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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (17031)	6/19/2001 1:09:55 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 82486

Talk-to-Yourself Radio: With Phil Hendrie Nothing Is as It Seems nytimes.com It's been a long time, X, but this article is really funny. Given that the normal level of political "dialog" on SI approaches that found on talk radio, I figure it's apropos enough. Hendrie described his own politics as "socialist." He voted for Gore but never let up on the man during the election. During the recount last November he had a field day, because so many of the events in Florida were nearly Hendrian anyway -- though not as Hendrian as some people believed. In November, the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard published a scornful article about the whacked-out people of Florida. The writer, Matt Labash, questioned the "citizenry's mental state," noting that "cockeyed logic" dominated the "the AM call-in shows" there. He continued: "Legions of callers suggest the election was fixed by Bush's brother. . . . After all, says one, Jeb owed his brother for not ratting him out when he was caught in the top rack of their bunk bed with a black girl. If the election is allowed to stand, many promise, there will be consequences. 'My people will not accept [an Electoral College victory],' says one Hispanic caller. 'We will revolt and go to the mountains."' Should we tell him? . . . Just before Mike is brought on the air, Hendrie has Dannger liken Matthew Perry to Bob Dylan and then ratchets up the comparison one more click: "You don't know what it is to need to do drugs; ask Judy Garland. Look, Matthew Perry is to our generation what the pope is to millions of Catholics around the world." Mike hits the ground running: "You're trying to kill him! This guy you obviously respect is trying to get help!" Mike adds: "I'm a person who's tried stopping drugs. You're saying I can use drugs if I want?" "I didn't say you could," Dannger explains. "I said I could understand if Matthew Perry does." Mike can barely find the words, and when he does, Dannger just turns another rhetorical corner: "Jesus carried the weight of the world just as Matthew carries the weight of a generation. They both- I would even understand if Jesus did drugs." Mike desperately tries to ground the conversation: "Jesus has nothing to do with drugs!" Dannger calmly explains that Mike really can't understand these things. Why? "I don't have the filter on that you straight people have on," Dannger says. "I'm a gay man and a gay journalist, and so I don't have any blinders on." But even as Mike is trying to sort out the claim of gay cultural superiority and its relationship to television, Dannger has other thoughts: "If you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, don't you think a guy's entitled to do a little crack?" Mike begins to sound like Yosemite Sam. With Mike in the eye of this one-man hurricane, the show climbs to a level of hysterical incoherence. The Dannger character has slowly brought together various culturally sensitive strands -- celebrity privilege, religious sacrilege, gay elitism, drug hypocrisy -- and Hendrie has tied them together with Mike's sputtering hysteria to create the perfect talk-radio moment.