They had sex and then he hired her. Or did he hire her and then sleep with her?
No one knows the exact sequence of events except the powerful man in question, Charlie Sykes, Wisconsin’s most legendary radio talk show host.
Long before a police report surfaced in August, 1996 (See above newspaper clipping), linking Sykes to a woman named Janet Riordan, rumors were rampant about the beautiful young woman who Sykes plucked out of obscurity and made into a household name. Some grumbled that Sykes casting couch was getting to obvious to avoid detection while others stood by Sykes’s and his reasons for making an opera singer into a conservative pundit with prime time slots on both his radio and television programs.
Here’s the thing though, Sykes didn’t just have a sexual relationship with a young woman in his sphere of influence, he even gave her a fake name and tried to hide her real identity even as he advanced her career.
Soon, everyone began to catch on. On January 7th, 1997 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist, Tim Cuprisin, penned a column titled, “Woodhouse has an air of unreality.”
"Liz Woodhouse has been a regular on Charlie Sykes' WTMJ-AM (620) pundit panel at 11 a.m. Fridays since last fall. There's one problem though. There is no Liz Woodhouse. "Liz Woodhouse" is a made-up name of an anonymous woman...this sounds like a silly little deejay trick..."
As the scandal began to spiral out of control it was apparent that “Liz Woodhouse” and the woman who appeared in the police report with Sykes, were actually one and the same. As Cuprisin wrote the first confirmation of this came when Journal Sentinel political reporter, Craig Gilbert, was shown a 1992 publicity picture of Riordan to which he replied, “That appears to be her (Liz).”
While Cuprisin has since passed away Gilbert still writes for the Journal Sentinel and has spent the past two decades covering Sykes scandals and career milestones.
Eventually, Sykes was forced to admit on air that “Liz Woodhouse” was actually Janet Riordan. Once her real identity became public Sykes promoted her even more heavily, even helping her land her own, albeit short-lived, radio program.
And that brings us back to our first question, did Charlie Sykes have sex with Janet Riordan and then hire her? Or did he hire her and then sleep with her?
Lets take the marital infidelity out of the equation — when Sykes and Riordan began their sexual relationship they were married to other people.
That part is irrelevant, but what the public deserves to know is what role did Sykes casting couch play in their relationship? Did Riordan always aspire to leave behind her opera career and become a household name in conservative punditry? Or, was that simply the reward for entertaining the sexual advances of a powerful man?
Or maybe it all was co-sensual and having sex with Charlie Sykes and having him advance your career were separate decisions that ended up becoming entwined.
None of this would have come back into the public discussion if it weren’t for Sykes recent and apparent hypocritical responses to other powerful men accused of using their positions to culture sexual relationships.
Since leaving conservative talk radio and becoming an MSNBC pundit who savages Donald Trump, Sykes has also made a special focus of attacking Republicans, specifically Christian Republicans, for the inconsistencies on sexual harassment.
He’s publicly attacked Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins as well as Billy Graham’s son, evangelist, Franklin Graham. He’s even gone so far as to dedicate an entire chapter of his new book, “How The Right Lost It’s Mind” to his anger at Christian Evangelicals. Sykes says “the most difficult chapter to write” was Chapter 15: What Happened To The Christians?
Except, how can a man who used his powerful position to begin a sexual relationship with a young woman have the audacity to stand up and attack their “inconsistencies.”
Granted, Sykes may have ground to stand on considering that Senator Al Franken is widely regarded as a advocate for woman’s rights even as he faces charges of sexual misconduct. Instead of realizing this, however, Sykes has decided to use Franken’s actions to attack both him and President Trump.
“With all of the Republicans pounding on Al Franken to resign because of this story, it really does open up the question of, well, then, what about Donald Trump?"
There are many unanswered questions that Sykes silence on has left others to form their own conclusions.
No one knows if Sykes slept with the younger woman and then advanced her career or if he began a sexual relationship after she entered his sphere of influence. One thing is for certain though, if Sykes is going to attack the actions of other men than he first needs to clarify his own.
Until then people will continue to question the existence of his casting couch and how opera singers can became conservative pundits overnight.
------------------------------—
This is Part 1 in a 3-part series that explores the roots of Charlie Sykes politics, sex scandals, and the relationships and alliances he forged with progressives during his tenure as Wisconsin’s king of conservative talk radio. For obvious reasons I am using a pen name, but my sources can be verified by the names published and the links included in every piece.
