It's terrible work, but someone had to do it. Columnist Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News bravely leapt on a deadly radio the other day, daring to listen to another cycle of Air America programming so that others would not have to do so. Michael, we salute you.
It is interesting the degree to which conservative religious believers are seen as the enemy. Clearly, Air America sees itself as the home base for the massive "anti-evangelical" voter bloc on the left. Thus, it was no surprise that the network's raging anger at religious conservatives was right there in Goodwin's lead.
The United States "is on the slippery slope to theocratic fascism." "The Catholic Church has been secretly encouraging oral sex for years."
Wait, there's more where that came from in the Catholic-bashing department.
Take one host's linking the talk of "pulling out" the troops with the claim that "that's what the Catholic Church says about premarital sex." Ha, ha.
Air America does have other things to say. It's time to torture Donald Rumsfeld. Surprise! Rush Limbaugh is "a pig" and "a Nazi." And speaking of the Nazis, the goddess of radio Randi Rhodes went so far as to compare U.S. prisons in Iraq with the "Nazi gulag" -- wait a minute, weren't those Soviet gulags? -- and said, "The day I say thank you to Rumsfeld is the same day I'll say thank you to the 12 people who raped me." Goodwin added:
Rock bottom came when she compared Bush and his family to the Corleones in the "Godfather" saga. "Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw," she said, imitating the sound of gunfire.
Well, at least she left religion and God out of that punch line. Al Franken rolls on in that department, especially in what is clearly meant to be one of the signature themes of his broadcasts -- the "Oy, Oy Show." In this riff, a sidekick reads short news reports -- Goodwin noted the murder of the president of Chechnya -- while Franken yelps "oy, oy, oy" to the sound of Israeli music. Wait for it. There's more.
Franken also imitated a priest giving Communion, saying "Body of Christ" when an imagined pedophile priest was in line but "not for you" when pro-choice politicians came up.
In other Air America news, Goodwin noted that General Motors has sent a "cease and desist" order against the use of its ads by Air America affiliates. And last week the business desk at the Los Angeles Times reported:
Air America Radio's chairman and vice chairman resigned ... in the latest shake-up at the liberal radio network that launched five weeks ago. Chairman Evan Cohen, the network's co-founder, who resigned along with vice chairman and investor Rex Sorensen, said he left for personal reasons. ...
The company, whose most prominent hosts are Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo, recently also lost co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Walsh and pushed out its head of programming. Air America also missed its payroll this week by one day, for what insiders called technical reasons.
By the way, anyone who wants to buy that official Air America thong can click here.