Folks told me I should try and send my “Chicago” parody to Al Franken at Air America Radio.
First I tried to create an account at their website, which was repeatedly stymied as assurances of a confirming e-mail proved empty. When the e-mail with the special “unlocking” code finally showed up, I went back to the website, entered the code, and was send three times to a page that said, “You shouldn’t have been sent to this page.” Swear to God, that’s what it said.
Finally, managing to make that all work, I went to the “Contact us” section. There it said they could be e-mailed, or be sent snail mail, or be reached via Fax. I tried e-mail about six times. It wouldn’t go through. It either told me to fill out the “comments” section, which I had but it didn’t seem to realize it, or it would remove the topic line and then tell me I had to fill in the topic line. Fax? Nice notion. If there was a fax number there, I couldn’t find it. Which leaves snail mail, but I doubt I want to bother with it.
I tried to e-mail them about how crappy their website was. That wouldn’t go through either.
Which all works out, I guess, because my radio doesn’t pick up 1190 anyway, lord knows I tried.
Yeah, I bet Rush is just shaking in his boots.
PAD
• 
Yeah, they are definitely having a tough launch. The signal from their LA station keeps cutting out, and today their news just stopped in the middle of a sentence, and the middle of a sentence from one of their shows began with no warning.
Still, at least they’re trying to get some more voices on the air.
I went to their website, clicked on the “O’Franken Factor” show, and it said if to want to send them comments, send them here:
my2cents@airamericaradio.com
Hope that helps, Peter!
~Brad
Whoops! Guess I didn’t read your post carefully enough about what the problem was.
Anyway, I just e-mailed them your little ditty myself. (Giving full credit of course). It seemed to go through fine for me. I’ll keep an eye on my “in-box”, though.
~Brad
I clicked on listen live and had no trouble hearing what was on air. Unfortunately, with a 4 year old that demands attention, I haven’t been able to turn on my computer while Al Franken is broadcasting. Let’s hope the Seattle area gets them soon.
I always had this pegged as a one year venture–more important as just existing than as a genuine entity.
It’s gotten a ton of free publicity so its message has already gotten out to a far greater degree than it’s viewership could possibly warrant.
Puzzling about the website. Their loss, of course.
I joined yesterday and it went through without a hitch.
The only problem is that I was forced to use Internet Explorer to listen to the streaming audio.
I’ve listened to Air American online and have no problems with it, but have not tried to e-mail them. I also comes in fine on my clock radio- I’m in NJ. I hope Brad got it through for you.
As I’ve mentioned on my blog, I can just barely hear them on my work radio, and only when the fax machine on the other side of my cubicle isn’t spitting out any pages. They do seem to have had a tough online launch, but I’m confident that all the bugs will be worked out in short order.
I was pessimistic about Air America, but listened to see how it was. I’ve actually been enjoying it quite a bit.
Comes in nicely on XM satellite radio.
The only problem is that I was forced to use Internet Explorer to listen to the streaming audio.
Alot of sites are forcing people to use IE for streaming stuff.
It pìššëš me off to no end.
I have been listening (or trying to) since the middle of last week. The web site is literally changing hourly. When I first checked it out on Tuesday or Wednesday last week it came up second or third in a Google search for “Air America”.
The only thing on the page was a logo and a link to listen live (which played a short message saying “please try again during broadcast hours” even though it was during broadcast hours).
The next day I found the site pretty much as it looks now, but it didn’t require a login. I was able to listen for 4-6 hours without too much of a problem, though the feed did unexpectedly stop several times and I needed to reload the Real player.
Today I found that I needed to create an account. It was slow, but it worked the first time. Obviously they are working hard to get things up and running, and they are dealing with quite a demand. I encourage you to keep trying. It’s an entertaining stream to listen to.
Phinn
Wait, PAD. Both you and Franken are Jewish. Shouldn’t your Zionist Secret Decoder Ring with Wrist TV/Radio Transmitter be able to get you in touch with him? You know, the worst part about celebrities in secret societies is when they conveniently “forget” they belong to them.
Really, I haven’t heard much of anything about Franken’s show yet; I had no idea it was even on the air yet. The newness of the show and the incompetence of most big companies to get even a halfway decent website up and running kind of explain your difficulty getting through to anybody involved with the show.
One other thing: having looked at the website now (after my previous post) I can firmly declare that, though I enjoy Al Franken’s work, I think Lizz Winstead’s show will be better. Franken, as people seem happy to forget, is a comedian with a political bent. Winstead, however, is a political comedian, and she’s quite frankly funnier than Al Franken.
See, I didn’t even know they had a website until ten minutes ago. I just got back from there and REALLY have to agree with PAD on this. I gave up on doing anything with it or signing up after the 15th or so time that I hit a JRnn error (?) or had a “could not find this page” message pop up. I hate to say it but it doesn’t look good for their long term life span if they can’t even set up a simple homepage website while 6th graders are out there with their copies of Home Pages for Dummies running much better sites that work a lot better. Does the radio end work as well as the e-end? Yeah, this is gonna last.
Gee, I’ve been listening to AAR (not to be confused with AA) during my commute last week, with relatively little problems. The L.A. station (1580 AM) dropped twice from me, and the signal is a little weak compared to the bigger names out here, but otherwise it’s been fine. I even got the RealAudio stream to work on Friday, and everything jives with my sense that they’re finally shaking the bugs out of the system.
I agree with Bill Mulligan on this — right now, the important thing is for them to get on the air at all, and demonstrate that there is an audience for something other than right-wing religious-fundamentalist talk radio. Sure, it’d be nice to launch with an all-star cast 24/7 in 500 markets, but the people with enough money to bankroll such a scheme happen to be right-wing religious fundamentalists. 😉
But regardless of your political views, having a variety of viewpoints available should be a good thing, and for that alone, I hope AAR does grow to make Rush quiver in his boots.
Jerry – If you know one of these sixth graders, please send them over to Canada’s main passenger rail company. Their ‘improved’ site was (is?) so bloody awful(*) that ladyfriend and I gave up after about twenty minutes trying (I in English and she on the Japanese version of their site) to get information on rates/schedules to and from Montreal and tried the intercity bus company’s site instead. Thirty seconds later we had the times and fares. Guess who got our money?
(*) Aamong other delights, the schedule page is encrypted! Who knew train schedules were a matter of national security?!
Oh, it just keeps getting better. I’m taking a combo lunch and break from the break from the yard (Sunny here but cold and windy as hëll. This is Spring?) and decided to try my luck again. Actually got on and got the listen live to work. However, all of the links for contact and sign up seem to have done a now you see me now you don’t.
Remember the trailer for the movie Zoolander? That scene with the two of them doing the bit with them acting like chimps with the computer (like the opening moments of 2001)? Why do I keep getting that image in my mind when I go to their website?
But seriously folks……..how is Bush too blame for this?
Robert Jung,
First, “right-wing” and “religious fundamentalists ” are not automaticaly one and the same. Honest.
Second, the only people “with enough money to bankroll such a scheme happen to be right-wing religious fundamentalists”? For one thing, the idea that right-wing Republicans are the only ones with serious cash falls into the “only Republicans are rich” stereotype which is simply incorrect. After the 2000 election, the only four Senators with personal wealth of at least $200 million were Democrats; in fact, in terms of personal wealth,eight of the top 11 Senators are Democrats: Senator John Kerry, D-Mass.($620 million); Senator Jon Corzine, D-N.J. ($400 million); Senator Herb Kohl, D-Wis. ($300 million); Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. ($200 million); Senator Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I. ($63 million); Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. ($50 million); Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. ($40 million); Senator Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill. ($40 million); Senator Bob Bennett, R-Utah ($30 million); Senator John Edwards, D-N.C. ($25 million); and Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. ($25 million).
Seems like these guys could help banroll such a venture, don’t you think? That’s if they thought it would make money and be successful, which I highly doubt.
Air America Radio is going take the fight to the right in conservative strongholds like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Minneapolis, Inland Ca., satellite radio….and geeze…is that it? 6 stations all located in ultra-liberal cities (correction: Inland in an area, not a city) & satellite radio? Yeesh….well at least the left will finally have a way to get their message out…well other than all the newspapers, cable outlets, and websites that have been incessantly hyping the debut of “Air America”. Well in any case, with great interviews like this from conspiracy spewing harpy (And yes, I’ve heard her show before) Randi Rhodes, how can they go wrong?
…………………………
Ralph Nader: … can you
So, James, why is this “interview” technique somehow less legitimate when practiced by Randi Rhodes than when practiced by, say, Bill O’Reilly, or Rush Limbaugh, or Sean Hannity, or (here in San Diego) Roger Hedgecock, or… I think you get my point by now.
No, Mr. “the other one”, I don’t get your point. Have you actually watched or listend to these men? I don’t think Rush ever had anyone who he agreed with on issues hang up on him. As a conservative I think it is funny if anyone considers O’Reilly a conservative and I have to wonder why you used him as an example. To be fair to Mr. O’Reilly I think he does a pretty fair job with his interviews and the only time he doesn’t have two guests on to defend a certain view point is when they are two chiken to show up.
When it comes down to it at least the people you listed can keep their guests on the air long enough for you to get an idea of what the guest stands for. I don’t think any of the people listed have bickerd with a guest so much they just hung up or walked out on them.
Tried listening on the Mac at home, but while iTunes has successfully played RealAudio files for me before, it wouldn’t stream this no matter how many times I tried. And I refuse to install RealAudio itself on my home machine, due to all the horror stories I’ve heard about it.
James,
If you think Riverside, CA counts as a liberal enclave, it’s swooningly obvious that you’ve never spent a single moment there.
It’s been home to some very conservative initiatives and heavily right-wing Congresscritters in its time — and I don’t mean 50 years ago.
Now, LA, New York, etc. … those I’ll agree with.
Me, I’m just annoyed it doesn’t have a Bay area station yet.
TWL
Re: Air America not having a Bay Area station.
Tim, do we really need another conservative talk radio station around here? 🙂
[For those who aren’t familiar with Bay Area, and particularly SF and Berkeley, politics, what’d be called liberal in many other places would count as conservative to middle of the road here. For example, the new SF mayor, Gavin Newsom, who started the current flood of same sex marriages, almost was defeated for mayor because he was considered too conservative. Especially relative to the other candidate in the runoff.]
For whoever cares, the problems with the Air America Radio web site are apparently due to them being completely swamped — According to The Hampster (http://www.the-hamster.com/mtype/archives/000776.html),
“It’s Brian from I Stand For, we’re doing the AAR website.
“We’re so sorry things have been buggy, nobody could have anticipated the response we have received.
“We’ve broken records people… We are Real Audio’s #1 stream. We were at 50,000 streams during Al’s show around 2:00 EST. We got 350,000 unique visitors from 8:00 last night to 2 this afternoon. That puts us on pace to be a top 50 site…on the entire web. We’re talking Bank of America, Dell Computers numbers.
“You guys are awesome, this is amazing and we’re so proud to be a part of it.”
And for Dave Van Domelen (yes, I kept the “V” uppercase B-), I installed RealAudio on my iMac without any problems, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.
Tom,
Okay, point taken. 🙂
Actually, a friend of mine who lives in SF proper said something similar a ways back. “I love the fact that I can be considered a moderate in this town. Anyplace else I’d be burnt at the stake.”
(He’s also probably one of the five smartest people I’ve ever met … not that this is relevant, but I thought I’d mention it.)
TWL
I’m impressed at the way Air America is trying to redefine the business model of a successful radio program. Most hosts/programs start their careers in small markets and work their way up to larger and larger markets, and very few ever become national. Air America expects to start at the top, then they whine about not enough stations carrying their “new product”. If you saw Franken on Nightline last week, you saw him whining.
Folks, it’s not politics, it’s business. No one, including Rush, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, or anyone else started out in the top markets. They worked their way up by providing a product that advertisers could buy time on. That means bringing in an audience. Advertisers generally don’t care about content, just numbers.
Unfortunately, some idiot at my job deided we can’t have RealAudio on our computers so I’m having to listen to the stream of WLIB’s webiste which craps out about every three to ten minutes. I think I’m going to switch over and catch the rerun at 11 pm.
I’ve been listening to the live stream ver the ‘net, as iAir America doesn’t have a Seattle affiliate yet.
I’ve had zero problems with the web site.
I work in Woodland Hills, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. I can’t even get the L.A. station that broadcasts Air America. What a weak station!
The funny thing is, the only stations which have “paid” to get Air America (the majority have been donation or liberal funded), are 3 Clear Channel stations.
But of course, we all know Clear Channel is satan’s own private company.
Heh. It all comes down to business. If they can get listeners, they will grow. You can’t run a radio as a charity forever (unless you count NPR).
Jerry
You know, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly are not ever as obnoxious as Randi Rhodes was to Nader. Last week, when the black New York talk show host who was fired for saying “I’m a racist. I hate white people…When I see a black man and a white woman together, I hate them both (and immediately got another gig!) was on “Hannity and Colmes” the strongest statement Hannity (or Colmes) made was “I have to be honest. I think what you said was wrong.” He even held back when she lamely said, “I thought I was a racist, but then i looked it up in the dictionary and I realize what the definition is and I now know I’m not”She then went on to say Black people can’t be racist. They don’t have the power” and that she was echoing the feelings of a lot of black women on interracial dating.
Now, all you Rush bashers, what do you think the reaction would be if he had stated “I’m a racist. I hate black people” and then said he thought he was but “looked it up in the dictionary” and now realizes he’s not? And made similar statements about interracial dating? And do you think he would be treated with kid gloves AND immediately gotten another job after being fired. There’s a dangerous double-standard at work.”
As far as Nader, I actualy feel really bad for him. Whatever side of the political divide you’re on, here’s someone who has truly been a public servant and always conducts himself with dignity. Yet he chalenges the Democratic party to be true to its principles instead of edging to the center, and he is constantly told he “cost” Gore the election. First, many of those who voted for Nader are those who truly believed in him and would NOT have voted for gore if he was not on the ballot. Second, the margin of victory for Bush in Florida it can be argued that any number of third-party candidates – Socialists, libertarians, etc. – can also be said to have gotten enough votes to swing the election to Bush or make it closer for him than it would have been otherwise.
Finally, it is known that Ross Perot hated George Bush’s guts. He helped convince people that a in the midst of the Democratic Convention, enabling Clinton to snag the lion’s share of his support after his acceptance speech. Then he got back in at the time of the Republican convention, efficiently blunting the natural boost Bush would get. And he was alowed in the debates, where he hit Bush repeatedly on the economy while defending Clinton’s actions as a young man. As a result, 19 percent of the electorate (two-thirds of which would likely have voted for Bush) voted for a man who is clinically insane.
Even now, no one is talking about Nader’s ideas. The focus is on how the democrats fear he could “cost” them the election, but of course that is what the liberal media fears. If Kerry were smart, he would FIGHT to get Nader into the debates. How better to deflect charges of being a liberal and look like a moderate than to stand next to Nader? Bush should fight to get the Libertarian candidate into the debate for the same reason. “You think I’M RIGHT-WING? Listen to THIS guy?”
“Even now, no one is talking about Nader’s ideas.”
That’s because they’re irrelevant. Her combative style aside, Rhodes’ implication was correct: On the totally bizarre, insane, wholly unlikely chance that Nader were elected, then what? No friends in either House or Senate, and both Dems and GOP pìššëd øff with him because their candidate isn’t in office. He’d be stonewalled at every turn. Even Nader admitted that voting him in wouldn’t be sufficient. Voters would have to put into place an entire slate of independents or Nader can’t get a dámņëd thing done, even if his ideas are the greatest since some guy said, “Hey, how about if we slice the bread before selling it.”
PAD
Alot of sites are forcing people to use IE for streaming stuff.
It pìššëš me off to no end.(unquote)
No need to even open a browser to listen. And certainly no need to use the (evil) RealPlayer.
Download and install JetAudio (free!)
http://www.jetaudio.com
Note: it is a HUGE program, as it includes software for internet broadcasting as well, but most of that can be ignored if you do a custom install.
And you can also set the preferences to make JetAudio the default player for .ram and .rm files, if you so desire.
Just create an album with the URLs of any internet streaming audio you might want to listen to. It’s not a bad litle music/CD player, either, but that’s not my interest in using it.
Have been using this for about a year to listen to BBC World news, and now for AirAmerica, and, other than expected problems due to high traffic from the curiousity factor in the first day or so, have no problems connecting. Listening right now, as a matter of fact.
Peter,
Really, I’m surprised at you. Yes, of course it’s unlikely but if it DID happen, I tend to think a dramatic, historic victory by Nader wouldn’t give him a powerful mandate. If it got to that point, he likely would sweep at least SOME liberal Democrats and perhaps even some Greens in. he would have the bully pulpit of the Presidency and veto power. You don’t think Democrats now afraid of looking too liberal would welcome Nader. Or “mavericks” like John McCain.
Besides, ideas are hardly “irrelevant”. Barry Goldwater got smoked against LBJ, but he inspired modern conservatism and galvanized young people like Ronald reagan to become conservative. Perot didn’t win, but by getting 19 percent of the vote and focusing on the budget deficit, he helped pave the way for the 1994 Contract With America and the House Republicans who took over Congress in 1994 in large part on promises to tackle the deficit(They actually came one vote shy of passing a Balanced Budget Amendment in the Senate). He made it more politically “relevant” for both them and Clinton to balance the budget by making it a important part of the debate.
And, relevant or not, he should still have his ideas HEARD.
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating:
Any candidate with a ghost of chance of getting elected who seriously proposes an overhaul to switch us to preference voting (third-party voting, Australian-rules voting, whatever you want to call it) will get the biggest political contribution I’ve ever made.
With that system in place, the “costing X the election” argument would no longer apply. People could vote their consciences completely, with the effect that (a) the will of the people will likely be reflected more accurately, and (b) third-party candidates like Nader might actually see their support *grow*.
I don’t see a way to bring this about short of some electoral catastrophes that make 2000 look like a walk in the park, but it’s a nice dream.
TWL
On the subject of Liberal Radio I’m predicting failure. Not because of some hatred for liberal ideas, in fact I share many of those ideas. Just as I share many ideas with conservatives. I predict failure because the whole notion of Liberal Radio seems reactionary in nature. Kind of like the whole ‘My dad’s better than your dad’ mentality. I think that if the liberal side of the spectrum REALLY wanted to get peoples attention and build a ‘fan-base’ then they would start something akin to a radio underground and use that as a foundation to build their future in broadcasting. The method that is currently in use feels like desperation to me. Like the kid who’d let you use his swimming pool if you’ll just be his friend. It’s because of this impression of mine that I can’t take Liberal Radio seriously at this time.
Actually, I don’t take conservative radio all that seriously either. Mr. Limbaugh, while occasionaly funny, says some things that are pretty stupid if you ask me.
On the Ralph Nader issue, well, I can respect him for saying what he believes. I think that if (BIG if) he were elected president and had some support from cangress and the senate then at least we’d se something get done. That’s all I really want from politics. A leader. Preferably a good one. One that will stand tall and tell our country that it’s time to knock off the bûllšhìŧ and adress some REAL issues.
Of course this hypothetical politician would be assassinated less than a week after making such a statement. Probably by big oil or big insurance or some other Haliburton-esque outfit.
Ok, I went off-track a bit. Anyway I think that Mr. Nader, with his background as a consumer advocate, has the background that I can take most seriously in this latest group of candidates.
Salutations,
Mitch
The only time I tried to listen I caught what I assumed was Janeane Garofalo screaming into the microphone “RAY-DEE-OH!”
Only slightly quieter was a conversation with a call-in fellow who was agreeing with her on something.
So I caught a forty-five-second exchange between two people of the Left saying how nice it was for them to be on the radio. And she was loud about it. And the whole thing was self-congratulatory. And she screamed into the mike.
So not only
1) was the topic not something that I am interested in, because if I want to witness somebody who is full of himself congratulate myelf, I’d look in the mirror and speak.
2) Garofalo has no real voice or skill for radio herself. She’s LOUD.
but
3) combined with my short attention span I wasn’t going to be listening to this very long.
If I wanted rampant leftism, I’d turn on the TV and I wouldn’t find people screaming at me. I’d open a newspaper or one of my Time Magazines… because almost none of them is so… full of themselves…. and at least reading is a lot more quiet than hearing Garofalo scream RAY-DEE-OH at 3 in the morning.
CJA
Blue Spider, sounds like who you heard was Randi Rhodes, not Janeane Garofalo (especially if it was at 3AM). I’ll agree that Rhodes is annoying (in voice, tone, attitude and many other ways), and I doubt I’ll listen to her show again. The rest of the line-up I’ve heard is pretty good, though. Rough around the edges (Garofalo in particular, also Franken to some extent), but entertaining. If I could get the station in my car I’d probably become a regular listener.
They should have worked up a better web presence prior to their launch, especially with several of their guests coming from political web-logs, and frequent references to on-line articles. They are working on it, with some of the shows having their own sites, but those aren’t even linked from the main site.
“But, if NPR can make, Alan Colmes can make it, Ted Rall can get published on Yahoo, Noam Chomsky can make a living peddling America hatred, why not these guys?”
– Why does everyone consider NPR liberal? They are as middle of the road as one can get when it comes to events that are hapening in the world and always try to have both sides of an issue represented.
– Alan Colmes is a neutered eunich who seemingly gets paid to be bullied by Sean Hannity.
– Why is Ted Rall being published on Yahoo even worth mentioning? Yahoo also gives a weekly outlet to the insane ramblings of Ann Coulter and the uber-religious conservative views of Maggie Gallagher. Ted may be liberal but he never ventures into the realm of telling blatant lies (Coulter) or using passive aggressive hate speech (Gallagher).
– Noam Chomsky meet Matt Drudge. Ideology ( and Drudge’s penchant for being tabloid sleazy) is the only difference between the two.
Derek, Derek, Derek,
You must be forgiven for missing the point of the party line and trying to use reason and logic. Don’t you get it? NPR, YAHOO and others are, of course. wildly lib commie BECAUSE they give both sides a fair shake. That’s the new def for commie lib that the Right subscribes to. You’re only honest and balanced if you cheerlead for the Right. Really, get with the program and stop trying to use your brain.
Some people.
Derek:
>>>Why does everyone consider NPR liberal? They are as middle of the road as one can get when it comes to events that are hapening in the world and always try to have both sides of an issue represented.
NPR is one of the news providers that comes closest to unbiased, two-sided stories. I’m not ure that one could call them liberal or conservative….. although, they did show some nationalistic bias during the first month or so of the Iraqi War.
A possible point of interest for those looking to get more comprehensive news or even simply to get other points of view in order to becomemore aware of our own bias is going to the websites for the Palestinean newspapers…. or even other prominent papers from Europe and around the world. Truly an eye-opening experience for those interested in opening their eyes. 🙂
Derek,
Why does everyone consider NPR liberal? Gee, I have no idea! Wait, yes I do! Consider:
1.) When CBS hired former Congresswoman Susan Molinari in 1997 to co-anchor a new Saturday morning show, in which her “job” was to cover fitness, coking and movies, the liberal media erupted. You would swear CBS was turning over their whole news division to the Republican National Committee. “The GOP News From CBS” was the title of an editorial in The New York Times.
But, National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg seemed to most anxious and resentful of Molinari giving cooking and sewing tips on a morning TV show. “Well, this really makes me want to puke”, she said, “You know, at least CBS had the decency, when they hired Diane sawyer from the Nixon White House, to make her go out and stand in the rain for a year or so, to earn her position..It really, it just makes me want to throw up.”
At the time of Totenberg’s hard-hitting, “objective” analysis, NPR’s President was Delano Lewis, who had been chief fund-raiser for Washington Mayor Marion Barry. He had joined NPR when the former president Douglas Bennet, a Carter Administration refugee, left to join the Clinton Administration. Bennet had replaced Frank Mankiewicz, who had worked for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign.
Nope, no liberal leanings in that group! But as is often the case, the “revolving door” from politics to the media and back seems to only be okay for liberals. It’s okay for all of the above and many others to be part of the “objective” media, but hiring someone like the pro-choice, “moderate” Mlinari is cause for alarm.
Jerry in Richmond,
Where do I sign up for my lobotomy? I think it would be nice to live in Happy Valley. Then I can be told what to think too!
Very funny. Your post brought a nice grin to my face. 🙂
Jerome,
I like that. You point out the headline of a newspaper as an example of NPR’s left leaning ways. You then point out who’s been in charge and what some NPR employees have said about paying dues in their proffession. Of course, you failed to point out the content of the average NPR broadcast day.
Most of NPR’s broadcast day is music. Jazz, classic and in some areas local. Many of NPR’s shows have no leanings one way or the other. Car Talk being a prime example. Lot’s of the Right pointed out NPR giving Garrison Keillor his two hours a week as another Lib attacking American values back when he poked fun at a certain wrestling Gov. Well, most his show is folk, jazz or country music, his News part of the show often holds up as great the small town heartland spirit of America that so many on the Right pay lip service to, a lot of his skits poke fun at the PC nature of the left, some of his skits make fun of the same stuff Rush and crowd make fun of, his show made just as much fun of Clinton, Gore, Teddy and other Lefty pols as it ever did Jesse (if not more) and most the people who jumped to Jesse’s defense by attacking PHC back then have now become the people who point out what a joke this third party, wrestler Gov wanna be is/was.
So that leaves the NPR news and information shows. How does it stand up as fair and complete coverage. Well, good enough that I often get a small laugh whenever I have a coworker or friend listening to Rush, Savage, Sean, etc. One of the regular lines of these guys is, “you won’t hear this on those commie lib networks or you won’t hear this part” or “I’m telling you this and can’t believe no one else has touched this story”. It’s part of the whole line to create this fake image of the left wing lib commie media cheering for the left and jumping on the right. Thing is, without fail, almost everytime I hear one of them say that I have already heard the whole story plus more at least a day or two before on NPR. I’ve even heard more news coverage on the bad points of Kerry as Prez on NPR News then on the other networks. Mind you, that’s actual news and not the silly crap that seems to be the stock and trade of talk radio.
See, like I said above when joking with Derek, the Right seems to want to paint anybody and anything that doesn’t stand up and cheer for their side as a commie lib America hater. Hëll, I thought it was funny as all get out that the talkers on the right savaged the Left leaning Newt a few months ago because he questioned Bush’s war. The talk radio baboons were even making comments on how this seemed to be a set up for a Kerry/Newt run. Newt as Lefty? Yeah, right.
Most the people who stand up and point to NPR as lib radio only show how they themselves see the world. Not how NPR reports it.
Karen,
I think they’re giving out discount coupons on Rush 24/7. Or you could just commit to a week of Savage until your brain melts. I think that’s how most of ’em do it anyhow. 🙂
I note that Totenberg is the same charmer who, in 1995, said that if the “Good Lord” knew justice, Senator Jesse Helms will “get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.”
The fact that she was not fired for this hate speech–and if this isn’t hate speech what the hëll exactly is?–tells you volumes aboutthe values of NPR. One could wonder what might happen if someone less suitably leftist made such a comment but such wondering is not needed–it happened to that Savage idot who was on MSNBC.
One point I think needs to be suggested–I’m not overly upset about the media’s left wing bias because I think it HURTS the left wing. For example, every time Republicans win an election you see liberals looking like they just took a gutshot. Where the hëll did THAT come from, they wonder. When you only see stuff reporting what you want to hear you will always be shocked when the national mood reveals you to be in the minority.