Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News earned his reportorial chops and actually sat through 10 hours of Air America programming. Evidently, it was quite an ordeal, according to his write—up of the day.

Here are some of the pearls of wisdom offered by the crowd who claim that conservative talk radio is characterized by hate, while liberals are much more nuanced, see the complexities, and believe in reason and analysis:

— Take one host's linking the talk of "pulling out" the troops with the claim that "that's what the Catholic Church says about premarital sex." Ha, ha.

— Franken... imitated a priest giving Communion, saying "Body of Christ" when an imagined pedophile priest was in line but "not for you" when pro—choice politicians came up. The church was a day—long obsession, as was Limbaugh. He is an "awful man," "a pig" and "a Nazi."

— The queen of venom, Randi Rhodes, followed Franken in the host slot. Her imitation of a cracker military type telling a soldier to "insert this fluorescent light bulb into that man's buttocks" was revolting. She compared U.S. prisons in Iraq to the "Nazi gulag" and said, "The day I say thank you to Rumsfeld is the same day I'll say thank you to the 12 people who raped me."

Rock bottom came when she compared Bush and his family to the Corleones in the "Godfather" saga. "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw," she said, imitating the sound of gunfire.

Goodwin notes that he heard ads for some big companies — the likes of Hewlett—Packard and GM.

Ryndee Carney, GM's manager of marketing communications, said the ads were wrongly picked up from an earlier deal with WLIB. She said the station was ordered to "cease and desist" yesterday, and added: "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates."

It is a very good thing that Franken and his lot have the opportunity to demonstrate the fatuousness of their claims to represent a more thoughtful approach to politics. I only wish that Air America would follow through on their longstanding claim to be getting Bay Area affiliates. As of this morning, the Berkeley 1000 watt station they claim as their future affiliate is still carrying Cantonese language programming.

Posted by Thomas  05 12 04