Tin Foil Hat Time or The Other Air America

While Air America has garnered all of the attention -- if not actual listeners -- as the "voice of the left" it will have a negligible effect in terms of influence when it comes to the actual election. From what I can tell from its first two months of operation a) it doesn't have an overwhelming listenership to begin with and b) what listenership it does already tilts to the progressive side. To truly sway you have to have a large enough audience that cuts across ideological boundaries. The idea that there is a great mass of the undecided tuning in every day to the Randi Rhodes show that can be swayed into voting (D) come November is wishful thinking at best. No, the most Air America can hope to achieve is to rile up the choir and make sure they all make it to the voting booth come the second Tuesday of November. So if not AA, who? Well, interestingly enough, Infinity Broadcasting.

Now I know what you're thinking, "You're a few months late on the whole Howard Stern bit," and on that you are quite correct. But Howard is only part of the story.

I live in DC so most of my morning and afternoon drive is spent on WJFK. JFK hosts Howard during morning drive and Don and Mike in the afternoon hour, both syndicated nationally. I am a fairly regular listener of Howard's and will catch the last half an hour of the Don and Mike show since the rest of the radio dial is just plain awful (Opie and Anthony used to do afternoon drive until the whole Sex for Sam stunt. Afternoon drive has sucked since they left, but that's neither here nor there). JFK also hosts the Ron and Fez show which I usually catch the beginning of on the way home, and will throw on the radio if I'm working on a project around the house; its a pretty funny show. So that's three mostly apolitical Infinity talk shows, two with a national audience that enjoy a certain amount of success that cuts across the political spectrum a great deal more than the like of Air America or even Rush Limbaugh.

I'll skip over the whole "Howard hates the FCC" bit because its been covered ad-nauseam else where. I'll simply say a) I agree that the FCC has gone nutso and b) Howard is a complete hypocrite (ask any other Infinity jocks what will happen to their show / career if they mention Howard on the air Let's just say Howard has all the power of Commissioner Copps when it comes to Infinity talent and has used it on more than one occasion). Since the whole 1/8th-of-a-second-boob-at-the-Superbowl and its FCC overreaction since then Howard has, as any listener would tell you, gone on an anti-Bush diatribe at about a one-a-day pace (never-mind Copps, his largest detractor at the FCC, is a Democrat). This, as I mentioned, is not news. But what is is the amount of anti-Bush rhetoric that has been coming out of both the Ron & Fez and Don & Mike shows over the last few months that has been noticeable due to the mostly apolitical nature of the shows. Like Stern both shows have been constantly and conspicuously anti-Bush. Granted, its less FCC driven than Iraq driven, but the escalation of it as a regular show topic is outside the shows' norm and it dovetails nicely with the start of Howard's crusade.

Now, do I think that Howard or Mel (Karmazin) have decreed from upon high "though shall bash Bush at least one hour every day?" I doubt that seriously. But I do suspect that there may be an informal "if you're inclined to bash the administration you now have permission to do so regardless of your show format." Howard carries a lot of weight at Infinity; he's a large revenue source. Howard is notorious at holding a grudge and, as I have mentioned before, will use his considerable influence within Infinity when he feels the need. You can count the number of minds Air America are going to change on one hand. The number Mel Karmazin and Co. could change may be something completely different.

I confess that, while I generally dig the guy, I sometimes can't tell when Hunter S. Thompson is serious or just full of it (which, I believe, is the point). Anyway, he has a new post up at Page 2 over at ESPN with this little chestnut:

Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these photographs did... I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line. Now I am really ashamed to carry an American passport.

As for the ashamed part, well to each their own. I'm none too proud of what those ass-clowns did over in Abu Ghraib either. But to say "Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these photographs did" is a warped sense of moral equivalence that borders on the pathological.

Let's review, shall we:

Holocaust Shocking...


Abu Ghraib even more shocking.


Mr. Thompson, welcome to the idiotarian club.

UPDATE: Well, according to Drudge ESPN has edited Hunter's copy to remove the line about the Nazis. Now the question is will Hunter cry foul over censorship or lay low? (I bet the former).