Posted on 04/19/2004 10:04:02 AM PDT by Pikamax
The first time I turned on Air America, the new liberal radio network, I heard a commentator arguing that Republicans did not initiate impeachment proceedings against President Clinton because of Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater, lying or obstruction of justice. No, the man said, Republicans knew Clinton had committed no impeachable offenses, but they pursued impeachment anyway, in a diabolically clever ploy designed specifically to make the general public so disenchanted with the very idea of impeachment that they would not tolerate impeachment against the next (Republican) president — who, of course, deserves to be impeached immediately.
OK. That's about what I expected — liberal paranoia and conspiratorial idiocy to match the conservative paranoia and conspiratorial idiocy that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and their ilk have used to turn talk radio into a powerful forum that liberals now blame for every social and political malady this side of tooth decay.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Owl_Eagle
" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"
Sometimes these people give me the impression that they need an illicit substance flushing to clear their minds!
Its only idiocy if your too damn stupid to know the truth. Ahh the LA Times. The bashton of idiocy and lies!
Two words for you. Call Screener.
2 years ago Neal Boortz got into it with the DemocraticRadio.com guys, and Neal being the generous host that he is offered them an ENTIRE WEEK to host his program while he was on vacation. He handed the a national show on a silver platter. They had several demands that had to be met before they would accept. Guess what they where?
1) They would be allowed to bring their own call screener.
2) They could bring their own engineer to operate the board.
Boortz told them to stuff it.
...I tuned in to 1580, turned on my computer to take notes and sat with both until 11 p.m. It may have been the most boring day of my life.
...My fellow liberals have long argued that they haven't been able to match the conservative success on talk radio because the medium is ideally suited to conservatives. According to this self-serving argument, conservatives are more willing than liberals to engage in nasty name-calling and to see everything in black and white, while liberals — concerned with nuance and complexity — are inevitably reasonable, willing to consider both sides of an issue. But President W's policies — especially in Iraq — have now so enraged liberals that they are willing to play dirty too. Hence, Air America.
Not.
Not, at least, during the 17 hours I listened. Oh sure, the new network's assorted hosts, guests and callers did engage in a bit of obligatory name-calling. Henry Kissinger was "a war criminal." Rice was "reptilian," "a liar" and "a perjurer." President Bush was "an idiot," "a liar," a "lazy sack of crap," "a fake Christian," "a murdering scumbag" and — amid a discussion of Janet Jackson and the Super Bowl — "the biggest boob of all."
...Al Franken, a "Saturday Night Live" veteran, is certainly funny. And he's the host of Air America's 9 a.m.-to-noon program, a head-on competitor to Limbaugh. Franken's show is called "The O'Franken Factor" — a deliberate jab at Bill O'Reilly, the popular Fox commentator of"O'Reilly Factor" fame. Comic actress Janeane Garofalo and Randi Rhodes, a talk-show host from south Florida, are also professionally funny. Garofalo co-hosts Air America's 8-to-11 p.m. "The Majority Report," and Rhodes hosts the network's drive-time show, from 3 to 7 p.m.
But I laugh easily, and I didn't get a single laugh from Franken, Garofalo or Rhodes — or from any of the other Air America hosts I listened to. Rhodes is the best of them, but unlike Limbaugh — who has a rich, mellifluous voice — her voice is so grating that I found myself wincing, no matter how vigorously I agreed with what she said. (Even Rhodes says, "I hate my voice.")
... Air America hosts also espoused predictably liberal views on race relations, gay rights, the 2000 presidential election and other issues.
That's what I would expect of a liberal radio network. And I was most pleased to hear black and gay voices among the network's hosts. What I didn't hear, though, was anything especially original in any of the host's attacks and observations.
...In a country in which 64% of the public say they attend weekend worship services at least once a month, mocking religion might not be the most effective way to win converts — and yet, on Good Friday no less, that's exactly what the various Air America hosts repeatedly did.
Two of the hosts gratuitously announced that they're Jewish, and one — Marc Maron of the network's "Morning Sedition" program — went on to make fun of Easter and Christmas rituals. Then, in a segment he called "morning devotional," Maron began his prayer for divine guidance on behalf of President Bush by saying, "Dear Lord, what the hell is going on up there?"
Another host — I think it was Rachel Maddow on "Unfiltered," though I couldn't always distinguish her voice from that of co-host Lizz Winstead — called Easter "an odd celebration" and said that a taxi driver had told her that "someone in a Jesus suit" would carry a cross along 42nd Street in New York in a reenactment of the events of Good Friday, "but in this case, he'll stop to buy a fake Louis Vuitton bag."
Huh?
The Air America hosts seemed equally shortsighted in their preoccupation with sex, another subject not designed to win over moderates. Shortly after opening his show, Maron, one of three hosts who felt compelled to mention his sex life, started talking about having sex with his "much younger" wife and thinking, "Wow, I'm really good at this" — only to suddenly feel very old when she said, "Don't kill yourself."
Maron also ticked off a mock list of chores the president would do that day — including ordering "an extra inch" for his penis.
...In fact, I think what ultimately annoyed — and disappointed me — the most about Air America was all the false, aren't-we-funny, aren't-we-smart laughter that virtually all the hosts gave each other.
...It shouldn't take a village to raise a radio program.
It's the kiss of death folks!
They have been saying for years that "talk radio" is equivalent to "hate speech."
It looks like they hope to make their lie come true.
The listening public isn't stupid and they will quickly turn off this drivel.
Host (Al Franken): Okay, we're back. Still hate Bush?
Co-Host (Katherine Lanpher): Oh yeah. You?
Host: You bet.
[pregnant pause]
Host: Well, let's...uh...let's take some calls. Caller number 1, you there?
Caller: Yeah, I wanna talk about hating Bush?
Host: Go right ahead. Do you hate Bush?
Caller: Yep, I hate him.
[pregnant pause]
Host: Tell us about it.
Co-Host: Yeah, caller, tell us about it.
Caller: Well, it's just George Bush....I hate 'em....
Co-Host: Oh, me too...[crosstalk]
Host: I hate Bush so much....
Co-Host: ...I hate 'em.
Host: Caller, how much do you hate Bush?
Caller: A lot.....I hate him a lot....
Host: Well, er, let's...uh...let's take another call. Caller number 2, you there?
Caller: Yeah man, do you have Prince Albert in a can?
[pregnant pause]
Host: er, no, this is a radio talk show.
[pregnant pause]
Caller: Oh. ... Can you page Mike Hunt?
[pregnant pause]
Host: Don't you want to tell us how much you hate Bush?
Caller: No man, I love bush. I get bush all the time. You think I'm some sort of fag?
[pregnant pause]
Host: Well, er, let's...uh...let's take another call. Caller number 3, are you there?
Caller: Dude! Do you know where I can buy some pot?
[pregnant pause]
Host: Maybe we should try another caller.
Co-Host: There are no other callers on the line yet.
Host: er, um, ... what should we talk about while we wait for another caller?
Co-Host: How about Bush? I hate him.
Host: Oh, me too...[crosstalk]
...
Ofcourse, it's Leftist therefore it must have tits and ass in order to draw it's constituents. Doesn't work on radio.
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