Craig Silverman: KNUS "Wimped Out" and Killed Show Over Trump Criticism

The saga of Craig Silverman and 710 KNUS has taken another crazy turn. On Twitter Thursday afternoon, the attorney and longtime radio host claimed that his show, which has aired Saturdays on the conservative outlet for around six years, was canceled because he planned another episode filled with evidence demonstrating why President Donald Trump should be impeached.

"Mgmt informed I’ll be there Sat morn!" Silverman tweeted. "Public told too. Now, #Salem [which owns KNUS] wimps out as #bullies often do. No show this Sat morn. I get paid for 4 more shows, but Salem won’t air my #TrumpTruth."

Silverman made national headlines on November 16 when he was pulled off the air during a segment critical of President Donald Trump. Afterward, KNUS management claimed its beef with Silverman was over his plan to appear with former radio partner Dan Caplis on a rival outlet, 630 KHOW, and not his impeachment support.

Brian Taylor, vice president and general manager for Salem Media, underscored this point during a Westword interview prior to the restoration of Silverman's podcast archive, including the program on the 16th, during which the host's mic was cut as he was talking about possibly being terminated. "If Craig wants to continue his show, I'd be very interested," Taylor said. "The problem had to do with promoting that he wants to be on another station on our station. But I've always appreciated Craig's content. It does have a different flavor and tenor than some of the other hosts', and I think sometimes it's refreshing to get a different viewpoint. It makes for good talk radio."

Still, when asked if Silverman would be on the air again the next Saturday, November 23, Taylor admitted, "I don't know."

Meanwhile, other KNUS hosts took turns hammering Silverman for allegedly pretending to be a media martyr when his real goal was to join Caplis at KHOW on a permanent basis. (Caplis, for his part, teased a "major announcement" about his show on November 15, the day prior to the Silverman kerfuffle, but no changes have taken place.) I appeared on two of these programs, speaking with Peter Boyles and the tandem of Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden. The latter pair were unstintingly critical of Silverman during our conversation, but they stressed that they had no objection if executives decided to bring him back into the fold.

That now seems very unlikely. Silverman initially used Twitter to let listeners know he planned to return to the KNUS studio on November 23: "@710KNUS said just an 'interruption,' welcomes me back," he wrote. "I agree to go back in belly of Trump radio beast. Won’t cower from on-air Trump Enforcer hosts lying/smearing/bullying. I’ll have my say...."

The tone of a subsequent November 21 tweet (quoted at the top of this post) represents a major shift, as does an addendum that reads, "Peter Boyles runs things @710KNUS & is perfect #Trumpster. Ignores #impeachment facts."

Silverman expanded on such thoughts with this message: "I told @710KNUS I would be back this Saturday morning with amazing guests and sound, and then they panicked & pulled the plug to keep listeners from hearing analysis of true damning facts against POTUS. I stood up to these bullies and #Salem wimped out."

Then, at 10:35 p.m.on September 21, Silverman tweeted the photo of a package along with the following text: "Here’s same day FedEx from @710KNUS w/letter which stopped cold my show prep for Sat morn show. It was going to be amazing tutorial on overwhelming guilt of Trump.... 'We never told him what position to take on President Trump...I look forward to Craig continuing his program,' said #Salem GM/VP (Lyin’) Brian Taylor at
@710KNUS presser. Then he let #Trumpian smearing festival air & now I have his letter full of lies."

In response to Westword's inquiry, Taylor provided the following statement: "710 KNUS has made the decision to conclude the Craig Silverman program effective immediately. We thank Craig for his contribution to 710 KNUS and wish him success. No permanent plans have been made regarding replacement programming for the Saturday 9 a.m. to noon time slot on 710 KNUS at this time."

We've reached out to Silverman and will share his thoughts if he gets back to us.

This post was updated at 2:06 p.m. on November 22 to include a statement from KNUS's Brian Taylor.