hey there, babydoll, come with me to the bathroom stall
Thursday, July 15, 2004 at 12:41PM Whoa, y’all. Scandalicious. At the beginning of the week, radio station scuttlebutt had it that some employee of KMTT, The Mountain had done something freakishly out-of-character that had landed him in serious legal trouble. That was all the information I could get at the time, aside from the fact that the story would soon be broken by The Stranger. My gossip yearning far from slaked, I thirsted for more. Yeah, you heard me, I said “slaked.” I read Interview With The Vampire in the 5th grade just like you did. I text’d an acquaintance, Rachel over at KEXP (yes, the Rachel mentioned in the article), to see if she could give me the scoop. When she declined to respond, I thought huh, either she a) knows something, but can’t tell me, b) doesn’t know anything but also doesn’t like me, thus explaining her lack of reply, or c) knows something, but can’t tell me and also doesn’t like me. When The Stranger finally posted the article last night, revealing that the DJ in question was popular hipster Matt Nichols who also has a gig at KEXP, I realized that it had been a). Well, theoretically, it could have been c), but let’s just stick with a) for now. I felt pretty bad for totally seeking the scoop from Rachel, since she knows the guy and might even be friends and all—plus, the atmosphere over at the station must be fucking ripe right about now.
Yeah. But how do you deal with that sort of thing? I mean, I’ll Xander right now—I’m gonna take a stand and say that domestic violence is not good, bad, in fact, very bad. And I seem to have confirmation that he did, in fact, beat hell out of his girlfriend, I mean, he’s not contesting these facts and hopefully not going to try and use drunkenness as an excuse. Yeah, but let’s just say that this guy is your friend and he also works for you—what do you do? KMTT has fired the guy outright and he’s on some sort of administrative leave from KEXP. I mean, clearly, keeping him on board is fucking awful PR, but how do you handle a situation like this, especially if he’s a guy who, by all accounts, was well-loved by his co-workers. The behavior is completely indefensible, but as his friends, I bet the urge to support him is overwhelming.
As it stands, I don’t know the guy and I say kick his girlfriend-abusing ass to the curb, but hey, that’s just me. It’s a kind of a useless question, though, to fire or not to fire, really, because if charges are pressed and all, he’s going to PRISON.
ahe
A clarification: Rachel, whom I mentioned in this entry, did NOT provide me with any information whatsoever on this topic. I asked, initially, before the story had been leaked, and she did not respond. After the fact, I apologized for asking, as I had not realized that she worked with the DJ in question. She said it was okay because I hadn’t known. This was the extent of our conversation on the matter. I did text her today and ask her to kiss The Delays for me when they are in station on Saturday, but she won’t be there so she is going to ask another DJ to do it for me. Which is nice. I hope they get some tongue.
Reader Comments (28)
/dons asbestos suit
also, i shared a bookshelf with an older sister and was constantly borrowing books that were, perhaps, out of my age range.
No offense, but I *do* consider one degree away from the source to be "shit," especially considering the conclusions you draw as "fact." Meanwhile you appear to love it just as much as the Stranger does. "Scandalicious?" The man has been tried and hanged in the court of public opinion, and your bloodthirst (slaked yet?) simply contributes to that.
For whatever it's worth, I do know the man and have talked to him. And anyone who does really know him knows that the article in the Stranger was misleading, unnecessary and destructive. And yes, I do know what your sources are since you cite them both in your original post (you seem to imply now that you've read the police report... is that true?). It's not my place to comment on the events of that evening. But based on the condemning tone of your post and others that follow it, I would have been remiss in failing to mention that he has not been convicted of anything, and yet has had his life and livelihood shattered long before he's had his day in court.
and for the record, everyone, i do love it. he is a public figure and it is scandal and i like to spout off about such things--i would have preferred that it had been someone reprehensible like rush limbaugh, but hey, us gossip-mongerers take what we can get, right? let's not lose sight of the fact that this is a fucking weblog--an online journal, not the NYT and i can basically say whatever the fuck i want and express any opinion i choose. and this is my choice. the information i have leads me to believe that nichols abused his girlfriend. if anyone can point me to a source where it verifies that he did not or that there were extenuating self-defense type circumstances, i'd love to hear it.
again, though, thanks, matt, for your information, i really appreciate that you're cool, logical and coherent because i've had to erase a couple of freak posters who were so passionate about this that their comments consisted of such gems as "what do U know, asshole!" and "i know mike didn't do this because i listen to his show al [sic] the time."