February 19, 2004
With Marshall, It's All Personal
As I was driving to work this morning, I caught the replay of the last hour of Hugh Hewitt's show from last night, and the quality of the debate from Joshua Micah Marshall stunk, and that's been the rule rather than the exception. Both in tone and in content, Marshall constantly relies on personal attacks and hysterical approaches whenever Hugh challenges him on a political issue. Last night the topic was John Kerry's Senate testimony in 1971 that alleged that the US murdered 200,000 Vietnamese a year, but the topic is irrelevant. Here's the template for debates between Hugh and Marshall: H: So, Josh, have you read the report today that says the sky is blue? J: Oh, Hugh, that is so like you and your buddies on the right! What does color have to do with anything? You and your colorist friends never complained that the sky wasn't pink...
February 25, 2004
Howard Stern Goes Silent After Racist Caller
Howard Stern, long the bad boy of radio, lost all of his Clear Channel outlets today after a caller asked Stern on the air if he had ever slept with a "n****r chick": "Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern's show blew right through it," said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. "It was vulgar, offensive, and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency. We will not air Howard Stern on Clear Channel stations until we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting," Hogan said. The Drudge Report's blurb on this story reads as follows: The action comes after CC executives reviewed comment made on Stern's Tuesday broadcast, including an on-air caller's comments: 'Ever bang a famous...
February 26, 2004
Stern and Limbaugh, Together Again For The First Time
Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh -- not exactly the Bobbsey Twins of radio -- have both blasted what they see as government infringement on free speech on their shows today. First, Stern said this: "They are so afraid of me and what this show represents ... I could blow my stack, but ... ," Stern said, trailing off. "A caller used the N word, and I hung up on him." "Janet Jackson is now forgotten and I'm on the front page of every newspaper," said Stern. The only thing surprising about Stern's reaction is how mild it appears to be. He's known for loudly proclaiming his victimization whenever he's disciplined for on-air stunts. His autobiographical movie, Private Parts, is about almost nothing else (and is rather funny, in its own way). Surprisingly, Rush Limbaugh supports Howard Stern and complains that the government intrudes too far into talk radio (all in...
March 11, 2004
Mitch Berg on Liberal Talk Radio
No, Mitch is not defecting: the much-ballyhooed liberal talk-radio network has announced its schedule and on-air talent. (Thank goodness we got our show on when we did!) Rather than tear this group to pieces, I'll direct you to the Northern Alliance's own Mitch Berg from Shot In The Dark, who does a great job of it this morning. Mitch even makes predictions on how long the hosts will last. I think he gives Janeane Garofalo too much credit -- she'll be gone in 90 days. She'll be lucky to fill an hour; she'd better hope for a lot of in-studio guests and phone calls. I notice that Al Franken had to rip off Bill O'Reilly's show name instead of coming up with one of his own ("The O'Franken Factor"?). That level of creativity doesn't bode well for a show that bills itself as three hours of relentless "satire"....
March 21, 2004
Liberal Radio Launch
Today's Washington Post takes a revealing look at Air America, the new liberal radio network that will launch soon in four cities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Spearheaded by Al Franken and funded in the multimillions by people like George Soros and the Hollywood left, they intend on providing another choice in talk radio. Mitch Berg and the guys at Fraters Libertas have written extensively on this topic and have much more familiarity with the personalities involved than I do. In fact, we spent the final hour of our own radio show yesterday discussing the upcoming launch. I don't quite see the market for Air America, although we won't know for sure until they go on the air. After all, no one's arguing that NPR is fair and balanced, and it has much more intellectual heft than Al Franken, Chuck D, and Janeane Garofalo will provide Air...
April 1, 2004
SuperBloggers Congregate at the Lord High Commissioner's Office
If you weren't listening to the Hugh Hewitt radio show -- or if you're allergic to "Going Up The Country" by Canned Heat -- you missed a terrific hour and a half, where Hugh interviewed Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, James Lileks, and Roger L. Simon, all of which can be found on my blogroll as well. Great discussion and phone calls, and Hugh was kind enough to mention an e-mail I sent in. DC from Brainstorming called in and did a great job. If you missed it, check out the replay at the KRLA website, and find out the top five blogreads of these blogosphere leaders......
April 10, 2004
Northern Alliance Radio Goes National!
Great news for all of you who have asked when the Northern Alliance Radio Network will be heard outside of the Twin Cities -- Hugh Hewitt has graciously asked us to fill in for him on his nationwide show on the Salem Radio Network on Tuesday, April 13th, and Wednesday, April 14th! We're not sure why Hugh has entrusted us with the smartest listenership in radio for two full nights; we suspect that a member or two of the gang at Fraters Libertas may have uncovered some deep, dark secret from the Lord High Commissioner's past. However it happened, we're delighted to step in from our cozy little studio here at AM 1280 The Patriot. The air times and stations will be the same (3-6 PM Pacific) -- just tune into Hugh's show and we'll be there. Monday, Mark Larson will fill in for Hugh. If you do not get...
April 14, 2004
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Drudge reports that Air America has been pulled off the air in Los Angeles and Chicago due to non-payment of fees -- which Air America hotly denies (via The Corner): The CHICAGO TRIBUNE is developing a story, insiders tell DRUDGE, on how the network was pulled off the air this morning in Chicago and Los Angeles, the network's second- and third-largest markets, because, the owner of both stations said, the network bounced a check and owes him more than $1 million! Air America, as I said, is not very happy about this description: MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting's conduct in this matter has been disgraceful. To shut off a broadcast that listeners rely on without warning and in the middle of discussions is the height of irresponsibility and a slap in the face of the media industry. In addition, it is a clear violation of their contractual obligations, and we are seeking...
April 17, 2004
Thank God For Liberal Talk Radio
Lately, my Northern Alliance brethren and I have been poking fun at the travails at the hopelessly inept Air America, who can't even get radio air time based on their talent. They have to purchase large chunks of it instead, confirming the lack of a market for their schtick, at least at this time. Despite our schadenfruede at Air America's problems, I have found a reason to be thankful for liberal talk radio in today's Star Tribune: Stillwater DFLer Janet Robert, who lost to U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy in a heated contest in 2002 and had been expected to try again this year, said Friday that she has decided not to run after all. Robert said she will devote her full energies to the fledgling Minnesota Production Network (MPN), a corporation she helped start to provide a liberal talk-radio alternative to the often conservative mix. Robert made her decision at...
April 19, 2004
Air America: Even the LA Times Hates It
During the past couple of weeks, I've spent quite a few keystrokes on the relative merits of the new liberal radio network, Air America. The Northern Alliance gang has had a lot of fun on air and off poking fun at their line-up and their management difficulties, including their loss of air time in Los Angeles and Chicago. (They may be the first radio network that's received air time from a federal judge.) However, one thing I haven't done is to actually listen to Air America, mostly because the entire notion of listening to Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo repels me, but also because I'd rather listen to Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and Michael Medved. Los Angeles Times media critic David Shaw spent Good Friday listening to all 17 hours of Air America, and despite his expressed predilection for the liberal viewpoint, he finds it severely wanting and more than...
April 28, 2004
More Problems at Err America
The gang at Air America just can't catch a break. First they lose access to the radio signal in the #2 and #3 markets, having to ask a judge to force the radio station to air their program -- and that only lasts until Friday. Now comes word that one of their founders has packed it up, decided that he doesn't care for the daily grind, and another executive has been "replaced" ... at least according to the FrankenNet spinners: In the latest development in what has become a chaotic inaugural month, Air America Radio is losing two of its top executives, including the network's co-founder. Mark Walsh, the former AOL executive and Democratic National Committee operative who announced the network's launch to much fanfare five months ago, said Monday that he has stepped down as chief executive officer. Separately, the network confirmed that Dave Logan, Air America's vice president...
May 13, 2004
Air America Shuts Some Doors
In more bad news followed by some first-class spin, Air America announced today that it will close sales offices in Los Angeles and Chicago and will "recast" its plan, all of which follows a month that has seen the network booted off the air in the two cities and a number of executives and investors leave or get fired: Air America has shut its sales offices in Los Angeles and Chicago and is recasting its business plan, the network's president said on Wednesday as troubles beset the liberal talk show network. With Air America not broadcasting in those two cities after a financial dispute in April, network president Jon Sinton said, "There's not much sense in having sales offices in cities where you don't control a station." About 15 to 20 people were laid off in the closing of the sales offices, the latest sign of problems for Air America,...
May 15, 2004
Paid To Hate: The Err America Experience
God bless Air America, for its bounty apparently is endless. The Star Tribune's Deborah Caulfield Rybak reviews the "bumpy start" that has plagued the netlet's first few months ... if you can call getting kicked off the air in two of the three largest markets, the mass exodus of executives, and failing to meet payroll simply a "bumpy start". Bumps like that usually indicate ... a crash, don't they? However, the on-air talent at Err America keep their spirits up, because despite the devastating reviews from even other liberals, they believe the shows' quality has improved: Because, at least outside the revolving doors of the executive suites, the mood -- and news -- is good. Personalities for the various shows are beginning to emerge and the amateurish technical glitches are beginning to subside. "People need to separate the business stuff from the on-air success," said Tom Taylor, editor of the...
July 30, 2004
The Captain Sails Into San Diego
For CQ readers in Southern California, you get a sneak peek (or soundbite) of Captain Ed ahead of tomorrow's Northern Alliance launch of its live Internet stream tonight at 6:30 PM. I have been asked to appear on Stacy Taylor's radio program on KOGO. Stacy wants to talk about bloggers, the Democratic convention, and John Kerry's acceptance speech. This call surprised me somewhat -- I haven't met Stacy Taylor or spoken with him before, and I'm not sure where they found me. I'm happy they did, and I hope San Diego gets its money's worth from my segment. If you get a chance to listen, drop a comment on this post and let me know what you thought of it. UPDATE: It was fun, and Stacy was a gracious host to both myself and TalkLeft's Jeralynn Merritt, who talked over both of us. I'd have been more combative, but frankly,...
February 11, 2005
CQ On The Air Today
I'm on the air right now, talking with Kevin McCullough about Eason's Fables. If you miss my interview, you can pick it up on Kevin's stream, as it will replay several times over the next 24 hours. Kevin is one of the few people in the media that really understands the blogosphere and what it means for information dissemination, plus he's just a great guy and a fun interviewer. Be sure to check it out!...
July 27, 2005
Air America Took Money From Poor Kids & Alzheimer Patients
Radio Equalizer and Michelle Malkin have followed a scandal in New York that, given the involvement of the nationally-broadcast Air America, should have received national media attention by now. It turns out that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Clubs almost had to shut its doors following a funding shortfall despite receiving a half-million dollars in grant money and much more in city contracts, getting rescued at the last moment by other independent groups. The $500K in grant money had been loaned out -- to Air America: The nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and its affiliate Pathways for Youth found their city contracts, running into the millions of dollars, abruptly ended last month by the city Department of Investigation. ... He said he and other elected officials are still in the dark over the exact nature of the probe. In its initial announcement, the DOI said it was...
July 28, 2005
Air America Dodges Responsibility
Brian at Radio Equalizer, who first broke the story on Air America's grasping of funds meant for poor children and Alzheimers patients, now posts the official response from the liberal talk-radio network on the scandal: "On MAY 24, 2004 the newly formed PIQUANT LLC acquired the principal assets of AIR AMERICA RADIO from the prior ownership entities. PIQUANT has owned and operated AIR AMERICA RADIO since that time. The company that had run AIR AMERICA RADIO till then no longer had anything to do with the network. "PIQUANT had no involvement whatsoever with funds from GLORIA WISE BOYS &GIRLS CLUB. PIQUANT neither received nor expended any of the sums that are the subject of the City's investigation of the CLUB. "PIQUANT is not being investigated by the City, which is investigating a transaction that took place before PIQUANT existed." Unfortunately for Piquant, when they bought Air America, they bought its...
July 29, 2005
Air America Rethinks Its Position
The transfer of public funds earmarked for poor children and Alzheimers patients to Air America by the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board -- which included Air America founder Evan Cohen -- did not disappear into oblivion, as Piquant Media obviously hoped it would with its initial statement on Wednesday. Thanks to fine work and dogged pursuit by Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin, Piquant has adjusted its tone ... somewhat: If the allegations of mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club are true, it is absolutely disgraceful. As reported in the Wall Street Journal and the HBO Documentary, Left of the Dial the company that the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club officials gave money to, Progress Media, has been defunct since May 2004. That company was run at the time by Evan Cohen who has not had any involvement in Air America Radio since May...
July 31, 2005
Leftists Stage Backlash While Air America Admits Its Theft
Brian Maloney has the latest installment of the Air America disgrace that revealed the liberal radio netlet's misuse of government funds under founder Evan Cohen's direction. Leftist bloggers have begun their inevitable backlash defending Air America, calling the story "phony" and irrelevant to Air America by trying to distingush between AA and its original owner, Progress Media -- which only had the one asset and whose chief executive sat on the board of the non-profit it helped to bankrupt through this "loan". Well, the Left simply hasn't caught up to reality. Air America said in its second press release on this matter that it planned to pay back the money, a very strange thing to do if it didn't take it in the first place. As I pointed out yesterday, it's also a very convenient position to take -- considering that Gloria Wise has gone bankrupt and closed its doors....
August 1, 2005
The Continuing Scandal At Air America
The New York Sun takes on the Air America story today and advances it by leaps and bounds, talking with the president of the non-profit which had its money taken by Air America founder Evan Cohen. It turns out that Cohen didn't just get money for the netlet, but also managed to get plenty for his own pockets as well while sitting on the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board: Initially, members of the executive committee viewed Mr. Cohen fondly because he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year. They recalled being impressed by the wealthy clientele and the large sums of money he raised, according to Ms. Graves. Because of that confidence in Mr. Cohen, she said, the executive committee approved two loans to Air America, one for $80,000 and another for $87,000. Ms. Capell said she had met Mr. Cohen...
August 2, 2005
Err America: Franken Speaks, Buries The Excuses
David Lombino has another installment in the emerging financing scandal at Air America that Brian Maloney first uncovered last week. Today, Lombino publishes an interview with Al Franken that demolishes attempts by Air America supporters to defend the netlet from its connection to potential wire fraud and misappropriation of government grant money intended for poor kids and Alzheimer's patients (via Michelle Malkin): Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a "forensic" investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress Media, which was run by Mr. Cohen. That internal probe was conducted before the city agency became involved, Mr. Franken said. Efforts by The New York Sun to reach Mr. Cohen for comment in recent days have been unsuccessful. A Piquant spokesman...
Air America: A New York Attorney Consults
CQ reader and New York attorney Eric O. Costello, Esq. has followed the Air America story over the past several days here at CQ, Michelle Malkin, and Radio Equalizer. He sent me an e-mail this morning that comprehensively looks at the legal issues surrounding the transfer of $875,000 from a Bronx non-profit to Air America -- and also the notion floated by Al Franken that a "forensic" investigation had already brought this to Piquant Media's attention. Mr. Costello has kindly consented to publication of his observations: I am a lawyer, admitted in New York State since 1992, with a fair amount of experience in corporate transactions (I used to do a lot of corporate/SEC work -- I'm mostly in litigation, these days). I also was on the board of directors of a not-for-profit corporation for over a decade, serving as one of that corporation's officers as well. Please excuse any...
Air America: Another Legal Consultation
Earlier, New York attorney Eric Costello reviewed the known facts and allegations surrounding the scandal at Air America and gave us his trenchant observations. He laid out the possibilities for legal action and criminal investigation, if the reporting from the New York Sun and the blogosphere proved correct. In a follow-up e-mail, he reviews the applicable laws in more depth and points out where Air America and Gloria Wise might face some tough scrutiny, assuming Eliot Spitzer ever decides to get involved. Further to my email of this morning, I had a bit of free time on my hands, so I went spelunking into the various areas of New York State laws and regulations regarding not-for-profits. A few items of interest turned up, which I pass on to you for whatever you think it's worth. You may quote me on this. In this email, "EL" stands for the Executive Law,...
August 3, 2005
Air America: Exempt Media's Dead Air
And on the eighth day after the revelation about the financing scandal at Air America, the Exempt Media (or, as NY Times managing editor Bill Keller called it on Charlie Rose last night, the "quality media") remained ... silent. Not a word so far about the deceptive transfers of almost a million dollars in non-profit donations and government grant monies to the liberal radio netlet has appeared in any major media outlet except for the New York Post and the Washington Times, and two excellent articles at the New York Sun that showed how deep the scandal runs. Today Michelle Malkin and I attempt to address the issue ourselves. Michelle has a new column out today (also here) about why the usual suspects in the civil-rights establishment have not erupted in outrage over the theft of government grants intended in part for poor and overwhelmingly minority children: If a conservative...
August 4, 2005
Air America: IBD Wonders Where The Exempt Media Went
Investors Business Daily publishes an editorial about the Air America funding scandal that took almost a million dollars from a Bronx non-profit. IBD asks, as we have, why the Exempt Media has gone AWOL: New York City's Department of Investigation is looking into charges that $875,000 from a Bronx nonprofit group and an affiliate whose budgets are generously stuffed with local, state and federal grants was inappropriately used to fund Air America, the left's counterattack on the colossal success of conservative talk radio. The two groups the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and Pathways for Youth said they thought they were making a loan to the network. But when Evan Montvel Cohen was working as both chairman of Air America and director of development for Gloria Wise, some red flags should have been raised. Jeannette Graves, president of Gloria Wise's executive committee, has said that without her...
Air America: DOI Says Go Ahead And Return The Money
Today's New York Post reports that one of Air America's assertions about their attempts to repay the $875,000 to Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club is "inaccurate". Piquant Media issued an announcement a few days ago that the AA parent company wanted to start reimbursing the Bronx charity non-profit, but could not do so until instructed by New York City's Department of Investigations, which has an open case on the money transfers between Gloria Wise and Air America. The DOI says, "Who, us?": Air America's foot-dragging on repaying $875,000 borrowed from a beleaguered Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx has nothing to do with a probe of the club's controversial loans, city investigators said yesterday. Officials at the ultra-liberal radio network have repeatedly said Air America intends to repay the money, but claimed they put those plans on hold because of the city probe. "We're waiting for directions from...
August 5, 2005
Air America: Arizona Republic Notices It Before NYT
For most newspapers, having an out-of-town paper beat you to a story in your own back yard would prove terribly embarrassing. Not for the New York Times, apparently, as a paper publishing over 2,000 miles from the Bronx has managed to notice the unfolding scandal of Air America's misappropriation of almost a million dollars in city grants and other monies from a non-profit. Arizona Republic columnist Doug MacEachern scolds the Exempt Media, especially the Gray Lady, in allowing this story to continue, as he puts it, moving forward "like a Mack truck in first gear": A private media start-up with huge political pretensions and meager financial underpinnings uses taxpayer dollars from a Boys & Girls Club to help pay the salaries of high-profile hosts like comedian Al Franken. As a result of these dubious loans and other self-dealing, the Gloria Wise club will be sending no more poor kids from...
Air America: Losing Interest? (Updated)
The New York Sun's David Lombino follows up today on the Air America scandal with news that the loan payback from Piquant Media has lost something in the translation -- namely, the interest owed on it. Piquant Media finally agreed to pay back the $875,000 Evan Cohen misappropriated from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Clubs for his own personal use and to fund Air America when the netlet seemed ready to collapse. They want to extend payments over two years, but Lombino reports that Piquant will not pay interest on what documents show was supposed to be a loan from Gloria Wise (emphasis mine): An employee of Air America, who requested anonymity, said yesterday that it received a letter from the city Department of Investigation recommending that the network set up an attorney-managed escrow account for the payments, rather than pay Gloria Wise directly or wait until the department's investigation...
August 6, 2005
Air America: Spitzer's Difference
Today's New York Post reports that New York's headline-grabbing Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has finally decided to look into the shady business dealings between Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club and Air America. For jurisdictional purposes, the focus of Spitzer's investigation will start with Gloria Wise, but if allegations of fraud and forgery prove true, Spitzer will no doubt have to expand the scope of his probe: State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday opened an investigation into the Bronx social-services agency that made $875,000 in bizarre loans to Air America radio, The Post has learned. "We are looking into it in consultation with the city's Department of Investigation," Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp revealed. The highly unusual loans to the left-wing radio network were made by the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club which was visited by one of Spitzer's investigators yesterday, officials said. Dopp said Spitzer's probe is examining...
Drew Johnson On Air America
Drew Johnson, the talented cartoonist that has contributed to CQ on occasion, makes another welcome entry to the current debate on Air America. Here's Drew's Draw: Enjoy!...
August 7, 2005
Air America: Compare The Scandals
Today we will hold a contest to see how the Exempt Media coverage of Air America's funding scandals holds up against that of another stoy of financial shenanigans. Let's take a look at how many articles the Exempt Media has written about the Air America-Gloria Wise misappropriation of public funds, as opposed to the Martha Stewart insider-trading case -- in the past 30 days: Media outlet.....AA/GW......Martha NY Times..........0...........16* Wash Post.........0..........10 (14 day search) LA Times..........0..........3 CBS News..........0..........1 ABC News..........0.........4 What does this show? The Exempt Media has plenty of resources to continue coverage of a single celebrity who allegedly engaged in insider trading over 4,000 shares of ImClone stock, avoiding $51,000 in losses when bad news hit just afterwards. (Stewart wasn't convicted for insider trading, but obstruction of justice and perjury.) That amounts to 1/18th of what Air America got in misappropriated public funds by sucking money out of Bronx...
August 8, 2005
Air America: Missing Payrolls?
Brian Maloney, who broke the Air America scandal in the blogosphere over a week ago while the Exempt Media still mostly ignores it, now hears whispers from inside the netlet that employees worry about the company missing its payroll obligations. A delay in posting direct-deposit pay for their final July paychecks apparently has Air America employees buzzing, although anonymously: It's bad enough the company is generating fresh bad publicity almost daily, over the diverted $875,000 in taxpayer funds intended for a Bronx-based community service organization. Now, to make matters worse, an internal memo obtained by the Radio Equalizer indicates Air America Radio employees faced late paychecks just over a week ago. They were apparently stunned to receive a last-minute notice sent at 5:09pm Thursday, July 28th, indicating direct deposits would not be made Friday, as expected. Written by company Vice President/Finance Sinohe Terrero (this article confims Terrero's corporate role), it...
August 9, 2005
Air America: It's All About ... Al Franken
Al Franken addressed the funding scandal at Air America for the first time on the air yesterday, the New York Post reports. Fortunately for AA listeners, Franken clearly identified the real victim of the misappropriated government grants and questionable loans from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Clubs. It wasn't the poor kids or the Alzheimer's patients -- it was ... Al Franken: "About three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor I stopped being paid," Franken told listeners yesterday on WLIB (1190 AM). It was the first time the all-liberal network's biggest star addressed at length a controversial $875,000 loan from the disgraced and now de-funded Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. Since The Post first reported the story on July 30, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced an investigation into the social services agency whose development director, Evan M. Cohen, was also...
August 10, 2005
Air America: Piquant Media Buyout A Shell Game?
Piquant Media owns Air America Radio and has repeatedly said during the financial scandal, still unreported by the Exempt Media, that it has no legal obligations for the debts incurred by former ownership, Progress Media and specifically Evan Cohen. Al Franken repeated this during his radio show two days ago, claiming that Piquant only agreed to reimburse Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Clubs out of a sense of moral obligation. However, that fails to tell the entire truth about the ownership of Piquant, its predecessor Progress Media, or the slim differences between previous and current management at Air America Radio. Air America Radio did not start out with Evan Cohen, as Piquant and Franken convenienly suggest. It started out with a man named Sheldon Drobny, a wealthy Chicago investor who wanted to build a leftist media empire and settled on radio to start it. Front Page Magazine told the story...
Air America: CQ Consults Costello Again
Once again, CQ's resident legal analyst Eric Costello, Esq reviews the latest developments on the Air America story -- this time, the question of the ownership change. In an e-mail to CQ, Eric points out a number of legal issues raised in the transfer of assets from Progress to Piquant: As usual, the latest installment of the l'affaire Air America has been read with great interest. Here's my reactions (for public use as you see fit): (1) The term of art that is implicated here, I believe, is what is known as a "fraudulent conveyance," a legal term that goes back a long way. A legal dictionary definition (rather simplifying the concept, of course) of this term is "a conveyance of property without any consideration of value, for the purpose of delaying or bindering creditors. Such a transfer will, when proven to the satisfaction of judge or jury, be declared...
August 11, 2005
Air America: Heads Roll At Gloria Wise, Not Piquant?
The New York Post reports this morning that high-level executive departures have rocked Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in the wake of the disclosure of almost a million dollars in loans and transfers of government grants to Evan Cohen and Air America. GW also refuted a key claim of Air America in its attempt to distance itself from the shady dealings that kept it on the air: Just days after the executive director abruptly resigned following Post reports that the club had provided $875,000 in bizarre loans to Air America, two other top officials at the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club have quit. Acting executive director Lorraine Corva who took over after Charles Rosen suddenly resigned last week will be leaving her job on Aug. 26, sources said. Assistant executive director Jeff Aulenback also resigned, effective immediately, sources said. Their departures from the embattled social-services agency...
Air America: Garbo Gray Lady Speaks!
The New York Times has ended its hermitage in tomorrow's edition by finally reporting on the financial scandal in its own back yard. Alan Feuer reports on the ongoing Air America funding scandal, and manages to make it more boring than a blotter report for a weekly suburban freebie: The state attorney general's office and the city's Department of Investigation are looking into whether a boys and girls club serving poor children and ailing elderly people in the Bronx had improper financial dealings, including loans to the Air America radio network, state and city officials said yesterday. The separate investigations are trying to determine whether the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, run from an office in Co-op City in the Bronx, made improper loans of up to $875,000 to the radio network, known for its liberal programming and hosts like the comedian Al Franken, the officials said. Investigators from...
August 12, 2005
Air America: Gloria Wise Not An 'Appropriate Source'?
David Lombino at the New York Sun continues to out-hustle the Paper of Record on the ever-widening scandal at Air America involving the transmission of government grant money from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. In his report today, Lombino discovers that Air America lacks confidence in its creditor's legitimacy: A spokesman for Gloria Wise, Jim Grossman of Rubenstein Public Relations, said yesterday Piquant has "agreed in principle to return the money, but there is no schedule and no money back - no timetable." "All they have done is put something in an escrow fund," he said. "Lawyers for Gloria Wise are trying to get this into some formal agreement." Air America contends that Mr. Grossman's characterization is misleading, and that an agreement has been reached between Piquant and the club that includes a timetable for a "voluntary repayment of loans made to Evan Cohen and Progress Media," according to...
August 13, 2005
Air America: The Exempt Media Coverage
Remember that "phony", "undersourced" story that came from the overactive imaginations of the right wing blogosphere? Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney note today that dozens of newspapers across the country have finally started informing their readers of it -- more than two weeks after it got discovered by the blogs: Despite liberals' insistence that the Air America / Gloria Wise story is "undersourced" and "appears to be phony," the AP article by David Caruso is being carried by dozens of MSM papers, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Baton Rouge Times Picayune, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Myrtle Beach Sun News, Kansas City Star, Tallahassee Democrat, Grand Forks Herald, Bradenton Herald, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Duluth News Tribune, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, philly.com, Biloxi Sun Herald, Monterey County Herald, Fort Wayne News, San Luis Obispo Tribune, Kansas.com, Centre Daily Times, Pioneer Press, Macon Telegraph, Charlotte Observer, Seattle Post Intelligencer, MLive.com, The...
August 15, 2005
How Many Bronx Kids Pay For A Private Jet?
The ongoing financing scandal at Air America took a cynical twist in the last twenty-four hours. Brian Maloney, who broke the original story to the blogosphere, now reports that an internal memo from AAR host Randi Rhodes proposes using a private corporate jet to take her and her show to Crawford, Texas -- so that she can take advantage of all the publicity surrounding Cindy Sheehan: Also, transporation is an issue, because it will take me a whole day to travel. I don't want to miss a day on the air, and lose momentum. Flight to Dallas, on to Waco and then to Craford by car. So I was hoping that someone in the company would let me use their jet? I could take Steve with me and leave after Thursday's show. Perhaps I missed something, but Air America and Piquant Media has a debt of almost a million dollars...
August 17, 2005
Air America: Show Al The Money
Michelle Malkin wants to help Al Franken in her new column this week. He recently talked about the revelations of financial malfeasance at his employer, but found it difficult to maintain any interest in the fact that they took money from poor kids and Alzheimer's patients in order to pay his talent fees: The Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club has been duped out of a reported $875,000 meant for poor children and elderly Alzheimer's patients. Evan Montvel-Cohen, the former chairman of the much-hyped liberal radio network Air America, is at the center of the erupting scandal. Air America radio host Al Franken, punctuating his discussion with nervous laughter, called Cohen a "crook" on his show last week and confessed to his left-wing audience that "I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul." ... Curiously, Air America has shown little interest in urging law enforcement officials to track...
Air America: Shell Game Implodes
Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin have covered the sordid mess between Air America and Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, in which $875,000 in government grants wound up in AAR's coffers during a period of extreme financial instability. While taking earmarked grant money from poor kids and Alzheimer's patients provides enough embarrassment for any company, the excuses given by AAR parent Piquant Media that claimed the responsibility for that transaction belonged with the original ownership of AAR caused a number of bloggers to look into the unusual sale of Progress Media to Piquant. Unusual it was indeed, since most of the owners of Progress wound up owning Piquant as well. Now Brian and Michelle have spent the last couple of weeks doing the kind of journalistic research that has eluded the New York Times to discover that the sale has been determined by at least one New York court to...
August 18, 2005
Air America: The Sun Rises Again, And Again, And Again
The one newspaper that has consistently covered the Air America/Piquant Media financial scandal has been the New York Sun and its reporter, David Lambino. Today he follows up on the revelations contained in the investigative report by Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney posted yesterday on Michelle's blog: A lawsuit filed by an owner of radio stations claims that the transfer of ownership of the Air America radio network from Progress Media to Piquant LLC in May 2004 was a "sham" intended to maintain the network's assets while deceiving its creditors, according to documents posted on a blog yesterday. In the suit, which was filed in state Supreme Court at Manhattan in May, Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, a radio station owner with affiliates across the country, is seeking more than $255,000 it claims it is owed by the current owners of Air America, Piquant LLC. Multicultural's complaint, as posted on the blog...
Air America: Garbo Gray Lady Speaks Again!
After apparently receiving a number of e-mails and letters regarding the New York Times' almost-total noncoverage of the Air America/Gloria Wise funding scandal, the public editor has published a response on his forum. Byron Calame, who recently took over the position from the Times' first ombudsman Daniel Okrent, acknowledges that the Times has not kept up with the story -- but blames disorganization rather than bias: Readers of The Times were poorly served by the paper's slowness to cover official investigations into questionable financial transactions involving Air America, the liberal radio network. The Times's first article on the investigations finally appeared last Friday after weeks of articles by other newspapers in New York and elsewhere. ... "We were slow in the first place and need to do more," Rick Berke, an associate managing editor at The Times, told me Monday. While it's no excuse for such a belated response to...
Air America: More Shell Games
In the first part of the multiple-installment series by Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney, the pair expose Air America's transfer of ownership between original parent firm Progress Media and current owners Piquant Media as little more than a shell game. In part II, the two show that the shell game may not have ended with the first allegedly fraudulent conveyance: On July 21, 2005, a standing room-only crowd of Democrats filled a Highland Park, Illinois, public library conference room to hear two local businesspeople talk about their company and its future plans. The attraction? These weren't your everyday corporate suits: it featured Sheldon and Anita Drobny, who last year put Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo on their upstart liberal Air America talk radio network. Hearing about their "success" was surely appealing. ... Sheldon's wife Anita took to the podium to spill the beans about Nova M Radio. Disclosing Air America's...
August 19, 2005
Air America: The Bill Gets Bigger As We Speak
David Lombino continues his coverage of the Air America financial scandal, advancing the story in parallel to the extraordinary efforts of Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney. Lombino reports in today's New York Sun that Piquant Media's bill from Multicultural Radio far exceeds the $225K described in the investigative report by the bloggers, and in fact now exceeds a million dollars: An attorney whose client is suing the Air America radio network said yesterday that the May litigation is part of a larger attempt by the client, an owner of radio stations, to collect more than $1.5 million it says it is owed. ... The lawsuit filed by MultiCultural in May charges that the transfer of ownership of Air America to Piquant LLC from Progress Media in May 2004 was illegal and was intended only to maintain the network's assets while abandoning its creditors. "It's called a fraudulent conveyance - same...
Air America: The Sun Rises To The Occasion
I received this e-mail earlier today from Maggie Shnayerson, the communications manager for the New York Sun -- the one newspaper in the Empire State (or almost anywhere else) that has devoted a reporter to ongoing news coverage of the Air America financial scandal: Hi Ed, Because of the high demand for access to the Suns Air America stories, we have decided to put together a special web page containing the entire series. I have included a free link to the site created for you and your readers. Enjoy! http://www.nysun.com/airamerica.php Best, Maggie Shnayerson Communications Manager The New York Sun Now you can follow their excellent Air America coverage for free -- and perhaps that might convince you to subscribe, as I do, to their on-line newspaper. Ira Stoll and the rest of the Sun's team puts together an excellent weekday newspaper that features some of the best and most fearless...
August 20, 2005
Air America: Stiffing The Talent (And The Union)
The third installment in the investigative blog series by Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney covers the litigation arising from former host and programmer Lizz Winstead, the first of the 'talent' to join Air America well before its launch. Winstead also has the distinction of being the first host they fired after the Piquant fraudulent conveyance buyout. At the time it raised a few eyebrows; after all, the ratings for "Unfiltered" couldn't have been that much worse than the rest of the AAR lineup. The counterclaims filed by Winstead and Piquant Media clear up quite a bit of the mytery, as Michelle and Brian point out: On May 20, 2005, comedian Lizz Winstead filed suit in New York, detailing a laundry list of allegations against Air America Radio parent Piquant LLC. Accusing the company of failing to pay wages, promotional fees, accrued holiday compensation and severance, Winstead is seeking $290,716, plus...
August 23, 2005
Air America: Post Finally Reports On Financing Issues ... Somewhere Else
Now we know why the Washington Post has still failed to file a single report on the ongoing scandal at Air America, where $875,000 of grant money earmarked for poor kids and Alzheimers patients wound up funding the liberal radio netlet. Aside from running the single AP overview of the New York City investigation into AAR's connection to the fraud, the Post has ignored the story. Apparently, their silence comes from a commitment of resources to another financial issue involving a political group, one that promises to shake the earth with this revelation (second item): The Christian Coalition is having a spat with a vendor over unpaid bills. That could be a bad sign for an advocacy group that was once one of the most potent and well-funded forces in conservative politics. Mailing giant Pitney Bowes is suing the Christian Coalition to recover unpaid postage fees. The firm, which provides...
August 25, 2005
Air America: The Sheldon Drobny Chronicles
Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney have posted their latest installment of their blog investigation into the Air America financial scandal, this time training a magnifying glass at the strange characters at the center of Piquant Media and the shell games surrounding AAR's ownership changes, Sheldon and Anita Drobny. The Drobnys started Air America but quickly faded into the background, allowing Evan Cohen and others to make themselves the public faces of the liberal radio netlet while the couple continued to pull all the strings almost anonymously: Drobny, a deep-pocketed, self-described venture capitalist from Chicago, is a strange duck who deserves much more media scrutiny than he's getting. In October 2003, NRO's Byron York explored his moonbat writings for a fringe website called Make Them Accountable here. York noted Drobny's Lyndon LaRouche connections and wrote: In the 1990s, conservatives came under heavy criticism for relying on funding from the foundation run...
September 7, 2005
Air America: Al Franken, Lying Liar
Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney continue their groundbreaking series on the Air America financial scandal, this time taking direct aim at the netlet's number-one asset: Al Franken. It turns out that Franken has lied to his listeners about his ignorance of the heavy debts that Evan Montvel Cohen rang up in an attempt to float Air America and during the asset sale that now appears to have been a fraudulent conveyance. How do we know this? Michelle and Brian have turned up an agreement with Franken's signature -- an agreement that made Franken a key player in the series of transactions that resulted in the fraudulent conveyance: Along with the network's current management and shell-game-playing owners, Al Franken has gotten a pass, even from some conservative commentators who have claimed that it's unfair to blame the liberal radio network's financial and legal entanglements on its on-air talent. Those claims are...
September 15, 2005
Air America: More Than One Connection To Gloria Wise
When the news first broke about Air America's executive Evan Cohen using his paid position at the nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club to funnel government funds into his liberal radio netlet, people found it strange that Cohen worked both jobs at the same time, drawing significant salaries at each. It turns out that Cohen had company, as Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney report in their latest installment on the scandal that threatens to derail Air America: What Air America has failed to disclose is that at least one other of its officials held a key job at Gloria Wise. Yesterday, we confirmed with Martta Rose of Rubenstein Public Relations, which is representing the Boys & Girls Club branch, that Air America's Vice President of Finance, Sinohe Terrero, worked at the inner-city charity as finance director from 2000-2002 under Cohen. Though he left Gloria Wise for Air America before...
September 20, 2005
Air America: Goodfriend Says Piquant Strongarmed Him
The New York Sun's David Lombino continues to put his cross-town rivals to shame in covering the scandal at Air America. Today, he reveals that David Goodfriend has submitted an affadavit in the Metro lawsuit seeking $1.5 million in back fees from Piquant that states the former executive objected to the "fraudulent conveyance" of Progress Media's asset sale to Piquant, and received threats from Air America owners as a result: A Clinton administration official who served as a top executive of Air America, the politically liberal radio network, says he was "sickened" to his core by the thought that the network was funded by money taken from a Bronx Boys & Girls Club. The former White House official, David Goodfriend, said that Air America's investors created a new company soon after discovering the transfers. They were motivated, he said, in part by a desire to avoid the $875,000 liability to...
September 22, 2005
Air America: Blanche DuBois Returns
Brian Maloney extends the excellent blog-coverage that he and Michelle Malkin have provided on the Air America financial scandal. Today he looks at the desperation strategy that Air America has adopted -- begging for cash from its listeners: Resembling an online PBS or NPR pledge drive, the site offered paltry "benefits" for cash "gifts" to the liberal talk network. Is Air America unintentionally a not-for-profit enterprise? For $50, they'll send three "official" bumper stickers, while $100 gets a "stylish" tote bag thrown in. The sucker who has everything might choose the $250 version, including the above and an on-air thanks from one of Air America's talk hosts. Tote BagAnother option: send "any amount", for which they'll be "grateful". Only you can prevent the next Boys & Girls Club financial raid. Send a buck, save midnight basketball in the Bronx. In fact, they're selling NPR-class 'memberships' at AAR. What do you...
October 1, 2005
Bill Bennett's Bogus Journey
The blogosphere and talk radio have pulled apart the unfortunate two minutes of Bill Bennett's "Morning In America" broadcast in which he attempted a clumsy reductio ad absurdum argument involving a hypothesis about aborting all black babies. Most of the commentary has predictably been inflammatory, although Matthew Yglesias, Brad DeLong, Jeff Goldstein, and Dafydd ab Hugh all offer excellent analyses of Bennett's commentaries. When one looks at the entire context of the remarks made by Bennett in discussing the Freakanomics argument that three decades of abortion lowered violent crime in America (an argument that suffers by the fact of the violent death of 43 million feti, wouldn't one think?), it should be obvious to reasonable people that Bennett neither argues for aborting black babies nor does he agree with the Leavitt and Dubner hypothesis. Anyone who spends time with Bennett, either listening to his radio show or reading his works,...
November 18, 2005
Air America Settles Lawsuit
Air America has managed to get one scandal behind it even as it continues battling through other legal problems. The liberal radio netlet has settled its $1.5 million lawsuit with Multicultural Radio, who sued AAR for unpaid leased air time in two of the largest markets in the US in its initial launch period: Air America Radio has reached agreement on terms that would settle a lawsuit brought by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, according to representatives from both companies. The terms of the settlement were undisclosed, and a formal agreement had yet to be signed. The settlement would terminate a lawsuit filed with the New York Supreme Court in May, in which Multicultural was seeking more than $1.5 million in damages from the liberal radio network. The complaint said that Multicultural aimed to recover debts that were amassed by Air America soon after its launch in April 2004, and the cost...
January 12, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I will be appearing on CHQR 770 AM in Calgary and western Canada tonight for Rob Breckinridge's The World Tonight, starting at 9:05 pm ET. We'll be talking about the Alito hearings, the blogging effort that we gave this week in covering the event, some of the more noteworthy points, and Canadian electoral politics as well. Rob's a great radio host and his show is always fun to do as a guest; be sure to tune in, or listen on their Internet stream. UPDATE: Rob's terrific as always, and he let me ramble on for a good long time. I hope you got a chance to enjoy it, but I do believe they archive The World Tonight if you missed it. It does require a free registration to access the Audio Vault, but it's worth the time and effort. And hey, Stephen Taylor called in -- what better reason to...
January 31, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be appearing on Rob Breckrenridge's show, The World Tonight, on CHQR in Calgary later tonight to discuss the State of the Union and the Alito confirmation. Canadians can listen on AM 770, but everyone else can catch us on the Internet stream on their website. I should be on at 9:30 PM Central Time. Rob has a terrific show, and it's always a pleasure to be on as his guest....
February 12, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be appearing on Pundit Review Radio tonight at 8:30 pm Central time tonight. I'll be talking with Kevin for about a half-hour, if he can dig himself out of the foot-plus of snow that hit Massachussetts this weekend. Be sure to tune in!...
February 21, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be appearing on Rob Breckrenridge's show, The World Tonight, on CHQR in Calgary later tonight to discuss the State of the Union and the Alito confirmation. Canadians can listen on AM 770, but everyone else can catch us on the Internet stream on their website. I should be on at 9:30 PM Central Time. Rob has a terrific show, and it's always a pleasure to be on as his guest. We'll be talking about the ports controversy and other topics Be sure to tune in!...
February 22, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be appearing on WTVN Radio in Columbus, Ohio, at 7 pm CT for a one-hour roundtable discussion about Able Danger, its implications, and the prognosis for its full disclosure. Be sure to check out their webstream to join in the conversation....
February 25, 2006
Northern Alliance Radio Network Today
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will broadcast today, as always, from 11 am - 3 pm Central time, and we have a great show lined up today. John, Chad, and Brian will have Jeremy Zilber, author of the children's book "Why Mommy Is A Democrat", on the line today at noon. You can check out a few sample pages of the book while listening to Zilber explain this rather sad attempt at political indoctrination. At 1 pm, Mitch and I welcome Duane Patterson, the producer of Hugh Hewitt's show, as our co-host while King goes on assignment. We will have Bill Gilles of CFACT on at 2 pm to discuss the defunding attempt of the University of Minnesota against conservative student groups, as I've covered this week. At 2:30, we welcome Karen Efrem from Edwatch -- that's not an oversight group dedicated to CQ surveillance, but a group which keeps...
March 3, 2006
If They Can't Make It There ...
Air America Radio has struggled since its inception on almost all fronts -- financial, creative, and access. In its early days, AAR found itself shut out of the lucrative Los Angeles and Chicago markets for a period of time due to financial shenanigans that resulted in a $1.5 million lawsuit for unpaid leased air time. Now it looks like AAR has failed to maintain itself in the #1 radio market, New York City, where its political orientation should have created its best success. Brian Maloney has the details: While Air America Radio's loss of two affiliates in Phoenix and Missoula, Montana is generating news this week, the company itself probably hasn't been able to give either city a second thought. Why? In a development sure to rip the heart right out of the liberal radio network's already ailing body, it appears extremely likely their leased New York City flagship station...
March 18, 2006
NARN On The Air Today
The Northern Alliance is on the air right now -- and we will be discussing the new documents just being translated from the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Join us at the stream at AM 1280 The Patriot and call us at 651-289-4488 to join us on air....
March 29, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I will be appearing on The World Tonight with Rob Breckenridge, broadcast from Calgary's CHQR, at 9:05 Central time this evening. Rob and I will be talking about illegal immigration and the political firestorm it has caused this week in the US, as well as anything on Rob's mind. Be sure to join us on the Internet stream if you can't catch the signal on 770 AM....
April 6, 2006
Doin' The Cut-And-Run Bump At Hugh's
Hugh Hewitt has asked his listeners to come up with themes for the bump music he uses for his syndicated radio show. The bump music is what plays when a radio show goes into and out of its commercial breaks, and except for the top of the hour, that changes in every show. I sent Hugh my list of a dozen or so songs that fit the Cut And Run Theme, and he tells me that they will be using it today. Be sure to listen to find out what songs I selected for this theme -- and if you have any suggestions, be sure to note them in the comments. Don't forget to pick up Hugh's Painting The Map Red -- I have my copy and have already started to read it, after checking the index to see if CQ gets a mention. (I'm not saying ... you'll have...
May 1, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I will be appearing on The World Tonight with Rob Breckenridge at Calgary's CHQR at 8:30 CT. Be sure to tune in -- we'll be discussing illegal immigration....
June 22, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I will be on radio twice tonight. At 5 pm CT, I will appear on the Lars Larson show, discussing the WMD find and possibly the SCOTUS decision. Then at 9 pm CT, I'll be back on CHQR's The World Tonight with Rob Breckinridge, also talking about WMD, Iraq, the Senate votes today, and possibly Bush's visit to the EU. Be sure to tune in! UPDATE: Had a great time with Lars; I hope you all had a chance to listen in! We spent the entire time on WMD, but the topic could easily have taken us through an hour or more. Lars will stay on top of it, so stay tuned....
June 23, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be joining Hugh Hewitt tonight. He wants to talk about the New York Times and Bill Keller -- and since Bill Keller won't return his phone calls, he'll talk with a number of bloggers today instead. I'll be on at 6:40 CT this evening. Apparently, Keller went on vacation. On the day that his newspaper blew another national-security program. The day that he knew he would have faced calls for some sort of accounting. Well, that's courage in journalism for you ... UPDATE: I had the opportunity to get in on the same segment as Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit -- always a great honor -- and Rep. John Campbell. We had a spirited and delightful time skewering Bill Keller and the Times for their insistence on divulging national security secrets during wartime. Radioblogger will have the transcript up shortly, and my pals from Power Line will be up next...
June 24, 2006
Talking About The Gray Lady On Hugh Hewitt
Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend some time on Hugh's show, discussing the NY Times article disclosing more classified methods of tracking terrorists, this time through the global financial system. I had the distinct pleasure to join Glenn Reynolds and Rep. John Campbell in a ten-minute segment, which Hugh's top-notch producer, Generalissimo Duane Patterson at Radioblogger, transcribed late last night. Here's a taste of the debate: HH: Now earlier in the program, Senator Jon Kyl, and last segment, Congressman Campbell agreed that the New York Times' and Los Angeles Times' story today assisted the terrorists. The Vice President made the same argument. Glenn Reynolds, do you believe that to be the case. GR: Yes, and I want to make another very important point that I think a lot of the coverage has missed. This was done through SWIFT, the Society for Worlwide Interbank Financial Transfers. That's actually something I...
August 8, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be a guest on Rob Breckenridge's The World Tonight, airing on CHQR in Calgary, at 9 pm CT this evening. Rob and I will talk about the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict as well as the primaries in Connecticut and Georgia. If you're in Calgary, tune us in at 770 AM, but listeners can also catch the Internet stream at the radio station. Rob has a lively but respectful show, and it's always a delight to get an invitation. Be sure to tune in!...
August 29, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be joining Rob Breckenridge on CHQR's The World Tonight, the excellent evening radio talk show out of Calgary. My segment starts at 9 pm CT after the newsbreak, and we will discuss the Plame flame-out, and perhaps other topics as well. Be sure to listen on the Internet stream if you do not live in Calgary; Rob makes these appearances a lot of fun. UPDATE: I'll bet that CHQR's ratings look a lot better than those of Air America. They've plateaued -- and not in a very strong position. Their estimated audience for the Twin Cities -- with 2.6 million potential listeners age 12 and above -- comes to a paltry 29,000 and a 1.1 share, in a metropolitan area known for its liberal tilt. In Atlanta -- which Cynthia McKinney represents for another few months -- Air America attracts a total of 7,720 listeners. In Riverside, CA, they...
September 8, 2006
CQ On The Air
I'll be on the air with Lars Larson at 6:30 PM Central, about thirty minutes from now. Lars and I will be discussing the spate of 9/11 retrospectives and the Macalester College debate on Monday evening, as well as United 93 and Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West, and other topics. Be sure to tune in on your local radio station or listen on the Internet stream from his website. You can also call the show while I'm on at 866-HEY-LARS....
October 24, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I have the privilege and the pleasure of appearing once again on Rob Breckenridge's The World Tonight on CHQR radio in Calgary. I'll appear at 9:35 pm CT, and we'll be discussing the border fence and the midterm elections. If you don't live in Calgary, you can listen to the show on the Internet stream on the station's website at the above link. Rob has an excellent radio show, and I've thoroughly enjoyed all of my appearances....
November 8, 2006
CQ On The Air To Concede Mayoral Election
I'll be appearing on Rob Breckinreidge's show, The World Tonight, on CHQR in Calgary at 9:05 pm CT tonight. I plan to use the appearance to formally concede in my campaign to win the mayor's race in Eagan through write-in votes. Exit polling is still spotty -- well, we can't find the guy I paid to annoy people coming out of the polling station -- but so far, the campaign apparently foundered on the basics. Two major factors combined to deny me office: Eaganites who don't know who I am, and Eaganites who do. Of course, there was that whole Fresca thing, too. I may have to think about switching to Squirt. Actually, Rob wants to talk about the midterm election results, so be sure to tune in to catch my take on the GOP loss. If you're not in Calgary, listen in on their Internet stream!...
November 22, 2006
CQ Media Alert
I'll be visiting Hugh Hewitt today at his studio, and I might appear on the air, depending on what Hugh has planned. In any case, be sure to tune in to Hugh's show today and every day between 3-6 pm PT. He's the national radio host most engaged with the blogosphere, and one of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. UPDATE: Just got home from Hugh's studio in Orange County, and I hope you all had a chance to listen to the show. Hugh had both the FM and I on for the first two hours, along with Michael Totten and Walid Phares on the phone. He gets the best guests and best information; Michael had plenty of context for the events in Lebanon. I'll write more about it after dinner. UPDATE II: One of the qualities that Hugh's listeners comprehend almost immediately, but that his critics almost...
November 28, 2006
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be appearing on The World Tonight with Rob Breckinridge on Calgary's CHQR this evening at 9:30 CT. I've been on Rob's show a number of times, and he's one of the best interviewers I've had the pleasure to know. Tonight we'll be talking about the flying imams -- or the non-flying imams -- and other topics. If you're not in Calgary with your radio tuned to 770 AM, then be sure to listen on the station's Internet stream. Rob takes calls during the show, so don't be shy about using the number on the site!...
January 2, 2007
CQ On The Air Tonight
I'll be appearing on Jack Riccardi's Into The Night radio talk show at 8:20 pm CT this evening. Jack broadcasts to San Antonio out of KTSA, and he's been kind enough to have me on once before. You can catch us on his Internet stream here. It should be fun; we're going to discuss the upcoming Congress and the stumbles on ethics we've seen at the beginning. Hope you can join us! UPDATE: I hope some CQ readers got a chance to listen to the segment. Jack's a good guy, and San Antonio is lucky to have him. Hopefully it will get released as a podcast on the site....
January 11, 2007
My Evening With NPR
After I left work this evening, I drove to AM 1280 The Patriot to do an interview with Brooke Gladstone of NPR. I received a request to do a short interview on credibility issues in the media and the blogosphere, touching on but not limited to the Jamil Hussein story. NPR wanted to ensure that the sound quality remained high, and the folks at The Patriot -- where we broadcast our Northern Alliance radio shows on Saturday -- kindly agreed to provide the facilities. NPR really only wanted a five-minute segment, but Brooke and I wound up going for more than thirty minutes, challenging each other from our different perspectives. I have no idea how they will edit that down to five minutes, and we shared a laugh about that when we finally finished our conversation. I hope at some point the entire half-hour gets published, because I found it...
January 15, 2007
NPR Interview On Media Credibility
Last week, NPR invited me to do an interview with On The Media co-host Brooke Gladstone, for what was supposed to be a five-minute segment. Brooke and I ended up sparring for thirty minutes in a spirited debate, which I think we both enjoyed. NPR had to cut it down to five minutes, and I believe they did a good job in capturing the essence of both perspectives: Granted, a lot of the conversation from both of us got cut out. The only point I wish they would have left in the mix, but which took too long for the segment length, was my specific objection to using a single source for such explosive stories without even asking their clients in Iraq to confirm them. The burning mosque story only had the one source, Jamil Hussein, and the AP's other clients in Iraq never heard anything about this story. I...
January 22, 2007
CQ Radio Launch Tomorrow With SOTU Speech Review
Tomorrow, I will be launching another Internet project at BlogTalkRadio -- a weekly Internet "radio" show where CQ readers and everyone else can call in and discuss politics, foreign policy, national security, and any other topic that strikes our fancy. The show will air on Thursday evenings from 9-10 pm CT, but we'll kick it off tomorrow with a special 90-minute review of the President's State of the Union speech at 9:30 pm CT. I'll be live-blogging the speech, and almost immediately afterwards, we'll start the show. Be sure to call in at 646-652-4889 to join me and everyone else. Can't make it at that time? No worries -- Blog Talk Radio archives the shows as podcasts. Just click to my host page below to tune in live or to listen to the archived podcasts....
January 24, 2007
Premiere Show Of CQ Radio Available On Podcast
Last night, I premiered my latest Internet venture with Blog Talk Radio, CQ Radio. We started with a 90-minute show dissecting the State of the Union speech, and we had some great callers, including Amendment X, Sean Hackbarth, James Boyce from the Huffington Post, and our first caller, Jim from Nashville. The entire 90-minute show is now available as a podcast at BTR, or you can play it as a stream from my sidebar just above the Blogads strips. We had a pretty good launch, with 140 live listeners and at least a dozen calls. Hopefully, we will be all set to go on Thursday evening for the regular 60-minute shows at 9 PM CT. Let me know what you think, and make sure to listen to our next show! UPDATE: The show is now playing at AirCongress, Daniel Glover's excellent site....
January 25, 2007
CQ Radio On The Air
Don't forget that we will start our regular broadcasts of CQ Radio tonight at 9 pm CT. We'll be discussing some of the topics of this week, but I want to focus on the GOP slate for the Presidential nomination. What do you think about Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain? Will Newt commit to the race? Any dark horses out there worth drafting? We'll also talk about the pushback in the blogosphere to the competing Senate resolutions to oppose the "surge". Be sure to tune in, and join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889....
February 1, 2007
CQ Radio Show Tonight!
I'll be back on my Blog Talk Radio show again tonight at 9 pm CT, ready to take your calls and discuss the issues of the day. Topics usually will be a game-time decision, but I'll be interested in hearing your opinions on the dramatic rise and fall of the Joe Biden campaign, the Senate's attempts to pass a non-binding resolution opposing the troop surge in Baghdad, Al Franken's run at Norm Coleman's seat, and much more. Be sure to tune in, and join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889!...
February 8, 2007
Imus Endorses Tancredo?
According to Kathryn Jean Lopez at The Corner, Don Imus and Tom Tancredo should take a meeting. Imus, while speaking with guest Mary Matalin, suggested that bombing Mecca might make for a good strategy: Imus this morning just suggested on his radio show that bombing Mecca (among other places) would send a message to the enemy — a true enough (it would send some message, though I'm not sure a war-ending one) but not at all advisable statement. ... Expect a CAIR press conference scheduled before noon. We've been through this before. Almost two years ago, Tom Tancredo offered the same strategy as a response to a nuclear terrorist attack in the US. Neither Tancredo nor Imus apparently realize that reprisal attacks against civilian areas is now considered a war crime. Unless Imus can point to a war-related activity occuring near the Black Stone, such an attack would be not...
CQ Radio On The Air Tomorrow Tonight!
Don't forget that I'll be back on my Blog Talk Radio show again tonight at 9 pm CT, ready to take your calls and discuss the issues of the day. Topics usually will be a game-time decision, but I'm definitely interested in discussing the contretemps over the John Edwards bloggers, as well as the John McCain outreach to the blogs and what that means for McCain and other candidates. Be sure to tune in, and join the conversation by calling 646-652-4889! BUMP: To top. Hope to talk to you this evening! I'll be joined by Beltway Blogroll writer Daniel Glover, who has covered this controversy since it started. Also, James Boyce will be on the air with Chris Bowers at 1 pm ET for his BTR show Heading Left, and the topic will almost certainly come up there as well....
CQ Radio & Friends
If you didn't catch the installment of CQ Radio tonight, you missed the best show yet. Daniel Glover from Beltway Blogroll joined me for the entire hour to discuss the John Edwards controversy in the blogosphere, and Sean from The American Mind spent the last 30 minutes making it a round table. Be sure to listen to it on podcast from Blog Talk Radio, or on my sidebar, just above the Blogads....
February 14, 2007
Newt Gingrich On CQ Radio
He's acknowledged as the philosophical leader of the conservative movement, and led the Republican revolution of 1994 to start a 12-year run of GOP control of Congress -- a period that ended in last year's midterm elections. Now he's rumored to be considering a Presidential campaign and consistently scores highly among blog readers, even though he insists that he wants to focus on his ongoing, myriad projects. Newt Gingrich continues to be one of the most intriguing figures in American politics, and I will be interviewing him for tomorrow's CQ Radio show at 9 pm CT. Barring any last-minute schedule conflicts -- and those things happen -- the former Speaker and I will discuss the state of conservatism today, and its prospects for the 2008 election. We'll also catch up with his projects, which include a new 527, American Solutions for Winning the Future, as well as an event with...
February 15, 2007
CQ Radio: Newt Gingrich And Tim Pawlenty
As I have promised this week, we will have a blockbuster program tonight on CQ Radio, my BlogTalkRadio show at 9 pm CT tonight. During this week, I have conducted interviews with former Speaker Newt Gingrich and current Governor Tim Pawlenty. Pawlenty talked with me about his efforts as national co-chair of John McCain's presidential exploratory committee, discussing the points of conservative discontent with the Senator. Pawlenty is engaging and thoughtful, and his perspective on the campaign is intriguing. Newt Gingrich may have been one of the most challenging interviews I've ever conducted. Brilliant, outspoken, and with an excellent sense of history, Gingrich pulls no punches in this conversation. He analyzes the midterm elections, calls conservatives to arms to make a positive case for the agenda, and castigates the presidential candidates for jumping the gun on the electoral cycle. Our first topic is the critique he released today on...
February 16, 2007
CQ Media Alert
I'll be joining Rob Breckenridge on CHQR's The World Tonight at 9 pm CT. We'll be discussing the presidential campaign as well as Al Franken's announcement for the Minnesota Senate. I imagine that today's vote in the House might get a mention, too. Be sure to tune in on the Internet stream if you don't live in the Calgary area. UPDATE: As always, I had a lot of fun with Rob. We did two segments tonight, and we covered quite a bit of territory. The best part, though, was being able to say, "I talked with Newt Gingrich yesterday, and he said ..."...
February 19, 2007
Dogs And Cats Living Together?
The only two subscription radio services in the US have agreed to merge, hoping that the plethora of platforms for content will convince antitrust regulators to ignore the deal. Sirius and XM will combine their offerings as well as their operations, hoping to save as much as $7 billion: Satellite radio operators Sirius and XM are expected to announce their long-awaited merger today, according to a source familiar with the deal. The two sides were locked in negotiations over the weekend trying to hammer out a final agreement with an eye toward going public with the merger today in Washington, D.C., where XM is based, this source said. ... Combining Sirius and XM would result in a single satellite radio operator with more than 12 million total subscribers. A deal would also marry Sirius content, such as Howard Stern, Frank Sinatra and Nascar with XM's Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan and...
February 22, 2007
CQ Radio Tonight!
I'll be hosting another edition of CQ Radio tomorrow evening tonight at 9 pm. Be sure to join us at the above link, and by calling the show at (646) 652-4889. Topics: I want to take a look at the Democratic presidential contenders. The contretemps today between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama exposed some insecurities from the former First Lady, and that may open the campaign up not just to Barack Obama but to some others more starved for attention. Who will benefit from a Hillary stumble? Which candidate should the Republicans fear most? Let's talk about the answers to those questions and more, tomorrow tonight at 9 pm CT. Addendum: Please join me in wishing a welcome home to longtime CQ reader Deb R, who just got released from the hospital after a dog attack. Fair skies and clear sailing, Deb -- you're in our prayers. BUMP: To...
February 28, 2007
CQ Radio From The Nation's Capital
I've landed in Washington DC for the CPAC conference tomorrow. I'm not staying at the Omni Shoreham, where the conference is being held; I got my reservations too late to get a room there. I'm nearby, in a hotel where the accommodations can best be described as "prison chic". The bed appears to be the Mahatma Gandhi model offered at finer hotels everywhere, but it'll do. I don't plan to spend much time here anyway. The Internet show tomorrow will feature at least one interview, with Arkansas Governor and Presidential contender Mike Huckabee. Describing himself as the one true conservative in the race, and one of the few Republicans running with extensive executive experience in public office, Huckabee wants to re-enact 1992 when another Arkansas Governor came out of nowhere to win the nomination. I'll also update listeners on the events at CPAC, and take your calls at 646-652-4889....
March 8, 2007
CQ Radio: Libby, Cheney, Visas, And Cut-And-Runs (Bumped)
Tonight, CQ Radio will air at its normal time, between 9-10 pm CT, and we'll be talking about Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, pardons, appeals, and more. We'll also have Charles Hurt from the Washington Examiner on the show to discuss the expansion of the Visa Waiver Program. You can listen live at the above link, and even join in the conversation by calling 646-652-4889. We may have more to discuss between then and now, and I'll be keeping the agenda wide open in case any breaking stories catch our attention. Yesterday, Always On! ran an interesting article on Blog Talk Radio, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point it out: What sets BlogTalkRadio apart from similar services is its clever and easy-to-use implementation without needing any special equipment. The secret is that all audio input is via the telephone. Podcasters get a private dial-in number to the service,...
March 15, 2007
CQ Radio Tonight (Bumped And Updated)
CQ Radio will be back on the air tonight, at its regularly scheduled time, 9 pm CT. Tonight we'll be discussing the latest version of Cut and Run and its progress through Congress, as well as the rare veto threat coming from the White House. We'll also talk about Hillary Clinton's interview with the New York Times, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession at his military tribunal, the controversy over the firings of eight US Attorneys, and much more. We'll be talking with Colonel Austin Bay, noted author and military expert, about the new Democratic plan and Hillary Clinton's latest bombshell on her Iraq strategy. NZ Bear from the Victory Caucus will also join us. In the second half of the show, California prosecutor Patterico will join me to discuss the terminations of the eight federal prosecutors. Don't miss this opportunity to join in the debate! You can listen live at...
March 22, 2007
CQ Radio Tonight (Bumped!)
CQ Radio will be back on the air tonight, at its regularly scheduled time, 9 pm CT. Tonight we'll talk with National Journal's Heather Greenfield about media and politics. As Senior Writer, she covers lobbying, campaigns, competitiveness and cyber security. She was a reporter for AP in Washington for 12 years and the Washington columnist for TechWeek magazine. Greenfield used to be a television reporter and came to Washington in 1991 as part of a Joan Shorenstein Barone Congressional Fellowship, in which she worked as a press assistant for the Senate Finance Committee. She has trained radio and TV reporters in Ethiopia, and wrote for die Tageszeitung as part of a journalist exchange program in Berlin. She has a master's degree in news media studies from American University, a graduate certificate in Asian studies from the University of Hawaii, and an honors degree in journalism from the University of...
March 24, 2007
Did You Catch The Last CQ Radio Show?
If you missed the last CQ Radio show on Thursday night, you really missed a treat. I spoke with Heather Greenfield, senior writer for the National Journal, about media bias, the pressures that the mainstream media face in today's market, the presidential campaigns, and what it's like to work for Daniel Glover. It's a fascinating conversation, and Heather provides a rare look behind the media's green curtain. Her insights on the AP are especially interesting for those of us who have been critical of their reporting. Don't believe me? The clip has had five times more downloads than any of my previous shows, well over 1400 of them. Take a listen, and don't forget that all of my previous shows are podcasted at Blog Talk Radio -- my new employer as of mid-April. If you're interested in having your own Blog Talk Radio show, be sure to contact me!...
March 27, 2007
Giuliani Team On Blog Talk Radio Tonight
Given the status as frontrunner that they have surprisingly maintained, Rudy Giuliani's campaign team has not made themselves or their candidate terribly available to the blogosphere. Lately, though, they have started accelerating their outreach, especially with their recent additions of Jim Dyke and Mike McKeon as new Senior Communications Advisors. Dyke will make an appearance tonight on Eric Dondero's Blog Talk Radio program, Libertarian Politics Live. Given Eric's philosophical leanings, that should make for an interesting interview....
March 29, 2007
CQ Radio Tonight! (Bumped)
We have a great show already lined up for tomorrow night at 9 pm CT, as CQ Radio talks with the two front-running Republican campaigns for the 2008 presidential primaries. First, we'll talk with Jim Dyke from the Rudy Giuliani team. Jim just joined Team Rudy as a senior communications advisor, and we'll talk about his strategies for Rudy's message and how the campaign plans to address the concerns of conservatives. We will also have one of my good friends from the blogosphere, Patrick Hynes, who works for John McCain's campaign as New Media coordinator. Patrick and I often debate and needle each other on e-mail -- all in good fun, though, as you'll hear during the show. Patrick is an eloquent spokesman for the Senator, and we'll hear from Patrick about McCain's strengths as I challenge him on his controversial stands. Be sure to join the debate! You...
April 5, 2007
CQ Radio Tonight
We're going to have a great show tonight on CQ Radio. Debra Burlingame, one of the founders of 9/11 Families for America and the sister of murdered pilot Charles "Chic" Burlingame, will join me tonight at the top of the show. We'll be discussing the John Walker Lindh demand for a reduced sentence, but will focus more on the John Doe controversy involving the Traveling Imams and their attempts to sue people who report suspicious activity. After that, we will either have another guest or discuss the stories of the day. We can talk about the resolution to the Iranian hostage crisis, Rudy Giuliani's conflicting messages on federal funding for abortions, Nancy Pelosi's shadow presidency, and more. Be sure to join the debate! You can call 646-652-4889 to join the conversation. UPDATE: James Boyce and Nathan Wilcox have done a nice job revamping Heading Left for the port side...
April 9, 2007
Imus' Tone Deafness Nothing New
Don Imus, the national radio talk-show host for NBC, got himself into some hot water last week when he used racially derogative terms to describe a women's college basketball team. Calling them "nappy-headed ho's", Imus compared them unfavorably to a supposedly "cute" and predominantly white competing team. Today, Imus attempted to apologize to Al Sharpton on the latter's own radio show, but Sharpton didn't let him off the hook: Don Imus said on his nationally syndicated radio show today that he was a “good person who said a bad thing” by way of explaining his comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team that many critics have called racist. ... Later in the day, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been calling for Mr. Imus’s resignation, upbraided him on his own radio show, “Keepin It Real,” as the two discussed his comments. “This is not about whether you’re a good...
April 10, 2007
Edwards' Neighbor On Blog Talk Radio
Yesterday, Elizabeth Edwards made headlines by declaring that she would treat her "rabid Republican" in an uncivil manner, despite never having met the man. Tonight, you can do what Elizabeth Edwards refuses to do -- meet her neighbor. Eric Dondero will have John Montgomery on his Blog Talk Radio show tonight: You may have caught this story yesterday. It made AP nationally. Seems Dem Presidential Candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth have a slight little problem. They hate their neighbor. He's a gun-toting, property rights advocating, root 'n tootin' libertarian Republican. My Co-Host Andre Traversa called him up last night. And this guy is a hoot! He's country to the core. John Montgomery will be on our show tonight "Libertarian Politics Live" to discuss his "slight little problem" with the Edwards. Be sure to tune in at 9:30 pm CT tonight!...
April 11, 2007
The Market Is Not Censorship (Updated)
Don Imus has created a firestorm of criticism for his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team last week, in which he called them "nappy-headed ho's". Many critics have called for CBS and NBC to fire Imus for his remarks, while some feel that terminating his show would go too far for the offense given. Michael Meyers, the former head of the New York Civil Rights Commission and an officer in the NAACP, even calls such demands an infringement on free speech: Defending Don Imus's on-air racial idiocy is impossible -- but defending free speech, even in the form of sick humor, ought to be considered anew in the wake of a storm of protest from censorious activists who are demanding that Imus be fired. There is an audience out there that is hungry for the ribald and the offensive. It is an audience that will not go away and...
April 12, 2007
CQ Radio Transition
Normally, I'd be preparing another installment of the weekly CQ Radio show. However, I'm presently working to transition CQ Radio to a new daily show. We launch on Monday, April 16th, at 2 pm CT. The show will air at that time every weekday as part of my new position as Political Director of Blog Talk Radio. I'll be interviewing bloggers, authors, and political players and introducing new Blog Talk Radio hosts. Tuesday, I'll have a taped interview with author and journalist Bernard Goldberg, who has a new book out: Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One Side Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve, which launches the same day. I'll be off the air tonight while I prepare the transition. But since you have an extra hour, why not check out some of the other Blog Talk Radio shows? BTR chief Alan...
April 14, 2007
Upcoming On CQ Radio This Week: Bernard Goldberg, Duncan Hunter & More
On Monday, I start my new daily show at Blog Talk Radio, and we're going to start with a bang. We will have Congressman and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter to start the first show, and he will be taking your calls for the first half of the show. On the second half, Fausta will discuss immigration and her own BTR show. Tuesday, we will spend all day with Bernard Goldberg, media and cultural critic as well as journalist for HBO after a long career at CBS News. His new book, Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right: How One SIde Lost Its Mind and the Other Lost Its Nerve, hits the bookstands on Tuesday, and you can pre-order it now. I interviewed him today and will play highlights of the conversation during the show. He has plenty of thoughts on Don Imus, about whom he presciently...
April 17, 2007
Talking BTR With Andrea Shea King
After the end of my CQ Radio show this afternoon -- and a great interview with Bernard Goldberg -- I got the chance to speak with Andrea Shea King at WWBC in Florida, along with her guests, Free Republic posters Chris Taylor and Larry Middleton. Andrea interviewed me at length about my new position with Blog Talk Radio, and I had an opportunity to speak about all of the terrific shows and how easily anyone can make themselves into a talk-show host. I had a great time talking BTR, blogs, and current events with Andrea -- and hopefully I can do it again soon. The segment will repeat at 9 pm CT, I believe. They do not have archives set up yet on their website, but I hope to catch the segment myself tonight ......
May 7, 2007
CQ Media Alert: The Hugh Hewitt Show (Update: Strib Announces Staff Reductions)
I'll be appearing on the Hugh Hewitt show tonight at 5:30 pm. We'll be talking about the Lileks story, which should come as no surprise, since James has been a contributor to Hugh's show for years. Be sure to tune in, and you can also catch the live stream at AM 1280 The Patriot! UPDATE: The Strib announced what we knew was coming -- 145 positions will be cut: The Star Tribune announced plans Monday to reduce its workforce by about 145 employees across the company, primarily through voluntary buyouts. ... “Revenue has been declining since 2004 and we need to respond to that reality.” Ridder said in a prepared statement. “The newspaper business model has changed and this restructuring will allow us to align more resources with what readers and advertisers are demanding from us. Through this process we will be increasing resources focused on local content and advertising...
May 10, 2007
CQ Media Alert: The Laura Ingraham Show
I will appear on the Laura Ingraham show at 9:30 CT, roughly an hour from now, to talk with substitute host Tammy Bruce about my post yesterday on the alliance between radical Islam and the far Left. It should make for great morning conversation, so be sure to tune in on your radios or through Laura Ingraham's website....
Will Opie And Anthony Get The Imus Treatment?
Opie and Anthony are two shock jocks with a long history of controversy. In 2002, they lost their jobs in New York after staging a sex contest, complete with live coverage of a couple, er, coupling in Saint Patrick's Cathedral. After outraged Catholics protested against the desecration of their church, the duo went looking for other employment. They wound up at XM Radio, the satellite subscription radio service that has millions of listeners -- including me. I've never bothered to listen to them, and today, they proved me right. In a completely tasteless and offensive bit, the pair joked with an in-studio guest about raping Condoleezza Rice: Warning: Extremely Vulgar Language. XM Shock Jocks Opie and Anthony engage in discussion about forced sex with the Secretary of State. A studio guest, Homeless Charlie, begins describing the scenario as the hosts laugh and encourage him. Anthony talks about the horror for...
May 14, 2007
The Imus Effect: A Demand For Decency?
Two more shock jocks find themselves on the unemployment lines after offending their audiences with racial humor. CBS News, which fired Don Imus for his offhand comment about the Rutgers basketball team, has now also fired the two hosts of the "The Dog House with JV and Elvis" for a skit that used an Asian restaurant as the butt of a joke about Asians and their accents: One month after CBS Radio fired radio host Don Imus, it has permanently pulled the plug on a pair of suspended New York shock jocks for a prank phone call rife with offensive Asian stereotypes. "The Dog House with JV and Elvis," hosted by Jeff Vandergrift and Dan Lay, "will no longer be broadcast," CBS Radio spokeswoman Karen Mateo said Saturday. The cancellation of the show on WFNY-FM, nearly three weeks after the hosts were suspended, was another indication of the increased scrutiny...
May 16, 2007
XM Suspends Opie And Anthony
On Thursday, I wondered whether the controversial remarks on the XM Radio show "Opie and Anthony", where the two shock jocks joined an in-studio guest in joking about raping Condoleezza Rice, would result in the same kind of sanctions against the hosts as Don Imus received for his idiotic remark about the womens' basketball team at Rutgers. We have our answer now; XM has suspended the show for 30 days: "XM Radio deplored the comments aired on “The Opie & Anthony Show” last week. At the time, the company strongly expressed its views to Opie and Anthony, and they issued an immediate apology,” the company said in the statement. “Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday’s broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter. The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our that our on-air talent must...
June 18, 2007
CQ Media Alert
At 8 pm CT, I'll join Rob Breckenridge on his CHQR show, The World Tonight, to discuss -- well, whatever Rob wants to discuss. I've been a guest on his show a number of times, and Rob is a terrific and generous host. If you're not in Calgary, be sure to listen on the live Internet stream. Don't forget that I'll also join James Joyner for his first Outside the Beltway BTR show at 6 pm CT! You can join that conversation by calling 646-716-7030....
June 22, 2007
Talk Radio & The CAP Report
Since talk radio has become a hot topic in and of itself, Wednesday's report from the Center for American Progress has become the center of the debate. I actually agree with the what looks to be the central argument of the report -- liberal ideas require government intervention to force more than a few people to listen to them. At Heading Right, I look at the underlying assumptions the report makes in its attempt to impose government rationing of political speech in open markets, and why the demand for a new Fairness Doctrine is just another stalking horse to kill a market in which liberals have proven, thus far, uncompetitive. UPDATE: Mark Levin notes that the author of CAP's study, Paul "Woody" Woodhull, failed to disclose his professional and financial connections to two liberal syndicated radio show hosts, Bill Press and Ed Schultz. Can you say "conflict of interest"? I...
July 18, 2007
Petraeus On Hewitt
I hear that Hugh Hewitt will have a very special guest on today's show: General David Petraeus. Hugh's show starts at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT. While Hugh is always must-catch radio, be sure to clear your schedule for tonight. While you're at it, make sure to catch Rush right now. I'm certain that he will have some clear and concise words for the cigar-tax idiocy that the Democrats tried to quietly push through Congress. King Banaian notes that this looks very similar to the luxury tax that Democrats forced onto the Bush 41 administration, and reviews the fallout....
August 1, 2007
Happy Anniversary, Rush
The man who helped create the market for conservative talk radio celebrates 19 years in the business today. Rush Limbaugh has changed broadcast radio history and continues to produce the most popular political talk show in America after all these years. He's opened up doors for conservatives that had been shut tight before he appeared on the scene and transformed talk radio. Besides that, he's a good friend and a great guy. Thanks again, Rush, for all you do. Happy anniversary, and many more ahead, we hope. (via The Corner)...
August 2, 2007
CQ Media Alerts
I'll be making two appearances on radio shows this evening to discuss the Minneapolis bridge collapse story. First, I'll join Hugh Hewitt at 6:40 pm CT. Hugh will probably run with this story for most of his show. At 9:35 pm CT, I'll be on The World Tonight with Rob Breakenridge on Calgary's CHQR....
August 6, 2007
Media Alert: Bill Bennett
Tomorrow morning, I will appear on the Bill Bennett radio show at 6:30 am ET. We'll be talking about the bridge collapse here in Minneapolis and the latest Republican debate. Be sure to set your alarm clocks -- I know I will!...
August 7, 2007
Podcast: Bill Bennett Appearance
Earlier this morning, I got the chance to appear on Bill Bennett's national radio show. Many of you may have missed this since it came at 6:30 AM ET, but the show's producer was kind enough to send me an MP3 file of the segment. I've podcasted it here, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did....
August 8, 2007
Media Alert
I'm just going on air at A Newt One with John and Jimmy Z, another BlogTalkRadio show. Join us at 646-652-2670!...
August 12, 2007
Dream Or Nightmare? The Generalissimo Winds Up ....
How many of us, growing up as kids, dreamed of throwing out the first pitch at a major league baseball game? Granted, a lot of us dreamed of actually playing on the team, too, but being able to be on the field at all, taking part of a ritual shared by Presidents and prophets, rich and poor, all brought together by love of the national pastime, was a fantasy many of us played out in our heads as children. As an adult, though, that fantasy could easily turn into a nightmare. What happens if the ball doesn't make it to the plate? What if I trip and fall? What if I show up to school in my underwear just as the final exam finishes -- oh, wait, that's another nightmare. Our friend Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson had to face his dreams and nightmares in one of the least friendly confines in...
August 14, 2007
Guess Who's Coming Back To The Dial?
I wonder if ABC got Al Sharpton's endorsement on this decision. Don Imus, whose racially-charged description of the Rutgers womens' basketball team not only got him fired but started a backlash against rap music, has reached an accommodation with CBS that will bring him back to the airwaves on its rival station: Don Imus has reached a settlement with CBS over his multimillion-dollar contract and is negotiating with WABC radio to resume his broadcasting career there, according to CBS and a person familiar with the negotiations. Imus and CBS Radio "have mutually agreed to settle claims that each had against the other regarding the Imus radio program on CBS," the network said in a statement Tuesday. ... CBS confirmed only that the settlement had been reached. The person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press that Imus is taking steps to make a comeback with WABC. The person, who...
August 20, 2007
Maybe The Bill Had Something To Do With It
The Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a study to determine why the immigration-reform bill died on the floor of the Senate -- and readers can guess who gets the credit and the blame. Their exhaustive study, apparently completed and published in six weeks, claims that conservative talk radio set off a frenzied mob by using the word "amnesty": Opposition from key talk radio and cable TV hosts helped kill the immigration bill in Congress, a study out today concludes. “What listeners of the conservative talk radio media were hearing, in large part, was that the legislation itself was little more than an ‘amnesty bill’ for illegal immigrants, a phrase loaded with political baggage,” it says. The study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism quantifies what White House and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail inboxes already indicated: Talk radio focused on the immigration debate more intensely than...
August 27, 2007
Sneak Peek At The Thompson Interview
I'm at the Minnesota State Fair all day today, thanks to a couple of scheduling issues that came up over the weekend. The Fred Thompson campaign offered me a chance to get a quick interview with the Senator at midday, and as you will hear on today's show, it was fairly quick -- around five minutes, which is as long as we could go in this madhouse. However, I think you will find it fascinating, especially in regards to the tone of his campaign and his Indianapolis speech. Thompson has a few words about the importance of this election and why it's important to talk straight to the American people. You won't want to miss it. I'm also including a recording of Thompson's press conference at the GOP booth here at the fair, in which he answers a lot of the questions asked by the readers here at CQ. He...
September 7, 2007
Did Ed Schultz Assault A Woman In A Bar?
What is it with left-wing radio hosts? Al Franken squared off on Laura Ingraham's producer at the 2004 Republican National Convention and tackled a protestor at a Democratic rally. Now Ed Schultz apparently bruised a woman after arguing politics with her and her husband in a Detroit Lakes, Minnesota bar (via Power Line): The conversation went sour when Nagle said he respects Joe Lieberman, the Independent Democratic senator from Connecticut known for supporting the Iraq war. Nagle said Schultz said he doesn’t like Lieberman, and then commented that if Nagle felt so strongly about the war, his family should go over and fight in it. The daughter of Nagle’s fiancee serves in the Army and may soon go to Iraq. His fiancee’s son-in-law has served in Iraq. “It was at that time that Mr. Schultz completely lost control, in my opinion,” Nagle said. “He became enraged, and then our interactions...
September 14, 2007
Media Notes And Quick Links
I hope everyone had a chance to catch our weekly round-up with Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson on Heading Right Radio. We actually ran over our time by about twelve minutes, so be sure to download the podcast. Speaking of which, I know that the iTunes subscription has stopped working, due to a URL change on our podcast RSS feed. I will work on a new iTunes subscription feed, but in the meantime, the correct RSS feed can be found on my sidebar, just below the BlogTalkRadio buttons. Tonight at 5 pm CT, I'll be back in the studio with Hugh Hewitt, appearing on his syndicated talk show. Hugh will have a segment or two with Mitt Romney, I believe, and I'll hang around and talk Pittsburgh Steelers football -- or perhaps a more joyful topic for Hugh. Be sure to tune in. Also, a few bloggers got a chance to interview...
September 27, 2007
Live Blogging Hannity
Sean Hannity has joined Newt Gingrich for a portion of the Solutions Day event, and he's prerecording the last hour of his show here in front of a live audience. It's been interesting to watch Sean work the room, live, during his show. Radio tends to be a rather insular pursuit. One does not get a sense of audience while broadcasting, except at live "remotes" like this. Hannity has been well received by this audience, which may indicate that Solutions Day hasn't drawn the bipartisan attendees here for the kickoff that Newt Gingrich wanted. He has drawn a number of reporters, including a couple from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I met Jim Galloway and Ben Gray from the AJC, which Hannity referred to as the "Atlanta Urinal", which got a laugh from the audience but not the media bench. He seems to enjoy the audience. His reactions to callers seems broad...
October 3, 2007
Andy McCarthy: Run That One By Me Again
Quite frankly, the entire pseudo-controversy over Rush Limbaugh's remarks headlined the Theater of the Absurd for the past week, and apparently continues its meager run on the stage. Michelle Malkin sees the strategy for exactly what it is -- a payback for the beating that MoveOn took over calling General David Petraeus a traitor on the pages of the New York Times. Andy McCarthy practically has to pick his jaw up off the floor over the target selection of the Left: There really was a news story, generated by the mainstream media of all people, about phony soldiers — poseurs who falsely claim to have put their lives on the line in our country’s armed forces, at least some of whom engage the pretense precisely to libel real heroes as terrorists and marauders. Rush Limbaugh, one of this nation’s single-most ardent supporters of the military, was briefed on the news...
December 3, 2007
Back In The Saddle Again
Don Imus made his return to the airwaves this morning, diminished but mostly unbowed, on WABC in New York City. The radio cowboy returns to the saddle months after his termination for using racially-insensitive criticisms of the Rutgers' women's basketball team, after which CBS Radio and MS-NBC both dumped him. While he says he learned his lesson, Imus also promises that the show itself will not change: Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, introducing a new cast that included two black comedians. As he did several times in the days after his comments, Imus condemned his remarks and said he had learned his lesson. ... While Imus pledged to use his new show to talk about race relations, he added: "Other than that, not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a...
December 27, 2007
Alert The Media
I'll be on the Hugh Hewitt show tonight at 7:30 pm CT to talk about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Hugh's going all three hours on this topic; be sure to tune in to catch all the latest information on the terrorist attack....
January 14, 2008
Rush, Having Far Too Much Fun
I know we've all had our share of schadenfreude on the Right over the racial eruptions on the Left, but no one has had as much fun with it than Rush did today. He doesn't miss any of the points raised over the last couple of weeks, and emphasized that it only started happening because Barack Obama actually began to seriously challenge Hillary for the nomination. Bryan at Hot Air gives us the video of his opening monologue, in two parts: Rush even gets to damn with faint praise: "[Obama] can deliver a hell of a vapid speech!" Watch him laughing with delight at the end of Part II. But he didn't stop with the monologue. He went into much more detail on Hillary's comments, and caught this interesting nugget from Hillary's Meet the Press interview yesterday: HILLARY: And the point that I was responding to from Senator Obama himself...
January 22, 2008
Did Talk Radio Lose In South Carolina?
Michael Medved has a provocative column from this weekend arguing that the biggest loser in South Carolina wasn't Fred Thompson or Mike Huckabee. Medved, a Salem Radio talk-show host, says that the conservative endorsement of John McCain repudiated talk-show offensives against his campaign and exposed talk radio as a dying influence on the Right: The big loser in South Carolina was, in fact, talk radio: a medium that has unmistakably collapsed in terms of impact, influence and credibility because of its hysterical and one-dimensional involvement in the GOP nomination fight. For more than a month, the leading conservative talkers in the country have broadcast identical messages in an effort to demonize Mike Huckabee and John McCain. If you’ve tuned in at all to Rush, Sean, Savage, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and two dozen others you’ve heard a consistent drum beat of hostility toward Mac...
January 24, 2008
Alert The Media
I'll be on Hugh Hewitt tonight at 6:20 pm CT, presumably to discuss the latest in the presidential primaries. I'm now scheduled to do a regular gig with Hugh on the fourth Thursday of the month, so mark that on your schedules. Hugh has juggled the schedule tonight; usually I'd be on in the final hour. Afterwards, I'll be live-blogging the Florida debate tonight from 8-10 pm CT at Heading Right, and holding a live wrap-up show at BlogTalkRadio's Debate Central from 10-10:30 pm CT. Don't miss any of the coverage!...
January 29, 2008
Alert The Media
I'll make a few media appearances tonight as the Florida primary figures start to materialize: 7:35 PM CT - The Rick Moran Show on BTR 8:10 - The Jack Riccardi Show on San Antonio's AM 550 KTSA 9:35 - The World Tonight with Rob Breakenridge, Calgary's AM770 CHQR I will also be live-blogging the results as we keep an eye on the race. Keep checking back for more updates....
February 5, 2008
Rush Endorses Romney
Well, well, well. This makes it nearly unanimous among the conservative talk-radio leaders, with only Michael Medved dissenting. Rush Limbaugh, who had long resisted direct involvement in primary politics, has gone one step further than the anti-endorsement for John McCain that he has been delivering for the past couple of weeks (via Hot Air): RUSH: I think now, based on the way the campaign has shaken out, that there probably is a candidate on our side who does embody all three legs of the conservative stool, and that’s Romney. The three stools or the three legs of the stool are national security/foreign policy, the social conservatives, and the fiscal conservatives. The social conservatives are the cultural people. The fiscal conservatives are the economic crowd: low taxes, smaller government, get out of the way. Of course, the foreign policy crowd is obviously what it is. I don’t think there’s anybody on...
February 7, 2008
Alert The Media
It's been a long and eventful day, but nothing beats ending it with a few friends. I'll talk with CHQR's Rob Breakinridge for The World Tonight to discuss Mitt Romney's withdrawal and the apparent clinching of the nomination by John McCain, and what it means for Republicans and conservatives. I'm on at 10:35 pm ET, and you can catch me on CHQR's Internet stream....
February 25, 2008
Alert The Media, And CQ Shutdown FAQ
I will join Duane Patterson on the Hugh Hewitt show tonight at 6:40 pm CT to discuss my move to Hot Air. Hugh's on his Hugh Cruise, and Dean Barnett took suddenly ill, so Duane gets the center seat tonight. In the meantime, I want to address a few of the most asked questions in comments and e-mails today. Q. You're going to change your style. Not if Michelle and I both have our way. Michelle wants my voice at Hot Air, not for me to adopt someone else's voice. I plan on writing in the same way that I have for the last four and a half years; I doubt I could write in any other fashion. I certainly wouldn't want to. I wouldn't have taken the job if I couldn't write the way I like, and Michelle wouldn't have offered it if I did. The best I can...
About
Ed Morrissey has blogged at Captain's Quarters since 2003, and has a daily radio show at BlogTalkRadio, where he serves as Political Director. Called "Captain Ed" by his readers, Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather.
My Other Blog
The Crows Nest
Alert The Media, And CQ Shutdown FAQ
I will join Duane Patterson on the Hugh Hewitt show tonight at 6:40 pm CT to discuss my move to Hot Air. Hugh's on his Hugh Cruise, and Dean Barnett took suddenly ill, so Duane gets the center seat tonight.
In the meantime, I want to address a few of the most asked questions in comments and e-mails today.
Q. You're going to change your style.
Not if Michelle and I both have our way. Michelle wants my voice at Hot Air, not for me to adopt someone else's voice. I plan on writing in the same way that I have for the last four and a half years; I doubt I could write in any other fashion. I certainly wouldn't want to. I wouldn't have taken the job if I couldn't write the way I like, and Michelle wouldn't have offered it if I did.
The best I can do to alleviate those concerns is to tell people to keep reading me and keep me honest.
Q. What about your personal posts about the First Mate and Little Admiral?
I'll be doing those at Hot Air as well. I'm also bringing the AOL Hot Seat Poll on those days when I write the question. I'm bringing the whole deal with me when I go to Hot Air. Well, except for the mess in my office, which the First Mate insists I jettison.
Q. Can't we just cross-post to Captain's Quarters?
As you might imagine, I would have loved to keep CapQ going. However, the idea here is to help build the Hot Air blog, and it makes sense to redirect the traffic from CapQ. I'll keep the archives live permanently.
Q. I can't read Hot Air at military facilities.
We need to ask the DoD about that one, don't we? I'm sorry that will be a problem for some, because I know I have a lot of military readers. Hopefully it won't always be a problem.
Q. What about BTR?
Please see this post. I'm sorry to leave; I think they're terrific.
Q. Don't you think blog consolidation is a problem?
Not really, no, not when it produces better results and stronger voices. If I didn't think that would be the result of this move, I wouldn't do it.
Q. The comment section at Hot Air is too restrictive.
As long as people don't get personally abusive, I don't think that anyone at HA has a problem with dissent. I'm hoping that all of CapQ's commenters comes with me to Hot Air, so that we can continue to debate each other in a much wider pool of responders.
I'll add more as issues come up. Many thanks to all who have sent or posted their congratulations.
Alert The Media
It's been a long and eventful day, but nothing beats ending it with a few friends. I'll talk with CHQR's Rob Breakinridge for The World Tonight to discuss Mitt Romney's withdrawal and the apparent clinching of the nomination by John McCain, and what it means for Republicans and conservatives. I'm on at 10:35 pm ET, and you can catch me on CHQR's Internet stream.
Rush Endorses Romney
Well, well, well. This makes it nearly unanimous among the conservative talk-radio leaders, with only Michael Medved dissenting. Rush Limbaugh, who had long resisted direct involvement in primary politics, has gone one step further than the anti-endorsement for John McCain that he has been delivering for the past couple of weeks (via Hot Air):
RUSH: I think now, based on the way the campaign has shaken out, that there probably is a candidate on our side who does embody all three legs of the conservative stool, and that’s Romney. The three stools or the three legs of the stool are national security/foreign policy, the social conservatives, and the fiscal conservatives. The social conservatives are the cultural people. The fiscal conservatives are the economic crowd: low taxes, smaller government, get out of the way.Of course, the foreign policy crowd is obviously what it is. I don’t think there’s anybody on our side who doesn’t care about national security, which is why I found it amazing that McCain gets the bulk of those, because the idea that Romney or Huckabee are going to punt national security? In Huckabee’s case, you might just say the things he’s saying about it represent an ignorance born of inexperience in the subject. I don’t think Huckabee has any deleterious intentions about the country. When it comes to the fiscal side, you cannot say — you just cannot say — that John McCain is interested. He’s even admitted he’s not interested in the social side. He’s not interested in the economic side. He said this, and when he has spoken up about it, he sides more often with liberal Democrats on fiscal issues than he does with his own side. That’s problematic.
This is why I think — and why I have said — that the Republican Party, not conservatism, but the Republican Party is in big trouble if it is empowered and gets elected by attracting people who also hold liberal Democrat views simply because they like McCain because of his character, his honor, his prisoner of war story, and they don’t like Hillary or Obama.
Interesting point on national security, and one that doesn't get aired all that often. I don't entirely agree with Rush on McCain's record on fiscal conservatism -- he has been both a budget hawk and an outspoken voice against pork-barrel spending -- but I'd say that he's correct about McCain's interest in social conservatism. That's the arena where McCain has taken some joy in poking fingers into the eyes of the Right.
The big question, of course, is the timing. Did this come one day too late, right on time -- or does this just confirm the direction in which Rush has been going all along? I think it's the latter. Rush's opposition to McCain probably has already created whatever impact it has for today. The bigger question is whether it can turn the race if Romney can keep it relatively close after tonight.
Alert The Media
I'll make a few media appearances tonight as the Florida primary figures start to materialize:
I will also be live-blogging the results as we keep an eye on the race. Keep checking back for more updates.
Alert The Media
I'll be on Hugh Hewitt tonight at 6:20 pm CT, presumably to discuss the latest in the presidential primaries. I'm now scheduled to do a regular gig with Hugh on the fourth Thursday of the month, so mark that on your schedules. Hugh has juggled the schedule tonight; usually I'd be on in the final hour.
Afterwards, I'll be live-blogging the Florida debate tonight from 8-10 pm CT at Heading Right, and holding a live wrap-up show at BlogTalkRadio's Debate Central from 10-10:30 pm CT. Don't miss any of the coverage!
Did Talk Radio Lose In South Carolina?
Michael Medved has a provocative column from this weekend arguing that the biggest loser in South Carolina wasn't Fred Thompson or Mike Huckabee. Medved, a Salem Radio talk-show host, says that the conservative endorsement of John McCain repudiated talk-show offensives against his campaign and exposed talk radio as a dying influence on the Right:
The big loser in South Carolina was, in fact, talk radio: a medium that has unmistakably collapsed in terms of impact, influence and credibility because of its hysterical and one-dimensional involvement in the GOP nomination fight.For more than a month, the leading conservative talkers in the country have broadcast identical messages in an effort to demonize Mike Huckabee and John McCain. If you’ve tuned in at all to Rush, Sean, Savage, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, and two dozen others you’ve heard a consistent drum beat of hostility toward Mac and Huck. As always, led by Rush Limbaugh (who because of talent and seniority continues to dominate the medium) the talk radio herd has ridden in precisely the same direction, insisting that McCain and Huckabee deserve no support because they’re not “real conservatives.” A month ago, the angry right launched the slogan that Mike Huckabee is a “pro-life liberal.” More recently, after McCain’s energizing victory in New Hampshire, they trotted out the mantra that the Arizona Senator (with a life-time rating for his Congressional voting record of 83% from the American Conservative Union) is a “pro-war liberal.”
Well, the two alleged “liberals,” McCain and Huckabee just swept a total of 63% of the Republican vote in deeply conservative South Carolina. Meanwhile, the two darlings of talk radio -- Mitt Romney and, to a lesser extent, Fred Thompson—combined for an anemic 31% of the vote.
Medved makes a good point here, but I'd hesitate to call talk radio "damaged". As Medved's own support for McCain makes clear, the market has shown some diversity in opinion on this topic -- and it reflects the same debate Republicans and conservatives have had for the entire debate. Fred Thompson's departure will make it even more intriguing, and necessary.
Can one call McCain conservative? I think so, but that doesn't make Hugh Hewitt and Rush Limbaugh somehow wrong to disagree, and to disagree strongly. It's literally what they get paid to do. I'd also object to the notion that Rush leads a herd in this case, especially since McCain, for all his virtues (and they are many), has often alienated these conservative activists on both policy and tone.
However, in a larger sense and without the somewhat hyperbolic notion of "damage" to talk radio, Michael hits the nail on the head. In my opinion, the tone of this primary has strayed unnecessarily into negative attacks on valuable members of our own team. Instead of focusing on positive aspects of a favored candidate, too often our advocates have opted to seize on any criticism of others and make that their main message. That's not just true in talk radio, but also in the blogosphere.
It has led to what I call Ultimatum Politics -- where people start to demand that either their specific candidate gets nominated or they refuse to participate in the general election. That results from overcranked partisanship clouding mature judgment. In a general election, voters have to make a choice, and as Ronald Reagan warned, it's better to support a candidate with whom one agrees on 70% of the issues rather than allow a 30% candidate to prevail instead. Demonizing all of the other options (which Alan Keyes literally did at the CLC in October) paralyzes a political party.
We need to rationally discuss the benefits and risks of each candidate without looking to "gotcha" people we may need to support later. I don't think talk radio gets damaged by creating controversy, but we as a party can damage ourselves by allowing the rhetoric to get in the way of rational analysis.
Rush, Having Far Too Much Fun
I know we've all had our share of schadenfreude on the Right over the racial eruptions on the Left, but no one has had as much fun with it than Rush did today. He doesn't miss any of the points raised over the last couple of weeks, and emphasized that it only started happening because Barack Obama actually began to seriously challenge Hillary for the nomination. Bryan at Hot Air gives us the video of his opening monologue, in two parts:
Rush even gets to damn with faint praise: "[Obama] can deliver a hell of a vapid speech!" Watch him laughing with delight at the end of Part II. But he didn't stop with the monologue. He went into much more detail on Hillary's comments, and caught this interesting nugget from Hillary's Meet the Press interview yesterday:
HILLARY: And the point that I was responding to from Senator Obama himself in a number of speeches he was making, is his comparison of himself to President Kennedy and Dr. King. You know, Dr. King didn't just give speeches. He marched. He organized. He protested. He was gassed. He was beaten.RUSH: Stop the tape. Stop the tape. Stop the tape. Two things here. First thing, Mrs. Clinton is saying, "Obama, you are not down with the struggle. You are not down for the struggle. You can't compare yourself to King; you can't compare yourself to JFK, and you won't be able to until you've marched, organized, and been gassed, and then been beaten -- and we, the Clintons, might take you up on it."
HILLARY: He was jailed. He understood that he had to move the political process and bring in those who are in political power, and he campaigned for political leaders, including Lyndon Johnson, because he wanted somebody in the White House who would act on what he had devoted his life to achieving. So I think it's important to set the record straight. Clearly, we know from media reports that the Obama campaign is deliberately distorting this.
RUSH: Ah! There we get to the nut of it, ladies and gentlemen! This is a typical Clinton move. She is the victim of all this race stuff. Obama is deliberately distorting what she has said.
Rush has plenty more in his transcript, and all of it as excellent as it is hilarious. The Democratic primaries just got a lot more entertaining, even it is schadenfreude.
Alert The Media
I'll be on the Hugh Hewitt show tonight at 7:30 pm CT to talk about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Hugh's going all three hours on this topic; be sure to tune in to catch all the latest information on the terrorist attack.
Back In The Saddle Again
Don Imus made his return to the airwaves this morning, diminished but mostly unbowed, on WABC in New York City. The radio cowboy returns to the saddle months after his termination for using racially-insensitive criticisms of the Rutgers' women's basketball team, after which CBS Radio and MS-NBC both dumped him. While he says he learned his lesson, Imus also promises that the show itself will not change:
Don Imus returned to the airwaves Monday eight months after he was fired for a racially charged remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, introducing a new cast that included two black comedians.As he did several times in the days after his comments, Imus condemned his remarks and said he had learned his lesson. ...
While Imus pledged to use his new show to talk about race relations, he added: "Other than that, not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I'm back on the radio."
His return had been announced several weeks ago, and thus far has produced little protest. No one wants to defend his truly offensive remarks, but at the same time, a sense has coalesced that Imus got treated somewhat unfairly in their aftermath. When radio hosts cross the line in taste, they usually get suspended, not fired. As it turns out, that's what his contract said as well, and CBS had to eat an unspecified portion of it in a post-termination settlement.
I've never been a big fan of Imus, but his return to the airwaves should be seen as a return to common sense. Not every offense needs to result in a firing, especially when taken in the context of long record. The corporate impulse to avoid embarrassment makes everyone a hostage to a vocal fringe -- on both sides -- and that doesn't bode well for the moderating influence of a free-speech market. One offhand, unplanned remark should certainly be criticized and disciplined, but ending a decades-long career over it seems extreme.
Let the audiences decide whether Imus should have this second chance. If people want to listen, advertisers will buy air time, and Imus will prosper. If they don't, he'll be off the air faster than last year's rap single hit.
Andy McCarthy: Run That One By Me Again
Quite frankly, the entire pseudo-controversy over Rush Limbaugh's remarks headlined the Theater of the Absurd for the past week, and apparently continues its meager run on the stage. Michelle Malkin sees the strategy for exactly what it is -- a payback for the beating that MoveOn took over calling General David Petraeus a traitor on the pages of the New York Times. Andy McCarthy practically has to pick his jaw up off the floor over the target selection of the Left:
There really was a news story, generated by the mainstream media of all people, about phony soldiers — poseurs who falsely claim to have put their lives on the line in our country’s armed forces, at least some of whom engage the pretense precisely to libel real heroes as terrorists and marauders.Rush Limbaugh, one of this nation’s single-most ardent supporters of the military, was briefed on the news story by his staff and was, unsurprisingly, offended by it.
Rush alluded to the said phony soldiers during his hugely successful daily radio broadcast, prompted by what he reasonably believed was a caller’s reference to it.
As a result, he is being castigated for dishonoring authentic troops in a trumped up controversy generated by Media Matters — a left-wing propaganda machine with pockets lined by left-wing activists. The charge is being led by top Democrats who, when not busy defending other top Democrats for smearing our troops as “reminiscent of Genghis Khan,” terrorists, murderers, and comparable to “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings,” fall mute when the vanguard of their hard-left base, MoveOn.org (abetted by the New York Times), describes the general heroically leading our forces in Iraq a traitor.
And this is a story?
Yes, this is a story. It's a story of intellectual dishonesty, partisan gunslinging, and distraction tactics designed to protect a major Democratic Party fundraiser. That's the real story behind this latest absurdity.
Let's start from Square One. In order to believe that Rush Limbaugh meant to slander the troops, one would have to believe that Limbaugh has some animus against the military. Anyone who has listened to Limbaugh even occasionally would laugh aloud at such a notion. Limbaugh has been one of the most vocal supporters of the American military -- much more supportive that most of the mainstream news agencies now reporting on this supposed slur issued by Limbaugh. How many defenses of the American military does one read in the New York Times or San Francisco Chronicle -- or Media Matters or Daily Kos?
The transcript of the show, as I wrote last week, shows exactly what Limbaigh meant by "phony soldiers", as Byron York points out. He meant the phonies like Jesse MacBeth, who claimed to have been in Iraq and never was, or Scott Beauchamp, who claimed to have witnessed atrocities that never occured. It has become such a phenomenon that ABC News reported on it a few days before Limbaugh discussed it. After taking a couple of calls, Limbaugh explained exactly what he meant.
This isn't about protecting the honor of American soldiers, a mission Media Matters has not exactly adopted in its reporting on Haditha, for instance. It's a blatant attempt to misrepresent what Limbaugh clearly meant and what he clearly said on his show in order to discredit him and dent his popularity. At the heart of it, it's about the fear that Media Matters has for Rush and the power he holds from the work he does on behalf of conservative causes.
The Theater of the Absurd continued yesterday, with Tom Harkin lashing out at Rush for possibly being "on drugs again". Harkin lied about his own service record when he ran for President in 1992, when he claimed to be a combat fighter pilot in Vietnam. Harkin flew jets and served honorably, but did so stateside; he never saw combat. Why he felt the need to lie about his otherwise outstanding service is anyone's guess, but clearly he's the last person to publicly render judgment on Rush's honesty.
This is all a stage, directed by Media Matters and its financial backers, and all of the Democrats howling about Rush merely its players. They may strut all they want, but they produce only sound and fury, signifying nothing -- and in the process, put their intellectual bankruptcy on display for all to see.
Live Blogging Hannity
Sean Hannity has joined Newt Gingrich for a portion of the Solutions Day event, and he's prerecording the last hour of his show here in front of a live audience. It's been interesting to watch Sean work the room, live, during his show. Radio tends to be a rather insular pursuit. One does not get a sense of audience while broadcasting, except at live "remotes" like this.
Hannity has been well received by this audience, which may indicate that Solutions Day hasn't drawn the bipartisan attendees here for the kickoff that Newt Gingrich wanted. He has drawn a number of reporters, including a couple from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I met Jim Galloway and Ben Gray from the AJC, which Hannity referred to as the "Atlanta Urinal", which got a laugh from the audience but not the media bench.
He seems to enjoy the audience. His reactions to callers seems broad and engaging, and the audience remains interested in what shouldn't really be all that visually fascinating. He did ask the audience whether they wanted another liberal caller (after two in a row), or "a normal American", which got the most applause. Hannity also paid homage to his partner Alan Colmes, saying "I know fear -- I stare down Colmes every night!"
One of his best segments had to do with Iran. He wondered aloud if one day we'd wake up to millions dead and be asking ourselves why we didn't take Ahmadinejad seriously when he proposed a genocide of the Jews and the triumph of Islam over the West. He wants America to remain strong enough to beat all comers and remain on offense.
Hannity provided the red meat to the Right on Solutions Day. That may allow Gingrich to reach across the aisle, as the event promised, later this evening at the kickoff speech at 7 pm ET.
Media Notes And Quick Links
I hope everyone had a chance to catch our weekly round-up with Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson on Heading Right Radio. We actually ran over our time by about twelve minutes, so be sure to download the podcast. Speaking of which, I know that the iTunes subscription has stopped working, due to a URL change on our podcast RSS feed. I will work on a new iTunes subscription feed, but in the meantime, the correct RSS feed can be found on my sidebar, just below the BlogTalkRadio buttons.
Tonight at 5 pm CT, I'll be back in the studio with Hugh Hewitt, appearing on his syndicated talk show. Hugh will have a segment or two with Mitt Romney, I believe, and I'll hang around and talk Pittsburgh Steelers football -- or perhaps a more joyful topic for Hugh. Be sure to tune in.
Also, a few bloggers got a chance to interview the President today. Read all about it at INDC Journal and the Victory Caucus. While you're at INDC Journal, be sure to throw a few bucks in the tip jar to keep Bill Ardolino afloat while he embeds with our troops.
Did Ed Schultz Assault A Woman In A Bar?
What is it with left-wing radio hosts? Al Franken squared off on Laura Ingraham's producer at the 2004 Republican National Convention and tackled a protestor at a Democratic rally. Now Ed Schultz apparently bruised a woman after arguing politics with her and her husband in a Detroit Lakes, Minnesota bar (via Power Line):
The conversation went sour when Nagle said he respects Joe Lieberman, the Independent Democratic senator from Connecticut known for supporting the Iraq war.Nagle said Schultz said he doesn’t like Lieberman, and then commented that if Nagle felt so strongly about the war, his family should go over and fight in it.
The daughter of Nagle’s fiancee serves in the Army and may soon go to Iraq. His fiancee’s son-in-law has served in Iraq.
“It was at that time that Mr. Schultz completely lost control, in my opinion,” Nagle said. “He became enraged, and then our interactions became far less civil.”
Schultz said the woman with Nagle addressed Schultz’s wife with profanity.
“If someone comes up to you in public and calls your wife (references to expletives), what are you going to do?”
Schultz said he engaged in harmless shoving with Nagle, whom he never named on his radio shows. Schultz said he knew if he hit the man, he could be arrested, which could sink his professional career.
Schultz claims that the couple would not stop harrassing him about politics, despite his requests to end the conversation. That's not exactly how Nagle recalls the interaction. Rob at Say Anything interviewed Nagle about the incident, and he claims that Schultz threw a punch that hit his wife, who had tried to step between her husband and Schultz when the host threatened them:
* At one point Schultz asked Nagle why he and his family weren’t over fighting the war in Iraq, and Nagle responded by pointing out that some of his family was, in fact, in Iraq. Or had been in Iraq. Schultz responded to this by saying that he hates “f***ing right-wing Republicans” and threatening Nagle to the point where the restaurant security began to take notice* Nagle responded to Schultz’s threat by saying he and his group were going to leave, at which point either someone from the hotel/bar or one of Schultz’s party (Nagle isn’t clear on this) grabbed his arms and pinned them behind him as Schultz approached with a fist cocked as though he was going to throw a punch.
* Before Schultz was able to throw a punch, Nagle’s fiancee stepped in and Ed’s fist grazed both her and Nagle.
* Nagle’s fiancee has bruises from this encounter.
Nagle claims that he has witnesses who can verify his account of the incident. He wanted to forget about his encounter with Schultz, but the talk-show host gave out his private nunber on the air in retaliation for the argument. At that point, Nagle decided to set the record straight.
It's always amusing to see the violence inherent in the anti-war Left -- or at least it's amusing from a distance. When was the last time a conservative radio host got into a barfight? Do you suppose Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, or Michael Medved would take a swing at someone in a bar over a political disagreement? If they did, it would make national headlines. I wonder if we'll see the same kind of coverage about Air America's star.
If you want to send your thoughts to Schultz's home station and its owner Jim Ingstad, you can e-mail him here.
Sneak Peek At The Thompson Interview
I'm at the Minnesota State Fair all day today, thanks to a couple of scheduling issues that came up over the weekend. The Fred Thompson campaign offered me a chance to get a quick interview with the Senator at midday, and as you will hear on today's show, it was fairly quick -- around five minutes, which is as long as we could go in this madhouse. However, I think you will find it fascinating, especially in regards to the tone of his campaign and his Indianapolis speech. Thompson has a few words about the importance of this election and why it's important to talk straight to the American people. You won't want to miss it.
I'm also including a recording of Thompson's press conference at the GOP booth here at the fair, in which he answers a lot of the questions asked by the readers here at CQ. He also gave his reaction to Alberto Gonzales' resignation today, which comes first in the press conference.
Later this evening and for the next two days, I'm doing drive-time radio at AM 1280 The Patriot from 5-8 PM CT. My NARN partner Mitch Berg joins me tonight and tomorrow, and Colonel Joe Repya joins me on Wednesday. CQ Radio will go at 1 pm CT the next two days in order to make sure I have enough time to get to the fair both days.
Maybe The Bill Had Something To Do With It
The Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a study to determine why the immigration-reform bill died on the floor of the Senate -- and readers can guess who gets the credit and the blame. Their exhaustive study, apparently completed and published in six weeks, claims that conservative talk radio set off a frenzied mob by using the word "amnesty":
Opposition from key talk radio and cable TV hosts helped kill the immigration bill in Congress, a study out today concludes.“What listeners of the conservative talk radio media were hearing, in large part, was that the legislation itself was little more than an ‘amnesty bill’ for illegal immigrants, a phrase loaded with political baggage,” it says.
The study by the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism quantifies what White House and Capitol Hill phone lines and e-mail inboxes already indicated: Talk radio focused on the immigration debate more intensely than the mainstream media did from April to June.
Conservative hosts touched off a brushfire in the Republican base that President Bush and other party leaders were helpless to contain.
The study concluded that talk-radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage devoted 16% of their second-quarter airtime to immigration. Liberal talk-show hosts only devoted 5% to the topic. Using this calculation, the study concludes that the talk-radio shows overpowered liberals who supported the bill, and therefore foiled passage of the bill.
Well, maybe. However, this sounds like the study's authors confuse correlation with causation. They don't study how all of this chatter actually affected the Senate vote. We assume it did -- on that much we can agree -- but that's all this study does as well. No one studied the use of the word "amnesty", either. Did that really affect listener comprehension of the bill, and was it fair or unfair to use it when describing the bill?
The authors also fail to consider that the bill was just a poorly-written piece of legislation. Its sponsors and Harry Reid did whatever they could to jam it down the Senate's throat quickly enough to avoid scrutiny and to keep any amendments that could actually fix its myriad issues from succeeding. That backroom process angered many voters on its own, as well as a good percentage of the Senators who had to vote on it. Talk radio didn't have much to do with any of that.
Liberals weren't thrilled with this bill, either. People on both sides of the divide opposed it, although the most passionate were the conservatives. And some center-right talk-show hosts didn't oppose the bill, at least not outright, Hugh Hewitt among them. Some of the talk-show hosts wanted to work in some amendments that would make the bill palatable.
Why didn't they catch that? Their sample only included two conservative talk shows per day. They only tracked Rush Limbaugh every day, and then alternated between Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. For liberal talk radio, their sample was even smaller; they sampled one show per day, alternating between Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes. The rest of their radio study consisted of ABC's headline service and NPR.
This study reminds me of CBS polling. It fails at the sample, and then draws a lot of unsupported conclusions.
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