You just have to love the American media's "non-judgmental" reporting. Earlier this week, in explaining a top-management shake-up at hot-Air America Radio, the Associated Press attributed the changes to "the latest sign of growing pains."
That must be where I've had it wrong for so long: "non-judgmental reporting" simply means that reporters and editors exercise no judgment, other than selecting a byline and page position when it comes to reprinting the bilge of leftist press releases churned out by topsy-turvy spin doctors.
The original "Air America" – at least as far back as my memory goes – was a secretive contract airline that flew CIA agents and plainclothes military forces into and out of Vietnam and surrounding countries during the war. Like its namesake, hot-Air America seems doomed to a lifetime of secrecy as well.
Recently ejected from stations in Los Angeles and Chicago (greedy station-owners actually tried to cash the checks they'd been given for airtime), they are now "growing" by expanding to smaller stations. They've got 12. They hope for 27 by the end of May. (I don't know about current prices, but during the late 1990s, you could buy airtime on a network guaranteeing 50 stations for a couple of hundred bucks an hour.)
Ever gracious, Mark Walsh, the involuntarily outgoing CEO of hot-Air America, was quoted in a Washington Post article as saying this about his main competitor:
Rush is a big, fat liar, just like Al Franken said. Apparently, Rush saw a C-SPAN show I did where I said that one of the reasons that right-wing radio dominates radio so well is that they have a lot of talent ... He's very good at radio. He's an entertainer, not a pundit. And now because I praised a right-wing host, he says I'm getting [expletive]-canned. I think the OxyContin has kicked in, because it takes a drug-addled mind to think that up.
– "Air America Radio Hits Turbulence on Takeoff," by Teresa Wiltz, April 28, 2004, p. C1
Rejection is always painful, and that seems to be what hot-Air America is now experiencing in the marketplace of ideas. For most of our lives, the political left has had a monopoly on public discourse, whether in the media, education, academia or Hollywood. It wasn't a monopoly because theirs were the only ideas worth discussing. Quite the contrary.
The left has used the twin thought-police truncheons of political correctness and racism to beat anyone who challenged them into submission by denying the opposition a voice. Through America's enforced silence, the left actually came to believe that the majority of Americans agreed with them, rather than loathed them, or that we had some shred of interest in all that they had to say.
How could we? The letters I get from those on the left responding to my columns share a single overwhelming trait: They are devoid of any facts to support their claims when, in fact, there are any claims. More often than not, such "letters" consist of rabid name-calling. (I actually look forward to the very rare exceptions.)
Is anyone surprised that leftist hot-Air America would pick an attorney as their new interim CEO? Secretly, I harbor suspicions that he is preparing a class-action lawsuit against radio listeners who haven't consumed enough of his hosts' hot air, thus depriving advertisers and investors of a "fair" return on their time and money. (Leftist judges, of course, decide what's "fair.")
My advice is, the next time you dial into Rush Limbaugh, don't give your real name. Hot-Air America's lawyers just might be keeping a list.