Al Franken, Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh

FRANKEN: FAILURE

When Big News Hits, Al Buries Head In Sand






Al Franken is a talk radio failure.

After today's show, there's simply no other way to describe our friend Stuart Smalley. Yet again, while major news was breaking, Al Franken buried his head in the sand and continued with his usual boring guests and commentary:

Broadcasting live from the Frankenwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, The Al Franken Show on Thursday will speak to these great guests:

(12:50) David Sirota, co-chair of the Progressive States Network, blogger, and the author of “Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government – and How We Take It Back.”

(1:00) Jim Wallis, editor and founder of the liberal evangelical magazine Sojourners. He's also the author of "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It."

(1:30) Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, and a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. He'll talk about the fight between the administration and Congress over torture and the use of military tribunals for terrorist suspects.
and

(2:00) Tom Oliphant, our Thursday regular. He's the author of Praying for Gil Hodges, and a former columnist for the Boston Globe.

The Al Franken Show.

This isn't about whether or not Franken agrees with your Radio Equalizer on the issues, he shouldn't, as he was hired to dispense leftist viewpoints. Let's make that clear up front.

Instead, Al's fatal flaw is that he avoids important breaking issues at key times. That makes him an inept talk show host.

Never mind that nearly everyone else, left and right alike, was focused on Hugo Chavez's angry outbursts and denunciations of President Bush while on American soil. Instead, on Franken's show today, it was Tom Oliphant's dry, boring ramblings about legislation he doesn't support.

Who cares?

Al, NPR is more interesting than your show!


Frankly, it doesn't matter if Franken spent ten or twenty minutes talking about Chavez today, it should have been every minute of all three hours of his show. If an Air America listener tuned in at 2pm today, he or she should have been hearing about nothing but Hugo, Hugo and more Hugo.

Whether he agreed with Hugo's statements or not, it was today's number one single and not to be avoided by any host hoping to remain on the air.


Using the same dreadful guests repeatedly, as though he's afraid of airtime without them, Franken is frequently able to avoid delving into the big issues.

Liberals may scream about Rush Limbaugh, but the key to his success has been the fact that you can count on him to jump all over major topics as soon as they hit the headlines, at lightning speed.

It's nice that Billy ($625,000 per annum plus lunch expenses) Kimball can book the same handful of guests every week, but your friendly Radio Equalizer can help you today for free, Mr Franken!

Here's your free show prep, take any position you like, we don't care:

Chavez says Bush 'alcoholic' and 'sick man'
Published: 9/21/2006


(Turkish Press) NEW YORK - Vene- zuela's President Hugo Chavez launched a new personal attack against President George W. Bush on Thursday, calling the US leader an "alcoholic" and a "sick man" during a tour of the New York district of Harlem.

Speaking while walking in a Harlem street, Chavez told a group of passers-by: "Bush is an alcoholic, a sick man with a lot of hang-ups."

"He walks like John Wayne," declared the left-wing Venezuelan leader. "He doesn't know anything about politics, he got there because of Daddy." Bush's father, George Bush, was also a US president.

In a controversial speech before the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Chavez called Bush "the devil" and "a tyrant."

More:

Leading Bush critic at home calls Chavez a "thug"
Sep 21, 12:43 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of President George W. Bush's fiercest political opponents at home took his side on Thursday, calling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a "thug" for his remark that Bush is like the devil.

"Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar but all he is an everyday thug," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference, referring to Chavez' comments in a U.N. General Assembly speech on Wednesday.

"Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations," said Pelosi, a frequent Bush critic. "He demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela."

Simon Bolivar led the fight for independence against Spanish rule in several South American countries in the early 19th century and is cited by Chavez as a political model.

Chavez, a vociferous critic of Bush and the United States, has allied himself with U.S. opponents Cuba and Iran and has led a resurgence of left-wing populism in Latin America.

"The devil himself is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Right here," Chavez said as he stood at the U.N. podium where Bush spoke the day before.

From Drudge:

REP. RANGEL BLASTS CHAVEZ: DON'T ATTACK MY PRESIDENT

RANGEL: AN ATTACK ON BUSH IS AN ATTACK ON ALL AMERICANS...

'You do not come into my country, my congressional district, and you do not condemn my president. If there is any criticism of President Bush, it should be restricted to Americans, whether they voted for him or not. I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president, do not come to the United States and think because we have problems with our president that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State'...

Al, if you can't figure this out, then it's simply time to hand over your headphones to some other "progressive" who can. Next time, dump the boring guests and talk only about the day's huge breaking story.

That advice is free and we don't even expect the network to pick up our lunch tab!


ALSO: Randi Rhodes really isn't any better, so far mentioning Chavez only in passing and as a way to bash Chris Matthews for not getting Hugo's sulfur "joke".

Thanks for your continued and vital Radio Equalizer support, via Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of what you ultimately order!

Technorati tags: al franken hugo chavez talk radio air america liberal radio progressive

Images: David A Lunde and Pete at IHillary, Chavez photos: AP