Posted on 10/13/2006 3:35:50 PM PDT by goldstategop
RUSH: Here is Mack in Orlando, Florida. Welcome, sir, to the program.
CALLER: Rush, what an honor to talk to you. It's been 16 years that I've been listening, and first time I've ever called in.
RUSH: Thank you. I'm glad you got through.
CALLER: Yes. What I wanted to talk about today was something very interesting that went across the Internet this morning. I see that Air America filed for Chapter 11.
No Kidding? Its Really Dead, Jim!
RUSH: Is that right?
CALLER: I thought it's an interesting contrast between a media program that has been propped up by all types of liberal donors finally hitting the wall, and I think it's testimony also to something that you said frequently, and that is that liberals have to hide their agenda. If they come right out and say here's what we're about, it doesn't sell in the marketplace of ideas.
RUSH: Well, in this case, that's not what was going on here. Because they were very honest in what they believed on the air, and it was firmly rejected.
CALLER: That's my point.
RUSH: Oh, oh, oh. I thought you were saying they were hiding who they are.
CALLER: No, no. I'm saying that liberals, in order to get what they want, they have to hide what they are. When they come right out and lay it on the table--
RUSH: Yeah, but that's true. That's an accurate and very shrewd observation on your part. But, you know, folks, this was never... This whole Air America thing... I saw they're filing bankruptcy today. I betcha they don't make it through the election. If they do they'll close doors right after. The only reason that bunch even went on the air is to affect elections. There isn't the slightest semblance of any business plan or model or understanding in that whole operation. It has been destined to fail from the moment it was conceived. This is one liberal conception that should have been aborted that wasn't, and it's going to amount now to being stillborn because it never really got life.
It's been a clear illustration. The most amazing thing about it to me has been to watch people who are in the broadcasting business grant it legitimacy and status when it never earned any. I mean, I was looking at the reports. They got $4 million dollars in assets? I have that much in my checking account! These people, $4 million in assets, they've got liabilities of over $20 million? Did they ever sell any advertising? They ran this as a 527 organization. They ran it as a political organization. They hadn't the slightest clue what they were doing, and in the process... I'm just kidding about the $4 million in the checking account but, folks, that's embarrassing.
That's like somebody who... I don't know how to analogize that. How pathetic that is! Liabilities have got to be more than 20 million to boot. The bottom line is that it really illustrates that liberals have -- I mean, why did they do this? They were doing it to counter conservative talk radio, me. They didn't have the audience. They still don't. I don't care where you go, in whatever liberal circle or Democrat Party circle; they don't understand why this works. I have people say, "Well, you know, they didn't work because they're just not funny." It has nothing to do with it. "Oh, it didn't work because they're always angry! They're always bashing Bush." It has nothing to do with it. Broadcasting is a talent, is a skill, it takes training, it takes experience.
I'm Sticking Some Ice Into It. Liberals Don't Know Why I'm Good - Still Here On The Air! ;-)
You don't bring a bunch of idiots who have never done it before, put 'em on the radio and expect to be reaching 20 million people just because you're liberal, but their arrogance and their condescension, just like they're not examining their own failures as a party and as a movement, they do not study those who succeed and try to figure out how it's done. You know why they think that the Republicans won the House in '94 and why Bush won the presidency in 2000? Because all we did was criticize Clinton for eight years. They're just doing what they think is a carbon copy of what we did in their bashing of Bush. They're just wandering aimless in the desert out there, folks. This bunch was never a bunch of broadcasters.
Sadly, a bunch of broadcasters tried to prop 'em up and lost their shirts. Everybody involved with them lost their shirts. Look at all the help they had, all the publicity, all of the interviews, all of the (panting) Air America is starting in six months (panting) Air America is starting in five months, the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN practically became Air America on TV before they were even on the air, and so that sort of gives the lie to what really makes success is buzz and spin and PR and promotion, didn't matter, did it? There are substantive reasons for this that go long beyond... Well, they weren't funny or were too serious. They're just not good. Nobody over there has the slightest understanding about what this is. I was surprised they lasted this long to be quite honest with you, folks.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Up next is Carl in Chicago. Carl, you're next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, a great pleasure to speak with you this afternoon.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: One thing that I've always thought about so far as Air America radio is, it was completely and utterly unnecessary, regardless of how good or bad the content was, it was unnecessary. When you are inundated every day on the airwaves with NPR, ABC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, what was one more media, one more piece of that puzzle going to provide that already wasn't being provided?
RUSH: Well, you're looking at this rationally and logically and you're not looking at it from the liberal mind-set.
CALLER: True, very true.
RUSH: The liberal mind-set is that, yeah, they've got the media, all those things, and they do know it, they will sit there and deny all day that the media outlets you mentioned are on their side, but they know it.
CALLER: Sure they do.
RUSH: But there was this problem. They no longer had the monopoly. This guy Limbaugh and talk radio came along, and believe me, the Clintons have talk radio on the brain, Tom Daschle had talk radio on the brain, they really believed that talk radio is what beats them when they lose elections, is what embarrasses them when they are embarrassed publicly, and they said, well, we're not there. So we've gotta get into talk radio, and they thought just by entering it, that they would dominate and be big and huge, and that's why I say they had no clue and no concept. I mean, if they want to lie to themselves about how my program was created, when they know what they think about it and what they say about it is a lie, if they're not even willing to be honest with themselves about how this works successfully, then they never, ever had a chance. It was arrogance, and the people they selected to be on there. It was just laughable. It was one of the most obvious buffoonery steps I have seen taken in broadcasting, and I couldn't believe the respected broadcasters that got on board and supported it. It never had a chance. It was doomed to fail from the get-go, institutionally.
Its A Moment To Savor - With a Nice Fat Cigar And A Smile!
CALLER: The article I read today, they declined to note who the creditor was where the negotiations fell through, they declined to name the creditor. I was curious about that, why would a creditor not want to be named or why would they not name that creditor?
RUSH: Well, look it, these are liberals. Now, they ran this as a 527. I have never had a donor to this program. We don't do business with donors. They had people donating money as if you donate to a political organization or 527. Now, if they'd called themselves a 527, those donors would be out of money, but since they didn't do it as a 527 (they ran it as a 527) and pretended to be a business, these donors now may get some of their money back. This has been a scam and a sham and ill-conceived from the get-go. It is just classic, typical liberalism, and that's why probably this person doesn't want to be known.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Excellent post. Rush however failed to note the criminal nature of Air America looting (literally) widows and orphans: $900,000 stolen from the Gloria Wise charity in NY City.
Error America is alive and well,
they just call it HARDBALL now.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
LOL-right on.
Rush's success is due to the fact that he undeniably has talent, and a good analytical mind.
But the success of conservative talk radio in general owes a lot to simple demographics. If you imagine a 50-50 country, the left half of the country has been well serviced by a long list of media outlets. We've had only one, until recently. Left-leaning media fights for market share with every other media company, they must share their 50% of the country among them, so they are lucky to get into double digits. A typical conservative talk show host has no competition at all, there is no other conservative outlet, the whole 50% is his.
Air America's competition was not Rush, it was Oprah. And CNN, and everything else on TV and Radio. They were never competing with Rush, and I don't think they ever understood that. Rush's success, beyond his personal talent, is due to the fact that demographically he has no competition out there.
Fox's success is due to a similar dynamic. There are many left-leaning TV broadcasters; there is only one Fox. The leftist broadcasters have to compete with all their brothers for market share; Fox is the only choice for their half of the country. MSNBC gets killed in the ratings because they compete with ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and on and on down the line. Fox stand alone in its demographic.
You really need to cruz the DU thread on this. Indescribable.
I wonder if he said that, and meant it, and then had second thoughts.
Given the bucks that Rush is paid, his having $4M in a checking account would not surprise me.
With NPR, why would a liberal need AA?
I get the impression that some people expected Air America to succeed because it deserved to, and that it deserved to because Rush succeeded. It's as if some weird sort of "social justice" mandated equal success just as it demands equal distribution of material goods, and that failure was not merely a market result but an act of oppression on the part of an audience who had by God better listen or else. You can't run a lemonade stand on that basis.
What's funny is that Spankin' Franken has to ride this dead horse to the bitter end to save what little face he has left. He was so cocky and arrogant at the beginning. His words are going to be a gold mine of one-liners for conservative commentators for years to come.
Worth every dime.
Do you have a link? I can only stand so much DUmpster diving.
So, who won the Air America Dead Pool?
As Ann Coulter once said about Air America radio, the biggest thing they don't have that conservative talk radio has is a built-in audience... people driving to and from some sort of job in their cars!
I can't believe someone actually posted this 'idea':
123. where are the damned advertisers? boycott companies that don't advertise
Every company that doesn't advertise on Err America? He won't be doing much shopping, I guess...
Rush has a different kind of competition.. It is called work.
Most conservatives are on the job during his on air hours.
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