Are Al Franken and Howard Dean Good for Conservatives?
by CK Rairden
Oct 22, 2003
The far left wing of the Democrat Party may have found their voice for the upcoming election in the media and it’s none other than self-proclaimed “satirist” Al Franken. Franken is on a whirlwind tour promoting his best-selling book, “Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them…” and hinting at each stop of his new radio gig on WLIB radio. He’s not much, but right now he is the left’s rising star and fortunately for conservative America he will be asked to headline the left’s new media effort.
The left is convinced that ABC, CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and the rest of the alphabet soup gang of liberal media is not getting the job done. The liberals are also not convinced that government funded PBS is carrying the propaganda water far enough. Their plan is to launch a 24-hour 7-day a week all-liberal, all-the-time talk radio network. It is to be launched by AnShell media who on its web site reveals, “We plan to begin broadcasting in Q4 2003 / Q1 2004. Our pilot programs are hard-hitting, witty, and entertaining. We are currently developing long- and short-form radio programming, with an eye toward television and Internet offerings in the near future.”
The best guess right now is they get this thing off the ground in January 2004.
AnShell’s web site does not yet reveal the line up, but AnShell media executive Jon Sinton hinted to PBS that Al Franken would be a headliner of this project. Franken is a one-trick pony as far as his political commentary, but that should be enough to keep the far left base tuned in. In a transcript from PBS he made it clear his radio program will follow the same formula of his two best selling books. Find prominent conservatives, use their names to garner anger and attention from the left---and trash them.
When host Terence Smith asked Franken what should be expected from an Al Franken radio program he made that clear, “Some commentary, some ridicule. Some comedy, more ridicule. How Bush is lying on whatever he's lying about that day or that week. Then probably a little analysis of what we've been hearing from Rush and what we've been hearing from O'Reilly and what we've been hearing from Hannity.”
“And then maybe a little music. I have a beautiful voice.”
That’s some comedy all right.
Other than the incredible witty “I have a beautiful voice” Al displayed in this interview the Al Franken show will make an attempt to continue the parasitical formula he cleverly used in his two bestsellers. The Al show will monitor Rush, Hannity and O’Reilly and call them lying liars. Laura Ingraham and Michael Medved have to be wondering--hey--what about us?
This is a recipe for disaster for a competitive talk radio show. Franken will need a top production staff to make this work if he plans on challenging the astronomical numbers conservatives consistently post. In his many interviews pimping his book, Franken’s on air delivery is slow and determined and that really doesn’t work well on the radio. Radio hosts and TV interviewers constantly have to push Al to get to the point. And that is when Al is working with a script. It’s painful to listen to. And if Franken follows through with his stated intentions of playing clips of prominent conservatives and calling them liars---his one-trick pony show will grow stale quickly to all except his rabid followers.
But fortunately---that may be enough to get the job done for the American conservative movement. Al won’t need crossover listeners; he will only need a small, loud angry base to help move the Democrat Party to the far left.
And conservatives are hoping he can do just that. Al Franken can be to broadcasting what Howard Dean is to the Presidential election. A disaster for middle-of-the-road democrats and a godsend for republicans. Franken needs to use his rising star book success and parlay that into rallying his base. He has a relatively small but determined group of fans and as Howard Dean has proven with his successful gimmick presidential campaign that can work with the angry malcontents on the left.
It’s doubtful that Franken’s radio program can move past this finite angry group of fans. But that’s okay. Franken needs only to succeed among the rabid anti-Bush left. If he can rally them as Howard Dean has they truly may be able to take over the Democrat Party.
Howard Dean has done a fine job of firing up the anti-Bush bandwagon, and getting it started. Add to that Al Franken’s group of malcontents and you are getting enough far left-wingers to challenge the independent thinking moderate Democrats.
With Howard Dean driving the bandwagon and Al Franken on board and navigating and with just a little luck, these two may take back the Democrat Party for the far left. The winners will be the American conservatives, as this has the possibility to take the Democrat Party off the far left cliff.
And into obscurity.
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