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...radio." --Mike Malloy (re AAR)
Here's this blast:
"...Where are all the talk-show hosts who aren't ultra-reich hacks? The Coxopoly a decade ago cleansed WSB of Malloy and other liberals, preferring delusional racists (Michael Savage) and Bush shills (Hannity).
"Malloy had lost other jobs because of his politics, including a highly rated show at Chicago's WLS-AM (890). Blogosphere babble has it that Malloy's often-heated criticism of Israel, especially during its disastrous adventure in Lebanon, prompted pressure from Jewish groups. Malloy doesn't discount his detractors, but blames his demise on Air America management. 'They're liars, cheats and thugs," he says. "They have no intention of keeping the original mission of progressive radio.'
"Tom Taylor, editor of the Inside Radio newsletter, says the near extinction of left talk radio coincides with deregulation. 'In 15 years, the national limit on ownership has gone from 14 stations to no limit,' Taylor says, 'while the local limit has gone from two stations to eight in large markets.' In other words, a few conservative, corporate honchos decide what's heard.
"Air America was born to give progressive talk a home. Earlier attempts, including one by a union-owned network where Malloy worked, had failed to gain traction. Air America immediately ran into big trouble. Investors and management were replaced and replaced again. Ex-CEO Evan Cohen, a Republican activist, created a scandal by diverting money from a youth club to Air America. The network's star, Al Franken, called Cohen a 'crook.'
"Last spring, Air America lost its full-time Atlanta affiliate (full disclosure: CL hosted a show on that station). Then, in August, the network went from its New York flagship, WLIB, to a lower-power station. Air America is now under the control of Rob Glaser, who founded the RealPlayer software company. Glaser has brought in an odd duo of bosses: CEO Jim Wiggett, who has no broadcasting experience, and CFO Bob Ennis, who previously worked for Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp.
"Wiggett concedes severe financial problems, but says, 'We're still broadcasting.' Ennis says Malloy's suggestion that he's Murdoch's stealth saboteur is a 'clever conspiracy story. It shows the depth of Mike's delusion.'"
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My opinion:
AAR has become a crashing bore without Mike Malloy, complete with amateur on-air glitches in the slow-moving new shows. Raw, unprofessional, unsure of themselves, no fire. The only thing lively is Randi Rhodes. I'm boycotting but I've given it a listen a couple of times to hear what they replaced Malloy with. It all sounds like Al Franken to me (except for Randi). We're facing the biggest crisis this country has ever faced--the Democrats poised to wipe the floor with the Repukes, according all to polls and other indicators; but with nothing in place to prevent Stolen Election III; and, indeed, nothing in place to prevent World War III; a Diebold president and a Diebold Congress endorsing torture and suspending habeas corpus; 11 Democratic Senators voting WITH the fascists; and the Navy moving into the eastern Mediterranean, with NO CHECKS AND BALANCES ON THE WACKO PRESIDENT and his OUT OF CONTROL PUPPETMASTERS Cheney and Rumsfeld; Cheney confidently predicting that his Pukes will keep control of Congress, in the midst of a massive scandal of Bushite pedophilia and coverup.
And Al Franken is devoting a whole show to education in Minnesota.
It's the Frankenization of AAR. The safe Democrats. The centrist Democrats. The cozy Democrats. The corporate Democrats. The war Democrats, who don't want to talk about it. The Democrats whose MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE about BUSHITE corporations "counting" all our votes with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, got us into this disaster.
It's not that education is unimportant. It's just that, with the country possibly about to crash down around our ears, these long-winded "safe" shows seem sickeningly irrelevant and off point. I know that Franken has done SOME not half bad shows about Bush and the war; but he's STILL in the Diebold wing of the Democratic Party; our country IS TORTURING PEOPLE, and Bush can send his Nazi Homeland Security Thugs to MY house, and drag me out in the middle of the night, and put me where nobody will ever find me, and torture me, and kill me, and neither I nor anyone in the country can DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!
Congress--with collusive Bushite, Diebolded Democrats voting FOR it, and with the rest piously making speeches against it, but since they've been Diebolded out of the majority, WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO? --endorsed TORTURE! And AAR's talking about education and the environment. I think Malloy is right. They have "no intention of keeping the original mission of progressive radio."
My boycott continues. Without Mike Malloy, AAR is becoming pablum. And just as with the war, and torture, and rule by the super-rich, and ripping up the Constitution, it's NOT JUST THE BUSHITES! The 5 billionaire CEO fascists who control all news and opinion in this country (like the 3 Bushite corporations that now control all vote counting) might well desire to kill progressive radio, but they don't have to lift a finger to do so. AAR is killing ITSELF, with bad management and abominable programming decisions.
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