07th Apr 2004
Is Air America Racist?
UPDATE:
Since I first posted this a few days ago, Air America has changed the photos on its homepage to include Chuck D. Cleverly, they simply added photos of all their co-hosts, so it’s not clear whether it was a reaction to this post (which I emailed to them) or not. Either way, I’m happy to see Chuck get his props. My work here is done
ORIGINAL POST:
I’ve been meaning to comment on what I think of Air America, the new left-wing talk radio network, but after the first day or so, I really haven’t been listening to it much, so I haven’t felt qualified to comment. I’ve switched back to my regular listening, WNYC’s NPR, almost immediately. I guess that about sums it up.
Here, anyway, are some observations:
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It’s fucking talk radio. As in, WNYC is all-talk radio, but there’s something to be said for those much maligned “sonorous tones” of NPR. I find that I can work fairly effectively with my favorite WNYC and NPR talk programs in the background — Morning Edition, Brian Lehrer Show, Leonard Lopate Show, All Things Considered, etc. — because it’s easy to tune them in and out. Air America, though, is all shrieks and rants and forced cackling laughter and shouting over guests, etc. I may as well be listening to Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh (which is to say, I may as well be eating my own hand). It’s just annoying as hell to have on in the background most of the time.
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Ads. Ugh. I know this sound elitist, and I’m always annoyed listening to friends who watch PBS or HBO or no TV when they complain about TV commercials, because I just channel surf or web surf during TV commercials and don’t let it get to me. But after years of non-stop NPR listening, radio ads are incredibly annoying and insipid. They really are the bottom of the barrel in the ad creative department. I’d rather read direct mail or spam.
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I hate Bush as much as the next guy, but how much railing against Bush can you stand to listen to all day? Please, get a life. There are other things going on the world worth commenting on, like all the stuff Brian Lehrer and Leonard Lopate talk about.
So, that’s most of it. A big ho-hum.
But here’s why I bother to post today. Who the hell is Lizz Winstead? Apparently she’s co-creator (whatever that means) of the Daily Show. And who the hell is Rachel Maddow? Apparently she’s “a rabble-rousing broadcaster with a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford.” Great. Good for both of them. I’m sure they’re both nice, intelligent people whom lots of friends and family love and devoted listeners admire. In any event, one of them is pictured on Air America’s homepage in the promotional slot for the “Unfiltered” morning show, 9am to noon. (I’m not sure which one, because my point is they’re not recognizable popular personalities.) There is, however, another co-host of that show: Chuck D, whom the site correctly identifies as co-founder of “the legendary rap group” Public Enemy.
So, for the “O’Franken Factor” show, the site rightly features a picture of comedian Al Franken (though he also has a co-host, Katherine Lanpher), and for the “Majority Report” show, the homepage features a picture of comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo (though she also has a co-host, Sam Seder). So why, in the case of Unfiltered, do they not picture their celebrity host of “legendary” stature instead of the face of some person no one recognizes?
Could it be, hmmm….I’m going to go out on a limb here, that Chuck D is a black man, and a perhaps even a bad-ass-looking one at that? (Actually, he looks kind of like an ordinary middle-aged guy.) I mean, the whole point of drafting him as a co-host is to reach out to an urban minority demographic, right> So why white wash the face of the show on the web site? Answer me that, tedious liberal ranters?
For the record, I wrote a question to similar effect and emailed it to the station several days ago, but needless to say, I’ve had no reply. I’ll be sure to email them the permalink to this screed and perhaps will get some on-air publicity for the Bruner Blog. Or not…
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Don’t know if it’s racist, but it sure is bad.
As a radio person, I was really looking forward to listening to it. On the morning show I heard an interview with Sandy Burger that just droned on and on.
I think it would almost be better to have an enlightened DJ type of show - news and music - because there is too much blah blah and it’s not so riveting.
Having said all that, I think it’s great that at least something new has sprouted. Whether it has a chance in hades of surviving remains to be seen.
excellent observations about the Air America Radio channel. first let me get over with the trivia. first and foremost the Public service ad should go.( daddy…….why is the sky blue….goddamn it, 100 times in as many minutes…. no way. please stop). then lets talk business.
i am not an american citizen, so my opinions are alomost non partisan. I cried for your country when 9/11 happened, unfortunately I supported the Gulf war -2( I belived in Bush). having said that, Air America is a necessary evil to counter the ultra powerful right wing radio. I for one, want my news fair and straight. i hate in when the networks and radio channels “HIGHLIGHT” only some parts of the news based on their respective agendas. for example, just yesterday if you followed the news, Marines attacked a mosque as Iraqui fighters are using it as shield. Apparently, the marines attacked it at a wrong hour, when it is full of civilians who gathered for evening prayers. now, Fox news channel did not mention the death of any civilians. NONE. while the arab channels showed only the deaths of civilians and cried that marines attacked a peaceful crowd of civilians. Both the accounts are accurate, in the sense that no one was lieing abt anything, but just highlighting the stuff that suits them. if it happens in some remote fundamentalistic regimes, i wouldn’t have cared. But, come on, this is america. we can and should do better than this.
Ok, I am sorry. I digressed. I am supposed to talk abt talk radio. I was talking abt the whole media. Its a known fact that talk radio is dominated by the right wing. It reached such a dangerous proportion that the administration is using it as a propaganda machine. I mean, howelse can one explain the fact that the Vice President appears on Rush Limbaugh’s show to defend themselves agaist Dick Clarke. When Mr.clarke is facing the comission, answering their grilling bitter questions, Mr.Cheney is basking in the warmth of a die hard supporter who asks only the kind of pleasing questions and makes Clarke look like a liar. Inexcusable !!!!!
Ok, So, the hollywood respomds to this threat from the right wing radio by floating their own station. But, it looks to me like, other than Mr.Franken, there is no star power to the channel. I think, they have to do some serious PR stuff to take this channel to the masses. college kids listening to it online and the five metros are simply not sufficient to spread the message. After that, the format of the shows has to change. stop giggling at your own jokes, let the guests finish their sentences and please bring someone on the right also to respond to your allegations. Randi, you have to be more coherent. stop saying ” forget that”, ” i am so mad i dont want to talk” etc. you should know this is radio and we can not see ur facial expressions. so you have to use your moouth properly to convey the message.
phew, thats a long message. hope someone read it completely.
um… I’m looking at the page right now and there’s Chuck D — http://www.airamericaradio.com/www/pub/prg2about.htm
I think that Lizz Winstead being pictured on the front page has more to do with her perceived importance to Air America Radio then her race. She is “Senior Vice President, Entertainment Programming” for the station. Since she is in charge of the Entertainment Programming, my guess is she thinks she a pretty important part of her show. Additionally, while you and I may know who Chuck D is, a majority of folks in this country would probably have to ask “Who the hell is that?” for all three of the hosts.
Jason, you’re right that a lot of Middle Amerika probably hasn’t heard of Chuck D, but you could say the same for Janeane Garofalo. In any event, I’m sure more people have heard of Chuck D than Lizz Winstead.
Anyway, David is right, since I originally posted this, they’ve added pictures on the homepage of every one of the co-hosts, so Chuck now gets his due.
Thanks in part to Bruner Blog? Who knows. I did send them an email about it earlier than then also sent them a URL to this post, so maybe. I’ll take the point, anyway.
“rabblerousing” is hyphenated.
your speculation about Air American being “racist” is nothing short of inane. the webpage has been in a constant state of development since the show started, and, as anyone who watches websites understands, this is typical of a developing site. originally, there was nothing there except a list of radio stations.then they started with the celebrity photos of Franken, Garafolo, and added the others show-by-show.
and your absurd use of the term “racist” is infinitely more tired than the “shreiks and rants” you claim are on the network all day - (apparently you don’t listen to it, or you’d know that isn’t the case.) Franken has had such “shreiking and ranting” guests as Bob Woodward, Bill Maher, Walter Cronkite, Helen Thomas, Jon Stewart, Al Gore, Richard Ben-Veniste, etc etc etc. not exactly lefty shreikers.
i hope you’ll find an original thought in the future.
SDM, fine, you’re right. Aren’t you supposed to be going thru hormone craze for girls or something other than proofreading mania at age 15?
I do both.
I say give chuck d his own show and get rid of the bimbos. They are unlistenable.