How Quickly Can You Hear A Falsehood On The Al Franken Show?

Newsbusters.org ^ | 7 June 2006 | Dave Pierre

[infoguy]

How quickly can you hear a falsehood on the Al Franken Show on Air America Radio? Well, today, for me, it was about 15 seconds. (Is that a world record?)

I flipped on my radio. Bill O'Reilly was on commercials. So was Dennis Prager. I pressed a button, and for the first time in months, I stumbled upon the voice of Al Franken on Air America Radio. He was interviewing a guest, a nice, but naive-sounding, woman whom I later found out to be Anya Kamenetz.

In a few seconds, I heard that Al and her guest were discussing the economy, college, and the military. Within 15 seconds of tuning into Air America, Al's guest spewed the following whopper (audiotape on file):

"Well, the facts are this. The military is not meeting its recruiting targets. It's missing them year after year."

Yikes! Did she say "facts"? Well, here are some facts:

• All services of the military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) met or exceeded their active-duty recruiting goals for April 2006. [DoD link]
• All services of the military have met or exceeded their active-duty recruiting goals from Oct. 1, 2005 to April 30, 2006 [DoD link] and for the last eleven months straight (as of April 2006) [link].
• "All services are projected to meet their [active-duty] retention goals for the current fiscal year" (2006). [DoD link]
• The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps have all made their active-duty recruiting numbers for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. [link, DoD link, link and link] For 2005, all services met their active-duty recruiting goals, with the exception of the Army [link].  ("The last time the Navy missed its recruiting goal was in 1998." [link])

"It's missing them year after year"? Sorry, ma'am.

If you are a regular reader of NewsBusters, you may have already known a lot of this. The media has misled the public on the issue of military recruiting, and NewsBusters has covered this topic here and here.

I guess it goes without saying that Al did not correct his guest on her misinformation. Franken has a problematic history with facts. Did you know his recent books, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and The Truth, are teeming with errors, falsehoods, and misleading passages? [Click the titles for the links to learn the facts.]

[Gordongekko909]

My Mom got me Lying Liars for Christmas a few years back so that I could "expand my horizons" or something. Within a week, the margins were filled with rebuttals. It was actually kind of fun, in a dragging-your-face-against-pavement-by-hanging-it-out-of-a-car-doing-sixty kind of way.

[moonman]

Thanks for the post

[Echo Talon]

I listened to his show for a "few minutes" 1 time... what a mistake. :\

[Fruitbat]

You know better than to expect the truth out of Franken or any lib for that matter.

This should be filed under "DUH!" : D

; )

[JerseyDvl]

Are you insinuating that there are times he tells the truth?
I love Air America for laughs, it always brightens a dark day to chuckle at the lunatics.

[perfect stranger]

Al speaks to the uninformed, and reactionary base of the far left.

[InvisibleChurch]

Imagine if you played the Al Franken Drinking Game and had to take a shot for every lie you heard. You'd be dead before the first commercial break.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I've never heard him on the radio. Does Al-Franken sound effeminate on the radio also?

[Gordongekko909]

No I wouldn't. After the first two minutes, I wouldn't be able to see or hold my drink. And even if I could, I wouldn't have the hand-eye coordination to get it into my mouth. I'd be passed out by the commercial break, but not dead. My body would simply not allow me to drink that much.

[rogue yam]

Never, if you don't tune in.

That's my approach, anyway.

[singfreedom]

Terrific analogy!!!

[singfreedom]

I just can't listen to him! My blood pressure goes up astronomically---it just is not healthy. Air America should be required to have a disclaimer!

[Reactionary]

Now, now... The libbies are quite convinced they're terribly intelligent. It won't do to bring up the fact that they have absolutely no respect for, nor grasp of, the truth.

[Fruitbat]

I just can't listen to him! My blood pressure goes up astronomically---it just is not healthy. Air America should be required to have a disclaimer!

I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I find it utterly amusing. I've listened only a couple of times, always by accident. I usually tune in in my car, listen, say to myself who the hell's this. I then get angry. But once I realize it's Franken or Garafalo, I just listen and ponder who listens to that crap. At that point I don't get upset as I realize that I'm one of the few that's actually listening.

There are absolutely no facts. Nothing pertinent. It's like a bunch of kids just making itsh up as they go along it seems. It's just a bunch of whiners on "whiners' hour" on the radio. Anyone with half-a-brain that listens to that stuff can't possibly be entertained or educated.

[Fruitbat]

PS AA doesn't need a disclaimer b/c no one listens. LOL

[SouthTexas]

My radio does not recieve Al Franken or Er America either. ;)

[ThomasThomas]

How quickly can you hear a falsehood on the Al Franken Show


Is the show delayed? 5sec 10sec

(Delay if used)+ ((speed of sound to mike)* (distance from mike))+ (transmission factor) {need advice from radio nerd}+((speed of sound)*(radio speaker to ear distance))

= Not long enough

[Vroomfondel]

Imagine if you played the Al Franken Drinking Game and had to take a shot for every lie you heard. You'd be dead before the first commercial break.

On the other hand, if you took a shot for every sentence he completed, you'd stay sober. I've never heard a fellow who could interrupt himself so much. I don't think I've ever heard him actually complete a sentence...

[proud_yank]

LOL, wouldn't the vomiting start before the game technically began?