(UPDATED, 9/20/04)

Apparently, there are some things you just can't say on the radio, in Seattle.

About Dan Rather.

On a CBS radio affiliate.

Or else - you get fired.

Brian Maloney says CBS affiliate KIRO-AM in Seattle fired him Friday for saying Dan Rather of CBS-TV should retire or be retired for Rather's use of what are now widely regarded as false documents to air criticism of President Bush's service in the National Guard. For three years, Maloney hosted "The Brian Maloney Show" on KIRO-AM, one of Seattle's leading radio stations.

SEATTLE -- A radio talk-show host said Saturday he has been fired for criticizing CBS newsman Dan Rather's handling of challenges to the credibility of memos about President Bush's National Guard service.

"On the talk show that I host, or hosted, I said I felt Rather should either retire or be forced out over this," said Brian Maloney, whose weekly "The Brian Maloney Show" aired for three years on KIRO-AM Radio, a CBS affiliate here.

Maloney says he made that statement on his Sept. 12 program. He was fired five days later on Friday, he said.

"What they have expressed is essentially that my show went in a direction they're not comfortable with," Maloney said.

KIRO Radio's general manager, Ken Berry, declined to return a call from The Associated Press about Maloney's status. A staff member at the station said Berry would not comment because it is a personnel matter.

....Maloney said he felt free to comment on the controversy and on Rather.

"I really felt he was taking the network's credibility down with him," Maloney said in a telephone interview.

"Talk-show hosts have generally had a lot of independence in these kinds of issues," he said. "Nobody's ever said, 'You can't criticize CBS News.'"

KIRO Radio is affiliated with CBS but owned by Entercom, a national radio broadcasting company based in Bala Cynwyd, Penn.

Entercom certainly was happy to have the conservative Maloney on board, if this glowing and informative Maloney bio on KIRO-AM's Web site is any indication. Guess freedom of speech only goes so far.

The CBS Politbureau ought to rethink its priorities, and the network's crumbling image, which is worrying insiders. They should hire Maloney as a "60 Minutes" producer.

UPDATE (9/20/04): KIRO-AM station manager Ken Berry says it wasn't Maloney's Rather comments that got him fired. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Berry, unavailable for comment when reporters first called for reaction to Maloney's claims, now has come out of his shell to say:

"The primary reason Brian Maloney's show was canceled is because KIRO's broadcasts of the Seattle Seahawks football games significantly reduces our Sunday talk lineup, and we felt the remaining time slots would be better filled by other hosts."

Taken at face value this means Berry asserts Maloney was lying when he said, reagarding his recent on air-comments criticizing Rather, and his firing five days later:

"What they have expressed is essentially that my show went in a direction they're not comfortable with," Maloney said.

As for Berry's claim football games cut talk airtime on Sundays and the station thought the remaining non-football hours would be better filled by "other hosts," um, wasn't Maloney one of KIRO-AM's very few few conservative talk hosts? And, with him having just one show per week, wouldn't that have been worth preserving? Especially in the liberal monoculture that is Seattle?

Sorry, but Berry's lame CYA attempt to "walk it back" raises more questions than it answers.

Cross-posted at Rosenblog.