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.
I would pay to hear their opinions AFTER the elections.
I also wonder if they will be so void of ideas as to use Rush and Co. as they're daily source of talking points.
They think Franken is going to be their torch bearer?!
It will die a quick, painful death because they just can't speak without sounding bitter, or angry about this Country or the Administration.
The other reason liberal talk radio will fail is that their natural constituency is already busy smoking crack and watching MTV. Like the pierced-face anarchists on welfare crowd is going to spend time listening to AM talk radio! As if!
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2004/mar04/mar22/4_thurs/news4thursday.html
To forestall any such move, they will have thjat Florida prosdecutor seize a year of Rush's income to provide that seed money. This is the liberal answer to investment banking.
Talk about fever pitch, they should ask me about my anger at the Demon Cats.
Yep this show will definitely cater to the mindless morons of la la land.
The thought of anyone as DORKY as Al Franken ridiculing anyone is rather hilarious...MUD
The thought of anyone as DORKY as Al Franken ridiculing anyone is rather hilarious...MUD
Don't allow Franken's dork quotient to obscure the fact that he isn't capable of airing an intelligent and well thought out show ala El Rushbo. No, Franken, like the infantile-minded, clueless liberal that he is, will be acting more akin to an inane, high school sophmore.
Let's start a pool on over at The Black Thread on how long it'll be before Franken's demise.
He could have a rather long run fer the simple reason that NO Lib'ralism-spoutin' human will sound too bright, and a lotta folks will balk at being cast as the resident moron. Franken, OTOH, is used to that role.
FReegards...MUD
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