Stupid is as Stupid speaks.
We were traveling a lot last week and got to hear a number of stations (and shows) we wouldn't normally. One such show aired on an Air America affiliate. The host, Stupid, wanted to get her listeners' feedback on Mike Malloy's firing by Air America. She didn't like the feedback she got and grew even nastier which might be a surprise when you consider that prior to the calls she'd already slimed Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes. (Often in a faux, chirpy voice.)
Her problem with both stemmed from what she saw as their 'attacks' on Israeli government for it's recent armed aggression/war crimes. She also didn't care for the fact that they talked politics "all the time." She felt Mike Malloy just shouted and it wasn't to her taste. "I know Mike" she offered at different points of the broadcast (both before she took calls and during). She'd offer it in a disgusted voice before the calls (when she apparently thought listeners were going to be dialing in by the thousands to agree with her -- she predicted wrong, only one person agreed with her) and then, when a caller was especially pointed, she'd offer it in a kinder voice and try to backtrack over the hatred she spewed at him.
Mike Malloy doesn't know how to do radio. That was the judgement of the struggling local market dee jay who'd only recently found employment again after oh so many years off the air. The nationally syndicated Malloy didn't know what he was doing.
You can't just scream at people and that's all he did, according to her. She didn't just scream at people on her show, she explained verbally. She also illustrated that point by show-casing her abilities to pout and whine on air.
Stupid noted that she likes to talk politics but she likes to talk other things as well. That was the key to her (questionable) success. She varies it, she mixes it up. She demonstrated this on air as well as she spoke at length about herself. Why talk politics when you can serve your own ego?
There's another probable reason she, unlike Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy, doesn't enjoy talking politics. Politics is hard. You have to actually know things and be able to cite them. You can't just wing it.
Winging it has gotten her all the way to a D-market and, by gosh, by golly, she was happy to share The Secret of My Non-Success with any and all.
That includes kicking someone when they're down. (She offered that Malloy had a nasty off air personality. We think her own demeanor would curdle Julie Andrews smile so if, indeed, Malloy was ever rude to her, we'd assume it was for good reason.)
But mainly it included making things up and arguing with guests and flaunting her ignorance of anything and everything. That was most laughably clear when one caller asked her what time Thom Hartman's show aired in the area? She didn't know. She didn't know when Malloy's show had aired either (on her station). She wished she did, she really did, but she works really hard and like, sometimes, it's a really slow news day and that means she has to work really, really hard. It's not like, she explained, she just goes on air and that's when her work day begins. (We understand why many listeners might assume that was exactly when and how her work day begins.) And when she gets off the air, she's so tuckered out, she really doesn't want to hear about politics. (Exactly why this idiot is on any radio station is a mystery, why she's on a station carrying Air America is right up there with where's Jimmy Hoffa?)
She wished she knew when those programs aired, she really did, and she wished there was some way she could find out, find someone who could tell her, she'd explain in between cutting off callers who had that information.
One of her key talking points was that, "Even Mike Malloy says they cancelled his show for financial reasons." No, Mike Malloy never said that. It was a nice little lie. It was the corporate headquarters talking point, but Mike Malloy never said it.
She used that to explain that it was all about ratings. And what were Malloy's ratings? She didn't know. But she was sure they were low.
As you can tell, Stupid does a lot of work before going on air.
Malloy was the lowest paid host of a weekday show on Air America. That's a fact that Stupid never noted because she either didn't know or it didn't fit in with the talking points she was working from.
She also praised Rush Limbaugh as entertaining. And slammed the left (remember she airs on an Air America affiliate) for not being able to tolerate opposing views. (She slammed the left for that three different times while we were listening.)
She had stated, before taking calls, that she wanted to find out what listeners thought about Malloy's firing. She didn't want that. She wanted to argue with them. With the exception of one caller in the hour we listened, they all stated Malloy was fired because he handled hot topics in a way that made some people uncomfortable. "No!" she'd scream and tsk and then scream again when she lost her composure. It was because of "finanical decision, even Mike Malloy says it was because of a financial decision!"
Here is Mike Malloy's statement:
MIKE MALLOY FIRED BY AIR AMERICA RADIO
There will be no Mike Malloy program on Air America Radio as we have been terminated as of 8/30/06. We are as shocked as you are, especially since as recently as last Tuesday we were told we had the go-ahead to announce our return to NY airwaves and that our contract was "on the way."
We are told its a financial decision. Here's the phone number to call: 212-871-8290 or email to: comments@airamericaradio.com
More details to follow as we hear them ourselves. Members of the press can contact malloyproducer@aol.com to schedule interviews.
"We are told its a financial decision." He did not say, "It was a financial decision." He stated he was "shocked," he noted that the Tuesday prior he'd been told the show was being renewed.
But Stupid kept lying to listeners and saying that "even" Malloy said it was a finacial decision.
Stupid probably hoped everyone was as stupid as she was.
At one point, Stupid's program was critiqued. The caller (male) explained why he preferred Malloy's format to Stupid's. Stupid 'lost' the call (if she can't work the board that's one more indication of how stupid she is) and whined and whimpered about how she thought she was being nice letting the caller be on the air when all he did was personally attack her. (No, dear, he didn't personally attack you. He critiqued your work. Not you. Stupid.)
There's a whole lot of stupid going around these days. A recent interview presented another female broadcaster claiming that Clear Channel doesn't give a damn what you say, they jsut want to make money.
But back to original Stupid who made the same point repeatedly (she only had four points: Malloy sucked, his ratings sucked -- though she didn't know what they were, it was a financial decision and anyone who disagreed with that had better have proof -- something she herself never had to offer).
Clear Channel doesn't just care about making money. Making money didn't factor into a decision to put John Lennon's "Imagine" on a watch list/ban list? Making money didn't factor into their decision not to syndicate Randi Rhodes in the pre-Air America days?
There are blacklists (ask the Dixie Chicks), they've always existed. And pretending that's not the case is just plain stupid.
Pretending, as Stupid also did, that advertisers have no impact is also pretty stupid. She offered a glory tale of a newspaper who refused to allow an advertiser to influence their content. We can match her with a hundred for her one in less than five minutes. Anyone with half a brain knows that ads very often dictate content. (If we thought Stupid actually read, we'd suggest she read Gloria Steinem's "Sex, Lies and Advertising" essay.)
Why was Malloy fired? We're told by friends at AAR (not on air talent or producers of shows) that it wasn't about finances. We're told that it was about the content. They spin it as they're trying to go for a lighter feel now. But, however, they spin it, the point we're getting loud and clear is that it was about content. We asked flat out if Stupid was part of an orchestrated smear?
Long term listeners of Air America Radio are familiar with the disappearance of Lizz Winstead from Unfiltered. We've gone over this before. So we'll merely note that, online, mysterious people, long term listeners who 'always listened' and 'checked out the show's blog all the time' but never blogged there before, suddenly appeared to repeat the nasty (and false) rumor that Lizz Winstead had a serious health issue that had forced her to leave the show and that by anyone asking questions they were making it more difficult for Lizz in a very trying time.
That's called "LIE." That was an orchestrated campaign to clamp down on the shock and anger that many were feeling over the disappearance of Lizz.
After that, it wouldn't have surprised us at all if Stupid was part of some organized campaign. One told us flat out, with no hestitation, that Stupid wasn't part of a campaign, she was just . . . well, stupid. The other had to check it out before answering and then called back to state that she wasn't part of an organized campaign "but is probably just hoping to kiss enough ass to get noticed." That's how awful she was. Even AAR higher ups saw her as a kiss ass.
She was a kiss-ass. Thinking back on how reporters have often (several times recently) stood together to stand up for one of their own (even if they didn't like the person), the fact that Stupid wasn't (and could never be) a journalist was brought home by the fact that her sole aim was to twist the knife in Mike Malloy's back.
She was funny. That's what she said anyway. She didn't offer anything resembling humor on air, but she said she was funny. (She also stated she found Rush Limbaugh funny which adds further doubts to her ability to make rational judgements.) For funny, she and her station offered bits. Like Bill Maher being 'funny' about war resisters.
Oh that was funny. If you were a fat ass War Hawk. Or maybe Jay Leno ripping into the Democrats. Yeah, that was supposed to be funny too. Now Maher and Leno's snippets had no thought and no real purpose in being aired. (They also weren't up to date, many of the clips aired were over a year old and commenting on current situations that were no longer current.) But if that's what it takes to tickle her funny bone, we weren't surprised.
But we were disgusted. We were disgusted with the comedy bits (which could have easily been played on Rush Limbaugh's show), we were disgusted with the historical ignorance on display that big business never attempts to silence if there's money to be made (two words: Lou Grant), we were disguted with the ass kissing that was so intense that we thought near the end she was using tongue, we were disgusted with the attacks on Mike Malloy, we were disgusted with her demands for proof and citations (she had, after all, asked for opinions) while she presented 'facts' that weren't indeed facts and avoided any effort to tell listeners where they could go to find those 'facts' (couldn't offer what didn't exist), most of all we were disgusted with her.
An elderly caller phrased her response nicely (in a trembling voice) but even the way she phrased her remarks or the fact that she was so obviously nervous didn't prevent Stupid from ripping the caller apart once she was off air.
Here's a clue for Stupid: Hire a better call screener. If you say you want to hear what people think and you don't really want to hear it, screen your calls. Otherwise, when you ask for people's opinions, don't scream at them that they're wrong.
And when you don't know someone's ratings and you don't even know when their showed aired on your own radio station, you probably shouldn't make the person the subject of your over long rants.
Some callers rightly complained of how superficial Stupid was. One offered a strong critique and told her exactly what was wrong with her show. We laughed at the on air pouting by Stupid that followed the call. But we laughed most at her claim, without anything to back it up -- remember we're talking about Stupid -- that listeners of her show, of her station even, listened from start to finish. (Which would mean, if you think about it, that Mike Malloy's show couldn't have been as low rated, at least on her station, as she claimed.) She's living in world of self-delusion.
May she rot there alone. Politics is hard. And obviously beyond Stupid's grasp. Maybe she can get a sidekick to do imitations and pad out what she can't comprehend? Oh wait, someone's already doing that. That program is the leverage that was used in targeting Unfiltered. But then, no one wants to see that or talk about it. Stupid.