RadioNation with Laura Flanders Saturday night.
The Nation has problems. (And you know it's serious when C.I. doesn't even raise an objection to that sentence.) They were on full display during RadioNation with Laura Flanders. Laura Flanders wasn't the problem.
The way it was supposed to go was that she interviewed a Nation writer about a dopey piece he wrote and the mag got a plug and listeners got to hear about a serious issue.
Writers of dopey pieces rarely make good guests.
So we weren't shocked when the guest huffed at Flanders that he didn't know where she got her news. We were a bit surprised that a guest on the show to promote the magazine would be so rude to the host.
Apparently, Flanders, like most people who follow the news (and Flanders follows it -- as anyone who's listened to the show can attest), gets her news from the real world which is why she didn't falsely believe that John Abizaid had requested more troops when he appeared before Congress. Abizaid requested no such thing. In fact, his remarks were noted for saying nothing. More troops? Less troops? He wasn't going to commit. (CBS News was the only outlet to grasp one thing he did reveal: the US doesn't have enough troops, in Abizaid's opinion, to go 'full out' in Iraq.)
But the guest knew best. He knew best (or thought he did) and was combative and confrontational. Flanders' isn't a hostile host. She'll go out of her way with callers from the right to hear their point of view.
It wasn't enough to go after Flanders, the guest demonstrated, he also needed to go after the audience, "I just totally disagree with you and your caller."
Thanks for sharing, Robert Dreyfuss.
He also attacked Flanders for her understanding of neocon. In Dreyfuss' limited understanding, a neocon is only someone who wanted war with Iraq. It has no finanical aspects. That sort of tunnel vision may explain why he also insisted repeatedly that the James Baker Circle Jerk was a panel that was making strong recommendations, a panel that we should apparently all be bowing and scraping before.
We'd say, "You first, Dreyfuss" -- but he was already bowing and scraping.
Insta-expert Dreyfuss also felt the need to 'explain' that the James Baker Circle Jerk was created because Congress was "so frustrated." No, it was created, as Gary Younge (Guardian of London; The Nation) observed to Steve Rendall on last week's CounterSpin, because Congress shirked its duties and outsourced them to a panel.
Not content with abusing the host, the audience and comprehension, Dreyfuss then climbed out on a limb to present Lee Hamilton and Vernon Jordan as people who had opposed the war in Iraq. Why? Because he damn well said so.
Oh, well, in that case . . .
Let us disagree quite strongly. Let us note that his background is such that he shouldn't be writing for The Nation (and we'll deal with that in another feature), his manner is such that he shouldn't go another broadcast until he gets some rage counseling, and we have to wonder if he would have been so dismissive of the host if she weren't a woman?
That was actually the second area that was a problem for Saturday's show. Ty was reading the e-mails (trying to catch up) right before we started the session of writing this edition and there were 15 e-mails complaining about not being able to hear Flanders. When they tried to listen via Air America Radio they got, "Please tune back later." Air America Radio needs to gets it act together. Dona, Jim and Jess attempted to find a station to suggest to the readers who were complaining. Foolishly, they went to the AAR web site which lists stations, but it doesn't tell you whether or not they broadcast online (or if they carry all the AAR programs).
C.I. pulled out the rolodex, dialed friends in radio, and found a station broadcasting AAR that also broadcasts online. As a thank you, C.I. offered to link to that station at The Common Ills as a backup for AAR. (We would have followed suit here at this site.) The friend appreciated the offer but the station's about to pull AAR. This has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with lousy ratings.
It started off fairly good but then came the complaints (about things like AEI guests, yes, Baby Cries a Lot continues to harm the network by putting on his friends). The morning shows "are boring and we're getting killed." No argument from us with that finding.
As of right now, Ty reports 45 e-mails came in from readers who attempted to listen to the show and heard "Please tune back later." Fifteen we were able to steer to another station but, guess what? That's Air America Radio's job.
As usual, they're doing a half-assed job of it. If you know a station that broadcasts Flanders show over the web, please e-mail us and we'll add it as a back up to our links. We're also aware that a number of you listen to Randi Rhodes as well. C.I.'s going to add a Florida station that broadcasts Rhodes and we will as well. Rhodes and Flanders, who are natural broadcasters, will continue in radio regardless of what happens to Air America Radio. But when the website to AAR can't even get their webcast to work, we have serious doubts about the network. Listeners shouldn't have to hunt down a way to hear the programming when it's supposed to webcast from the site. It's past time they got their act together.