Posted on 03/08/2007 6:03:54 AM PST by subterfuge
AIR AMERICA 2.0 BEGINS TODAY
Mark Green
Today my family formally purchased and took over Air America Radio. Why? Because if progressive values were a stock, now is the time to buy.
This hasn't always been true, as the cycle of politics demonstrates. In recent decades, politics seems to have been governed by physics for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. William F. Buckley Jr. started The National Review in the 1950s to rebut what he saw as the dominance of liberalism in the academy and opinion journals like The Nation and The New Republic. From 1970-72, Public Citizen, Common Cause and the NRDC were all created in reaction to Nixon's depredations. Similarly, People For the American Way grew out of the rise of the Religious Right under Reagan in the mid-80s.
New progressive think tanks over the past 10 years, most recently and prominently the Center for American Progress, were created to counter AEI and Heritage. And of course, the Huffington Post and Air America were born in reaction to the electronic propaganda of Drudge and Limbaugh et. al.
Air America was a large, smart idea to counter the near-monopoly on talk radio by the far (f)right. But like most start-ups, the business plan collided with reality. Six CEOs over its first three years and various missteps and misspending sent it into Chapter 11.
It's now ready to go from The Perils of Pauline to The Little Engine that Could. How? First, by focusing on the radio fundamentals of making a strong line-up even stronger; second, by connecting to other major progressive organizations to be mutually fortifying; and third, by being a multi-media content company involving other information platforms mobile, video, broadband, blogs, websites. It's time to think outside the (radio) box.
The twin goals are to make it profitable and influential. One without the other won't work. If it's not a business, it'll go out of business.
But it'll be a business with a sharp point of view. The era of on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand liberalism is over -- or as Robert Frost once wrote, "a liberal man is too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel." For all those who worry about messianic misleaders governing on a right wing and a prayer, Air America 2.0 will be an answer. For all those fearful of plutocracy and theocracy, the pro-democracy hosts of AAR's programs are the answer. If the conservative media continue to spout propaganda and call it news, we are the alternative of truth, justice and the Air American way.
It's no longer enough just to hope that The New York Times will cover a rally or press release. The relatively new combination of The Huffington Post, Alternet, MoveOn, Center for American Progress and Campaign for America's Future, The Nation and The American Prospect, DailyKos and Talking Points Memo and so many labor unions means that Air America will be part of a larger progressive infrastructure heard by a widening audience. For if we can't now grow and prosper as Democrats -- given the 110th Congress, given the unmitigated disaster that's Iraq, given a slew of top-quality presidential aspirants -- when will we?
So Air America will aggressively cover national politics and policies in ways that will be informative, opinionated and entertaining. All three. We'll be full of news and views. Two views especially. First, America should stop attacking Muslim countries in ways that multiply terrorism. Second, instead of only talking about exporting democracy, Washington should begin practicing it here at home, for example by making sure elections aren't auctions, which means the public funding of public elections.
Speaking personally, my brother and I are excited by this important challenge and look forward to working with the Air America professionals in front of the mic and behind it who have held this dream together
Yeah Air America as a business just screams BUY, BUY, BUY!! /s
Sorry, you can't "unfry" an egg.
Guess they're borrowing techniques from the Lyndon LaRouche nutcases. I feel sorry for anyone stupid enough to have donated to them via credit cards!
Deck chairs...Titanic...
Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Great minds must really think alike.
This is nothing but a tax write off for Green. Air Amerikka has never made money and never will. HATE is their only product and it does NOT sell very well in the good old USA.
If progressive values were a stock, they'd be pets.com.
Progressive=Communist!! Try and remember that for your on good.
"The twin goals are to make it profitable and influential. One without the other won't work. If it's not a business, it'll go out of business."
Been there and done that, huh?
Wonder if Al Frankenstein will be buying election ad air time from your affiliate in MN???
Good luck with that.......
"The twin goals are to make it profitable and influential. One without the other won't work. If it's not a business, it'll go out of business."
Been there and done that, huh?
Wonder if Al Frankenstein will be buying election ad air time from your affiliate in MN???
Good luck with that.......
Still loaded with "Bugs".
Oops. I meant to post that the link doesn't work. The rest of the letter is here:
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