It's a mistake, all right, but it's a mistake on the part of AAR, IMHO. Not the first major dumb-ass move AAR has made, either.
Morning sedition? Cancelled.
Rachel Maddow's morning show with Chuck D? Replaced with Jerry Springer(!), then, later, by Lionel.
Majority Report? Ker-Bluie.
Mike Malloy? Ignominiously fired while subbing for Randi.
*I* could make better business decisions, and I've never gotten closer to the radio industry than that time I picked up the Judas Priest concert tickets I won back in '81.
Suspending Randi INDEFINITELY for making off-color remarks during a stand-up routine was absurd. I didn't think there was any more room in AAR's feet for self-inflicted bullet wounds, but apparently I was wrong.
Prediction 1: she shows up on NovaM Radio within the month.
Prediction 2: AAR will have to dump Thom Hartmann and Rachel Maddow so their suckiness-death-spiral can continue.
One question, I saw the youtube clip, and she sounded drunk...I mean really, really, drunk.
I know that she is a recovering alcoholic, but I've never heard one of her shows, it's not on the air in Baltimore, but is she normally that way?
Just wondering if there might be an elbow problem here too.
My understanding is Randi will make her debut on 960AM Green in SF on the upcoming Monday.
To join NovaM, and Mike Malloy would be WAY kewl, too, of course.
Is that her in the picture? I thought it was Ann 'Slander' with just some meat on her bones. They really look alike!
Matthew,
Randi had talked often about her fear of public speaking & fondness for drunk audiences. Someone with an ounce of self-awareness wouldn't have set heself up like that.
I'm seeing a ton of loose speculation & general feces-tossing about how this episode played out, but it's hard to avoid the simple fact that a lot of broadcasters don't seem to pay attention to the very news they cover. Rhodes had recently come out for Obama in a BIG way, but as much as she talked about the way Pastor Wright was used against him she didn't recognize how she could put Obama through another such episode with just a few words ... nice, especially when you recall how Obama's talked about reforming our political discourse.
Is it really that hard for these "Professional Talkers" to understand how to level a precise criticism? Sheesh, I think it's time to call them all out on this behavior:
You can take someone down in the most robust language you wish, but hit, say, Hillary in gender-specific terms, i.e. "big fucking whore" or hit Obama with race-specific language, i.e. "a candidate oughta know more about foreign policy than he does about basketball" and you've lost me -- this isn't just dog-whistling to your local bigots, it's Missing The Bowl in a big way.
Same goes for prefacing every critique about McCain with a crack about his age -- am I to assume you assume that people over 70 aren't capable of serious work? In a time when pensions don't pay all the bills? McCain's ideas are dusty, not his generation.
Doesn't seem to me that this should really be such a tough idea to get behind.
Alternately we could just abandon the pretense & agree that there are no bright lines between proper/improper discourse in any forum -- this I suppose is the nature of Infotainment -- & settle things through simple intimidation. Now you might end up with a caste system of Insulted Classes, but htat'd be a small price to pay for our jollies (& those people in group X, they're lazy fux anyway).
IOW: having both pretense & intimidation has gotten all too stoopit.
I did not find Rhandi Rhode's performance even remotely funny, it did not make a great deal of sense to me. If she had called Bill Clinton a big fucking whore I would have agreed.
Much as I might criticize Hillary I think that was uncalled for and she earned her suspension.
infodog,
McCain's old and has "senior moments" all the time. Having Joe Lieberman correct you on Iran and al Qaeda is quite disconcerting to anyone.
Rhodes will land on her feet. She had the afternoon rush slot and was highly rated.
Infodog: are you saying that we shouldn't point out that John McCain is the 71 year old republican nominee for president, with an itchy trigger finger that makes George Bush look like a quaker, and who is evidently unable to string enough randomly coherent brain-neurons together to know that when he REPETEADLY says Iraq is training Al Queada personnel, it scares the living shit out of anyone who DOES have that capability, to think that he COULD be president?
Please. If this were a democrat, there would be a rightwing drumbeat, 24-7, about who was changing his pampers for him.
McCain is the republican sacrificial goat for this election. I'm not worried about a sympathy vote for him, when he's talking about keeping us in Iraq for a hundred years.
(As long as our troops are not being shot at...and if anyone thinks THAT requirement is going to be met, then they should join McCain's staff of lobbyists.)
Left or was allowed to leave as a courtesy rather than being fired.
You just know Clinton's people were probably all over the folks at Air America to "do something".
But at the end of the day, to echo infodog a bit, folks just have to be smarter.
There is no "off-air" anymore. Not with cell phone cameras and YouTube.
The situation with Rhodes, as with Obama's staffer who called Clinton a "monster", is this; there are a LOT of progressives who are really, really, pissed that Hillary, with her track record, is still getting support and defense, and getting it from from people who CALL themselves "progressives", especially, some bloggers who shall here remain nameless.
And from time to time, they go over the line. It's regrettable, but until Clinton stops getting campaign "strategy" from Karl Rove's playbook, to go along with the kind of brickdumb idiocy that Mark Penn WAS giving her, we're going to see it.
I don't like pointing out McCain's age because for some it lets him off the hook for the crazy shit he believes in.
Oh he's not a war-monger he's just old and senile etc...
There's a condescension there that leaves an opening just wide enough for him to be dismissed right into the White House. Just like W who you know was just "too dumb" to be president. Remember?
You can call McCain a dangerous warmongering asshole without mentioning the man's age.
Best comment on Randi Rhodes, "If she had called Ferraro the Thin White Duke, I would have laughed."
Air America is just like the Democratic leadership:
They exist solely to make sure their opponent wins and they lose.
Why else would Air America fire their best talent over the years?
Why else would Pelosi and Reid protect the GOP in direct opposition to their constituents?
I don't think this particular incident was that big a deal-especially given the circumstances of the event where she made the remarks.
But I'm sure not sad to see her go. Her juvenile, Limbaugh-ish, name-calling shtick makes me tired.
Can we get rid of Colmes, now...?
Damn it, if it's wrong for Imus and O'Reilly to spew racism, it's even MORE wrong for Rhodes to spew sexism -- she of all people should have known better. Terrible, terrible lapse of judgement. Stupidity has consequences.
Sorry, baltogeek, but given his obvious physical and mental condition, McCain's age does become a VALID issue. We have cause to fear his accession to the Office of the Presidency on those grounds alone.
Not everyone is that run down by their early 70s. Although one does dice with ill fortune when subjecting anyone in that age bracket to the rigors of that particular office.
Do I need to remind you of Reagan's second term? Or of Constantin Chernenko, who was little more than an animated ventriloquist's dummy during his tenure as Premier? Or of John Paul's wretched last few years as pontiff? Or of Fidel Castro's last months at his job?
Castro got out from under not a moment too soon, methinks. Brainy to the last. I'm not fond of dictators as a general rule, but Castro has always struck me as a very smart guy.
Under these circumstances? Mention of McCain's age is both reasonable and appropriate. It would be imprudent NOT to consider it.
How in the name of Gloria Steinem's lady-parts did this become an example of sexism?
A whore (literally) is someone who exchanges sexual favors for money or other remuneration. See: Gannon, Jeff.
A whore (colloquially) is someone who sells out their principles, their morals, or their basic humanity for money, or for power, or for other personal gain. See: Anyone involved in advertising.
Calling Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro whores, while unfunny and displaying bad taste, is not sexism. Calling it sexism dilutes what actual sexism is.
Also, on the subject of age:
Have you noticed that Presidents of the United States age more rapidly while in office than those around them?
Even those too bag-of-hammers stupid to know what's going on around them can't escape the harsh aging effects of the White House. The only person who held the office and served two terms who did NOT noticeably age was Jeb Bartlett, and his ass was fictional.
McCain's mom may be in her 90's, but she didn't have the responsibility of running the United States. There's a reason we don't elect people in their 70's. Because when the leave office after 8 years, they have aged 20 years or more.
Knave Rupe:
I can't for the life of me find it online, but I remember as a kid seeing a story in (Time? US News?) showing pictures of Jimmy Carter in 1976, and then in 1980. The change seemed shocking to me then. The man had put on what looked like 20 years in just four.
Granted, it was a hell of a four years. But still -- it was startling.
KnaveRupe 10:19 - Thank YOU.
I don't know from randi rhodes.... I can't stand talk radio. Its all like fingernails on a blackboard to me. Do I think she should have been fired?..... well, hell she's lucky she's not in jail considering what they did with "monster". *rolley eyes*. I only listened as far as calling geraldine a whore.... okay. I didn't get that she was doing a comedy show though. Less verbal masterbation is never a bad thing. :-|
Radio is for teh musics 
FYI. It's already a done deal. She's with Nova M. It was a no brainer, in a lot of ways. In fact, since she's been openly critical of AAR for some time now, I'm honestly wondering if she didn't engineer this to get out of a contract.
Her old producer, from her days in Palm Beach, and early days at AAR, has been the station manager of 1480 AM KPHX (Nova M's flagship station in Phoenix), for a while now. They announced it on air this afternoon, and Nova M's home page has it up as of this evening.
She is working the afternoon drive time slot on the East Coast, 12-3 on the West Coast.
There were two sisters.
They founded AA.
They hired Randi as the anchor of the effort due to the influence of Greg Palast.
Then, AA went broke, it passed thru owners, and the Greens are mostly the owners now.
Conservative based big business owners.
They bought it to neuter it, and neuter progressive voices, NOTHING else can account for their business decisions since they bought it.
Randi HAD to go, they didn't want her.
Was she set up? Maybe, likely.
But don't EVER consider the present AA with any progressive ownership or voices. Ever.
Guess who started the NovaM?
Yep, same two sisters.
Randi's home, and in the SECOND of most WIERD shit even THIS Laure couldn't opiated dream up, she's now on 960AM Green, in SF, and it's a CLEAR FUCKN CHANNEL owned and operated station. With FOR NOW, a progressive voice.
I'm tellin ya, Fellini can't script this shit, and this Larue sure can't wade thru it to explain it.
Buy the ticket, take the ride, though.
GOD BLESS RANDI RHODES!!!!
In SOME sense, at NovaM, she's home again with Malloy, and Hartman, I think . . . .
'KIN SWEET!!!!!! *G*
She sure as shit puts out more progressivism than MOST blogs pretend to do . . 
Hub, thanks for at least covering this, FDL and Digby ain't, nor are a LOT of the socalled progressive blogs, Facists Be Unto Them . . could you do more detailed in depth on it all, with yer investigatory wizardry? *G*
randy was very succesfull before AA and will continue to be after, the question is dose AA survive..how do you suspend your best rated personality for speaking the trouth. she called a politition a whore, that is not sexist, that is acurate.
Fae it they are all whores...and yes chelsy was pimping her mom, thanks for asking just as much as mchelle was pimping her husband...they are all whors and we are all johns.
I miss Morning Sedition... AAR has gone downhill fast, and losing Randi won't help.
Larue! You bet FDL and Digby didn't cover it.
When progressives go after Hillary, they start talking about how evil McCain is, and I mean right now.
And they REALLY bury the criticism of her, in ANY terms, when it comes from a progressive WOMAN who's been toting the hod for us for years, now.
I heard Randi being interviewed on Green 960 today, and she said it was:
1)a stand-up comedy routine in a nightclub.
2)a set-up (my word): the new owners saw that her contract said she couldn't be fired and they wanted to change it. They offered her one that said they could fire her but she couldn't quit. If not, she wouldn't get back on the air.
3)she didn't want the contract changed, so they parted ways.
4)she is now part of Nova M, and she'll be back on at least Green 960 (San Francisco area) on Monday.
I sent and email to Nova M asking where else she'll be. We'll see if I get an answer.
I found Randi almost unlistenable -- voice like nails on a blackboard -- so I won't miss her. But a lot of people did like her; and if this was engineered with her consent, then more power to her.
I wonder about AA, too. Thom Hartmann is the Other Man I Wake Up to, and Rachel Maddow is simply the smartest woman on the air (TV OR radio) today. I'll bet they lose her to MSNBC within the year.
I don't get Lionel at all. (He doesn't sound smart, which for all I know may be part of his charm.) I miss Janene Garofalo terribly. A lot of their best talent (David Bender, Welton Gaddy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder) is hiding out on weekends.
But I think you're giving Mike Green a bum rap. He's a guest on the network's shows now and again, and impresses me as a fairly thoughtful progressive.
You can't hold the fact that he's a wealthy businessman against him. If I've learned anything since I went to The Show, it's just exactly how fast the whole progressive movement would grind to a halt without the support of a handful of generous money people. (Most of you have no clue -- and they try hard to keep it that way.) There aren't that many people out there willing to invest against the system that made them rich in the first place -- and we need every damned one of them.
I'm under the impression that there is yet another new owner -- just lately.
I used to like Randi because she is so knowledgeable and smart, but then the way she treats callers got on my nerves -- she's so mean to them.
Thom is my favorite. Each radio station has a different mix of who's on when. We get Bill Press, Stephanie and the Mooks, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Angie Coiro(I have no idea how to spell her name, but she's from NPR), Rachel Maddow (I love her too), Mike Malloy, and too late for me too listen. We miss Sam Seder -- he's been on a lot lately, while Randi was out and Mike was on vacation, and we've been enjoying that.
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