Posted on 05/22/2004 10:36:00 PM PDT by VisualizeSmallerGovernment
Kopel: Air America: the good and the bad
'O'Franken Factor' rivals best right-wing programs, but 'Rhodes Show' is awful
May 22, 2004
You can't listen to the new left-wing talk radio network Air America on the air in Colorado yet. But people who have Internet access can tune it in at www.airameri caradio.com. Is it worth doing so? I would say yes.
The network's flagship program is The O'Franken Factor, co-hosted by comedian Al Franken and Katherine Lanpher (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Colorado time, weekdays). The two make a good team and, overall, the show is about equal in quality to many of the syndicated right-wing talk programs, such as the Sean Hannity or Michael Medved programs.
Right-wingers sometimes ask, "Why does the left need a talk radio show? They've already got NPR, The New York Times, CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN." Well, it is true that all of those news outlets (and much of the news staffs at both The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News) tilt left. However, the need to maintain a veneer of impartiality usually prevents direct ideological instruction.
Freed from the pretense of impartiality, talk radio hosts (like newspaper columnists) provide the audience new frames for understanding the news. The best columnists and hosts do not just talk about the events of the day, but advance the story.
Like Rush Limbaugh, Franken is unabashedly ideological but brings enough new information to his program so as to be persuasive to some moderates, and worthwhile listening even for ideological opponents.
Unfortunately, Franken is followed by four hours of The Randi Rhodes Show. A good radio host knows much more than the average caller, but Rhodes does not. Last Monday, for example, several callers raised issues (including Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan's controversial voter instruction letter), about which Rhodes had no idea. Like KHOW 630 host Scott Redmond on a bad day, Rhodes had a single idea (Donald Rumsfeld is responsible for Abu Ghraib) which she vainly tried to stretch into a full program.
On the radio, hyperbole and invective usually succeed only if they're funny - as they sometimes are on Franken and Limbaugh. With Rhodes, however, all you get is the same kind of flat pronouncements you could hear from a seventh-grader in Boulder: George Bush is "deaf, dumb and blind" and "stupid" and "an idiot" and people who vote for Bush are "morons" and "pathological."
For someone with such a smug sense of intellectual superiority, Rhodes is remarkably ignorant. Monday, for example, brought the bizarre claim that United States bombed Dresden after the Germans had surrendered in World War II. Actually, the bombing was three months before the Germans surrendered.
In the Rhodes early afternoon time slot, Colorado listeners who want leftist radio would do much better to tune in Enid Goldstein on KNRC 1150-AM. Goldstein's not good enough to be a national host, but neither is Rhodes, and Goldstein has a better voice. Goldstein brings the advantage of doing Colorado stories. Moreover, Goldstein provides very good coverage of the performing arts in Colorado, and frequent interviews with local artists and critics.
The Colorado legislature recently lowered the legal standard for "driving under the influence." The new standard for DUI is a blood-alcohol content level of at least .08 percent (down from the previous level of .10 percent). The standard for the lesser crime of "driving while impaired" remains at .05 percent. On May 11, the News presented a pair of charts that purported to explain "The new DUI law and you." The charts, however, were almost entirely wrong.
The charts showed the approximate blood-alcohol percentage of men and women of various weights who consume various numbers of drinks. Some boxes were shaded to show when a person is "Legally intoxicated." For example, a 220-pound male who has six drinks within 40 minutes, would have a BAC of .10, and be legally intoxicated. The chart, however, misinformed readers about the new Colorado law. According to the chart, persons with a BAC of .08 or .09 (e.g., a 120-pound man who has three drinks) were not "legally intoxicated." Thus, the chart was precisely wrong on the effect of "The new DUI law."
Other boxes on the chart were shaded to indicate "Driving skills significantly affected. Possible criminal penalties." The proper boxes for this shading would have been BAC of .05, .06, or .07 - which is below the legal limit for intoxication, but which still constitutes the crime of "driving while impaired." The News chart, however, wrongly claimed that a BAC of .04 was illegal. Bizarrely, the News declared that a BAC of .03 (which is always legal for adults in Colorado) was illegal for some people (a 240-pound man with two drinks) but legal for some other people (such as a 140-pound woman with one drink).
The News compounded the false charts by shading all levels for zero drinks (.00 BAC) to declare them the "Only safe driving limit." Certainly this is the position of alcohol prohibition advocates; the Colorado legislature, however, does not take this extremist view, and the extremist view had no business appearing in a chart which purported to describe Colorado's laws.
I think he's mistaking Dave Kopel with Ted Koppel.
They have to have the whole station, lest the people hear an alternative viewpoint.Easy there, we don't want the libs saying we're advocating torture over here. >:0The next logical step would be to strap people into chairs to force them to listen.
-Eric
I vote we put the Al Franken show on NPR...and perhaps it might kill off NPR too.
FYI
Minneapolis - WMNN 1330 is an AM all-news station, part of Mn. public radio.
And now the bad news (if you're an "Air America" fan)
MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO AGREES TO SELL WMNN 1330 AM TO CATHOLIC NETWORK; GREENSPRING SELLS THE MNN RADIO NETWORKS TO SAGA COMMUNICATIONS
(St. Paul, Minn.) — Minnesota Public Radio announced today that it has agreed to sell WMNN 1330 AM, an all-news radio station in Minneapolis, to Advance Acquisition, Inc. — a subsidiary holding company of Starboard Media Foundation, Inc., a Wisconsin company that distributes Catholic radio programming under the brand name Relevant Radio.™
The purchase price is $6.75 million. The sale must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a process expected to take about 100 days, before it is final.
Separately, Minnesota Public Radio's for-profit affiliate, Greenspring Company, announced that it had sold The MNN Radio Networks (MNN) — which currently operates WMNN 1330 AM — to Saga Communications, Inc., a broadcast company based in Michigan. The purchase price is $3.25 million.
Bill Kling, president of both Minnesota Public Radio and Greenspring, noted that these properties had provided a revenue stream for more than 25 years to support MPR. "These sales will allow us to convert this revenue stream into a permanent asset, helping to assure MPR's financial health far into the future," he added.
"This will help Minnesota Public Radio achieve its goal of setting the next standard in public service," Kling added. "It will enable us to focus our attention on the nonprofit mission of Minnesota Public Radio and to assure continued operating revenue for MPR. We will secure our financial standing as we adapt to technological change; strengthen our arts and culture coverage; introduce a new model of journalism that taps the expertise of our audience; and expand our programming and disseminate it in new ways, for example over the Internet."
Details of the two sales follow.
WMNN 1330 AM
Minnesota Public Radio has owned the 1330 AM frequency since 1979. It was originally part of MPR's public radio service, broadcasting news and information programming. In 1995 — after establishing KNOW 91.1 FM as a news and information station and KSJN 95.5 as a classical music station — Minnesota Public Radio leased 1330 AM to The MNN Radio Networks (MNN).
MNN — a for-profit company that operates a regional network providing news, farm, sports, weather, and lifestyle programming to commercial radio stations — has operated the station since then as an "all-news all the time" station with the call sign WMNN.
Minnesota Public Radio's Board of Trustees decided to sell 1330 AM in an effort to maximize the company's resources to support its priorities for the future. The sale was agreed after Starboard Media Foundation, Inc. (through Advance Acquisition, Inc.) contacted Minnesota Public Radio. MPR completed a due-diligence examination of the buyer and determined that it was qualified to own the station.
http://access.minnesota.publicradio.org/press_releases/releases/20040123_mnnsale.html
I understand Air America will be going off the air here at the end of the month.
I've listened to several episodes of Franken's show, and, lo, it is bad!
With Katherine Lanpher I'm not suprised. She's a real piece of work.
This is the fundamental description of the modern liberal. We've all seen the trolls on here display the same basic theme - a barely literate screech filled with total moral self-satisfaction. It's sad to see people think that they are such smart people and be so laughingly ignorant of any basic facts.
Why They Hate Him [Bush]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1131194/posts
Very good read, thanks.
There is never anything genuinely "remarkable" about any given liberal's ignorance. :)
Thank you for mentioning this. Obviously I had the guy mistaken for someone else.
I absolutely detest group projects myself. However, I think they're usually due to laziness on the part of the teacher rather than some sort of collectivist idealism. They only have to grade 6 projects instead of 5. Plus, most of the time while the project is running, it's "break off into your groups and discuss everything while I read the paper."
It's sort of like when the teacher has you pass the test to your neighbor and grade it. Less work for them.
Almost every spectacular business failure can be summed up as "not enough people would buy your stuff for more than it cost to produce." But the details are often fascinating.
I don't think they are. I think they bought Franken's books because of the titles - Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Lies & The Lying Lyers of the Right (or whatever). You could display the book on your shelf and make a "statement".
I don't think anyone actually read Al Franken's book (except maybe a couple of conservatives who wanted to debunk it). For the most part, it's a 300 page bumper sticker for the coffee table.
They tried to recreate the magic by giving their shows cutesy names, but the problem is- just because a show has a cutesy name it doesn't mean you have to listen to it 3 hours a day.
The busines lesson is that if you are truly leftist in your outlook and want to build a buainess, hire some conservatives toset it up and run it. Of course, in the case of Liberal Radio, the conservatives would say -hey, no way! or, I want a year's salary up front in cash or bank draft.
Since when! They only think they hide their bias.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1133399/posts
Did anyone else hear Randi Rhodes comparing President Bush to Fredo Corleone, and openly calling for his father or brother to take him on a "fishing" trip and blow his brains out?
http://www.cynicalnation.com/archives/2004_05.html#000122
RR "They are the Corelones."
Caller "Now we're down to Fredo."
RR "Well,I gotta find, well right, we have the Fredo of the Family is the President of the United States so....why doesn't his father take him, or his brother, one of them, take him out for a little uhhh fishing...."
Caller: "Yes...that's a rowboat"
RR: "You know"
RR:"..Yeah...let em say some Hail Mary's he loves God so much...
Caller: "I bet that Bush does have a little dingy."
RR:"..Yeah take him out, and you know Hail Mary full of grace God is with you....PKKEEWWWWW!(gunshot noise) Works for me.
Caller: "Absolutely, thanks"
RR: "Thank you."
Telling.
On the radio, hyperbole and invective usually succeed only if they're funny - as they sometimes are on Franken and Limbaugh. With Rhodes, however, all you get is the same kind of flat pronouncements you could hear from a seventh-grader in Boulder: George Bush is "deaf, dumb and blind" and "stupid" and "an idiot" and people who vote for Bush are "morons" and "pathological."
She's giving her leftist audience what they want. They're smug and ignorant and they want to be confirmed in their smug ignorance.
Here's the answer. Read it and weep.
Dewey’s Experimentalism10 represented a new faith which was swallowed whole in Watson’s behaviorism. According to Childs, the unavowed aim of the triumphant psychology was "to abolish thinking, at least for the many; for if thinking were possible the few could do it for the rest." For Dewey as for the behaviorists, the notion of purpose was peculiarly suspect since the concept of conditioning seemed to obsolete the more romantic term. A psychological science born of physics was sufficient to explain everything. The only utopia behaviorism allowed was one in which the gathering of facts, statistical processing, and action based on research was allowed.It is tempting to bash (or worship) Dewey for high crimes (or high saintliness), depending on one’s politics, but a greater insight into the larger social process at work can be gained by considering him as an emblem of a new class of hired gun in America, the university intellectual whose prominence comes from a supposed independence and purity of motives but who simultaneously exists (most often unwittingly) as protégé, mouthpiece, and disguise for more powerful wills than his own. Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski are prime examples of the type in our own day.
Dewey was determined his experimental subjects would be brought to actively participate in the ongoing experiments, not necessarily with their knowledge. All education was aimed at directing the responses of children. Orwell is really satirizing Deweyists and Fabians in his post-WWII dystopian nightmare, 1984, when Winston Smith’s execution is delayed until he can be brought to denounce the people he loves and to transfer his love to Big Brother. In Dewey’s world this is only bringing Smith into active participation. That it is in his own degradation is final proof that private purposes have been surrendered and the conditioning is complete.
"[We] reject completely the hypothesis of choice. We consider the traditional doctrine of ‘free-will’ to be both intellectually untenable and practically undesirable," is the way Childs translates Dewey. The new systems theorists, experimentalists, and behaviorists are all Wundt’s children in regarding human life as a mechanical phenomenon.11 But they are polemicists, too. Notice Childs’ hint that even if free will were intellectually tenable, it would only cause trouble.
The Underground History of American Education
John Taylor Gatto
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