Rush Offers Sharpton Talk Hosting Help

The Rush And Al Show

What Explains This Peculiar Pairing?


The Reverend Al Sharpton's fledgling talk radio effort, not yet even off the ground, just got a huge boost from the least likely place imaginable: Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh is offering coaching assistance to Sharpton, as he's apparently been invited to guest-host Rush's show for 30 minutes at a time, while being critiqued along the way by the man himself.

Is the man-of-many-cigars serious about making Al "the Limbaugh of the left"? According to the Lloyd Grove of the New York Daily News, the answer is apparently yes.

It's a great way to make a new talk show host a nervous wreck, but at the same time, it's a huge promotional coup for Sharpton's national syndication effort, that just days ago appeared hopeless. Last week I addressed Sharpton's uphill battle here.

Rev. Al Sharpton, Agence-France Presse Photo Via New York Times

What explains this oddest of political and broadcast pairings? And why are a number of Republicans so fascinated with Sharpton, anyway?

For Limbaugh, this is a monumental ego trip, but one he's frankly entitled to. He can show that liberal talk radio can only succeed with his help, while Sharpton gets talk radio credibility and exposure.

Limbaugh sees Sharpton as perhaps the most promising liberal talk radio prospect, while the Radio Equalizer believes his topical range will be too limited, even if his public speaking skills are superb.

To his credit, Rev. Sharpton is smart enough to accept the "offer" of assistance, whether it was made in jest or not, he saw the potential. Would Franken or any of the Air America hosts seize this opportunity?


Rush Limbaugh.com


Very few talk show hosts are willing to accept coaching of any kind, due to the huge egos necessary for survival in this shark-infested medium.

That's right, an inflated sense of self-worth, or at least the ability to portray that quality on the air, is a job requirement in talk radio.

For Sharpton to submit to this kind of advice voluntarily, quite frankly takes guts. Most hosts would rather have multiple root canals performed by untrained Siberian dentists, than an "air-check" session with management, where tapes are played back in the office and critiqued.

He still faces a tough effort, Limbaugh backing or not, to gain station "clearances" (industry lingo for picking up a national show). As I pointed out previously, Air America seems to be banking on Jerry Springer to reverse its fortunes, even if results so far are poor.

Other liberal stations have recently solidified their lineups, it seems unlikely they would so quickly make room for Sharpton's new afternoon program.

I've long wondered why Sharpton has so many Republican friends, it sure makes many on the left increasingly suspicious. In his presidential campaign, liberals pounded on the fact that Al was getting monetary contributions from a few GOP supporters.

This may seem like an oversimplification, but I think it comes to this: Sharpton is nice to conservatives, where Franken and others are hostile. That might seem silly, but it's also human nature. I have liberal friends and enemies, so do other conservatives.

If I had my choice between lunch with Franken, or Sharpton, I know which one I'd choose, don't you? Which one would be fun?

The Tawana Brawley hoax, where a young black teen accused several white males of rape in New York, with Sharpton at the center of the scandal, is in the distant past (1987, anyway). Since then, Al's been highly skilled at reinventing himself for the national stage.

Now, the political campaign looks like it was a brilliant idea, rather than a waste of time and money.

We'll continue to follow the twists and turns of this strange story as they occur. Thanks to Lloyd Grove for making it so entertaining.