Publishers Weekly, Randi Rhodes, Janeane Garofalo, Sam Seder, FUBAR

HURRY!

Before Coming Collapse, AAR Hosts In Book Race





Before it all comes crashing down, particularly in New York City, several Air America hosts had better get their new books into the shops- fast!

With only one cover image actually featuring the words "Air America", separate efforts by Sam Seder, Randi Rhodes and Janeane Garofalo will soon be hitting bookstores.

A question for their publishing companies: have you guys been following Air America's troubles? What happens if they're placed on shelves after their respective shows have been cancelled?


With release dates scheduled for August and September, both The Encyclopedia of Republican Hypocrites by Randi Rhodes and a paperback version of Wait! Don't Move to Canada : A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America, co- authored by Janeane Garofalo (according to Amazon) fail to mention their Air America ties upfront.

In Randi's case, that seems particularly strange, as her notoriety is entirely based on the network association.

Is this a case of book peddlers hedging their bets, or a simple oversight?


As for Sam Seder's F.U.B.A.R. : America's Right-Wing Nightmare, however, it may his employer that takes the biggest hit. We've seen the hardly- conservative Publishers Weekly pound some right- leaning books recently, but nothing like the full thrashing reserved for the leftist FUBAR:

In this manifesto, which is occasionally hilarious but more often stale diatribe, Air America radio's Seder and (Stephen) Sherrill have increased the scope of liberal rage to not only our elected leadership, but all those who elected him—the "Rapture Right" as the authors dub them.

To read this volume, which uses sarcasm as its main analytical tool, one would think the American right was composed solely of born-again Christians. And that take would indeed justify the title of the book, which is a military acronym meaning "F----- Up Beyond All Recognition." But devoting more than 40 pages (albeit funny ones) to problems plaguing gay Republicans, for example, seems excessive.

Where the authors' blistering irony works best, paradoxically, is in the chapter "The Media Is Not Your Friend": the authors discuss in particular the New York Times's Adam Nagourney ("If you want to see why the liberal media is... not liberal") and columnist Thomas Friedman ("what he's really writing about is Tom Friedman"). And here the authors hammer home their best point: the need for so-called "objectivity," which translates as the need to present both sides of an argument, no matter how patently inane.

Does that sound like a book that will do much to reverse Air America's sorry fortunes?

Released today, Seder's effort does indicate his radio association. A Radio Equalizer suggestion for publisher HarperCollins: should his "Majority Report" face cancellation in the next few weeks, have booksellers scribble out the words "Air America" wherever they're found.

Of course, by then, they may already be topping off the remainder bins.

For all of these volumes, what has been the biggest oversight? Easy: failing to use the cover to call anybody on the right "fat". To entice liberals to buy their hate- filled diatribes, it's certainly worked in the past.

ALSO: evil, partisan Google is again shutting out conservative sites. Newsbusters has the details.

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