Carton: Francesa’s 9/11 tapes were destroyed by execs
Former WFAN host Craig Carton devoted an episode of his new podcast to recapping Mike Francesa’s career and his rivalry with the host. The most controversial part of the 52-minute rant was Carton claiming that Francesa did in fact call on Jewish New Yorkers to take a loyalty oath following the 9/11 attacks and said high-ranking executives called for the tapes to be destroyed.
WFAN has maintained that it does not have tapes from the 2001 shows in question. Deadspin found copies of the shows from Sept. 11 and 12 at The Paley Center, which include some hyperbolic language, but not the calls for loyalty oaths. However, the hosts talking on the subject went well beyond the initial aftermath.
“Mike, unfortunately, decided it was going to be Jews and Israel, calling Israel a failed experiment and legitimately saying on the radio that every single Jew in New York should take a loyalty oath to America over Israel,” Carton said. “When you have the power of the microphone and you suggest that purely based on religion and being Jewish that you owe it to Mike Francesa to publicly dedicate yourself to the U.S. over Israel is extraordinarily offensive.”
Infinity Broadcasting, CBS’ parent company, owned WFAN at the time. CBS Radio and Carton, who resigned from WFAN in September and is awaiting trial for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Francesa has long denied the accusation, which The Post’s Phil Mushnick has detailed multiple times. Francesa, then part of “Mike & the Mad Dog,” allegedly made the comments in the days following the attacks.
“He has since denied he ever said it. Here’s the problem with denying it: He said it, he knows he said it, an audience that heard it knows he said it, the company that used to own WFAN also knows that he said it,” Carton said of Francesa, who left WFAN on Friday after 30 years.
“What happened to those tapes are not a mystery,” Carton said. “Those tapes were deleted on orders from executives high above those that ran WFAN. The deletion of those tapes were overseen and mandated shortly after the comments were made. Anyone that tells you otherwise is lying to you. I know who deleted those tapes, and I know who ordered them to be deleted. Mike Francesa denying it all these years later is a flat-out lie.”