I had a neighbor who listened to talk radio nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I'd wake in the morning to the bass of Limbaugh's voice, carry home the groceries to Hannity's weak attempts at rhetoric, and go to sleep to the soothing rants of Michael Savage.
I wasn't actually bothered by the noise as much as I was confused by how the neighbor wore Cuba-U.S. shirts that encouraged an end to the embargo - not exactly a right-wing stance. After months of futile deep-sleep subliminal indoctrination by right-wing pundits, I finally broke down and asked him about his politics. Turns out he was a special kind of right-winger, hanging somewhere between libertarianism and anarchism. He said he was fascinated by what he called "the machinations of the propaganda machine" and liked to silently debate with and be frustrated by the stupidity of the pundits.
I know my neighbor isn't alone in his talk-radio addiction. Nearly half of adult Americans listen to at least one-hour of talk radio every week.
Until last Monday, Albuquerque talk-radio listeners had two sides of the political spectrum: extreme right-wing pundits and pundits who pretend not to be. KABQ-AM 1350 picked up five shows from "liberal" national AM radio service Air America.
Unfortunately, the side represented by this network is just as much a misnomer as Bill O'Reilly parading himself around as an independent. Like extreme right-wingers on talk radio who call themselves "moderately right," the absolute-centrists on Air America have bought the extreme right's redistribution of the political spectrum and parade around as "liberals."
It's not entirely their fault. The extreme right has everyone believing the lie that Republicans are not on the farthest edge of the right wing and Democrats actually sit on the left side of the political spectrum. This is simply not true.
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It has been a very shrewd tactical move. Without even challenging progressive politics, right-wing pundits have shifted the majority of our nation's political discourse to the right.
Ultimately, liberal beggars can't be choosers, and the pundits that claim the liberal title on Air America aren't too shabby a bunch. Along with radio-show veterans Randi Rhodes, celebrity pundits Janeane Garofalo and Al Franken join the lineup.
Since its inception in April 2004, Air America has garnered a lot of attention and ratings. After launching on a humble six-city platform, the network airs in most of the continental United States and boasts 1 million online listeners.
It's also received a lot of criticism from the left and the right. Leftists have admonished the majority of the pundits for being, as the satirists from jibjab.com may say, "liberal weenies."
Franken describes his show as "A battle for truth, a battle for justice, a battle for America itself - not to be grandiose about it." This tone worked in his best-selling Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. But this same tone is simply too soft for the average talk-radio listener desensitized to ideological violence by angry rants from fringe-right talk-show hosts.
This humble columnist prays every day for postmodern PC admissions and cynical double talk to work in newspaper columns, but it may not prove entertaining enough to keep listeners long enough to hear a soap commercial.
Paradoxically, when the right bashes Air America, it claims the network doesn't have political analysis, just anger-driven character assassinations. While Randi Rhodes may occasionally scream, "I hate you" at Ralph Nader, this is rarely seen.
It's a shame I no longer live next door to my talk-radio junkie neighbor.
Instead of taking my lunch between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. with Limbaugh angrily shaking his fist at the single working mother as the mistress of Osama bin Laden on 770 KKOB, I could be taking it with Franken on 1350 KABQ as he attempts to prop up the center-leaning Kerry and attack the extreme-right Bush.
Hopefully, the Air America pundits will realize AM politics is a filthy, dirty game of mud volleyball. If you're not getting mud in crevices you didn't even know existed, you're just watching.
