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Air America - where every flight crashes
Rocking Chair Confidential

Dylan Tanner
April 13, 2004


I have bad news for Janeane Garofalo: Making Ralph Nader cry is easier than
you think, and it's nothing to brag about. Back in the schoolyard, we used
to taunt him with cries of "Nader, Nader, panty raider," and "Ralphy Nader,
seatbelt hater," just to watch him scamper off, tears welling up in his
beady little eyes. Sure it was childish and a little bit cruel, but what
business does a seventy-year-old man have hanging around a schoolyard
anyway?

Garofalo's turn at taunting Nader came during the premier of her new radio
show, "The Majority Report" last week. She lambasted poor Ralph over the
phone for his supposed role in Al Gore's presidential loss in 2000 and John
Kerry's upcoming presidential loss this November. Nader defended himself the
best he could, but ended up slamming down the receiver with a sob. A pretty
ugly performance for all involved, but a telling opener for the new liberal
radio network, Air America, home of Garofalo's show.

Talk radio, with its outspoken hosts and paranoid, aggressive agenda, has
been an influential key to the successful rise of conservatism in America.
The need for an entertaining leftist voice among the traditional AM pundits
has been long discussed and with the launch of Air America, finally
realized. Its Web site brags, "We are a new voice in talk radio; a smart
voice with a sense of humor." And with hosts like Garofalo, Chuck D and Al
Franken, Air America seems like a brilliant idea. Why then, does it suck so
badly?

Franken's show, the sardonically named "O'Franken Factor" is the perfect
example why. The only difference between his show and nemesis Bill
O'Reilly's "O'Reilly Factor" is the politics. The hateful, aggressive, tone,
the pointless and seemingly endless rants and the flat-on-its-face attempts
at humor are all the same. Hell, give it a week and I bet Franken'll steal
that Gold Bond Medicated Powder endorsement right out from under O'Reilly.

Rather than follow in the successful comedy/politics footsteps of "The Daily
Show" or "Politically Incorrect," Air America is molding itself after its
mongering AM competition. It's not just Franken, either. Garofalo's show is
painfully unfunny and, as revealed by her attacks on Nader, far from
professional. "Morning Sedition," Air America's take on NPR's
long-established morning news program, feels more like the Howard Stern show
than a reliable news source. And the Chuck D/Lizz Winstead vehicle
"Unfiltered" claims to put culture and politics "through the ringer," but
instead consists of the hosts talking endlessly over the opinions of their
guests.

The attractive thing about the left has been its ability to poke fun without
having an agenda, but Air America comes across as aggressively pushing a
liberal schema, an attitude that's going to alienate any moderate listener
who's opinion it might hope to sway.

In the long run, it's just going to end up preaching to the converted, the
same fate that befell conservative radio, resulting in obnoxious "in your
face" attempts to garner attention outside of its existing audience.

I can understand the desire to present liberal humor as edgier and less
forgiving, getting away from the harmless traditions of the post-hippy era
embodied by humorists Garrison Keillor and Gary Trudeau, but Air America is
doing everything wrong.

Rather than aiming at the lowest common denominator, it should be
transcending its competition. Air America needs to rise above the
name-calling tactics of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, exposing the
ridiculousness of AM radio anger for what it really is, an insipid mess of
stupid, fat, ugly, and paranoid white people out to ruin the lives of every
last one of us.

*****

I suppose I'd have to agree with this article, at least in part.

73,

Steve Lawrence
Burnsville, Minnesota


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