"We're going to listen to Limbaugh's show and hold him up to scorn and ridicule"
Posted on 03/28/2004 10:05:57 AM PST by Pikamax
Liberals Take on Conservatives on Talk Radio Sun Mar 28, 9:30 AM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo!
By Andrew Stern
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The gloves are coming off on talk radio. Comedian-provocateur Al Franken anchors Wednesday's launch of a new liberal radio network -- Air America -- that promises irreverent voices from the opposite end of the political spectrum to conservatives like Rush Limbaugh who dominate talk radio.
Reuters Photo
"We're going to listen to (Limbaugh's) show and hold him up to scorn and ridicule," Franken said in a telephone interview.
The debut is auspiciously timed: the presidential candidates have come out swinging and liberal anger at Republican President Bush (news - web sites) is at a fever pitch.
Network chief executive Mark Walsh said the goal was to skewer "pomposity" in high places regardless of political affiliation. "We're not in regime change radio," he said.
Walsh said his most recent job was as "the Internet guy" for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites). Franken also knows Kerry, who along with filmmaker Michael Moore is a likely Air America guest.
The network will also feature other radio neophytes such as actress Janeane Garofalo, rapper Chuck D and activist Robert Kennedy Jr. Each will be paired with a radio veteran.
Franken will kick off with a three-hour midday show, "The O'Franken Factor," a mocking tribute to his broadcasting foe Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox News.
A former writer on NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live," Franken wrote the best-selling comic diatribes "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and last year's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." The latter triggered a short-lived lawsuit from Fox News.
ONETIME WRESTLER
A onetime high school wrestler, the 52-year-old Franken's recent antics have earned him the label of comic brawler: he tackled a heckler at a Kerry event and offered to fight a magazine editor who said Democrats had "sissified" politics.
Franken turns serious when discussing Bush.
"This is a president who ran as a uniter not a divider and he's the most divisive president that I can remember," Franken said. "He had an opportunity to lead us in a new American century united in purpose and sacrifice and blew it completely. He wanted for some reason very, very, very badly to attack Iraq (news - web sites) ... (which) I think has damaged the war on terror."
Limbaugh and other conservative radio figures such as Sean Hannity and Michael Savage -- whose dominance of talk radio balances what some see as mainstream media's liberal bias -- have already begun mocking the upstart network.
"They're saying we're a bunch of wine-swilling cheese-eating liberal idiots; that it'll never work; that liberals don't listen to the radio; that all we did was hire a bunch of comics and not anybody that knows anything about radio," Walsh said.
Franken admitted he drinks wine occasionally but doesn't know the difference between labels. "I do eat cheese; they're more accurate than usual there."
Observers are unsure about Air America's chances of success but it has drawn an avalanche of publicity as the first liberal-minded radio network.
In truth, the serious-minded Pacifica network and segments of National Public Radio have already staked out liberal positions.
"If these guys succeed, you know who's going to be banging down their doors to get them on? All the guys running conservative talk radio. Radio's not a political business. Politics is just a product ... a prop," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a magazine that covers the industry.
Air America is armed with $30 million in investor cash and a $30 million credit line being used to lease AM stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with more stations promised.
We're going to listen to (Limbaugh's) show and hold him up to scorn and ridicule," Franken said in a telephone interview
In backbrain, I suppose I was wondering exactly which doctrine Franken et al were going to pursue.. And on a breeze, I heard whispered: They are going to follow the Dean Doctrine of attacking Rush Limbaugh (and morph out with their usual anti-Bush, anti-Republican stuff).
What else have they got? It's like watching the movie "Poltergeist II"; in which the little girl revisiting a "reincarn" memory -- explains why the people followed their zealot leader to their deaths: She sniffles: "They had no where else to go...".
I hope that conservatives will have fun with the Franken shows, as opposed to being angry -- I bet some of the satire and parody on Rush's show goes to the top in humor!!. My concern is for the tender souls who have been so heartened by Rush. I hope they will simply let the bad "air breezes" brush on by, and not feel compelled to be outraged and hurt. They need to recognize, Rush is not going to change, and nor is he going to be reactionary to their program. Rush believes in solid competition. And in merit. The point of the Franken show is to create bitterness in Rush listeners. It's the ole' "stick a foot out as a person walks by" trick. And, further, if one listens to the show and angrily reacts, it boosts the Franken show ratings. It's all about ratings, truly. And Franken et al are going to work very hard trying to woo what they consider the "ANGRY" "HATEFILLED" right wing.
Further, I have no doubts some Dem/Lefty seminar callers are going to pretend to be Repubs and get really nasty at Franken. Political theatre: Art (in radio) imitating real life.
Me? I'll stay tuned to El Rushbo, and catch wisps of "bad air" floating on by as I stay abreast of current "market" trends. :)
Reminds me of a song: "What shall we do with the liberal radio, what shall we do with the liberal radio ... take no [Kerrying] notice of them, take no [Kerrying] notice of them ..."
They had girls' wrestling back then?
Why? I intend to enjoy watching them making fools of themselves, just as I enjoy reading the foolish stuff posted at DU.
We are living a momentus political time.
Like the controlled destruction of an old building that's no longer anything but an eyesore, the Dems are on their deathbed. Don't miss the excitement of watching the other party crumble!
"We're going to listen to Limbaugh's show and hold him up to scorn and ridicule"
Bring It On!
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