Air America Radio
April 28th, 2004Having listened long enough, I can finally come to a conclusion about Air America. The short opinion is that it’s not too bad, if not slightly addictive. While I have yet to hear certain shows in their entirety, like The Majority Report and Morning Sedition, there are shows I have been paying closer attention to over the last few weeks.
Unfiltered is a rumpus three-way discourse, of sorts, featuring Lizz Winstead, Chuck D, and Rachel Maddow. Chuck (of Public Enemy fame) is predictably cool and surprisingly sharp, but the girls tend to carry the show. Lizz acts as the show’s ground wire, while Rachel plays the especially witty livewire. They’re preaching to the choir, and they sometimes go way off-track with the issues, but they’re entertaining nonetheless.
The O’Franken Factor is definitely the network’s main act and will probably continue to be the largest heat generator as the trappings and ire of satire rub all the right people all the wrong way. Personally, I think Franken is a bit too “fair and balanced” for his own good. There’s a regular part of his show where he and his co-host, Katherine Lanpher (almost unheard of, except as background laughter), try to convert a “resident ditto-head” Rush Limbaugh listener. On more than one occasion, they’ve failed to bring up facts that could further support their arguments (potentially swaying him away from the dark side). Topics aside, though, it all seems in good fun.
Randi Rhodes, however, is a force to be reckoned. Her shtick (somewhat reminiscent of an edgier Joan Rivers) actually tries more to be like an incendiary mirror image of the right. But here’s the surprising part. It actually works. No, really. She uses facts and focus to create a sense of immediacy, often inciting her listeners to get angry. O’Reilly, Hannity, et al might not have much to fear from Franken’s occasionally drowsy satire (actually I think satire’s nuance is far more effective when done right), but they should have a lot to fear in Randi. She could easily pick up a few fence-sitters—ideologically displaced people who are angry at something. What yet, they just don’t know. Until maybe now.