KNX/Fauci Interview Goes Viral
• We realize this week has already been jammed with news, but if you can remember as far back as Monday, you might recall that President Trump, while on a conference call with campaign staffers and reporters, referred to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert as “a disaster.” As you might imagine, those comments made news.
The following day, Entercom News-Talk KNX/Los Angeles was able to secure Fauci as a guest on the station’s daily program, KNX In Depth. During the conversation, KNX anchors Mike Simpson and Charles Feldman asked Dr. Fauci about the president’s comments, and whether he took them personally. Fauci replied, “I focus totally on the health and welfare of the people of this country…that’s what I devoted 50 years of my career towards. That’s the only thing I really care about. That other stuff, you know, it’s like in The Godfather — ‘nothing personal, strictly business’ as far as I’m concerned.”
Fauci’s KNX comments were immediately picked up by most major national news outlets, including CNN, FNC, MSNBC, the New York Post, The Hill, and as far away as London, Indonesia and Kenya. And in a rare instance of talk radio getting some late night TV love, Fauci’s KNX response was even covered in the monolog on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (11:15 into the video).
On Wednesday, RAMP connected with KNX PD Ken Charles, who was understandably proud of his news team for securing the interview with a major newsmaker like Dr. Fauci. “If you listen to the interview it’s a real master class by our anchors, Mike Simpson and Charles Feldman, in how to get a true professional to answer a question they may not have wanted to answer,” Charles said. “They asked it two different ways, then came back to it, asking Dr. Fauci if didn’t take some of the comments personally. When they took the question out of politics and into his feelings we got the answer we got, which made news around the globe. I’m really proud of the KNX In Depth team for pulling off not only an amazing get but also making the interview memorable and meaningful.”
