When Air America Radio started on March 31, 2004, it featured a line up of amateurs and ideologues with the common goal of bashing the then Bush Administration, Republicans and conservatives in general. Its dubious stars were people like Al Franken, a fading comic, Janeane Garofalo, a sometime actress, comic and activist and left-wing radio personality Randi Rhodes.
After a scandal involving misappropriated funds from black school children it promptly filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy two years later. Franken, Rhodes and Garofalo abandoned ship.
But like most left-wing media ventures it has managed to keep going by being a sink hole for left-wing donors. In 2007 it was bought by Green Family Media, made up of New York real estate investor Stephen L. Green and his brother Mark J. Green for $4.25 million (US). Yesterday, “Air America Media” had to call it quits.
It’s really no surprise to anyone in broadcasting. Left-wing talk radio has a long, sorry history of failure. Either there isn’t an audience for it or the lefties who might want to listen are busy washing their hair whenever it’s on. Certainly, progressive propaganda is redundant with the MSM and three cable news channels essentially doing the same job. Not to mention NPR and PBS. The left is always up in arms over Fox News, but it is a lone voice on cable and yet it dominates the field. Conservative radio shows are so popular, they are on several networks and all over the dial. You can drive from New York to Los Angeles and not miss a minute of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
One of the glaring differences between so-called progressive shows and conservative ones is their outlook. While conservative shows may complain about statist policies and politicians, they generally have a positive outlook of America. They reinforce American values and try to envisage an optimistic future.
Left- wing talk is full of impotent rage and suicidal depression, since leftist agendas tend to stem from a dependency on bureaucracy and big government. The ideas they offer are ultimately one of subservience to the state and a faceless elite that “knows better” than the common man. They insult the hoi polloi who populate Middle America, habitually branding them as stupid, racist, etc.
In 2008, they trumpeted Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change” mantra, bashing the Bush administration’s policies and whining about the wars, seeing only failure in America’s future. The only hope offered was in adopting a big government, bureaucratic state like that of the EU. “Progressives” don’t believe in America because they’ve invested in the big lie that it’s evil and capitalism is doomed to failure.
Conservative media, on the other hand, is about the still-unfilled potential of America. Leftist media is about how bad the United States and its government is — but still you better vote Democrat so they have more power!
The utterly predictable failure of Air America is a testament to the dour legacy of leftism, which has produced the world’s most tyrannical and murderous dictatorships and moribund economies wherever it has been imposed by violent revolution.
In the age of the Tea Parties, Air America is pointing the way to the future for the MSM: straight into the ground.