Mini-rant on Alex Bennett Show (drive-time program on Sirius "Left" satellite radio)
Sirius Left, for those who listen to satellite radio, is a pretty mixed bag in terms of programming.
It has some more solid offerings in the afternoon, like the Ed Schultz show, and it has Stephanie Miller in the late morning who is hilarious but whose show is kind of lighthearted snark and less substantive (although I think you can learn a little more about issues from it these days than in the past).
My beef is that the time that I'm most likely to listen, the AM drive slot, has the worst programming. It used to be the Lynn Samuels (RIP) show which was by far the worst thing the Left channel has had for reasons that have been discussed in other threads. Now it's Alex Bennett, who is definitely not as bad but in his own category of bad.
The problem with Bennett's show is it's just plain lazy. For a show on a politics talk channel, he just flat out doesn't keep up with politics. He's the anti-Maddow, he simply doesn't do his homework.
Even when things like the DNC are going on, he and half his staff haven't even watched half the speeches including most of the important ones. When important issues come up, it's pretty clear they haven't read up, done any simple web searches, and often wind up mumbling about stuff where they don't know the names of the important players and are not tight on the key facts, and half ass it through a half hearted discussion. Even when it's clear they are not on the mark on a subject they began discussing, they could easily look up the relevant fact in a flash on the web and bring up the correct fact, but they don't care and don't even bother (and I'm not even talking about when they are on the spot dealing with a hostile interview or caller).
Example, staffer mentioned that Bill Clinton's DNC speech only tied with the "Honey Boo Boo" reality show in ratings, Alex said that was probably only in reference to cable ratings and not all the various outlets showing Clinton, the staffer had obviously only glanced at some article or got some email or Facebook posting and was going off that, but despite the fact that he wasn't sure, still stuck to his guns. A 15 second websearch shows it was only CNN coverage of Clinton that tied with Honey Boo Boo, including all outlets obviously would beat it cold.
The end result is, Bennett mostly promotes a false equivalency "both sides suck equally" viewpoint on his show, but without much substance to prove it. It's an easy viewpoint to push callers into, and he pushes it with respect to the media outlets too, often promoting a false equivalence between Fox and MSNBC (he actually trashes MSNBC more than Fox).
It's annoying, and I don't know why they have him on. From listening to his show, apparently he used to write for porn magazines like Hustler and Screw, I have no idea what his politics chops are if any because I never heard of the guy prior to this gig. I really feel that they should put this kind of programming into a "Grumbling Malcontents who Don't Want You to Vote for Anyone" channel and put something better like The Young Turks, or anything, in its spot.
I did complain to Sirius about Lynn Samuels, as I'm sure many others did eventually leading to her show getting moved off Left after way too long, but I haven't felt quite as strongly about Bennett, I should probably register a complaint about his show too.
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I was mad as hell when they took Bill Press off. I was like - who the hell is this Bennett guy? In fact, I think he is running at the same time as Gasbag Bill Bennett on Sirius Right. 
I do normally listen to Joe Madison from 6 - 10 but whenever Joe is out, I used to put on Bill Press. Now I just stream Press when I need to.
