Time Magazine 100, Arianna Huffington, Al Franken

FUNNY-SHAPED WORLD

At Time Magazine, List Reveals Warped Perspective





When your Radio Equalizer occasionally takes leftist flak for having once been trashed by Time Magazine, rather than respond with anger, we find it amusing. Far more disturbing would have been praise from one of its writers, especially the ultra- partisan Walter Kirn.

After all, it seems only that side of the aisle still takes this weekly news dinosaur seriously. As to its utter irrelevancy, this week's "Time 100: The People Who Shape Our World" list should forever put any remaining doubt to rest.

From George Clooney to the Dixie Chicks and Arianna Huffington, the "Artists and Entertainers" portion of the list reads like an Air America producer's rolodex. Even those chosen to write about this year's selections fit the same mold: Tom Cruise, Brian Williams, Ana Marie Cox (formerly of Wonkette) and of course, Al Franken.

David A Lunde, one of the Radio Equalizer's graphics contributors, thinks Time should go ahead and bring forward the rest of its lefty fantasy list. To make it easier, he offers the "cover" seen above.


As you might expect, it's Al Franken's profile of Arianna Huffington that has us chuckling the most. It isn't just that Arianna does little to shape much of anything, much less the world, rather it's Franken's sleazy attempt to provide cover for her notoriously fishy ideological "switch":

I first met Arianna in 1995 at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. We had both been invited by the Washington Times, and I insisted on sitting next to the striking Greek-born redhead (though not, strictly speaking, redheaded-born Greek). We hit it off. Arianna introduced me to her friend Newt Gingrich. I told her the Gingrich revolution was a fraud.

Arianna had signed on for the part of the revolution that wanted to unravel the social safety net and replace it with faith-based programs. She took the mission very seriously but soon discovered that the Gingrich Republicans did not.

"Effective compassion" was just a fig leaf for closing down the Department of Education, cutting Medicare and getting rid of the Environmental Protection Agency. A disillusioned Arianna took to bed—with me—in our "Strange Bedfellows" segment on the TV show Politically Incorrect. No doubt because of my (persuasive) prowess and Arianna's intellectual openness, she switched, becoming a lefty.

If Arianna so suddenly became disillusioned with Gingrich's political revolution in 1995, then why did she lobby for an open talk show slot at Seattle's conservative talker KVI-AM in late 1998? We know this because your Radio Equalizer was there at the time.

By her interestingly- timed "switch", it's only Al that's apparently fooled (we believe it was based on career opportunism). Either that, or it's another one of his many attempts at outright deceit.


Even though we're supposed to remember Franken engages in so- called "humor", his faux- arrogance here seems to reveal Stuart's true sentiments:

With her indefatigable persistence, resourcefulness and good humor, Arianna, 55, has gone from ambitious project to ambitious project with varying degrees of success, finding herself the proprietor of the widely read, hugely influential liberal blog Huffington Post. None of this would have happened were it not for me.

And it seems oddly ironic that it is Arianna, not I, who has been named one of TIME's 100 most annoying (sorry, influential) people. Arianna should be writing about me.

Sorry Al, even Time knows better than to include you on its sorry list.

UPDATE: Arianna basks in the warm glow of Time's recognition. Bring your barf bag.

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Arianna photo: Time Magazine, Time Liberal Fantasy Cover: David A Lunde