Tucson Tea Party has spat with radio host

Rhonda Bodfield Arizona Daily Star
Thursday, April 8, 2010 3:06 pm

The main organizers of the Tucson Tea Party are in a rather public scrap with conservative KNST radio show host Garret Lewis.

Lewis Wednesday had a cryptic tweet on his Twitter page: "I have a huge announcement about the Tucson Tea Party coming up at 7:10 this morning. HUGE!!!"

Turns out KNST won't be able to set up a booth on Thursday for the second annual Tax Day tea party event at Presidio Park downtown.

Jon Justice, from 104.1 The Truth, meanwhile, will be broadcasting live at 6 a.m. from the park, which the Tea Party rented. Humphries said the only other booth will be a voter registration booth.

On his morning show, Lewis criticized what he considers the preferential treatment given to Justice, and called organizer Trent Humphries on the air to have him explain it. The show launched a round of emails from some KNST fans, concerned about the rift.

Humphries said Lewis is welcome to attend, just as any other media, and can give out T-shirts or bumper stickers. But he just won't be able to set up a tent. "He can participate, and we welcome that participation and would like to have him on board, but we won't give him that kind of an outlet to publicize his radio show," he said in an interview with the Star Thursday.

Why the difference in treatment? Humphries said he's never been interviewed by Lewis, while Justice has had him on the air from time to time. He also said he'd had ongoing talks with Justice about the event.

KNST had a closer relationship with the movement's organizers in the past. Last year, Jim Parisi, then of KNST, spoke at the 6,000-strong rally at Tucson Electric Park. But Parisi left for another station at the end of the year. And after a producer left in January, who Humphries had worked with in the past, a relationship was never re-established, Humphries said.

"There's a way to handle these things," Humphries said. "If I demanded to be put on the air next Thursday at his show, how would that go over?"

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