Weekend Update

With apologies to Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain...

It's been a few days since I've posted so I wanted to follow-up on a couple of things before I go on to new material...

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In my 'Open Mike' post, I provided my (tardy) submission along with the five finalists for this week's contest. Today, the DDN revealed that one of my two 'finalists' was picked as the winner (the caption read 'the democrats finally found someone that represents their message'). When I reviewed the drawing today, I saw something that was not readily apparent to me the first time through...stay with me on this one...

My faux pas was that I temporarily forgot that mimes were associated with the French (the most famous modern mime, Marcel Marceau, was born in and currently lives in France). That rather innocuous fact about a famous performer then gets mixed up with that country's recent political history of opposing the US's war in Iraq...you still following? The final piece of this puzzle comes from John Kerry's personal connection with France (he spent his childhood summers at his maternal grandmother's estate in the northwestern part of that country).

Still don't see it? Mimes are French...John Kerry used to live in France...John Kerry is a Democrat...therefore, Democrats must be French mimes! If you still don't get it, I guess you just aren't using the right-wing of your brain! :-)

Conservative Reasoning 101

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I did get to listen to Air America Radio on my flights on Thursday. Because AAR is changing their schedule this coming Monday, Rachel Maddow was taking a few days off to let her get adjusted to her new 6:00-8:00PM time slot. Bill Crowley filled in but it just wasn't the same experience so I reverted to 'plan B'--my iPod--to entertain me for the duration of that rather drowsy flight (alarm had me up at 4:30AM). The return trip was uneventful except for the unanticipated pleasure for my ears from Sam Seder, the remaining host of AAR's 'Majority Report' show. Sam and his former program ‘compadre’ Janeane Garofalo were two of the original on-air personalities when AAR debuted in late March 2004. Since that auspicious start, the show suffered from poor ratings (not broadcast in some markets due to scheduling conflicts--WCKY & WSAI did not air the show because they tape-delayed AAR's 3:00-7:00PM programming until 6:00PM to allow them to bring their listeners Ed Shultz during that critical commuter 'drive-time' time slot) and the departure of Garofalo in July 2006 (she had already been splitting her time between the show and appearing on 'The West Wing' as Louise Thorton, campaign manager for the fictional Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) presidential bid.

(I know that she's also done movies and television but I'll always remember her as Jerry Seinfeld's fiancé Jeannie Steinman who turned out to be just too much like him (same initials, both ate cereal for dinner, loved Superman) and led to them having the world's first--and only--mutual breakup, much to the chagrin of George "We Had a Deal" Costanza who later inadvertently 'offed' his fiancé Susan with the toxic glue from the old invitation envelopes. Even though that show ended over eight years ago, it still remains as surreal as ever).

Back to Seder…although I was up for almost 16 hours, Sam’s passion and conviction for what he feels is needed to point our country in the ‘correct’ direction gave me a much-needed ‘second wind’ to finish my day. He was taking calls from his listeners who were upset that the Majority Report was ending the following evening. Many of the callers had started listening since the early days of the show and had grown accustomed to Seder. Air America must’ve also sensed this level of devotion and passion and has given him his own show in the 9:00AM-12:00PM timeslot alongside Jerry Springer on their network. According to AAR’s website, they are giving their affiliates the option of carrying either of the two programs and early indications show that the majority will keep Springer for that timeslot (AAR also has a similar arrangement with Thom Hartmann who has daily program that is on opposite the Al Franken Show). Since Cincinnati is Springer’s adopted hometown, I doubt that WSAI will drop him to pick up Seder; however, I will now be able to stream audio of his show during my working hours to keep me as energized as I was at 32,000’ this past Thursday evening.

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Finally, Air America Radio did NOT declare bankruptcy as some media outlets forecast earlier in the week. A spokesman for the network stated that there were some employee layoffs but they were associated with AAR’s move in the New York City radio market (changed their flagship station from WLIB to WWRL). He also admitted that there have been some ‘cash flow problems’ but that Al Franken would be receiving his paychecks (earlier statements from Franken indicated that he had stopped receiving compensation). During his Thursday show, Franken stated that bankruptcy would not silence the progressive network, eluding to the fact that other companies—specifically mentioning United Airlines—continue to provide services during their financial restructuring.

The rumors of AAR’s demise had many of their right wing deriders salivating. Newshounds.com reported that Bill O’Reilly, Franken’s personal ‘punching bag’ over the last 2-3 years, was absolutely giddy about this news and shared his disparagement of progressive talk radio with guests Alan Colmes and Michael Gallagher. All three host radio shows (both O’Reilly and Gallagher have nationally syndicated conservative-leaning radio talk shows while Colmes hosts a liberal talk show on Fox News Radio); however ‘Bill-o’ and Gallagher constantly ‘piled’ on AAR, calling them “mental patients” and “soulless”.

Colmes, Sean Hannity’s liberal ‘lap dog’ on their nightly FNC television show, agreed with their premise that AAR was ‘message first, entertainment second’ but refused to bash them—even after being baited by his segment colleagues. In his defense, O’Reilly did state that there were hateful right-wing hosts and programming on the airwaves today which Gallagher just laughed off and went into another screed about Janeane Garofalo and ‘Stuart Smalley’—one of Franken’s characters from his ‘Saturday Night Live’ days.

O'Reilly--AAR Bankrupt! (click on the photo to watch the video)

In the aftermath of this clarification by AAR, some of the network’s right wing deriders seem to be having it both ways. In a posting on the Hot Air website, they stated that they had a ‘warm Friday fuzzy’ for their supporters (Hot Air claims to be the world’s first full-service conservative Internet broadcast network) in their analysis of the thinkprogress.org’s posting from Wednesday. Their logic works this way: either the first announcement was right and AAR is ‘circling the drain’ or that Think Progress got the story wrong and will be humiliated by their ‘cyber’ peers. Such small things entertain those with so little to blow their own horns about...

My question for these folks is this: why would they think that humiliation would work on Think Progress when many more crucial conservative ‘untruths’ are routinely dispatched from 1600 Pennsylvania with little to no shame attached?