The morning of July 8 began like any other for talk-show host Tammy Bruce. She sipped coffee and pored over a stack of newspapers at the Starbucks around the corner from her Westside condo, looking for a hot topic for her high-octane, late-night program on KFI radio. Leafing through USA Today, she spied an essay by Camille Cosby, wife of entertainment icon Bill Cosby, that made her bristle. "I believe America taught our son's killer to hate African-Americans," it began. The piece was a grieving mother's emotional and accusatory reflection on the murder of the couple's son, Ennis, and the conviction of his killer, a Ukrainian émigré turned L.A. gang member. As she read Camille's fiery denunciation of racism run amok in American society, the super-charged Bruce grew angrier by the minute.
On the air that night the confrontational former head of the National Organization for Women's L.A. chapter could barely contain herself. "I have two words for you this evening," she warned listeners. "Camille Cosby." The Tammy, as fans affectionately call her, then went ballistic. In two hours of fire and brimstone, she ripped apart the essay line by line, not only questioning Camille's sanity but wondering aloud about her super-rich and powerful husband's sexual mores, referring to him as a "philandering, impregnating friend of O.J. [Simpson]." While acknowledging that she had no proof, she suggested that the revered Cosby, a friend of Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran, may have secretly helped to fund the ex-football star's murder defense. But most of her ire was aimed at Camille's assertion that the 27-year-old Ennis had been shot to death while changing a tire late at night near a lonely stretch of Mulholland Drive because he was black. Bruce posited that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time -- while driving his mother's $130,000 Mercedes-Benz. She then implied that the parents themselves shared the blame. "I say to Mrs. Cosby first of all, if she's not in therapy she needs to get some immediately. And how dare she!" fumed The Tammy.
Call this 50,000-watt tongue-lashing of a mother grieving the loss of her only son insensitive, tasteless, even outrageous -- but it wasn't boring. In the context of right-wing talk radio (and what other kind is there on the commercial dial?) the broadcast had been a notch or two above the norm. At least Bruce had allowed callers who defended Camille Cosby to talk. Whatever else might be said about it, the show hadn't dropped below the standards usually associated with the loud-mouthed, Clinton-bashing, Rush Limbaugh-ized dreck that permeates the talk airwaves. In fact, when Bruce signed off at 3 a.m., there were high-fives all around in the studio. "Great show!" yelled a colleague, as the host gathered her things to head home. Bruce happily agreed.
There was little reason for anyone to suspect that within 24 hours KFI's management would toss her out on her ear.
