CNN’s Headline News division might not know what it’s getting into by hiring Dr. Drew Pinsky to anchor a nightly broadcast in 2011. The media savvy doctor, the addiction medicine specialist behind “Loveline” and “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” should be the go-to guy for the latest Lindsay Lohan meltdown.
—–
But there’s another side to the good doctor, one recently revealed on “The Adam Carolla Podcast.” The Nov. 26 podcast, which reteamed Pinsky with his old “Loveline” partner, found the duo railing against government overreach while praising the free market system. You won’t find that kind of material on HLN’s “The Joy Behar Show.”
It’s grand news for conservatives, who might hear their opinions shared by that rare TV personality outside the Fox News bubble. And Pinsky isn’t a divisive figure like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh. He’s not viewed through an ideological prism, so when he pontificates on a topic it has the chance to stir the independent crowd to action. He might even make a liberal or two rethink an entrenched opinion.
Behar likely won’t be swayed, though.
Pinsky sounded alternately defeated and outraged while discussing the state of the nation on the podcast.
“Our government does these crazy things … and we expect to be abused,” Pinsky says, his voice cracking with rage. “Do you know what the average federal employee makes, like, $120,000 a year and they get benefits. It’s ridiculous!”
Carolla discussed how, after the 1994 California earthquake damaged local highways, private contractors managed to rebuild a five-mile stretch of freeway at a remarkable clip.”The thing came in under budget and six months early. Why? Motivation,” Carolla explained about the hustle that made the project possible.
Left unsaid – imagine if government workers had been tasked with the assignment.
“In government, losing is winning. If you take longer you get paid more,” Pinsky says. “And we’re making the government bigger now? Really?”
Carolla used professional sports to buttress his argument about the free market.
“What would [players in] the NFL or NBA be like if they didn’t have a guy who was five years younger nipping at their heels?” Carolla asks. “In the absence of competition nobody does their job well.”
Pinsky brings an extensive background on medicine to any discussion, and he sounds horrified at the impact of Obamacare’s nest of new rules.
“Doctors will start fleeing Medicare starting January 1,” Pinsky warned, adding he’s being pushed out of his own profession by over-regulation.
One of Pinsky’s podcast confessions could become a rallying point for his new show – and might make him a darling of the Right even if he doesn’t actively embrace an ideological point of view.
“I started obsessing about why I’m not doing something about this, how we just sit by and let stuff happens. We don’t speak up,” Pinsky says.
Come Spring 2011, he’ll be able to do just that.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.