Talk Show Bro-ha-ha
A big controversy has erupted between Air America's showcase talk show host comedian Al Franken and the increasingly popular libertarian radio talk show host Neil Boortz. Various blogs on the right and left are taking sides in the who-said-what dispute.
The best way to find out? Listen to it yourself. I just did and found it great radio (I liked both of them, actually) and think declaration of a victor is in the ear of the beholder.
If you want to hear the (long) segment click here which will take you to the Air America site which gives you various listening options. I clicked on the underlined "here" in the first line, which allowed me to listen to this long, complete segment.
Could you please summarize?
Boortz is paid to broadcast, and stations pay Cox Radio to play his program each day.
Franken is currently working for free, and Air America pays each and every station they're on for airtime.
It really isn't hard to figure out from those facts who the professional is ;-)
Al Franken's show is the best thing to happen to not only talk radio in 20 years, but one of the best things to happen to the American democracy.
The country has been gradually and methodically hijacked by an Orwellian mix of radical right propagandists. Many of which have maligned and dehumanized liberals through a relentless barrage of character assassination, misquoting, taking things out of context, fabricating facts. Yes, this is all about lying, lying repeatedly, and passing those lies as facts to other media outlets who broadcast them later as legitimate news items. Up until now, the radical right have won the propaganda war - since they were the only ones waging it.
But our country has gone so far over to the right, that even some in the right are starting to see that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The pendulum has now begun to swing back.
Enter Franken. After being fed up with the inability of anyone besides the right having their say, decided to do something about it. On the heels of two of his books lambasting the right, he decided to help form Air America. His show is refreshingly objective in its unabashed liberalism. Not the phony liberalism as defined by the Rush Limbaughs, Hannitys, and O'Reillys of the world who just know how to hate and get others to hate. (If you have a knee jerk disdain/distrust/aversion/hatred for anyone called a liberal, then you have been successfully indoctrinated by these people and the media that supports them). This is 'genuine' liberalism, where open discourse and humanity is celebrated.
Franken and his co-host Katherine Lanphert bring in guests who are searching for the truth within the radical right's propaganda fog. They play fuller, more contextual versions of the documents, speeches and videos that were taken out of context or lied about by the right, so people can see how the right weaves their rancorous web. The liberal spin is reasonably minor considering the anger that has built up over the right's hijacking of our democracy.
Every day, one of Al's good friends, a dittohead is brought on the show to defend a Limbaugh lie/misrepresentation/character assassination of the day. Only rarely does his friend not concede the Limbaugh indiscretion. And yet this guy still loves Limbaugh. Why? Because indoctrination is just that. In the face of supported facts, you still defer to the indoctrinator. This allegiance continues until you either reach a point where the indoctrinator goes repeatedly too far for your sensibilities, or the obvious contradictions to reality start hurting your own self image or your livelihood.
I recommend to anyone searching for a reasonable attempt at cutting through the radical rights predominant misinformation outlets to listen to the O'Franken factor for one week. noon - 3pm EST. And unless you are totally indoctrinated, you will come away with a fresh new perspective on both liberals, radical conservatives, and the state of American politics today.
The other shows on Air America range from good to poor from an educational perspective.