Ed Schultz Profile, Fargo-Moorhead, Los Angeles Times

RUBBING OFF

Owned By Democrats, Schultz Gets Frankenfluff Treatment




With the mainstream media so efficiently manufacturing Frankenfluff, that curious brand of nonstop positive press coverage enjoyed by few others, it was only a matter of time before a non-Air America liberal host would enjoy a spare batch.

In Sunday's Los Angeles Times, that's exactly what's happened for Big Eddie Schultz, Fargo's conservative-turned-liberal nationally syndicated host. No doubt he's happy to see some of Al's good luck rub off on him:

Carried live in Los Angeles on KTLK (1150) weekdays, noon to 3 p.m., and on roughly 100 other stations across the country, "The Ed Schultz Show" is a somewhat rowdy town hall meeting of the air, overseen by Big Eddie, as he is known in North Dakota — in reference to his 6-foot-2, 250-pound frame.

Part town crier, part lay minister and every inch a performer, Schultz regularly lights a fire at the feet of the current administration while giving succor to the disgruntled and disenfranchised, which these days include all manner of registered Democrats and "lefties," a term he uses to describe himself.

But he is hardly the sort of "lefty" conjured by the popular right-wing talk radio opposition represented by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Although carried locally on the same station that is home to Al Franken's upstart liberal Air America network, Schultz's style has little in common with either Franken's studied East Coast ironies or the decorous objectivity of NPR, where Keillor got his start from St. Paul.

"He's proving that liberal radio can work," says Michael Harrison, the editor of Talkers magazine, the industry publication that recently ranked Schultz No. 13 overall in its Heavy 100 list of national and local talk-show hosts based on ratings as well as talent, buzz and influence. Howard Stern was No. 1 and Rush Limbaugh No. 2. Al Franken came in at No. 18.

Why do newspapers so frequently reference that silly Talkers "Heavy 100" list? In the talk radio industry, it carries little weight and is actually quite unpopular.

In addition, the piece claims Schultz has two million listeners, again probably from Talkers. That's also not reliable.

More:

BOXER'S voice is often heard on the program, as are the voices of other ranking Democrats such as Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa), Harry Reid (Nevada), Patrick J. Leahy (Vermont) and Feingold in short, to-the-point interviews.

The show, in fact, was born three years ago with $800,000 in seed money raised by Senate Democrats looking for someone to push back against the relentless attacks from Limbaugh and other conservative talkers on then-minority leader Tom Daschle. Jim Hightower, Mario Cuomo, Gary Hart and other noted liberals had failed to crack the talk-radio format, which seemed destined to be dominated by conservatives. When the search committee turned up Schultz, he offered a theory why the others had fizzled.

Score one for the article's author. We've rarely seen the Harry Reid/ Democrat Party connection mentioned in print.

One more excerpt:

SCHULTZ, syndicated independently by Jones Radio Networks, was not so liberal when he began doing a talk show in Fargo in 1992 and admits he did his share of Clinton-bashing. "I was more of a hard line-drive to right-center then," he said. The story goes that meeting his second wife, Wendy, then a psychiatric nurse working with the homeless, turned him around. But he says, "I also think I just started to see the light and realize what was happening to the country."

Still the competitor he was on the football field, Schultz's ready smile tightens when he talks about winning his time slot in major markets and proving the naysayers wrong. He would like the world to know that, according to the latest industry ratings, he is beating Sean Hannity head to head in San Diego, Denver, Seattle and Miami — and doing so with a tiny staff and a budget of less than $1 million a year. His national audience is approaching 2 million. (In Los Angeles, after a year on KTLK, his number of listeners has doubled and is estimated at just under 100,000.)

Though probably benefiting from the president's sinking popularity, liberal talk shows on American radio are still outnumbered more than 10 to 1 — something like 450 to 40.

Schultz has watched ruefully as Christian broadcasting companies have bought stations in Phoenix, Missoula, Mont., and Charleston, S.C., where he was on the air and sent him packing. Protesting Mormons drove him off a station in Salt Lake City after only three weeks.

Problems:

On Eddie's fishy conservative-to-liberal switcheroo, the LA Times has let him off the hook without tough questions.

Liberals often complain about Schultz, finding him insincere or too moderate, that's really not explored here.

It took a Democrat Party search committee to find Schultz? Isn't something that bizarre worth further exploration?

Since KTLK's overall ratings are absolutely in the toilet, how could his audience have doubled? Did other shows lose listeners?

Regarding Christians working to knock off Schultz and liberal radio, that's a kooky conspiracy theory. It should have been edited out of the story.

Is he really beating Hannity in all of those places? Perhaps, but we've yet to see bona fide Arbitron data to back up the claim.


Overall, a lucky break for Eddie, a major newspaper story full of fishy assertions regarding his performance.

Schultz has one thing going for him, however: he's not part of Air America!

Your Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of your final purchases, are vital to supporting this site's efforts. Thanks again!

Some images: NBC