The heated battle between conservative talk radio hosts Jack Riggins and Dan Parsons continued in court yesterday. The controversy started when Parsons replaced Riggins on KLIN in 2023. Parsons then made several defamatory statements about Riggins on X, which led to Riggins filing a lawsuit against Parsons.

Riggins’ 16-page complaint accuses Parsons of attacking his personal and professional character through a series of tweets on X. Parsons hosted “The Dan Parsons Show,” which promoted “truth over tribalism” in contrast to Riggins’ hyper-conservative program, for 10 months until his abrupt termination in March.

In response to his firing, Parsons took to social media to detail the end of his contract. He mentioned that he replaced Riggins, who was allegedly fired after an anonymous woman accused a state lawmaker of sexual assault while live on air. However, Riggins denies these claims. He insists that he fulfilled his contractual obligation with the station before leaving.

Riggins’ lawsuit addressed three other posts by Parsons claiming that Riggins was fired from KLIN. An opportunity to say goodbye to listeners before leaving the station was one of the issues in question. He claims Parsons defamed him over it and placed him in a false light.

Broadcast House GM Ami Graham, said neither Riggins nor Parsons were radio station employees. They were contracted hosts to KLIN, and have since completed their agreements with the station.

Parsons responded to the lawsuit by stating that he is seeking legal counsel and will address it soon. Meanwhile, KLIN has replaced Parsons’ show with “Drive Time Nebraska” hosted by Doug Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald previously worked as a fill-in host at the station.

The legal battle between public figures may prove difficult for Riggins to win. He must prove that Parsons acted with “actual malice” in making defamatory statements. This means he will have to show that Parsons knew the information was false when he made it public.

With news consumers continuing to lose faith in news outlets, WMAL host Vince Coglianese wonders why there hasn’t been a shift in strategy from some of the organizations that have seen dwindling audiences in recent years.

While discussing the coverage surrounding the trial of former President Donald Trump with NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, the guest told Coglianese that NBC Nightly News has had the story as the lead 16 times. When The Vince Coglianese Show host heard that figure, he questioned why news organizations haven’t recognized the loss of credibility from their viewers.

“They’re just like the band on the Titanic. They’re just gonna keep playing the same song as the ship goes down. Why not change strategy? If I was running a news operation — if I was one of the broadcast networks, and I was watching my audience dwindle, and I was thinking of what can I do to change pace here and succeed as a business — I would think maybe start telling the truth would be a good way to do it,” said Coglianese. “Because then people would be like, ‘I have faith in that product,’ and my audience would grow. Maybe that’s an old fashioned notion.”

The criticism from Coglianese about the lack of changes from news media organizations coincides with recent reports that CNN’s primetime ratings have dropped to 30-year lows in the coveted Persons 25-54 demographic. CNN, like many other news outlets, has spent extensive time covering the court proceedings of the former President.

The Republican Party Headquarters was evacuated earlier this week when some vials of blood were mailed to the location. SuperTalk 99.7 WTN morning host Dan Mandis shared similar stories.

Mandis, while joined by midday host Chris Hand on Nashville’s Morning News, said earlier in his radio career, someone sent some nefarious items to him at the station.

“What is the worst thing that you’ve received in the mail? Now, I’m going to tell you. I’ll tell you mine and you guys can think. We’ve received excrement,” Mandis shared. “Like a box full of it. Yeah. They put it in a plastic bag and sent it with the typical scrawl somebody would write about how we’re all, whatever.”

Dan Mandis continued by noting that he also had an anthrax scare in the early 2000s when many other entities experienced the same fears.

“When I worked for Dr. Laura, we had a white substance that was sent to the offices. And so the guy who was Dr. Laura’s right-hand man, this poor guy had to strip down,” Mandis shared. “He was in some sort of a circular thing. So he’s inside this circular thing so nobody can see him and they hossed him off. And it turned out to be like flour or something.”