Al Franken's Worst Quote Ever?

FRANKEN-SENSELESS

Plus: Ratings Claims Questioned




From the Billings Outpost, here's an Al Franken quote to quite possibly top them all:

Quote of the week

“Right now, money is being stolen, and that is killing our soldiers. That makes me furious. I’m very sad about where my country is going, and I love my country.”

- Author/comedian Al Franken, talking about the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority in a live Air America radio program broadcast last Friday in Missoula.

Quote of the week? How about year, at least?

How is Franken able to roam the country and pretend the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club scandal, where $875,000 of taxpayer grants were instead diverted to the liberal radio network, didn't actually happen?

Al, isn't it time to finally admit that money was in fact stolen from inner-city schoolchildren to pay your salaries and expenses? Why didn't that make you furious?

Since Missoula's largely a liberal college town, it's yet another safe haven for Franken to hide from the truth.


Many are writing the Radio Equalizer about Air America's recent claims of major ratings success in New York City. Meanwhile, an About.com columnist, Cory Deitz, has a great way of cutting through the crap:

Some portion of the outcome of any Arbitron rating report can almost always be finessed to position a station or program in a positive light.

This is just part of the Radio business and how it creates value from its programming for sales or promotional purposes.

In a press release, Air America Radio has chosen to highlight some specific demographics and has also chosen to contrast particular programs against specific competitors - which is its prerogative.

I don't say this to diminish any claims, but I would be remiss to not point out that the data below is a sliver of a larger pie and simply what Air America Radio has chosen to release to the press.

During the Fall ratings period, Air America Radio says its flagship station, WLIB/1190 AM made gains with various shows.

Specifically - in Men, 25-54 (3 - 7 p.m.) - “The Randi Rhodes Show,” received a 3.3 Share against WABC’s Sean Hannity, who received a 3.0 share. (Hannity's program airs from 3-6 p.m.)

In New York, Al Franken is heard Noon until 3 p.m. on WLIB and Bill O'Reilly's show airs 2 - 4 p.m on WOR so they actually only go head-to-head for one hour. But, during that overlapping hour of 2 - 3 p.m., "The Al Franken Show" pulled in a 2.3 share of Persons 12+ where O’Reilly earned a 2.1. Also, in adults 25-54 during the same period, Franken had a 2.3 share and O’Reilly a 0.8.

Thanks, Corey, for shedding light on the truth here.

In Randi's case, that's a narrow demographic being used, men 25-54. As for WOR, I would never blame any individual host for their performance on what is overall a badly mismanaged radio station.

In addition, other than in San Diego, Air America's national outlook has been very weak in ratings released so far, especially poor in Los Angeles. As Deitz points out, they aren't releasing any of those numbers, are they?

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Thurston Franken by David A Lunde for the Radio Equalizer