Left wing media, such as the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, have descended to the level of self—parody, in their eagerness to promote the new liberal talk radio network, Air America.

Today's Chron goes so far as to actually have a pointless major story, complete with a color picture of a smiling Al Franken, posed before an Electro—Voice RE 20 (the most common talk radio microphone), wearing a Harvard sweatshirt, to make certain we all know he went to Harvard, so he must be smart, right? The only wrinkle: Al Franken's show is not yet on a Bay Area radio station, despite repeated press releases indicating San Francisco would be in the initial line—up.

So, the point of the subject is that poor Bay Area listeners will just have to wait.

Inadvertently, the Chronicle may have stumbled on a potentially really interesting story:

Evan Cohen, the New York venture capitalist who chairs Air America's board, said the deal in the Bay Area was signed, but not all employees at the station know about the change in format, causing the delay.

"We wanted to make sure the employees currently working at the station were aware" of the change in formats, Cohen said.

When radio stations change formats, very often existing employees are fired, to make room for the new programming. Could it be that Al Franken and company will heartlessly lay off workers, those perpetual victims of heartless big money capitalists like, ummm, Evan Cohen? Will Al Franken find success on the Bay Area airwaves, treading on the backs of the powerless? Or will he find failure treading on their backs?

We will find out soon enough.

Posted by Thomas  03 31 04