I guess I probably always knew. I mean, sure, I have my local Air America station as number one on my car radio. I listened on the way to work and the way, but it just didn't feel right.
I had Al Franken's books sitting at home on my bookshelf. Dean, Carville, Lakoff... they're all there. I am the one Air America was made for right? It just didn't seem possible.
But recently I found my radio dial tuned to the FM NPR station more and more and sometimes, in the morning, when I would turn on my car, the radio would be tuned to ESPN . . . I told myself it was a mistake, or just because of baseball playoffs, but I knew the truth.
Late at night I would find myself forgoing sleep to watch Charlie Rose. There was something about his unbiased simple reporting that filled a gap in my life.
But I've accepted it now. This morning I listened to two people laugh about the Iraq war. "The insurgency is getting worse, hohohoho" "Even administration offials say that this upcoming vote might make this worse, not better, hahahaha" In that moment I could hate Air America and it shook me awake from a dazed stupor of denial. So I have been able to mull it over and figure out why, why I don't like Air America.
It is Pretentious
Do liberals really sound like that? Supperior and smug. People who seem to care more about beingn right and other people being wrong than conveying a message or <God Forbid> the news. The people sound like the liberal elitists I have always heard about but never met. Liberals don't think they are better than other people, they don't think people are stupid for not realizing the truth about Bush or Republicans.
Liberals admire working people and unions. Liberals know that not everyone has the time to decipher the evening news and go to blog sites daily to investigate the bias of their local media. Many people don't understand how Federal Laws effect their daily lives anyway. These people are mothers and husbands and hard working Americans and they aren't dumb. Air America makes everyone who isn't listening to Air America at that moment sound dumb.
It Isn't News
How many times have you learned something new from Air America? How many times have you heard something discussed that you already knew? "Have you heard that things are really bad in Iraq? Because they are." The news on Air America comes from the CNN clips interjected not from any Air America show or staff.
It is Biased
I expect this claim to be contentious. It is the point of Air America to be biased. That's why it exists. But does it have to be this biased? Does it have to be overtly and painfully biased? Is that fun for everyone?
Bill Oreilly is biased. He is a conservative shill. Yet the other day I heard him say that if Bush doesn't turn things around that in the wake of the Katrina response he will go down as one of the worst Presidents ever. Oreilly claims not to be biased, and claims no to be Republican. His listeners enjoy his attempts at balance, they are at least interesting.
I'm a liberal because I enjoy the truth. I accept the truth. This allows me to keep an open mind, examine the facts, and reach a liberal conclusion. I think someone's tag line here at dkos is 'the facts have a liberal bias.' That's the truth. Air America could be a high quality news station, one which this country is so desperately lacking and it would have a beautiful liberal bias. It could present news stories we don't hear in the mainstream media, but it doesn't have to present them in a biased manner to be a left wing show. Talk about global warming, poverty, hunger in the US, birth control, free trade.
I feel like the liberal base would respond well to fact based alternative news on the radio.
Maybe I'm just pissing a lot of people off. Maybe you like to hear people tell you what you already know and help you feel supperior to the masses who just don't understand. Maybe I don't get the point...
But my #1 spot is now ESPN and when I think I'm in the mood for radio news/commentary then I will just have to rely on NPR.