Liberal Cable News Channel's Worst-Ever Segment

RADIO HOST KILLS CNN

No Controls For Audience-Killing Christmas 'Debate'



When Air America's epitaph is finally chiselled into a cold granite headstone, which antics will be most remembered as standout, rock-bottom moments?

The Randi Rhodes Show's Bush execution skit?

Or Al Franken clearing the room with a long-winded radio convention speech?

The Radio Equalizer hereby nominates Air America host Sam Seder, who's managed not only to make the liberal radio network look less credible than ever before, but at the same time, taken CNN itself down for the count.

It was audience tune-out, defined.

During a segment intended to discuss recent efforts to cleanse Christmas from public life, Seder refused to honestly deal with the issue, instead substituting junior high-level rudeness and the very cheapest in debate tactics.

Coming across like a spoiled college brat taking a brief pause from a long day of cafe latte-sipping, Seder (seen on the left in the above image) repeatedly stepped all over the host and other guest, Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute. When Knight attempted to make a point, Seder would begin shouting, after just a few uttered words.

Instead of regaining control over the program, CNN's anchorwoman actually allowed this madness to continue unabated, for over ten minutes. Rather than participate in the interview's intended topical purpose, Seder appeared to be trying out material for his next C-grade stand-up comedy tour, coming soon to a Holiday Inn lounge near you.

In fact, she actually encouraged Seder to continue his boorish, childish bully routine, rather than stop it dead in its tracks. As a result, this 10 minute nightmare officially becomes the worst-ever moment in cable news history. Quite a feat, CNN!


As Janeane Garofalo's "Majority Report" co-host, Seder epitomizes Air America's troubles: one half of a ratings-troubled talk show with an enormously bloated budget. Worse, some of the network's least known personalities, Seder included, appear to be developing its biggest egos.

Overpaying inexperienced talk show hosts has a way of doing that. More on that later.

What's his background? Try his Wikipedia page, at your own risk.

Al Franken appears downright modest on television next to Sam Seder. So does Janeane Garofalo. In fact, there are no words to describe just how damaging Sam's CNN antics were to Air America.

If it weren't ready to collapse, this might matter a great deal, rather than serving as merely symbolic of the network's sad decline.

In order to write this piece, I forced myself to watch the segment twice. It was pure, merciless torture.

If you dare, The Political Teen (at my request, don't blame Ian for this) has been kind enough to capture the video for your viewing displeasure.

Here's a brief transcript we've stolen from Think Progress, a lefty site, but reading it just won't do this televised trainwreck justice. You simply must watch the clip to believe it:

SEDER: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it’s almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

PHILLIPS: Is it a war on Christmas, a war on Christians, a war on over-political correctness or just a lot of people with way too much time on their hands?

SEDER: I would say probably, if I was to be serious about it, too much time on their hands, but I’d like to get back to the operational ties between Santa Claus and al Qaeda.

PHILLIPS: I don’t think that exists. Bob? Help me out here.

SEDER: We have intelligence, we have intelligence.

PHILLIPS: You have intel. Where exactly does your intel come from?

SEDER: Well, we have tortured an elf and it’s actually how we got the same information from Al Libbi. It’s exactly the same way the Bush administration got this info about the operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam.

How could CNN allow this to air?


For several months, someone claiming to be Sam Seder has posted especially nasty messages at our comments section, for reasons unknown. While the Radio Equalizer never took that bait, this cable news interview simply couldn't be ignored.

Curiously, this recently appeared in the Air America Radio Wikipedia page, where critics are listed:

The Radio Equalizer- Brian Maloney First AAR scandal reporting in the blogosphere, with continued updates. Sam Seder of AAR has contributed comments to this blog, and then announced what he has written over the air.

Who wrote this? And is it true?

Watch for much more on the "Majority Report's" troubles, coming soon.


Welcome Powerline and GOPinion readers! Please visit our main page for other updates.

Welcome Daily Kos readers:

The right, for its part, responded with horror. Powerline, that no-comments-allowed bastion of specious argumentation, linked to Brian Maloney's screaming about how horrible Sam Seder was and how he is taking CNN down with him. Wingnut Mike Bates decries the lack of seriousness taken to this phoney-baloney assault on Christmas. I could go on, and on and on.

Why not get Christmas and other shopping done now and support the Radio Equalizer at the same time? Your Amazon orders that originate with clicks here, regardless of your final selections, help to support this work. Thanks again for your vital assistance!