Air America Is Dead

The liberal radio network Air America has finally gone under.  No more stealing the airwaves from minority radio stations, no more liberal blather clogging up the AM dial.

Being from Bakersfield, CA (where we didn't have a local Air America affiliate), I never did get many chances to tune in to Air America, but when I was able, I never was impressed.  First off, when the two biggest names on the network both got their starts as (bad) comedians on Saturday Night Live, you have to figure that the stage is set for dismal failure.  Every time I tuned in (and I was able to catch both Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo's programs), the basic argument was: "Here's what Republican so-and-so said. [Sound byte plays, usually taken out of context.]  Man, that's just stupid!  Can you believe that?"  Logic never entered into the equation...and neither did sufficient advertising revenue, apparently.

Now all we need is for Congress to bring back the Fairness Doctrine - then the liberals won't need to compete in the marketplace in order to bring lame talk radio to airwaves that no one will ever listen to.

Is This The Best The Left Has To Offer?

Rosie O'Donnell has been hired to host her own talk show on MSNBC. Apparently, MSNBC is under the impression that Bush-bashing gets ratings. When it comes to MSNBC, however, they need all the help they can get on the ratings front, so more power to them.

However, I think that the hiring of Rosie as a political commentator brings up an interesting issue: who are the primary spokespeople for the Left? Conservative talk radio grew to the heights that it has reached through people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Laura Ingraham: for the most part, normal people who got into radio. Limbaugh and Beck started out in the radio business as disk jockeys. Later on in life they became talk radio personalities, expressing their conservative political views to millions of listeners daily. Laura Ingraham worked as a speechwriter for the Reagan Administration, and then clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before getting into radio.

When Air America was formed in an attempt to combat the conservative dominance of talk radio, their two big-name headliners were Al Franken and Jeaneane Garofalo...two comedians with questionable talent who were only propelled into fame by their not-quite-humorous stints on Saturday Night Live. Jerry Springer also served a stint on Air America.

My question is this: am I the only one who sees the significance of this trend? The Right's big media names are thinkers and capitalists who worked hard to achieve success. The Left's big media names are three comedians and the host of a trash talk show. Of course, Air America was only a big name for a short while...then Franken, Garofalo and Springer eventually left the network due to the fact that it was a huge flop, both in ratings and revenues, and for the most part, Air America has fallen to relative obscurity.

Now, MSNBC is hiring Rosie O'Donnell, yet another comedian, as a leftist political commentator. But Rosie isn't just another lefty comedian...she's a leftist freak, one of the 9/11 truthers who believe that the WTC towers were brought down by the Bush administration. The fact that she serves as one of the Left's leading media spokespeople speaks volumes in and of itself.



Personally, I think this is a good thing. Let Rosie have her own show. Let her spread her lies and hate...let the nation see just what a freak she is. If this is the best the Left can give us, we'll take it gladly, because while Rosie the comedian isn't all that funny, Rosie the political commentator is worth quite a few laughs.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth: Randi Rhodes Started Mugging Rumor

According to Randi Rhodes herself, she was at an Irish pub watching football. She went outside to smoke a cigarette, and she fell (or was pushed or was bumped into). To explain her absence to Air America Radio, she sent her boss an email saying that "I had been mugged and that my teeth were smashed and that I needed to go to the dentist first thing."

Now, from what I've heard about Randi Rhodes, she's pretty notorious for being a heavy drinker...and from what she said: "I hadn't eaten anything all day." Add some heavy drinking to that, and you've got a pretty good recipe for a nasty fall.

On her show, she stated that "I don't know how or why the story grew into me being brutally beaten..."

How about the Left's paranoia? After all, most liberals seem to think that just because George W. Bush wants to listen to terrorists' phone conversations, he's going to bug their phones, as well.

There have been a few incidents of violence against Lefty talk radio, but all in all they have been few and far between. There have been death threats against Lefty talk radio hosts, but there are at least as many death threats against conservative talk show hosts.

Occam's Razor still applies: "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one." It's much more likely that Randi Rhodes had too much to drink on an empty stomach, and that this was the instigator of her fall than that she was attacked by the so-called "Right-wing hate machine."

All in all, it seems that this whole incident was a comedy of errors, with most of the fault laying with Randi Rhodes herself for providing Air America with so little information, along with John Elliot, for letting his imagination run more than a little too wild.

Randi Rhodes Attacked by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy...Or Not

Liberal talk radio host Randi Rhodes was injured Sunday night in what was at first alleged as a mugging. Apparently, Randi Rhodes hosts a show on Air America (I thought they went out of business, but apparently they're still around). Initially, there was no news other than that Rhodes had "experienced an unfortunate incident." However, John Elliot (another Air America host) apparently stated on his show that Rhodes had been mugged, and leapt to the conclusion that it must have been "an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own."

Talk about paranoia...and Elliot effectively spread the paranoia

Now it's being reported that Randi Rhodes was not mugged, she fell while walking her dog, injuring herself.

It's really interesting reading the Democratic Underground forum on this..."an unfortunate incident" soon turned into "a mugging," on untrue news from John Elliot...and soon after that it became "an attack" with accusations flying at everyone from Rush Limbaugh to the Bush administration. Some posters sounded like they were preparing to attack conservative talk show hosts in retaliation.

How about this: instead of trying to censor Rush Limbaugh for comments that he didn't make, why don't the leftist in our government do something about radio hosts on their own side (John Elliot) who seem to be all too willing to foment hatred by making baseless accusations?