Todd Starnes (born October 28, 1967) is a conservative American columnist, commentator, author and radio host. He has appeared on ''
Fox and Friends
''Fox & Friends'' is an American daily morning news and talk program that airs on Fox News. It premiered on February 1, 1998, and is currently hosted by Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade on weekdays. Will Cain, Rachel Campos-Du ...
'' and ''
Hannity
''Hannity'' is an American conservative television political talk program on Fox News hosted by Sean Hannity. Episodes air live at 9:00 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, while episodes that air on Fridays are pre-recorded, with a repeat ...
''.
In June 2017, Starnes began hosting a
syndicated talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...
show on
Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
History
In 2003, ...
. In October 2019, he was fired from Fox News and all affiliates after he endorsed the notion that American
Democrats worship a pagan god,
Moloch
Moloch (; ''Mōleḵ'' or הַמֹּלֶךְ ''hamMōleḵ''; grc, Μόλοχ, la, Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly co ...
. In January 2020, Starnes, via his Starnes Media Group, purchased Memphis talk station 990 AM
KWAM
KWAM (990 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring a conservative talk radio format known as "The Mighty 990". Owned by Todd Starnes via Starnes Media Group, LLC, the stations serves the Memphis metropolitan area ...
and translator 107.9 W300DE from
Legacy Media
In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property.
Legacy or legacies may refer ...
for $685,000. KWAM will be the flagship station for Starnes' radio show.
Life and career
Starnes was born in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. During the mid-1990s, he studied communication at
Lee University in
Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland is the county seat of and largest city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 47,356 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee (consisting of Bradley and neigh ...
, where he was an editor of the college newspaper, ''The Clarion''.
He has been a reporter and anchor at news/talk radio station
KFBK in
Sacramento, California
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
and a writer for the
Baptist Press
Baptist Press (BP) is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Baptist Press is a ministry assignment of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Baptist P ...
. Starnes joined
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
in 2005 as a radio news anchor. In 2007, he was assigned to cover
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
's presidential campaign and traveled as an embedded reporter in the final weeks of the
2008 election. During that time, he also filled in on occasion as the radio network's White House correspondent. He reported from the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. In 2011, Starnes was named the host of ''Fox News & Commentary''.
Starnes became a featured Fox News columnist in 2011. His column is read online and through syndication.
In 2005, Starnes underwent surgery for a near-fatal heart valve condition exacerbated by obesity, the subject of his first book, ''They Popped My Hood and Found Gravy on the Dipstick'' (2009).
[Mimi Elliott]
"Todd Starnes: Lose Weight or Die"
Christian Broadcasting Network. He has also published ''Dispatches From Bitter America'' (2011), ''God Less America'' (2014), and ''The Deplorables' Guide to Making America Great Again'' (2017).
Controversies
Starnes' strongly conservative views, which he likes to air "to spice it up a little bit" to generate reader interest, have also generated controversy.
Firing from Baptist Press
In 2003, when employed by the ''
Baptist Press
Baptist Press (BP) is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Baptist Press is a ministry assignment of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Baptist P ...
'', Starnes misquoted U.S. Secretary of Education
Rod Paige
Roderick Raynor Paige (born June 17, 1933) served as the 7th United States Secretary of Education from 2001 to 2005. Paige, who grew up in Mississippi, moved from college football coach and classroom teacher to college dean and school superinten ...
from an interview. The interview spawned national headlines and several members of Congress called on Paige to resign over comments on religion and the public schools. Ultimately, the ''Baptist Press'' issued an apology noting "factual and contextual errors" and "misrepresentations" made by Starnes and saying that he "no longer will be employed to write for the ''Baptist Press''".
''American Sniper''
In 2015, he courted controversy for his response to the film ''
American Sniper
''American Sniper'' is a 2014 American biographical war drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is loosely based on the memoir '' American Sniper'' (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The film ...
'', stating of the main character: "Jesus would tell that God-fearing, red-blooded American sniper, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ "
Removal of historical Confederate monuments and statues
Starnes has referred to
removing symbols of the old
Confederacy from public places as "cultural cleansing."
''The Deplorables' Guide to Making America Great Again''
In 2017 ''The Deplorables' Guide to Making America Great Again'' debuted on the ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'', ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'', and Conservative Book Club's best seller lists. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' did not list the book as one of its
top 10 non-fiction paperback books.
Judge Kavanaugh protesters
In 2018, Starnes wrote on Twitter that protesters who disrupted the
Supreme Court confirmation vote of
Brett Kavanaugh
Brett Michael Kavanaugh ( ; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oc ...
(who had been accused of sexual assault) were "screaming animals" who "should be tasered, handcuffed, and dragged out of the building."
Firing from Fox News Radio
In 2019, he was fired from Fox Radio News after agreeing with one of his guests who said Democrats were not Christians but worshiped
Moloch
Moloch (; ''Mōleḵ'' or הַמֹּלֶךְ ''hamMōleḵ''; grc, Μόλοχ, la, Moloch; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly co ...
.
Call for destruction of Afghanistan cities in punitive attacks
On August 26, 2021, after the deaths of Marine and Navy servicemembers in the
2021 Kabul airport attacks, Starnes tweeted, "For every American who is killed, a city in Afghanistan should be wiped off the face of the Earth."
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Starnes, Todd
American columnists
Living people
American broadcast news analysts
American political commentators
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
American conservative talk radio hosts
Baptists from Tennessee
Fox News people
1967 births
Christian fundamentalists
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male journalists
Writers from Memphis, Tennessee
Journalists from Tennessee
Lee University alumni