Just Guessing Here--UpdatedBut
this guy doesn't seem to like my buddies Allman and Smash in the morning.
It's hard to say precisely what was the worst moment of Monday night's Right Wing Wingding at the Family Arena in St. Charles.
It might have been listening to Jamie Allman, the former TV-reporter-turned- archdiocesan-flack-turned-right-wing radio host, sing an Allman Brothers song. Even stone-cold stoned, Gregg Allman sounded better than Jamie Allman. Heck, even the late Duane Allman would sound better than Jamie Allman.
It might have been hearing Allman's radio sidekick, Asher (Smash) Benrubi, tell gynecologist jokes to an audience of 2,500 deeply conservative family value-sters. On the other hand, Smash has a great band, and vocalist Rhonda Cathey is terrific. Counting Rhonda, I spotted a total of one black person at the Wingding.But his targets aren't limited to Allman & Smash. He also bashes Sean Hannity, who apparently was the headliner at the Wingding, comparing him unfavorably to a "straight" journalist:
Oh, sure. Straight journalists do the talking-for-dollars routine, but usually at stuffy symposiums or for trade associations: Ladies and gentlemen of the American Rocket Sled Association, please give a warm welcome to George Stephanopoulos.Now, calling George Steponallofus a "straight" journalist is something of a gag on both parts of the definition. But the fact of the matter is radio talk show hosts are in fact something like rock stars today. They draw crowds and command fees.
Or should I amend that a bit? Conservative radio talk show hosts are the rock stars. This reviewer is of course a little jealous, because while some columnists manage to make the jump to behind the mike, it's mostly the center-right columnists.
He then goes on to criticize the affair for not showing intellectual depth or thoughtful discussions of issues, which in his view would turn into a non-stop Bush bash.
This is the central flaw with liberal radio, as represented by Air America. Liberals look at conservative talk radio and see propaganda. So what do they do, but come up with a propaganda network. What they don't realize is that conservatives turn to talk radio to be entertained. Yeah, we want to hear the issues discussed but we want it to be fun.
Update: The column is worse than I thought; turns out
that this columnist does work for a competing radio station. Clear conflict of interest here; surely he should at least have made a disclosure of that fact?
