The King County Medical Examiner's office has ruled Webb's death a homicide.

Webb was a loud, pugnacious liberal, for several years in the late 90s and earlier this decade one of the only liberal voices that could be found on AM talk radio anywhere in America. His career at KIRO ended in December 2005 after he was charged with (and subsequently convicted of) insurance fraud. Sadly, Mike had some very public battles with personal demons over the past few years, having lost his beloved dog not long before his run-in with the law and firing; his first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors saw him undergo a nervous breakdown outside the courthouse. He later spent 30 days at a mental health facility.

It may be a while before we know whether Mike's murder was related to his personal problems, or we may never know. What we do know is that we've lost a voice for right and justice, and he will be missed.

I recommend Michael Hood's blog blatherWatch for extensive background and continuing coverage of the Mike Webb story.

•  Mike Webb was a tragic figure

  ...in the classic sense: a man of many talents who was ultimately undone by his own flawed decisions. Let's hope the police find the person or people responsible for his murder.

  by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:17:20 PM PDT

  •  Mike Malloy just read your diary on air

    on his show .. I think he read it virtually verbatim.

    Just FYI .. you diary audience went out over 14 radio stations, XM and Sirius satellite radio, as well as being streamed on the net [the way I hear Mike Malloy's show]

    I never heard of this fellow before tonight, but he does sound like a sad person.

    by shpilk on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:50:58 PM PDT

    •  Thanks for the tip.

      I don't know if the two of them ever met, but I reckon liberal talkers are a kind of fraternity (a small one, alas, and even smaller today).

      by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:57:07 PM PDT

      •  no, Malloy said he had never heard of him

        until tonight ..

        by shpilk on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:05:31 PM PDT

•  What a sad story.

  I'm sorry to hear about this man's terribly troubled life and untimely end.

  by Radiowalla on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:19:36 PM PDT

•  This is really sad--however he died,

  he lived as a "loud, pugnacious liberal," who had a voice
  despite his personal demons.

  Damn.

  by begone on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:20:32 PM PDT

•  That is very sad

  I am sorry to hear about his troubles

  by TeresaInPa on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:27:00 PM PDT

  •  his troubles are over.

    But yes it is very sad how they ended.

    by DawnG on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:36:49 PM PDT

•  Made Me Think of Alan Berg ....... n/t

  by Norm DePlume on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:27:35 PM PDT

  •  Yeah--it could be personal, or it could be

    what seems to have happened to Alan.

    by begone on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:29:30 PM PDT

    •  I doubt it's that.

      Mike had wingnut callers fairly regularly, like any liberal host, but they were mostly garden-variety babbling morons rather than the really scary types who were pestering Berg toward the end.

      by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:38:27 PM PDT

•  as a Seattlelite,

  so sad to hear this. Hope he has found peace somewhere.

  by lisastar on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:28:56 PM PDT

•  The investigation of his disappearance

  does not seem to be a top-notch job.  If Paris Hilton or Rush Limbaugh or Pat Robertson 'vanished', we could expect a bit more effort at resolution.

  Seattle PD is not making my homeland secure.

  by skwimmer on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:31:11 PM PDT

  •  I've listened to Mike Webb

     and he got death threats frequently. Mike Malloy gets death threats also -- its really frightening listening to the hate filled callers.

     Webb was a strong voice for our side -- he will be missed.

    by Carib and Ting on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:15:26 PM PDT

  •  Agreed

    Yes, both the newspaper story and the TV report I saw earlier today said the police had searched the house just recently (the paper said within the past two weeks), with a dog, and found nothing. That sounds like kind of shoddy police work on the part of the investigating officer in this case. Don't we have cadaver dogs that would have smelled a body so decomposed that in the first reports the police said they couldn't tell what sex it was?

    by Brooke In Seattle on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 11:25:08 PM PDT

    •  The dog struck out too

      The Times reports that a cadaver-sniffing dog was brought to the house in mid-June, but didn't find anything.

      by phenry on Sat Jun 30, 2007 at 08:03:58 AM PDT

•  Not the first either.

  Alan Berg was murdered by The Order because he was an enthusiastic critic of neo-nazis.

  There is also the strange "suicide" of Duane Garret. I wonder if he might have actually been "suicided".

  by Rex Manning on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:37:00 PM PDT

  •  I immediately thought of Garret when I read this

    I can't quite imagine him committing suicide over "finances," you know? I mean, perhaps he really did--I've ever heard it publicly doubted, and his good friend and colleague Bernie Ward, who chokes up every time Duane Garret is mentioned, appears to accept the official story. I did too, pretty much, until just now, on reading this diary.

    Well, who the heck knows. It's all so bizarre and sad. Here's to Duane and the others.

    by aitchdee on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:54:14 PM PDT

    •  I've never heard (not "ever") n/t

      by aitchdee on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:57:58 PM PDT

•  wasn't there a DJ from that station

  who blogged here the other day about Ann Coulter?  

  This is very sad...

  by Buffalo Girl on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:45:06 PM PDT

  •  OMG, you're right! That's Goldy at HorsesAss,

    outer of Michael Brown as a failed Arabian horse exec
    at the time of Katrina.

    by begone on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:51:41 PM PDT

    •  yep.

      Goldy parlayed a stint as host of Seattle's Drinking Liberally get-together and podcast into a job as KIRO's weekend evening host. Nice work if you can get it. Youc can catch him on the station's podcast feed if you're interested.

      by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 08:53:43 PM PDT

    •  ..

      http://www.horsesass.org/

      Mike Webb, 1955-2007, RIP
      by Goldy, 06/29/2007, 5:19 PM

      With the discovery of Mike Webb’s badly decomposed body today, the mystery surrounding the former 710-KIRO host only deepens. His body was found under a tarp, stuffed in the crawl space of his Seattle home, weeks after being reported missing. The King County Medical Examiner’s office has determined that Webb died of multiple stab wounds. The talk-radio blog Blatherwatch is providing ongoing coverage.

      I introduce each hour of my weekend show, proudly announcing that I am "bringing liberal political talk back to Newsradio 710-KIRO." I always emphasize the word "back," and in doing so, I’m always referring to Mike Webb, who sat in front of that very same microphone, infuriating local conservatives for nearly a decade.

      But while I’m proud to carry on Webb’s legacy of speaking truth to power, I must confess that I rarely listened to his show. So tomorrow night during the 8PM hour of my show, I’ll play a few clips of Webb at work, and unable to present a fitting tribute of my own, I’ll ask his friends and fans to call in with their own remembrances of Webb and his radio career.

      by shpilk on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:09:36 PM PDT

    •  A nice tribute

      from Goldy:

      I introduce each hour of my weekend show, proudly announcing that I am "bringing liberal political talk back to Newsradio 710-KIRO." I always emphasize the word "back," and in doing so, I’m always referring to Mike Webb, who sat in front of that very same microphone, infuriating local conservatives for nearly a decade.

      But while I’m proud to carry on Webb’s legacy of speaking truth to power, I must confess that I rarely listened to his show. So tomorrow night during the 8PM hour of my show, I’ll play a few clips of Webb at work, and unable to present a fitting tribute of my own, I’ll ask his friends and fans to call in with their own remembrances of Webb and his radio career.

      If you want to listen live tomorrow, starting at 8pm Pacific, the stream is here.

      by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:10:20 PM PDT

•  Thanks for the diary

  I posted this earlier in Open Thread as a comment but I didnt have time to do a diary that would do justice to Mike.

  Blatherwatch is being innundated with trolls at the moment...ugh...

  by fireflynw on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:09:34 PM PDT

  •  Blatherwatch w/o trolls wouldn't be Blatherwatch

    unfortunately.

    by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:11:44 PM PDT

    •  All the Seattle blogs are that way

      that's why I can't bear to read them.

      I used to read Goldy quite a bit -- still do read his posts from time to time -- but I can't deal with all the trolls. They make it impossible to have an intelligent discussion because they are just constantly injecting dissonance.

      Life is too damn short.

      One of the best parts about DKos is the comments. Sometimes the comments are more illuminating than the diary to which they are attached.

      by Brooke In Seattle on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 11:01:03 PM PDT

      •  Exactly.

        They make it impossible to have an intelligent discussion because they are just constantly injecting dissonance.

        Mission accomplished.

        by phenry on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 11:56:46 PM PDT

•  I followed

  Webb's story (at least his convinction) a little bit. He was convicted of fraud by a jury, so at least with respect to that, it was a little difficult to believe his story.

  His first trial was set aside because jurors saw him break down outside the courthouse. I think it is pretty well known that he suffered from some kind of psychiatric disability.

  Having said all of that, the fact that he was murdered certainly has to raise questions about his theory that he was set up by right wingers. I guess.

  The whole thing is just very sad.

  by taylormattd on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 09:46:26 PM PDT

•  I have been following it all day.

  He has not been on the air for a while (he was fired for doing stupid things). I liked him at times and not at other times.

  He was like Mike Malloy in a lot of ways.

  I met him a couple of times.

  It all makes me a little sad... he did not deserve this. I guess he may have been hanging around some strange people lately when his life started to spiral downward.

  He will be missed.

  Washington Woman

  EENR

  by kevin22262 on Fri Jun 29, 2007 at 10:24:27 PM PDT